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LETTERS 
 
 IS THB 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CONl'ROVERSY. 
 
 BY W. C. BROWNLEE, D. D., 
 
 or THE COLT.F.GIAT?: r"OTESTAVT :?F.FOKMr,D DVTCll CirJKC::. xr.W YOEK, 
 
 " Veritas oiuuia viiicit."— Ber. Tit 3— 4t 
 
 Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR! 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, J. WHETHAM I 
 
 HARTFORD, D- F. ROBINSON, 
 
 3834. 
 
:ys.^ -* ^^;X^ 
 
 • Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by 
 
 WM. C. BROWNLEE, D. D. 
 
 In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southren District of New- York. 
 
 
 BOWNE, WISNER & CO. PRINTERS. 
 
DEDICATION* 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE, 
 
 AND TO THE MAGISTRACY, AND MINISTRY 
 
 OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — I come not before you as a sectarian : nor merely as a 
 polemic. The subject of this discussion enlists the feelings of every patriot. It 
 involves not only the deepest interests of our holy religion, but the very exist- 
 ence of our liberties, and the perpetuity of our Republic. 
 
 We come not before you to oppose the Roman catholic religion, merely as a 
 rdigioji. We have a higher, and we trust, a holier aim. Having detected in 
 it, a lurking enemy, conspiring against religion, and the essential interests of 
 our country, we have dragged it forward into the light ; and have brought it up 
 to YOUR tribunal, for public judgment in the case. 
 
 In our pleadings at your bar, we shall demonstrate that the Roman catholic 
 religion is not found in the Holy Bible ; that it has diverged far, in its erratic 
 course, from primitive and pure Christianity ; that it stands now separated from 
 it by a gulph, wide as that which separates the prophet of Arabia's Koran 
 from the holy Scriptures of God: and that, as an ancient religion, it is, in fact, 
 the perpetuation of Greek and Roman paganism, — baptised under a new no- 
 menclature. 
 
 But, we shall not rest satisfied with proving each of these positions. Impor- 
 tant as is their truth to the christian community, they cannot, as such, claim 
 national attention. But there is a point in this controversy which does claim 
 your attention, as a nation. For, while pure apostolical Christianity, like its 
 Lord, has not its kingdom of this world: while it shrinks from the unhallowed 
 union with the state ; and seeks no political aggrandisement , no civil establish- 
 ment ; no worldly power, or earthly grandeur ; while it neither aims at making a 
 tool of statesmen, and politics, nor permits its ministry and sacred things to be- 
 come the willing tool of a carnal policy ; the Roman catholic system is, in all 
 points, the reverse of this. 
 
 It is, as we shall see from its creed, and from historical documents, a system 
 of mere human policy ; altogether of a foreign origin ; foreign in its support ; 
 and bringing with it, over the face of society, wholly a hostile foreign influence. 
 Its pope and priests arc politicians, men of the world, and mere men of pleasure. 
 It is, in the hands of a singular foreign despotism, precisely what the Koran is 
 
ir DEDICATION. 
 
 in the hands of the Grand Turk, and his Mufti. It is a tremendous weapon of 
 miscliief, the hilt of which is at Rome. It wields its holiest things in a constant 
 war of proud domination; not only uniting, as it docs always unite, church and 
 state : but uniformly making an abused and insulted tool of nations and govern- 
 ments, wherever it has the ascendency. It is not only illiberal, but intolerant 
 in its politics, as well as its religious creed* It has put forth claims to tax, with- 
 out the consent of the people, not only its own subjects, but even the citizens of 
 other nations, under the ghostly plea of its divine right to tithes, and spiritual 
 offerings ! It has claimed, as a temporal-spiritual power, not only to rule its own 
 Roman states, but to interfere with every government of Europe, South Ameri- 
 ca, and Mexico. It has not only ruled, with a rod of iron, its own spiritual 
 armies of prelates, priests, monks, and friars, with their trodden down victims ; 
 but it has interdicted nations ; dethroned kings; dissolved civil governments; 
 suspended commerce; annulled national laws ; and paralyzed the authority of 
 the magistrates. Hence, each of all the nations, where its withering influence, 
 like the terrible Simoom of the desert, has been felt, has, in its turn, been 
 thrown into the utmost confusion. It has, from its very genius of despotism, 
 uniformly denied the rights of the people to self-government. Wherever it has 
 had power over a nation, it has warred against the freedom of the press; the 
 progress of knowledge; the rights of conscience ; and the liberties of mankind ! 
 Its one grand aim, — that is to attain wealth, pleasures, and boundless power, — 
 it has ' pursued with a step as steady as time, and with an appetite as keen as 
 death.' To compass its object, it has employed dungeons, racks, chains, inqui- 
 sitions; and the fire and sword of exterminating persecutions ! 
 
 All this, as we shall demonstrate from historical documents, it has done, in 
 times past. 
 
 We shall review passing events to show that, even now, it is in the very act of 
 executing its deep laid conspiracy against the institutions and liberty of our Re- 
 public — by means of foreign gold; by its imported colonies of vicious and 
 ignorant men, the vassals of the pope; and by its hosts of Jesuits and priests, — 
 the household troops of his holiness; the emissaries of the Holy Alliance! 
 
 And we shall draw aside the mask which it contrives to adjust so carefully 
 over its visage, in our country ; and shall exhibit its unblushing claims to Infal- 
 libility, AND Immutability ; in order to establish the unquestionable fact, 
 that Romanism, spiritual and political, is even here, at this day, as resolutely 
 as ever, the same that it was in the Dark Ages; and, moreover, that it will ever 
 remain, in reality, the same malignant genius of evil, and the Lawless One, 
 until the holy vision of St. John be consummated, at tlie close of tb.o predes- 
 tined period of the 1260 years ! How far I have succeeded in doing this, you 
 are now to decide. 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, your humble, and most devoted servant, 
 
 W. C, BROWNLEE. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Dedication. iii 
 
 The challenge and acceptance. 1 
 
 Part I. 
 
 LETTER I. Rule of faith is the Holy Scriptures — The judge of controversy is 
 the Holy Ghost speaking in them — this, our only tribunal of appeal — tradi- 
 tions — the fathers — contrast of the Protestant, with the Roman catholic rule, 
 and judge. Their charge of our divisions — repelled — charged on Popery. 3 
 LETTER n. Review of the priest's letter i. — point at issue — wherein we 
 agree — and differ — The only, and infallible rule, — no defect, nor obscurity 
 in the Bible — proofs — refutation of the priest's declamatory invective against 
 the infallible rule, and judge. What is, in reahty, their rule ? What is their 
 judge. 6 . 
 
 LETTER to Dr. Varela — his separate attack on the Scriptures — refutation — 
 
 in answers to his fourteen queries. 12 
 
 LETTER n[. Verbiage — Roscoe — priest's besetting infirmity — their decep- 
 tion in the use of the word Scriptures: — their tribunal of judgment, the pope 
 and his clergy — all men bound on pain of damnation, to submit to them! — 
 farther discussion of the rule of faith — origin of the popish dogma relative to 
 their rule — Chillingworth quoted — dissection of the popish rule, the 1st and 
 2d arguments — closed with a review of the priest's errors, and mis-statements, 
 in their Letter ii., in six particulars. 16 
 
 PRIEST'S LETTER IH., Extracts from. 28 
 
 LETTER IV. Rule of faith, continued — the priests never quote our definitions 
 fairly — they have, unexpectedly, laboured to convert this into a Jeistical, in- 
 stead of papal controversy — priests yield a main point to deists — external and 
 infernaZ evidence — anecdote illustrative of our argument — the copper kettle— 
 the 3d, 4th, and .5th arguments against the Romish rule. 30 
 
 PRIEST'S LETTER IV. Extracts from. 39 
 
 LETTER V. Rule of faith, continued — genius of popery, its elasticity — it la- 
 bours to conceal its real dogmas, in our Republic — it is the same unchanged, as 
 in the darkest ages — despotic — hostile to free institutions — our citizens for- 
 get that the Jesuits claim immutability — outlines of the preceding arguments 
 — Arguments, 6th, 7th. 8th, 9th, and lOth, against the Romish rule. 40 
 
 PRIEST'S LETTER V. Extracts from. 48 
 
 DISSERTATION on the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 51 
 
 LETTER VI. The claims of the popish rule being destroyed, the Protestant 
 rule is without a rival — minute examination of the priest's objections, and er- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 j-ors — their traditions — their claims truly ludicrous — an exposure of these tra- 
 ditions: their fanaticism, extravagance, and injpicty : the aristocracy and no- 
 bility of the haughty priests — treaiment of the R. C. laity — genuine priest- 
 craft — the vicious circle, specimen of it — ^Jesuitical defence of their adding the 
 apocrypha to the Bible — reply to the objection against a ivriiten rule, that the 
 Hebrews were without the written word for fourteen generations — and that 
 before Moses, and in Christ's and the apostles' time, there was no written rule. 
 Reply to the re])eated objection, that Christ did not command the apostles to 
 write the New Testament — and that the primitive Christians had not the Scrip- 
 tures in their vernacular. They confound objective and subjective infallibility, 
 and make all infallible who have the infallible rule? "Twenty books of the 
 Old Testament are lost," — this refuted— E])istle of Barnabas — "The Arian 
 Cobbler" — pope Joan — Milner, the dead lion. 55 
 
 PRIEST'S LETTER VI. Extracts from. 63 
 
 LETTER VII. Review of the priest's infidel objections, continued — Textual 
 difficulties removed — "the Protestants separate the Bible from oral teaching" 
 — this refuted — "the rite of baptism, and change of the Sabbath can be esta- 
 blished only by tradition" — this refuted — the Vulgate — farther examination 
 of this incorrect version — different from Jerome's version — Clementine and 
 Sextine edition of the Vulgate — the Douay translation — the Roman catho- 
 lic church has, in fact, no authorized version of the Bible in English:— the fa- 
 ther's quoted — no unammous consent of them on the popish rule — Marcelli- 
 nus — infallibility, where lodged — Jesuits oppose our rule by an argument ta- 
 ken from secta^-ian abuse of it — Intention — tendency of popery — deism — 
 hostility to the riohts of conscience and liberty. 65 
 
 PRIEST'S LETTER Vll. Extracts from. 77 
 
 LETTER to Dr. Varela — reply to his letter— St. Ambrose, and saint worship 
 —St. Augustine— Romish conversion, what?— image worship— popish doc*- 
 trine of grace— Dr. V.'s false quotation — power to appoint neiv articles of faith 
 —seven sacraments— ordinances— of God— of the pope— reply to the charge 
 of Protestant divisions— effects of the ))nest's defective education — specimen 
 of popish sophisms— reply to the charge of "falsehood," respecting the Tren- 
 tine addition of new articles of faith. 80 
 
 CARD, to the public. _ 86 
 
 LETTER VIII. Besetting errors— A'^ulgate— no authorized version in English 
 — inextricable difficulty from the contradictions of the fathers— re y)ly to the 
 charge of the corruption of our English Bible — Walton and Selden on the 
 Vulgate— Bellarmine on the pope's infallibility— Dr. Curtis's charge of Bible 
 corruption — reply — Dr. Card well's exposure of this^—singular instance of' 
 blasphemy, by our priests— p. 90— appeal to the confederated priests, and de- 
 ists— ^Proof that popery is a novelty, from historical dates of the origin of the 
 chief tenets and rites— the doctrines which have always been held by the true 
 Church — Historical date of, i. The pope'ssupremacy—ii. Invocation of saints 
 —"Mother of God," criticised— The divine worship of Mary— Specimen— 
 iii. Use of images— iv. Purgatory— v. Celibacy— vi. vii. Transubstantiation 
 and the Mass— cannibalism— viii. Abstraction of the cup, in the Eucharist — 
 ix. Relics — x. The retention of the Bible in a dead language— Extracts of the 
 fathers on these. The question answered, Mhere was your religion before Lu- 
 ther 1 87 
 PRIEST'S LETTER VIII. Extracts from. 100 
 LETTER IX. The spirit of the priest's Letter 8., infidelity— "Mother of God" 
 —subject of present discussion — TAe peculiar doctrines, rites, and institutions 
 of popery, originated by fanaticism, and sustained by imposture. Carnal repre- 
 sentations of the Trinity — official services of the popish saints— canonizing 
 power— miracles of popery— -specimens— miracles of statues— doctrines 
 settled by visions— the orders of monks founded by fanatics— also their rites, 
 the Mass. ~ 104 
 PRIEST'S LETTER JX. Extracts from. 115 
 
CONTENTS. Vn 
 
 LETTER X. The priest's concession about legends— Luther — reply to the 
 taunt of Protestant miracles — the unity in our discussion— traclitions--enor- 
 mous bulk of the Romi.sh rule of faith — Roinish circle about tradiiiuns — the 
 priests constrained lo admit that there is no authorised version of the Bible — 
 i. The exorbitant claims of Rome over the human conscience — proofs, speci- 
 mens—idol worship— mother of God— a Becket— money on his altar— the pa- 
 pal supremacy— 4 factions on this — papal claims spiritual and tenj|)oral— case 
 of F. Cooper in New York Legislature— ii. Rome has lost the spirit of Christi- 
 anity— proofs, specimens— iii. Hersystem generates ignorance andproftiigacy— 
 quotations from their moral writers— Jesuitism. 118 
 
 Roman Catholic editorial notice— Card in reply. 131, 132 
 
 PRIEST'S LETTER X. Extracts from. 133 
 
 LETTER XL The Douay Bible not sanctioned by the authority of the Romish 
 church— exposure of this— the superstitions and impostures o( ihe Romi.<h sect- 
 reply to C. Butler's plausible appeal— baptism of bells— sacerdotal dress— Latin 
 pra3^ers— superstition of the 31ass— prayer to St. Sacrament— incense— holy 
 water— charms— agnus dei— Italian soup— lamps, wax candles— abstaining 
 from meals — penance — ]X)pish misrepresentations of St. Vaiuck—ivood of the 
 cross— Charles X— .Duke of Brunswick's fifty reasons— supererrogation— feast 
 of the Ass— song to the Ass, by his i'eWows— imposture and fraud of Romanism — 
 specimens — cursing of vermin — Bees adoring the Mass — St. Januarius— souls 
 coming out of purgatory— Crabs in velvet— miracle of exorcising a demoniac— 
 St. Peter's chair, a hoax. 134 
 
 Priest's card to Br. B. 145 
 
 Reply to this. 145 
 
 Priests' Letter XL, Extracts from. 147 
 
 LETTER XII. The marks of the R. C. church,— "The church" is really the 
 object of a papist's faith. --proof, -claim o[ antiquity, — refutation of this,— c«//to- 
 liciiy, — refutation of this, — Romanism agai-nst the christian world, and that 
 against it. 149 
 
 Card of Dr. B. to the public. 156 
 
 Editorial notice in the Roman catholic print ; and part of Dr. B's letter. 157 
 
 Dr. B's card to the public, in reply. 158 
 
 LETTER XIII. The marks of the church, claimed by papists, continued. — 
 succession — refutation of this — no succession by ordination, or holiness, or 
 ^doctrine — tlie schisms in the Latin church— atrocious popes. 159 
 
 The Priests' closing Letter. 167 
 
 LETTER XIV. and last to the Priests. Review of their Letter— the genius 
 and spirit of their controversy — Jesuitism— reply to their criticism on the ar- 
 ticles of faith in express texts, in p. 146— The gracing of their retreat— in a 
 parody on the king of Assyria, and his officers — Rabshakeh's late, and epi- 
 taph. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 168 
 
 LETTER I. To the members of the Roman catholic church— Introduction- 
 invitation to the discussion; — a parable of olden times — St. Peter — his com- 
 panion, a chief-priest— dialogue— the genius of Popery appears to them— 
 the result. 1^3 
 
 LETTER II. An appeal to Roman Catholics, on the necessity of moving in the 
 work of their emanci])ai ion from priest craft — they are, while under this mental 
 bondage to priests, without liberty — various impostures — anecdote of priest 
 P., and a Dominie— specimen of mental slavery, here— Carbonarian faith 178 
 
 LETTER III. The Jesuit rule by which priests are guarded— genius of the 
 revived Jesuitism— the 4th mark claimed by the papists— sane a'^?/ — refu- 
 tation of this. 1^ 
 
 LETTER IV. This subject continued— celibacy and monachism— exhibition 
 of clerical profligacy according to the results of papal law — instructive anec- 
 
Viii CONTENTS. 
 
 dote of the Spanish priesthood — the pope's Tax Book — prices of sins quoted, 
 (and Appendix). 1"' 
 
 LETTER V. Earnest appeal to Roman catholics to vindicate the cause of lib- 
 erty, and our country — an appeal on the value of religious liberty — in their 
 morals the priests fulfil Bible prediction. — danger from Jesuitism — their mon- 
 archism— specimen of their doctrines, in our land— papal claims. 193 
 
 LETTER VI. We are the best friends of Roman catholics — the treasonable 
 doctrines taught here by Jesuits — quotations — their immoral doctrines— alto- 
 gether pagan — their dangerous tendency in society — they produce the morals 
 of Paris and the reign of terror — the parent who sends his children to their 
 seminaries is a traitor. 196 
 
 LETTER VIL The next mark claimed by the papists — unity^-genume spi- 
 rit of Romanism, mahgnity, caused by this plea of unity — Refutation of this 
 claim — Rome a distracted church — proofs. 200 
 
 LETTER VIIL Unity, continued— it is destroyed by her monkish orders — no 
 unity in doctrines — no unity in papal supremacy — quotations — Augustine — 
 Jerome. 204 
 
 LETTER IX. Popery condemned by Scripture, and the fathers — the fathers 
 against papal supremacy — Jerome farther quoted on "the Rock" — Chrysos- 
 lom — Origen — Thedore"t — Tertullian — Ambrose — Cyprian — Hilary — Grego- 
 ry — Councils — Bellarmine. 208 
 
 LETTER X. Popery condemned — instances — images^condemned by scrip- 
 ture — by fathers — Tertulliaa, Athanasius, &lc. ivorship of Saints — condem- 
 ned by the Bible — by the fathers, Augustine — Athanasius, &c. — Latin 
 prayers — condemned by the Bible — by Origen — Augustine, &c. ^ 212 
 
 LETTER XI. P oyer y condemned — on the unanimous consent — worship of the 
 Virgin — condemned by Scripture — by the fathers — Epiphanius — Augus- 
 tine — absolution of sins — infamous dogmas of Rome on this — refuted from 
 Scripture. 217 
 
 LETTER XII. — The jarring elements in popery, destroy its unity — it is at war 
 with Scripture — and the fathers, on the priests' claim of power to pardon sins, 
 Augustine — Jerome — ^Chrysostom — Ambrose — pope Gregory — Basil — 
 Hilary — Cyril — Clemens Alex. — P. S. Papists are by a late decree, allowed 
 to eat meat on Saturdays. 220 
 
 LETTER XIII. Popery condemned — popery distinct from the religion of our 
 ancient ancestors — appeal to the Roman catholics on this — the popish dog- 
 ma on the Rule of faith is condemned — by the Scriptures — by the fathers — 
 Hilary — Basil — Tertullian — Ambrose — Cyril of Jer. — Cyril of Alex.—. 
 Athanasius — Origen — Chrysostom — Jerome — Augustine. 224 
 
 LETTER XIV. Popery condemned— the addition of the apocrypha is condem- 
 ned—internal and external proof against it— fathers against it— Origen— 
 Athanasius — Cyril — Jerome — Cyprian — Augustine— Councils. 229 
 
 LETTER XV. Popery condeinned—apTpeaX to the Irish catholics — popery 
 was not the religion of your primitive ancestors— St. Ibbar— St. Patrick 
 were not papists — earnest entreaty to abandon the novelty of popery, and re- 
 turn to Christianity ; — Transubstantiation condemned— by Scripture — by 
 reason. 232 
 
 LETTER XVI. Popery condemned— Transubstantiation condemned by the fa- 
 thers Ireneeus — Ignatius — Gelasius — Hilary— Cyprian— Ambrose— Tertul- 
 lian— Theodoret—Eusebius—Justjn Martyr— Cyril— Clemens Alex — Atha- 
 nasius— Origen— Chrysostom— St. Bernard— Jerome— Augustine— Also by 
 the Liturgies of Chrysostom and Basil— of Si. James— St. Mark— by Cyril 
 of the 16th centm-y— and Metrophanes, speaking the sentiment of the Oriental 
 churches— Earnest appeal to all Roman catholics on this revolting imposture— 
 P. S. Three Romish priests converted. 237 
 
 LETTER XVII, Popery condemned—The Mass is condemned— by reason- 
 by Scripture— Old Testament— and New Testament— by the fathers— Jerome— 
 Damasus— Augustine— Bernard— the Decretals against it— Pope Gregory— 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Chrysostom — J ustin Martyr— Clemens— Tertulllan — Lactantius — Reason why 
 the priests cling to this im|)osture of the mass — their schemes by it, caused the 
 enacting of the Mortmain law of England — hints at varii)us kinds of masses. 242 
 LETTEit XVIII. — Popery condtmned — ^Purgatory — a cardinal's opinion of its 
 etficacy — its history — origin — its novelty — its kind of torments — eight chambers 
 in it — its immense revenues to the priests — anecdotes — the young nobleman- 
 Priest Thom— auction of souls — revenues from it, in Spain — wholesale rob- 
 bery. 248 
 LETTER XIX. — Popery condemned — Purgatory — condemned by reason, and 
 Script ure^its absurdities — it exhibits the priests as cruel, and inhuman — con- 
 demned by the fathers — Justin Martyr — Lactantius — Hilary — Cyprian — Ter- 
 tuUian — Gregory Nys. — Gregory Naz. — Basil — Ambrose — Justin Martyr far- 
 ther, quoted — the Cyrils — 'Chrysostom — Athanasius — Jerome — x'\ugustine — 
 Bede— Anselm— Epiphanius — Olympiodorus — the council of Aix la Chapelle 
 — the council of Basil — Bellarmine convicted of falsehood — remarkable saying 
 of Archbishop Usher. 253 
 LETTER XX. To the archbishop, and bishops of the Roman catholic church — 
 appeal on the necessity of a reformation in their sect — proofs — cpiotations — 
 deplorable condition of popish churches — contrast of Protestants and Papists — 
 priests — their doctrines — and vices — the cause. 260 
 LETTER XXI. The Romish church a perpetuated branch of ajicient paganism — 
 proof — the pagan chapel, and the popish chapel compared — holy v^ater at the 
 door of each— 'incense— altars — Pantheon, now the house of all the Saints- — 
 human flesh used in the sacrifices of each — pagan cannibals — popish cannibals — 
 vestments of pagan, and po])ish priests — [)agan boy in white, attending the 
 priest — popish boy, in a surplice — Pix, orbox containing ihe wafer god — pagan 
 origin of this — processions — temple of the pagan foundling, now the temple of 
 the popish foundling, with its appendage of similar miracles — priests of Bel- 
 lona — the R. C. Flagellantes — pagan water idolatry — popish water idolatry — 
 the sprinkling of cattle by pagans — the same, by papists — the pope is Pontifex 
 Maximus— this was the title and oihce of the chief of paganism — hence the 
 difference of conversion among papists, and Christians. 264 
 LETTER XXII. A minute delineation of high mass m pon/(^co//6i/5. 268 
 LETTER XXIII. The idolatry and superstition of ])opery — sixfold idolatry in 
 the Romish church — description of idolatry — it is, in the words of holy writ, 
 "The Lie" — it is impious — irrational — saint worship — refutation of the Rom- 
 ish arguments for it — anecdote of the chief of the house of Gordon — three 
 factions in the Roman church — and three distinct doctrines in it, on images- 
 exhibition of these — refutation. 274 
 LETTER XXIV. Idolatry and superstition of popery , continued — specimens — 
 worship paid to Thomas a Becket — more honors rendered to him than to 
 Christ, for 400 years, in England — in Scotland ])apists addressed the Lord's 
 prayer to the saints — the offices, and employment of the saints — prayer at the 
 consecration of images, by the pope — the rpieen of heaven — atrocious idolatry 
 of her worship— worship of relics — specimens — worship of the wood of the 
 cross — specimen — worship of the wafer — St. Sacrament, an idol in ])opery — 
 prayers said to it — the idofatry of popery exceeds, in immorality, that of 
 pasaiii^m. 279 
 LETTER XXV. On the internal symptoms of decay, and final ruin of popery — 
 no foundation for saving faith in it— its contradictions will hasten its ruin — 
 specimen of these — as the mother of deism and vice, she must perisli — illus- 
 tration of this — atheism ]:)revailing in popish countries. 284 
 LETTER XXVI. Symptoms of decay and ruin, conUnued — the innnorality of 
 all its doctrines, and rites — this is working its downfall — popery practically 
 repeals the whole of the ten precepts — proof — specimens — its tyranny will 
 work its fall — illustratirm. 288 
 LETTER XXV^II. Symptoms of decay andruin, continued — contrast of a false, 
 with the true religion — the spirit of popery, is the spirit of antichrist — popery 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 condemns the essential, and holiest doctrines .of Christianity— pl-oof-^speci- 
 men — the Bible itself is prohibited by The Index — proof — the jarring doctrines 
 in popery, relative to the fundamental tenet of popery, the j)apal siij^reniacy, 
 ■will work its fall — specimen of the doctrines of the four factions in the Romish 
 church, on this point. _ _ 292 
 
 LETTKli XXV' in. Internal symptoms of decay and ruin in poptry, con- 
 ti2]ued — Intention — the application of this peculiar popish dogma to the seven 
 sacraments of Rome — it overturns them all — it leaves poper.y without a priest, 
 a pope, a rite, and a church — popish hostility to the progress of knowledge, 
 and science — curious specimens of this — singular case of Galileo, and bishop 
 Virgil"— the appropriate remark of Galileo's companion about the pope, and his 
 priests^ _ 297 
 
 LETTER XXIX. Symptoms of decay and ruin in popery, continued — worship, 
 and use of relics — this will hasten its destruction, as light, and truth dissipate 
 darkness — additional specimens of these relics — ludicrous duplicates, and mul- 
 tiplication of identical things — amazing discoveries for the antiquarian — in- 
 stances — unparalleled curiosities — some blasphemous relics* 302 
 
 LETTER XXX. Popery essentially despotic, and incompatible icith our free 
 institutions — minute investigation of this — ])roof — scheme of the Jesuits, and 
 European despots — pojjcry not reformed, nor reformable — proof— Spanish 
 poperv at this day — origin, rise, establishment of papal supremacy. 306 
 
 LETTER. XXXI." Popery essetitially despotic, and incompatible with our free 
 institutions — The pope's" supremacy is held by papists, to be the essence of 
 Christianity — examination of this — the real claims of the pope — te^'Poral 
 POWER claimed by him, as absolutely, and as certainly as spiritual power — 
 proof — quotations. 310 
 
 LETTER XXXII. Popery essentially despotic, and incompatible with our free 
 institutions, continued — Rome never yet tolerated any other church, where 
 she had the'power — she has always united church and state, so as to make a 
 spiritual tool of the state — historical illustration — her intolerance is, with her, 
 a religious principle — her annual denunciation, and damnation of all Protest- 
 ants, .lews, &c. — proof— the Jesuitism and falsehood of Dr. England exposed — 
 convicted from his own books — quotations from a rare book in reference to the 
 Bid I In Ccena Domini — analysis of this bull — the Romish priet^ts' oath— the 
 bishops' oath — an appeal to our patriots and statesmen — instructive warning 
 in the words of the eminent statesman Rucellai. 313 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. The six grand attributes of popery— \he rise and character 
 of the apocalyptic Beast — us impurity — "the Man of Sin" — its impiety and 
 arrogance — historical illustratiorj of this — exposition of 1 Tim. iv. 1, 4. — 
 "doctrines of devils" — "forbidding to marry"- — " abstaining from meats" — 320 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. The fourth, attribute, treachery — proof— the moral tenets 
 of popery — " no faith to be kept with heretics," is a dogma of the Roman 
 catholic church — proof— decrees — docjrine — facts, in evidence — copy of the 
 secret oath of Jesuits — appalling danger from them. 325 
 
 LETTER XXXV. The ffth attribute, 77jfoZfr«7?ce— proof— quotations from 
 popes, and councils— popish lands are the lands of white s/ares— proof— si)eci- 
 mens— the student and his confessor— state of Italy," Spain, Ireland. 329 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. The sixth attribute of popery, 'Crutlty ;— this put forth in 
 two forms of ma.\\gnny—\he Inquisition— Persecutioji—Dhcusf^ion on the first- 
 definition of the Inquisitio7i—\l& \m\or\— three degrees in its rise and progress- 
 law of the Inquisition — character of an Inquisitor — picture of this infernal tri- 
 bunal in Spain— its interior— its tortures— by water— fire— rack— St. Mary— 
 an Auto dafe — number of its victims. 332 
 
 LETTER X'XXVU. Popish cri/e//?/- continued— persecution— crusades— mo- 
 ral ones— sanguinary ones— case of Hungary- difierence in the instances of 
 Protestant and Popish persecutions— Calvin and Servetus— Popery makes it a 
 duty, by a regular dogma, to persecute— It does this in tivo ways : 1. By " the 
 mouth speaking grea^ things"— her anathemas— specimen of these :— 2. By 
 
CONTENTS.* XI 
 
 massacres — Bellarmine's atrocious plea for persecution — he avows persecution 
 to be the doctrine and practice of Holy Mother — popes — councils, do the same — 
 proof — specimens — every Roman catholic bishop is regularly sworn into of- 
 fice to persecute — proof— his oath quoted — hence no R. Catholic has it in his 
 choice to be hberal — if true to his oath, and his religion, he must persecute — 
 proof. 340 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. The ferocious cruelty of the system of Popery— hhtoucaX 
 illustrations — the systematic persecutions and massacres of the Waldenses — 
 the Albigenses — case of the city of Beziers — Languedoc — 100,000 persons fall, 
 in one day, victims to the papists' swords — butcheries of Moors — Jews — 
 Christians in Spain — Bohemia — Hungary — France — Holland — Ireland — the 
 the public rejoicings at Rome by the pope's orders, on account of the massacre 
 of the Protestants of France — the medal struck by the pope, and paintings got 
 up, to commemorate the papal triumphs over religion, and humanity — The Ro- 
 ish Church has never disowned, nor ever apologized for her former ferocious 
 persecutions — As a church, she approved of the deeds of her ancestors, and 
 still approves of all her blood shed ! Estimate of the victims of this sanguina- 
 ry sect — an appeal to all orders of christians — and to the American nation on 
 this matter — appeal to the consciences of the bishops — conclusion — we part to 
 meet no more, until we meet at the Judgment seat of God— apology for the 
 freedom, and warmth of my address; Card to the public. 345 
 
 THE APPE.VDIX. I. The comparative numbers of Papists— and Chris- 
 tians. II. Extracts from the pope's chancery book. III. Gross imijuriry en- 
 joined by popes and councils. IV. Index Expurgatorius. V. Form of a pa- 
 pist's confession. VI. Absolution. 351 
 
THE 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 I 
 
 THIS ORIGIN OF THIS CONTROVERSY IS FULLY EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING 
 
 CHALLENGE. 
 
 To the Editor of the Truth Teller. 
 
 Sir: — In the series of letters addressed to me "by a Roman Catholic writer, in your 
 columns, I have been honored with a succession of public challenges to come out in 
 the discussion of the Roman Catholic tenets. And you have, in the frankest and 
 most candid manner, offered me your columns for my reply. 
 
 I have stated repeatedly to my friends, and also in a letter to a Roman Catholic 
 gentleman of my acqu£iintance, — I mean Dr. B., that I shall not come out in reply to 
 any anonymous writer. And you know as well as I, that no man of honor would do it. 
 
 I have waited for several months to see some responsible name appear ; I have 
 been hitherto disappointed. But, now, feeling as every Protestant minister does, that 
 no one should decline a call given, in Divine Providence, to defend the truth, I beg 
 leave to make the following propositions, in all frankness and candor. Through you 
 I beg respectfully to give a challenge, in my turn, to any one, or all of the following 
 gentlemen, Roman Catholic priests, in our city, to come forward and discuss, in a 
 series of letters, alternately with me, the leading doctrines and practices which sepa- 
 rate the Protestant Churches from Rome ; — I mean, the Right. Rev. Bishop Dubois; 
 the very Rev. Dr. Power; the Rev. Dr. Varela; or the Rev. Mr. Levins; or any 
 Ofther, whom they will nominate, as their substitute. 
 
 A reply, as early as you can make it convenient, is requested. 
 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 January 28, 1833. "^ W. C. Brownlee. 
 
 The following letter appeared in the "Troth Teller," in reply to Dr. Brownlee. 
 
 Mr. Editor: — ^We accept Dr. Brownlee'? ^^ Challenge." But, to exch^de all 
 chance of introducing equivocal or irrelevant matter, to secure singleness of view and 
 unity of object, to prevent shift, subterfuge, and cavil, " to avoid foolish and unlearned 
 questions, knowing that they beget strife," — 2 Tim. ii. 23 ; — he is requested to state 
 what is his Rule of Faith, and who, or what is his Judge of controversies in matters 
 of faith. 
 
 John Power, V. G. and Rector of St. Peter's. 
 
 Thomas C. Levins, Pastor of St. Patrick's Cathedral. 
 
 Felix Varela, Pastor of Christ's Church. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 REV. DR. W. C. BROWNLEE, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 LETTER I. 
 
 To the, Editor of the Truth Teller. 
 
 §ir: — I feel indebted to your politeness in causing to be inserted in your columns, 
 my call for a responsible name : and, through you, I tender my respects to the learned 
 gentlemen who have met my invitation. 
 
 I hope we shall not be so loug in settling our preliminaries, as the tw^o gentlemen 
 ■were, who have commenced their discussion in Philadelphia. At any rate, it shall 
 not be my fault, if we are. I hope, Sir, the learned Priests do not mean to throw a 
 barrier in the way to prevent our discussion : although the request, or insinuation put 
 forth in their *' acceptance" of my "challenge," does appear to me to be something 
 which rather squints that way. 
 
 Mr. Editor, — I shall not allow myself to be stopped at the very threshold of dis- 
 cussion, by any invitation to settle the Rule of faith and the Judge of controversy. 
 If we pause here until we shall agree on this point — we shall stop here forever. The 
 Protestant and the Roman Catholic do not; — and what is more, they can never agree 
 on this point. This creates the abyss which lies between them : If they could agree 
 on this point, they would no longer stand in the relation of Protestant and Papist. 
 
 The only Rule of faith and fnal Judge of controversy, as every Protestant believes, 
 is THE Holy Spirit speaking to us in the written word of God, the Holt 
 Scriptures ; containing all the books of the Old Testament, and all the books of the 
 New Testament. In these, God spoke to the church in Hebrew and in Greek: if 
 there be any thing not so plain, at first view, as I wish, I compare parallel passages, 
 and evolve the meaning by all proper means, under the guidance of the fountain of 
 truth, the Spirit of God, who has promised to "guide us in all truth." 
 
 To charge the Holy Scriptures with obscurity, or deficiency, is the same thing as to 
 bring a charge against the Holy Ghost. No christian can do this. The apparent ob- 
 scurity on the pages of the Bible, proceeds from the darkness of our minds. Hence 
 the Spirit of God teaches us to pray — "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold 
 wondrous things out of thy law !" Psalms cxix. 18. And shall I dare to call that 
 obscure or imperfect, which the Spirit of God gave forth, and has declared to be clear 
 or ** plain to him that understandeth ;" so that he may run who readeth it ? Shall I 
 
4 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 deire to add human traditions, or the laws of erring mortals, to that Rule which God 
 has given to the church, and pronounced "perfect" and "sure" and "right," and 
 "pure?" Ps. xix. Shall we dare add to God's holy word, who has laid this 
 solemn command on protestant, pope, and priest, — "add thou not unto his words,, 
 
 LEST HE REPROVE THEE AND THOU BE FOUND A LIAR !" PrOV. XXX. 6. Will any 
 
 priest or layman, dare add to that Holy Book which the Holy Spirit has made perfect, 
 closed up, and sealed with a tremendous malediction on the mortal who shall "arfi to 
 it or take away from it.^^ Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 
 
 I can appeal, in controversy, to no tribunal but to that of the Holy Ghost speak- 
 ing IN the SACRED ScRiPTURES ; — who has expressly enjoined on us this command, 
 Isaiah viii. 19, 20. "Should not a people seek to their God? for the living to the 
 dead? to the law, and to the testimony, if we speak not according to 
 
 THIS WORD, IT IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM." The Bible COUtaillS 
 
 the whole religion of the Protestant. But if a mortal man has a right to rdd to God's 
 word, then why may he not also alter and new model it? But the man, be he Pope, 
 Priest, or Protestant, who ventures to do this, does actually usurp the throne of God: 
 " he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God !" He sits m judgment 
 on his Maker ; he calls him up to his bar, and dictates to God ! If this be not the con- 
 gummation of blasphemous daring, I profess I know not what can be ! 
 
 As for Romish traditions and oral laivs, we shall treat them with the same respect 
 as we do the Koran of Mohammed, until the evidence of their divinity be produced, 
 and established by prophecy, tongues, and miracles : and the fact be confinned that 
 God gave them to the Chnrch of Christ for a Ride. 
 
 As for the fathers of the Greek and Latin Churches, I wall receive their pages %vith 
 profound veneration, and sit at their feet, as the expositors of truth, as soon as the Ca- 
 tholic Church of Rome shall produce a genuine copy of them as the fathers wrote, and 
 left, their t^entiments : — namely an editio expurgata, free of the scandalous alterations, 
 and coiTuptions made in them, by the monks of the dark ages ! 
 
 For the Pope, and " Holy Mother Church," I shall yield myself a dutiful son and 
 throw mj-self at his holiness' feet, as soon as he shall produce, before the Christian 
 world, a few genuine and authentic credentials, from the court of heaven; confiimed 
 infallibly by the miraculous gifts of tongues, prophecy, and miracles — as the holy 
 Apostles did —that God Almighty has really constituted him the legal deposit of truth : 
 the fountain of immaculate purity, and the accredited expounder of the Holy Bible; 
 to create mental light, and with his keys to lock up in darkness the heretical mind ; and 
 be the final judge of controversy. The world has become too enlightened to give cre- 
 dit to the fanatic, or knave who sets himself up for the "standard" of truth, or as one 
 who is admitted into the secrets of Heaven, and the cabinet minister of the court of the 
 Almighty. Nay, so unruly has the human mind become, in consequence of its burst- 
 ing the chains of darkness, and emancipating itself from the ghostl}"- power and super- 
 stition of the dark ages, that it not only venluers to call a man a fanatic, but gravely 
 to propose a place in bedlam, for the man who would enact the scenes of former days ; 
 who would constitute himself the fnal judge of controversy, set up claims over God's 
 own word ; pass gag laws against the freedom of speech and the press ; or forge chains 
 for the human conscience, and prevent the progress of glorious liberty ! 
 
 This is protestantism. On the contrary eveiy body knows that the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church rejects these opinions of Protestants with disgust. They deny, indignantly, 
 that the written word of God, or, the Holy Ghost speaking in the scriptures, either is, 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 9 
 
 or can be the Rule of faith, or Judge of controversy. What we call God speakmg in 
 the scriptures, they venture to pronounce a thing obscure, powerless, and utterly unfit 
 to be a Rule or Judge. What we call the voice of God speaking in the Holy Word, 
 has no authority, no power, with them, — no binding obligations on the conscience ; — 
 until the Pope, or the Holy Church shall pronounce it to be the word, and give it vita- 
 Kty and authority ! By their creed, even Almighty God cannot speak through his own 
 word, with either intelligence, or authority, until the Pope shall bid it have intelligence 
 and authority ! He — not God — is the " living speaking Oracle," of truth ; he, not God, 
 is the "only final Judge of controversy !" 
 
 Hence it is morally impossible that the Protestant and the Roman CathoUc can ever 
 agree on this point. 
 
 The priests aflect to believe that the absence and want of their living, speaking orot- 
 cle in our system, has originated the various divisions and sects among Protestants. 
 And this has afforded a rich harvest of materials for our good humored opponent's elo- 
 quence. Every body has heard of Dr. Power's stereotype sermon on Unity, Catholi- 
 city, infallibility, and the endless divisions of the heretics. 
 
 The priests have been rather unfortunate in selecting this topic for their declamations 
 against the Chrislian world. For, it is known to every one that there is scarcely even 
 one erroneous sect, or heretic, in ancient or modern times, which has not sprung up in 
 the bosom of "Mother Church!" But, then, the Holy Inquisition and the bishops 
 have carefully and assiduously sought them out, and made glorious bonfires of them! 
 Yes, every returning year, at that Romish /eizsf of charity called an auto da fe, did 
 Holy Mother turn all these sectarians into the fire, and burn them as did the votaries erf 
 Moloch, in sacrifice to the genius of their idolatry ! 
 
 Now, did the Protestants imitate the example of the Romish Church in the horrid 
 festivals of her ghostly despotism ; and did the strongest party in the land, annually, 
 doom to the dungeon and the flames, all the weaker sects, — then assuredly tliere would 
 soon be as much terrific unity among Protestants, as there is in Spain and Italy! 
 
 But, in the United States, in our happy Republic, there is no State religion, — and no 
 union of Church and State, as in all Roman Catholic goyernments. Hence tlie lovely 
 picture of Protestant mildness, charity, liberality, and mutual forbearance ! 
 
 But, after all, it is a pleasant piece of humor, to hear the Roman Catholic priests 
 ridiculing the divisions and various sects of the Protestants; while they laud "the 
 unity of Holy Mother Church, created and cemented by their living, speaking Oracle J" 
 What! This coming from the members of the Roman Catholic Churcli ; — a church 
 containing, in her bosom, more divisions and sects, than all tliose of I'rotestants ! A 
 church rent and torn by divisions of the most untractsble and iiTCconcilable kind! — , 
 Ask you for proof? 
 
 Witness ihe feuds in thai, day, wlien three rival popes were muuinlly putting the 
 pontifical ban on each other! Witness the divisions and horrid seen 's of conflict in 
 the l)osom of Holy Mother in the great Western Schism, which every Roman Catho- 
 lic historian details! Witness the divisions, in doctrines, caused by the Augustines, 
 conflic'iug with other sc's! Witness the violent feuds between the iansenists and 
 the Jesuits! Witness the divisions caused by the Dominicans, ^o !';uno us for their 
 zeal in burning better and more virtuous men than themselves! Wiiii -s the ditierent 
 sect^ofgray fiiars, and white, and black; and the mendicants! Witness the exaspe 
 rating feuds between the Franciscans and the Dominicans, touclniig ihe immaculate 
 conctjjtion of the Virgin Mary: — the ((»rmcr, stoutly maintainijig that ; he was con^ 
 
 2 * 
 
ft ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 ceived by her mother, as pure and innocent as Jesus Christ was ; and the latter sect, 
 with no less than Sai?it Bernard at their head, insisting that this sentiment was a dam- 
 nable heresy ! Witness the eternal wars in the bosom of Holy Mother, between tlies© 
 unnatural and turbulent sons, the Scotists, and the Thomists ! Witness the characte- 
 ristic feuds and brawls of the Jesuits, the Benedictines and Dominicans. Witness 
 the six grand heads of controversy in the sixteenth century, which rent the Holy 
 Church in pieces; and which are familiar to every Roman Catholic student of their 
 own histories ! The fierce and indomitable Jesuits were pitied against the Jansenists, 
 Dominicans, and Augustines. Sometimes the Jesuits and Dominicans were pitted 
 against each other, as, for instance, on the doctrines of grace : At other times, the Je- 
 suits and Dominicans united on the ejjicacy of the sacraments, in opposing all other 
 sects! See Dr. Courra3^er's translation of Paul Sarpi's Council of Trent. 
 
 Witness the violent conflict between the Franciscans and the Pope, John XXH., in 
 the 14th century ! and the fierce contest between the Jesuits, on the one side, and tho 
 Augustine doctors, and the university of Louvain, and of Douay, on the other* Wit- 
 ness the long and furious controversy between the Molinists of Spain, with the Augus- 
 tines and Thomists, and which set at defiance Pope Clement VIH., and all bis influ- 
 ence, for a long season ! 
 
 In fine, I know scarcel}'- a single century of Holy Mother's history, when the 
 bosom of her Unity was not a frightful arena of fierce contending priests, whom no 
 power on earth, fallible or infallible, could compose, till they had exhausted their 
 mutual fury ! See the pages of Nicholas Dc Clemangis ; Wessel of Groningen ; Ca»- 
 sauder, Rayner, and Ferns, Cap. 8. Judic. 
 
 As for Unity, — there was Unity, Mr. Editor, — most striking U7iity, in Holy Mother. 
 There was unity in opposing the Spirit of God speaking in the scriptures. There was 
 unity in adoring images, relics, and the saints. There was unity in declaring for 
 seven Romish sacraments instead of the bible's two. There was unity in the belief 
 and projit of purgatory. There was unity in believing that the Pope has the keys of 
 Heaven ; and that he and the priests will allow no heretic to pass into the kingdom 
 of heaven. There is perfect imity in Mother Church, in denying the necessity of re- 
 generation and a new heart, by the Holy Ghost; there is unity in denying that Christ 
 tinished his atonement on the cross — -unity in offering him up, afresh, for the sins of 
 the quick and the dead, in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass! There is unity in de- 
 nying justification by the righteousness of Christ alone ! There is unity in believing 
 that Christ is not the only mediator, that the holy virgin is mediatrix ; and " jure ma- 
 tris juhet filio ;'' by "the rights of a mother, commands her Son" to hear us. See tba 
 Rosary and Missal; and Bonavent, Cor. B. M. Virg.— Tom. 6. Rom. Edit, of 1588; 
 Psalter of the Virgin, p. 84. Argent Edit. 
 
 This is a specimen of the only unity which characterizes the Holy Mother, and 
 which your "living and speaking oracle" promotes! 
 
 Besides, Sir, — " Ego et Rex," — I and the learned priests have, already, tried otrr 
 mutual strength on the floor, in oral debate. And we got along, in perfect good 
 humor, and quite as successfully as one could have anticipated, without stopping to 
 settle the point ahout the Rule and Judge. Each one took his own way; as I now re- 
 spectfully propose to do; and went straight forward, like honest men, and skilful con^ 
 troversalists. I mean, therefore, Mr. Editor, with your leave, soon to pass on to one 
 great and vital point, — say, the Chdrch. 
 
 I am, Sir, your most ob't and humble servant, 
 
 W. C. Brownlek. 
 
BOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEKST. # 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND LEVINS. 
 
 On the Rule of Faith. 
 
 Gentlemen : — You begin your letter with an expression of amazement at my 
 "chivalrous" daring in "challenging prelate and priest," to this discussion. The 
 chivalry of "the lion hearted Richard" himself, excites less amazement than this 
 venturous daring of mine, to challenge four man led and shielded by "infallibility" 
 itself! And all of them, moreover, sharing in the blessings of the same "infallibility !" 
 But you forget the feelings of a protestant. In his estimation, "prelate and priest" 
 are official creatures of mere human fiction, — and quite harmless among " lion heart- 
 ed" republicans. And the ghostly claims of "infallibles," sound in his ears like the 
 bravadoes of the antiquated heroes of Otranto! 
 
 The fact is, and you know it, gentlemen, I was driven into this controversy by your 
 own partisans. And, therefore, my claims are loo humble, in this matter, to be deco- 
 rated with the honors of "chivalry." I return them, v/ith all humiUty, to their right- 
 ful owners. 
 
 You have utterly mistaken my meaning as to " the settling" of the point of the Rule 
 and Judge of truth. I simply alledged that there could be no use in stopping at the 
 threshold of the debate, until we, — that is, Catholic and Protestant, should come 
 together on this point. For the truth is, we never can "settle it" in this sense. This 
 creates the abyss which lies between us. My only object in those remarks, was to 
 make sure the continuance of our discussion. 
 
 That the question touching " the Rule" was of small moment, was no statement of 
 mine. I deem it of infinite importance. I have not decHned the discussion of it. 
 Nay, gentlemen, pardon me, I have discussed it, — though briefly, in my first letter: 
 yes, and settled it too, in the only sense, so far as I can see, in which we can settle 
 it. That is, I have distinctly laid down the Protestant Rule, and shown out of the 
 Holy Bible, that it is the Holtj Spirit speaking to us in the written word. And I have 
 also staled, fairly, your Rule, namely, — the scriptures, the apocrypha, and oral tradi- 
 tions, exi)lained by a living, infallible oracle. This was, as I did conceive, going as 
 far as we ought to go at the entrance of our discussion. I was wiUing to take it up in 
 its proper place if you pleased. And, I did really suppose that you would, yourselves, 
 have preferrcHi the discussion of it, after we had discussed the subject of the "infallible 
 Church." It was nsLtmal, first to seek out this said ''infallible church," and, llien, to 
 seek out, in her, this said " infallible Rule and Judge." And, gentlemen, are you not 
 aware that this is the order, which was pursued by your " infallible council of Trent ?" 
 [See Sess. 3 and 4.] 
 
 But I am not tenacious : I yield to courtesy : qua via ducit sequar. Since you in- 
 sist on it, that the Rule shall be discussed fust, even so be it: only let none of us pro- 
 pose a retreat. 
 
 The point fairiy at issue between the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches on 
 the Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversy, is {\ns:—Both of us, in the first place, 
 admit that there is an infallible rule of faith, established hy Christ, to guide us in mat- 
 ters of faith, and decisions of controversy, in religion. But, in the eecoud place, we 
 differ, ioto ccclo, as to what that Rule is. 
 
8 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 First : — The Protestant Church declares that the only Rule of faith and Judge of 
 controversy, is the Holy Spirit teaching us in tht ivritten word of the Old and New 
 Testaments, every thing necessary to be known and believed, in order to glorify God 
 and enjoy him for ever. 
 
 Second: — The R. Catholic Church believes that the only Rule is the scriptures in 
 the old Latin, or Vulgate translation, 07ily, together with the Apocrypha, and oral tra- 
 ditons : and all these are to be infallibly explained by a living, speaking, infallible 
 oracle and judge; who is, 1st, according to one sect in Holy Mother, the Pope: 2d, 
 by another sect, a Council : 3d, by another sect, the Pope and Council : 4th, by another 
 eect, the Holy Mother Church, — meaning the Pope and his clergy. Such is the dis- 
 cordance of senliments, in the very bosom of '■''unity and infallibility,^^ touching thi^ 
 vitally essential point, namely, *'the infallible Judge!" And this, by the way, ex- 
 plains the phenomena, in the mode of pursuing their argument, both by my opponents 
 and by Mr. Hughes'. They make a vaporing demonstration, and a threatening air of 
 assault upon "the poor offending Bible," the Protestant's Rule, in order to hide the 
 weakness of their own system. They labor to raise a cloud of smoke and dust, around 
 the truth, and then to escape in the dark. 
 
 Here we have, at one view, the two great dividing sentiments. Protestants, with 
 humble veneration, receive the Holy Ghost speaking in the written word, as their only 
 Rule and Judge ; and they know, and are sure, that he speaks to them as plainly, and 
 intelligibly, as a beloved father does, in a letter to his dear child, — choosing to express 
 his will in the plainest and simplest terms. On the contrary, the Romish Church's 
 Rule is the Pope, or Council, or both, or Holy Mother. They are not agreed here. 
 But they are agreed in this, that it shall not be the Holy Spirit speaking in the scrip- 
 tures; and that he shall have a rival, and opponent in his own house! And now, 
 let the christian public decide whether we, as rational beings, shall listen to God our 
 Maker, speaking to us, or to an "infallible Judge," composed of one or more fallible 
 human beings ! And these, moreover, not very holy, nor very virtuous men ! Nay, 
 they are men of the most presumptuous arrogance, and pontifical pride ! Did men 
 reason and draw their information from the pure fountain of truth, and not believe, 
 eimply, by proxy, this controversy might be settled in a fev^ minutes. Let us examine 
 each of these in their order : — 
 
 1. The Protestant Rule and Judge. Suppose I say to Dr. Power, here is a point 
 to be settled; who shall tell us what this Rule is? To whom shall we go? Shall I 
 go with you to your "infallible Rule?" Or will you go with me to the holy scrip- 
 tures, and hear the Spirit of God speaking infallibly to us ? We cannot go to your 
 ^^ infallible RuleJ" This is the very subject of enquiry ; you have not yet found this 
 infallible rule ; this is the point in debate. We can go to the holy scriptures : you 
 admit their authenticity and inspiration. If you do not, you are deists. I repeat it, 
 gentlemen, if you question the divine inspiration of the Bible, you are Deists ! If 
 you place yourselves by Paine and Hume, then I am prepared to meet you with argu- 
 ments on the external and internal evidence of the scripture's inspiration. This, how- 
 ever, would be a shifting of the ground. 
 
 But if you admit their divine inspiration as the Council of Trent does, — then here 
 we have found the infallible Rule. For the same evidence which establishes their di- 
 vine inspiration, does also establish their infallibility. God, speaking to us, speaks 
 infallibly the truth. Now, we have 1st, only to open their pages and listen, with pro- 
 found reverence, to God speaking to us. Psalm xix. Here the law of God is declared 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. » 
 
 to be " perfect ;" it is " true ;" it is " right ;" it is " pure." Isaiah viii. 19, 20. " Should 
 not a people seek unto tlieir God ? for the Uving unto the dead ? To the law and to 
 the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light 
 in them." Here those are reproved as going away from God, even going "to the 
 dead." on behalf of the living, who go to any human bar or judge, for the rule of truth. 
 Again, Prov. xxx. 6. *' Add thou not unto his word*, lest he reprove thee, and thou 
 be found a liar .'" 2 Tim. iii. 16. " All scripture is given by inspiration of God and 
 is profitable, &c., that the man of God may be perfect, thoroui^hl ij furnished unto all 
 good works." Here "the perfect" word of the Lord makes the man of God perfect, 
 and thoroughly furnished to all good works. No language can more plainly declare 
 this rule and judge infallible. And, finally, read in Rev. xxii. 18, 19, the tremendous 
 maledictions of Almighty God, on all those who " add to," and who " take away 
 from" God's written word ! 
 
 Here, then, we have the will of God most plainly spoken. Obscurity, weakness, 
 and inefficacy, are not in the word of God. Who will challenge the Almighty and 
 say to him, thou speakest obscurely, and weakly, and inefficiently ? Who will ven- 
 ture to utter such blasphemy before the christian public ? If you think it, speak it 
 out. We challenge you to come out against the Bible : call it imperfect : call it a 
 failure. Set up the Pope against God. Bring out your accusations against the Holy 
 Spirit. Tell the public that it is the Pope or his clergy, and not God's blessed word, 
 diat "converts," that makes us "perfect," that " furnishes thoroughly to all good 
 ■works I" I know you say this in your books : this is the very basis of your argument 
 when you go to establish your living infallible judge ! 
 
 2. The Holy Scriptures are God's law ; and our Lord's last will and tzstament, 
 Koi'fr? AiaQriKTi. Now, what shail be done to a man who forges a new law, and foists 
 it into the code ? What shall be done to the man who forges, adds to, or alters a man's 
 last will and testament, to promote his own ends ? What '•'■ sorer piinishmtnt" awaits 
 the man, council, or pope, who with fearful daring, under the very eye of the Almighty, 
 adds to, forges, and alters God's law ; and our Lord's last will and testament .' 
 
 3. I shall lay before you, the following chain of reasons and maxims. God is the 
 only lord of the conscience. Will any man deny this, and put his conscience in the 
 keeping of pope or priest, who will, any day, pledge himself, in a manner similar to 
 those spirital trafficers who absolved the Duke of Brunswick .' They were, by a 
 •olemn bargain, "to be damned in the old Duke's stead, if he happened to be damned 
 for becoming a Roman Catholic P^ Again, God alone can dictate to the conscience, 
 and prescribe our creed and true form of worship. If the proudest pope who ever set 
 foot on neck of king or emperor, should rise up and dictate these, he would seal his 
 fate as "that man of sin, sitting in the temple of God," aflfectlng to do God's work, by 
 a shocking usurpation ! Besides, God only can make known his will. He em]jloyed 
 rational instruments to deliver his messages. God never required belief m?j7/*om< ew- 
 dence. He always vouchsafed sufficient evidence, when he sent a prophet or apostle : 
 that evidence was exhibited by miracles, prophecies, and tongues. WTien any pre- 
 sented claims to inspiration, or to give an infallible rule, the church, by her Lord's 
 command, required the necessary evidence. Try the spirits, whether they be of God. 
 The church still, must have recourse to the same mode of trying those who pretend 
 to divine claims. If we believe without evidence, we yield ourselves a prey to im- 
 posture. If any society of men now claims to be infallible, then they have, from 
 God, the usual evidence of miracles, prophecy, and tongues. If they want these, they 
 
10 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 are knaves and impostors. " Holy Mother" has actually set up these claims : she 
 diliberately says that God speaking in the scriptures neither is, nor can be the infalli- 
 ble rule : hut she herself is it. This claim she sets up, without producing any of the ne- 
 cessary evidence. Hence, if there be truth in the Bible, she does act the knave and 
 impostor ! And, of course, you know whence she got her commission to do so. 
 
 I shall devote the rest of this letter to examine your invective against the infallible 
 Rule of the Holy Spirit speaking in the inspired ivritings. Every error and heresy 
 has its weak side. Your reasoning betrays this palpably. The radical error, gentle- 
 men, in your argument is this : you mistake the nature of the evidence by which this 
 point is to be established. You say the Bible cannot prove its own authenticity : and, 
 therefore, it cannot be the Rule of faith. This is an instance of that crafty logic, 
 called shifting the question, when it cannot be met ! The force of your argument is 
 this — because a thing does not perform that which it was not designed to do, therefore, it 
 is 7iotfit for the thing for which God made it t No book proves its own authenticity ; 
 we seek not on the pages of the Bible for the proof of its authenticity. Internal evi- 
 dence, you ought to know, is not external evidence. We prove the Bible's authenti- 
 city by the evidence of anti(]uity. The Jews give their testimony to the Hebrew Bible's 
 authenticity ; the primitive christians of the JValdenses and Albigenses, who have an 
 unbroken succession of pastors from the apostolic times, give their testimony to it, by 
 the tradition of the apostolic evidence : the many tribes of heretics and schismatics do 
 give their historical testimony to the genuine and authentic books of the Bible : the 
 Romish Church gives its testimony to it historically. Thus friends and foes unite in 
 their historical testimony. We liave, moreover, the evidence of miracles testified to, 
 the evidence of prophecy in these books, fulfilled, and now fulfilling. Thus, we prove 
 the authenticity of the scriptures by trternal evidence ; and, finally, by internal evi- 
 dence. See Home's Introduction, vol. 1., and other works on the carion of Scripture. 
 
 And this evidence being complete,the perfect e\'idence of the inspiration of the Bible 
 is the perfect evidence of its being the only infallible Rule of faith. 
 
 I pray you, gentlemen, try your objections against our Rule, with a deist, and you 
 will see your radical mistake. A deist, says — " Dr. Power, I am glad to see your ar- 
 guments against these heretics' Bible Rule: I hope that, as a man of sense, you will 
 just follow out your own argument. The Bible, you say, cannot prove its own au- 
 thenticity ; therefore, it is not the word of God ; it is not inspired ! Nay, Dr. Power, 
 the Bible does not prove the existence of God ! Therefore, it is defective, it is not inspi- 
 red P^ You would say, — " Sir, I prove the existenfie of God against you and atheists, 
 from the works of nature ; and, Sir, the Bible assumes this that there is a God ; and it 
 is he who speaks in it to us." Just so, in reasoning against a d':^ist ; you muit prove 
 the authenticity of the Bible, not from its own page : for he does not believe it. You 
 must prove it as I have said above, from other arguments : and thus, in opposing a 
 deist, you annihilate your own argument against our Rule ! 
 
 You object that the "Bible cannot be the Rule," because bad men and heretics 
 sought shelter under it, and made a bad use of it. Profound logic ! The abuse of a 
 thing condemns it, then. Hence, as med'cine and food have been abused, it is wicked 
 to use them for the end for which God made them ! The gospel itself has been 
 abused by heretics; therefore, it is unfit to bring siuners to Christ. 
 
 Again, you have ventured to object against the Bible being " the Rule," alledging 
 that it has originated all the errors, divisions, and schisms, that exist among Protest- 
 ants. This objection I hold up before the christian public : and, do solemnly charge 
 
Roman catholic controversy. 11 
 
 on you, Rev. Gentlemen, the crime of slandering, and bearing false witness 
 AGAINST God's holy scriptures I You charge on God's word the impious errors 
 and deeds of sinful men ! The Bible, gentlemen, never originated one error, or heresy ! 
 never coimtenanced them : never approved them ! On the contrary, it solemnly 
 condemns every error that springs up ! These errors arose from man's proud con- 
 tempt of piety, and their refusal to hear and obey the holy scriptures. Gentlemen : 
 what have you said ? Do you deny the Bible to be God's word ? If not, then I re- 
 peat it, God speaks in it. You must admit this, or confess yourselves deists ! Now 
 what have you affirmed ? The Bible has originated errors ! God himself, by his 
 Spirit speaking to men, has originated errors and heresies ! Verily you utter in plain 
 words your origin and descent ! 
 
 Let us apply your argument, gentlemen, to the papal Rule. In the bosom of unity 
 itself aiid under the working of "the infallible rule" of the Pope, ten errors, heresies, 
 and divisions, have sprung up for every one of the Protestants ! Then where are your 
 pretensions to an " infallible Rule !" I appeal to the public, then, whether your 
 argument does not involve slander and blasphemy ! 
 
 You object against " the Bible Rule," and say that if it were infallible, as we 
 
 alledge, " why does it not flash on the minds of ail ? why are there any deists ?" 
 
 Verily, gentlemen, you take incredible pains to show off your infallible logic ! If 
 this logic will prop up his holiness' throne, the literature of your school will work 
 
 miracles. I shall thus test your objection. A deist says to Dr. Power, — " Sir, 
 
 the gospel of the Bible, or the system which Christ taught does not flash on the 
 minds of all, — nay, Sir, the dictates of your infallible Rule, councils, and popes, 
 do not jiash on the minds of all; there are Turks Jews, and deists within your pale, 
 and all around you, therefore the gospel, and even popery itself is a fction ! " How 
 will you meet this logic with which you arm the deist ? 
 
 I conclude by calling on you to come out in the defence of your " infallible Rule,^* 
 composed oi! fallible materials. You have been concealing yourselves hitherto, in the 
 smoke and dust of deistical objections, against the Bible. The public solicit answer 
 to the following questions : — 
 
 What is, in reality your Rule and Judge 7 Why do you decorate the apocrypha 
 with the honors of inspiration, since even the authors of these books never took it into 
 their heads to claim it ; or to be prophets. See Mac. iv. 46. ch. ix. 27; but on the con- 
 trary craved pardon for errors committed by them ? See 2 Mac. xv. 38, &c. What 
 evidence have you that oral traditions were given by Christ for part of the Rule ? 
 Where can these traditions possibly be found ? Who is your Judge of controversy ? 
 Is it the Pope ? Is it a council ? Is it the Pope and council ? Is it Holy Mother 
 Church ? What is it you mean, in soberness, by " Holy Mother Church ?" Have 
 any of your popes been pagan idolaters ? Was Marcellinus .' Which of them here- 
 tics ? Was Liberius the Arian ? Which of them a Nero in vice ? Was Alexan- 
 der ? Have you had more than three popes at one time ? Were they all mutually 
 doomed ? Were all these the infallible judges and dictators ? Being successors of 
 the Apostles, you must sustain your claims by apostolical evidence, or be impostors. 
 Have you had no errors, no divisions, no schisms, in you, under the very eye of 
 infallibility ? ^Vhcnce has it happened, — and this, is a solemn question, — that infal- 
 libility did not settle the immaculate, or non-immaculate conce[)tion of the Virgin 
 Mary ; and the brawls, and errors mutually charged on each other, by Jansenisfli 
 and Jesuits : Franciscans and Dominicans ? Can you tell us where that part of 
 
12 ROMAIC CATHOMC COJITROVERST. 
 
 yonr Rule, viz. the universal consent of the fathers^ can possibly be found ; as it i* 
 not on the pages of their endless contradictions ? Do not your Rule and judge, 
 being human beings, take away liberty of conscience, and put it in the pope and 
 priest's keeping ? And, finally, does not your " infallible RuW'' require all devoui 
 Catholics, absolutely to believe things contrary to, and contradicted by, the positiv* 
 evidence of all their senses ? Namely, that by a certain sacerdotal process, a wafer 
 is converted into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ! 
 
 Meet these (juestions fairly, and honestly, as logicians, and theologians ! And I 
 shall pay my respects to your Rule, and your defence of it, in my next. One word to 
 my friends : this, I call only skirmishing ; for I am pressed for want of time. I pro- 
 pose to begin the controversy with my learned opponents, soon, in good earnest. 
 
 I am. Gentlemen, Yours, &c. 
 
 New York, Feb. 18, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 
 
 TO THE REV. DR. VARELA. 
 
 Rev. Sir : — The unique letter which you have done me the honor of addressing to 
 me, would have been highly amusing, had it not been for its uncompromising spirit 
 of deism ! 
 
 What amused me, was the manner of your retreat from the present discussion, after 
 you had signed your pledge to stand by your Rev. Brethren. I knew that my kind 
 hearted neighbor, Dr. Varela, was a curious antiquarian as well as a classic scholar. 
 And h€ has been studying the antiquated Parthian character. These ancient wor- 
 thies, when in view of the enemy, would retreat at full gallop ; but in their retreat 
 they always discharged a shot or two, with their bows and arrows. So friend Varela, 
 Parthian like, retreats ; but fires off an epistle, from his retreat, before he gives me 
 his " farewell," and " leaves me in good hands!" 
 
 But, Sir, you should not have retreated ; you should have remained firm to your 
 pledge. It is true, you could not brook such letters as those which the other two 
 priests are inflicting on the public taste. But you were pledged, and you should not 
 have retreated. 
 
 It is painful to see a gentlemem of your age and experience, advocating the leading 
 principle of Deism ! Paine and Hume would have cordially acceeded to, and ap- 
 plauded your sentiments against the Holy Bible. You and they pronounce it unfits 
 and too imperfect, to be the Rule of Faith! I appeal to the Christian community, 
 whether it is not obviously the spirit of infidelity that you advocate. 
 
 1st. You ask, — " Where in the scriptures do you find that the scriptures are the 
 only Rule of faith ?" This I have already shown in my two letters. See Psalms xix ; 
 Prov. XXX. 5, 6 ; Isaiah viii. 19, 20 ; 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17; Rev. xxii. 18, 19, &c. 
 
 2d. You demand, " From what scriptures were the scriptures believed, when they 
 were first written ?" The Scriptures were believed by the people of God, on the satis- 
 factory evidence which the inspired prophet or apostle produced, to establish hie 
 commission from heaven. His miracles and predictions showed that God sent him; 
 and then, his words and his writings were believed to be from God. The scriptures aw 
 believed on account of their external, as well as their internal evidence. I am awar« 
 of the radical error under which you and the other Priests labor. It is this, — you be- 
 live that the Bible has no evidence^ and no authority, but just that which the Pope and 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 13 
 
 the Romish Church choose to give to it! You will not allow even God himself to 
 speak to us, but just as the Pope pleases. This is the fundamental error of the Ro- 
 mish church ! But the world is now too enlightened to submit to such Gothic ideas! 
 
 3. You say, — " Not the scripture, but its interpretation forms the ditferent creeds of 
 different Protestant sects. Hence these interpretations are real articles of faith. 
 Now what scripture have Protestants for these interpretations ?" 
 
 I reply, — God does, indeed, speak plainly and clearly in the scriptures ; the Chris- 
 tian apprehends his will and mind without difficulty. But it is equally certain that 
 men of perverse minds do not apprehend them aright. Hence the origin of error. 
 
 Now, the design of our creed is not, as you conceive, to substitute a human rule 
 in the place of the divine rule ; but simply to detect, and keep out errorists from the 
 fold of Christ. We say " here is the holy Bible." The false teacher says *' I ta^ke it as 
 it is, as my rule." We reply, " No, you do not receive it in truth, unless you receive 
 it in this precise sense and meaning, in which the church of Christ receives it, and 
 has expressed it in her canons." If man were never false, we should probably not 
 need these tests. 
 
 These articles of faith are not wholly expressed in the language of scripture : they 
 could not be a test if they were. But then every doctrine of faith contained in them 
 is carefully taken from the Bible : not one new idea is added : nothing is taken away. 
 And, in all cases, the scriptures are our only and perfect rule by which all these 
 canons and articles are themselves tried. You ask, " what scripture we have for all 
 this?" I answer, — 1 John iv. 1 : "Beloved, believe not every spirit : but try the 
 spirits whether they be of God." 
 
 " 4. You ask, if the scriptures be so plain, why do Protestants explain it ? Why 
 do you preach ?" 
 
 Here you bring forAvard the leading tenet of Popery, namely, the scriptures are 
 so obscure tliat no man can explain or understand them, but the pope and his priests. 
 
 I beg to ask you. Sir, this question, — "Do you, or do you not, believe that the 
 scriptures were given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost ? If you do not, you are 
 a deist! If you do, then you admit that the Holy One speaks to us in them. If he 
 does, then you will admit that He means to be understood. And yet you have the 
 boldness to charge the Holy Spirit with intentional obscurity and darkness, so that his 
 own subjects cannot understand him ! " Why do we preach them ?" W'h\', to train, 
 up God's people by instruction, by prayer, and praise ; and to make the authoritative 
 offer of the gospel to sinners ; and administer the sacraments to the faithful. May I 
 not retort on you ? "Why do Romish priests preach, since they have a living, speak- 
 ing, infallible rule, the pope ? 
 
 " 5. The rule of your faith is, that the scriptures must be understood and observed 
 according to private judgment, and not precisely according to the judgment of the 
 church." I am sorry that you give such pal])able proofs of being utterly unacquaint- 
 ed with the opinions and dogmas of Protestants. I exhort you to remember tlie valu- 
 able proverb, that before we speak or tvrite on a subject, ive should know something 
 about it ! You ought to know, 1st, that what you state here, is not true. The Pro- 
 testant churches do not so understand the scriptures. 2d. By the Reformation, we 
 regained from ghostly tyranny, the rights of conscience and private judgment. W^e 
 think and judge for ourselves : we do not manage religion by proxy, as the pope's 
 subjects do : we do not trust our unalienable rights of conscience and private judgment 
 to the supervision of a ghostly impostor, nor accecpt his vaporing guarantee of 
 
 3 
 
14 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 heaven. We cannot believe with the duke of Brunswick, that " a priest can be 
 accepted in our stead, should we be condemned for becoming papists." The priestly 
 guarantee of heaven is copied from the model of that personage, who, with equal 
 boldness, offered our Lord the whole world if he would worship him ; while, in fact, 
 he did not possess one foot square of its whole surface ! Indeed, we deem the insult 
 offered to us, by those priests, who profess to hold the judgment and consciences of men 
 under their entire control ; and who denounce " the fire of purgatory," and " the 
 wrath of God, and St. Peter, and St. Paul," on all v/ho shall dare read the Bible, 
 or even think for themselves on matters of religion, — to be the greatest insult offered 
 to our species ! 3d. A gentleman of your reading ought to know what is a subject 
 of historical record, namely, — that no private individuals, but the pastor, or bishops, 
 and elders of the Reformed churches, met in councils, far purer and holier than the 
 council of Trent: and emitted our canons and confessions of faith, which they esta- 
 blished by copious and infallible extracts from the scriptures. And yet this judg- 
 ]nent of the church of God is gravely pronounced by you a private judgment ? 
 
 I beg leave to charge publicly on your church, Sir, the crime of having long per- 
 verted a text of St. Peter. I allude to his words in the second epistle, Chap. i. 20, 
 21. " No PROPHECY of the scriptures is of any private interpretation, &c." St. Peter 
 here speaks of prophecy, and of that alone. But your sect. Sir, has all along com- 
 mitted the inexcusable error of making the apostle say, — " No scripture is of any 
 private interpretation." I call on Dr. Varela, as an honest man, to put a speedy end 
 to this scandalous imposition upon Roman Catholic laymen. If you do not, — then 
 let your laymen judge of their priests' honor and honesty ' 
 
 " 6. Why did not Luther and Melancthon on one side, and Calvin and Zuinglius 
 on the other, agree upon the meaning of these plain words — this is my body ? Who 
 have the spirit?''' 
 
 I reply, — they have the Spirit who adhere the closest to the plain doctrine of the 
 Bible, and to common sense. Had Luther shaken off', at once, all the monkish absurdi- 
 ties, he would have believed not only that no ivaftr could be made into a God, but 
 that no wafer could contain God, or his presence ! 
 
 But, Sir, I have already replied to this, and shown your radical error in this mode 
 of conducting an argument. Can it be possible, Sir, that you do not know that an 
 *' infallible rule and judge"" really do not secure the infallibility of all those who may 
 happen to use that rule ? 
 
 Are you infallible, because the pope is your head and keeps your conscience ? Are 
 all the Catholics in New York infallible 1 Do your own " infallible rule" and 
 " living, speaking judge," actually make every son of Holy Mother infallibly armed 
 against all vice, and all error, and heresy ? 
 
 7. You assail us about "the various and different translations of the Bible in 
 Protestant countries." Each nation has its own tongue and idiom ; and hence there 
 may be shades of difference in the expression. But not one doctrine, — not one idea 
 is altered, or perverted by any of all the translations of the Reformed churches. Be- 
 .*^ides, Dr. Varela, you ought to know, that the Hebrew and the Greek are the infallible 
 standards, and the last resort in all disputed translations. But, Sir, it is amazing to 
 hear you, or any of your church attack our translations, — when the "infallible coun- 
 cil of Trent" has sanctioned the Latin Vulgate as the only one to be used. And every 
 Hebrew and Greek scholar in Christendom knows that the Vulgate, as it now is, — is 
 the very worst of the worst translations ! 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 15 
 
 8. You expatiate, as usual, '* on the diiferences and divisions of the Protestants." 
 I have replied twice to this already. This is the stereotype declamation of the priests, 
 in " Holy Mother." Now, this comes with the worst grace from a Roman CathoUc. 
 For every one error and division among Protestants, there are at least, ten errors, divi- 
 sions, and heresies, in the very bosom of unity herself. I ask you, Sir, are you a 
 Jansenist? Or a Jesuit? A Dominican? Or a Franciscan? Is your infallible 
 rule in the pope ? Or is it in a council / Or in the pope and council ? Or in 
 *' Holy Church ?" Here is a fatal division of four of your sects within your church, 
 touching this first essential doctrine ! To which of all these sects do you belong ? 
 And finally, if you have infallibility, somewhere, why does it not come out, and 
 settle these brawls and heresies in what you call your "holy, one, undivided church?" 
 
 " 9. Can the law be the judge ? Who applies it ? Are the scriptures the law ? 
 Can they be the judge ?" I reply, again, the scriptures are the law and rule ; and 
 the Holy Ghost, speaking to us in them, is the Judge. Sit down at Christ's feet. Dr. 
 Varela, and listen, and receive his law, and his rule. But, if you did so, — alas! what 
 a havoc would you make of your oral traditions and councils : your pope and cardi- 
 nals, all must go ; and even " the idols must be thrown to the moles and the bats !" 
 
 " 10. Private spirit is fallible, can it be the judge of an infallible faith ?" I reply, 
 that you misrepresent us. The Holy Spirit speaks to us infallibly true. And ice can 
 take up his holy mind and icill, more readily and easily, than your priests can take up 
 the mind and will of "■ the infallible'" and divided popes and councils!! Permit me 
 to ask you : How many fallihles in a pope and council, will go to make up one 
 INFALLIBLE ? Solve tliis problem, before the christian public. If you can, you will 
 work a miracle on your own behalf! 
 
 " 11. Private spirit is unknown but to him who possesses it: can it be the known 
 rule of faith that will gather men in one infallible faith and religion." — The private 
 or interior spirit never was advocated, or even allowed to exist in the bosom of the 
 Protestant churches. False prophets and fanatics have ever been ejected from the 
 fold of Christ. Your charge against us here, is either unintelligible, or, pardon me, it 
 is wilful slander ! The Romish church, as every well read man knows, has been 
 the steady patron o^ fanatics, and the interior spirit! Witness your Tanquelmus, and 
 the Amauri, and the Whip per s, in whose processions such royal fanatics as the king 
 of France, and the Cardinal Lorraine have more than once joined to patronize the 
 interior spirit. See Boileau's Hist, of the Flagel. chap. 23. And, finally, your own 
 preacher Taulerus exhibited his fanatical effusions at Cologne in A. D. 1346. These 
 sermons were published in various places; and originated almost every fanatical 
 sect in Holland, France, and Britain, after the Reformation! 
 
 " 12. The spirit is your key to open the mysteries of the scriptures, but what 
 sign have you to distinguish the true from the eriZ spirit ?" I have just answered 
 this charge of fanaticism. Those who have claimed immediate inspiration, and gave 
 their signs, and wrought their miracles, were the fanatics who sprung up in " Holy 
 Mother's" bosom, and poured their deluges of outrageous folly over the land. They 
 were uniformly ejected by all the Protestant churches. Your charge, brought against 
 Luther and Calvin, that they professed to work miracles, and raise the dead, is copi- 
 ed from the pages of the wretched Bolsec ; not one of whose statements even a Roman 
 priest ever believed. For you know that that man was such an atrocious apostate, 
 that he was excluded from even your communion ; and he died under " Holy Mo- 
 ther's" ban I 
 
16 ROMAN CATHOLIC COFCTROVERaT. 
 
 " 13. How can you prove a man to be a heretic, if he has the same rule of faith 
 with you, and the same right to apply it ?" To this I reply that it is no difficult mat- 
 ter to convict a man who is a htrttic. For instance, the word of God teaches us that 
 he is a heretic who makes a man, St. Peter, for instance, the foundation of the church, 
 instead of Christ! He is a heretic who makes a man the head of the church, 
 instead of Christ ! He is a heretic who bows down to stocks and stones, and 
 prays to dead men, and dead women ! He is a heretic who believes that purgatory, and 
 not Christ's blood, purges away our sins ! He is a heretic who makes a god, prays 
 to him, — and then eats him up ! All this the Bible tells us very plainly. He may 
 indeed say that he adheres to the Bible also, as his rule. But it is an easy matter to 
 make it manifest that his monstrous heresy is not countenanced by the Bible. And 
 then by witnesses, we can prove that the man does hold, and teach these revolting 
 errors. He may swagger and assume high airs, and call himself '•^ a. holy priest,'' 
 and " is no less than infallible," and "can open heaven, and s^wf it." Poor man ! this 
 only proves that he labors under a spiritual madness. The fact is, we can, in a 
 church court, con^Tict him of heresy, notwithstanding all his delusions and wildness, 
 just as easily as we can a murderer in a court of justice. I hope I have fairly answered 
 you. 
 
 " 14. Can any man learn by himself, from the scriptures, every essential point of 
 faith, without any fear of error?" I answer, yes; he can learn, without error, all 
 that Christ has revealed, for our salvation. But he can find there none of all the 
 essential doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. For the Bible never contained 
 them, and Christ never taught them ! Finally, I reply in the words of St. Paul, — 
 " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, &c., and 
 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good ivorks." 
 
 I shall not follow you, at present, through your quotations from the writings of the 
 Reformers. You know, and all the world knows, that these Protestants solemnly 
 condemned the errors of popery to which you cling ; and wrote unanimously against 
 them. With what degree of honor, or honesty, you profess to quote in favor of your 
 errors, men publicly known as their avowedly greatest enemies, I shall leave the pub- 
 lic to judge. " Give me permission," said an eminent partizan of the Romish church, 
 " to select scraps from the pages of the best writer in France, and I shall soon have 
 him hanged for high treason !" 
 
 Farewell, Dr. Varela : I reciprocate your kindness, and " leave you in good hands.'* 
 May God bless you, and save you by his grace. 
 
 Yours very truly, and respectfully. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 " Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram ! 
 Quale per incertam lunam, sub luce maligna, 
 Est iter in sylvis." — Virg. 
 
 Rev. Gentlemen : — The elegant Roscoe relates that a certain laconic senate in 
 Italy, condemned a man for employing- three words where two only should have been 
 used. And their sentence doomed him to one of two punishments : namely,-^to go 
 to the galleys for life, or to read through the verbose work of Guiciardini. The cul- 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 17 
 
 prit chose the latter. But having fairly choked on the first page ; — he begged his 
 punishment to be commuted to the galleys for life. 
 
 It is not difficult to conceive your certain fate, if brought to this bar. And your 
 punishment would lie between the choice of the galleys, and the reading and digesN 
 ing of your extraordinary letters ! 
 
 Verbosity is not your only besetting sin. There is something else in it, which a 
 man of delicate and refined taste, would, with McGavin, call "billingsgate;" or in 
 the words of Dr. Chalmers, " blackguardism." Yet, in charity it may be only a 
 wild burst of emotions from consciences stricken by the force of truth. I shall extract 
 one sentence as a specimen of your first two columns ; and leave it without remark. 
 *' In it," that is, my letter, — " there is the strut of the bully ! the gasconade of the 
 coward ! the subterfuge of the dissembler ! the trick of the partizan ! the pretensions 
 of the sciolist! the petulence of the sour Calvinist! the malignant zealotry of the 
 Puritan !" 
 
 You have volunteered a confession of " the inspiration, authenticity, and genuine-, 
 ness of the holy scriptures." You say, — " We deny not the inspiration of the scrip-, 
 tures ;" — " JVe hold the scriptures to be an infallible rule.'''' 
 
 I am sorry that there is room for saying that a palpable deception Ls practised in 
 these terms. The word " scriptures" has a very different meaning in the Roman 
 Catholic's vocabulary, from that of the Protestant's. All the world knows that in the 
 belief of the Protestant, the books of the Old Testament, and those of the New, in the 
 Hebrew and Greek, rendered accurately into our vernacular, — and nothing else than 
 these, constitute the holy scriptures. 
 
 But in your creed, gentlemen, j'ou add to the inspired books, the human -WTitings 
 and fictions, called the Apocrypha : and then all these must be used in the Latin false 
 version, called the Vulgate. This is not all; you add oraZ traditions, of unknown and 
 doubtful origin ; and, moreover the unanimous consent of the fathers ! All these con- 
 stitute your "scriptures:" and this is what you always intend when you speak of 
 the scriptures! And to consummate the difference between us. You denounce the 
 private christian's unalienable right to read the Bible, and to learn the meaning of 
 God's Spirit speaking plainly and clearly unto him. You deny, and even ridicule 
 the claims of the private rights of judgment. You treat with bitter sarcasm the 
 christian's liberties of conscience. You have usurped power over the conscience, and 
 deny that any man has a right from God, even to think for himself on religion, with- 
 out license from a priest ! Hence, you not only set up a new rule, and invent new 
 scriptures ; but you erect a novel tribunal to dictate to men's consciences the mean- 
 ing of the "scriptures!" This new tyrant is — 3'ou say, — "a visible society of men, 
 appointed by Christ, called the church of God, — meaning the Romish church ; or the 
 pope and his clergy ! And I beg every christian and patriot in the republic to 
 examine the claims which our priests set up in behalf of this foreign despot, — " to 
 this society of men," say you, " for the final ending of all controversies in religion, 
 all christians are bound to adhere and submit their judgment, and their opinions, on 
 points of religion; and this on pain of eternal damnation."' — Priests' Letter ii. 
 
 Is not til is the climax of pontifical arrogance ; the consummation of fanaticism : 
 the full overflowings of the deadly chalice of Popery, — whose master spirits were seen 
 in visions by John, " trafRcing in human souls !" 
 
 I have, in my last two letters, in the briefest manner possible, established the truth 
 of the authenticity, and inspiration of the holy scriptures : and, thence, showed vhat 
 
 3* 
 
18 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 this evidence is the perfect evidence of the infallibility of the Bible ; in which the 
 Holy Ghost, as the infallible judge, speaks to us. This also, decides the canonicity 
 of each of the books, of the holy canon of scripture. Every book established by the 
 evidence referred to, is a part of that canon ; and every book which is not sustained 
 by this evidence, is not to be received into the canon. We pointed out the radical 
 error of Romish writers, on this point. They make the authority and proof of the 
 inspiration of the scriptures, to depend on "the church," meaning the Romish 
 church ! This is one of their chief and most mischievous errors. It aims a deadly 
 blow at divine revelation. But the Bible does, in truth, no more depend on the 
 Roman church for the evidence of its divinity, and authority ; than does the sustain- 
 ing of the heavens and the earth depend on the pope's nod ! Their divinity and 
 inspiration are fully sustained by other, and complete portions of evidence besides 
 tradition ; namely internal and external^ from the display of miracles, from predictions, 
 &c. And we distinctly noticed, and again repeat it, — that, for the tradition, or histo- 
 rical evidence of the church, which hands the canon of scripture down, simply as 
 a depository, we are as much indebted to the Hebrews, and the Jews ; to the Greek 
 church ; to the pure and apostolical church of the Waldenses ; and to the libraries of 
 the curious, whether christians or heretics ; as well, and as much as to the church 
 of Rome. That this last sect should set up such arrogant pretensions, and claim the 
 whole honor of transmitting the Bible, and of giving it all its authority, must be set 
 down to sheer knavery, or a derangement in the moral faculty. 
 
 Now, from this evidence, I proved the word of God to be the only in fallible rule of 
 faith : for it, and it alone, comes from God : and the Holy Ghost speaking to us, is 
 the only judge of controversy, in religious matters. And I quoted select passages 
 which clearly and distinctly declare the mind of that only judge deciding the contro- 
 versy. And these who set themselves in opposition to these texts, and their authority 
 are guilty of the crime of setting up the pope as a rival to the Holy Ghost ! I rest my 
 appeal with the public. And remember, gentlemen, that the petulent denial that 
 you gave to these texts, for argument you have none, was not in proper keeping. You 
 have no right to pronounce sentence on one of my arguments : you are neither judge 
 nor jury. It belongs to the christian public, to pronounce, finally, on mine, and 
 your arguments. 
 
 And by this protestant lesson and logic, to which all priests are, by their habits, of 
 course, utter strangers, I trust you will duly profit, and fructify in future. 
 
 You have, with much zeal, endeavored from the outset, to retard my approach 
 to examine your rule : but now we have it fairly before us ; and though you renew the 
 stereotype challenge to stop at certain points, until you be satisfied, I assure you, gentle- 
 men, that I have three reasons for rejecting this demand : — 
 
 1. As a Protestant, I will not be dictated to, as to the mode of my argument. For, — 
 
 2. You have not got us into the Inquisition yet : and we Protestants do not view 
 with much love, this mode a la Spanish, of joining the sword to the pen. And, 
 
 3. The ivhole question of the rule, is before us, and why do you affect to say that 
 I shall discuss only one point, — and not touch your rule, or take in the whole field ? 
 
 Before entering on the dissection of the popish rule and judge, it will be interesting 
 to trace the origin of this extravagant dogma, and the real motive which first led the 
 partizans of Rome to adopt it. 
 
 Dr. Middleton, in his curious " Letter from Rome, ^"^ has fully and satisfactorily traced 
 into the ancient Roman paganism, almost every characteristic rite and ceremony, 
 
11DMA5 CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt. 19 
 
 wliich the Roman Catholics have introduced into their corrupted system of Christianity. 
 The parallel is truly striking, and shall be noticed in due time. But the originating 
 cause of her adopting this dogma about the rule of faith, is found solely within the 
 bosom of her own ambition. The famous Chillingworth has traced it with a master's 
 hand in the following extract, which will be perused by my readers, with deep 
 interest : — 
 
 " He that would usurp an absolute lordship and tyranny over any people, need not 
 put himself to the trouble and difficulty of abrogating, and disannulling the laws 
 made to maintain the common liberty : for he may frustrate their intention and com- 
 pass his own design as well, if he can get the power and authorithy to interpret 
 them as he pleases, and add to them what he pleases, and to have his interpretations 
 and additions stand for laws ; if he can rule his people by his laws, and his laws by 
 his lawyers. So the church of Rome, to establish her tyranny over men's consciences, 
 needed not either to abolish or corrupt the holy scriptures, the pillars and supporters 
 of christian liberty, (which in regard of the numerous multitude of copies dispersed 
 through all places, translated into almost all language, guarded with all solicitous care 
 and industry', had been an impossible attempt :) but the more expedite way, and 
 therefore the more likely to be successful, was to gain the opinion and esteem of the 
 public authorised interpreter of them, and the authority of adding to them what doc- 
 trine she pleased, under the title of traditions, or definitions. For by this means, she 
 might both serve herself of all those clauses of scripture which might be drawn to cast 
 a favorable countenance upon her ambitious pretences, which in case the scriptures 
 had been abolished, she could not have done, and yet be secure enough of having either 
 her power limited, or her corruptions and abuses reformed by them. This being once 
 settled in the minds of men, that unwritten doctrines if proposed by her, were to be 
 received with equal reverence to those that were written ; and that the sense of scrip- 
 ture was not that which seemed to men's reason and understanding to be so, but that 
 which the church of Rome should declare to be so, seemed it never so unreasonable 
 and incongruous. The matter being once thus ordered, and the holy scriptures 
 being made in effect, not your directors and judges, (no farther than you please ;) but 
 your servants and instruments, always pressed, and in readiness to advance your de- 
 signs it is safe for you to put a crown on their head, and a reed in their hands, and 
 
 to bow before them and cry : Hail King of the Jews ! To pretend a great deal of 
 esteem, and respect, and reverence to them." 
 
 I. The Roman Catholic Church cannot pretend, with any show of reason, to pos- 
 sess this " infallible rule," when her greatest men cannot agree among themselves, 
 in deciding where this rule exists. Every one knows the endless diversity of senti- 
 ment among the Romish writers, touching the point where this infallible power lies. 
 I have formerly noticed four distinct sects among them. I have now to add, that one 
 class led on by Pighius, Albert, Gretser, and Bellarmine, and followed by all the 
 Jesuits, place the exercise of infallible power in the pope, and make him the deposi- 
 tory of interpretation. Bellarmine De Pontif. Lib. iv. cap. 3, and cap. 5, says 
 ♦' the pope cannot possibly err." The canon law in the gloss, calls the pope, ** the 
 Lord God." The Bishop of Bitonto, Mussus, has styled him : " Him who is to us as 
 our god upon earth." The bishop of Grenada called him, " a god on earth not subject 
 to a council." And so late as July, 1809, Pope Pius VH., in excommunicating "his 
 own dear son" Napoleon, whom he had crowned and blessed, says : " We, unworthy 
 as we are, represent the God of peace !" 
 
20 ROMAJf CATHOLIC COXTROVERST. 
 
 Another class make the pope an unlimited monarch in spiritual and civil matters. 
 This was the sentmient of the councils of Florence, of the Lateran, and of Trent. 
 Another class violently oppose this tyranny, and stand up in behalf of the rights of 
 councils; and they assign the pope only the right of presidency. Du Pin, Paola 
 and others advocate this ; and they are sustained by the decisions of the councils of 
 Pisa, Constance, and Basil, x^nd Pope Eugenius IV. did solemnly for awhile, ac- 
 knowledge this. These opinions respect the pope's supremacy, and his infallibility. 
 
 The decretals of Pope Pius I., declare for the rights of bishops against the lordly 
 claims of their superiors. " Bishops are accountable only to God." Bellarmine 
 opposes this with fierce zeal, and places the pope above all councils, and all tribunals 
 on earth, and all law! To crown the climax, he writes thus: DtPontif. Lib. iv.cap.5. 
 *^ If the pope could so far err, as to command vice and prohibit virtue, the Church would 
 be bound to believe vice to be good, and virtue to be badP'' I can give many more quo- 
 tations, were it necessary, out of the canon law, and decretals of Pope Gregory VIII. 
 This was the usual style of the ghostly powers in the dark ages. But, now they have 
 gradually receded from this folly and impiety, down through the other shades of dif- 
 ference, to a " mere presidency of the pope." And Dr. Pise, I heard assert on the 
 floor of the Protestant Association, that they owned the pope merely as their " spiritual 
 head,^^ and rejected him, or rather, never owned him as a temporal prince ! It is true, 
 no man who has read the canon law and decretals, can for a moment, believe this 
 statement of Dr. Pise. For the pope "infallibly" claims this power and still wears 
 the triple crown. Bellarm. Lib. v. cap. 6. 
 
 Other Romish writers have placed councils above the pope : and there have been 
 councils that have actually exercised this power. The council of Sinuessane if we 
 may believe ancient records, and 3'Our Remish annotators, Luke xxii. 21, arraigned, 
 tried, and condemned Pope Marcelline for pagan idolatry! The council of Con- 
 stance condemned Pope John XXIII. , and that of Basil condemned Pope Eugenius 
 IV. 
 
 The assembly of Cardinals and Prelates of France in 1625, declared that "his 
 Holiness the pope is above all calumny, and his faith out of the reach of error I" 
 This was the dogma of the Jesuits. " The church " say many writers, and my 
 opponents among the rest, "the church is the infallible rule and judge." No; 
 says another class ; "the pope alone is judge ;" "The pope is above the Catholic 
 church." "No council can touch him," says Pighius. "He is above councils," 
 says Bellarmine, yet he adds like a holy son of infallibility, "he may be deposed, 
 only for heresy." Lib. ii. De pont. Cap. 30. Yes! say several "infallible councils," 
 "we are above the pope, and can try him, and can depose him, and we have done 
 it!" And thus, they suit the action to the word, like honest men! 
 
 Thus, it is manifest that the leading men of the Roman church are all agreed that 
 they have within '■'■the church,'' an infallible rule and judge. But they are at 
 endless war among themselves respecting the place where it is deposited. AVe have 
 it ; that is certain ; but we cannot tell where it is I Hence Dean Swift observed that 
 "really Holy Mother might as well be without an infallible head; as not to know 
 where to find him, in time of necessity !" 
 
 But, nevertheless, they agree in a marvellous manner on this point ; namely, — to 
 reject unanimously the infallible rule of God our Saviour; and himself, as the infal- 
 lible Judge. " They are not content wdth Christ the judge in heaven ; and the holy 
 scriptures the rule and judge on earth," — says an eminent writer, — "but they must 
 
ROMAff CATHOLIC COffTROVERST. 21 
 
 have another judge ; a visible judge. Like the Israelites, they must have a visible 
 god to go before them, — though it were but a calf."' 
 
 Let the Roman CathoHcs go then, and try their infalhble rule in the composing 
 of their own internal wars and controversies. Let them do this, before they stalk 
 forth as my learned opponents say, in reference to their present warfare, — " arming 
 themselves with a panoply tempered by no terrestrial artist ;" to attack the genius of 
 Protestantism in his strong holds. It will be well for them, if, like the hero Don 
 Quixotte, they meet only a windmill, in a similar illusion of the brain ! 
 
 II. What the Roman Catholic church claims as the only infallible rule, is a thing 
 absolutely beyond the reach of the pope, or any council. It is positively impractica- 
 ble of application by mere mortals! 
 
 Were it not for the impiety of the thing, it were a piece of pleasant humor to hear 
 a Roman priest descanting about the obscurity of the Bible; and melting into pathos 
 about the impossibility of God's own rational creatures understanding a plain and 
 luminous message of the gospel from their Creator! Now, in opposition to all his 
 declamation, it is evident that the priest never feared, nor even believed the obscurity 
 of the Bible. It is because it is " so small a booJc,^^ and of such easy access ; and because 
 it is so plain and clear, that he does fear it ; and labour to keep it out of the hands of 
 the laity. If it were obscure, it would do " Holy Mother" no harm! 
 
 But, let anyone look at the "infallible rule" of the Catholic Church! 1st. it 
 includes the scriptures, with the apocrypha, with all its fictions and indecencies. Now, 
 I tell you, gentlemen, the pope, and your church can no more wield the sword of the 
 spirit, and fix infallible interpretations; and subdtie the human soul; and produce 
 faith ; and create a new heart in man ; and convey divine grace, — all which our infal- 
 lible word, and judge do, — than they can create a new Ireland ; or even cleanse the 
 Augean stable of his Holiness's court at Rome ! 
 
 This is not all. — In your rule, and as an essential part of it, yon reckon all the acts, 
 and decisions of "Holy Mother Church." — These are deposited, in, at least, 8 folio 
 volumes of the Popish Bulls: in 10 folio volumes of Decretals: in 31 folio volumes 
 of Acts of Councils; in 51 folio volumes of the Doings and Sayings of the Saint's, — 
 " Acta Sanctorum." And add to all this, at least 35 volumes of the Greek and Latin 
 fathers; in which are to be found that part of your rule called the unanimous consent 
 of the fathers. And to all this chaos of unread, unexamined, unimagined materials, 
 you add the almost boundless list of M/«yri7fen traditions, which, like the learned Ger- 
 man's book, contain " observations and dogmas on all things, — and somethings 
 besides :" — traditions which have floated down on the wind, and the miasmatic air of 
 Rome for nearly 1260 years! 
 
 All these cumbrous and enormous additions made to tlie holy scriptures, constitute 
 the Roman Catholic rule : the pope is judge. This judge must know the holy Bible 
 infallibly and wholly: he must be minutely, perfectly, and infallibly ac(]nainted with 
 all the above named 135 folio volumes : he must know infallibly all their unknowable 
 contents: reconcile all their irreconcilable contradictions: know minutely, and infal- 
 libly, all the cases, and wants of all his dear flock, namely, the cardinals, prelates, 
 priests, and lay subjects; he must know the hearts of all; and be able to send light 
 into the human mind, and uprightness into the human conscience: he must know the 
 merits, perfectly, of each contending partizan, and order of friars; and set forth, in 
 a plain, clear, and luminous page, every truth to settle disputes ; so that if the combat- 
 ants do not see it, his infallible rule may yet convince and convert all the predestinated 
 
22 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 children of heaven ! And, finally, as the first step towards his evidence of doing all 
 the rest, he must write down as clearly, as by a sun beam, the place where the long 
 sought for, the terra incognita ; the undiscovered, and undiscoverable land of infalli- 
 bility and supremacy, can be found ! That is, your infallible judge must begin by 
 conquering an absolute impossibility ; and this being achieved, lie must show proof 
 further, by triumphantly proceeding- to conquer ten thousand impossibilities ; annually, 
 and hourly, and each passing moment, day and night! 
 
 This being manifestly the true state of the case, one is almost tempted to think the 
 claims of the Romish church to 07ie infallible head or judge only, to be quite moderate 
 and modest! I am persuaded that, in order to know infallibly the Hebrew text, and 
 the Greek text ; and all the different sentiments and doctrines contained in these 135 
 folio volumes ; and to digest and arrange all the oral traditions ; and bring the unani- 
 mous consent out of the fathers, where no consent ever existed, — not even ten millions 
 of popes, such as the luxurious and effeminate things, which have reigned in Rome 
 under the name of popes, could do the ten millionth part required of this rule ! ! ! 
 
 Nay, I must put the case stronger still ; none but Almighty God has the attribute of 
 infallibility: none but God can reveal to the church his own word: none can be the 
 lord of the conscience, but our Creator: and he is supreme Lord thereof. And there 
 can be no more any inferior, or subordinate lord of the conscience, as my opponents 
 aflfirm, than there can be a rival to the Almighty on the throne of our hearts, and on his 
 throne in heaven! None can be judge and rule of faith, but he alone who can create 
 a new heart in us; and make us true christians, even the Great God, who, indeed, 
 uses men as pastors, and to be our spiritual teachers and advisers ; but who alone knows 
 all the secrets of the souls of all men : and who alone convinces and converts. He 
 alone can be the judge ; and his word alone can be our rule. And those who set up 
 these counter claims, we repeat it, must either be Jesuitical knaves, using false and 
 wicked pretences to gain an ascendency over the souls, bodies, and goods of men ; or 
 else, they are deranged in the moral faculty / This claim set up by the pope, and the 
 priests, reminds me of a saying of a maniac in the Philadelphia Asylum, *' People think 
 me idle here, in my cloister, or dungeon cell, in this easy old bachelor life, which I am 
 leading ! But, alas ! for the ignorance of mankind ! Be it known, that I keep in motion 
 the balance wheel of heaven : but for me, all nature would stand still !" 
 
 The pope's claims are fully as extensive and extravagant. He absolutely affects to 
 do, in the spiritual world, in the church, in purgatory, and in heaven, what the ma- 
 niac believed he did in the natural world ! The pope keeps the balance wheel of 
 heaven in motion ; but for him, all illuminations, and all efficacies of grace, and all 
 conversions, and all deliverances from sin, and all emancipation from purgatory ; and 
 entrances into heaven, will cease and stand still ! ! And thus " as God, he sitteth in 
 the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."' 
 
 This is the commencement of our argument against your rule. I shall here pause, 
 in order that I may pay my respects to you, in a review of the leading errors and mis- 
 statements in your last letter. 
 
 1. You charge me wiih a want of unity in my last letter. I assure you there is 
 strict logical unity in it. I laid down my rule of faith ; defended it ; and closed by 
 showing that every objection you brought against our rule, operated ten times more 
 severely against your rule. This was the reason why I noticed the errors, heresies, 
 and division in your church. 
 
 But 2, There is an error in your statement, which I shall bring before the public ; 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 23 
 
 for I frankly tell you that I have no hope that you will correct it. It is a mis-statement 
 copied, as usual from Milner's End of Religious Controversy. It is the standing error, 
 the stereotype misrepresentation of the Roman Cotholic writers ; and is repeated by 
 every little scribe which undertakes the defence of " Holy Mother." It is this : You 
 never give our own definitions, nor a fair description of the Protestant rule. 
 
 We have repeatedly stated that our only infallible rule is the scriptures : and the 
 only infallible judge is the Holy Spirit, speaking to us in them. — And these words of 
 God are interpreted by his own words in other passages ; that is, — the Spirit speaking 
 in the word, interprets it to his church. And hence, it is a proverb in the lips of all 
 Protestants, that the Bible, or the Spirit speaking in the Bible, is its own best inter- 
 preter. All Protestants have solemnly denied that their rule is the Bible as explained 
 by private interpretation ; or as understood by every private individual! And yet with 
 these denials before his eyes, Milner asserts this ftilsehood over and over again, in his 
 End of Religious Controversy. You gentlemen, have repeated and propagated this 
 same slander. You invariably tell your followers what every one knows to be false, 
 that the Protestant's Rule is their Bible as interpreted by private judgment, or "the 
 interior Spirit." Indeed, your whole argument throughout is based on this unmanly 
 misrepresentation ! 
 
 Your error has arisen from mistaking our declarations, touching private judgment. 
 We affirm that in the "ever blessed Reformation," we achieved "the right of pri- 
 vate judgment," to think for ourselves and choose our religion. Not even an infant 
 scholar is so ignorant as to think of hiring a priest to keep his conscience, and settle his 
 spiritual accounts with his Maker, for money ! 
 
 But we carefully teach our people, that while they have this rig-ht of private judg- 
 ment, in regard to man ; they are bound by God's word to believe all that He says, 
 and do all that He commands : that they have no right before God to take the Bible in 
 any sense different from the mind of the Spirit of God speaking in it. That is, not by 
 by private interpretation ; but by the Bible's own explanation of itself are they to be 
 guided. 
 
 I beg the particular attention of my readers to this point. It is this solution which 
 neutralizes all the Roman Catholic priests' objections. And this explanation, we 
 cannot prevail on their candor, to observe. It is a pitiful cause, which requires its 
 defendants to lay down a false statement, as the opinion of his opponent, that he 
 may, in the estimation of the ignorant, reap laurels by fighting against a man of straw, 
 or, to use my opponent's elegant allusion, "couching a lance against a windmill!'* 
 
 As for John Wesley, it is not in my way, nor yours either, to drag in the name 
 
 of that venerable man into our controversy. Your arguments, however, take in a 
 
 wide range. You start an idea, and there is no saying where you end ; as Cow- 
 
 per says, you — 
 
 " Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark; 
 
 Through Gaul, through Greece, and into Noah's ark." 
 
 Gentlemen : you ought, in honor, to quote the avowed creeds and confessions of the 
 
 church. No society is accountable for the private opinions of its members, while they 
 
 are innocent speculations. Your quotation from Wesley is perverted by you to a wrong 
 
 sense. You can extract no Romanism out of it. He simply declares the way he took 
 
 by prayer and study, to discover the meaning of the Bible. Go you and do likewise : 
 
 and be entreated to tread lightly on the ashes of John Wesley, and similar worthies, for, — 
 
 " If christian worth in heaven rise, 
 
 Ye'U mend ere ye come near him !" 
 
84 ROMAN CATHOLIC C0NTR0VER6T. 
 
 4. You also quote from the judicious Hooker, and Dr. Field's "Book of the church.'' 
 Now you know well, gentlemen, that no two men wrote with more vigor and effect 
 against popery than these. And it is disgraceful in a literary man, to torture an idea 
 out of an author, contrary to the whole spirit and tenor of his work. The quotation 
 you give from Hooker, Eccles. Polity, p. 119, is nothing to your purpose; he simply 
 rebukes ignorant and obstinate errorists "whose capacity will scarce serve them to ut- 
 ter /ve words in a sensible manner," — and who, without any authority, set themselves 
 up as teachers, and propagate " gross and palpable errors." And the sentence you 
 give from Field, simply declares that " the holy Bible is, in each passage, to be 
 explained according to the analogy of faith," and " the general practice of the church," 
 in her purest times. 
 
 You quote Dr. Field as favoring your heresy ; of course you will be pleased with the 
 following, out of the same book you quote : " The pope is above general councils ; and 
 he is not above them; the pope may err judicially ; the pope cannot err judicially; the 
 pope is temporal lord of all the world ; the pope is not temporal lord of all the, &c. The 
 virgin Mary was conceived in sin; she was not conceived in sin. If there be no con- 
 tradiction here, then all Roman priests declare the same doctrine !" 
 
 You also quoted Bullinger, folio 71, 72, cap. 1-5, and the author of " Scripture and 
 the church," with Hooker, sec. xiv. p. 86. These teach us, you justly say, that "the 
 church of God is endued with the spirit;" and that "we could not believe the gospel 
 were it not that the church taught us, and witnessed that this doctrine was delivered by 
 the apostles." Luther, on John xvii. also says that " if he had not received the word of 
 God from the Catholic church, he should have known nothing about it." 
 
 These exhibit the sentiments of all the Reformed churches respecting one branch of 
 the evidence of divine truth ; that is tradition and testimony of the church ; the holy 
 Catholic church. But you have, as usual, fallen into a very natural and selfish error. 
 These writers say the church of God — the Catholic church did this : they did not once 
 say the Roman Catholic church. And it was sheer bigotry that dragged you into 
 the error. It is time, in all conscience, that you learned to know the immeasurable 
 difference between these two societies, — The Holy Catholic Church of God, and the 
 Roman Catholic church of the pope ! 
 
 5. I noticed not your former remark on the character of Luther ; and I was un- 
 willing to be drawn aside from the main argument : besides, this is personal abuse, 
 not argument. But were even Luther and Calvin, and other reformers, the mon- 
 sters you wisti to represent them, this affects not the question in discussion. We 
 never made these men our living, speaking rule ! I quoted your profane popes and 
 heretical councils, quite in point; and also the errors and divisions of " Holy Mother 
 church," for the best reasons in the world. These you make your living, speak- 
 ing, and infallible rule ! Surely, if I demonstrate the errors and heresies of your 
 infallible judges, I annihilate your rule. But as our rule is the scriptures, and our 
 judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost speaking in them, not as understood by "pri- 
 vate interpretation," but as interpreted by God, speaking in them to us, surely all 
 your invectives against the Reformers are utterly irrelevant matter. But since you 
 stoop so low as to reiterate these personalities, I shall vindicate these Reformers here. 
 Gentlemen, you furnish us another proof, that a Roman priest cannot breathe, nor 
 eat, nor drink, nor exist, without slandering good old Luther, and the other worthie* 
 of the Reformation! It has been their very aliment to slander them. This gloriom 
 and splendid achievement of the Reformers, owned and blessed of Almighty God, in 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 25 
 
 giving civil and religious liberty, as well as pure Christianity, to every nation of Eu- 
 rope, who would embrace it, has ever been painful and mortifying to your sect. 
 Their name seems to inflict pain on a priest's and on a monk's heart, as acutely as when 
 the steel touches the bare nerve ! Do you remember the saying of your own Eras- 
 mus? What made the Romish priests so malignant against Luther, was this: "he 
 
 touched the pope's crown and the priest's belly!" 
 
 You asserted that Luther rejected the epistle of James, and that to the Hebrews. 
 This I solemnly deny ; and every theologian knows that your assertion is false ! If 
 you really knew no better, it was inexcusable in you to write on the subject : if yon 
 did know what I have now asserted, it displays a criminal, but powerless attempt to 
 injure the hero of the reformation, whose fame is increasing every year ! The truth 
 is this : when Luther was yet half a monk, and had his eyes only half opened to the 
 light of protestant truth, " he spoke lightly" of James's Epistle. But afterwards, 
 when he became a thorough divine, he advocated that epistle, as well as all the rest. 
 See Home's Introd. vol. iv. p. 412, note. And they were accordingly inserted by 
 him in the canon. 
 
 Some time ago, a slander was thrown out by a Romish priest, in the Protestant 
 Association. But it met with a detection, and caused no enviable feelings to the 
 slanderer. He asserted that he had a quotation from Luther's own works, in which 
 that Reformer is made to confess, that " he had been an impure, wicked, and licen- 
 tious man." But, as usual, in Roman Catholic quotations by priests, the quoter 
 stopped short in the middle of Luther's sentiment. And how was the slanderer con- 
 founded when he was helped, by a skilful accoucheur, a friend of mine, to dehver him- 
 self of the rest of the sentence! — namely: "All this I was," says Luther, "while I 
 was a Roman Catholic and a monk ; but now I am, by the grace of God, what I am!" 
 
 I would call the attention of the Lutheran church to a valuable work which some of 
 their learned men should give to the public in English,— I mean Dr. Melchior Nicho- 
 las's Vindication of Martin Luther, published by professor Wolfflin, of the college of 
 Tubingen, A. D. 1663. He records the seven chapters of slander against Luther, by 
 the Jesuit Forerus; and gives a triumphant refutation of each one of them. Every 
 thing which my opponents copy out of Mamford, relative to Luther, I find extracted 
 from Forerus — stripped of his decency, and modernized by vulgarity. 
 
 In a particular manner is the slander refuted, that Luther admitted himself to have 
 been a pupil of the devil, in his sentiments touching the mass ! The amount of the 
 affair is this : Luther was, on a time, tempted to despair of divine mercy ; the thoughts 
 that rushed in upon his distracted mind, he conceived to be the immediate su<ygestions 
 of the devil. And the devil tempted him to this despair by this thoui^ht : " How can 
 there be hope for you, a wretch, who celebrated the aboniimible mass for no less than 
 ffteen years /" This is all that Satan is supposed, by the priests, to have taught 
 Luther. But it was, in fact, his own illumined conscience, lashed into horror, at 
 the retrospect of the horrid iniquity of celebrating the infamous mass, and sustaining 
 popery so long ! 
 
 The immortal Calvin is another of the Reformers honored by the outpouring of 
 your vials of slander on him. And you have revived the malignant fictions of the 
 notorious Bolsec relative to the character and actions of John Calvin. It is true, 
 no one of you believes these books of monkish fables. There has not lived the priest, 
 yet, who has believed his own writings on this matter J Every one of you has the 
 means of knowing them to be sheer fictions, I should be guilty of insulting the 
 
 4 
 
26 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 understandings, and the consciences of my three opponents, did I even insinuate tha4 
 they did, themselves, beheve them! But it is unmanly, and highly criminal in men 
 of letters aud taste, to feed the vile appetite of slantier, among a degraded and igno- 
 rant community, " the simple faithful," who cannot read, and who think, and believt, 
 
 by sacerdotal proxy. 
 
 " I'd sooner be a dog, and bay the moon 
 Than such a Roman f" 
 
 And, gentlemen, the notorious Bolsec was the very last man that the sons of "Holy 
 Mother" should quote. He was, as you well know, an apostate Carmelite monk, who 
 died under the ban of your church : and so proffhgate that he gave his wife to be a 
 prostitute to the holy canons of Autun, to regain the Catholics' favor. He was a mis- 
 creant hired to slander Calvin and Beza. And, you are fully aware that this was 
 his infamous character. See Lemprier, article Bolsec. None but such men as Bolsec 
 can breathe slander over the memory of such an accomplished scholar, and trans- 
 cendant divine ! 
 
 No one of the Reformers has escaped the poisoned breath of your revenge. Your 
 church has her ^'Records of judgments on heretics.''^ This is the register of our 
 canonized worthies. Priest Hamilton stands first in the fetes of slander : Laing writes 
 what he calls ''the miserable, horrible, detestable, and execrable deaths'' of Luther, Cal- 
 vin, and other heretics! The Scottish catholics gravely assure us that Jo^n Knox's 
 head, before he expired, was converted miraculously into a dog's head, with its face 
 turned backwards! Hamilton does not make the miracle quite so striking. "The 
 opening of John Knox's mouth, while dying," says he, very giavely, "was drawn 
 out to such a length of deformity, that his face resembled that of a dog, as his voice did 
 the barking of that animal !" Laing says : " He had communings with the devil, who 
 at last carried him off bodily !" " Not exactly so," said priest Hamilton, — " when his 
 friends came into his chamber, they found his dead body lying prostrate on the 
 floor !" 
 
 \Vlien priests have the audacity to fabricate such a fate for John Knox, who died 
 in the presence of his family and friends, and closed a brilliant career, by a most 
 triumphant death — what will you not fabricate of those who die in your hands, and 
 beneath your power I 
 
 Lastly : — You resuscitate the brutal invectives against the Waldenses, the faithful 
 descendants of the primitive and apostolical church, in the vallies of Piedmont, and 
 Bohemia. "These," say you, "were the enemies of order, and of the human race. 
 These " primitive christians," believed that there were two gods, one good, the other 
 bad. They despised the Old Testament as the book of the devil. They held marriage 
 to be unlawful without considering chastity a virtue ! Such M'cre the execrable tenets 
 of the Albigenses which they propagated, hke Mahomet, by plunder, rapine, fire and 
 sword." 
 
 Ah! gentlemen, "Old Mother Church " has lost none of her ancient virulence ; 
 although "by age, she is becoming feeble and toothless : and as Livy has finely said — 
 " Vana sine viribus ira est." The world is not to be for ever covered with darkness ; 
 and a perpetual prey to impostors. Late extensive and learned researches, have 
 thrown a clear hght over the aspersed characters of those holy martyrs of Jesus Christ. 
 The ignorant and obscure writers you quote, together with IMosheim, and a few other 
 Protestants who permitted themselves to be imposed on by Roman inquisitors, are no 
 more to be relied on for the character of the Waldenses, than would the records of the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 27 
 
 Jews, who murdered our Lord, be relied on for His character. What candid man 
 would believe the murderous i^iuisitors' character of our dear brethren, the martyrs ! 
 Who would believe the Roman slanders of our dear brethren, the primitive christians ! 
 
 But it so happens that we have the most ample testimony to refute the slander 
 perpetrated at Rome against the Waldenses, and unblushingly perpetuated by every 
 Romish priest, even in this enlightened age ! 
 
 These primitive christians believed in the one living and true God, and the Trinity : 
 they were not Manicheans : they held not the doctrine of an evil god, ecjual to a good 
 one : they received all the books of the Old and New Testament ; and rejected the 
 Apocrypha; they held marriage to be lawful in minister and layman; they were 
 firm believers in all the doctrines of the gospel, as exhibited in our creeds and canons; 
 they were a chaste and devout christian people. 
 
 I refer you to Jones' Church History, re-published in New York, in 1824. In vol. 
 ii. p. 41, &c., you will find a copy of two of the ancient Waldensian Couftssions of 
 Faith, and a full exhibition of their character and history. I beg to refer you also to 
 Gilly's " WaUhnsicm Researches, with an introductory inquiry into the antiquity and 
 purity of the Waldensian church," published in London, 1831. 
 
 Dr. AUix who has investigated this subject deeply and accurately, says, — " I defy 
 the impudence of the devil himself to find in the writings of the Waldenses the least 
 shadow of Manicheism !" And every scholar now admits that the erroneous state- 
 ments of Mosheim and Limborch have originated in their implicitly following the 
 Romish inquisitors on this subject. As for Robinson, he Avreaks his vengeance on 
 them because he found them too orthodox to be Socinians ! See Allix's Remarks on 
 the Churches of Piedmont, p. 188, 191, and Jones' Ch. Hist. vol. ii. ch. 5. 
 
 And if you prefer the testimony of Roman Catholics, I refer you to Florimond de 
 Remund's Hist, de la Heresie, liv. vii. chap. 7. He calls them the " first Luthe- 
 rans" as in all important points, they agree with the Reformers. " They have nothing 
 in their mouths but Christ, the Saviour," says he, " and they know nothing else than 
 Jesus Christ. It is the ignorance, gross, and almost essential to the Vandois heretics 
 revived in this age &c." " Having the Bible translated, these poor people read it 
 continually, in such a manner that they know all the books of it by heart." 
 
 Hear a\so Thuanus, Historia; lib. xxvii. cap. 9. temp. Carrol. IX. "Nee quenquam 
 &c. Nor can one usually find even a boy among them who being interrogated rela- 
 tive to the faith he professes, cannot promptly and from memory, give a reason, &c." 
 And he quotes Wicliflf, Huss, and Jerome, as being precisely of their opinions. See 
 the London Prot. Journal, for 18.31, p. 718. 
 
 But what is more, we have the testimony of two inquisitors. The one was Reinerius, 
 who published a catalogue of the Waldensian errors. Dr. AUix has given us the Latin 
 copy of this, p. 188, &.c. The other intiuisitor's testimony you will find in Hist. 
 Scrip. Bohem. p. 222; and in AUix, p. 211. Sesselius, your archibishop of Turin, 
 lived in the very heart of Piedmont, and was a violent persecutor of these christians. 
 He wrote a narrative of their opinions sometime before the Reformation. 
 
 All these show the existence, in an ancient flourishing church, of the very sentiments 
 and doctrines of Luther, and of Calvin. In reading Sesselius' extract from the Wal- 
 densian confessions, you would imagine him quoting from the pages of Calvin! But 
 Calvin's name was not then even heard of. And yet the Roman Catholics ask us, 
 " where was your religioK^befort Luther ?" See Jones ii. p. 35 — 41. But what crowns 
 the whole, we have the testimony of one of your ' iafallibles ;' I mean iEueas SilviuB 
 
28 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 afterwards pope Piu3 ii. It is found in his Historia Bohemia, p. 141. And if this is 
 not in your reach, you will find copious extracts in Jones' Church Hist. ii. p. 19 — 41. 
 From the statements of their bitterest foes, therefore, as well as their friends, it is a matter 
 of historical record, that the agreement between these primitive apostolical christians, 
 and the Reformers, on the various doctrines of the gospel, was strictly uniform and 
 exact ! 
 
 I shall for the present, leave this, and when we come to the sanguinary marks of 
 the Roman Catholic church, under the article Persecution, we shall rehearse a tale of 
 woe, not equalled in history, perhaps ; nor surpassed in fiction ! I allude to the horrid 
 massacre, and extermination of the Waldenses, by Pope Innocent VIII. and his fero- 
 cious priesthood ! 
 
 The Jews of old bewailed the deeds of their ancestors, and said, "Had we lived in 
 the days of our fathers, we would not have slain the prophets." And they garnished 
 the sepulchres of the martj-^red holy ones i But, alas ! in this enlightened age, the less 
 humane priests of Rome do not only refuse to garnish the tombs of the martyred 
 Waldenses and Albigenses; but they breathe the poisoned breath of cruel slander 
 over their sacred ashes ! In the vindictive attributes they have been always immu- 
 table. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER III. 
 
 ' There is another class of distinctionists, the class of operative religionists. Many of its 
 members, leagued to a more than common share of the cuise entailed on the children of 
 Adam, toiling in the ' sweat of their brow,' and pack horses to the interior spirit, have 
 orudged through the 'Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost.' " 
 
 " Our ambition is limited to ene — to Doctor Brownlee, a Preacher in the Middle Dutch 
 Church. His name in itself a host, is more than ample matter to impart the lustre of embel- 
 lishment to our remarks. His letters, and, oh, ye members of the Middle Dutch Church, 
 his powers of ratiocination ! Theological in his matter, logical in his proof, invincible in his 
 arguments, rigid in his references, definite in his terms, classical in his phrases, solid in his 
 scripture texts, happy in his quotations, — did the old Stagirite return to earth he would shun 
 an encounter I — Gentle in his words, courteous in his allusions, /asfw/iows in his compliments." 
 
 "Your first letters are merely illustrative of your powers o£ ' squinting ;^ — the last is 
 direct, unerring vision;— the completion of cool, logical, and theological argument. To aid 
 our readers, and specially the members of the Middle Dutch Church, in the apphcation of 
 this direct and unerring vision, the demands expressed in our former letters, are a third 
 time rf p ated. You, Rev. Sir, have not yet answered them. Excuse the iteration. Pardon 
 our adl er jnce to singleness of object. " Tell us how you know the Bible to be the word of 
 God? How do you know which books were written by Divine inspiration? Does the 
 Bible contain the whole word of God, or does it not?" 
 
 "Were it not reducing you to the innocent simplicity of infancy, we should consign you 
 to the nursery to be rocked to the old lullaby, " see saw, Magery Duav." Is it thus a 
 man acquainted widi the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost' establishes his rule of 
 faith ! Is this the outpouring of the Holy Spirit's favorite !" 
 
 "Your reasons, Rev. Sir, for this inquisitorial decree? Is it because the interior spirit 
 does not speak through your letters? Are the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Gho»t,' 
 less gifted with infallibility than your writings ?" 
 
 " Here there is a promise urbanely expressed to the ear, but, oh how broken to the hope ! 
 The Bible is not yet proved to be the word of God, and yet, in the same letter from whicfe 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. fBBh 
 
 the preceding passage is taken, you invoke the interior spirit to the interpretation of five 
 scripture texts to prove the infallibility of the Bible. This is a ludicrous specimen of the 
 nursery see saw logic," &c. 
 
 " The interior spirit, is tasked to prove the infallibility of the Bible, and the Bible is used 
 to prove the right of the interior spirit. You insist on the Bible being the only rule of faith ; 
 that each individual, no matter how gross or uncultivated in mind, possesses the right to 
 adopt that sense of scripture which appears to him the best according with truth; that God 
 has promised the illumination necessary to discover this accordance with truth, and, yet, 
 all this you pretend to prove from scripture texts, ere the scripture is proved to be the word 
 of God!" 
 
 " As the import of this modest and inspired extract, though not in the ' Hebrew and Greek 
 of the Holy Ghost,' may be interesting to the members of the Middle Dutch Church, we 
 present it to them in English. 'This is my will, this is my command. Let my will be 
 reason,' So Luther commands, and he proclaims himself a doctor pre-eminent above all 
 the doctors of the entire papacy. Therefore the w ord alone shall remain in my New 
 Testament ***** though all the popish asses should run rabid, they shall not 
 remove it." 
 
 " Bishop Hare says, ' The orthodox faith does not depend upon the scriptures, considered 
 absolutely in themselves, but as explained by Catholic tradition.'" 
 
 Note. — This episcopal prelate does not say Romax Catholic tradition. 
 
 "The famous Dudith in his epistle to Beza, says, 'If that be the truth, which the ancient 
 Fathers have, with one accord professed, it must be owned, that this truth, will be wholly 
 on the papists side.' — See Brerely's Protestant Apology. Now, Rev. Sir, the most learned 
 Protestants acknowledge, that we have the holy scriptures on the authority of the Catholic 
 church, nay, on the authority of the Roman Catholic church, fc r Dudith says, that all the ancient 
 Fathers, are on ' the side of the papists ;' and your favorite Middleton says, ' that he pities 
 the Protestants when lie sees them struggling to reconcile the Fathers to the reformation.' " 
 
 Note. — Every one who knows the corruptions introduced into the Fathers, by the monks 
 of the dark ages; Avliereby modern popery is awkwardly tagged to the primitive writers, will 
 cordially unite with Dudith and Middleton. 
 
 The above quoted Brercly, together with Knot and others, were notorious for their mis- 
 representations ; and hence they Avere prime auxiliaries of Jlilner in his " End of Contro- 
 versy." We go on wath extracts : — 
 
 " Where then is 3'our infallibility 1" It is seated, says Holy Mother, in all my Bishops and 
 Pastors throughout the whole world, professing the same doctrine, and united in faith and 
 communion w ith their supreme pastor, the bishop of Rome. It also resides in a o-eneral 
 council, at which the pope is present , either in person or by his legates, after it is confirmed 
 by the pope himself. This is an article of faith wherein all Catholics agree. See Suares 
 de fide p. 5. sec. 7. No. 9. You now know where to find my infallibility, and on this subject 
 you will discover no difference of opinion among my children." 
 
 " The 3rd council of Carthage, held in the year 397, examined the tradition of the church, 
 with regard to those books about which there was any doubt, or difierence of opiuion, and 
 found all the books recommended in our canon. In the 47th canon, the council defines our 
 books to be canonical, saying, ' we received from our fathers, that these books are to be read 
 in the Church.'" 
 
 To the above quotation, I shall subjoin the idea of our priests, as Milner, their champion, 
 expresses it. 
 
 " It was not until the end of the fourth century that the genuine canon of scripture was 
 fixed: and then it was fixed by the tradition and autliority of the church, declared in the third 
 council of Carthage, and decretal of Pope Innocent I." He then quotes "the most learned 
 protestants," — as Luther, Hooker, Chillingworth ; with St. Augustine, as teaching this. 
 
 4 • 
 
3(1 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 " Every word of God is pure." — " Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and 
 thou be found a Liar !" 
 
 Rev. Gentlemen: — I shall not follow Mr. Levins over the field of his polluting 
 effusions. The above extracts are a specimen of your last letter : they carry their 
 answer along with them. It is true, I do write for " the members of the Middle 
 Dutch Church." And " the members of the Middle Dutch Church," are very dif- 
 ferent people from the flocks of St. Patrick's pastor! One naturally adapts himself 
 to the climate and society in which he lives ! 
 
 I have already stated the rule of faith held by the church of Christ, resting, as it 
 does, on the rock of eternity : and that held by your church, professing to be 
 built on St. Peter. 
 
 It must be obvious to every one who has studied Romish authors, that no Roman 
 priest will have candor enough to honor our definitions, as we give them. The Pro- 
 testant churches never have said that their rule of faith is the scriptures, as received by 
 every one, by private interpretation. This is a sheer interpolation by the priests, who 
 defend their cause by this perversion. The Holy Spirit speaking unto us is the 
 RULE AND judge ; and it is to be received as He interprets it to us, in his plain, sim- 
 ple, and perspicuous words. We exercise the right of ^^ private judgment,'''' and 
 "liberty of conscience." But that '■'■ private judgment,'''' does not constitute the Rule. 
 Hereby, as rational beings, we are put into the possession of the means and faculties 
 of studying and finding out the mind and will of God. 
 
 It is one of the vexatious diflficulties which we have to encounter in this discus- 
 sion, that our opponents cannot appreciate the meaning and force of certain words, 
 current with Protestants. A Roman priest can, for instance, no more take up the f 
 meaning, and estimate the force of the terms "liberty of conscience," and "private 
 judgment," in religious matters, than "can the legitimate tyrants" of Europe, appre- 
 ciate the " rights and privileges" of American republicans ! Their minds have never 
 conceived the possibility of their existence. 
 
 It was never contemplated in this discussion, to convert it into a deistical controversy. 
 I had never conceived that the Roman priests would so boldly, and so honestly, come 
 out in the ranks of deism, and insist on making it an indispensable part of the discus- 
 sion, to turn aside to prove the inspiration of the holy Bible. Yet, so it is. The 
 New York priests have all along dogmatically insisted on my letting their infallible 
 rule alone ; and in confining ourselves, first of all, to the proof of the divine inspira- 
 tion of the scriptures. 
 
 There are two reasons urging them on to this course. The first is, that they are 
 aware, a^ we shall soon show, that their whole system touching iu fallibility, and 
 their " infallible rule," is their open flank, and weak side. And second, the main 
 reason is this : The Roman church holds this dogma as the basis of her whole sys- 
 tem, " the inspiration of the scriptures relies only on an external authority, and that is 
 the authority of the Roman Catholic church.'' My opponents express this in their 
 Letter II., thus: " Were the deist to say to Dr. Power, Sir, I cannot see any internal 
 evidence of inspiration in the holy scriptures ; Dr. Power would say, that he himself 
 sees no such evidence of their inspiration ; that he would not believe the scriptures 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 31 
 
 unless led to their belief by the Catholic church ; that if the deist would follow him 
 into the Catholic church, he would show him the evidence of the inspiration of the 
 scriptures." Hence it is a very prominent tenet in their infidel system that the 
 divine inspiration of the Bible cannot be proved but by the word and authority of 
 "Holy Mother!" You may advance all that has ever been written on it, yet if 
 you do not yield up the question in debate, aud fall down and acknowledge the Roman 
 goddess, as above "all that is called God, or is worshipped," they raise the outcry, 
 
 that you have not touched the point. " Yield me all I want," cries the Priest, " or 
 
 you shun the whole (piestion, and know nothing about logic, or theology." And, 
 moreover, when we have such anthropoi alogoi, " unreasonable men," as Mr. Levins 
 to deal with, whose Inishowen inspirations render him unfit to take up a solid argu- 
 ment, one gets heartily "blackguarded," to the bargain! 
 
 Now, we have discussed the proofs of the inspiration of the Bible, and shown that 
 it is established perfectly by its own internal evidence, and by external proofs, such as 
 miracles, tongues, prophecies ; and by historical evidence, and tradition also ; as that of 
 tlie Hebrews and Jews "to wliom were committed the oracles of God ;" and by the 
 church at Jerusalem; and by the church at Antioch ; by the whole Greek churches; 
 by the apostolical church of the Waldenses, and by the church of Rome. All these 
 were checks, mutually, on each other ; and all handed down the holy scriptures to pre- 
 sent times. 
 
 There never was exhibited such another master-piece of ghostly assurance and 
 impudence, as that of the Romish church, in pouring contempt on the churches of 
 the East, — say of Antioch, and all the Greek church, far more ancient than herself, 
 and far purer; and also on all other branches of the church: and of claiming the 
 exclusive honor of handing down the Bible by tradition. 
 
 The Romish rule of faith we also stated ; it is this, — " the infallible scriptures, 
 with the apocryphal books, and oral traditions, with the unanimous consent of the 
 Greek and Latin fiithers ; and all as explained by the infallible head, the Pope or a 
 council, or the church, a pope and council. "The Bible," or "infallible rule" 
 of the Romish church, in a word, is large enough to load four carts heavily ; besides 
 all their traditions. And then the "pope," or "council," or " church," is mounted 
 on them as the "infallible judge and interpreter." 
 
 We are now prepared to go on with our dissection of this rule. The whole 
 Roman system, as it is evident from history, scripture, and dear bought experience, is 
 a cunningly devised scheme to gain, not the salvation of souls : she who is "drunk 
 with the blood of the saints," has no anxiety about the salvation of souls; but to gain 
 unbounded civil power, and wealth for Peter's purse. And as a preparatory step to 
 this, she seeks to gain a complete ghostly power over the souls and consciences of her 
 crushed and trodden down victims. Hence we are taught where to seek for the 
 originating cause of her adojjting not God's holy word, but this rule as the ^^ infallible 
 Tuhy The question, with its devisers and inventors, was not, what has God spoken ? 
 Wliat is ms word? But it was this : — what is best adapted to achieve promptly the 
 consummation of our scheme of sj)iritual subjugation: — and, thence, the temporal 
 power over the souls, and bodies, and possessions of all men ! 
 
 Chillinsworth furnished us, in our last letter, with the true origin of this Romish 
 rule. This writer is, on our side of the Romish controversy, what Homer was among 
 :ihe ancient poets ; and Demosthenes was among the orators. And yet my Inis- 
 howen friend, Mr. Levins gravely quotes this Protestant Hercules as actually favor- 
 ing your heresy ! 
 
32 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 An asylum for the cure and prevention of polemical phrenzy, and literary knaveryf 
 has, I believe, not yet been contemplated. But no man will hesitate to say that 
 such an institution would be infinitely more merciful, and useful, than all your mo- 
 nasteries and nunneries ! 
 
 According to Chillingworth, this is the precise attitude of the pope, and the Roman 
 Catholic church, before the world. That thing, be it pope, or council, or pope and 
 council, or " Mother Church," in which infallibility is lodged, does in a condescending 
 manner, take the Holy One and his blessed word, under its special protection : 
 bestows on the Bible its inspiration, and all its authority : claims the uncontrolled right 
 of explaining it to all men's consciences : and of adding new doctrines, and even new 
 sacraments; it appoints its own devoted priesthood, as "the other god upon earth," 
 as Mussus, bishop of Bitonto said : it doles out a portion of the infallible interior spirit 
 to each priest, for the defence of the scarlet woman of St. John : and brings every thing 
 into market, for money, even souls, and bodies of men ; and each sin, at the staple 
 price of the Pope's exchequer book. It avails itself of the aid of the Bible, when it 
 can be gracefully bent to its way : and when it condemns its course, or is silent, it puts 
 it on the. papal rack, and tortures it into an utterance of what it wants before an ignorant 
 and degraded generation of men ! 
 
 We have finished our first two arguments against the Roman Catholic rule. We 
 showed jirst, that, with all their pretentions, their best and most intelligent writers 
 cannot tell us where it is to be found. They all admit that " they do have it;" but 
 they cannot tell us hoAv to come at it I 
 
 I cannot resist an appropriate illustration of this in a late anecdote. Patrick O'B. 
 was attached to one of our packets. It happened that while Patrick was, in his vocation, 
 washing a copper kettle, it rolled over board into the sea. It was gone in a moment. 
 There was no use in lamenting ; he could not recall it. He made his way directly to 
 the cabin : — " Captain, can a thing be said to be lost when we know where it is ?" 
 *' Certainly not, my good lad!" replied the Captain, "Well, then, by St. Patrick!" 
 cried our cook, — "my fine copper kettle cannot be said to be lost, at all : for I know 
 that it is in the bottom of the sea." " Holy Mother's" infallible judge is precisely in the 
 game predicament ! But who shall bring it up and make it visible and tangible ! Our 
 seco7irf argument was this : — No mortal man, pope or council can wield this same rule, 
 or make any practicable use of it. We shall now go on : — 
 
 III. Your infallible rule can never he found out, on your principles, nor employed for the 
 bentft of man. This rule must have been established by Christ for the benefit of all 
 God's moral subjects ; or only for the benefit of the pope and his clergy. You will 
 scarcely deny that God designed his message to be addressed to all men." Christ says, 
 — " What I say to you, I say to all, watch.'' " He that hath an ear let him hear what 
 the Spirit saith unto the churches." "Search ye the Scriptures, &c. "Blessed is he 
 thatreadeth, and they that hear, &c. — You will hardly venture publicly to afiEirm in 
 this enlightened country, that God has committed his Holy word only to priests : and 
 that the most immoral and polluted priesthood on earth can be the sole depository of 
 God's pure scriptures ! I beg your pardon. I am too charitable : you have openly 
 avowed this. But I must remind you that the assertion of a criminal who has abstracted, 
 and wasted his master's goods, is not a witness in his own case : his proofless word 
 passes for nothing. Give us proof, instead of your assertions. 
 
 Now, how must those who are to receive benefit from your rule, arrive at the evidence 
 of the fact that your rule is the only infallible one? On the principles you hold, no 
 one can fijid it out. You condemn, and in genuine Romish spirit, you even ridiculd 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 3^ 
 
 the rights of private judgment, and private interpretation, in this matter. Now apply 
 your own argument here, and you will see whither it leads you. 
 
 You atfirm that the Holy Bible is the infallible rule, so far as it goes: then you add 
 the Apocrypha; and a chaotic mass of traditions : and all these are to be taken according 
 to the unanimous consent of the Fathers; of whom any two are scarcely of one mind. 
 How go you to work here ? You set out to seek this rule and judge, either as a church, 
 en masse : which is utterly impossible. Or you go as individuals : but how can you as 
 individuals, be assured of the inspiration of the Bible; of the genuine traditions; and 
 of the consent o^the Fathers? You must either form a judgment and belief, or not. If 
 not, then there is no faith. If you do form a belief and a judgment, then mark your 
 dilemma, you do by private Judgment, and by private interpretation, determine, yourself, 
 that this is the rule and judge. And thus you do, as fallible men, by private judgment, 
 determine the infallible rule. That is to say, private judgment, and fallible individu- 
 als do that which you have declared they never can do. And, hence, in determining 
 your rule, you overthrow all your own objections against ours. 
 
 But even admiting that you have, by private and fallible judgment, determined the 
 infallible rule, you will find yourselves no nearer the end of your difficulties than 
 before. 
 
 Your " infallible head," the pope, happens to be a mortal and erring man. Besides 
 he is not accessible, except to only a few in Italy. He cannot exhibit truth, and decide 
 controversies in every chapel ; in every house, in every heart, in all lands. A council 
 can do no better. There has been no council since that of Trent. And the ghost of 
 that council cannot walk the earth, and enter into all houses, and chapels, and hearts, 
 in all lands ! — It could not do this, were it even now in session at Trent. 
 
 *' Holy Mother Church," can act no better part. You send your people to her for 
 the true infallible rule. Now the act of faith is thus expressed in your Douay cate- 
 chism ; and the definition is a curious one ; it embraces the sum total of a Papist'a 
 faith : " Great God, I firmly believe all those sacred truths which the hoi}-- Catholic 
 church believes and teaches, because thou, who art truth itself, hast revealed them. 
 Amen!" I will not stop to remind you that the Mohammedan belief is as simple, 
 namely : " Thtre is one God, and Mohammed is his prophet." And, throughout all 
 Turkey, there is much more unity in Mohamntedan belief, than in your church. But 
 what I urge on your attention, is this — the ditBculty is not removed by ihis chicanery. 
 " Holy church" cannot do any thing better, in this affair, than the pope. For what 
 is " holy church ?" Roman priests do not even agree in the answer to this question. 
 Some say " the church," is the pope and his clergy : some say it is the priesthood. 
 You and Mr. Hughes seem to include the laity with the priests, and so make it "the 
 people and their pastors." 
 
 But here is the difficulty ; how can you congregate all these into one speaking 
 rule ? How, and where, can the simple faithful find the response of this oracle ? 
 No where under the sun. She cannot speak and judge ; the faithful cannot hear her 
 voice from all places where the people and priests are scattered abroad. 
 
 Either then, the faithful flock have no faith, because they have no response from 
 this oracle, and no rule ; or else they must believe hy proxy ; ^nd not only so, but 
 truly believe that of which they have no knowledge whatever ! And this last is the 
 alternative, as every one knows ! And any man can make the experiment to satisfy 
 himself, vs-ith a true and devoted son of the church. Let any one ask a Roman Catho- 
 lic who follows iTOphcitly his prjest, — ^' Pray, what is your belief?" he will reply,, 
 
^ ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 "I believe as the church beUeves." "Well, what does the church believe?" He 
 will say, *' hoJy church believes as I believe." " But what do you and the church 
 believe?" " Why, arrah, now we both believe exactly the same thing!" This is 
 the uniform answer ; and you can never get any other out of them, for the best reason 
 in the world; there is nothing else in them! And what is much worse, by the 
 RULE, and the priest's influence, nothing else is allowed to enter into his dark and 
 wofully abused mind. ^^ Ignorance is the mother of devotion !" This is their old and 
 tried maxim. 
 
 Finally, shall the flock be sent to what your champion, Dr. Milner, calls " the whoh 
 word of God, tvritten and unwritten?''^ This, as I have said, is large enough to load 
 some four carts! Having found these 135 folio volumes, and the unwritten traditions, 
 if he can, the simple enquirer is no nearer the end of his difficulties. For, alas i 
 should a layman, in his simplicity, dare to take it on him to use his private judgment, 
 and reason, and make a mental elibrt to find out his Maker's will, and the holy word 
 speaking to him, he should forthwith have the ban of the priest pronounced on him. 
 He must yield up his conscience and his soul, simply to be guided by the pope or 
 council ; that is to say, a rule and a judge which he can never see, and never discover ! 
 
 IV. That Christ established your infallihle rule, in his church, we utterly deny. 
 
 The Roman Catholic writers have here exhibited a curious specimen of logic, in 
 their abortive effbits to prove that Christ established their Rule. Milner, in his End 
 of Controversy, has led the way ; all of you follow after him. You assert, in strong 
 terms, that Christ did establish your rule, and gave it to the apostles : that you are 
 the only apostolical successors ; and, therefore, you only have that rule of Christ, 
 that is infallible. 
 
 Now, let us see a specimen of the logic and proof. Christ, you say, established 
 your rule. This was the first thing to be proved ; and, let us not loose sight of the 
 materials of this rule. If Christ ordained your rule, then he gave forth by inspi- 
 ration, the Apocrypha, as well as the Bible ; then, also, he ordained by inspiration, 
 all the oral traditions of your church ; and he also told the church, by the Holy 
 Spirit, that he gave you the unanimous consent of the endlessly contradicting Fathers, 
 as a part of that rule, and that he appointed, by name and title, the pope, or coun- 
 cil, or the church, you know not which, as the only infallible judge. 
 
 This was the point to be proved : but no one of you touches it except by asser- 
 tion. Milner, and Hughes, and yourselves, shift completely the subject to be proved. 
 And, instead of showing that Christ ordained the materials out of which your rule 
 is made, you labor to show that Christ ordained teaching by word of mouth. 
 *■' Christ," says Hughes, " has made the promise of infallibility to the succession of 
 TEACHING and not to writing, reading, or private interpretation." And Milner, in 
 his End of Controversy, declares that Christ sent the apostles and their successors to 
 preach the gospel by word of mouth. " If," says he, " Christ had intended that all 
 men should learn his religion from a book, viz : — the New Testament, he would 
 have written that book himself, and enjoined the obligation of learning to read it, 
 &c." " But," adds this Vicar General of England, with unblushing impiety and 
 infidelity, " Christ ivrote no part of the New Testament himself, and gave no orders 
 to his apostles to write it.''^ See Letter VI., &c., p. 63, &c. 
 
 Thus, having, on the principles of deism, got rid of the written word of God, 
 although in contradiction to the council of Trent, which admitted the inspriration of 
 the holy scriptures, you do, by a dexterous shifting of the question, make this teach* 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 35 
 
 ing by word of mouth, to be the rule established by Christ in his church ; and, 
 being established by him, it must be infallible. 
 
 And thus, the real infallible rule of Rome is abandoned, without proof, to its fate. 
 Instead of proving the inspiration of the Apocrypha, traditions, and the consent of the 
 Fathers, and the divine authority of the pope, they very gravely set to work, andtrv 
 to prove that the " infallibility was promised to teaching by word of mouth !" 
 
 But were it possible that you, gentlemen, could prove the infallibility of the succes- 
 sors of the apostles, this would not avail you. For, — 
 
 V. The line of your succession is entirely broken off, both as it regards the popes and 
 the church. 
 
 1. The succession is cut off from Rome, by the loss of the essential bond oi holiness, 
 Christ says, " Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." "Except a 
 man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." This is the essential 
 doctrine of Christianity. Hence no wicked man, no infidel, can be considered a 
 member of Christ's church. 
 
 But, without denying that there are individuals who are true christians within the pale 
 of the Romish church, we do assert that, as a church, she has not only lost this badge 
 of holy discip'e^hip, but even maintains thatholinessof heait, or internal grace, is not 
 necessary to membership. Hence the usual expression with the Roman priests : 
 "Such a one is reconciled to the church;" not to God, but "to the church.'* 
 And Bellarmine maintains an argument that " wicked men, infidels and reprobates, 
 remaining in the pubhc profession of their Romish church, are true members of the 
 body of Christ !" See Bell. Lib. 3. De Eccles. c. 7. The Rhemist Annotators 
 declare the same, on 1 Tim. iii. 15, and on John xv. 1. 
 
 2. And, in addition to this, the Romish church has apostatized from the funda- 
 mental doctrines of the gospel. You reject the one only and perfect atonement of Christ, 
 and substitute, in its place, the mass, in which you profess to offer up weekly, an 
 unbloody sacrifice for the living and the dead ; you reject justification by faith alone, 
 through Christ's righteousnes ; you deny the efficacious work of grace by the Holy 
 Ghost: with you, a sinner is saved purely by human merit, and the efficacy of your 
 sacraments, and the priest's intention. 
 
 And to the pure doctrines and institutions of the gospel of Christ, the Roman Catho- 
 Ucs have added an endless train of doctrines, will-worship, rites, and ceremonies. 
 The whole face of Christianity has been changed in that church ; the whole system 
 new modelled, in the most heaven daring manner. 
 
 In Christ's throne they have reared " their lord god, the pope." They have intro- 
 duced the adoration of saints, and the idolatrous veneration of images. They have 
 invented a purgatory, though opposed by St. i^ugustine, and the best Fathers, before 
 the sixth century. They deny marriage to the priests, and very facetiously call a 
 bachelor priest's life, " chastity !" Transubstantialion and the mass, though invented 
 in the ninth century, were imposed on the Roman church, only so late as 1215, in 
 the fourth council of the Lateran, by Pope Innocent III. They deny the cup to the 
 laity in the Lord's supper ; although Pope Gelasius, in 492, pronounced it sacrilege 
 to do so ! 
 
 Thus, your church is apostate in doctrine ; and so the succession is cut off. Hear 
 the words of Gregory Nazianzin, speaking of Athanasius »ucceediDg in the chair of 
 St. Mark : " He was not less the successor of his piety, than of his seat; in point of 
 
gg ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 time, distant from him. But, in piety, which indeed is properly colled successwn, 
 directly after him. For he that holdeth of the same doctrine is of the same chair ; 
 but he who is an enemy to the doctrine, is an enemy to the chair!" Orat. 21, on 
 Athan. Paris edit, of 1777. 
 
 But, 3. Your succession is broken offin the broken hne of the popes, and true ordina- 
 tion. The very nature of the apostolical character, and call to office, will show that 
 the apostles had no successors in office. An apostle was one who had seen Christ 
 alive, after his death ; was sent by immediate inspiration and a call to office, by 
 Christ, visible to him ; and who, moreover, established his divine call before the 
 world, by miraculous powers. Gal. chap. i. and 1 Cor. ix. 1, &c. 
 
 Besides these, Christ appointed pastors and teachers. When the line of extraordi- 
 nary offices, like that of the apostles and prophets, ceased, the ordinary line of pastors 
 and teachers continued. These alone, strictly speaking, had successors, as these 
 were successors to the apostles in that part of their characters which made them 
 teachers. " Go ye. and teach all nations." This was spoken as much to the 
 pastors and preachers, as to the apostles ; and to the successors of that class which 
 actually had successors. 
 
 But even admitting, what was impossible, that your popes were the successors of 
 the apostles, the Hue has been broken off long ago. 
 
 I have before me copious extracts from Platina, Baronius, Genebrard, Dupin, &c., 
 all Romish writers, which show that the Roman Catholic church was corrupt from 
 the fourth century ; that she increased in corruption until the ninth : and that, from 
 the ninth to the council of Trent, say for 660 years, she was in a state of the 
 most frightful corruption. 
 
 The tumults and bloodshed, at the election of popes, clearly prove that Rome was 
 converted into the synagogue of Satan. Could such gladiators be the apostohcal 
 successors ? Pope Liberius [A. D. 353] became a heretic by the emperor's influ- 
 ence, and that of the apostate Bishop Hosius. Hear your writer, Andre du Chesne : 
 *' Not to dwell on all the persons of distinction, who imitated him, he notoriously car- 
 ried along with him, in his fall, the supreme bishop of the entire orthodox church!" 
 
 Platina, in his life of Damasus, I., A. D., 366, says, *'that when he was elected 
 pope, he had a rival in the church called Sicinus; where many were killed on both 
 sides, in the church itself: since, the matter was discussed not only by votes, hut 
 by force of arms /" 
 
 Baronius, vol. vi. p. 562, A. D. 498, tells us that the emperor's faction sustained 
 the election of Laurentius to the papacy. In this struggle, "murders, robberies, 
 and numberless evils, were perpetrated at Rome." Nay, such were the horrible 
 scenes that, says Baronius, *' there was a risk of their destroying the whole city !" 
 
 In the schism between the Popes Sylverius and Vigilius, in the sixth century, 
 the latter, though an atrociously wicked man, " implicated," says Baronius, " in so 
 many crimes," that all virtuous men opposed him, was raised to the papal chair. 
 Yet this man was pronounced a good pope. Baronius says he is not to be despised 
 though a bad man. "Let every man recollect," says he, " that even to the shadow 
 of Peter, immense virtue was given of God !" Bar. vol. vii. p. 420. 
 
 In the midst of contentions which rent the Roman Catholic church. Pope Pela- 
 gius I. was chosen. This pope approved the council which Pope Vigilius had con- 
 demned. This increased the flames of ecclesiastical war to such a degree that the 
 pope could not find a bishop of Rome, who could consecrate him ; and he wa« 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 37 
 
 constrained to beg a priest of Ostium to do this service: "a thing" says Baroniiis, 
 *' which never had occurred before." Vol. vii. p. 475. 
 
 The Popes Formosus and Stephen lived in the ninth century. The latter, says 
 Baronius, was so wicked, that he would not have dared to enrol him in the Ust of 
 popes, were it not that antiquity gives his name. In the exercise of papal infallibility, 
 he not only rescinded the acts and decrees of his infallible predecessor Formosus ; 
 but, collecting a council of cardinals and bishops as bad as himself, he actually had 
 the old pope taken out of his grave ; and he brought him into court, tried, and 
 condemned him ; cut off three of his fingers ; and plunged his remains into the 
 Tiber. See Platina's life of Stephen VI. and Baronius, do. 
 
 Pope Romanus I., in his turn, abrogated the decrees and acts of Stephen VI. 
 '♦ For," says Platina, "these popes seem to have thought of nothing else, than to 
 extinguish the name and dignity of their predecessors." Life of Romanus I. 
 
 Genebrard in his Chronicles, under the year 904, says, " for nearly 150 years, 
 about fifty popes deserted wholly the virtue of their predecessors, being apostate 
 rather than apostolical I" 
 
 Baronius, under the year 1004, names three rival popes, who perpetrated the most 
 shameful crimes, and bartered the papacy, and sold it for gold. He, though a Roman 
 catholic WTiter, calls them Cerberus, " the three headed beast which had issued from 
 the gates of hell!" 
 
 Bzovius, in his Eccles. Annals, A. D., 1411, dclares that after the council of Pisa, 
 the head of the church was three schisms, three anti-popes. 
 
 The council of Pisa deposed two of your holy popes, whom, in their sentence, they 
 pronounced notorious heretics, and guilty of perjury. 
 
 The council of Constance, in A. D., 1414, deposed three popes, namely, Benedict 
 XIII., the Spanish pope; and Gregory XII., the French pope ; and John XXIII, , 
 the Italian pope. 
 
 In short, so early as A. D. 1073, there had been no less than twenty-five schisms, 
 by the anti-popes, and the general profligacy of the priests. And the most violent 
 ones happened after that date. 
 
 Now the present pope, and his prelates, and all his priests, are as incapable of tra- 
 cing their succession through these endlessly broken lines of papal succession, as are the 
 present Jews of tracing their descent from their respective tribes and famihes. It is 
 alJ idle and absurd in them to set up the claims of apostolical succession. Jerome 
 and Gregory Nazianzen tell you that the succession is that of piety and doctrine, 
 not that of merely sitting in the same chair, or throne! On your principle, the 
 Turks, or Egyptians' power and dominion in Jerusalem, worshipping in the mo«que 
 of Omar, are ;he true and lineal successors of Moses and Aaron, and the Hebrew 
 church of old ! 
 
 Here I shall add an appropriate remark of your Baronius ; who though a Roman 
 catholic writer, seems to labour honestly to make out the case that your church is dege- 
 nerated from the once holy church of Rome, as far as the Turks' mosque at Jerusalem, 
 is from the pure ancient Hebrew church. Hear his words in his life of Pope Stephen 
 VII. A. D. 900. " The case is such, that scarcely any one can believe, or ever. \s'A\ 
 believe it, unless he sees it with his eyes, and handles it with his hands, viz. What 
 unworthy, vile, unsightly, yea, execrable and hateful things the sacred apostolic See, 
 on whose hinges the universal apostolical church turns, has been compelled t6 s'ee, 
 &c."--*' To our shame and grief be it spoken, how many monsiccs, horrible to beHold, ' 
 
 5 
 
38 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 were intruded by them" (the secular princes,) "into that seat which is reverenced by 
 angels !" " The holy See," he adds, " is bespattered with filth," " infected by stench/* 
 " defiled by impurities," and "blackened by perpetual infamy !" 
 
 And to crown this clunax, Baronius, under the year 912 adds : " What is then the 
 face of the holy Roman church ! How exceedingly foul it is ! When most potent, sordid 
 and abandoned women (Mere trices,) ruled at Rome ; at whose will the Sees were 
 changed ; bishops were presented ; and what is horrid to hear, and unutterable, False 
 Pontiffs, the paramours of these women, were intruded into the chair of St. Peter» 
 &c." He adds — " For who can affirm that men illegally inlruded by bad women, 
 (Scortis,) were Roman pontiffs !" Again: "The canons were closed in silence; the 
 decrees of Pontiffs were suppressed ; the ancient traditions were proscribed ; and the 
 eacred ceremonies and usages of former days were wholly extinct !" See his 
 Annals A. D. 912. 
 
 Thus we have evidence the most complete and overwhelming, not from Protestant 
 authors, but from your own favourite Baronius, that the Roman catholic succession 
 is, in every sense, completely and for ever cut off". You are a withered branch lying 
 in the dust. You are as completely severed from the primitive apostolical church of 
 Rome, as is the mosque of St. Omar, from the primitive christian church of Jerusalem. 
 Hence, you have neither pope, nor prelate, nor priest, nor sacrament, nor a holy 
 infallible rule of faith ! 
 
 I shall close this letter with a brief notice of some of the miscellaneous objections in 
 your last. You commit an error relative to the canon and the council of Carthage. 
 The editions of that council's decrees vary much ; and they are of " very doubtful 
 faith." WTiat confidence can you have in their decrees, when there is mention made 
 in it of your pope Boniface, who was actually not made pope until ^ years after its 
 meeting ! And if you admit theu: canon, what will you do with their decree about the 
 ecclesiastical canon of Legends. And, finally, are you aware that this council con- 
 demns the papal ambition ; denying that any ecclesiastic should be called " bishop of 
 the first seat," or ''prince of priests,'' or e\en '' chief of bishops T' See Bern Do 
 Moore, Per. Comment, vol. i. p. 316. 
 
 The apocryphal books are not in the canon written out by Melito, bishop of Sardis, 
 of the second century ; nor in that of Origen of the third ; nor in that of Athanasius, 
 Hilary, Gregory Naz., or of Jerome, of the fourth. See Euseb. L. 4. 26. and L. 6, 
 25; LardnerlV. 282. Home, Introd. i. p. 628. 
 
 Hear now St. Jerome in his Epist. ad Lsetam, — " Caveat &c. Let her take heed of all 
 tlie apocrypha ; if she will read it, not for the truth of doctrine, but reverence of the story, 
 let her know that they are not their writings whose titles they bear, and that many cor- 
 rupt things are mixed in them." See Willet, p. 2. folio. 
 
 Our priests must perceive that the words they quote from the council of Carthage 
 do not canonize the apocrypha. They only state that these books ''^were read in the 
 church." Augustine also admits that they were read, "but by an humble oflRcer, in a 
 lower place than that in ivhich the canonical scriptures ice re read by the bishop." Scf; 
 Aug. De Predest., Lib. 1. cap. 14. And in his De Civ. Dei, Lib. 18. c. 26. and Lib. 17. 
 c. 29, he declares that Judith, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus are not canonical. There- 
 fore, gentlemen, you and Milner, — if we must credit history and the Fathers, have 
 uttered what is notoriously in error, relative to the canon, and tradition ! 
 
 You quoted Hooker, and Chillingworth, as favoring your infidelity on the rule of 
 faith ! I shall give you a quotation from the first, with the comment of the last on it. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 39 
 
 Hooker thus writes, — " Scripture teaches us that saving truth, which God discovere<:l 
 to the world by revolaiion : and it presumeth us taught otherwise, that itself is divine. 
 The question then being, by what means we are taught this ; some answer, that to 
 learn it, we have no other way than tradition. Cliillingworth says — " some answer 
 so, but he doth not. *' These great men, next proceed to show that mere tradition ' is 
 not enough :' and that ' tlie authority or testimony of the church (they mean not the 
 Romish church) is the first outward aioTiVE leading men to esteem of the scrip- 
 tures.' C. adds, — ihejirst outward motive, not the last assurance whereon we rest." 
 Hooker Ecc. Pol. B. 3. s. 8. Chill, note 7. Prot. Jour, of London, vol. i. 686. 
 
 Yours very truly, and respectfully. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER IV. 
 
 " Spurciloquium decet hereticos et ethnicos!" — Tertul. De Resur. 
 
 *'l3 your last letter worthy of a scholar, worthy of him who is intimate with the interior 
 spirit, and familiar with the " Hebrew and Gi-eek of the Holy Ghost?" Is it, in any sense, 
 a logical and theological production ? Does it, even remotely, bear on the matter in ques- 
 tion — your rule of faith ?" 
 
 " Does it honor him who erects his rule of faith on the whisperings of the interior Spirit, 
 and through its illumination selects from the " Hebrew and Greek of the holy Ghost," those 
 necessary articles of creed on which his salvation depends ?" 
 
 " Unable to meet your antagonist in manly and logical argument — skulking under the 
 shelter of subterfuge and rank slanders, into which you breathe a still ranker life, — a prey 
 to the gnawings which cat into your very heart's core under defeat, disgrace and dishonor; 
 you sputter out the morbid secretions of an envenomed will." 
 
 Again our queries are repeated. 
 
 How do you know the Bible to be the word of God? 
 
 How do you know which books were written by divine inspiration ? 
 
 Does the Bible contain the whole of the word of God, or does it not? 
 
 "Nothing in your last — but an idle drivel about the 'liberty of conscience,' — American 
 Republicans, a startlii.g phrase, anthropoi alogoi, to prove intimacy with Hebrew and 
 Greek of the Holy Ghost &c. &c." 
 
 " Thus you go up, up, up; 
 
 And thus you go down, down, downy ; 
 Thus you go hackicard and foncard, — 
 
 And, heigh for your logic, dear Brownlee !" 
 
 " Your register of, and tirade about, the Popes is out of place, of no consequence to tho 
 real matter under consideration — your rule of faith." 
 
 *' We call on you, in the face of the Biblical world, to produce one single text of scrip- 
 ture, which tells you ' that the only rule of faith and judge of controversy, established by 
 Christ, is the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the written word of the Old Testament and of 
 the New." 
 
 " First, when Christ sent his apostles to convert the world, he did not say go and distribute 
 the scriptures to the nations of the earth but ' Go into die whole world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature.' " 
 
 " Secondly. The Bible is a book more or less obscure in most parts of it, and full of things 
 'hard to be under.-tood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their oicn destruction.' 
 2 Pet. iii. 16. Some texts §eem to contradict others : Several o^^pcar to inculcate the very 
 vices which God condemns." 
 
 ■" Thirdly. The learned among christians, who make the Bible alone their rule of faith, 
 
40 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CO JfTllOVERST. 
 
 cannot agree, as to its meaning, in the most important points ; as the endless variations of 
 Protestants on all religious subjects prove." 
 
 " Fourthly. The rule of faith previously to the existence of the scriptures of the New 
 Testament, must have been the testinaony of the church or preaching of the gospel by men 
 sent by God." 
 
 " Can you, Rev. Doctor, adduce scripture evidence, that tlie gospels in the New Testa- 
 ment were actually written by the blessed Apostles and Evangelists, whose names are 
 attached to them ? Is it possible for you to prove by any other means, than tradition, that 
 the Sabbath of the Jews was changed by the Apostles to the first day of the week ? What 
 other proof can you give, except that of tradition, for the custom of infant baptism." 
 
 You shall aswer this,—" First, if we look back to the commencement of Christianity, we 
 shall find that the New Testament was written, by the Apostles and Evangelists chiefly in 
 Greek." 
 
 " We think it strange, that our most gracious Redeemer would require of the foor igno- 
 ranf people to pick out their religion through the exercise of tlteir own scanty intellect from 
 the holy scripture, or to depend on their own weak capacities, for detecting the true senst 
 and intcrpretatio7i of h.^^ 
 
 " Your great mistakes in supposing the rule of faith was made and intended by God to 
 be put into the hands of every man. It would be absurd to suppose it ; and, hence, the old 
 distinction of F^clesia dvcens, and Ecclesia discens, &c." 
 
 " Christ gave no orders to his Apostles to write the New Testament;" If the Bible be your 
 only rule of faith, you cannot believe that Christ did give any such command to his Apos- 
 tles. Produce the text if you can, and if you cannot, why believe he did command his Apos- 
 tles to write the New Testament?" 
 
 " But we cannot conclude, without expressing our great surprise at the divisions of Pro- 
 testants with regard to the very essence of religion, seeing that they are taught, as they assert 
 by Christ himself, under 'guidance of the Spirit of God.' " 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 " Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee 
 back by the way, by which thou camest." — Isaiah's message to Sennaclteiib. ch. 37. 29. 
 
 ON THE RULE OF FAITH. 
 
 Gentlemen : — I dare say my readers will have learned already, from this stage 
 of our argument, that it is not by fair and manly argument that Popery seeks to 
 advance itself: but, on the contrary, by throwing a veil over its most repulsive and 
 haggard features. Every Protestant, and every patriot ought to make himself tho- 
 roughly acquainted with this peculiar attribute of popery, namely its singular power 
 of elasticity, in adapting itself to each country ; to all times, and places ; and to the 
 peculiar habits of thinking among a people. With the Jesuit among the Chinese, it 
 permits the natives to worship deceased fathers and mothers ; on the trifling condition 
 that they only change the nomenclature, and call them St. Peter ; St. Paul ; St. 
 Dominick ; and the Holy Virgin ! Or, with the Canadian Jesuit among the Indians, 
 it gains the ear of the savage warrior by "representing Jesus Christ as an ancient, 
 and brave warrior, who excelled all his compeers in killing and scalping the foes of 
 the tribe !" 
 
 Its grossest doctrines it carefu.iy conceals, among civilized and refined people. It 
 
ROMAN CA1H0L1C CONTROV^RST. 41 
 
 is in its goverament, not only monarchic, but feudal : and of the very essence of 
 absolutism, in its claims of authority over the souls, consciences, and bodies of its 
 votaries. Witness the absolute supremacy of his holiness, over his prelates ; and 
 that of the prelates, over the priests ; and that of the priests over the souls, bodies' 
 and properties of the simple faithful ! 
 
 Yet, while, in the very essence of its priestly power, it is all hostility to republican 
 freedom: and cannot be otherwise, from its public, and sworn allegiance to the 
 foreign potentate of Rome ; it gravely affects to raise its hosannahs in favor of our 
 glorious and free institutions ! I speak not of all : there are in the Romish com- 
 munion, as enlightened and loyal hearts as ever beat in a gallant bosom : and many 
 of these excellent men we have in our city. I speak of the Romish priesthood : and 
 of those who basely yield to their absolutism ; and who sustain their usurpation ^ 
 what neither God, nor man ever gave them. 
 
 It is a truth which I am anxious to impress on my readers, that there has been 
 no change, no improvement, no reformation, in the spirit, power, and designs of 
 popery. Its spirit is jjrecisely the same, this day, in its secret haunts, in our city, and 
 over the land, as it is now in Italy and Spain : and it is the same here, and in Italy, 
 as it ever has been in the darkest ages of Europe. There is a sti-ange delusion 
 abroad in the land, namely ; that there has been a singular improvement in it ; and 
 that it is entirely different. To make this impression on the American mind, has 
 been the incessant labor of the Jesuits who swarm in disguise, among us, in these 
 United States, since they lost their foothold in Europe. And the extent of this 
 lethargy and indifference is appalling. It indicates one of two things: the great 
 influence of Jesuitism, or the insensibility of our fellow-citizens to the national dan- 
 ger to which we are exposed from the Jesuits, whom no despot in Europe can endure, 
 and who have been solemnly banished by every government of the old world ' 
 
 Now, Holy Mother and her sons are precisely the same nov/ as when they con- 
 vulsed the nations of Europe. The old lion has had his claws pared, and his teeth 
 broken ; he is only reclining in his den — en couchant — until his teeth and his claws 
 shall have grown. His spirit is the same, unbroken, unsubdued, untameable ! And 
 our fellow citizens, whose characteristic charity has been ungenerously imposed on, do 
 verily pay them no compliment, in a Jesuit's estimation, when they call their system 
 an improvement on the doctrines, regimen, and tjTanny of the papal court, in the 
 dark ages. In paying them this compliment, at which every son of Loyola smiles, 
 but with bitterness of feeling, we actually, though unwittingly, rob them of their pre- 
 eminent attribute of immvtability. 
 
 It is a compliment as ungracious to our Jesuits, as that of the popish princes of the 
 old world to their pope. They caressed and worshipped the apostolical vicar of 
 Christ, while they sent potent armies to beleaguer his city, and plunder him, as a 
 temporal prince! 
 
 All the difference which can be supposed to exist between ancient and modern 
 popery, arises from this elastic attribute of adapting itself to the times, the habits, and 
 religious freedom of a thinking people. And, hence, our main task is to exliibit their 
 real and accredited princii)les, in their standard works, and contrast with them these 
 pretended modern views, put on, en masque, until the time (may it never happen,) when 
 their anticipated ascendency shall take place in our land, on the contemplated ruin of 
 the Protestant religion, and the extinction of our republic institutions ! 
 
 We have proved, I trust, to the satisfaction of everj' candid christian, that what luo 
 
 5^ 
 
42 roma:^ catholic coxtroverst. 
 
 Roman Caihoiic church calls its infallible rule of faith never can be found out. of 
 reduced to any practical purpose : that Christ never established that rule in his church : 
 and that even if he did, the line of succession is broken off, and lost irretrievably. 
 The blow -which severed the last bond of apostolical union and succession, was struck 
 by that assembly of ungodly men who formed the council of Trent ; and whom your 
 own father Paul, in his historj' of it, called '-a camp of incarnate demons I" The 
 succession is gone from the Romish church, like the departed glory, which, in the 
 holy vision of Ezekiel, was seen hovering long over the threshhold, and then over the 
 city, and, finally, took hs flight ! 
 
 No accurate theologian ever said that the holy universal church of Christ has been, 
 or can be. cut off. She has existed in her gior}- and beauty, as the spouse of Christ, 
 since the days of Adam, dovm through all the revolution of time, and of empires, even 
 to this hoiu". Unhke the church of Rome, which by her own confession, rests on a 
 mortal man, the rock Peter, — the holy church of God is founded on the eternal 
 BOCK of ages, even Jesus Christ ; and the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. 
 She advances in splendor, and an ever encreasing lustre of accumulating glory, as 
 she advances in days, and in years. And this fair one moves forvsard, leaning on 
 the arm of her espoused Lord, to take possession of all nations, and kingdoms on 
 earth l And the long line of her successive pastors and teachers, has ever continued, 
 unbroken, till now, and will through all days, imto the consummation of all things. 
 
 This holy universal church may not, at all times, be visible. In the days of Ahab, 
 the spiritual church was not visible : it did not stand %-isibly out with its pastors and 
 teachers. Yet it existed in the ministrations of Ehjah ; and in the persons of the 7000 
 who, though unknown even to that holy prophet, had not bowed the knee to Baal. 
 So also in the general apostacy of the christian era, this spiritual society' did not stand 
 visibly out before the world with her pure ministers, and her congregated assembhes. 
 Yet there ever was a church of God in Asia, in Greece, and amid the dens and caves 
 in the west and south of Europe : there ever was an unbroken succession of holy ^-it- 
 nesses : with their ^inbroken line of holy pastors, and teachers, and they were raised 
 up, as their manyred fathers closed their lives, and sealed the testimony -v^-ith their 
 blood, — by the c£dl of divine providence, and the call of the faithfid church; a two- 
 fold call, essential t.o the true ministry; — which no Roman Catholic priest ever had; 
 or ever thought of claiming. 
 
 If protestants would be at the trouble of keeping these facts in view, relative to the 
 succession of the pure church of Christ, in Asia ; and through the line of the Walden- 
 ses, and the verj' ancient Anglian church, and the Culdees, and Lollards in Scotland 
 and Ireland, ever}- one would be prepared to answer the iQiterate and vulgar quibble 
 of the Roman catholics, — ''\\Tiere was your religion before Luther?" Y''esl Theholy 
 church of Jesus Christ, has from the days of Adam» been rolling on like the streams of 
 our own mighty Mississippi, and becoming deeper and wider, and more and more 
 majestic, as she flows along the bosom of time. But the Roman catholic church, and 
 the numerous sects and heresies in her, like so many byous, bursting through the 
 baniis of that noble river, and threading their hea^y and muddy courses through the 
 adjacent lands, have been diverging, in the course of years, farther and farther from the 
 j)ure rivers of the water of life, which issue from the sanctuar\- and throne of God. — But 
 we now go on to oiur — 
 
 VI. Argument, against the Roman cathohc rule of faith : namely : — The proof 
 
HOBIAV CATHOLIC CO>'TROVERST. 43 
 
 tchich the Romish writers bring in behalf of your rule, is not only involved in contradic- 
 tions, but is founded in arrogant and blasphemous assurnptions. 
 
 "Popen,-," says bishop Hall, (in his works p. 351.) "Popery destroyeth the foun- 
 dation, and instead of the true foundation, it lays a double new one ; the one a new 
 rule of faith ; and the other, a new author, or guide of faith." Instead of Christ, as the 
 Judge, " popery rears on the throne a man, the jiiaji of sin. He must know all things, 
 can err in nothing ; he directs, informs, commands, animates, both in eanh. and pur- 
 gator\- : expounds scripture, canonizes saints, forgives sins, and creates new articles 
 of faith; and in all these, is absolute and infallible as his Maker !" 
 
 Planting themselves on the ground of this rule, the Roman priesthood intrude them- 
 aelves between the human intellect, and our Creator ; and declare that they are lords 
 over the reason, and judgment, and conscience of man ; thatmrm shall not think for him- 
 self, nor exercise, in religion, the rights oi private jud^rtunt, Thev stand up bet^veen 
 God and his o-^ii accountable subjects, and affirm in the very presence of the Almightv, 
 that they shall not hear God's word, as he speaks it to them : that they shall not be 
 permitted "to hear what the Spirit saith unto the chin-ches; that thev shall hear it 
 only as their priesthood choose to explain it : that all the authority of the Bible is 
 derived from them, and their church ; that no man shall take on him to worship God. 
 as Christ prescribes, but as the Romish priesthood -prescnhes: that the Spirit of 
 God speaking in tlie Scriptures shall not interpret the word to them; but that the 
 priesthood alone shall do it. And thus, in the very face of the Almighty, the supreme 
 and only Judge of all. do they usurp the guidance of the human conscience : and thrust 
 themselves in the throne of God, and receive the confessions of sins I sitting in the temple 
 of God, and calling the pope. God, they grant absolution of sins ! They pro\'ide a new 
 gacrifice of a thing they call the Mass : and they tell divine justice, that this, even this. 
 and not the blood of Christ, shall atone and reconcile I They consummate their 
 damning high treason against the Son of God. by providing a supply of new and 
 unheard of intercessors : and the}' place tliis new host of their heaven, under the super- 
 vision of the mediatrijr, the Virgin Mary I 
 
 And they close the creation of their new heavens, and their new earth, by denounc- 
 ing the holy Bible, as " a falacious rule ;" and erecting in its stead, as their law. and 
 their judge, the rule and judge of their own invention ! And they utter their hosannahft 
 to them as " infallible'' and as utterly removed above all liability to mistake, or misappre- 
 hension ! 
 
 After this, it wotild not surprise us, if they claim for their pope, or the church, the 
 power of appointing >'ew articles of faith. I am aware that a strong party among 
 them deny this, but the Roman partj- does maintain it. Pope Leo X. condemned 
 Luther for denying this power: See his Bull added to the last Coimcil in Lateran : 
 and bishop Jer. Taylor's works p. 392. And Thomas Aquinas and Almain expressly 
 asseit. — " That the Popes of Rome by defining many things, which before lay liid, 
 symboliun tidei augere consuesse, are accustomed to enlarge the symbol of faith." 
 And every body knows that t^-elve articles were added to the creed, by the council 
 of Trent. 
 
 Bellarmine De concil. Auctor. lib. ii. cap. 17. teaches the genuine popery.', namely : 
 that "the supreme pontili' is simply and absolutely above the church : and above a 
 general coimcil. &:o.'' He adds the following, which no one can clear from the 
 charge of blasphemy : " All the names which in the scriptures are applied to Christ, 
 proving him to be above the church, are. in Hke manner, applied to the pontiff: as. 
 
44 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVBRST. 
 
 &st, Christ is pater familias, head of the family, in his own house, which is the 
 church. The pontiff is high steward in the same, that is, he is pater familias, in the 
 place of Christ, loco Christi." 
 
 And hence the titles of the pope, on the pages of these writers, who advocate this 
 doctrine. He is " Deus alter in terra," *' another god on earth ;" " the lord our god 
 the pope." *'Idem est dominium Dei ac Papse ;" " The dominion of God and the 
 pope are the same!" "The infallible one." And pope Clement VII. and his car- 
 dinals, in their letter to king Charles VI., say, "as there is only one God in heaven, 
 60 there cannot, and there ought not, to be but one God on earth !" — meaning himself. 
 See Troisard, torn. 3. p. 147. Mussus, bishop of Bitonto, called the pope, " him 
 who is to us as our God ;" and the bishop of Grenada styled him, " a god on earth, not 
 subject to a comicil." And in Bellarmine's noted saying, we have this doctrine, 
 (Ub. iv. de Rom. jwnt. c. 5:) "But if the pope should err by enjoining vice, and for- 
 bidding virtues, the church, teneretur credere, &c., would be bound to believe vices to 
 be good, and virtues to be wicked, unless she would be willing to sin against con- 
 science !" Pope Leo X., in his Brief of Nov. 9th, 1512, declared that " as vicar of 
 Christ on earth, he had power to forgive, by virtue of the keys, the guilt and punish- 
 ment of actual sins, &c. See Dupin. vol. iv. p. 17. 
 
 These sentiments seem so monstrous, that many of my good natured ^readers, I 
 dare say, actually think that we exaggerate. Hence I shall give a few more quota- 
 tions from their approved writers in order to exonerate myself. " Estiment papam," 
 &c. They esteem the pope to be God alone ; unicum Dtum esse, who has all power 
 in heaven and in earth." Gerson and Carron, p. 34; Giannon, Hist. Nap. X. 12. 
 St. Bernard, Oper. 1725, says, — "Praeter Deum, &c. — None is like unto the pope in 
 heaven or earth, except God !,, Pope Innocent III. avowed "that the pope holds the 
 place of the true God." — Papa locum Dei tenet in terris. Papa vicem non puri homi- 
 nis, sed veri Dei gerens in terra." See Pithou 29; Gibert vol. ii. p. 9. ",Papa et 
 ■Christus, &c. — The pope and Christ make one consistory: so that, sin excepted, the 
 pope can almost do all things which God can do." See Jacobatius, De Concilio, 
 Venet, Edit. 1728, Edgar Var. p. 161. 
 
 And finally, the pope being invested with all power in heaven, and on earth, all 
 civil governments are of right under his dominion. The pope, says a council which 
 had Gregory VII. at its head, "ought to wear the token of imperial dignity ; all 
 princes ought to kiss his feet." Pope Innocent HI. said, "the church, my spouse, is 
 not married to me without bringing me something." And he goes on to state that 
 dowcry, namely; the spiritual and the temporal crown in plenitude ; " that others 
 may say of me, next to God, ' out of his fulness have we received !' " Hence, in 
 the times of European degradation, he trampled under foot all the laws, and all the 
 magistracy of the European kingdoms. 
 
 " Qui Satanam non odit, amet tua dogmata Papa !" 
 
 And as if they attempted, without compunction, the utmost limit of impious daring, 
 they claim power to do Mdiat Christ himself never did ; namely, " to redeem souls 
 out of purgator}'-." And those accredited Romanists, who licensed that marvellous 
 book, the Revelations of St. Bridget, such as Terrecremata, and others, gave sanc- 
 tion to that declaration that "the good Gregory, sua oratione, &c., by his supplica- 
 tions raised aloft ' ad altiorem gradum,' to a loftier grade, even the pagan Caesar." 
 Morn. Exer, 88. 
 
 Such are the arrogant and blasphemous claims advanced by means of your " infal- 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC C05TR0VERST. 45 
 
 lible rule." It is impossible not to conclude that this is the invention ofhim " whose 
 coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders!'* 
 
 VII. The history of your church establishes this position, that it is false, in fact, 
 that there is any such thing as an infallible rule in her. If there were infallibility 
 in the "Holy Mother," or in the pope, by the "infallible exercise" of their "infal- 
 lible rule," then, most assuredly, it would not be too much to expect something like 
 sanctity and pure morals, in his holiness, and in his court. We have shown that in 
 regard to our rule, all disorders, and divisions in the Protestant churches, arise from 
 their not fully listening to, nor entirely obeying, God's holy law rud word. But no 
 evils, no errors, no divisions, have ever been caused by the Bible. To charge this 
 on the holy law, is to charge it on God Almighty speaking in it. But, in your case, 
 it is entirely different. We offer to prove that your rule is corrupt ; that your head, 
 the pope, is corrupt ; and that your church is corrupt. And it is the very exercise of 
 your infallible rule that does actually cause all these errors and divisions in the 
 Romish church! 
 
 Now, let any candid man look at the court and priesthood of Rome, where this 
 infallible rule is, in its purest influence and operation. And, gentleman, you know 
 as well as I do, what that eminent divine of your church has written,— namely, 
 Claude D'Espence ;— " Shameful to relate ! They gave permission to priests to 
 keep concubines, upon paying an annual tax !" This is only a tithe of sacerdotal 
 impiety. And yet you affect to marvel at my charging them w^ith "immorality 
 and pollution." Can it be possible that you do not know what " chastity" means in 
 the lips of priests ? But hear the same doctor : " There is a printed book which has 
 been sold for a considerable time, entitled the Taxes of the Apostolic Chancery, from 
 which we may learn more enormities and crimes, than from all the books of the Sum- 
 mists. And of these crimes, there are some which persons may have liberty to commit 
 for money ; while absolution from all of them, after they have been committed, may 
 be bought." D'Esp. ad. cap. i. Epist. ad. Titum. deg. ii. Hence the pollution of 
 your indulgences ; hence the pollution of your auricular confessions, hence your abso- 
 lutions for money ! Every one of your victims knows the truth of all this ! 
 
 Then, in reference to the character of the pontiff, who wields this "infallible rule ;'• 
 I quoted out of Baronius, in my last, the character of many of them. To this, you 
 replied,— " Your tirade about the popes is out of place, and of no consequence, &c." 
 Most logical reply. Nevertheless it is strictly in point; and you feel it; and you 
 cannot question one of my quotations ! I directed the public eye to the pontiff, and 
 his throne, beaming with holiness ! Your own writer, Guiciardini, speaking of the 
 popes, even so late as those of the sixteenth century, says,— "He was esteemed a 
 good pope in those days, who did not exceed in wickedness, the worst of men !" 
 
 Alexander VI. was a reproach to human nature, aud died by a mistake ; taking 
 that poisoned chalice which he had prepared for another ! Julius II. was so notori- 
 ously wicked that "he was a scandal to the whole church. He filled Italy with 
 rapine, war, and blood." Pope Leo X. Avas not a believer in the immortality of the 
 •oul ; nor even in any doctrine of Christianity ; he was a spiritual juggler : he called 
 the gospel of Christ "a lucrative fiction !" And to a cardinal who offered him conso- 
 lation in his dying moments, by a text of holy writ, he exclaimed " Away tvith your 
 baubles of texts r— Fan] iii. and Julius iii. "were such licentious characters that no 
 modest man can write, or read their lives without blushing." The popes of the darker 
 ages, the tenth century, for instance, and up towards the dawn of the Reformation, 
 
46 ROMAW CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt. 
 
 were in all respects, rivals of the Roman pagan Emperors. To their utmost licentious- 
 ness, and lewdness, they added cruelty more revolting than even that of theirs! 
 Witness John X., John XXII., and XXIII. and Innocent VIII., who made the 
 ▼allies of Piedmont flow like streams, with the blood of thousands of innocents ! 
 
 If there was the operation of an "infallible rule" in the Romish church, there 
 would at least be some traces of an exact and conspicuous harmony. But the " living 
 rule and judge" itself has caused the reverse of all this. The example of iEneas 
 Sylvius was honest and instructive. Before he became Pope Pius II. he had zealously 
 a^efended the council of Basil against the Roman court. When challenged for advo- 
 cating opposite sentiments when created a pope, he replied that "as Sylvius, he was 
 a damnable heretic, hut as Pope Pius II. he loas an orthodox pontiff:' And it is a 
 notorious fact, that in the struggles of Rome to gain unlimited power, your " infallible 
 Jud<Te" originated almost all the political wars of Europe; and all the divisions in the 
 church before the bishops yielded up their rights ; and before the temporal princes 
 Were brought to place their necks under the haughty priests' heel ! In proof of this I 
 •refer the curious reader to Hallam's Hist, of the Middle Ages, vol. 1. chap. 7. And 
 Stillingfleet on the Divisions of the Rom. Church, ch. 5. 
 
 In reference to the disputes about doctrines, let the priests name one contested point 
 settled, finally, by this infallible judge. Has the question about the Virgin Mary's 
 "immaculate conception," been settled ? No. Have the disputes been settled rela- 
 tive to the kind of v/orship due to the natural blood of Christ, which raged between the 
 Franciscans and Dominicans, in the fourteenth century ; and again, a century after 
 this, under Plus II. ? No, the pope's interf.^ rence rather made it worse. Has your 
 infallibility been able to compose the theological wars between the Calvinistic 
 Jansenists, and the Arminian Jesuits ? Every infallible interposition made the flames 
 blaze still more fiercely. Who taught servants to rebel against their lawful prince, 
 iind seize the throne? Your infallible judge, in the person of Pope Zachary, and of 
 Gregory VIII. who put his heel on the emperor's neck. — " Your infallible," who km- 
 dled the terrible wars in Germany, and over all Europe: the ghostly arrogance of 
 your infallible judge, climbing to civil power, and setting nation against nation in 
 Older to weaken their power. — ^Who set w^hole nations against their lawful rulers I 
 •^The infallible pope," who suspended civil lav.'s, and stopped commerce; and spread 
 civil rebellion over the land. Who massacred the Huguonots, the Waldenses, and 
 Lollards? The hired assassins of the " infallible judge" of Rome, which celebrated 
 the Parisian massacre by a solemn Te Deum ! Who changed the doctrines and the 
 decrees, and the institutions of heaven? Your infallible judge,— who has corrupted 
 the doctrines of the Bible; added five sacraments, unknown to the early church, and 
 contrary to Christ's solemn commands : who has, also, instituted the various orders 
 of lazy and vicious monks, friars, and nuns, to devour the surplus product of the 
 people's Industry. Who, professes to convert virtue into vice ; and vice into virtue ? 
 Let yourBellarmine answer, — "-the pope, who can transubstantiate sin into duty, and 
 duty into sin ! De Rom. Pontif. Lib. iv. cap. 5.— Who can dispense with law, and 
 light? Let your own Pope Gregory hi. in 8. and iv., answer it: — ''Possumus ^c. 
 We can dispense against law and right! See also Extravag. Comm. 208. And 
 Labbeus, vol. 19. p. 924. Who seats himself on God's throne, and usurps his prer.o- 
 satives ? Your pope who airogates the right and power to grant indulgences ; who 
 demands confession of sin to be made to him and his priests ; who absolves all sins at 
 ft regular tariff; who delivers from purgatory; and sends the most vicious and ungodly 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC COIfTROVERjST. 4^ 
 
 men to heaven, for money, according to the chancery book mentioned by Espence. 
 Who founded the helHsh Inquisition, and turned loose on the human race, such a mon- 
 ster as the inquisitor Torquemada ? " The infalUble judge," your pope, whose 
 servants have repeatedly gratified the royal courts of Spain with the Moloch sacrifices 
 of human beings, at an Auto de Fe! 
 
 Such are tlie legitimate fruits of the exercise of your Rule. Let the world judge of 
 the tree, by these poisonous and deadly fruits. 
 
 VIII. We have the consent of the greatest and best of the Fathers against your rule, 
 and most decisively in favor of our rule. 
 
 These quotations I shall reserve for the present. They will come in appropriately 
 at the close of our discussion on the rule of faith. 
 
 IX. Your rule is the instrument by which you have established claims that go to 
 annihilate all liberty, civil and religious, from the face of the earth. You deny God's 
 word to the people unless they have a written permission from a priest, condescending" 
 to allow him to hear his iMaker speaking unto hun ! But with even this permission, 
 you deny him the rights of private judgment, or even to think with that soul which the 
 Almighty has given him. He must think, and reason, and believe, just as the lordly 
 priest dictates. The prelate exerts the same tyranny over the priest, and the pop« 
 over the prelate. And in those kingdoms where popery is the established religion, 
 priestcraft eats out the very existence of civil Uberty. I point to Spain, to Rome, 
 to Naples, to Austria ; and say, behold, fellow citizens, the melancholy proof. All 
 the doctrines of supremacy, and toleration, and union of church and state, are genuine 
 popery, begotten and nursed, and matm-ed by your pope. And what is the state of 
 ofur Republic ? I see the holy and lovely genius of Liberty walking forth over our 
 happy plains, in her fair robes and glory, and calling her happy votaries to every 
 national blessing and happiness. And near her pathway we perceive a fierce lion 
 in his den ; his face peering from his dark and disguised cavern ; but his claws are 
 pared, and his teeth broken : he is flapping his lusty sides with his tail ; waiting with 
 impatience for his claws to grow, and his teeth to be whetted, his eyes, the while, 
 gleaming dark and unsubduable wrath. His blood shot eyes are ever on the fair 
 Genius of Liberty, and he is meditating a ferocious assault upon her, the moment he 
 prowls forth, when the sun shall be setting over the land ! 
 
 X. x\nd last: neither prelate nor priest caM give their flocks any decisive evidence 
 that they are lauful, and ordained jmstors. 
 
 Were it even possible that you could establish apostolical succession, you cannot 
 prove a legal ordination. For, first, no priest has the true and essentially necessary 
 CALL of the christian people. A man takes it into his head to go to a catholic semi- 
 nary ; after his term is rmt, without the least evidence of spiritual conversion by the 
 grace of the Holy Ghost, he presents himself to the bishop, and is ordained, and then 
 he is stationed in a chapel ; say St. Patrick's, or St. Peter's. The gospel call of a 
 christian people is never asked. And I do question gravely, if you, gentlemen priests, 
 do really understand what a gospel call is ! 
 
 Second. — The office of priest as you take it, (not as my Episcopalian brethren take 
 it,) is unknown to the Christianity of the New Testament. It is an outrageous imposi- 
 tion on scripture and reason. I challenge any man to produce me one passage, justly 
 and correctly translated, in all the New Testament, wherein the office or even name 
 of priest is ever applied to a successor of the apostohcal teachers. The Greek was 
 used by the Holy Ghost in tlie New Testament, Now there is not ito all the Greek 
 
48 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 thereof, or in any truly and correctly translated passage, one instance of the true 
 ministry of Christ being called priests in the visible church. By assuming the name 
 and office of priest, the catholics overthrow the priesthood of Christ, and his one, 
 final, and only offering of a sacrifice. "By this one offering, he has, for ever, per- 
 fected them that are sanctified." But the catholics call their officiating men priests, 
 simply, and only, for this reason, that they offer up the sacrifice of the mass, — even a 
 sacrifice, in the room of Christ's one, only, and never to be repeated sacrifice ! By 
 this very name of priest, assumed by them, do they deliberately and designedly over- 
 throw our Lord's blessed and perfect atonement ! 
 
 As surely then, as this sacrifice was perfect, and needed never to be repeated, eo 
 surely are there no such things as priests to offer sacrifice by the will of God ! 
 
 Thirdly and last : There is not a Romish priest in existence, who can prove his 
 ordination : because not one of them can prove the existence of the bishop's intention, 
 in that rite. In this " Sacramental rite," your own council of Trent, Sess. 7. declared 
 that he who denies that the intention of the officiating minister is not necessary to th£ 
 efficacy of the sacrament, is to be anathema. Now, unless the " holy bishop," who 
 ordained you, gentlemen, had the intention in his soul, conscience, and heart, really 
 and truly to ordain you ; or if his mind happened to waver ; or to wander after some 
 object, — in fact, if the talisman and magic charm of intention was, in any measure, 
 wanting, then you are not ordained. And what is more, if you venture to set up pre- 
 tensions to ordination without the perfect evidence that the bishop had the said intention, 
 you are not only not ordained, but you are absolutely under the holy ban of the council 
 of Trent ; and exposed to damnation ! ! 
 
 Now, I defy any of you, gentlemen, with all the aid of your " infallibility," to 
 prove this intention. The witnesses of the scene cannot prove it. You cannot 
 yourselves prove it ; because you could not penetrate the mind of the bishop. The 
 bishop himself cannot prove it : he can produce no evidence to satisfy any one : he 
 has not the least recollection on the subject. None but God can tell whether he had 
 the INTENTION. But, most assuredly, without this unattainable evidence, you are 
 ruined ! Without it, not a soul of you can prove your ordination. Without it, you 
 are living in a mortal sin, — for any thing you know to the contrary. 
 
 Hence we arrive at the most certain conclusion that you have neither an " infal- 
 lible rule," nor legitimate pope, prelate, priest, or church, before God or man ! 
 
 I am. Gentlemen, Yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER V. 
 
 It opens with a discussion on ingratitude, — Dr. B's claims to sympathy, — his defeat, — his 
 
 presumptuous challenge of the priests of New York ! 
 
 " Your next claim rests on your claims to be a ' Gentleman, and Writer for the Middle 
 Dutch Church ;' and this claim is supported by language not usual with those who whisper 
 with the interior spirit and interpret the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost' " 
 
 "You say the Catholic Clergy are * a polluted and immoral Priesthood/ that the celibacy 
 of the priests is a ' pleasant joke.' The same foul and gross slaver is sputtered through your 
 last letter." 
 
 "This third claim rests on your letter in the 'Christian Intelligencer' of Saturday, in 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY- 4f- 
 
 ^v*Aich you and your ' virtuous ladies' recommend the printing of the obscene tale and 
 slander, 'Lorette.'^' 
 
 Note. — The priests allude here to a well written little book called " Lorette, or the history 
 of the daughter of a Canadian Nun," It is a true narrative of the atrocious morals of priests 
 and runs ; and contains an interesting account of the conversion of the Nun, her mother, 
 and others. The truth is, the picture of morals drawn from the life in this book, has 
 galled our priests beyond measure, 
 
 I had no other concern in this book, tlie second edition of which is already nearly sold, 
 than siniply the reading of the M. S. and recommending it. It never was shown to "the virtu- 
 ous and highly intelligent ladies of the Middle Dutch Church.'^ It was submitted by its author, 
 formerly a Presbyterian minister in (Quebec, to a few eminently intelligent and virtuous 
 ladies ; members of the Presbyterian church ; and they cheerfully accorded to its author, 
 their hearty recommendation of it, 
 
 I addi-essed a card in confidence, to Mr. Levins, the rude author of the repeated assaults 
 on " the virtuous ladies of tlie Middle Dutch church," stating to liim the above facts. After 
 that, instead of feeling the appeal made to him, as to a gentleman, he became ten fold more 
 rude and insult>ig ! We proceed with extracts : — 
 
 " Do you seriously. Rev. Sir, intend this ansu-er as a proof that the Bible is the word of 
 God ? Here there is nothing but a series of assertions. Assertions are not proofs. Where 
 is the form of argument, — where the 'form of sound words ?' Where is the logical concate 
 nation ? Where the convincing and logical conclusion ?" 
 
 That you may knoio the work you have to execute, we i-egister the propositions contain- 
 ed in your answer. 
 
 Question. How do you know the Bible to be the word of God ? 
 
 Answer 1st. " I know it- from its external evidence of prophecy." Prove it. 
 
 2nd. " I know it from its external evidence of miracles." Prove it. 
 
 3d. "I know it from its external evidence of the gift of tongues." Prove it. 
 
 4th. " I know it -from its internal evidence, namely, its majesty." Prove it, 
 
 -5th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its purity." Prove it. 
 
 6th. " I knov/ it from its internal evidence, its sublimity." Prove it. 
 
 7th. "I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in convincing," Prove it. 
 
 8th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in converting." Prove it. 
 
 9th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in comforting." Prove it. 
 
 10th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its perfect harmony in all its parts." Prove it, 
 
 11th. '' I know it from its internal evidence, its uncorrupted preservation." Prove it. 
 
 12th. " I know it from the historical evidence of its -own tradition." Prove it. 
 
 13th. " I know it from the Hebrews and Jews." Prove it. 
 
 14th. " I know it from the African Church." Prove it. 
 
 15th. "J know it from tiie Church of the Albigenses and Waldenscs." Prove it. 
 
 16th. " And I know it from the Roman Church.^^ Prove it. 
 
 "Your only rule of faith and judge of controversy, the written word of God, speaking to 
 us in the scriptures of the Old Testament and the New, is utterly abandoned by you. 
 When asked to prove the Bible to be the word of God, you say you prove it " from the 
 external evidence of prophecy, and of miracles : and tlie gift of tongues, and that the 
 CHURCH TELLS YOU SHE HAS THIS EVIDENCE, from the autliors of the books of the holy scrip- 
 tures." Here then, Rev. Sir, is your unequivocal admission of what we contend for. We 
 contend that without the testimony of the Church, the Bible could never be proved to be the 
 word of God. This you admit.'^ 
 
 My reader is fully aware that I have, all along, admitted tite historical tradition of the chris- 
 tian church, as a prominent portion of the external evidence. 
 
 But the conclusion drawn in the next sentence by our priests, is no less extraordinary, 
 ihan the above discovery. 
 
 "Therefore" — that is " because the Bible is thus proved to be the inspired word ofGoc' " — 
 
 G 
 
50 ROMA>' CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 "therdbre, Sir, the written word of God, in the scriptures of the Old Testament and of the 
 New, is not the rule of faith established by Christ ! It is an article of christian belief, that the 
 Bible is the word of God. But this article of belief could not be known from the Bible alone, 
 how then can it be said Christ established, as a rule of faith, that which never could bring 
 man to the faith of the divinity of the scriptures. Strange, Rev. Sir, that so able a divine am 
 you, never detected the absurdity of your Protestant rule of faith and judge of controversy, 
 until jt has been fully demonstrated to you, by your Catholic antagonists." 
 
 "If you will but consult the learned work of Adamus Contzin, on the four gospels, and 
 also the great work of Serrerius, you will find that no fewer than twenty several books of 
 scripture have wholly perished. ' These books,' says Dr. BroWnlee, * referred to by deists 
 and Romish priests, such as Jasher and certain epistles and gospels, were not given by 
 inspiration.' The trick of your design is obvious. 
 
 Here our priests specify the books lost. " The book of the wars of the Lord ;" — " the book of 
 Nathan, " of Jddo," " of Gad" — " the epistle from Laodicea." They add, in the profound 
 science of Biblical lore, and settle a mooted point which has divided the first scholars, — al- 
 though they have yet to learn the Hebrew alphabet ? St. Matthew, whose Hebrew gospel 
 did not exist, in his c. xxvii. 9, quotes words spoken by the prophet Jeremy, which are not 
 new found in the writings of the prophet. St. Matthew, also c. ii. v. 23, says, "it was 
 spoken by ths prophets" — ^" He shall be called a Nazarene." Where, in any of the pro- 
 phetic books now existing, is Christ called a Nazarene? The books, then of the prophets 
 here alluded to by St. Matthew, must have perished. 
 
 "This was the belief. Rev. Sir, of the great St. John Chrysostom, whom we are better 
 pleased to follow, than the preacher in the Middle Dutch Church. In his 9th Hom. on St. 
 Matt, he says, ' many of the prophetical monuments have perished. For the Jews being 
 careless, and not only careless, but also impious, they have carelessly lost some of these 
 monuments, others they have partly burnt, partly torn in pieces. Saint Justin, writing 
 against Tryphon, shews that the Jews maliciously destroyed many of the books of the Old 
 'Testament. Yet against the testimony of the scriptures, and in opposition to the most re- 
 spectable historical evidence, preacher Brownlee asserts, 'there is no inspired book lost!' 
 Truly, Rev. preacher. 
 
 ' Q,uem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat !* 
 Anc your insane flippancy cf assertion, if not gross ignorance of the subject on which you 
 writo, places you before the 'christian public,' in the ludicrous attitude of a. frantic fanatic, 
 declaiming to a conclave of virtiious ladies, on the all sufficiency of a mutilated rule of faith' 
 while you leave to your opponents the rich and noble eloquence of tlie Chrysostoms, the 
 the Gregory's, the Basils, the Justins, the Cyprians, &c." 
 
 " You iinblushingly proclaim us idolators, because we venerate the saints of God, and pay 
 a decent respect to images." 
 
 Here follow pretended quotations from Lit*fiC7 and Melancthon, in which these worthies, th« 
 last in the world who would do it, are made to praise and laud, and almost worship, the pu- 
 i-ity of " Holy Mother !" 
 
 Next, there follows a uniq-ue illustration of a notorious Jesuit maxim, namely ; " when 
 you aie charged with a sentiment, or a crime, retort, and deliberately charge it back on your 
 ice ; and make him as ridiculous as you can." 
 
 " No priest, says Dr. Brownlee, can prove his ordination, for he cannot prove that th« 
 "bishop who ordained him, had the ' magic charm of intention.' Really, most worthy preacher, 
 '■* writer,' and ' gejitJeman,' v/e must greet you, &c. — "' 
 
 " Your intellect has strange biasses; its propensity tc ' squinting,' is, we fear, incurable. 
 How fitly it illustrates ' the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' — 'Though thou shouldst 
 bray a fool in arnorter with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.' Youa 
 doctrine of intention js among the most ludicrous that could emanate from a rheumatic brain. 
 It would uproot all confidence between man and ma^i, dissolve the laws of every system of 
 compact, and taint v/ith suspicion every pledge of trust. But to apply your puerile argument 
 
ROMAN CATIIvOLIC CGN'TR-OVEIIST. jl 
 
 to yourself. In the course of mmisteriai duties, you are asked to baptize a child. You bap- 
 tize it. According to your law of intention the parents of the child cannot prove your inten- 
 tion to baptize, therefore the child is not baptized ! This is your wondrous logic. Will the 
 preacher who did concoct it. ever prove his rule of faith? No. But, gentle Doctor, are 
 you a christian ? Were you baptized? Certainly not ; for, according to your own doctrine, 
 you cannot prove the intention of the parson who baptised you. Ergo, you are no christian. 
 Q,. E. D. You interpret the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost' to your ' virtuous' cro- 
 nies. Can they have faith in the interpretation ? They cannot prove your intention. What 
 think you of your logic, dear Doctor? You are now, Rev. Sir, openly and effectually de- 
 feated, on your rule of faith. " 
 
 " You are informed that the Jews, during their captivity at Babylon, lost the knowledge of 
 the old Hebrew tongue, in which the law and the prophets were written, and in the after period 
 of their existence, spoke Syriac, a mixture of Hebrew and Chaldaic. Those who understood 
 the Hebrew were few. It is also admitted by all, that, before the coming of Christ, there wa.i 
 no Syriac version of the holy scripture. Hence, for fourteen generations, the Jev/s had not 
 the Bible in their own original vernacular language. But the law and the prophets were 
 read in their synagogues, and the psalms were sung in a language they did not understand." 
 
 The letter is closed with a quotation from Roscoe, in which an evlogium is gravely uttered 
 on the atheistic and profligate popes ! 
 
 But we give them credit for the wittiest and truest sentence, which closes their letter V. 
 It is a bit of choice sarcasm, but purely accidental ; for our priests are * smart' only by chance. 
 Comparing the church of Rome to the bark of St. Peter, they very honestly call the whole 
 Romish priesthood, " the practised crew that man the gocdly vessel! '^ 
 
 DISSERTATION 
 
 ON THE DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 We were unwilling to be turned out of our direct course in order to meet infidel 
 objections. The following argument, therefore, was placed more than once before 
 our Letters, while the Priests reiterated their deistical questions. 
 
 Priests : 1st. " How do you know the Bible to be the word of God ?" 
 Ans. 1 St. From the external evidence of prophecy^ which has been, and is now 
 fulfilling before our eyes: (See the proof in Bishop Newton on the prophecies) and 
 of miracles by the inspired writers, and the gift of tongues : by which all the 
 nations heard the gospel in their own native language. Also from internal evidence ; 
 namely, their majesty which every christian, and every reasonable man may see on 
 every page, contrasted with every human writer : from their purity which no man 
 could have conceived, or framed in his writings ; from their sublimity^ in the concep- 
 tions and descriptions of God, of heaven, of hell, which no uninspired man could 
 execute : from their ejjicacy iu convincing and converting sinners ; and comforting 
 the saints : no human composure ever has done this. The sacred writings, which 
 have been the instrument containing the gospel, have done what no human writer 
 can do, or ever has done : and, from their uncorrupt preservation. While the whole 
 persecuting power of pagan Rome was bent on their destruction ; and innumerable 
 errorists and heretics sought to corrupt them, — neither they, nor Rome have succeeded. 
 All the Roman priests, and all the Voltaire and Paine school, being of one mind here, 
 cannot prove one sentence, far less one inspired book, lost. And we challenge these 
 bold slanderers of God's "pure and perfect word," to prove one — even one of their 
 sljnders. 
 
5^ Roman catholic controversT. 
 
 Moreover, the Bible is proved to be the word of God from the historical evidenc*e 
 OF tradition. To the christian church, as well as the Jewish church, were com- 
 mitted the oracles of God. The hundreds of thousands of christians who lived in the 
 days of the apostles, received these inspired books from the apostles, and evangelists : 
 and being fully satisfied of their inspiration, by their internal evidence, and by the 
 miracles and prophesies, and tongues, given in proof, by God's inspired servants, the 
 christian members of the Church transmitted them to their children, with their certi- 
 fication of this evidence ; and they to their children, until they have reached us. 
 And all the sections of the churches have done this. The Bible k handed down to us 
 by the Jews and Hebrews : by the S3Tiac churches, still existing in India ; as Dr. 
 Buchanan who lately visited them, testifies : and by the Greek church, more ancient 
 and more pure than that of Rome : and by the famous African churches, who in the 
 days of Augustine absolutely denied their dependence on the Roman Church: by 
 the Waldensian churches, descended from the ancient Italick churches : and who 
 possessed the very ancient Latin version, called the Old Italick version of the Bible, 
 before the vulgate was written : b}- the ancient and apostolic churches of the Culdees 
 in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, and also in Spain, — in all ofwhich the gospel 
 flourished for centuries before they were overrun by the idolatrous emisaries of 
 Popery ! And finally, they have been transmitted also by the humble aid of the Roman 
 Catholic church. Moreover, -all the ancient versions of the Bible, made in the first, 
 second, and third centuries, in Asia, in x\frica, and Europe, have the valid authority 
 of so many most undoubted traditions confirming the evidence of the existence of the 
 original word of God : and lastly, the enemies of the church, such as Celsus, Por- 
 phyry, Zlosimus, and Julian the apostate, do all bear their testimony to the authenti- 
 city and genuineness of the apostolical writings.. 
 
 Thus, on the strength of this full and irresistible moral evidence, do we believe the 
 Bible to be the w^ord of God. AVe are not so weak and bigotted, and foolish as to 
 believe it, mereh'' on the church's tradition. The internal evidence is as strong, this 
 day, on our minds, as it ever was ; and we have the constant fulfilling of predictions 
 before our eyes, over the churches, and the world. And, finally, we see it- manifestly 
 PROVED in the conviction and conversion of CTery one that is brought into the foM of 
 God, by the Holy Spirit. Every christian conversion by the gospel read and preached, 
 is a fresh and irresistible demonstration that the Bible is most certainly, and evidently 
 the word of God. 
 
 Priests : 2d. " How do you know which books were written b}' divine inspiration ? 
 The Bible cannot prove its own inspiration." 
 
 Ans. 2d. No Roman Catholic, or Protestant, so far as I know, ever said to a deist, 
 that the Bible proves its own authenticity and genuineness. Your Bull Unigenitus, 
 for instance, does not, and cannot prove its own authenticity ; the Magna Charta,. and 
 our own Declaration of Independence do not prove their own authenticity. None 
 but papists can mistake here. Their defective education, and their wretched theolog}-, 
 induce them to think that there is only one form of evidence to establish the authenti- 
 city and divinity of the Bible, — and that is, — ''Holy Mothers testimony and autho- 
 rity r 
 
 We know '^' which books were written by divine inspiration, in the following per- 
 fectly satisfactory manner.. 
 
 The authors of each of the books of the holy scriptures, first gave evidence before 
 the church, by working miracles, by prophesying, and speaking tongues, that they 
 
ROIL&N CATHOLIC CONTROV£RST« JO 
 
 were the accredited messengers of God. This being settled, they wrote those books 
 which bear their names, at the command of God. ** Thus saith the Lord," was the 
 evidence that they were enjoined to speak and write. This estabhshed their divine 
 inspiration. (See Hos. viii. 12 — ^John xx. 31 — Rom. xv. 4; 2 Tim. iii. 16 — Rev. i. 
 11 &c. &c., also the beginning of each of Paul's epistles.) Having written them by 
 inspiration, they delivered them publicly to the church, certified in their hand writing. 
 This established their authenticity and genuineness : the church saw and knew that 
 these holy authors did most certainly write the books which bear their name. And 
 the churches in Asia, and in Greece, and in Africa, and in Italy, and in all Europe, 
 handed them down from generation to generation, just as the Magna Charta of Eng- 
 land, or the Declaration of Independence is by tradition, handed down from age to age. 
 And, finally, just these books which compose the Bible, and no other books whatever, 
 have had these evidences. And, thus, we know, by the most certain demonstration, 
 what books were given to us by divine inspiration ; and what books are not inspired ; 
 and therefore, apocryphal. 
 
 Priests : 3d. '* Does the Bible contain the whole word of God ?'* 
 
 Ans. 3d. It does. And the same evidence which establishes the fact of their di- 
 vine inspiration, fully establishes this. There is no inspired book lost. Those books 
 referred to by deists and the Romish priests, as lost, such as Jasher, and certain epis- 
 tles and gospels, were not given by inspiration. And we defy all the priesthood of 
 Rome to prove their inspiration. 
 
 Let them not shift the question. We make a public call on you, priests, to prove 
 the inspiration of these lost books. If they do not finally enter on the proof of their 
 inspiration, then we shall set it down as a public recantation of their error; and a 
 confession of their utter unfitness to prove their position. We know they cannot : 
 and we are assured they dare not offer any defence of their inspiration. Remember 
 your own words, the mere fact of their being written by a prophet, or an Apostle, as 
 Barnabas, is no evidence, alone, of their inspiration. Produce the evidence of their 
 divinity which we have for "all scripture." You cannot: and you know that you, 
 cannot^ 
 
 Gentleman, it is just as impossible that any of the inspired books could be lost, by 
 the carelessness of the church, or the cunning of the enemy, as it is impossible that a 
 book of the common law of the United States, or of old England, or any part of the 
 Magna Charta, or our Declaration of Independence, can be abstracted and lost! 
 
 Such a loss could not take place in the days of the Apostles; for they could bear 
 their testimony to all that was inspired ; and against all that was forged. It could not 
 take place after their death, for before the death of the last of the Apostles, namely, 
 John — copies of the holy scriptures, even of the entire and perfect canon, were mul- 
 tiplied over Asia, Africa and Europe. 
 
 Priests : 4. How can you prove that the scriptures alone are the sufficient rule ?" 
 
 Ans. 4. By the strongest testimony that can exist : namely, Hie testimony of 
 Almighty God. And bold and unblushing must that christian deist be who shall dare 
 to give the lie to the Almighty. Psalm xix. — " The law of the Lord is perfect : con- 
 verting the soul ; the testimony of tlie Lord is sure, making wise the simple : *' the 
 judgments of the Lord are true and altogether righteous." "By them is thy servant 
 warned ; and in keeping of them there is great reward." The whole of Psalm cxix ; 
 and particularly these: — "Through thy precepts I get understanding: — "Thy word 
 is a lamp to ray feet; a light to my path." " Thy word is very pure :" &c, Isaiahi 
 
 6* 
 
54 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 viii. 19, 20. " If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light 
 in them." John v. 39. " Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eter- 
 nal Hfe: and they are they which testify of me." John xvii. 17. " Sanctify them 
 through thy truth. Thy word is truth." 2 Pet. i. 19. "We have a more sure word 
 of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed," &c. 2 Tim. iii. 15. "The 
 holy scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation," &e. And, finally, they 
 make the " the man of God perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 
 
 I shall conclude this, by noticing briefly several vulgar errors of Roman catholic 
 priests, which we deem incurable. 1st. The invariable reply of a priest when asked 
 what he conceives to be the Protestant rule of faith, is this : " The scriptures as under- 
 stood by every person of sound judgment are their only rule of faith.''' This is as wan- 
 ton a misrepresentation as would be that of a criminal who atlfilrms that, " it is not the 
 law of the land, hut my own construction of that law, by which I am to be tried !" — 
 Besides, we object to this, because it actually palms on the Protestant church, the 
 very error which we condemn in popery! The Roman catholic rule of faith, is this: 
 "The whole word of God, written and unwritter, as explained by the catholic or 
 universal church," That is, — as it is explained by the fallible judgments of each of 
 the faUible individuals who constitute that church. It is ludicrous that the best of 
 their polemics should thus charge on us the essential principle of their own system ; 
 and then maintain a lusty warfare against us for holding it ! 
 
 2d. The Romish priests always assume it as a fact that they are the succes- 
 sors of the apostles ; and are, by heaven, invested with power equal to them ! 3d. 
 Tliey denv that Christ commanded his apostles to write any of the New Testament 
 scriptures ! He commanded his apostles " to go and teach all nations." " And this," 
 say they, by a most arbitrary construction, "always means oral instruction. They 
 were sent to preach, not to write books!" 
 
 Christ certainly commanded them to write the New Testament scriptures. See 
 Rev.i. 10, 11, 17, 19; Luke xxiv. 44, 47; 2d Tim, iii. 16. 
 
 And if he did not, then the New Testament is not given by his inspiration. For 
 God's act of inspiring them to write, was his act of commanding them to write the 
 New Testament. If they wrote without his command, they went beyond their com- 
 mission. Such is the inveterate spirit of deism pervading popery ! 4th. That "the 
 Bible is the most obscure book in the world." This simply means that the system 
 of popery cannot be found in it by common readers. And as the priests alone can 
 find that in the scriptures, and other writings, which God never put there, nor au- 
 thorized ; hence it is necessary to the very existence of popery, that the priests shouid 
 be constituted the only persons who can explain scripture, and keep their victim's con- 
 science! 5th. That " Christians, previous to the writing of the New Testament, had 
 not the scriptures as a rule." This is spoken in the face of clear evidence to the con- 
 traiy. " Search the scriptures," said our Lord. They had the Old Testament, and 
 the benefit o»f inspired teachers. Lastly: The Roman Cathohc priests betray at 
 every step, the painful deficiency of their education. Biblical literature forms no 
 portion whatever of their education. On no other principle can we account for their 
 ludicrous blunderings. For instance, our priests confound internal evidence with 
 external, as in the following quotation from their letter V. : — "But if you can produce 
 no text which can precisely determine the number of canonical books, then it evidently 
 follows tliat there is something to be believed, which cannot be found in the scriptures 
 themselves, and, by consequence, the written word of God alone, is neither a /w/^ nor 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 55 
 
 Siijficient rule of faith, If you could have produced the text, you would not have 
 referred us to the passag-es in holy writ, which can never prove, por were they ever 
 intended to prove, that the scriptures alone, are a sutficient rule of faith." See reply 
 in No. 2, above. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AXD MR. LEVINS. 
 
 Rev. Gentlemen. — I finished in my last, my ten arguments against your Roman 
 catholic rule of faith. I have reason to know that the enlightened public are satisfied 
 with the perfect conclusiveness of these arguments. Your pretensions to an infallible 
 rule being entirely annihilated, — the claims set forth in behalf of our rule and Judge 
 of controvers}', are of course, without a rival, from 3"our annihilated system. I call 
 the attention of the Protestant, and Roman catholic public to the fact that the priests 
 have not examined nor refuted one of these te?i arguments: they have not even ap- 
 proached one of them. The strongest thing they have said is this ; — " What has all 
 tliis to do with the defence of your Protestant rule ?" This is really amusing. So 
 utterly destitute do you seem to be of the true logic, and the scientific rules of defence 
 and offence, — that even while your whole magazine of ammunition was in the act of 
 being blown up, about your ears, you gravely ask us, " pray what has all this to do 
 with your defence of the Protestant rule?" I had thought, gentlemen, that there 
 were only two claims set up ; that of the Protestant rule in the holy scriptures ; in 
 which the infallible Judge, namely. Almighty God, the Spirit speaks unto us, by that 
 which is already revealed : and closed for ever, and pronounced by the Almightv, 
 perfect : and all-sufficieut '*to make the man of God perfect :" and on the other hand, 
 the Roman catholic rule ; which your church, in fatal, but characteristic union with 
 deists, sets up in opposition to the holy bible : even as, with unparalleled daring and 
 irapiet}^ you place the pope and council on the throne of judgment, in rivalship with 
 Almighty God ! And of these two rival claimants, one of them, namely, j'our rule, 
 and the whole of your presumptuous assertions, being, I trust, demolished and annihi- 
 lated : of course, our rule, stands forward alone, and without any rival. 
 
 I shall now redeem my pledge, and take up your various objections, errors, and 
 misstatements. I have postponed the examination of them, to this place ; because 
 every one saw that you threw them out, — not at all because you, yourselves, believed 
 them : but simply because you availed yourselves of every difficulty, and obstacle, 
 to impede us in our demolition of your rule. You had not the merit, nor even the 
 means of throwing down a golden apple, to turn us out of our course. 
 
 I. One of the main objections, and that on which my opponents establish the last 
 hopes of their sinking cause, is taken from their view of traditions. — Their church 
 like that of the Hebrew church, had the oracles of God, committed to them; fhey con- 
 veyed them down to these times. This seems to be an innocent position : but it was 
 assumed as a position on which to plant the Antichristian lever, by which they have 
 moved and convulsed the civil and political world. " They have been," as Augus- 
 tine says, " the librarian of the church;" or as another shrewdly observes, "the mere 
 carrier of the mail bag;" to transmit to a whole vicinity, the contents of that mail 
 bag, for their own benefit, and that of others. 
 
56 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 But could the gravest spectator refrain from laughter, did the post hoy^ summoning 
 the community together, gravely harangue them thus? "It is well known to you all, 
 that the general government has committed to my trust one of the lines, by which the 
 contents of this mail bag is carried : therefore by virtue of this trust-worthiness, I de- 
 mand the right and honor of being all the carriers of all the lines in the world ! I 
 claim also the right of keeping, in my power, all the contents of the mail lines ; and of 
 enacting my own personal explanations of every letter in them, and those to whom 
 they are directed, have, as every one knows, no right, nor power, whatever, 
 to do this ! And, hark ye, I am not to be trifled with : I have a right, as mail-carrier, 
 to make as much gain of you all as I can. And let the obstinate know, in a word, 
 that the fires of purgatory await every opposer of rny will ! I have not done yet, — I 
 claim, moreover, in right of being letter carrier, to have the spiritual and temporal 
 power over each soul in the whole district through which I pass. It is my right to 
 fix your destiny here, to open heaven to you, or shut its gate irrevocably, for the 
 DUES paid to me according to my will and pleasure ! 
 
 This modest claim set up by the post hoy, is literally what the pope and his priests 
 ^ave set up. Because they happened to be the mail carriers of one line : because as 
 one section of the church, they carried the Bible down to their vicinity : they are the 
 entire carriers of all lines ; and they arrogate extravagant ghostly claims to spiritual 
 dominion over men's souls, bodies, and property ! Had it not been for the incon- 
 ceivable blindness and ignorance of the dark ages, these claims would have been 
 received only with indignation, — or to say the least, with peals of laughter ! The 
 post boy's ravings were soberness compared to this. 
 
 II. The whole of their doctrine touching traditions, is involved in fanaticism 
 and extravagance. For instance : — 
 
 1st. Availing themselves of the ambiguity of the word, they use it to mean, at one 
 time, the transmission of the Bible to our times : at another, to mean those oral doc- 
 trines, undefined, invisible, artificial, and intangible, — that are convenient for a mis- 
 chievous aud designing power, — as an instrument to originate, and establish new 
 doctrines and rites. 
 
 2d. The Romish church holds that, by tradition alone, the entire evidence of the 
 divine inspimtion of the Bible is established. She merges the whole intermil evidence 
 and the other branches of the external, in this, for one grand selfish object, namely, — 
 gain. 
 
 3. She pronounces judgment in her own behalf, that she is the only church of 
 God. Aud all the churches that have flourished in Syria, Greece, Africa, and 
 Europe, are in her all absorbing and ambitious views, utterly nothing i Hence, no 
 attention is to be paid to their historical monuments, or their transmission of the 
 scriptures ! 
 
 4. Having arrogated to herself this exclusive title, she assumes the right of determin- 
 in«y that her exclusive tradition bestows on the Bible all the evidence necessary 
 
 o 
 
 to settle its inspiration, and its authority ! 
 
 5. This simple handing down of the Bible, she says, gives her the entire right of 
 not only determining the authority, but of fixing the meaning of God's word : and of 
 dictating a religioai to the conscience of all God's subjects. Nay, like the tyrant, intox- 
 icated with the lury of ambition, she claims from the humble act of conveying down 
 the scriptures, aa unbounded ghostly poorer over all the souls, and the bodies, and the 
 property of men ! She is thence a Ood on earth : she pardons sin, and creates new 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSf. &f 
 
 objects of worship, by the power of canonizing. And to crown the whole tale of her 
 unparalleled claims, wherever she meets, even in the pages of Protestants, with the 
 word Church, or Catholic; she assumes it as granted that she only is meant, and 
 that all our Protestant champions, even when opposing her, meant only homage to 
 her, because they defended '• the church," the " catholic," or, general Church, 
 which of course, could mean only the Roman sect ! Such unheard of reasoning, gerv- 
 tleraen, pervades all your letters. 
 
 II. There is a peculiar sentiment interwoven in all the abjections of my opponents-: 
 and it is deserving of notice, as it is characteristic of catholicity at home, and in 
 Euro])e ; it is this. The priesthood is a spiritual nobility, and exclusive aristocracy, of 
 an awful order. They are in fact, every thing ; and tJie poor laity art 7iothing, utterly 
 nothing! Hence the terms in our priests' letter, "The poor ignorant people," of 
 " scanty intellects," and "weak capacities ; " Strange, to think that the Redeemer 
 should require such to jncJc out their religion from the scriptures !" And this system 
 deems it not enough to brutalize the laity ; it also insults them-. And hence the corir 
 clusion which the piiests draw from the fact of their degradation, is as curious in point 
 of logic, as it is destitute of all benevolent feeling ; — namely, because they are ignorant, 
 therefore, we will not allow them the great means appointed by God to instruct them ; 
 the laity shall not have the right to hear what God says to them, without a priest's 
 v/ritten license ! 
 
 *' But God has given his word as a light to our feet, and a lamp to our path." " The 
 man of God is made perfect b}'- the scriptures, and is thoroughly furnished by them 
 unto all good works." " No, my child," says Holy 3Iother by her priests, " that light 
 does not njean light ; that lamp is not the lamp ; God's law, though perfect, is " a falla- 
 cious," and mischievous rule ; " perfect" does not mean " sufficient I" '• And mark me, 
 my son," says she, — " we are very watchful, and very benevolent ; though men may 
 have thinking powers, they hare no right before me, to think ! Though God may have 
 given to each private man, a judgment, yet none have the rights of private judgmenii 
 with me ! Though there are souie things hard to be understood, and only some, it is 
 true, — yet it is far the safest way to keep out of the laity's hands all the plain and easy 
 parts too. Though some men, namely, the " milearned and unstable do wrest the 
 scriptures," yet it will be an act of pure benevolence to keep away the temptation, and 
 abstract the whole Bible from the hands of all ! 
 
 But the apostle does not say that any of the scriptures are bc^'ond the possibility of 
 being understood. They are 69(Tvor}ra hard, that is, not impossible to be understood. 
 Would it not be a little more benevolent, stiU, to make the people " learned," and 
 and thence " stable," by a solid education ? That is what you heretics say ; but 
 says Holy Mother, — "There is nothing equal to a cloud of darkness brooding over the 
 mind of our ' low, vulgar, and poor ignorant laity ;' it is highly salutary ; our priestly 
 influence would vanish in six weeks, if this cloud were unhappily dispersed. For 
 we know this by our bitter experience, ever since the squabble between Mr. Martin 
 Luther and pope Leo X." As certainly as the " poor ignorant people?' begin to read, 
 they will think for themselves: then they will reclaim from us the rights "of your 
 accursed private judgmnnt ;" and the right of going directly to God himself, to have 
 their sins pardoned for nothing ! Then the asses which we have long bridled and ridden, 
 most joyfully, peacefully, and profitably, will slip the noose. Then farewell to the 
 gains and sweets of priestcraft; and the shrines of the great goddess,, the queen of 
 heaven I ! 
 
58 lElOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 III. Another prominent feature in your logic, gentlemen, has been the vicious dir- 
 cle. When we demand of the Roman Catholics, — " How do you prove your church 
 to be infalhble ? And whence do you establish the marks of the true church ?" They 
 appeal to Matt, xxviii. 19.; and to the passage relative to Peter, the rock. In fact 
 they seek proofs of their church out of the holy scriptures. This their fathers have 
 done; and even Bellarraine, De Verbo Dei, Lib. i. 2. says, — '* Sacra Scriptura regu- 
 la credendi certissima tutissimaque sit &c. Sacred Scripture is the most certain and 
 most safe rule of faith. On the other hand in the whole course of this controversy, 
 the priests have fiercely maintained that the scriptures, their inspiration, and their 
 authority depend on the church! And thus "Holy Mother," reasons in a circle, 
 after the following- manner. A certain estate is in suit, in chancery ; a female of 
 rather a suspicious character, with a few characteristic attendants, not a whit holier 
 than they should be, appears in court, with a parchment roll in her hand ; she claims 
 the property on the evidence of that parchment roll. "Who are you?" says the 
 court; "Who I am you can know by the most perfect evidence of this parchment 
 writing." They look into the roll : there is nothing there but what is unfavorable to 
 her. "But what, and whence is this roll?" says the court. "What that deed is, 
 and whence its evidence, you can know," says she, "in the most certain manner 
 from my oral testimony. My lips certify that will ; and that will certifies me !" This 
 Ls the literal argument of our Romish priests ! ! 
 
 IV. There is one of your objections, which 1 am constrained once more to notice. 
 It is your stereotype objection in all your oral^ and written discussions. Besides it is 
 copied out of Mumford, and Milner, and put into every Roman catholic's lips. It is 
 this : *' The Protestant rule is the Bible as explained by each, by private judgment and 
 his own private interpretation^ This has been answered and exposed ten thousand 
 times by our writers: and yet, it is deliberately and constantly urged. Now, we 
 pronounce this as deliberate a slander, as it would be on my part, did I assert that you 
 recite the prayers of Mohammed at Mass ! No Protestant ever said that the Bible, 
 as explained by each one, by private interpretation, is the rule. The reason is obvi- 
 ous ; it involves a contradiction ; the Bible manifestly cannot be the rule, if each 
 man's private sentiment be the rule. The priest, therefore, who reiterates this charge 
 contradicts himself, and bears false witness against his neighbor. And yet I assure 
 my readers, that they will find our priests recklessly renewing this slanderous charge, 
 to the end. The reason is manifestly this : did they take our own doctrine, in our 
 own words, and sense, it were utterly impossible for them, for lack of matter, to 
 advance one rational objection. The Protestant church unanimously proclaims that 
 her RULE IS the word of God; and the judge and interpreter is the Al- 
 mighty God, speaking in it to us, plainly and clearly; because God in- 
 tends THAT we should CERTAINLY UNDERSTAND HIM. 
 
 V. When we urged on you, gentlemen, the fact of your corrupting the word of 
 God, by adding to it the apocrypha, and traditions, which the fathers rejected, — you 
 turned on us, and replied by charging on us, in genuine style of Jesuitism, the same 
 sin. " We cannot refrain from laughter," as St. Jerome once said on a similar charge, 
 to hear you very gravely asserting in your letter II. that "the Calvinists add to the 
 gospels, and to the epistles, the institutes of Calvin! — and the Heidleberg catechism 
 to the apocalypse!" "And they add their professions (confessions) of faith to the 
 ^ible." 
 
 According to this unique and irresistible logic, we shall presently hear it asserted 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 59 
 
 that Dr. Power's last sermon in St. Peter's, is an awful and impious addition to the 
 pope'3 bull, Uuigenitiis ! And our priests sacred tonsure is an addition to the pope's 
 tiara, and will make it no more the triple, but the quadruple crown ! What miracles 
 will not the mysterious powers of Romish logic effect ! 
 
 But, after all can it be possible that our meaning is misunderstood, when we say 
 that the council of Trent has added many books to the sacred canon ? You are 
 aware that the Tridentine Fathers declared certain books to be as much inspired, as 
 the holy scriptures, and thence enjoined them to be read with the same *' holy and 
 pious veneration," as the rest of the scriptures. Now surely, you do not mean gravely 
 to charge it on us, that we canonize as inspired, the catechisms, or confessions, far 
 loss the writings of private individuals ! 
 
 VI. *' The Hebrews" you say *' were without the written word of God for 14 
 generations ; hence the scriptures could not be their rule of faith." Gentlemen, yoa 
 appear very learned in your letter II. You give a sort of dissertation on the Hebrews' 
 losing their native tongue after the great captivity ; and the introduction of the Syriac 
 among the Jews for fourteen generations, you say, the Jews have not had the Old 
 Testament in their vernacular ; it was read in Hebrew to them ; a tongue not under- 
 stood. 
 
 All this borrowed plumage is plucked from your convenient Mumford, the Jesuit. 
 But I deny this utterly, and I call on you for his and your proof, that the Jews were 
 without the scriptures in their vernacular tongue for fourteen generations. Mumford's 
 assertion is no proof to you, or to me. I am prepared to prove your and his assertion 
 utterly false. 
 
 I shall name only one fact. Ezra, after the captivity, read the book of the law to 
 the people ; this shows beyond contradiction that they understood the Hebrew. He 
 read the law, and, as a preacher, gave the sense, and made the people understand it. 
 Ezra was not initiated into the edifying practice of praying and preaching, in Latin or 
 Chinese, to his people ! And it is interesting to know, that all the Jews, except the 
 apostate Jews, keep up this custom of Ezra ; the apostate Jews, like you, continue the 
 truly edifying and interesting habit of employing in the public worship, an unknown 
 tongue ! This, by the way, might do with the Jews, who prayed only to him who 
 knows all tongues : but with you it is a fatal and foolish work ; and I beg you to look 
 well to it ; for you ought to know that the Virgin Mary, '* the glorious Mediatrix," to 
 whom the most of your prayers are offered, being a Jewess, knew Hebrew and Syriac, 
 but nothing of the Latin, never having been at Rome ! ! Hence all your prayers are 
 thrown away upon her, even supposing you could get within the range of her eight, 
 and hearing! 
 
 VII. " If the scriptures had been the rule of faith," say you, **the church would 
 always have had them in writing; but before Moses, there was no writing; and in 
 Christ's time, they had not the New Testament." We reply tliat in all periods before 
 the written word was completed, the church had the same rule and judge. They had 
 the word of God, uttered by inspiration from the lips of the patriarchs, and prophets, 
 and from Christ, and his apostles. And the same judge, namely the Holy Ghost 
 spoke unto them, and determined all controversies, and all that was necessary to faith 
 and sound morals. This favorite objection of our priests, betrays great ignorance of 
 biblical and historical knowledge. 
 
 VIII. In your industrious zeal against the holy scriptures, you object to our rule, 
 that if Clirist had designed them for the rule, he would have commanded the disciple* 
 
60 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 to write, and to distribute Bibles : on the contrary, he said, " Go and teach all nations :" 
 and by "teaching," you assume, without proof, that instruction by the lip is meant. 
 
 I beg again to reply, that "teaching," implies as much the use of writings, as of 
 oral instruction. And our Lord's command to teach, included as much an injunction 
 to write, as to speak. Apostolical facts confirm this : they did write, as well as preach ; 
 they declared that they were enjoined to write. See Rev. i. 19. And their writings 
 they left to the church as a rule of faith. John xx. 31 ; Luke i. 3, 4 ; 2d Tim. iii. 16 ; 
 Rom. xvi. 26. 
 
 You object in words borrowed from Mumford, that, "if the scriptures were the rule 
 of faith, the apostles would have procured the Bible to each different nation in its 
 own native tongue. But they did not, — and gave no orders to their successors to do 
 it." — Letter II. I reply that you cannot prove that they did not enjoin them to do 
 this. One thing is manifest from Paul's enjoining the speaking in known tongues : — 
 that he and his associates did preach to the nations in their own native tongue. See 1 
 Cor. xiv. 19. The apostle would have made a glorious figure, if he had preached the 
 gospel to the plain Greeks in Chinese ; or taught the Romans in native Irish ! Or 
 the Scotch and Irish in full flowing Latin! 
 
 The fact is this, the Almighty set the mark of his strong reprobation against this 
 popish foolery, by his gift of tongues to the apostles. Rather than permit his servants 
 t© insult the people, and offer an outrage to common sense, by talking to them, in an 
 unknown tongue, God wrought a splendid miracle, and gave his preachers the gift o^ 
 tongues. And finally, they used the Greek of the Hebraic idiom. And Greek, says 
 Cicero, was spoken over all the east and the west. It is true, you object, again, with 
 Mumford, "that it was only the well educated in these countries, who understood the 
 Greek !" That is exactly what we mean. And hence, in all nations there were 
 multitudes of learned men who could render the Greek Septuagint, and the Greek New 
 Testament into all the different languages, as Christianity spread among the -nations. 
 And these men needed no command, — but that of reason and common sense, to move 
 them to this duty. They were enjoined to teach all men. But without books, teaching 
 could not be carried on, when the holy spirit of inspiration departed. While he was in 
 the church, as before Moses ; and before the New Testament was ^vritten, the church 
 having the law spoken by immediate revelations, could do without inspired writings ; 
 but just as he was retiring, were the inspired writings filled up. And, in fine, it is a 
 matter of historical fact, that the sacred writings were translated into various languages, 
 even before the last of the apostles, and apostolical fathers died. Witness the ancient 
 Syriac ; and soon after, the ancient Italick, or Latin version, before the Vulgate ; the 
 Egyptian ; the Persian, the Ethiopian, the Sclavonic. See Home's Introd. vol. i. p. 96, 
 and vol. ii. chap. v. where a minute account of them is given. 
 
 IX. In every attempt at argument, gentlemen, I discover one of your besetting 
 errors: it is this: you claim infallibility for the rule of your faith. But you have 
 never preserved, nor even made, the distinction between ohjective and subjective infal- 
 libihty. In the Protestant rule of faith, there is an objective infallibility. It cannot 
 be otherwise; because Almighty God speaks to us in his holy scriptures. But there 
 is no such thing as subjective infallibility. The subject on whom it operates is not 
 infallible ; it does not make all men infallible in their views. By an .accurate square 
 rule of two feet, a carpenter is guided infallibly, in his accuracy, in building a house. 
 But that same rule in the hands of a child, or a blind man, will not regulate the 
 building ; nor make the child, and the blind man infallibly accurate : and yet it is 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 61 
 
 the same perfect rule in the hands of all three. The fault lies in the subject : not in 
 the rule objectively. The royal psalmist David, distinctly recognizes this by the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit: — "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous 
 things out of thy law." Ps. cxix. 18. Gentlemen, you confound these two things, 
 with studious care, in all your declamatory opposition to the holy scriptures. And 
 the issue of your argument^ — pardon me, 1 mean no insult in calling it argument, — is 
 worthy of this wretched logic. 
 
 We have not, however, observed this mode of argument against your rule: for we 
 have shown, it is believed, to the entire satisfaction of the christian public. — 1st. 
 That you have no infallible rule whatever: because with the deistical school, you 
 abandon the holy scriptures; and with characteristic malignity, even taunt the He- 
 brew and Greek volumes, inspired by the Holy Ghost. 2d. That though you had 
 such a rule, your church and priesthood could no more wield it, to the effecting of any 
 practical application, than a man can do it, who is stricken blind ; or a wretched 
 maniac who decks himself in a triple crown, and dreams that he is pope and the vicar 
 of heaven ! and 3d. That did even such a rule exist, your succession is utterly cut 
 off' and annihilated ; and that you have neither church, nor pope, nor priest, nor sacra- 
 ment ! 
 
 X. I come now to your often repeated assertion, that "many, — nay, twenty books 
 of the Old Testament are lost." And among these you reckon, "The book of the 
 wars of God:" " Jasher," "Nathan," "Iddo," "Solomon's sayings," " the epistle 
 from the Corinthians to Paul : the epistle from Laodicea." In reply — 1st. I shall for 
 a moment suppose what you affirm to be correct. And as you make the church to be th& 
 infallible guardian and keeper of the holy scriptures, and also the very fountain of their 
 purity and authority, it is evident on your own principles, that she has been guilty of 
 a most scandalous and mortal sin, in permitting twtiity books to be lost ? But you 
 make the church the infallible rule. Here, then, your infallible rule has committed a 
 mortal sin; inasmuch as she has betrayed God's cause, and wantonly lost 20 books! 
 Either she is not the infallible rule, and keeper of God's word ; or no books are lost ! 
 
 2d. The allusion to these books, as "Jasher," &c., by the inspired writer i3 no 
 evidence of their inspiration, or their ever being a part of the holy canon. None of 
 the inspired writers call them " scripture ;" none of them (juote them as "scripture." 
 They simply allude to them as St< Paul does, in some of his sayings and epistles to 
 certain heathen poets. Thus, in the Acts, in his discourse to the Athenians, — Paul 
 quotes a sentence found in Homer, and Hesiod : also in Plato, and in Virgil, ^En. vi. 
 724 ; and the poet Aratus. And moreover, in Titus i. 12, Paul quotes the heathea 
 poet Epimenides, and pronounces his testimony a moral truth. Here St. Paul does 
 exactly no more than what the Old Testament writers do in referring to "Nathan," 
 " Iddo," or " Gad." Do you pronounce Homer, Ilesiod, and Epimenides, gravely, 
 to be inspired writers? Are these men's writings, then, holy scriptures because St, 
 Paul (pioted them I We all know that the Rev. father Levins, indeed, quotes hiJi 
 •Shakespeare ten times more fre(iuently than his Bible : and far more accurate is he 
 and more at home with Shakespeare than with the holy Bible. But we are not pre- 
 pared to hear Homer, and Epimenides, and Shakespeare canonized ! 
 
 Your appeal, gentlemen, to Chrysostom does not help your sinking cause. I deny, 
 and you must deny as well as I do, that he calls these books " scripture," or a portion 
 of the canon. You here attempt to palm an imposition on the ignorant. And verily 
 you shall have your reward. That eminent Father calls them "prophetical mom^- 
 
 7 
 
g2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 ments *" or remnants of prophetical times ; or Jewish national monuments. They were 
 not inspired works ; no honest man dare assert that tliey were ; he cannot prove it, if he 
 is so fool-hardy as to assert it. They w^ere the national legends, traditions, or rab- 
 binical books, containing historical sketches or expositions : but they were by no means 
 inspired. 
 
 In the London republication of Leslie's " Short way with the Jews," designed as a 
 tract for the Jews, you will see a clear evidence and illustration of the idea I now 
 advance. Many ancient rabbinical books were found to contain expositions of pas- 
 sages relative to Messiah, in all respects favoring the view^s of christians ; and by an 
 edict of the rabbins, a command was given to the synagogues to destroy them. 
 These "prophetical monuments" have been wantonly destroyed. You can see a 
 copy of this Hebrew injunction, in the London edition of Leslie's " Short Way." 
 
 I have only to add, that if you renew this charge " of twenty books being lost," 
 without giving the public the fall evidence of their divine inspiration, and of their 
 having once formed a part of the sacred canon, then you, and Contzen, and Serrarius, 
 and Mumford, do post yourselves as deliberate slanderers of God's holy word I 
 
 XI. "The epistle of Barnabas is authentic, but not inspired." "Now," say you, 
 
 "if the certainty of receiving the epistles of Paul, pure and entire from his hands, 
 
 as an apostle, be your reason for admitting then- inspiration, tell us why you reject the 
 epistle of Barnabas, the apostle ?" Lett. 2. 
 
 Even admitting your absurd position that there is no other evidence of inspiration, 
 than that of tradition, there is no difficulty here in answering your question. Barna- 
 bas never laid claims to inspiration ; he did not lay his ep:stle before the churches as 
 inspired : hence the church never declared it inspired : nor received as such. Hence 
 it wants the internal evidence. 
 
 I cannot omit here an amusing circumstance, relative to an extraordinary discovery 
 which my profoundly learned opponents have made in their last letter. Though I 
 have formally included tradition, and the church's testimony, in the list, as one of the 
 evidences of the truth of divine inspiration, they have just discovered, for the first 
 time, that we really do hold that ; and they exult with triumph that we have made 
 the concession ! ! But then, gentlemen, you take care not to tell your intelligent de- 
 votees, that we hold to the tradition of historical testimony of all the churches, in Asia, 
 Greece, Africa, aud Europe ; — and not in your ridiculous, and exclusive manner, to 
 the sect of the Roman church only ! 
 
 XII. In vour letters you have more than once made emphatic allusions to the 
 " Arian Cobbler," and to "old women," and " virtuous females." I must, for want 
 of room postpone the objection of the "Cobbler" which you and Mr. Hughes, copy 
 out of old Mumford; and which you improve, actually out of Volney: of this in my 
 next. I was at a loss for some time, to penetrate the reason why you speak so 
 solemnly, so often, and so affectionately about "old women," and "virtuous old 
 ladies." After some pains I have discovered the reason. A pious man, especially a 
 Roman priest, is always very grateful. And I have no doubt that yon make these 
 frequent allusions with a pious view of cherishmg the memory of good old Pope Joan ; 
 that pious and sly " old woman" and " virtuous female," who contrived to obtain a 
 cardinal's hat ; and finally, to climb up into St. Peter's chair ! You have proud 
 reasons to cherish her memory ,~good old soul ! And as pious and chaste sons, to 
 speak fondly aud gratefully of such "old women;" and " such virtuous females." 
 You can never forget " the chair Stercorarius ;" nor the street of Rome immortalized 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 63 
 
 by her labors. We cannot blame you for being grateful. It was not every pope 
 that made such a present to "Holy Mother," and to "St. Peter's chair," — as Pope 
 Joan did ; as the old Roman distich, composed by an orthodox monk, has fully shown : 
 
 viz. — 
 
 " Papa pater patrurn peperit papissa papilum ! ! 
 
 Will our learned priests oblige the reading public with a literal version of this curi- 
 ous monkish verse ; and accompany it with historical notes, and a commentary ? 
 
 You have felt the force of our remark on the unfair writer Milner. Hence you pee- 
 vishly remark, — " Your attack on the great Milner reminds us of the jack-ass kicking 
 the dead lion." There is a slight error here ; but such things will occur with even 
 accurate printers. It should have been, — " it reminds us of the lion kicking the dead 
 jack-ass!" But it is of no consequence. Even admitting him to be '' the dead liun,''^ 
 — I beg you to know that no Protestant ever strikes a fallen, — far less a dead foe ! 
 McGavin in The Glasgow Protestant, and another writer in The London Protestant 
 Journal, vol. i. 683, have actually left nothing to be done, in despatching and skinning 
 "the dead lion." They have annihilated every one of his objections : and exposed 
 the infamy of that unfair writer, who never could quote an opponent without mis- 
 statement : nor shape an argument without sophistry ; nor detail a simple narrative, 
 without falsehood and fraud ! 
 
 I am, gentlemen, your most ob't and humble serv-ant, 
 
 W. C. B, 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VI. 
 
 "The letter opens with a long discussion about 'the stamp which nature impresses on dif- 
 ferent animals.' 'So it is with fools and dunces.' Then follows a lamentation over Dr. 
 B. s 'utter failure to prove his rule.' 'Who, not gifted with prophetic vision, could have 
 supposed a teacher in Israel, a preacher in the Middle Dutch Church, a familiar with the 
 interior spirit, an erudite able to interpret every crabbed idiom in the 'Hebrew and Greek 
 of the Holy Ghost," a 'gentleman,^ who arrogates to himself the sole right to be the ' writer, 
 to his flock, and the director of ^ virtuous \a.dies,^ who could have supposed he would have 
 shrunk from the logical probation and defence of a cause to which he had invited discus- 
 
 sion 
 
 [" 
 
 " Had we foreseen your unenviable qualities of mind, you should not have numbered us 
 among your controvesial antagonists ; you might still, for aught it would affect us, have been 
 the Grand Lama of the Middle Dutch Church, and the interpreter of the 'Hebrew and Greek 
 of the Holy Ghost,' for your challenge would not have been honored by our acceptance." 
 
 "Your assertions were returned to you in the order of sixteen propositions. Why was your 
 answer given under this form ? Did you suppose it would have been admitted by us as es- 
 tablishing the Bible to be the word of God? If you did, the sixteen propositions have fur- 
 nished another form of testimony." 
 
 The priests, then, proceed to go over Dr. B.'s proofs of the divine inspiration ; and declare 
 them " puerile," and mere " assertions." " There is nothing but assertion, and a reference 
 to bishop Newton : and, on this, forsooth, you hook your infallible conclusion — the Bible is 
 the word of God ! This is really, uttei-ly, and disgracefully puerile, contemptible, farcical. 
 Yet, this is a preacher's answer in defence of his rule of faith I This is the answer of a 
 Judge in Israel, who can, when he lists, evoke the interior spirit, and interpret the " Hebre^Y■ 
 and Greek of the Holy Ghost?" 
 
 " This is the Q. E. D. of your interior spirit, and your logical basis for an article of faith ; 
 How will John Calvin greet you on the river Styx ? Your proofs now are typical of what 
 your shade will be then. Again your opponents say, — prove your answers, logical doctors," 
 
64 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY^ 
 
 Here follows a tedious repetition of the only idea that they have ever yet advanced on this 
 point, namely : that " the inspiration of the Bible is proved only from the traditionary testi- 
 mony of the churcli : that ' the church' is their sect, and that exclusively." 
 
 We have all along admitted this branch of testimony to the divine inspiration of the holy 
 scriptures: but we have insisted on the testimony of all the branches of the church of Christ. 
 The following exhibits the eternal circle in which all Romish priests move. " But this evi- 
 dence he has from the testimony of the church; therefore, without the testimony of the 
 church, he could not believe the inspiration of the scriptures. But the inspiration of the 
 scriptures is an article of christian belief; and to this belief, the Doctor could not be brouglit 
 by the scriptures alone. Therefore, the scriptures alone are not a sufficient rule of faith. — 
 d. E. D." 
 
 "You reject the inspiration of the epistle of St. Barnabas on the autiiority of the Catholic 
 church ; you admit the inspiration of the gospel of St. Luke on the same authority, and you 
 have the assurance to tell us, ' we are not so weak and bigoted and foolish, as to believe it, 
 merely on the church's tradition !' This ' mere carrier of the mail bag' as you impiously call 
 the church of Christ, is authority with 3'Ou for rejecting as inspired scripture, the writing of 
 an apostle, and for admitting as inspired scripture the writings of one who was not an apos- 
 tle, St. Luke ; and this authority which you pretend to revere on this all important point you 
 reject with contempt, when there is question of ascertaining its meaning." 
 
 " Where does the Catholic Church tell you that the books refen-ed as lost were not inspii*ed? 
 Would St. Matthew, think you, refer the Jews to uninspired prophecies, for proof that Christ 
 was the Messiah foretold by the prophets T It was spoken by the prophets, ' He .shall be 
 called a Nazarene, — Matt. c. ii. 5, 23. The books of the prophets, wherein Christ was 
 called a Nazarene, have perished, for he is not called a Nazarene in all the prophetical 
 books which v/e have." 
 
 The following sets the deism of our priests in a clear light : — ■ 
 
 " But what are we to think of the man who libels the Almighty by pertinaciously asserting 
 in the face of the public that the Almighty established as the only rule of faith, that which 
 common sense alone tells us could not be the only rule of faith. The inspiration and cano- 
 nicity of the scriptures are articles of faith. These articles cannot be proved by the scrip- 
 tures alone ; therefore, the scriptures are not the only rule of faith." 
 
 Note. — The priests, in their zeal to show^ that the Jews had, in their captivity in Babylon, 
 utterly lost the Hebrew language, ludicrously contradict their own leading tenet, by assert- 
 ino- that Ezra translated the Bible into their vernacular tongue. Here are their words : — 
 
 " Hence we conclude, that, when Ezra, ' after the captivity, read the book of the law to the 
 people,' he acted both the part of a preacher and interpreter. To have the people under- 
 stand the law w-hich he read, he must have translated it for them." 
 
 Romish priests always stoutly maintain that an infallible rule makes all those who use it, 
 infallible also. Hence the follov/ing extravagance : "Your distinction between subjective 
 and objective infallibility, is worthy of the logician, and great magician of tlie Middle Dutch 
 Church. The holy scriptures are infallible, because they are the word of God. ' But there 
 is no such thing as subjective infallibility.' So then the Almighty God, who is your inter- 
 preter of the holy scriptures and not your own private spirit, does not infallibly teach you 
 
 the truth ! " 
 
 It is curious to see the priests deprecating and denying the vicious circle, and at the same 
 moment employing it in defence of Holy Mother ! " Our church," say they, " established by 
 miracles, comes into court, witliout spot or wrinkle!'' Yes ! the polluted lady of Babylon^ 
 " the mother of harlots," as John said, " comes into court unspotted, with the testament of 
 her divine spouse. It is readily admitted to be genuine."— that is, exclusively, say the priests , 
 by the church's oicn testimony. " Its contents are duly examined ; and behold this document, 
 already proved and admitted to be genuine,— that is by her own word— says : ' That Christ 
 promised to be with his church to the end of the world.' ' That he would send her the Holy 
 Ghost to teach her all truth ;' she is called ' the pillar and the ground of truth ;' and this 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 65 
 
 Dr. Brownlee calls a vicious circle, which in logic is called a sophism, proving the same by the 
 same, in every respect. Here you see, the document is proved to be a genuine record, on the 
 respectable testimony of the Catholic church, before the ittfallihility of the church is proved from the 
 document. ^^ 
 
 Finally, in their Letter III., the priests thus express the Roman catholic sentiments, rela- 
 tive to their vulgate : — 
 
 " It is painful to be obliged to expose your ignorance where you ought to be better informed. 
 Are you not aware, Sir, that the Vulgate, which you call the worst of all translations, and 
 which you say is considered as such by all enlightened Protestants, was partly made and 
 partly corrected by the first biblical scholar, and one of the greatest and most holy men, who 
 ever lived, St. Jerome. You ought to know that this version was made when the best and 
 purest copies of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek and Latin, together with the polyglots of 
 Origen, were to be had. That this version has been constantly in the hands of the Western 
 church, in all its extent, during fifteen centuries. You ought to know, on the other hand, 
 that the Hebrew and Greek originals have been, during many ages, in the hands of wander- 
 ing Jews, and divided oppressed Asiatics, and that, therefore, you cannot possibly answer for 
 the changes they may have undergone. This eircumstance ought to cause you to observe deep 
 silence on this point. Are you ignorant that the most learned Protestants in biblical criti- 
 cism such as Mill, Walton, Polyg. have professed the greatest esteem for the Latin Vulgate, 
 The learned Grotius writes of the Vulgate, thus : " Vulgatum interpretem semper plurimi 
 feci, non modo quod nulla dogmata insalubria continet, sed etiam quod multum habet in se 
 eruditionis." Grot, in annot. in Vet. Test. And, notwithstanding this mass of respectable 
 testimony, the preacher of the Middle Dutch Church tells us that the Vulgate is the worst of 
 all possible translations" — Q,uid domini facient, audent cum talia fures ? 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 " Strike, but hear me !" — Saying of a Greek General. 
 
 Rev. Gentlemen : — I have gone over your last letter carefully. You have not 
 adduced one solitary new idea. There is no novelty, even in the style ; it is the old 
 and deep stained ribaldry, dyed in the wool ; and setting at defiance, every process to 
 wash or bleach it ! — The intelligent christian will do me the justice to admit that the 
 Protestant rule has been fuUi/ established : and that the Roman rule has been Uke wise 
 demolished by our ten arguments, ivhich have not even been noticed, far less answered, 
 hy the reverend priests. 
 
 I shall therefore close my reply to the remaining infidel objections, urged with such 
 appalling intemperance against the only rule of faith, — the word of god, and the 
 
 ONLY judge of CONTROVERSY, THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKING TO US IN IT. 
 
 I. I shall review your infidel insinuations, drawn from textual dijicidties. The 
 christian and ingenious scholar, when he meets with difficulties in the holy Bible, 
 would seek the solution of them on the pages of those judicious biblical writers, who 
 have devoted their time and talents to the illustration of biblical literature. He would 
 examine tlie original; and study Boehart, Whitby, Lightfoot, "Lux in Tenebris;" or 
 your own modern writers, Jahn, and Bug,and he would discover that there is not one 
 textual difficulty, which has not been satisfactorily solved. 
 
 It is characteristic of the unnatural infidel's criticism, and opposition to truth, to 
 sport apparent contradictions, and magnified difficulties, triumphantly detected in his 
 father's wll and testa3ient! This you have done, gentlemen, with the malig- 
 nity of unnatural sons I And what gains the infidel by this? Just as much as you do 
 
G6 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 in your infidel crusade ! Unholy and unchristian is that cause, beyond all gainsaying, 
 which requires for its defence, a traitorous and parricidal thrust, — powerless though it 
 be, — at the holy scriptures of our God and Saviour ! 
 
 I would here observe that the authority and genuineness of our common law, or Decla- 
 ration of independence, would not be affected by some slight mistakes of the transcriber 
 or printer. We maintain the same in regard to the Bible. While not one sentence is 
 marred ; not one item lost : not one doctrine altered, we may admit that a transcriber, 
 not being inspired, may have mis-spelled words, or even substituted one proper name 
 for another. AVould the omission of a name, or the alteration of a name, in some 
 copies of the signers of ssventy-six, render null and void the whole instrument 
 signed? Surely not. Apply this principle to the point before us. 
 
 In 2 Kings viii. 26. Ahaziah is said to have been 22 years old when he began to 
 reign : in 2 Chron. xxii. 2. he is said to have been 42. The Hebrews had no arithme- 
 tical figures : they used the letters of the alphabet. And in this case a transcriber had 
 the letter mem, whose power is 40, instead of the letter caph, whose power is 20. And 
 the Hebrew scholar knows that these two letters, with the diiference of a slight perpen- 
 dicular dash, are much alike. Does this change of a letter aifect any article of faith ? 
 
 Matt. i. 17. There are said to be fourteen generations between Salathiel and Christ ; 
 yet thirteen only are recorded. Whitby lias solved it, by showing that by Jeconias, 
 named in verse 11, is meant Jehoiachim, the eldest son of Josias: and that Jeconias 
 named in the 12th verse was Jehoiakim's son, who was the father of Salathiel. This 
 completes the fourteenth generation. Dr. Lightfoot advocates the following solution. 
 It was a custom, nay, even an axiom in the Jewish schools, to reduce things and num- 
 bers, to the very same name when they were nearly alike. This was avowedly to aid 
 the memory. I beg leave to refer to his book Hora Htbraica. Now, Matthew has 
 observed the three fold division of Jewish chronology ; namely, the era before the 
 kin<^s»; the era under the kings ; and the era of their national declension down to the 
 lime of Messiah. And to help the memory, after the manner of the Hebrew school, 
 he has divided each of the three eras into fourteen generations. Now, no scholar can 
 suppose this to be taken in its strict and literal sense, says the Doctor. For it is just 
 as true that Matthew has designedly left out three kings in the 8th verse, in order to 
 make 14 generations in the first era, as that he has reckoned the third era 14 genera- 
 tions, while it contains 13 only. AH this was strictly in keeping with the national 
 custom or rule of the Jews, which Matthew- did not invent, but follow : for it was to 
 the Hebrews that he was writing. See Poli Synop. in loco. 
 
 Luke iii. 35, 36. " Salah was the son of Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad.'' 
 Genesis records it thus :— " Arphaxad begat Salah." One solution is this :— Salah 
 and Cainan were the names of one person : the latter being the cognomen : and 
 hence they read it thus,— Salah the Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad. Others 
 are of opinion that as Cainan is found only in the Septuagint Greek translation, 
 and not in the Hebrew text of Moses, it was inserted into some copies of the Greek 
 Testament, out of those copies of the Septuagint, which had this word. Beza states 
 that in his copy the word Cainan was not found ; and lately Dr. Hales has shoAvn 
 that this extra name is an interpolation in the Greek Septuagint. See his New Ana- 
 lysis, vol. 1. p. 90—94. And from this it had been transfered into some copies of 
 Luke by a transcriber. It has been obseived by an eminent Biblical scholar, that 
 all the variations, and all the various readings which friend or foe can discover, do 
 not alter the aspect of one doctrine, or a single ariicle of our creed. Home ia 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSf. ^ 
 
 vol. i. appendix, iii. has devoted 64 pages to a minute examination of these textual 
 difficulties. To these, for want of room, I beg to refer my reader. 
 
 You have presented an objection from two other texts. The first is Matt, xxvii. 
 9. " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet." And the 
 words quoted are not found anywhere in Jeremiah, but in Zechariah. From this yon 
 infer that a part of Jeremiah has been lost : and, therefore, his book is mutilated and the 
 Bible imperfect. This is uttered in the reckless style of those of whose theological 
 education an accurate and enlightened Bible criticism forms no part whatever. The 
 scholar knows that there are solutions without supposing any such outrageous conclu- 
 sion. First. — These words may have been first spoken by Jeremiah, and then 
 recorded, afterwards, by Zechariah. Or, second : — we may conclude with Bishop 
 Hall and Griesbach, that a transcriber may have, in certain copies, written Jriou for 
 Zriou, that is, the contracted form of Jeremiah, instead of the contracted form of 
 Zechariah. Or, third : — We may say with others, that Zechariah was also called by 
 the name of Jeremiah, as his cognomen. See instances of this in Home, vol. 1. p. 
 53S. One apostle vv^as sometimes called Joses ; at other times, Barnabas. And he 
 who was nominated but not chosen to the apostleship, is called Joseph, and Barsabas, 
 and Justus. 
 
 The second text from which you raise an objection against " the perfect law" of 
 God, is Matthew ii. 23. " That it might be fulfilled which was spokien by the 
 prophets, he shall be called a NAZARENE." Now this is no where found in the 
 prophets' writings : and your conclusion is, — that some portion of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures is lost. Here it might be quite enough to demand, — what is lost ? " Why," 
 say you, — "this phrase or sentence is lost, — He shall be called a Nazarene." 
 Then I deny the position : for it stands here in the Bible before your eyes ; and if it 
 ever had been omitted, then here it is restored by the inspired penman. And, there- 
 fore, you the objectors being judges, it is not lost! 
 
 I shall give another solution. Matthew refers to no one prophet: "it was spoken 
 by the prophets." He refers to no one sentiment, or sentence ; he alludes to some 
 marked characteristic of Christ, noticed by the holy prophets generally. And accord- 
 ing to the four rules laid down by Wolfius and Rosenmuller in reference to the mode 
 pursued by the New Testament writers, in their quotations out of the Old Testament, 
 we perceive that they often quoted the meaning, instead of the passage literally : that 
 is, they give us the sense, instead of the formal and literal quotation : and especially 
 so, when they were quoting, not out of one prophet, but from " the prophets," in 
 order to give a condensed view of the passage. Surenhusius the learned Hebrew 
 })rofessor in Amsterdam, has observed in his Biblos Katallages, p. 2. that this phrase 
 '• to fulfil what was said," was a familiar phrase of the Talmudist^; and used by the 
 learned Jews, when they alledged not the very words of Moses and the prophets, but 
 their sense, which was deduced as a certain anxiom from them. 
 
 Now apply this rule of legitimate criticism to the words of Matthew under discus- 
 sion. A Nazarene was the epithet used among the Hebrews and Jews, of old, to 
 denote the meanest and most despised of rnankind. This was the character of the men 
 of Nazareth. Now, it was foretold by David, Psalm xxii, and Ixix. 9, 12; and Isaiah 
 Hi. and liii; and also by Zcch. xi. 12, and 13, that our Lord Jesus Christ was to 
 appear, on earth, a most humble and despised man of sorrows. And though born in 
 Bethlehem, of David's royal line, he was brought up in Nazareth among the Naza- 
 renes : and was, tlierefore, by the malignant Jews, called and reproached as a Naza- 
 
68 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 rene. And thus, what was spoken by "the prophets" was literally fulfilled; and 
 hence, no part of their writings is lost. 
 
 II. Another all prevailing error in your letters is this ; In opposition to the rule of 
 faith ordained by God, you constantly make this assumption, that Protestants sepa- 
 rate the Bible from the holy ministry and oral teaching. On this assumption is based 
 every objection, brought forward in your questions in Lett. 4 : on this are based all 
 your objections relative to the supposed obscurity of the Bible : and all that steady and 
 unflinching opposition of the Pope and his priests to Bible societies ; and the catholic 
 distribution of the scriptures among the laity. Yet no assurance to the contrary, and 
 no exposure of the unmanly misrepresentation, will induce the priests to do justice to 
 truth and themselves, as well as to us. We never separate oral instruction from the 
 reading of the scriptures. And we know from experience that, in proportion as the 
 Bible is gratuitously distributed, is the call for the ministry urgent from the people where 
 the scriptures are read. The appointed ministry of Christ, acting in his name, read 
 and expound the scriptures. And as the Bible is read, pastor and people hear God 
 speaking unto them; and learn the law from the Most High. 
 
 III. You object out of the Jesuits Mumford, and Milner, that there are certain 
 things, such as infant baptism, and the change of the Sabbath, which scripture does 
 not settle; and which tradition of the Church alone can. 
 
 There is a twofold error in my opponent's argument here : — 
 
 1st. Even admitting that these are to be established by tradition, it i* the consum- 
 mation of sacerdotal arrogance in the Roman catholic priests to despise the Syriac, and 
 the Greek, and the African, and the ancient Italick churches, and to claim the absolute 
 and exclusive right of handing down that which all the other churches did hand down 
 by tradition. 
 
 2d. These ordinances were established by scripture as well as the faithful testimony 
 of all the churches. See 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. Here St. Paul gives a divine injunction as 
 much to observe the Sabbath on the first day of the week, as to make a collection for 
 the poor on that day. And the scriptures call the first day of the week the Lord's 
 day. And for infant baptism, see Matt, xxviii. 19 ; and Acts ii. 38, 39. Now, I am 
 not going to dictate to my honored Baptist brethren. They have a right to hear 
 God's word and to interpret that word spoken to them and to me ; just as you claim 
 the right to interpret what " Holy Mother" says to you, gentlemen. And avaihng 
 ourselves of the right of hearing for ourselves, we say God commands us to teach, or 
 disciple, and baptize " all nations." And as infants constitute the third item of na- 
 tions, as much as men and women do the other two, we fairly infer that we have the 
 command to baptize our infants. A christian brother says, " infants are not expressly 
 named." "True, but neither is man, or woman mentioned: infants are as much 
 mentioned as adults." And, moreover, in Acts iii. 38, 39. we have another testimony : 
 and we erect our argument thus: When an ordinance and a promise are combined 
 and connected, as here, all those mentioned and named in the promise, have a right 
 to the ordinance : but the promise here connected with baptism, includes infants and 
 parents: here are the words literally rendered " Repent ye," [in the plural,] "and 
 be baptized every one of you ; for the promise is to you and your children." There- 
 fore infants ought to be baptized. If Protestant brethren differ, — so do Jesuits and 
 Jansenists, Franciscans and Dominicans under their infaltibh rule ! 
 
 You lay much stress on the traditions, alluded to by Paul in 2 Thess. iii. 6. And 
 
ROMA.N CATHOLIC CONTEOVERSY, 63 
 
 3'ou infer from this, that besides the ^^Titten word, Paul delivered unwritten traditions, 
 ''Hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, it cannot have escaped you, that the Apostle mentions three dis- 
 tinct classes of traditions ; namely, the traditions of men, which he reprobates ; Col. 
 ii. 8. and which our Lord also condemned, Mark vii. 9. Then there were the tradi- 
 tions touching tilings indifferent ; or mere opinions, such as frequency of communion, 
 and so forth ; and finally, traditions by inspiration : and which regard the same doc- 
 trines and ordinances exhibited in the New Testament. Thus Paul first gave the 
 Corinthians the Lord's Supper by oral tradition, and then he gave it by writing. 
 '• For I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered,'' or gave you, that is, by 
 tradition, from Christ. These traditions fiom Christ are the same as immediate com- 
 munications by inspiration — and were, like all revelations from God, established to 
 the satisfaction and faith of the church, by the evidence internal and external so oftea 
 mentioned already. 
 
 Now if we, or an angel from heaven bring any thing b}'- a tradition without aposto- 
 lical and miraculotis evidence, let that tradition, and its fanatical votary be accursed^ 
 If your traditions, gentlemen, are of men, we reject them as " accursed" — if they 
 came from God, then they are accompanied by the evidence of miracles, prophecy, 
 and tongues. But your traditions have none of this divine evidence. Therefore they 
 are human inventions ; and are " accursed." 
 
 IV. Of the Latin Vulgate. — I had called this version, after deliberate examina- 
 tion "the worst of the v/orst translations." You usher in your defence with these 
 words, — " It is painful to be obhged to expose your (Dr. B's.) ignorance, where you 
 ought to be better informed." This benevolence, in which you are as generously 
 sincere, I dare say, as if you had been administering extreme unction to 3'our victim, 
 — is quite out of keeping, and in bad taste. I invoke the whole body of tlie learned, 
 now to judge between us, — both Roman Catholic, and Protestants; and let them pro- 
 nounce who is profoundly ignorant of translations. 
 
 In reference to the Latin Vulgate, I beg leave to remark, that Jerome finished 
 his labors on his translation in A. D. 384. There existed, before him, the old Italick 
 version from the Greek Vulgate. This version is the oldest in Latin : it was made 
 in the close of the second century, Jerome endeavored to improve on this version ; 
 but, in tf)0 many instances, it was corrupted. I refer you, gentlemen, to the profound 
 critic Nolan, on the integrity of the Greek Vulgate. In the second chapter of Luke, 
 verse 33, the Greek Vatican, and the Vulgate make Joseph the father of our Lord ; 
 " pater illius, et mater." — And this eminent critic shows that these two versions, 
 on this text, are "grossly corrupt." See Nolan p. 169, note. And Lowth has 
 shown, that in some instances, the Latin Vulgate is found "to be notoriously defi- 
 cient in expressing the sense." See his translation oflsaiah, p. Ixxviii. 
 
 You seem to think, gentlemen, in your Letter III. that Jerome possessed a copy of 
 Origen's Ilexapla, or Polyglott, as you call it. Jerome had not so many facilities as 
 your exuberant imagination has conceived. He had not the Ilexapla : and you 
 ought to have known this. He was compelled to perform a long voyage, from Rome 
 to Cffisarea, in order to see and consult that book. See Ilorne, vol. ii. p. 198. You 
 have betrayed an utter ignorance of the subject: and, I am no hy])Ocrite, — I am not 
 sorry in exposing your ignorance, pro bono publico! 
 
 Yet severely as we may criticise this old version, I assure you gentlemen, I did not 
 allude to Jerome's true version, when I called it the worst of translations. I alluded 
 
70 Roman catholic controversy. 
 
 to your Vulgate, as it now exists ; and as it is spread out before the English reader 
 in the Douay Bible. The Roman catholics seek to palm this on the public, as the 
 genuine version of Jerome. But, this pretension ; and all your quotations from ap- 
 proving Protestants, such as Grotius, Walton, and so on, — are not only to no pur- 
 pose; but absolutely deceptions; and you, had you been Greek and Hebrew scholars, 
 would have known all this. I here, beg leave to challenge any scholar, in good faith, 
 to produce one of our learned Protestants who applauds the Roman Latin Vulgate, 
 
 AS IT NOW IS. 
 
 Of the valuable labors of Jerome, none approved more highly, — and none are 
 more able, by virtue of their accomplished education, to approve more highly, than 
 the Protestants. But can you possibly be ignorant of what Nolan has given ample 
 evidence, that St. Augustine himself, though he did indeed approve of the labors of 
 Jerome, did not use his version : he used the old Italick verson to the day of his 
 death. See Nolan p. 15. and the learned Home has shown that, from the days of 
 Cassiodorus, down to Alcuin, in the 8th century, " the text of the Vulgate fell into 
 great confusion : and was disfigured by the innumerable mistakes of copyists." But 
 the most curious part of the history of the Vulgate remains to be told. The Council 
 of Trent, small, — very small in numbers ; and by the best judges, namely the Pro- 
 testant literati, deemed still smaller in literature and theology [see also P. Sarpi Lib. 
 2. s. 51.] did actually pronounce the Vulgate with all its palpable errors, to be inspi- 
 red and divine. Like father Levins, whom I have had the honor of introducing so 
 advantageously to the "Christian public," — and who really seems not to be 
 conscious in what language the Old and New Testaments were written, unless it 
 was the old Irish ; — and therefore, he blunders out his taunts, incessantly " against 
 the Greek and Hebrew of the Holy Ghost, in the inspired volumes," — these same 
 Tridentine fathers actually preferred the Latin version of the Bible, to the inspired 
 originals of the Greek and Hebrew. 
 
 These fathers appointed a committee to revise and correct this same version, which 
 they had pronounced inspired! But, in as much as this thing displeased the pope, it 
 was delivered over into his care. It passed through no less than three popes' hands. 
 Sixtus V. had it published as the only pure and perfect Vulgate. He issued a Bull, 
 "enjoining its universal reception; and threatening with no less than perdition, the 
 man who shouldmake the slightest alterations." And, though issued by the Infallible, 
 in the plentitude of his knowledge and power, it had not been long before the public, 
 before it was found to abound with damnable errors ! Hence it was quickly called in. 
 Clement VIII., not having the fear of the Bull of Sixtus before his eyes, did actually 
 make very many alterations ! His new edition he published in A. D. 1592 ; and like 
 a good pope, he proped and barricaded this new, and a second time, perfect edition^ by 
 a similar Bull, pronouncing it now to be immaculate, and the only Vulgate ! And, 
 in the plenitude of infallible power, he prohibited any alterations to be made in it, by 
 anybody, on pains of the most terrible anathemas! But behold, the very next year, 
 namely, 1593, a new, corrected, and altered edition was issued: and pronounced to 
 be more perfect than his former most perfect edition ! 
 
 Now, all these phenomena are easily accounted for. It was not for want of scholar- 
 ship to translate Hebrew and Greek into Latin. No ; the real insuperable difficulty 
 lay in getting something like a translation, simply with a view to lend countenance to 
 the new Roman system of doctrine, and rituals, which had no place, nor name, nor recog- 
 nition in all the word of God ! \ 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 71 
 
 Now, gentlemen, in your laudatory zeal for the Vulgate, I call on you publicly, to 
 say, which of these "infallibly accurate," and "contradictory" versions you adhere 
 to. Dr. James in liis book, " BellumPapale," has set down two thousand variations 
 between the Sixtine, and the Clementine editions of your Vulgate ! I have now before 
 me a large selection, in which the first pope's version leaves out whole verses which 
 the last pope's version has! Again, the Clementine has omitted entire clauses which 
 the Sixtine has inserted. I have, before me, a hst of "manifest contradictions," 
 between the two : with many other remarkable differences. Now, gentlemen, to which 
 of these " only perfect copies," of these equally " infallible," and equally contradictory 
 popes, do you yield your conscience and faith ? The call is made on you to declare this 
 in good faith. We know that you cannot. We know that you have manifested an 
 utter want of information on this whole subject. In your Letter III. you say, — " You, 
 [Dr. B.] ought to know that the Vulgate version was made when the best and purest 
 copies of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek and Latin, together with the Polyglots of Ori- 
 gen were to be had : that this version has been constantly in the hands of the Western 
 church, in all its extent, for 15 centuries." I profess it is impossible to quote, even 
 from your own letters, gentlemen, another sentence containing more wilful and wdcked 
 misrepresentations than these : or one exhibiting more profound ignorance of the 
 history of your Vulgate ! You unblushingly hold up the idea that your Vulgate is now 
 precisely what Jerome left it ! And you conceal the endless variations and innovations 
 that have been made on Jerome's version, by the Sixtine and Clementine labours! ! 
 I beg leave merely for want of room, to refer to Home, vol. ii. p. p. 200. 201 : for a 
 comparative view of these variations : and " manifest contradictions," beween the two 
 popes' editions of your Vulgate. As for the true version of Jerome, it is of great value. 
 
 The Douay Bible, now before the public, exhibits the unhallowed liberties taken by- 
 unprincipled men, with the word of God. For instance, in the second commandment 
 your Douay renders the first clause, " thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 
 thing" instead of "image:" And the phrase "thou shalt not bow down thyself to 
 them," you corruptly render "thou shalt not adore them." In the New Testament 
 you render ^trui/aJTre " do penance;" whereas it never meant on classic, or Bible page, 
 any thing else than this, — " be ye changed in your minds by repentance," or "re- 
 pent ye." In violation of all chronology, you convert John the Baptist, and St Peter 
 into heretical Roman priests, and make them preach the modem cant of, — " Do 
 penance; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" and again, " do penance and be 
 baptized." Do penance, verily! A thing this is, which John and Peter never 
 heard of, and never conceived of, in their pure evangelical minds ! 
 
 Moreover, this same Douay Vulgate converts the apostle Paul's solemn warning 
 in Colosians ii. 18, against the idolatrous worship of angels, into an impenetrable 
 mysticism of language ; or else a real exhortation to be " voluntary in humility, 
 and the religion" or worship "of angels!" And what fills every devout christian 
 with utter amazement, your Vulgate converts the good old patiiarch Jacob into a 
 drivelling Roman idolator, in his last moments. Will the pubhc believe me, when 
 I assure them that the Roman Douay Bible, lately published in New York, 
 renders Hebrews xi. 21, in the following manner— " JACOB ADORED THE 
 TOP OF HIS STAFF !" Therefore I repeat what I formerly asserted, that the 
 Vulgate, as it now is, is one of the worst and most mischievous versions of the 
 Bible ! And it is a base and immoral hterary imposition on the public, to call 
 your Vulgate the version of Jerome ! 
 
72 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 I ouo^ht here to notice your injurious reflections on tiie Hebrew and Greek origi- 
 nals in Letter III. — "These have been, during many ages in the hands of wander* 
 in(r Jews, &c. ; and, therefore, you cannot possibly answer for the changes they 
 have undergone: and you thence recommend "deep silence on this point." Here 
 you gravely assume the supposition that the wandering Jews and oppressed Asiatics 
 have been carrying ali, the Hebrew and Greek originals with them : that the christ- 
 ian churches in Asia, in Africa, and Europe had no copies ! Does this require any 
 sober reply? Does not every scholar know that Jews and christians, possessing each, 
 many ancient copies, have been anxiously watching each other. And the immense 
 labours of Dr. Kennicot, in his splendid Hebrew Bible, and those of M. De Rossi, of 
 Pai-ma, have fully " ascertained the integrity of the sacred Hebrew text." Not one 
 item touching " doctrines, moral precepts, and historical relations," is injured, far 
 less invalidated by the Variffi Lectiones. And to give some idea of the pains taken 
 •by these Hebrew scholars, Kennicot has given a catalogue of a hundred Hebrew 
 -manuscripts in the libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, and the British Museum. And 
 M. de Rossi collated 479 Hebrew manuscripts ; and 288 printed editions ! And, 
 finally, I shall quote in reply to you, the words of Jerome Lib. 3. com. in 
 Esaiam :— " Si quis dixerit, &c. If any one shall say that the Hebrew books 
 were afterwards corrupted by the Jews; let him hear Origen what he answers 
 in the 8th volume of his explanations of Esay, &c." Again, — "But if they sa^ 
 that the Hebrews falsified them after the coming of Christ and the preaching of 
 the aposties, I cannot hold from laughter that our Savior and his aposties 
 should so cite testimonies of scripture, as the Jews would afterwards deprave them, 
 &c." See also Bishop Hall, p. 589. And the famous saying of Reuchline, and 
 Jerome advers. Helvidium., ought to be well known to you, — " The Hebrews drink 
 of the well head : the Greeks of the stream ; and the Latins of the puddle !" 
 
 I remember that, in one of our Protestant debates, Dr. Power raised his hand 
 toward heaven, and made an awful appeal to God, that he and his clerical friends 
 did earnestiy encourage his people, the laity, to read the holy scriptures ; that is, 
 in- the English language ! Now, gentlemen, will you affirm that THERE IS ANY 
 ONE VERSIOn'oF THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH, THAT IS AUTHORIZED 
 BY THE POPE, OR THE CHURCH? I defy you to answer in the affirma- 
 tive ! And, if not, where was Dr. Power's faith, and honor, in that heaven daring 
 appeal ! 
 
 V. You have not the vnanimous consent of the Fathers to your novel rule : on the 
 contrary, the best and greatest of them are decidedly against you, and in favor of 
 our Protestant rule. This is a matter of historical fact. 
 
 Augustine says; — " The city of God detests doubts, as the madness of the Aca- 
 demicians. For she beheves the sacred scriptures both of the Old and New Tes- 
 tament, which we call canonical ; whence our faith is derived, whereby the just 
 lives; and by means of which we walk without wavering." Civ. Dei. lib. 19. c. 
 18, vol. 7, Paris Edit, of 1685. 
 
 Again: — "Who is ignorant that the canonical scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament are contained within certain limits ; and that it is to be preferred to all 
 the subsequent writings of bishops; so that no one can doubt, or dispute concerning 
 it, whether whatsoever is written in it, be true and right." On Baptism against the 
 Donatists, Lib. 2. c. 3. vol. 9. 
 
 Again: — "In things which are openly set forth in the scriptures, those things are 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 73 
 
 to be found which comprise faith and moral conduct." On Chr. Doctr. Lib. 2. c. 9. 
 vol. 3. 
 
 Again : — " There are undoubtedly books of the Lord, whose authority both of us 
 acknowledge, which we mutually believe and obey. Here let us seek the church ; 
 here let us discuss our doctrines, &c." " I will not have the holy church proved by- 
 human documents, but by divine oracles." Tom. 9. p. 341. 
 
 Again: — "Read these things to us from the law, the prophets, the Psalms, the 
 gospels, apostolical writings ; read, and we v/ill believe." Do. cap. 6. 
 
 Again in his Tract 2. in Epist. Johan., he says, — " Against treacherous errors 
 God would place our strength in the scriptures ; against which none that would, any- 
 way, seem a christian, dares to speak." I beg the particular attention of you all, 
 gentlemen, to these last words of one of your own saints ! And, as my simile of the 
 *' carrier," was deemed by you impious, learn if you please whence I had it. Augustine 
 on Ps. Ivi. Vol. 4. p. 534, says, — "We produce books from our enemies ; and con- 
 found others of our foes. In what opprobrium, therefore, are the Jews? The Jew 
 carries the book whence the christian draws his faith. These have been our librarians."* 
 "These Jews appear from the holy scriptures which they carry, as does the face of a 
 mirror, &c." 
 
 Again : — " Whether the Donatists hold the church, non nisi divinarum, &c. let 
 them only show by the canonical books of scripture. For neither do we say thev 
 should believe us, that we are in the church of God, because Optatus or Ambrose 
 had commended this church unto us, which we now hold ; or because it is acknow- 
 ledged by the councils of our fellow teachers : or because so great miracles are done 
 in it : it is not, therefore, manifested to be true, and catholic. But it is the loill of 
 Christ that his disciples should be conjirmed by the testimony of the law and prophets. 
 These are the rules of our cause : these are the foundations : these are the confirma- 
 tions." Aug. in Psalm 69. Bishop Hall, p. 592, folio. 
 
 I beg one quotation more to show this father's views of the plenitude of scripture r 
 " John testifies that Christ hath said, and did many things that are not written. But 
 those things were selected to be luritten which seemed to suffice for the salvation of be- 
 lievers.'' In John. Tract. 49. vol. iii. 619. 
 
 Jerome thus writes : — " The church of Christ, who has churches in the whole 
 world, is united by the unity of the Spirit; and has the cities of the law, the prophets, 
 and the gospel, and the apostles : she has not gone forth from her boundaries, id est 
 &c. that is, from, the holy scriptures.'" Tom. 5. p. 334, Paris Edit, of 1602. Again : 
 — "But the word of God smiteth the other things, which they spontaneously discover, 
 and feign as it were, by an apostolical authority, without the authority and testimony 
 of scripture."" Comment, in Hag. c. 1 Tom. 5. p. 506. This testimony of Jerome 
 strikes your popish rule dead! Again : — "The Lord will speak in the scriptures of 
 the people : in the holy scriptures ; which are read to the people with the intent that 
 all may understand it." " As the Apostles wrote, so also the Lord hath spoken ; — 
 that is, by the gospels; not in order that a few, but that all may understand." " The 
 chiefs of the church, and the chiefs of Christ did not write to a few but to the whole 
 people. And see what he says of the princes, that is, of the apostles, and the evan- 
 gelists who were in her. He says who were, not are, so that, luith the exception of the 
 apostles, whatsoever should afterwards be said, should be cut off, and should henceforth 
 have no authority." Jerome, Tom. vii. p. 2.59, Paris Edit, 1602. 
 
 8 
 
y4 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 In Tom. iii. lib. 24 ; and in Tom. ix. p. 186., Jerome mentions the books oOhe 
 apocrypha : and declares them not of the canon : and *' not to be brought forward for 
 the confirmation of faith." 
 
 Chrysostom, another of your saints, is decidedly pitted against your popery. And 
 will any intelligent Roman catholic prefer the extravagance of modern priests to St. 
 Chrysostom? "I always exhort," said he, "and will never cease to exhort yon, 
 that you will not only attend to the things spoken to you here, but when you are at 
 home, you continually busy yourselves in reading the holy scriptures ; which prac- 
 tice also I have not ceased to drive into them which come privily to me." Homil. iii. 
 on Lazar. 
 
 Again: — " Sayest thou, O man, it is not for thee to turn over the scriptures, who 
 art distracted with cares? Nay, it is for thee, more than for them, &;c." This 
 great preacher then goes on to answer the people's objections that they could not well 
 understand the Bible. Now, behold how much the tables are turned by the modern 
 innovations of popery : " The spirit of God has so dispensed this w^ord, that publi- 
 cans, fishers, tent-makers, shepherds, goat herds, (aipolous) and even idiotai, the 
 most illiterate men, may be saved by these books." Homil. in Genes. 29. And I 
 shall add out of his Homily ninth on Colossians : " Hear I beseech you all ye 
 secular men ; provide for yourselves Bibles, which are the medicines for the soul : at 
 least get the New Testament." Again: — " All things are intelUgible and straight in 
 the divine scripture : all things that are necessary, are clear." Horn. iii. on 2 Thes. 
 ii. Again: — "Ignorance of the scriptures is the cause of all evils." Hom. ix. on 
 Colos. iii. And finally: — "The knowledge of the holy Bible is a powerful defence 
 against sin : while an ignorance of them is a deep precipice, a profound gulph ! It 
 is a great betraying of salvation to know nothing of the divine law : it is this igno- 
 rance which has given birth to heresies ! They have occasioned the corruption of 
 morals!" Third Serm. on Lazar. 
 
 I have copied thus fully from this great and beautiful Greek writer ; because padre 
 Levins seemed to insinuate my ignorance of him ; and boasted rather unseasonably 
 of his own acquaintance with him ! Does padre Levins read Greek ? It is different 
 from Irish, somewhat! 
 
 Athanasius thus wTites; — "If ye are disciples of the gospel, speak not unright- 
 eously against God : but walk in the things that are written. But if you will speak 
 any thing besides that which is written, why do you contend against us, who are de- 
 termined neither to hear, nor to speak any thing but that which is written ? The 
 Lord himself says, if ye continue in my word, ye are truly free !" On the Incarn. of 
 Christ, Paris Edit, of 1627. 
 
 Once more : — " For the holy and divinely inspired scriptures are of themselves suf- 
 Jicient for the discovery oftruth.^' Speech against the Gent. Paris Edit. And per- 
 mit me to add that this father who flourished from A. D. 335 — 340, has given us a 
 list of the canonical books ; and a list of the books not inspired, viz. the apocrypha. 
 See his Synops. of the holy Script. Paris Edit, of 1627. This list accords entirely 
 with ours. 
 
 Tertullian says, "I adore the plenitude of the scriptures." And in his book 
 against Hermogenes, he says, " Let this man's school show that it is in the scriptures : 
 if it is not in the scriptures, let him fear the curse directed against those who add or 
 diminish." See his Advers. Hermog. Paris Edit, of 1675, p. 241. I put it to every 
 discreet layman, if our priests will honor and obey this father, in these words ! 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 75 
 
 In a word, I am prepared to prove, by any amount of quotations, that the Greek 
 and Latin fathers of the first live centuries, held to the very letter of the following 
 words of Augustine : " Sancta scriptura nostras doctrinae regalum figit." " The holy 
 scriptures determine or fix the rule of our doctrine". Or with St. Gregory, the pope, 
 " In this volume (the Bible,) are written down all that can instruct us." Hom. 9. in 
 Ezek. ; and in the most accurate conception of St. Chrysostom, — " The canon 
 ceases to be the canon, if an}- thing is added, or taken aw- ay from it." Hom. 12, on 
 ch. iii. of Philippians : and in the decisive works of Basil : " It is right and neces- 
 sary that every one should learn that which is useful, from the holy scriptures; both 
 for the purpose of furnishing the mind with greater piety, and also that they may not 
 be accustomed to human traditions.'''' Tom. 2 p. 449. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1722. 
 
 And here I deem it not inappropriate to introduce the testimony of your own Bel- 
 larmine, De Verbo Dei Lib. i. cap. 2. Sacra scriptura &c. — " Sacred scripture is 
 the most certain rule of faith." And again; — "At sacris scripturis, &c. Bat no- 
 thing is better known, nothing more sacred than the holy scriptures, which are con- 
 tained in the prophetical and apostolical writings : so that he who refuses to believe 
 in them," namely, as "the most certain rule of faith," — " is the most foolish being"— 
 the most consummate of fools, — stultisimum. For that they are most perfectly known, 
 the christian w^orld is witness ; and the consent of all nations, among whom for ma- 
 ny ages, their supreme authority, summum auctoritatan, has been admitted ; and 
 they are moreover most certain, and most true, containing no human inventions, but 
 tJie divine oracles. ^^ Lib. i. c. 2. 
 
 We are now prepared, gentlemen, for our argument. Whatever, with you, has not 
 the unanimous consent of the fathers, cannot be a doctrine of j^our church. But, here 
 we have demonstrated the historical fact, that you have not only not the unanimous 
 consent, — but it is entirely, and most manifestly against you, and in our favor. 
 Hence, on your own principles, you must admit that the holy scriptures alone are 
 the rule of faith. And your pretended infallible rule, is condemned by the holy 
 scriptures, and by the fathers. 
 
 VI. In you Letter III., you make Augustine affirm, that 3Iarcellinus was not an 
 idolater ; that this " slander was raised by the Donatists." In reply I beg leave to 
 say that you ought to know more accurately the sentiments of your own writers. 
 Your ow-n Pope ^neas Sylvius, Pius II., says: "We might adduce many examples 
 of Romish pontiffs, if our time permitted us, who were either heretics, or stained with 
 other vices. Nor does it escape us that Marcellinus offered incense to idols; and that 
 another pope which is worse and more horrible, was raised to the popedom by the 
 arts of the devil !" You will find these words in his Comment on the Acts of the 
 Council of Basil, p. 9; Finch p. 110. 
 
 VII. In Letter III., you also venture to represent "Holy Mother" saying that "no 
 enlightened son of mine ever taught the doctrine that infallibility was lodged in the 
 pope alone." Here is another instance of the most reckless disregard of truth. You 
 do certainly admit Bellarmine to be an "enlightened son;" at any rate, in the same 
 letter, you make "Holy Moilier" call him "my faithful son!" Now let me direct 
 your eyes to Bellarmine De Con. Auct. Lib. ii. cap. 17. " The supreme pontiff 
 is simply and absolutely above the church universal, and above a general council ; so 
 that he acknowledges no jurisdiction on earth above himself," &c. Again: "Se- 
 eundo : probatur," &c. Secondly, it is proved by an argument from scripture. For 
 all the names, which in the scripture are applied to Christ, proving him to be above 
 
76 ROMA?f CATHOIilC CONTROVERsr. 
 
 the church, are in Hke manner appUed to the pope : as, first; Christ is pater famiUaS, 
 tiie head of the family: so is the pontiff: he is pater familias; loco Christi, in the 
 place of Christ!" I do not know, gentlemen, what your bishop may think of this 
 misrepresentation, and unprincipled disregard of truth and honesty : or whether six 
 months penance, by flagellation, and hair cloth would not be deemed too little ! But, 
 we Protestants think that such flagrant crimes cannot be washed away, but by years 
 of deep repentance through the Redeemer's blood ! 
 
 VIII. The Jesuits have been in the habit of opposing the Bible rule of faith by an 
 argument taken from the abuse of it by the different sectaries. My opponents, and 
 jMr. Hughes also copy it out of Mumford ; and select " the Arian Cobler" into whose 
 iips the\'- put many possible objections ; and profess, finally, that his opponent cannot 
 defend the Bible doctrines against him. It is a singular circumstance that the infi- 
 dels of France employed this silly form of argument against Christianity. Volney has 
 it, at full length, in his "Ruins," Lond. Edit. Chap. 21. He introduces the Jews, 
 the Roman Cathohcs, the Lutherans, the Mohammedans, and the Pagans, into the 
 ^^resence of the French Directory. Into the lips of the christians, he puts speeches, 
 %vhich exhibit the quintescence of nonsense and absurdity ; and from the abuse of a 
 good and holy thing by bad men, Volney exactly as you do, turns all rehgion into 
 Tidicule. This is matched only by the priests' case of the "Arian Cobler," into 
 ^vhose lips the greatest absurdities are put by them. And while all his objections 
 might be easily refuted by any of our sabbath scholars, who are well taught the usual 
 texts to prove our Lord's supreme deity, the priests quote his abuse, as arguments 
 against our Bible rule. Most unquestionably that is a bad cause which resorts to the 
 logic of reasoning against a good thing, from the abuses of it by the follies of men r 
 and blesses the deist, in order to hurt the Protestant. 
 
 IX. The doctrine of intention as held by your church, 1 did fairly state in my 
 argument against you. You make the efficacy of all your sacraments to depend on 
 the priest's intention to make them what the church intends them to be. Thus, 
 unless the Bishop had the intention in his soul and conscience, to ordain you, and 
 •make you, bona fide, the priests of the church, — then you are not ordained. This is 
 the solemn doctrine of Trent, backed by anathemas ! But you cannot prove his 
 intention; and no mortal can. Hence, you have no evidence, under heaven, that 
 you are true priests. And if you claim the office, and administer at the altar, with- 
 out true ordination ; you expose yourselves to eternal damnation ! And how did 
 you, gentlemen, reply to this, in Letter v. ? By a marvellous process, verily ! You 
 assumed without an attempt at proof, that Protestants held also this absurd and impi- 
 ous doctrine : and then very gravely turned on me, and asked how I knew when I 
 liad the intention! This is supremely ridiculous, that learned priests, professedly 
 opposing Protestants, should be so profoundly ignorant of our doctrine ! Sirs, we 
 reject your doctrine of intention with abhorrence; as one of the prominent marks 
 of John's Apocalyptic Beast ! And we reiterate our argument : and put you to 
 prove the Bishop's intention, or your ordination. You never can prove your ordina- 
 tion ! You can never have faith in your own priesthood ! You never can have a 
 moment's freedom from the justest doubts that you may be in mortal sin I You can 
 never find repose, by a thousand masses, from the alarming uncertainty, that in a few- 
 hours, you may be in the horrors of perdition ! Deplorable result of practical popery I: 
 
 In your last tivo letters you have not succeeded in bringing forward one single nex^r 
 idea, in the way of defensive, or ofTensive operations I And what has struck all our 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 77 
 
 readers, you have not replied to, nor even noticed, one of the ten arguments brought 
 against your novel rule of faith ! This silence being the full admission of discomfi- 
 ture, I shall now leave the rule of faith, and go forward into the chambers of your 
 *'Holy Mother's" imagery, — which will be seen to set at defiance, in sober truth, all 
 that the holy Ezekiel, in vision, beheld in olden times of the wicked Jews ! 
 
 This closes the first part of my letters. We have succeeded, we believe, in esta- 
 blishing the fact by evidence of a painful nature, namely, their own admissions and 
 arguments, that the Romish priests are decidedly deists from principle! I have rea- 
 son to believe that there is not a doubt of this left on the minds of the rehgious com- 
 munity. And one of the strongest confirmations is this, every infidel has hailed 
 the priest's letters as uncompromising auxiliaries to their cause, and bitter warfare 
 against our Lord Jesus Christ! ! This is a matter of public notoriety. 
 
 We have succeeded, also, we trust, in establishing this fact, that the first principle 
 held by the Roman catholic church takes away from its members, the sacred rights of 
 thinking, and reasoning, and acting according to their own consciences : that, in fact, 
 the priest permits no exercise of conscience : no rights of private judgment whatever, 
 on matters of religion ! ! The Roman priests wield a system which converts man 
 into a mere mechanical engine, in order that he may think, and move, and act, and 
 dispose of his soul, body, spirit, and property, just as the holy priests prescribe. No 
 Roman Dictator ever wielded a more tyranical and terrific power, in pagan empire, 
 than that of our priests ! ! 
 
 And finally, we have shown, even at this stage of our argument, that the Roman 
 catholic church, — I mean not the many gallant and patriotic men in her, — but her 
 system of religion, is a necessary and deadly enemy to all liberty, — personal and nC' 
 iional ; to all liberty, civil and religions! ! 
 
 I am, Gentlemen, Yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VII. 
 
 It opens with a discussion on Dr. B.'s " gnawing and bitter conviction of defeat," — and 
 his "writhing under the bitterness of discomfiture." " The inspired of tlie M. D. Church 
 has exhausted his argument." '• His rule of faith and calvinistic creed are in our clutch !" 
 
 They proceed to go over all of Dr. B.'s letters, one by one, and lament his hopeless fail- 
 ure, in characteristic slang. 
 
 "Aware of the torture of mind you now experience from defeat, we will, in charity, as- 
 cribe the irritability of your temper to the consciousness of failure in establishing your rule 
 of faith." 
 
 "To aflix a stigma on Nuns and Jesuits, you and your ^virtuous ladies' sanctioned the 
 gross and polluting iiction — 'Lorctte.'" 
 
 " Yes, whether in die pulpit or the street; whether interpreting the ' Hebrew and Greek 
 of the Holy Ghost;' whedier directing your 'virtuous ladies' by the gaslight of your interior 
 spirit to the realms of Elysium, or manufacturing, by patent right, chains, and sulphur, and 
 anathema for your polcmac antagonists, you will be hailed the Preacher who approved an 
 obscene slander for the instruction of dieir sons and daughters." 
 
 " Does it make your heart the domicile of the interior spirit ? Does it not prove your inti- 
 macy with the 'Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost?' " 
 
 " You inform 'your friends you were but skirmishing.' This was a strange avowal from 
 a Religionist, who professes such zealotry of adhesion to the ' Hebrew and Greek of the 
 Holy Ghost ?' " 
 
 8* 
 
78 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 "There is no proof , no form of proof ; and, yet, the logical Preacher imagined he had de^ 
 monstrated the Bible to be the word of God !" 
 
 " Therefore he has not yet demonstrated that the Bible is the Word of God : therefore, he 
 has not yet affixed a rational character to his Rule of Faith ; therefore, in the selection of 
 his religion he is not governed by discretion ; therefore, his faith is mere human opinion — 
 therefore, he has no foundation on which to rest his hope of eternal salvation ! ! !" 
 
 " What think you now, inspired Preacher, of your rule of faith ? What think you of 
 ' our forms of reason !' ' Is not your rule,' — that is, the holy scriptures, — ' torn up and scat- 
 tered to the winds ? Is it not,' — that is, God's holy scriptures, — ' like the bubble blown by 
 the child in the sport of infancy, flimsy, and hollow? Is it not,' — that is, the Holy Spirit 
 sueakino; in God's word, — ' a shell around vacuity ; but without a tincture of the rainbow 
 colouring, which gladdens the infant's sight ?' " 
 
 [Note. One is forcibly reminded of the similar impious boastings of Thomas Paine, X\xdX 
 he had, also, annihilated the holy scriptures !] 
 
 "You have not yet proved the Bible to be the Word of God, and the Bible, by the very 
 terms of your rule of faith, must be the actual foundation of every argument you logically 
 should use." 
 
 " Excellent, — worthy of the gigantic Erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy 
 Ghost.' " 
 
 " His intellect is not manufactured from penetrable stuff: — it is as guihless of thought and 
 argument at the present hour, as when it exulted in the gasconade of " CHALLENGE" 
 against his opponents." 
 
 " To change poor Brownlee, do not hope ; 
 
 'Tis vaiu to shave an Ass'sface, 
 
 And ouly labor to mifeplace. 
 
 And loss of words, indeed, as well as soap." 
 
 " Your creed is the dropsied offspring of mere human opinion, — it is an emanation from 
 the passions of earth, — it is too gross to ascend above earth's exhalations, — it cannot elevate 
 human hope to the Seraph's abode, — it cannot console on earth, it cannot say I have a rest- 
 ing place in Heaven ! — Defeat, discomfiture, and rout, this is a bitter and gnawing convic- 
 tion. Degraded, dishonored, unpitied ! How vanquished gasconade will fret its heart in 
 sullenness ! How misery will ruminate ovej- the indiscretion of CHALLENGE, and yearn 
 for the reputation lost and the pinnacle from which it fell ! A GREAT MAN has fallen in 
 Israel ! Ye choristers of the Middle Dutch Church mufile your tones of joy, ' the inspired 
 Writer oi Zion, and he that was clothed in the best sold,— how is he esteemed as an earthen 
 
 " In pointing out some of the apparently contradictory texts of the Bible, we were con- 
 vinced that Dr. Brownlee believed his rule of faith to be perfectly consistent, and that his 
 proofs would be given in all the fulness of an erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the 
 Holy Ghost.' We have not been disappointed. This theologue, whose ' only rule of 
 Faith is the icritten tcord of God, and judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost speaking to us in it' 
 tells us that this rule, is not contradictory, because Bochart, Whitby, Ligiitfoot, Jahn 
 and Bug, tell him, there is no contradiction to be found in the passages we have quoted. 
 Doctor Brownlee believes that there are no really contradictory passages in the scriptures, 
 his rule of faith." 
 
 " We now call on the Preacher of the Middle Dutch Church, to produce one passage of 
 holy writ, to prove, that there is no contradiction in the places to which we have referred." 
 
 '• But, how can you refer the people to the scriptures for the belief of those points of chris- 
 tian faith, which are not found in the scriptures, such as the canonicity, the integrity, and 
 inspiration of the books of scriptures ?" 
 
 " But is it not the extreme of folly in one, whose only rule of faith is the Bible, thus to 
 declaim in favor of tradition ?" 
 
 " Why, Rev. Sir, the veriest old crone among your virtuous ladies, will see that this con- 
 clusion is not contained in the premises, and that the inveterate habit of drawing such con- 
 
ROaL\IT CATHOLIC CONTROVERT. 79 
 
 elusions, argues a ' derangement of the moral faculty.' One thing is certain, the Holy 
 Ghost must consider you, no extraordinary genius, when after a course of some thirty or 
 forty years in his school, you display such ignorance of elementary principles." 
 
 " Strange, Rev. Sir, that YOUR ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY, THE HOLY 
 GHOST, SPEAKING TO YOU IN THE SCRIPTURES does not decide this Contro- 
 versy between you.'' 
 
 " Your attacks on the Vulgate you have borrowed from Pope's fourth speech in the dis- 
 cussion witfi McGuire. The Catholic champion earnestly called on the biblical crusader 
 to compare the Sixtine and Clementine editions of the Bible, with the Vulgate of St. Je- 
 rome, and to point out any substantial difference, if any could be found. This he did not do, 
 and for a very obvious reason. Yet after this failure on the part of Mr. Pope, you have the 
 effrontery to invoke ' all the learned to judge between us,' and you pronounce our quota- 
 tions from approving Protestants as deceptions and absolutely to no purpose.'' 
 
 " Protestants ought to pause before they institute a comparison between their English 
 translation of the Bible, and our Doway translation. They are the children of the Bible, 
 and of the most abominably corrupted Bible, that ever appeared. We make no random 
 assertions. Mark our proofs and weigh them well. Read the fimous Broughton's adver- 
 tisement of Corruption to Lords of the Council in the year 1604, and recollect that he was 
 a Puritan." 
 
 " In the Hampton Court Conference, pag. 45, 46, 47, all the English Bibles are pronoun- 
 ced infamous translations. For the history of these translations, we refer to Bishop 
 Pretyman." 
 
 " For the corruptions that exist even in all the late editions of the English Protestant 
 Bible, we refer to the pamphlet of Mr. Curtis on this subject. As you profess intimacy 
 with the * Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' and are interested in the Protestant 
 translations of the Bible, you, of course, have seen the pamphlet of Curtis, a dissenting 
 minister, addressed to the present Protestant Bishop of London. In this pamphlet Curtis 
 states, as the result of a laborious examination of a great number of Bibles, that, in the 
 modern editions, he has detected no less than 2931 intentional departures from King Jame'a 
 Bible, in seven books, or only a. fourth part of the canon of the scriptures I On the inten- 
 tional departures from what is termed in England, the authorised version of the scriptures, 
 we refer you to the averments made by several highly respectable witnesses before the se- 
 lect Committee of the House of Commons on King's Printers' Patents. From this examin- 
 ation and the pamphlet of the Rev. Mr. Curtis, you will obtain knowledge of which you are 
 now ignorant, though you exult in your Protestant education." 
 
 " Let it suffice for the present, that tlie Pope is convinced, from the report of the Bishops 
 in the countries where the English language is commonly spoken, that the Doway transla- 
 tion and tlie different editions of it, are all free from substantial error. This is all that the 
 discipline of our church requires with regard to the different translations from the Vulgate — 
 and it is in virtue of this discipline, that Doctor Power did assert, that Roman Catholics 
 were not prevented by their Pastors from reading the Bible in the Vulgar tongue." 
 
 " A correct edition of the fathers, does not exist, says Dr. B. : for he says, the monks of 
 the dark ages corrupted them. Yet in opposition to this positive assertion, he quotes from 
 the fathers, corrupted by the monks, because he thinks it supports his cause ! He says, 
 "produce a o^ewwiwe copy and I will receive their pages with profound veneration!" Yet, 
 to support his rule of faith, and wanting an editio expurgata, he props his creed on quota- 
 tions from the Fathers ! Is tlierc in the records of controversial history so striking an ex- 
 ample of inconsistency — such direct contradiction?" 
 
 "In the seventh section of your Hydra Epistle, you accuse us of a ' reckless disregard of 
 truth,' for saying that ' no divine of the church of Rome ever taught that infallibility was 
 lodged in the Pope alone.' We do not avoid the weight of this assertion. But how do you 
 convict us of falsehood ? By an argument at once the most stupid and absurd. Bellarmine 
 is a son of the church; but Bellarmine says that the Pope is above a general council. 
 
90 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Therefore, Bellarmine believed that infallibility resides in the Pope alone. Now, Sir, Bel- 
 larmine believed that Christ was above the Apostles. Therefore, according to you, Bellar- 
 mine believed that infallibility was confined to Christ alone, that the Apostles were not in- 
 follible. Dear Doctor we despair of ever making a logician of you." 
 Then follows the often repeated quotations out of Hooker, Field, &c. 
 
 At this stage of the discussion, serious difficuhies, it was understood, had occurred among 
 the priests. Dr. Varela had already refused to go with his associates : and now Dr. P., it 
 was whispered, was dissatisfied. My Letter VIII. in reply to the priests' Letter VII., was, 
 by their influence, kept up, and withheld from the public, for some time. And it was not 
 until they and their editor were notified, that, unless they published it forthwith, it should 
 certainly appear in other papers, that it was at length, reluctantly printed. Meantime the 
 following reply was brought forward to Dr. Varela's occasional Letters. 
 
 TO THE REV. DR. VARELA. 
 
 " Magna est Veritas, atque prsevalebit !" 
 
 Great is truth, and it shall prevail l—An old Protestant maxim. 
 
 My Reverend Friend — I give your great credit for you honesty and taste, in not 
 permitting the priests to use your name, in the revolting and scandalous letters which 
 they inflict on the public feehngs : their infidel assaults on the holy scriptures ; and 
 their illiterate and rude taunts on " the original Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost." 
 Now, sir, proceed a little farther, according to the correct instinct of taste ; and re- 
 nounce the vice of slandering the immortal authors of the " ever blessed Reformation," 
 and of perverting the pages of the elegant and classical Calvin. Permit me briefly 
 to reply to your two letters : and, here, let me say that I shall not follow you on any 
 of the points discussed in our regular series. I reserve your remarks on purgatory 
 and the mass, until I shall reach them in proper order. 
 
 1. My friend Varela says, he produced a text from St. Ambrose to show that he 
 taught the invocation of the saints. Now, I affirm that no honest man can read Am- 
 brose on the first chapter of Romans, and then venture to tell the public that he ap- 
 proved the invocation of saints. No, Sir, you know, if you have Ambrose, that he 
 wrote against it with great zeal and indignation. Theodoret on Coloss. 2, and Am- 
 brose on Rom. 1, having stated the detestable origin of invoking Saints, thus declare 
 against it: — *'The heathen idolaters to cover the shame of neglecting God, used this 
 miserable excuse, that by these (their departed heroes, daimones) they might go to 
 God; as by officers we go to a king." Now, Sir, hear Ambrose farther: — "Go to, 
 is any man so mad, or unmindful of his salvation, as to give the king's honor to an 
 officer? And yet these idolaters do not think themselves to be guilty who give the 
 honor of the name of God to a creature : and, forsaking the Lord, adore their fellow 
 servants, as if there were any thing more that could be reserved to God!" — "To 
 procure the favors of God (from whom nothing is hid, he knows the works of all men) 
 we need no spokesman, but a devout mind. Suffragatore non opus est &("c." — You 
 quote the words of the church of Smyrna to Polycarp, to sustain your prayers to 
 the saints, — namely, "We adore God, we venerate the martyrs." But these words 
 condemn you ; Protestants venerate the saints ; you adore, or pray to them. You even 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 81 
 
 ftiake Jacob " adore the top of his staff.'' Sec Doway Bible, Heb. xi. 21. ; and quote 
 him as an example in j^our idolatry. 
 
 I have thus convicted you, Sir, of misrepresentation ; and you owe a solemn apo- 
 logy to St. Ambrose the first time you invoke him ! You charge me with misquoting 
 St. Augustine on this same point; and you profess to quote from him the doctrine of 
 the invocation of saints and angels. In reply, I assert that Augustine every where 
 most solemnly and indignantly rebukes the idolatry of invoking saints, with which 
 yon criminate his memory ! Just look into his professions. Lib. 1 c. 5, Lib. x. c. 
 42, &c. In his book, De Quant. Anim. c. 34, he says: — "In the Catholic Church, 
 it is divinely and singularly delivered that no creature is to be worshipped by the soul, 
 but the Creator of all things alone." And, in his book De Vera Relig. c. 5.5, he says : 
 ♦' The adoring of men that are dead, should be no part of our religion ; because, if 
 they lived piously, they will not seek that kind of honor; they are to be honored for 
 imitation : not to be adored for religion, or invoked in a religious manner." Now, 
 Dr. Varela, the next time you go to invoke your Saint Augustine, I beg you, as an 
 honest man, confess to him that you have been most greviously perv^erting his writings; 
 and doing that wickedness, which he has solemnly condemned and reprobated! But, 
 you gave an opposite quotation from his pages. Here then it is manifest, either that 
 St. Augustine has beenaltered and mutilated by the monks of the dark ages, who tran- 
 scribed his works : or that this saint did grossly contradict himself. If so, then you 
 have not the unanimous consent of the same father with himself; far less the unanimous 
 consent of all the fathers ! Take it either way, it is fatal to your idolatrous practice of 
 involdng the absent spirits of dead men, and dead women ! ! ! 
 
 2. 1 again affirm, Sir, that Romish conversion is simply " a reconciliation to the 
 church.'' Every one accustomed to the style of Roman priests and writers, knows that 
 this is invariably the mode of expressing it. And reconciliation to the church, mean- 
 ing a nominal union to the Romish church, is the consummation of virtue, and th« 
 perfection of holiness? And if he only die in the bosom of "Holy Mother," and 
 pay the church's dues, let his ignorance be ever so great ; or the vices of his life, up 
 to his dying hour, ever so many, he is perfectly safe ! Here, as every one sees, the 
 Romish church has assumed the very ground of the Jews, "We be Abraham's 
 eeed." And because they were his descendants, they held it up as a self evident 
 point, that God was under an obligation to save them ! — The Roman Mass is a sub- 
 stitute for the true atonement; and hence the only ground of a sinner's hope by jus- 
 tification and reconcihation to God, is wholly taken away ! And Bellarmine in Lib. 
 iii. De Eccles. cap. 2 and 7. has fairly and honestly expressed the opinion of all Ro- 
 man catholic priests of our da}^. They do not believe in the need of a spiritual 
 renovation ; they hold with unblushing assurance, that there is no need of internal 
 grace in the members of their church : all they require is only the external rite and 
 public profession. And hence they say, in the words of Bellarmine, and the Rhem. 
 Annot. on John 15. sect. 1. that "wicked men, and even reprobates, remaining in 
 the public profession of the church, are true members of the body of Christ!" 
 
 3. You follow the Romish church in her singular zeal for image worship ; and 
 you remind me of my "ignorance in this matter, and of the confusion in my dates." 
 There is no mistake, my friend, in the matter. The use and worship of images in 
 the christian church is a mere novelty. I stated that the seventh general council held 
 in 754, in which were present 383 Fathers, did solemnly condemn the worship 
 of images, and their use in churches. It is true, the Roman popes stood out 
 
32 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 as usual, for the use and veneration of them. I am well aware that your churcii 
 does not acknowledge this 7th general council of the Greek church. But you hesi- 
 tate not to admit the infamous decrees of the idolatrous council of Nice, the second of 
 that place. These decrees revived image adoration: and poured worse than Pagan 
 Superstition over the western church. 
 
 There are two things, my good Sir, which have excited my surprise. Why did 
 you not state that the council of Frankfort, consisting of 300 bishops, did in 794, 
 unanimously condemn the worship, and the use of images, and thus overthrow your 
 wicked council of Nice ? But what surprises me far more, my good Doctor, is this; 
 that you could, in your conscience, approve of any decision of that council. Is it 
 possible that you can applaud a council summoned together, and guided, by the atro- 
 cious Irene, who murdered her husband, and then usurped the imperial throne ? Do 
 you, then, avow that your images were sustained by the council under the dictation 
 of a bloody murderer ? And this is not all. In the West, or Latin church, at the 
 same time, the two popes, Gregorys, kindled the flames of rebellion, and war, against 
 their lawful princes ; and spread civil war over Italy and the islands adjacent. And 
 in their horrid popish rage for image w^orship and superstition, they caused the death 
 of unnumbered thousands. It was in the eighth century that those ghostly barbari- 
 ans on the pontifical throne, spread ruin and havoc, far and wide. And your fellovr 
 priests and you cease not to applaud these bloody idolaters ! 
 
 4. You complain that I did not truly represent your church's doctrines on grace. 
 And "you produced a text out of the council of Trent" which, you say, removes all 
 doubt of its being a calumny, that "the catholic church denies the work of grace: 
 and holds that the sinner is saved purely by human merit." That text I find in the 
 decrees of the council of Trent. But, though pained to hurt your feelings, I am con- 
 strained to tell you, that you have made a scandalous misquotation which perverts 
 the sense of these fathers. 
 
 Here is your quotation :— " Eternal life must be preached as a grace mercifully 
 promised to the children of God." This is very sound Protestantism. But it is mere 
 manghng of the whole sentence : the whole of it, is as follows :— " Atque ideo &c. 
 And therefore to these who work well, and (persevere to the end, and hope in God, 
 eternal life is to be proposed, (proponenda) both as a grace mercifully promised to the 
 children of God, through Jesus Christ, and, also, as the reward to be faithfully ren- 
 dered by the promise of himself, to their good works and merit." 
 
 Your whole quotation, in the Truth Teller p. 207. Col. 1. is given as if one conti- 
 nuous sentence ; whereas it is composed of four garbled extracts ! Your second clause 
 fetands thus . — 
 
 "Jesus Christ communicates virtue to those who are justified, the same as the 
 head does to the members, or the vine to the branches, which virtue always ante- 
 cedes, accompanies, and is subsequent to the good works, and without it they could 
 not be by any means meritorious." 
 
 This you give as the entire sentence ; whereas you stop in the very middle of it. 
 The rest of the passage stands thus :— " it must be believed that the justified are in no 
 respect deficient ; but that they may be considered as fully satisfying the divine law 
 (for the state of this life,) by their own good works, which are wrought in God ; and 
 as meriting eternal Hfe to be obtained, in due time, if they die in a state of grace." 
 
 In this manner, Dr. Varela, you go on mangling the poor Tridentine Fathers in a 
 merciless way. See C. Trent, S. 6. cap. 16 and Cramp's Text Book p. p. 104 & 412. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 83 
 
 The real doctrines issued by the authority of these Fathers, and held by all ortho- 
 dox Roman catholics, are these ; that good works done before conversion, have a 
 merit dc congruo : that is, they merit a divine reward from a principle of congruity, 
 or fitness, and the free bounty of God : and good works done after justification, do 
 truly and properly merit eternal hfe. And thus they overturn the doctrines of the 
 free grace of God ; and the special grace of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 5. You challenge me to produce a single Roman catholic divine who has claimed 
 for the pope, or the church, the power of appointing new articles of faith. Have you 
 forgotten, Sir, the words of Bellarmine and others, who constitute the pope a " God 
 upon earth :" and the pater familias of the church, having the titles, and the place of 
 Christ in it? Can you be ignorant that Pope Innocent HI., during the session of the 
 4th council of the Lateran, did, without consulting any body, publish and enact no 
 less than seventy laws, or decrees, by which he not only established the power of the 
 popes and clergy, but also imposed "new doctrines, or articles of faith, on the christ- 
 ian church." See Mosh. ii. ch. 3, p. 2, and Daille on Confession. Will you deny 
 that the Trentine council added twelve articles to the church's creed ? And can you 
 seriously dispute, that Leo X. condemned this among the forty-one tenets of Luther, 
 ^^that the yope, or church had no power to establish articles of faith.'" And here, Sir, 
 are the words of the bull which you challenge me to produce " Certum est in manu 
 Ecclesias, et papa, prorsus non esse statuere articulas fidei, imo nee leges morum, seu 
 bonorum operum." That is, "It is certain that it is not in the power of the church 
 or of the pope to constitute or determine articles of faith, nor even laws of morals, or 
 good works." This is Luther's tenet which this pope condemned. And the Rhemist 
 Annotators speak strongly on the point: "We must believe the church of Rome and 
 trust her in all things." On 1 Tim. iii. sect. 9: Again, "we ought to take our faith 
 and all things necessary to salvation from the hands of our superiors." On Acts x. 
 sect. 8. And finally, see the bull of Leo X. added to the last council in the Lateran: 
 "Ad solam, &c. To the sole authority of the pope does it belong to give a new edi- 
 tion of the creed; or a new giving out of the creed belong to him solely." And to 
 crown the whole, see Corpus Juris Canon. Dist. 40. and the following declaration in 
 Dist. xix. cap. 6. " Inter Canonicas &c. Among the canonical scriptures the 
 (pope's) decretal epistles are to be numbered." These need no comment. Here is 
 evidence of the highest order, — namely, your own books ! 
 
 6. You write. Sir, with an amazing degree of non chalance, about your admitting 
 seven sacraments ; and of our admitting two, as if your will, and mine, by a mere 
 choice, were left to settle this. Nay, by way of a most ludicrous blunder, you 
 add : " If I am not greatly mistaken, the Presbyterian church admits of only one 
 proper sacrament !" How so, — why, say you, " because they make it only an 
 ordinance !" What naivete in this blunder of the true sons of Loyola ! They are so 
 accustomed to receive the laws, ordinances, and rites simply from "the Lord God, the 
 pope," — that they really do not know this elementary truth, that the true church — that 
 is the Protestant church, receives it as an undoubted article of her faith, that Christ, 
 her only King and Head, ordains all the institutions of his house: that the pope, 
 and he of the Koran, have no more power and authority to institute a new statute or 
 rite, in his church, than to add a new world to his dominions ! Hence he has made, 
 fixed, and pronounced in the New Testament, every law, and every ordinance, which 
 the church is ever to enjoy. And from this divine institution, we call the holy supper, 
 and baptism, ordinances. Our Romish priests have no idea of this; for the pope is 
 
QA rOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Boul, conscience, heart, law, and gospel to them ' While the christian looks up to hi4 
 God and King in heaven ; the romanists lift their eyes over the hills and seas, %o 
 Rome ! My dear sir, they take no pains to spare the priestly character : they heap 
 proof upon proof that they linger a thousand years behind the light of God's holy 
 gospel, in the darkness of the darkest ages ! 
 
 7. I will once more answer the often repeated question respecting divisions exist- 
 ing in the Protestant world, and their causes, whenever you will have the goodness 
 to answer frankly, the following queries :— 
 
 jPirsf__What is the reason why two equally learned lawyers will differ on a plain 
 point of law ? Or, why do you, and Dr. Power, and Mr. Levins so far differ that your 
 taste and delicacy will not permit you to lend your name to their rude and blasphe- 
 mous Letters ? 
 
 5econtZ— What has caused the endless divisions in Holy Mother's bosom ?" Your 
 *' infallible rule," which as certainly fell down from heaven, as did the image of Diana 
 from Jupiter, is firmly believed by all the different sects in your church. Now, why 
 do the Jesuits and Jansenists differ, and persecute each other? Why do the Francis- 
 cans and Dominicans differ, and quarrel, beyond the powers of the pope and the church 
 herself to unite them ? Why did you and your bishop quarrel with the priest of 
 Brooklyn? Had he no "infallible rule of Holy Mother," to guide him, as well a« 
 
 you? 
 
 Third Wliether your superior education enables you to apprehend the distinction 
 
 between subjective infallibility, and objective infallibility ? Your colleagues in their 
 Letters to me, ventured on the attempt : but it proved a complete abortion ! And in 
 order to cover their retreat, and throw, at least, something hke a veil over invincible 
 ignorance, they actually turned into ridicule, the plain and logical distinction of objec- 
 tive and subjective infallibility ! 
 
 W^e cease, however, to wonder at any thing. The state of education among Romish 
 priests is deplorable. Hebrew and Greek, with Biblical criticism form no part of 
 their training ! Why, some of them conceive the Latin Vulgate to be really the ori- 
 ginal language of the Bible, given by inspiration. Others seem equally as igno- 
 rant as the Romish Archbishop of a town in Italy, in the dark ages, who happening to 
 find a Bible in some old box in the library ; exclaimed upon reading it, — " / have found 
 a singular old book here : I know not what it is, but one thing I see, it makes entirely 
 against ms/" They imagine that if there be any "original" of the Holy Spirit's 
 inspiration, it must be the old Irish to>'gue ! For, there can be no doubt, say they, 
 that the prophets and apostles lived in old Ireland, and wrote the scriptures there ! ! 
 Hence these furious taunts flung at " the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost." 
 The author of them exhibits a bummg zeal in support of this Milesian theor^^ at all 
 risks, and hazard of character ! 
 
 But, Sir, your better education must enable you to apprehend the difference between 
 subjective and objective, as applied to this point in theology. There is an infallibility 
 objective, in our Protestant rule; because God speaks to us infallibly in the Bible. 
 But the subjects on which this rule is brought to operate, namely, men, are not infal- 
 lible. Hence, there is no subjective infallibility. That is, the infalHble rule of God, 
 does not make men, personally, infallible. Hence it is easy to see that under the 
 best and most divine rule, men will err ; and hence, they will differ. The fault is in 
 men obviously, not in God's word ! 
 
 8, When grave and solemn charges are brought against the pope, and Holy Mo- 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 85 
 
 ther's priesthood, and their spiritual and moral character is thence annihilated : and 
 when these charges are fully proved out of your own writers, such as Baronius, Pla- 
 tina, and Clemangis, how have you replied ? Why, by throwing the oblivion of si- 
 lence over it : or by a quotation from Roscoe containing an eulogium on two or three 
 tolerably decent popes ! And this done, you thence piously infer, that because a few 
 were decent, and rather more moral than others, therefore they were all good popes, 
 and the perfect rule and judge of all truth, human and divine ! This is a fair speci- 
 men of the precious "dialectics, and logic" of our priests ! 
 
 You had, in reserve, another characteristic mode of replying to our charge of infi- 
 delity and profligacy made against popes and priests. The Reformers have been, you 
 say, the worst, and most execrable of men ; " Luther was a pupil of the Devil ;" 
 and, " therefore, our wicked Popes were angels, and our polluted Priests, chaste 
 saints!" 
 
 Now, admitting that you could induce yourselves to believe the Reformers to be as 
 bad as demons, that does not touch the question. We never constituted one of these 
 men, — not even Paul, or Peter, the living rule and judge ! We repeat it, the bible is 
 
 OUR ONLY RULE, AND GOD SPEAKING IN IT, IS THE INFALLIBLE JUDGE. But yoU 
 
 declare the pope, or the church, made up of these base and profligate men, to be the 
 living speaking oracle, and judge ! Hence, when we adduced evidence that the 
 popes, as your Father Paul says of the Trent Fathers, were — " A camp of incarnate 
 demons," and your priests, by your own witnesses, a race of polluted, sensual men 
 wallowing in vices, — we did, thereby, annihilate, utterly, and for ever, your Roman 
 catholic rule of faith ! ! It died by the virulence of its own corruption ! 
 
 Come, now. Father Varela, open your eyes in candor; read God's holy word; 
 retract your errors; embrace the truth; come over to the fold of the only true Shep- 
 herd, our Lord Jesus; and I wdll greet you, in Christ. 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 W. C. Brownlee. 
 
 P. S. Since writing the above, I perceive that you have charged me with piiblish- 
 ing a falsehood, in as much as I athrmed that the Trentine Fathers adJedtivelve arti- 
 cles to the creed. 
 
 The Trentine Fathers did this by their agent, Pope Pius IV. to whom they left the 
 matter merely : as the echo of that council and its head, he published the creed. By 
 him acting in its name were the addhional articles added. I have made one mistake 
 which I hasten to rectify. Instead of twelve, he added fourteen new articles to the 
 creed ! And I challenge Dr. Varela and all the priests to deny it ! Let any one take 
 up Cramp's Text Book: let him look into pope Pius IV.'s creed, in Cramp, p. 450: 
 there he will see the original Latin copy: and in p. 387, he will see the translation. 
 First, you have the creed, and then attached to that, fourteen new articles, unknown 
 to the Apostles, and unknown to the church of Christ in the first six centuries. 
 
 Sir, I have here established another proof, that our Jesuit priests will deny any 
 thing, and will assert any thing, even with the most glaring evidence to the contrary, 
 before their eyes ! I can assign no other reason than this : they set Protestants at defi- 
 ance ; their unlettered votaries, they know, have no access to these documents, in our 
 hands, and in the priests' hands. And they are satisfied that their victims will take 
 the priests' word against all the evidence that truth can pour forth. Their simple 
 votaries have been volunteers in self immolation, and have always believed by proxy. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 9 
 
86 KOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 A CARD. — TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 The subscriber owes it to the pubhc respectfully to state, that the following Lett€f 
 was kept back by the Roman catholic paper, a whole week, without any reason, or 
 excuse being offered. And he also owes it to himself to state farther, to all who read 
 the Roman catholic paper, that, after it was at length given, it appeared in its col- 
 umns, so deformed and mangled, by the omission of lines and words, and by error* 
 of the grossest nature, that it is next to being unintelligible. 
 
 He takes this occasion also to state, that that catholic paper has from time to time, 
 admitted the most indecent and outrageous attacks on Protestant ladies, whom the 
 priest Mr. Thomas C. Levins has seen fit to drag into the present controversy ; and 
 yet the editor has been induced to refuse positively to admit a reply from the subscri- 
 ber, or from ladies, to these personal outrages ! 
 
 The little book " Lorette, or the history of the daughter of a Canadian nun,'''' which 
 has stung the priests' conscience, and inflicted such acute pain, — was submitted to 
 none of my parishioners. No one of the ladies of the Middle, and North Dutch 
 churches ever saw, or even heard of it, while in manuscript. I repeat it distinctly, — 
 no one of them was of tlie number of those judicious and virtuous mothers of fami- 
 lies, who took the trouble of reading and recommending it. Tkese were all of the 
 Presbyterian church exclusively. This I made known, confidentially, to the priest. 
 Yet, in violation of all the decencies and courtesies of life, the priest Mr. Thomas C. 
 Levins, has dragged in the ladies of the Middle Dutch church into this controversy : 
 and he still continues, under his own signature, and the shocking vulgarities of 
 " Fergus McAlpine," published weekly in the popish newspaper, in violation of every 
 principle of honor, — to offer insults to ladies who move in the first circles of New 
 York ! 
 
 I deem it, therefore, my duty to hold up this Romish priest, before the fathers, hus- 
 bands, and brothers of those ladies, — as the rude violator of the decencies, and com- 
 mon courtesies of society : — as one who has insulted ladies in language, and terms 
 which can proceed from no christian, or gentleman ! As one who has added coward- 
 ice to these unmanly insults, by employing his priestly influence to prevent all re- 
 plies, and exposures from appearing in those columns, where he publishes his outrage- 
 ous attacks ! 
 
 The subscriber begs leave to make an appeal to every gentleman, and every lady 
 in our community, whether this repeated insolence to ladies, on the part of a Romish 
 priest, is to be tolerated. He can have no objection that Mr. Levitis should heap on 
 his head his unmeasured abuses, and sacerdotal vituperations. The subscriber is his 
 public and avowed theological opponent ; and he is prepared for it. For it is just a« 
 natural for a priest of Roman faith to persecute those, whom, in his vulgar and illibe- 
 ral views, he is pleased to call " heretics ;" as it is for him to breathe ! But, then, 
 let him confine the outpourings of the vials of his ghostly wrath, to those, exclusively, 
 who war against his impieties ; and not, with the graceless coward, insult ladies, and 
 those who never entered the lists with him ! None but the rudest being, that ever 
 was trained up in all the heartlessness of Jesuitism, and monastic celibacy, which 
 paralyzes every noble, and virtuous, and holy feeling of the human soul, — can per- 
 mit himself to insult ladies ! And when, in the calamitous events of providence, such 
 outlaws intrude themselves on virtuous and polished society, and rudely violate social 
 courtesies, — then, every gentleman, and, most especially, every young man, is bound, 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 87 
 
 promptly to show that there are husbands, and fatliers, and brothers to defend their 
 wives, their daughters, and sisters, against such brutal assauks of priests ! 
 
 I am, most respectfully, &c. 
 W. C. Brownlee. 
 May 14, 1833. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 TO DRS. POWER AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 " Upon this rock will I build my church !" — Jesus Christ. 
 
 ** And that rock was Christ." — St. Paul. 
 
 " Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
 
 Gentlemen : — Your seventh letter I have carefully perused. You would have saved 
 trouble, and been as near your object, had you reprinted the sixth against me, in. 
 reply. You have offered, in both, much incense to the spirit of error and heresy. I 
 fear he is the presiding genius over all your nocturnal orgies and lucubrations. You 
 have renewed your crusade against the holy Bible ; but without advancing one single 
 new idea ; or even one semblance of a fresh argument on the point. My ten argu- 
 ments against your rule, by which I trust, it has been logically demolished and anni- 
 hilated, — have been passed over, unnoticed by you. And, gentlemen, whatever attri- 
 butes your enemies deny you, I shall maintain that in this silence, you possess both 
 wisdom and cunning. We have also fully established the evidence of the holy scrip- 
 tures, by the usual arguments and proofs, briefly given, from internal and from exter- 
 nal evidence; from miracles, prophecy, and historical evidence or tradition. And I 
 trust, I have fully exposed your besetting sins touching tradition. It is truly ludi- 
 crous to see grave and professedly learned men insisting on it, forever, that tradition 
 alone is all the evidence of the Bible's inspiration ; and that tradition belongs solely 
 and exclusively, to " Holy Mother" of Rome, verily! You repeat here, again, with 
 solemn trifling, all your deism and twaddle in this matter, which had been refuted, 
 and exposed, and logically put to rest. The only thing that seems to be novel is this : 
 you have fallen, like theological sophomores, into the silly error of confounding the 
 act of faith in the external evidence of the holy Bible, with the act of faith in our 
 Lord, speaking in the Bible. By the former, we are assured that the Bible came 
 from God — by the latter we do believe in Christ, speaking in the Bible, and through 
 that faith, are justified from guilt before God. Now my profound opponents cannot 
 comprehend the dislinction ! And what is more, no papist ever can. For he 
 believes in the "church, namely Holy Mother." And by that faith is he saved. 
 This, gravely, is their avowed sense of that sentence in the creed — " I believe in the 
 catholic Church" ! ! ! 
 
 1. My exposure of your Vulgate Bible has, I see, taken efTect: it has stung the priest's 
 Conscience ! And you cannot conceal how much you writhe under it. No wonder : 
 Magna est Veritas, atque prasvalebit ! — But you have not exainined, far less refuted 
 one of my statements. And I compliment you again on your wisdom in not touch- 
 ing them. Every Jesuit is a spiritual man of war, from his youth up. And in your 
 tactics Holy Mother enforces no rule more anxiously than this : — ivhenever yowr 
 opponent advances an argument which you cannot answer — take special care not to 
 touch iV! 
 
88 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST* 
 
 The strongest thing you have said here, in reply to my exposure of your Vulgat^f 
 is this : " Your attack on it, you have borrowed from Pope's discussion with M'Guire<. 
 &.C." My good ])adres, I did not know it : for, I am sorry to say, that I have not yet 
 been able to add that book to my list. I have never seen it. * But, gentlemen, you 
 must have seen that I copied my authorities from the fountain head, — such as Nolan, 
 Home, Willet, Father Paul Sarpi, Pallavicini, and the collections of Cramp. And, 
 gentlemen, if, as you say, Pope was so ill informed on the subject, as not to be abio 
 to silence M'Guire promptly on this point, by an exhibition of the endless errors, varia- 
 tions, and contradictions existing between the Sixtine, and the Clementine editions of 
 the Vulgate, he was very ill qualified for his duty. Every scholar knows that Dr. 
 James, in his Bellum Papale, has pointed out two thousand variations between these 
 two papal editions. And any one by taking up Home, vol. ii. p. 200, 201, can see a 
 specimen of these errors, omissions, additions, and contradictions. I mention Home, 
 because he is in every minister's library. And I again refresh you with Reuchline and 
 Jerome's words, — " the Hebrews drink of the wellhead ; the Greeks of the stream ; 
 and the Latins of the puddle !" And, at the same time, I renew my public challenge to 
 you to tell the public, to which of these erroneous and contradictory editions of your 
 Vulgate, from the hands of these two equally infallible and contradictory popes, you 
 give in the adhesion of your flexible faith and conscience. 
 
 2. I also beg leave to renew my demand of an answer to the question in my last, 
 and which you have shunned. You have always averred, and can we doubt your 
 honor, that you insist that your laity read the holy Bible ? Even your pope, you said, 
 approves of your Douay ! Now, we demand of you to tell us if there be one English 
 version of the Bible authorised by either the pope or the church ! We say there is not 
 one authorised version in our language ! Will you venture, Sirs, to contradict it ? I 
 possess evidence ; namely, the testimony upon oath, of some of your first men in Ire- 
 land, given in before the British parliament, to confirm what I say! 
 
 3. You are involved in a difficulty, realh' inextricable, from my quotations from 
 the Greek and Latin fathers. And 1 am anxious to show how great this dilficulty is. 
 There is no contradiction as you affect to say, between my Letters L and VH. You 
 know as well as I do, that the fathers have been altered, mangled, and corrupted in 
 many parts. But providence so ordered it, that these knavish monks who corrupted 
 many parts of them, did not succeed in corrupting all of them ; or all parts of each of 
 them. Hence the many glaring contradictions on their pages. Now, take it which 
 way you please, gentlemen, the quotations from the fathers are absolutely fatal to 
 your sinking cause. It is an immutable doctrine of your church, that no rite, nor 
 doctrine is from God, unless it have the unanimous consent of the fathers. Hence it is 
 utter folly in you, gentlemen, to do as padre Levins has done ; namely, to quote a 
 sentence or two. This will never do. You must have their unanimous consent. If 
 I do produce, as you know I have done, a sentence from these, contradicting yours, it 
 is of no consequence to our Protestant cause, which of us is right. It is enough for me 
 that I destroy your unanimous consent. I beg my readers to remember this important 
 maxim. It is to administer glorious service to us in our future discusions of the Ro- 
 mish doctrines and ceremonies. 
 
 * This statement brought me in no less than fM?o copies in one day: and one of them, I 
 wish to be grateful in saying it, was from a R. C. Priest ! Here let me add, that so deep 
 and solemn was the sympathy of the protestant public, that books were sent in to me from 
 persons of every sect and denomination, many of which generous friends, I never saw, 
 nor heard of, before. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 89 
 
 4. You call Protestants " the children of the Bible." We are grateful for this honor 
 ■wrung from such lips. Truth is rare and valuable like gold ; especially when it 
 comes in small graiijs amid mountains of falsehood. But you venture to say that we 
 have •' the most abominahlif corrupt Bible that ever appeared." You add : " Mark our 
 proofs and weigh tliem well: read Broughton's advertisement of corruption, to the 
 lords of council in 1604." 
 
 Our priests arc as defective in historical education, as they are in biblical criti- 
 cism. Is it not astonishing that a priest, or any school boy, should really not know 
 that our translation now in use, was not in existence in 1604 ? It was not finished 
 until the year 1611 ? Our priests are absolutely so illiterate that they do not know 
 that they are charging on our present, and admirable translation, the errors that 
 existed in preceding translations ! 
 
 They commit a similar blunder when they say that, " in the Hampton conference 
 all the English Bibles were pronounced infamous translations." Is it credible that 
 priests should be so utterly ignorant of familiar historical facts ? Our version, now ha 
 general use, was made after the Hampton conference ; and in consequence of the 
 learned puritans requesting King James to select able men to give an accurate trans- 
 lation. See Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, ii. ch. 2. Home's Introd. vol. ii. p. 249, 
 
 5. And as our priests appeal to Walton and others, as favoring their sentiments, re- 
 lative to the Douay, and to our version, the public can conceive what reliance is to be 
 placed on the faith and quotations of the priests, from the following criticism of Walton : 
 " The last English translation of the Bible, made by divers learned men, at the com- 
 mand of King James, may jusily contend with any now extant, in any language of 
 Europe." And the learned Selden, a better judge than the pope, and his millions of 
 priests combined, calls it " the best translation in the world!" And omitting other 
 equally great judges, your own Geddes, a Socinian Roman Catholic priest, speaks of 
 it thus: "If accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, do 
 constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this, of all versions, must, in general, 
 be accounted the most excellent ! 
 
 6. You have not given a fair exhibition of Bellannine's views of papal infallibility. 
 He and these of his sect in the Romish church, do actually place it in the pope alone. 
 I quoted him and the canon law. These exhibit the pope as absolute : " a god on 
 earth," in the place of Christ, " loco Christi :" and accountable to no council; doing 
 on earth what he pleases, even as God does in heaven ! Hence they make him the 
 sole depository and fountain of infallibility ! You simply deny that any son of " Holy 
 Mother" ever held such sentiments, and get rid of my quotations by misstatement, 
 and mysticism. I need scarcely add that those who lock into Bellarmine and the 
 canon law, will perceive that you are either by design, or accident, absolutely ignor- 
 ant of your own standard papal writers ! 
 
 Finally — There is one other point on which I find something apparently new. In 
 a fresh and most unchristian ebullition against the holy scriptures, you quote Dr. 
 Curtis's pamphlet in which he numbers no than 2931 intentional departures from the 
 received version of our English Bible ; that is, he imdertakes to show that, in the 
 printing, all these errors have been introduced. And in this detection, our reverend 
 christian priests exult, and leap for joy, as if they and their agrarian auxiliaries had 
 actually made a breach in the walls of Zion ! ! 
 
 I have convicted my opponents of Deism : and I have evidence that every think- 
 ing christian Ln the community is fully and painfully satisfied with the evidence, 
 
 9* 
 
90 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 And to establish this fact was in indeed my main reason for lingering so long on the 
 rule. We have succeeded in dragging out this lurking Antichrist from his deceptions 
 den ; and we have branded on his forehead a mark and a name which all his holy 
 water can never wash out — namely : " This is the father and prince of Deism !" 
 
 And as if they were resolved, unblushingly, to wear the mark and the name, the 
 priests have made this new assault, through the aid of Dr. Curtis, against the holy 
 scriptures. Now, mark the proofs of their dishonesty in this matter. When we 
 remember the source whence our priests got their information of Dr. Curtis' re- 
 searches, it was morally impossible for them not to know that the profound scholar. 
 Dr. Cardwell, of Oxford University, has entered the lists against him, has overthrown 
 him, and exposed his errors completely. I shall edify my honest and accurate 
 opponents, by quoting a little specimen of this exposure. In the book of Genesis, 
 Br. Curtis musters the formidable array of eight hundred and seven variations, and in 
 (he gospel of Matthew, no less than four hundred and sixteen ! This, to you and 
 every infidel, is a very refreshing and comfortable discovery. But pause a little. 
 Our champion, Dr. Cardwell, goes over the same ground, collates the various copies, 
 and shows triumphantly that in Genesis there are onl}^ nine variations ; and in Mat- 
 thew onh^ eleve?i ! And these affect not the sense ; nor trench on doctrine ! If a 
 Jesuit could be brought, by any powxr short of divine grace, to blush, my guilty 
 and treacherous opponents ought to blush to their very tonsures! But, the grace 
 of God only can make a culprit see and feel his crimes ! 
 
 I have one remark more. I am prepared for even the ultra deism of the Vol- 
 taire school from you, gentlemen, but the indecent sally in your last letter, I was 
 really not prepared to hear. I allude to your revolting blasphemy, in your last 
 letter. Will the christian community pardon me for quoting it? "One thing ia 
 certain, the Holy Ghost must consider you (Dr. B.) no extraordinary genius, when, 
 after a course of thirty or forty years in his school, you betray such ignorance." &c. 
 
 The ignorant and deluded victims of popery, who can write and inflict on the 
 church, such outrageous blasphemy against the most Holy One, cannot be said to 
 believe that "there is any Holy Ghost." And it were mockery to call them christ- 
 ians ! I appeal to every one of the five hundred thousand christians in the United 
 States, who read our letters ! Have we not convicted the priests of Deism, and 
 deliberate blasphemy ? 
 
 One word to the confederated parties : Gentlemen priests : Your very natural and 
 anti-christian invectives against God's holy word, have been gladly hailed by all the 
 infidels in the land. I said gladly, for in the absence of the Agrarian chief, now 
 laboring in the cause of deism, in England, they rejoice at any little aid to their cause, 
 come it from a Roman priest, dyed in the wool : or come it from a genuine pupil of 
 Frances Wright. And this is no despicable attribute of their system, that they are 
 very thankful for very small favors ! It is true ; and I only remind you of it : they 
 have applauded your intellectual industry against God's holy Bible, at the expense of 
 your sincerity and moral honesty, xlnd it ought not to be concealed that these, 
 your auxiliaries, gravely pronounce you hypocrites. Prepare the watch-word, there 
 will soon be trouble in the camp ! 
 
 And, gentlemen deists, — I use not the title invidiously, — are you aware of the 
 ch-aracter and pretensions of the Roman priests with whom you make common cause ? 
 Are you aware of the consequences which will follow, should you succeed in conduct- 
 ing them into power, in these United States ? Look at Italy, at Austria, Naples, and 
 
ROMAir CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 91 
 
 Spain. Yon are helping to light up the fires of the Auto da fe ! The Roman church 
 cannot exist without persecutions, massacres, and the burning of her foes. For she 
 holds no faith with heretics : and that it is a most meritorious deed to extirpate heretics! 
 In aiding the Roman priests (who laugh in their sleeves at your credulity and weak- 
 ness) you are preparing the fire and fagots! You are preparing for yourselves the 
 unenvied distinction of being the last devoured ! Pause, and think. Do not strengthen 
 the tyrant's arm which is raising the blow against our fair and happy Republic ! 
 
 I now go on to show that the Roman Catholic Church is younger than 
 Christianity : and that Popery is a mere novelty in the religious 
 
 WORLD. 
 
 Here I would observe that the church of God is one great and holy body, of which 
 Christ is the head. The church has existed from the beginning of the world, it exists 
 now, and will exist to the consummation of all things ; unaffected by the lapse of 
 time, or the change, and succession of individual members. 
 
 The church has ever held the truth. And truth descended from God, and has ever 
 kept her throne in Zion. Christ the King of truth, reigns in her forever. Nothing 
 of human invention is of the truth. Every item of it comes from God, through 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The following are some of these leading truths which never failed in the church ; 
 and which have ever distinguished the church from all human societies. And wher- 
 ever these doctrines are wanting, there " Satan has his seat;" — there is " his syna- 
 gogue." 
 
 1st. The one living and true God is the only and exclusive object of divine worship 
 and veneration. The church of God never prayed to creatures ; never made suppli- 
 cations to dead men, or dead women. The pagan, and afterwards the anti-christian 
 apostacy alone, did this. The pagans deified their heroes and heroines, and made 
 supplications to them. The antichristian apostacy, faithful copyers, have, in like man- 
 ner, deified or canonized their dead spiritual heroes and heroines ; they offer incense to 
 them ; bow down before them ; and make solemn supplications, and prayers to them. 
 These systems are twin sisters ; begotten by their common father, the prince of dark- 
 ness, the grand enemy of divine worship, and the originator of all idolatry. 
 
 2d. The Church has always held faith in one savior, Jesus Christ; and his 
 one perfect sacrifice. Pagan and antichristian apostacies have renounced this. 
 The sacrifices of the former, and the mass sacrifice of the latter, have displaced and 
 rejected, completely, the one only sacrifice of our blessed Lord. Besides, popery has 
 created such a host of mediators, and mediatrices, and intercessors, in the deified 
 saints, that the humble faithful cannot get a sight of the one only mediator Christ, on 
 account of the countless rabble of saints put into the place which HE alone occupies. 
 
 3d. The church of God never used images to aid her worship. She was solemnly 
 prohibited from this iniquity by the second precept. " Thou shalt not make unto 
 thee any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing, &c. Thou shalt not bow 
 down thyself to them, &.c." This is the literal version of the Hebrew original; and 
 every other version is false; and does, of design, cover idolatrous practices. As for 
 the cherubim, and the brazen serpent, they were made by an express command of God ; 
 and they were not used to worship God, in any sense whatever. It was for the sin of 
 idolatry, or using images and false gods, that the ancient Jews suffered most severely, 
 by the terrible judgments of God on that heaven daring sin ! 
 
 4th. The circumcision of the heart, or spiritual regeneration was a peculiar doctrine 
 
gg> BOHAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 of tbe church. " Except a maa be bora again, he cannot enter the kingdom of 
 God." This doctrine is unknown to pagans, and laughed to scorn by the pope, and 
 his priesthood. They hold that no " internal grace" is needful in the members of the 
 church, but only "external profession." And most gravely they assert that wicked 
 men, and even reprobates, remaining in the public profession of the church, are true 
 members of the body of Christ." See Bellarmine De Eccles. Lib. iii. cap 2 and 7. 
 And the Rhem. Annot. on 1 Tim. 2. Sect. 10. And on John 15. Sect. 1. Willet, 
 p. 51. 
 
 5th. The church always held that God only and exclusively, is the lord of the 
 HUMAN conscience; and in no subordinate sense can any mortal claim power over 
 the conscience. Almighty God will not share his throne with any miserable and arro- 
 gant tyrant. All false religions lodge power with the priests to rule over, and dictate to, 
 the conscience. This ever has been the characteristic of paganism, and Romanism. 
 The evidence of this Ues open to view on the page of scripture ; and in the history of 
 paganism, and the Roman church. 
 
 6th. Almighty God alone can, and does pardon sin. He gave the law, pre- 
 scribed the penalty ; we are his moral subjects ; to him alone are we accountable in 
 the matters of sin, spiritual duty, and pardon. As church members we are to confess 
 our faults one to another ; and so ought the priest to confess his faults to the people, if 
 this text be quoted by them as authority for his innovation. But auricular confes- 
 eion has no warrant from Almighty God. Upon the principles of pagans, and Roman 
 cathoHcs, God has transferred over into the hands of immoral and polluted men, the 
 government of his empire. If a priest has a right to receive the confession of sins, 
 and pronounce absolution, for money ; then has he the right to claim the judgment 
 seat of heaven ; judge the dead ; and displace Jesus Christ, in order to make gain ! 
 
 7th. The spirit of true religion is the unsubduable spirit of liberty. Wherever 
 the worship of the true and holy One has been established by the gospel, there 
 liberty has reigned. And, just in proportion as the gospel is left unshackled by the 
 traditions, and interested schemes of men, has liberty had her splendid triumphs ) 
 The Jewish church exhibited Uberty diffusing happiness over a free and blessed people. 
 When religion languished, tyrants bore sway. Let the people cast their eyes over all 
 Roman catholic nations, and contrast their degradation, tyranny, priestcraft, and 
 outrageous oppression,— with the light, liberty and happiness of Protestant countries ! 
 Contrast Spain and Italy, and Austria, with Holland, and Scotland, and England! 
 Contrast the turbulent Mexicans, and Southern priest-ridden republics, with our own 
 glorious republic, and read the truth, visibly written, as with a sunbeam from heaven ! 
 I would draw the attention of every sound politician to this point. I know of no other 
 portion of civil and ecclesiastical history, more fruitful of great practical lessons to the 
 patriot, and to our country, than this is. 
 
 8th. The true and chaste spouse of Christ is not conjoined, in bondage, unto the 
 state. "My kingdom is not of this world," said Christ. And his ser^'ants are not 
 allowed to usurp authority, or "be lords over God's heritage ;" far less are they to be 
 luxurious, proud, insolent princes, and truculent tyrants ! The pagan and Roman 
 religions; and those which are only half reformed have permitted the infidel princes 
 of the earth, the " Lords spiritual and temporal," to tyrannise over the church : to make 
 a tool of her, and her lordly revenues, to promote personal, and family ambition : until 
 she is become, in many lands, a fallen and degraded thing ; vile, and impure ; and 
 loathsome ! The tyrants of the earth have converted her into " The mother of 
 
ROMAN CAtHOLlC CONtftOVERSr. 93 
 
 harlots, and abominations of the earth.^' This is her name among the nations of tha 
 earth, and all the host of God. This name the linger of the Lord has written on hey 
 brazen forehead ! And an Atlantic of priestly holy water can never wash her clean^ 
 nor wipe the brand from her forehead ! 
 
 These peculiarities of a false religion, show that Romanism is not the pure and 
 ancient church of Christ. But this is only my introduction. The grand peculiarities 
 of Popery, — with your leave, I shall class under ten heads, — or, gentlemen, ten horns^ 
 if you please. 
 
 First. The pope's supremacy. I shall not stop here to refute these doctrines : 
 I shall merely establish their origin and date, in order to show that popery proper, is a 
 mere novelty in the christian world. Our refutation shall be offered when we reach 
 these, in " the dependency of our argument." 
 
 All papists admit the pope's supremacy. But among the sectaries in the bosom of 
 '' Holy Mother," there has been great diversity of belief. There are four i)rominent 
 kinds of faith, rending asunder holy Unity, on this essential point. One class vouch- 
 safes him a mere presidency : a second votes him an unlimited sovereignty : a third, 
 exalts the pope to an equality with God : the fourth, very modestly, makes the pope 
 actually superior to God ! This I shall discuss again : I shall wait to see whether our 
 learned priests will venture to deny this division. Ignorance of their own wTiters 
 may very probably induce them to deny it. 
 
 Now, according to the doctrines of the pope's supremacy, Peter was made the first 
 supreme. And having died in A. D. 67, he was succeeded by some obscure beings, 
 upon whose names even the Romanists cannot agree. But the holy apostle John 
 survived Peter at least forty years ; and so these obscure but absolute supremes, were 
 placed over this holy and beloved apostle ! This was really outrageous in the Romish 
 church ! And, moreover, this apostle John has not, in any of his inspired writings, 
 had the grace of God, or the good sense, to acknowledge this supremacy ; nor deported 
 himself as a dutiful son. On our priests' principles, Drs. Power and Levins must 
 denounce the holy John as a rebel ious son of " Holy Mother !" What ! Live 40 years, 
 and write so much scripture, yet say not one word for his holiness, and his essential 
 supremacy ! Padre Levins ought, forthwith to excommunicate his memory, with bell, 
 book, and candle ! Gentlemen, by what strange and unheard of negligence in discipline, 
 has this been omitted by " Holy Mother ?" Never did her thunders of the Vatican thus 
 aleep when her vengeance burned against the pious and martyred saints of Europe ! 
 
 The early councils resisted papal supremacy. In A. D. 418, the sixth council of 
 Carthage resisted three popes, one after another. The council of Chalcedon, held 
 about the year 450, resisted pope Leo, on the question of his supremacy. A mighty 
 and harmonious opposition was directed against papal usurpation by the bishops and 
 and clergy of France and Germany. Illyricus, in Catal. Test. Verit. p. 41, gives 
 their epistle, in which they " admonish the pope Anastasius and his accomplices, to 
 let them alone, and not exercise their tyranny over them." 
 
 The bishops of Belgia resisted the pope Nicholas, so late as 860, Illyricus records, 
 in p. 80, their epistle to him, in which they say, — " We will not stand to (hy decrees ; 
 nor hear thy voice; nor fear thy thundering bulls! We assault thee with thine own 
 weapon, who despisest the decree of our Lord God I" 
 
 So late as the seventh century the Anglian bishops resisted popery in England, and 
 refused even to own the pope, and his Austin monks as chrisslians. See Burgess* 
 Tracts, p. 125, Lond. Prot. Joum. May, 1832. 
 
94 ROMAK CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 In Scotland, as Is evident from Dr. Jamieson's history of the Culdees, popery and 
 •upremacy were resisted with strong indignation to even a later period. 
 
 In Ireland the devout Irish resisted popery still longer. Dr. O'Halloran declares 
 in his antiquarian researches, that " St. Patrick, beyond doubt, found in Ireland, when 
 he arrived there, an established Christian Church." And he declares that "an un- 
 compromising enmity existed in the minds of the Irish people against every thing con- 
 nected tvith Rome! "And we have the famous reply of the Irish divine, St. Ibar, 
 on record, which he made to St. Patrick, who wished to exercise somejurisdiction:— • 
 •^ We never acknowledge the supremacy of a foreigner /" Let every true hearted Irish- 
 man record this reply of their famous native divine ; and remember the fact that Ireland 
 never submitted to the pope's supremacy until overpowered by the conspiracy of the 
 pope, and mng Henry II., in A. D. 1172. I refer to O'Driscoll's views of Ireland, 
 ii. p. 85. 
 
 In Spain, the radical elements of popery and papal supremacy were detested, and 
 successfully resisted, so late as the beginning of the eighth century. See Dr. Geddes 
 on Popery, vol. ii. 11—60 ; and McCrie's History of the Reformation in Spain and 
 
 Italy. 
 
 The emperor Lewis, son of Charlemagne, so late as the middle of the ninth century, 
 with all his clergy and nobles, owned no supremacy in the pope ; but on the conr 
 trary sustained the power of the bishops and councils against him. Hence the 
 devout exclamation of your own honest Platina: " O Ludovice, utinamnunc viveres."' 
 See Illyr. Catal. p. 86, Morn. Exer. p. 224. 
 
 The best and early fathers warmly opposed the Pope's supremacy. St. Augustine 
 was the fourth who signed the famous decree of the African Milevetan Council. This 
 decree was made against all appeals from the African Church, by bishops, or mem- 
 bers, to the pope ; and it was made in opposition to Pope's Zosimus, Boniface, and 
 Celestine. See Mansi Collect. Cone. Tom. iv. p. 507 ; Venet. edit. 1785. 
 
 Jerome, also opposed it ; hear his words : " The Church of the Roman city is not to 
 be deemed one thing, and the church of the whole world another. Gaul, Britain, 
 Africa, Persia, India, and all the barbarous nations adore one Christ: and observe one 
 Tule of faith. If you look for authority, the world is greater than a city, (Rome.) 
 Wheresoever a bishop is, whether at Rome, or Constantinople, or Alexandria, or 
 Tanais, he is of the same worth, (or authority) and the same priesthood." "But all 
 are successors of the apostles. Why do you produce to me the customs of one city ?" 
 To Evagr. Tom. ii. p. 512, Paris edit, of 1602. 
 
 The following from St. Jerome has a very particular claim on our attention :— 
 *' Bishops should remember that they are greater than elders, (presbyters,) rather by 
 custom, than by truth of the Lord's appointment : and that they ought to rule the 
 church in common." On Titus Lib. i. cap 1 . 
 
 Hear Theodoret's memorable words :— " Christ alone is head of all : the church is 
 his body ; and the saints are the members of his body : one is the neck : another the 
 feet." "By bis legs understand St. Peter, the first of the apostles." On Sol. Song. 
 Par. Lat. edit. 1608. So far from making Peter the head, he considered him the legs, 
 which are supported by the feet, as you well know ! 
 
 Then there is Tertullian's famous sentence, which your Romish writers have man- 
 gled so scandalously — supposing that we, "ignorant heretics,," had not seen, nor read 
 that honest witness against your supremacy. " Survey the apostolical churches, in 
 in which the verychairs of the apostles still preside over these stations ; in which their 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 05 
 
 own epistles are recited, uttering the voice, and representing the presence of each of 
 ihem. Is Achaia nearest to thee, thou hast Corinth. If thou art not for from Macedonia, 
 thou hast the Philippians arid the Thessalonians. If thou canst go to Asia, thou hast 
 Ephestts. If thou art near Italy, thou hast Ronae, whence to us, also, authority is near 
 at hand." Praes. adv. Haer. Cap. 36, p. 215, Paris edit. 1675. Now, it is a notable 
 circumstance, that the Romish writers, when they quote out of TertuUian, leave out 
 all that is put here in italics; namely, all but the last sentence; thereby perverting 
 this father, and making him utter what no man in his days had even conceived, or 
 thought of. Mr. Hughes of Philadelphia, lately quoted him in this garbled manner; 
 and received a suitable scourging for so doing ! 
 
 I shall gratify you, gentlemen, with one refreshing quotation more. And if you do 
 not give up your pope's supremacy as universal bishop, then on your own principles, 
 are you the most obstinate heretics alive. For I quote from your own infallible 
 and holy pope, and one whom you have deified too, and do invoke with incense, 
 prayers, and holy wrestlings ; I mean pope St. Gregory, — Padre Levins very gravely 
 tells us that he loves antiquities and all old things — were it even like " Holy Mother," 
 a very old sinner ! Well, you must know that a bishop of the Greek church first 
 claimed supremacy, and the honor of universal bishop ; until one of the fathers of 
 Rome, some of them pretty honest men at that time, rebuked his iniquity, and shamed 
 him out of it. Now hear the infallible pope and saint Gregory — who wrote this in the 
 close of the sixth century, namely, 590. Having shown that Peter, and Paul, and 
 John were all members under one head, he says : — " No one desired to call himself 
 universalis, or universal bishop." See Regist. Epist. Lib. 5. p. 743, Tom. ii. 
 
 Again, for this is too good to be quitted so soon ; "I do confidently say that whoso- 
 ever called himself universal Bishop ; or is desirous to be called so, in his pride, in 
 the FORERUNNER OF ANTI-CHRIST; bccausc, in his pride, he prefers himself to the 
 rest. And he is conducted to error, by a similar pride ; for as the wicked One wishes 
 to appear a god above all men ; so whosoever he is, who desires to be called the only 
 Bishop (solus sacerdos,) extols himself above all other Bishops." Tom. ii. Regist. 
 Epist. In. 15. Epist. 33. edit, of Paris, 1705. 
 
 Once more, for this is delectable, coming as it does from your great saint : — In his 
 eulogy to the bishop of Alexandria, he solemnly affirms that " the primcucy of Peter 
 descended to three Sees : namely, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome." Tom. ii. 887. 
 Paris edit. 
 
 Once more ; for I am determined that Pope St. Gregory, if possible, shall save you 
 from the mortal sin of holding the Roman pope's supremacy. Hear your holy saint : 
 *' If any one in that church assumes that name," he was speaking of universal Bishop, 
 '^ which in the opinion of all good men he (his rival in the East,) has done; then th^ 
 whole church ; {may it never happen) falls from its state, when he who is called univer- 
 sal, falls. But let that name of blasphemy be absent from the hearts of Christians; 
 which, when it is really assumed by one, the honor of all priests is taken away." — 
 Regist. Epist. ; Lib. 5 ; Indie. 13 ; Epist. 20. also Lib. 7. p. 881. Paris edit. 1705. 
 
 Thus I have proved by arguments and testimony from your own church, that the 
 supremacy, and infamous usurpation of your pope, is a novelty in the christian world. 
 It was not fully gained by the '* Man of Sin" until the consummation of truth's over- 
 throw, in the darkest hour of the darkest ages. 
 
 Second. The invocation of saints, is a novelty introduced by the "Man of 
 Sin" also. This originated in those bold and figurative expressions, and forms of 
 
96 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY* 
 
 apostrophising of the departed martyrs, common among declamatory preachers- 
 Invocation of saints began to show iti«elf sometime after the beginning of the third 
 century. It was violently opposed by the truly faithful, until the seventh century ; 
 and tinally, it was established, in spite of all opposition, only in the ninth century, 
 when the church was driven into the wilderness. 
 
 We have the testimony of St. Augustine against you on this point. "He is the 
 High Priest who has entered within the veil ; and who alone of those who have ap- 
 peared in the fiesh, does intercede for us." On Psalms 64, vol, iv. p. 633. edit. 
 Paris, 1685. 
 
 Theodoret, who wrote in A. D. 451, says, — "Send up thanks-giving to God the 
 Father, through Christ; and not through angels. The council of Laodicea also fol- 
 lowing this rule, and desiring to heal that old disease, made a law that people should 
 not pray to angels ; nor forsake our Lord Jesus Christ." On Colos. 3 chap. Parig 
 edit. Lat. 1608. 
 
 St. Chrysostora declared [in the beginning of the fifth century,] that "there was 
 no need for minor intercessors with God." " With God it is not thus; for there is no 
 need of intercessors for the petitioners ; neither is he so ready to give a gracious an- 
 swer, when entreated by others ; as by ourselves praying to him." On Math, cited 
 by Theod. Eclog. &c. 
 
 More full is this saint on that passage of " sending away the woman of Canaan." 
 Mark the philosopy of the woman ; she entreats not James, nor John, nor comes she 
 to Peter ; she breaks through the whole company of them ; and saying I have no 
 need of a mediator; but taking repentance as a spokes- woman, I come to the fountain 
 itself. I have no need of a mediator ; have thou mercy on me." See his Disc, on 
 this part of Mat. ch. 15, Paris edit. 1621. 
 
 Gregory Nyssen denounces creature invocation : " The word of God has ordained 
 that none of those things which have their being by creation, shall be worshipped :'* 
 atlSaaftiov, that is venerated by prayers, or invoked in religious worship. " Moses, 
 the tables, the law, the prophets, the gospel, the decrees of all the apostles forbid equally 
 our looking to the creature." Orat. 4, in Eunom. Tom. ii. p. 144, Paris edit, of 
 cioiccxv. 
 
 I shall only add Epiphanius, of A. D. 336. He is a strong witness against the 
 atheism of saint worship or invocation. " Neither is Elias to be worshipped, although 
 he were aUve, nor is John to be worshipped TrpoaKwriTos, i. e. bowed down before, and 
 prayed to. Nor is Theela, or any of the saints to be worshipped, bowed down be- 
 fore, or prayed to. For that ancient error shall not prevail over us, of forsaking the 
 LIVING God, aud worshipping creatures. For they served and worshipped the crea- 
 ture more than the Creator, and became fools. For if an angel will not be worship- 
 ped, how muchmore will not she, (the Virgin Mary) who was born of Anna?" See 
 his book against the heretics, No. 79. p. 448. 
 
 Now, will you permit me to refresh your consciences, gentlemen, with a contrast 
 of Romanism with this primitive Christianity of the fathers. In the face of the Bible, 
 in which the Holy Ghost commands us not to pray to, or worship creatures : in the 
 face of the testimony of Councils, by the sainted fathers, you thus pray ; — " O Holy 
 Mary ! — obtain for us by intercession, light to know the great benefit which Christ has 
 bestowed on us." " O Holy Virgin, obtain for us by thy intercession, that our hearts 
 maybe so visited by thy holy Son, &c." " O most pure Mother of God !" — What 
 revolting blasphemy ! God's Mother ! ! Mother of God J ! Paganism never breathed 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 97 
 
 €iich Atheism, god has no mother! The infinite and invisible being, god, has 
 NO MOTHER ! What a most brutish mind conceived this idea ! What a brutahzing ' 
 prayer this is, to teach men ! Christ our mediator, as man had a mother ; but as God, 
 he had no mother. — But 1 go on. — " O Mother of God, we beseech thee, obtain for us, 
 by toy intercession, grace to lead pure and holy lives, &c." Again : — " O most bles- 
 sed Virgin, graciously vouchsafe to help us to accomplish the work of our safvation, 
 by thy powerful intercession ! — Amen." See Dr. John Power's Catholic Manual; 
 Rosary of the B. Virgin : N. York edit. 
 
 The following 1 copy from "the Roman Catholic prayer book, or devout christian's 
 Vade Mecum.'" It will be seen how Dr. Power, and the Philadelphia book differ in 
 translating the same passage. Will the Bishops not take care, and look after such 
 pope-daring innovations! — "O most blessed Virgin, graciously vouchsafe to negotiate 
 for, and with us, the work of our salvation, for, and with us, the work of our salvation, 
 by thy powerful intercession ! Amen," 
 
 Again: — "Confiding in thy goodness and mercy, I cast myself at thy sacred feet, 
 and do most humbly supplicate thee, O Mother of the eternal V/ord, to adopt me as 
 thy child ; and take upon thee, the care of my salvation." " O God, grant, we be- 
 seech thee, by the Virgin Mary, his mother, that we may receive the joys of eternal 
 life, by the same Christ our Lord." 
 
 I copy the following from the Litany of our Lady of Loretto. — The Litany means 
 a solemn suppUcatory prayer. "Holy Mother of God, pray for us! — Mother of our 
 Creator, pray for us ! — Mother of our Redeemer, pray for us! — Mirror of Justice : 
 pray for us ! — Seat of wdsdom, pray for us ! Ark of the covenant, pray for us ! — Gate 
 of heaven, pray for us ! Refuge of sinners, pray for us ! &c. &c." 
 
 But this is not the worst : one thing I am prepared to show, that the various Roman 
 works which appear in English, are designed to impose on Protestants, and to conceaj 
 the real doctrines of Rome. Only look into their Latin books, — there you behold 
 their frightful idolatry, in its rank growth, and perfection. Here is a specimen : "Holy 
 Mother, — Ora patrem, jube filio, — pray to the father for us, and command thy son, 
 &c." Again: — O felix puerpera, nostra plans scelera, jure matris irnpera Redemp- 
 tori ! O happy Mother, atoning for our crimes, lay thy commands on the Redeemer, 
 in right of thy being his Mother." And to consummate what all heathenism never 
 conceived, in their comparative piety, a Roman saint, namely, Bonaventura, whom 
 the pious and faithful do worship on July 14, annually, — has gone over the Psalms of 
 David ; has stricken out Lord, God, &c. and has inserted Holy Mother, our Lady, &c. 
 Thus: "In thee, O Lady, do I put my trust, &c." — "Let our Lady arise: let her 
 enemies be scattered, &c." " O come let us sing unto our Lady : and make a joyful 
 noise unto the queen of our salvation ! !" Psalm 110. " The Lord said unto my Lady, 
 sit thou on my right hand," &c. &c. ! ! ! See Bonav. psalt. of the B. Virgin ; his 
 works, Tom. vii. Rom. edit, of 1583. And Hist. Sec. Char. August, de Comera. B. 
 M. Virg. And Morn. Ex. p. 523. 
 
 And, lest these may be deemed too antiquated, I shall siiow that, in all that is idola- 
 trous and wicked, the Romish church is immutable. The present Poj)e, Gregory 
 XVI., in the Circular sent forth on entering his office, solemnly rendered adorations to 
 the Holy Virgin ; and calls upon all the clergy to implore, — " that she who has been 
 in every calamity, our Patron and Protectress may watch over us, — and lead our 
 minds, by her heavenly influence, to those counsels which may prove most salutary 
 to Christ's flock." " That all may have a happy and successful issue, let ai raiee 
 
 10 
 
98 ROMAN CATHOLIC CGNTR0VERSY> 
 
 our eves to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary ; ivho alone destroys heresies! Who is our 
 greatest hope ! Yea the entire ground of our hope /" See Laity's Directory, 1833. 
 
 Third : — The use of Images in the churches is a novelty. Here I must be brief. 
 The best of the fathers condemned the use of images : one Council in A. D. 300 con- 
 demned the use of pictures in churches. In 700 the Council of Constantinople so- 
 lemnly condemned them : and ordered their expulsion from the churches. In 754 the 
 seventh Greek general council solemnly condemned image use and worship. About 
 the ninth century this idolatry seems to have been established. 
 
 Fourth : — The doctrine of purgatory is a mere novelty. — I shall in due time, 
 produce the best of the fathers against it with St. Augustine at their head. It is most 
 manifestly borrowed from the pagan fire purification of souls. And it has been a ter- 
 rific screw in sacerdotal hands to extract from trembling mortals a hundred fold more 
 money, than all the African slave trade ever has accumulated ! These two evils, 
 namely, slavery, and the priests' fiction of purgatory, have been permitted by the 
 wrath of heaven to be let in upon a guilty world ! The one dealt in human bones 
 and sinews and blood ! The other, as St. John saw in vision, traded in human 
 souls! ! The lust of gold is the object of both! This golden doctrine of popery 
 is only some four hundred and four years old ! It was ultimatel}'- established in 
 Rome by the council of Florence, A. D. 1430. 
 
 Fifth: — Priest's celibacy, that " old bachelor's joke" which vexes our holy fathers 
 so much, is a novelty in the christian world. This usurpation of a freeman's rights, 
 is unrecorded and unknown in all histories of common despotism ! No human tyrant 
 ever was so atrocious as to enact it in any civil government. It is purely diabolical : 
 none but the prince of darkness was capable to inspire the conception thereof into the 
 mind of a papal despot. And none but the most slavish, trodden down, and heartless 
 of all our species, — men, I may not call them, — can pretend submission to it! 
 
 Every priest and school boy knows that it is not only uncommanded in the holy 
 scriptures, but set down as a predicted and prominent characteristic of Anti-christ. 
 The "great apostacy" from Christianity was to be distinctly known by all men, as 
 one "forbidding to marry I" 1 Tim. iv. 3. 
 
 And every one who has looked into history, knows that pope Gregory vTL, a tyrant, 
 who, in point of atheism and vice, threw the entire line of the pagan emperors, his 
 ^predecessors on the Roman throne, completely into the shade, as saints, in comparison 
 with him, — was the man who conceived this instigation of Satan, and took away the 
 unalienable rights of man: — the right of marriage, from the priests. This he did in 
 the 5'ear 1074. Hence the celibacy of the priests is only some 763 years old. Before 
 that, every priest, like other honest men, had his own wife. Since that, they have 
 been " holy fathers^'' without wives ! 
 
 Sixth and seventh : Transuhstantiation and the Mass. This striking peculiarity of 
 popery is a mere novelty also, in the religious world not only, but even in the rational 
 world. A doctrine which represents the priest's creating his Creator; and making a 
 wafer to be really the human flesh of Christ; and which, therefore, by their own con- 
 fession, raskeS: iTxen cannibals ! lam perfectly grave, gentlemen. I ask you, what 
 is the wafer, when you put it, with awful solemnity, on the projected tongue of your 
 kneeling votarv? You reply, it is the flesh and blood, really and truly, of Christ's 
 human nature." Then does not every one see that they eat and swallow down 
 human flesh ! If that make them not cannibals, then words have lost their meaning ; 
 and men have lost their reason, their judgment, and their senses! 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 99 
 
 Against this monstrous and disgusting novelty of the mass, we can produce the testi- 
 mony of seventeen of your earliest and best fathers, namely, from Irenaeus to 
 St. Augustine. This papal invention was originated about the middle of the fifth 
 century ; it ripened by degrees under sacerdotal ignorance and knavery, until the 
 ninth century : and, finally, along with auricular confession, was established into a 
 dogma and a sacrament of the Romish church, by the decree of pope Innocent III. in 
 the fourth council of the Lateran, in the year 1215. Mosh. iii. ch. 3, part 2, Your 
 own Scotus and Alphonsus give the same date of its age. Alph. De Castro, Adv. 
 Hares. And although Bellarmine reproves these faithful statements, he, nevertheless, 
 admits that the mass is no older than the year 1073 ; and he gives as the father of this 
 innovation, pope Gregory VII., and his council at Rome. See Bell. De Euchar. lib. 
 iii. cap. 23. So recent is this innovation of the mtiss by the confession of your stan- 
 dard writers ! 
 
 Eighth : The taking away of the wine, or holy cup, in the sacrament of the Lord'3 
 Supper is a novelty. Pope Gelasius, in the year 492, pronounced this abstraction of 
 the cup " an impious sacrilege." See Corp. Juris Can. Pars 2, Dist. 3. 
 
 Ninth: The adoration of relics was introduced about the same time, with the invo- 
 cation of saints ; and it arose from the perversion of mementos, or keepsakes left by 
 martyrs, and those who were dear to the church. To adore relics, or venerate them 
 religiously, is to adore dust and ashes! So says St. Augustine: " Timeo adorare 
 terram, &c. I fear to adore earth lest God condemn me." The Conncil of Carth., 5, 
 Can. 15, says : — " Placuit, &c. It has pleased us to request the most renowned em- 
 peror., that relics may be taken away, not only such as are kept in shrines, and images, 
 but in what place soever, woods, or trees." Willet Synop. Papismi, p. .391. So late 
 as the year 730, the council summoned by the emperor Leo III., did, with only ono 
 dissenting voice, decree that " the worship of images and relics was mere idolatry !" 
 This decree was fully enforced by Leo; and the churches were purified of them. See 
 Morn. Exer. p. 217; also Pezel, and Lampad. Mellif. Hist, part iii, p. 37, 41. 
 
 Tenth and last : — The keeping of the Bible in a dead language, and refusing the 
 free and unlimited perusal of God's holy word, is a novelty in the church. This 
 usurpation, so characteristic of ghostly tyranny, is condemned by the uniform tenor 
 of the scriptures. And I can produce at least twelve of the most eminent Greek and 
 Latin fathers, who maintain the holy scriptures to be the only, and all sufficient rule 
 of faith and morals : and who taught, what was, indeed, the universal sentiment of the 
 whole primitive church, that it was the duty of all men to read and study them. I 
 shall select a few. 
 
 St. Augustine was not in favor of keeping the Bible, and using prayers in an un- 
 known tongue. He says — "They ought to be aware that no voice reaches God's ears 
 that is unaccompanied with a feeling of the mind." — "These things ought doubtless 
 to be corrected," — that is, the purest style and proper dialect of each people should 
 be used in worship, — " that the people may say amen, to what is dtarhj understood/^ 
 Vol. I. p. 27, Bened. Edit. Paris 1685. Again, — " fVe ought to understand that we 
 may sing with human reason, not as it were with the voice of birds ! Thrushes and par- 
 rots, crows and magpies are taught by men to pronounce ivhat they do not know'' — just 
 as your victims do your Latin prayers. — "But to sing with understanding is granted 
 by the divine will to men." Vol. IV. p. 82. 
 
 Hear, next, the reproof of St. Jerome. " The people who were asleep under their 
 masters, will arise and hasten to the mountains of the scriptures."— —"And when 
 
100 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 they shall be well skilled in reading them, if they shall not find any to teach theftir 
 their study shall be approved, because they have fled to the mountains ; and have 
 reproved the indolence of their masters!" Tom. V. p. 415. Paris Edit. 1602. 
 
 St. Chrysostom saj'-s, — '■^Ignorance of the Scriptures is the cause of all evils.*' 
 Homil. 9, in ch. 3. Coloss. And addressing the poor, and laboring men he says, — 
 " Hear, I exhort j^ou, all men engaged in the bustles of life, and obtain for yourselves 
 books, the medicine of the soul. If you will have nothing else, get the New Testa- 
 ment, the acts of the apostles, the gospels, as tour constant teachers." Horn. 9, 
 in Col. 3. And in his 3d Serm. on Laz. he goes over all the objections of tradesmen 
 and laborers, and then adds, — "What sayest thou, O man, is it not thy bnsiness to 
 study the scriptures, because thou art distracted with a thousand cares? Truly, indeed, 
 It is thine, much more than it is theirs." 
 
 I shall quote one beautiful sentence more from this father: — "Whether you go to 
 the Indies, or to the ocean, or to the British isles, or to the Black sea, or to the western 
 regions, you vAll hear all persons, every ivhert, philosophizing from the scriptures : 
 there is a difference of speech, but not of faiih: they have a different tongue, butona 
 mind !*' Serm. 53. On the usefulness of reading the Bible. 
 
 Finally; St. Basil says: — "It is right and necessary that evert one should learn 
 that which is useful from the holy scriptures; both for the purpose of furnishing the 
 mind with greater piety; and also that they may 7?o^ he accustomed to hitman tradi- 
 tions r Tom. II. 449. Paris Edit. 1722. 
 
 Hence it is most manifest that Poper^^, in its leading characteristics, is a mere novelty 
 in the christian world ! 
 
 The vulgar and illiterate question ever}' one has heard reiterated, — "Where was 
 vour religion before Luther." This question maybe answered thus : — 1st. By a coun- 
 ter question, — "Where wasj'our fece, this morning, before it was washed." 2d. "It 
 is found, as a system, where your religion never can be found ; namely, in the holy 
 Bible." 3d. "It has been found in profession, in that unbroken line of faiihful and 
 holy men, descended from the Italick church ; and perpetuated in the line of the Wal- 
 denses, Albigenses, Lollards, and Culdees ; together with the faithful in the Greek, 
 the African, and the old Syriae churches. 
 
 I shall conclude with the words of the accurate writer Vcetius, with which every 
 man, well versed in the history of the first six centuries, will readily accord : — namely ; 
 "■hi thefrst six hundred years of our era, there ivas no church, no one doctor, no one 
 martyr, no confession, no one family, no one member of the church ; ntither in the 
 West, nor in any other part of the world, that was properly, and formally a Papist.'* 
 
 1 am, gentlemen, yours trulv, &c. 
 
 'W. C. B. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS^ LETTER VIU. 
 
 It opens with a discussion on false friendship, — Dr. B. has deserted and ruined the cause 
 of his rule of faith. He aspired "to be the mighty erudite in the Hebrew and Greek of the 
 Holy Ghost :" had it not been for his rash " ambitioning theological renown," and his ventur- 
 ing "to challenge the priests," his rule of faidi might have rested in obscurity, and enjoyed 
 the respect which obscurity secures." But, sad to tell : disregarding the limits which nature- 
 fixed to his faculties, he fell, — like Satan, "a brighter star ia a purer firmament." The 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 101 
 
 "polemical athlete of Calvinism fell; and will the members of the M. D. Church 
 
 fill up the hiatus by way of epitaph !" 
 
 " We are aware, Rev. Gentleman, of the sorrows and afflctions of soul which now haunt 
 you, — of your regrets for disregard of the monitions of your interior spirit, when you provo- 
 ked your antagonists to engage in controversial conflict. We pity — for we have pity for 
 you — the reputatioii you have lost by the contest." 
 
 " But if you rest on a bed of tortures, you made it for yourself" 
 
 " Could any thing else befall one who " had an inveterate selfishness for the bubble of dis- 
 tinction ; a deranged or vitiated appetite for polemics; and the bravo of a few bigots and 
 fanatics." They next hold up Dr. B. as duly punished by his fall, and perfect failure, for his 
 daring to give " the challenge" to such men as the priests ! 
 
 " Finding your letter VIII to contain no matter relevant to your rule of faith," — " but being 
 a mere register, crude and false, of things, not bearing on the point in issue, it is consigned 
 to the disregard it merits." 
 
 Then follows an eternal repetition of all that they had advanced again and again, in oppo- 
 sition to the scripture rule of faith. 
 
 " It suits your purpose, because you cannot prove, on the principles of j-our protestant 
 rule of faith, the Bible to be the word of God, to wander into irrelevant matter, and divert 
 the attention of the members of the Middle Dutch Church from the real point under discus- 
 sion." 
 
 "We recur to your past letters to again exhibit your illogical references, proofless asser- 
 tions, and recklessness of truth, to again ' insert the hook in your nose.' " 
 
 " Dr. B. writes, ' to charge the holy scriptures with obscurity, or deficiency, would be to 
 bring a charge against the Holy Ghost.' Would not this contradiction be derided were it 
 aftirmed by a child; and yet, its author is preacher Brownlee, the ' writer and gentlemen' of 
 the Middle Dutch Church, the erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' the 
 Sampson Agonistes of the ^virtuous ladies' who sanctioned the obscene fiction, Loretts." 
 
 " How is he to compare parallel passages ?" He cannot prove the Bible to be the word 
 of God! You Aa»e «of proved it." 
 
 " Over the good and discriminating sense of the enlightened portion of your flockyour false 
 charges have not prevailed ; they rest on the same level with your proofs of the Bible being 
 the word of God." 
 
 " You call us 'deists and infidels !' We pity the degradation and malignancy of the will 
 from which these terms emanate." 
 
 " Dr. B. writes, — 'you have renewed your crusade against the Holy Bible.' This ridicu- 
 lous, but malicions charge we repel. Our crusade is not directed against the Bible, it is di- 
 rected against i/owr Protestant rule of faith,'' — That is to say, the bible ! * Our sincere respect 
 is evinced for the Bible, since, by our creed, we will not submit it to the indiscriminate judg- 
 ment of every ignorant and fanatical mind.' " 
 
 " To gull the ignorant among your flock, you affect to designate us Deists, because we 
 use your expression 'the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost!' " 
 
 " We have proved that the scriptures cannot establish their own authenticity, integrity, 
 and inspiration : and our conclusion is, that, since you admit these characters as articles of 
 faith, and admit them witliout any scriptural authority, the scriptures arc not your onJijxxxle 
 of faitli. Ag lin we say, since all christians are obliged to believe the canonicity and inspi- 
 ration of the holy scriptures, and since the canonicity and inspiration of the scriptures cannot 
 be proved by the scriptures, the divine author of the christian religion never gave the holy 
 scriptures as man's only rule of faith. AVe farther assei't, that as your only rule of faith, ia 
 the written Word of God, contained in the Old Testament and the New ; and, as the books 
 of the OLD TESTAMENT or of the NEW cannot prove their own authenticity and inspi^ 
 ration, — you cannot, consistently, believe they are authentic and inspired." 
 
 ''What! the creed of the christian, according to Preacher Brownlee, is to be derived 
 from the scriptures alone, and those scriptures not able to ])rove their own inspiratior:, 
 
 10* 
 
102 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 which is an article of faith every christian must hold, in order to believe the religion divine, 
 which he derives from the scriptures. ' If this be not absurdity or fatuity in its last stage^ 
 we know not the import of ideas.' " 
 
 " The priests care but little for your approbation, or censure of the Latin Vulgate. Your 
 vituperation is of no consequence when such profound scholars as Grotius, Walton, and 
 Mills pronounce judgment ; and you know they have spoken of the Vulgate in terms of ex- 
 alted praise." 
 
 Next there follows a denunciation against translations of the Bible; — all is uncertain; all 
 corrupt; we cannot have any confidence in one of them ; the translators were not infallible i 
 you cannot know this from the rule ! " Does the Bible tell you that the translators took no 
 liberties with the Hebrew and Greek copies !" Hence all is utterly uncertain; all doubtful: 
 you have no rule ; no word of God ! " Hence no rational, no divine faith can be found with 
 Protestant/!'' 
 
 In this manner they run on through half a newspaper column, in impiety and deism not 
 surpassed by Hume or Paine ! But their master piece of deception follows. Without inti- 
 mating that at the Hampton Conference, the various defects of former translations of tho 
 English Bible, were pressed, in order to move the King to select the ablest men to make a 
 new translation (which is the one noic in use.) The priests collect all the objections made 
 at this Conference, and hurl them forth, with dexterous Jesuitism, as the sentiments of the 
 most learned Protestants, against all English translations without excepticns, as well those 
 then in existence, as the one made afterwards ! ! 
 
 ''The Reformers," say they, after having declaimed against the horrifying heresies, and 
 translations of Luther, Zuingle, Calvin, Beza, and the English translators,— "the Reformers 
 have remorselessly polluted the pure fountain of eternal truth ; and have caused the people 
 to drink of this poisoned source !" " Who then, can repose confidence in their translations?'' 
 
 All this, be it remembered, comes from our "learned priests," who have not yet learned 
 the primary elements of Hebrew and Greek ! Admirable critics! They enter the lists with 
 the profoundest scholars who ever lived, — I mean the translators of the English, the Dutch, 
 and the German Bible I 
 
 " To your high toned demand, 'tell us if there be one English version of the Bible autho- 
 rised by either the pope or tlie church,' we return the very brief answer — Transeat. If 
 you knoio the meaning of this term, you know what use to make of it." 
 
 "We have advanced the most positive and convincing arguments to prove to you, that 
 the Saviour of the world did not establish the holy scriptures as our only rule of faith, 
 and these arguments you have not touched." 
 
 I quote the following as a specimen of deliberate m'srepresentation. The reader knows 
 t>.at we always have said that the Holy Ghost speaking in the rule, is judge of controversy. 
 
 "You have undertaken to prove, that the holy scriptures aloxe are the only rule of faith, 
 and ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY established by Christ." 
 
 " Not a word have you said to prove that the scriptures have been given to us as OUR 
 ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY." 
 
 "Now, Rev. Sir, we have many arguments to prove that the Scriptures were not es- 
 tablished by Christ as the judge of all controversies in religion between christians. Our 
 £rst argument is taken from the nature of the judicial office. The Judge between two in- 
 dividuals at variance, is bound to express himself in such a manner as that both parties shall 
 ?oe what his sentence is. One party must see that it is for him, the other must see that it i'S 
 against him. But the scriptures do not decide in this way. Therefore, the scriptures are 
 not the judge of controversies." 
 
 Here 1st. the priests take advantage of their own misrepresentation. We say the Holy 
 Gliost is the judge. 2d. They renew the old error that the infallible rule makes those who 
 lise it, infallible. 
 
 To neutralize the above, let my reader put the words ''Holy Ghost,'' in the above sentence, 
 as the judge ; and he will at once perceive the blasphemy of the papal doctrine here expressed. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 103 
 
 The error and sophism lie here : — although ihe Holy One does speak, himself, infallibly, — 
 yet because each of these parties do riot infallibly see arid feel that he speaks/or the one, and 
 against tlie other: therefore, the Holy Ghost and his rule cannot be the judge, and the only 
 rule! But we go on : "Now we say that one of two tilings must be admitted, either the 
 scriptures have not hitherto pronounced sentence, clearly, evidently, and sufficiently, or, if 
 they have, that either tlic Lutherans or the Calvinists are very stubborn or obstinate for not 
 having obeyed the sentence of the Holy Ghost. Dr. Brownlee may take his choice." 
 
 To neutralize this sophistry of deism, we need only apply the above argument to any con- 
 ceivable rule, or revelation from God. Eitlier man must be infallible, amid all his sins and 
 miseries, before God; and he must infallibly take up the rule in its true sense, and tha 
 Judge's decision; or, there is ko truth in it ; and no benefit derivable from it! Let the Ro- 
 man Catholic only apply the above mode of argument to his own rule: and he must per- 
 ceive that if it does not end all the divisions, and errors of Jesuits, and Jansenists ; Domini- 
 cans and Franciscans; — nay, if it docs not prevent, and heal all the errors and heresies of thosa 
 vho hate seceded from " Holy Mother,''' — then is there no truth, no infullibility in it ! And, hence* 
 ^his argument of the priests annihilates their own system! 
 
 It is amusing to see how Dr. B.'s denial of" God's Mother" aftects the priests. It is Nesto- 
 rianism • It is atrocious! It is blasphemy ! What ! deny that a woman can be the mother 
 of the eternal God! Heaven daring man! And they facetiously aflfect to fall into a fit of the 
 hysterics ! But hear them. 
 
 "When we ourselves see Preacher Brownlee renewing the blasphemies of Nestoriua, 
 under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we shudder, and turn with affectionate reverence, to 
 that Holy Mother, wJio has never sported with divine truth, and who stands like an Appa- 
 nine, firm, and sublime in the light of Heaven." 
 
 But they shake off the fit, and with it, all their consistency, — and actually themselves fall 
 into Dr. B.'s Nestorianism ! Hear them. "Yet when we call her " Mother of God." we do 
 not say that she is the Mother of the Divinity, but of the WORD MADE FLESH; GOD 
 AND MAN IN THE SAME PERSON. This is what Preacher Brownlee calls, "revolt- 
 ing blasphemy !" 
 
 This is incorrect. We called that "revolting blasphemy" which the priests are pleased 
 here, to assert, and to deny, with the same breath ? Every one must perceive that to call the 
 Virgin Mary "the Mother of God," does make her the Mother of the Divinity. For there is 
 one God only, and that one God is the one Divinity. Either there is more than one God, or 
 the priests' doctrine makes a woman "the mother of the Divinity." There is no way of 
 eluding this. 
 
 It would be amusing and instructive to hear a Roman catholic priest explain, in an assem- 
 bly of literary men, the text, in the Hebrews, relative to Melchisedec, who was the type of 
 our Lord, "//e," that is our Lord, — ^'icas without father, without mother." He was " icithout 
 father," that is, as to his human nature. He was " without mother;" and yet he had a mo- 
 ther. As the son of man, he had a mother. In another sense, he had no mother. This w 
 the point to be settled by the priests. It needs only the aid of common sense to say that 
 only one possible conclusion remains, — he had " no mother" as God. — I ask only this on« 
 item in the Romish church's invocation, to convict her of atheism, and anti-christianism I 
 She will never give it up; for by the wise arrangement of divine providence, she will never 
 cease to give, daily, infallible evidence that she is the antx-christ, and Babylon th« 
 Great ! If the Romish priests were to lay aside this novel and invented title " Mother or 
 God," — we should be deprived of one main evidence that she is the " WHonE of Babylon/* 
 foretold by St. John I 
 
104 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 " There is nothing but roguery in villainous man." — Shakspearc. 
 
 Gentlemen : — Your last letter clearly reveals what the religious public had long 
 suspected, and what you have been all along, anxious to conceal ; namely, the deep 
 conviction on the part of the Roman priests, that the peculiar dogmas, and ceremonies 
 of their church cannot sustain the bold inspection of the American community. And 
 hence every thing is to be hazarded, every thing, even truth itself sacrificed, to prevent 
 your antagonist from going forward into " the chambers of her imagery" ! I did conjec- 
 ture, gentlemen, that you would not dare to follow me in the investigation of your 
 christiano-pagan system of popery. But, now, in your last letter, you have settled the 
 question. You will not follow me ; you will not leave the rule ; it is more easy to 
 retail the scandal of infidels and priests, against God's holy word, than to enter into the 
 arena, and defend your edition of baptized Roman paganism ! You have not the 
 moral courage to stand by, and assist at the stripping of the apocalj'ptic " Mother of 
 harlots.'''' You dare not stand forward and defend her nameless abominations, before 
 the enlightened American public ! For me, — I shall go forward : five hundred thou- 
 sand American christians have condescended to cheer me on. And "so may God 
 do to me and more also," if, by the grace of God, I do not tear that veil off from her 
 haggard face ; and show her abominations to the whole house of God, in this land 1 
 
 In your last letter, you have played off with increasing malignit}^ and more fellness 
 of purpose, than usual, your infidel opposition to the holy word of God. You repeat, 
 for the eighth time, your malignant opposition to the v/ord of the Most High, which is 
 the Protestants only rule of faith. You repeat that the Bible is not the rule, and the 
 ►Spirit of God is not the Judge, because the Bible, and the Spirit cannot prove them- 
 selves ! And this you assert in the face of the full and manifest evidence to the con- 
 trary, which we set before you ; from external evidence, which establishes the authen- 
 ticity and genuineness of the Bible ; and from internal evidence. Those who disbe- 
 lieve this holy word of God are worse than devils. For saiih St. James, ^^the devils 
 also believe and tremhlt.^^ Ch. ii. 19. It is no enviable distinction, gentlemen, to be 
 posted as worse than the worst of fallen angels ! 
 
 There is nothing new in your renewed crusade against the holy Bible, which requires 
 me to pause in order to refute it. Your last idea of infidel vituperation has long ago 
 been exhausted. The novelty is only in the manner: the virulence and vituperation 
 are only put forth with new force. As if resolved that nothing on your part should be 
 wanting to consummate the evidence set before the public, in proof of your unblush- 
 ing* Deism, you are filling it up, even to overflowing ! And you seem now even to 
 glory in wearing the name branded on ^''our forehead, as the representatives of poperv, 
 — " this is the father and Prince of deism .'" It is true you profess sincerely to believe 
 in the scriptures, even while you assail them fiercely. I do not doubt it : this is in- 
 tended for effect. No one is so ignorant as not to know that even Hume always spoke 
 respectfully of — to use his own words; — "■Our holy Religion,'''' even while uttering 
 his bitter hostility to it ? And even Lord Herbert, the father of " the Enghsh deists," 
 and also Lord Bolingbroke, always professed as sincerely as you, to reverence the scrip- 
 tures ! Herbert even received a revelation from heaven to publish liis book against 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 105 
 
 divine revelation! Remarkable enemies of God's cause have been remarkably in- 
 consistent. The reason is obvious, public opinion has always staggered them ! 
 
 If you choose, gentlemen, to continue your infidel vituperations against the holy 
 scriptures, I shall beg leave through you, to inform the public, that they can find, with- 
 out your vulgarity, every thing you have been retailing, already printed in old Mum- 
 ford^ and Milner. And in re})ly, they can find a iuU refutation of all yourdeibtical ob- 
 jections in //orne's Introduction. He has collected the refutations of every objectioti 
 tliat deism has yet conceived. And the intellects of our priests, who never leave the 
 beaten path of old Mumford, and Milner, have not been adequate to the task of devis- 
 ing any one thing new against the holy Bible ! 
 
 Your defence of the uncouth blasphemy of calling Mary " the Mother of God," 
 is unique, though in perfect keeping with the whole system of your sect. " The Mo- 
 ther of the eternal God!" A creature made of dust and ashes the mother of the Al- 
 mighty Creator ! A finite creature the mother of the infinite Creator ! Then it was 
 not the human nature of our Lord that was born ! It was the eternal and divine Es- 
 sence of the Deity that was born ! Hence, previous to the birth of God, or 1800 years 
 ago there was no God! ! If there was a God then, of course he was not born, then 
 Mary is not the mother of God ! 
 
 Besides, do yon not see that you confound the tivo natures in the one person of 
 Christ ? If God was born of jMary, then is the Deity a human nature : and the hu- 
 man nature of Christ is nothing else than the essence of the Deity ! You know what 
 monstrous heresy this was ! 
 
 I put it to the candor of any reasonable man, whether a match can be found equal 
 to this revolting blasphemy, amid all the wildest vagaries of the human race, in their 
 worst and most impious forms of pagan extravagance ! No, not one can be found : 
 by one only is it matched : and we must go into popery to find it: that match is tran- 
 gubstantiation ; in which a priest creates his Creator out of bread ; and then eats him 
 up ! If such be Christianity, then I say, "May my soul be with the philosophers !'* 
 But no! It bears the deep branded stamp of its legitimate origin. Such doctrines, I 
 speak it gravely, — could be invented only by the devil, as Richard Baxter said. 
 
 In my last Letter, I showed that Catholicity is younger than Christianity ; and thai 
 popery is a novelty in the christian ivorld. We have, by historical documents, and 
 quotations from the fathers, fixed the birthday of the existence of ten of the Roman 
 catholic peculiarities. And we call on the priests, in the face of the American com- 
 munity, to point out a single error in these dates ; and refute the quotations of the fa- 
 thers, which we have given. Let them follow us, if they have courage to defend 
 their sinking cause ; and no longer make themselves ridiculous in lingering on the 
 rule. 
 
 It will be proper, in sustaining the unity of discussion, now to proceed to ])oint out 
 some of the fatal results of the Roman Catholics' apostacy from the only rule of faith; 
 and the only judge of controversy. And the point which I have selected for discus- 
 sion in this Letter, is this :— The peculiar doctrines, rites, and monkish institutions of 
 Romanism, loere originated in sheer fanaticism, and sustained by imposture. My 
 selections of specimens and evidence, shall be rather miscellaneous in this Letter. 
 
 1st. Notwithstanding the command of the Deity to take good heed and make no 
 manner of similitude, "for ye saw," says the Almighty,— "no similitude in the day 
 that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb,"— the Roman church declares in her cate- 
 chism, p. 360, that " to represent the persons of the Holy Trinity, by certain forms, 
 
log ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 under which, as we read in the old and new Testaments, they deigned to appear, iaf 
 not to be deemed contrary to rehg-ion, or the law of God. Hence in the engravings 
 foand in certain editions of the Breviary ; and in pictures on the stained glass of Ca- 
 thedrals, and in a painting seen by any one who has visited the Roman catholic 
 bishop of this city, God the Father is actually figured forth as a venerable, old, white 
 headed man! In other pictures where the group is complete, there is a jpretty, youth- 
 ful man ; this they call Christ; and he is placed on the old man's right. Above is seen 
 a figure of a dove: this animal they call the Holy Ghost. Hard by, in gorgeous hu- 
 man robes, stands "the Mother of GodP' This marvellous group of an old man, and 
 a young man, and a dove, and a ivoman, constitute the popish couception of the 
 family of their god ! 
 
 2d. In the distribution of work and offices assigned to the vast host of saints, much 
 fanaticism is displayed. They have at least two St. Anthonies. He of Padua delivers 
 his votaries from water : — He v/ho is sirnamed the abbot, delivers from fire ! St. 
 Nicholas is invoked by young persons who wished to be married. St. Ramon pro- 
 tects women who are "in that condition in which all good ladies wish to be, who love 
 their lords." And the saint Lazaro assists them in labor. St. Dom.ingo cures fevers ; 
 St. ApoUonia takes care of the teeth; and she must be invoked with prayer and in- 
 cense, by those who have tooth ache. Then St. Lucia heals all diseases of the eyes ; 
 Bt. Petronilla cures the ague ; St. Liberius the stone : and St. Blass all the dis- 
 eases of the throat. St. Barbara is invoked as the refuge in war, and in thunder 
 storms : and St. Roque shields the humble faithful against the plague. Each king- 
 dom of Europe has its own saint : other saints are more menial : One saint presides 
 over hogs ; another over geese. See Cramp, p. 332 ; and Townsend's Trav. in 
 Spain, vol. iii. p. 215. 
 
 3d. In the canonizing of saints, and adding to the objects of divine worship, and ve- 
 neration, we perceive a fruitful exhibition of fanaticism. This, like the usual pecu- 
 liarities of catholic Rome, is borrowed from pagan Rome. The pagan priests to sus- 
 tain their credit, now and then proclaimed that certain great characters, great in war, 
 vice, and sensuality, had been honored in heaven and placed among the gods ; and 
 the pagan canonization took place accordingly. Even the modest and virtuous Virgil 
 deified Augustus; and gravely asked him, while yet alive, in what part of heaven, he 
 chose after death, to reign and shine ! The case of king Romulus is an apt illustra- 
 tion of modern Roman canonization. There must be a miracle, or a vi'^ion at least. 
 Well, Proculus appeared before the Roman Senate, and declared that Romulus had 
 revealed himself to him in a vision, and told him that he was received up among the 
 gods. See Plutarch, Vit. Rom. Halicar. Lib. 2. p. 124. 
 
 In modern Rome, miracles are required in evidence ofsaintship; and there is actu- 
 ally an office in Rome, where the congregation of Rites sit, and gravely receive the 
 transmitted accounts of fresh miracles; and hear witnesses ; and judge as solemnly as 
 they can, and decide, daily. Even Dr. Lingard is a simple and faithful believer in 
 modern incredible miracles. Even the Goliah, Dr. Milner, while he rejects certain 
 popish miracles by the wholesale, does, nevertheless, in letter 24, give in some very 
 dainty and precious morsels of their blessed miracles. Well, on their miracles being 
 duly vouchsafed to their impostures, and on their being duly established and registered^ 
 a new saint, and fresh object of worship is set up before the simple faithful. Almost 
 every pope has added some. Benedict VII. added eight in one summer. Clement 
 XII., /owr more; others, one; others, four. But, like all the other ''golden'' rites oT 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 107 
 
 Holy Mother, it costs an immense sum to get into the ghostly calendar, and be a god. 
 This is one way by which St. Peter's purse is replenished when it gets low. 
 
 I shall adduce a specimen of a miracle confirming the ghostly honor. The idol of 
 Paz,zi, Italy, — namely, St. Mary Magdalene, received canonization for this among 
 many other marvellous things. "WTien the virgin body, after death, was exposed in 
 church, a young man of profligate morals came among others to see it, touch it, and 
 venerate it. On his approach, the dead bod}- gravely and in distrust, turned 
 round its head from him, as from "a horror of that dunghill !" This was witnessed 
 and testiiied to, by no less than one Jesuit priest. Another evidence ef an infallible 
 nature, and which is sure to gain the ghostly honor, is this : the bones and dust of 
 saints, in ilitir graves emit a sweet and delicious odor. This is " the odor of sanctity." 
 I find in this same bull of the Pope which canonized this idol of Pazzi, that this is 
 affirmed of this " Virgin Magdalene.'' It begins, " not without good reason, with that 
 incorrupiion, and good odor of her body, which continues to this day, &c." At Blois 
 in France, M^ien the chest of relics, kept in the parish of St. Victor, was opened, the 
 monk of St. Lomer, cried out that he felt a very sweet odor; and others seized with 
 the exemplary infection, said they felt the sweet swell of roses and the jessamine, from 
 the dead saint's bones. See vol. i. p. 8, 10, Frauds of Roman Monks and priests: 
 Prot. i. 373 Glasg. edit. 
 
 In the absence of these saints, — " Holy Mother'' has carefully collected innume- 
 rable specimens of their relics, which are venerated and bowed down to. Indeed a 
 Roman chapel is not duly consecrated without relics. The following are a few of the 
 holy and venerated rehcs of St. Peters, Rome, namely : The cross of the good thief; 
 St. Joseph's axe and saw : and what is a rare thing, — St. Anthony's Mill stone, on 
 which he sailed into Muscovy. In other churches in Europe, they have a little speci- 
 men of the manna of the wilderness ; a comb of the Virgin Mary ; an arm of St. 
 Lazarus ; a finger and arm of St. Ann, the Virgin's mother : St. Patrick's staff, by 
 which he expelled the toads from Ireland : and, what is very appropriate, a piece of 
 the rope with which Judas hanged himself! There is also a vial of the Virgin's 
 milt; a vial of the breath of St. Joseph, caught by an angel, as he was blowing hard 
 when cleaving wood ! ! This rare relic was long adored in France ; piously carried 
 to Venice : and lastly deposited with awful solemnity, in Rome. And finally, the 
 head of St. Dennis, which he caught up and carried two miles under his arm, after it 
 had been cut off. See Phil. Lib. June, 1818, Prot. vol. 2. p. 12, Glasg. edit. 
 
 In furnishing the relics of saints' bones, whole church yards and cem.etries have 
 been ransacked ; and sold to the simple faithful, for objects of adoration, and idols. 
 Chips of the cross are in all monasteries, and chapels. Could these fragments be 
 collected they would prove that the cross must have been large enough to build 
 our United States' Navy. In many churches there is a head of John the Baptist. 
 " How thankful I am," said a dignitary of the Roman church, on seeing a Baptist 
 head: "this is the /ouri/i head of John, which I have seen in France!" And Dr. 
 M'CuUocli tells us, that some years ago, five pilgrims arrived in Rome with relics from 
 the Holy Land : and it was joyfully discovered that each of tliem had a foot of the 
 ass which carried our Lord into Jerusalem. 
 
 4th. In the grave pretensions of the Romish church to miraculous powers, there is 
 a singular exhibition of fanaticism. You are aware, gentlemen, that you lay unblush- 
 ing claims to miracles. " The Catholic church," says Dr. Milner, Lett. 23, "being 
 always the chaste spouse of Christ, — continuing to bring forth children of heroical 
 
108 HOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 sanctity, God fails not in this, any more than in past ages, to illustrate her and them 
 by unquestionable miracles." And he proceeds to give rare specimens. A nun fore- 
 told the catastrophe of Lous XVI. A certain benedict Labre prophesied, and wrought 
 miracles, and converted no less than an American clergyman called Thayer. In 
 1814, a man who got his back bone actually broken, was made whole by making a 
 pilgrimage to Garswood, near Wigan, England ; and there getting the sign of the 
 cross made on his back, by the relics of some obscure priest's hand, named Arrow- 
 smith, who was killed in the days of Charles I. 
 
 These, however, are small affairs when laid in the balance with the antiques ! For 
 miracles, like the marvellous feats of travellers, are always great and marvellous, in 
 proportion to their distance of time and place, from actual inspection. St. Patrick, 
 they tell us, sailed over to Ireland, and if there be no mistake, once also to England, 
 on a mill-stone ! And thus he was not a whit behind St. Anthony. We are told that 
 St. Dennis carried his own head under his arm two miles after it was cut off. " St- 
 Francis of Sales," says Butler in his lives of the saints, vol. i. p. 168, "raised the dead; 
 cured the palsy, and the blind." St. Francis of Paula, raised from the dead a young 
 man, and restored him to his mother. Butler i. 361. St. Francis, the founder of th« 
 Francisians, was favored with visions, and revelations of an apostolic grandeur. H« 
 predicted nothing less than his own death : and did many miracles by his intercession, 
 after his death. Butler and St. Bonaventure affirm this, but give no evidence, and 
 tell us not how they knew his miracles after his death. Moreover, he had a vision of a 
 seraph with six wings : this presented to his view the visible crucified body of Christ. 
 And the effect of this was, that the said seraph " caused the soul of St. Francis to be 
 utterly inflamed with seraphic ardor; and his body to have, and to retain the simi- 
 lar wounds of Christ." *' His hands and feet wxre pierced through ; and the holes 
 seemed to retain the round black headed nails of hard flesh in his palms and in 
 his fest. And their long paints on the other side, were turned back, as if 
 clenched with a hammer. And in his left side there was a red wound, as if made by a 
 lance. Pope Alexander IV. had the felicity of witnessing all these : and to give 
 currency and stability to these miraculous and ingenious scratchings, his holines 
 preached a sermon on the occasion. And the simple faithful believe this in prefer- 
 ence to the only rule of faith: and worship St. Francis of Assissium, as another 
 savior. 
 
 St. Wenefride was a noble lady of Wales. Being a nun, she could not yield to the 
 Buit of Caradoc, the young prince. Being enraged at this, he pursued her, and with a 
 cruel blow cut off her head This originated three splendid miracles, which taken 
 together, are greater than any recorded in the holy Bible. In the 1st place St. Beuno 
 interfered, and settled the career of the young villain. He made the earth open under 
 his feet, and, Korah like, he was sunk down into the bowels of the earth. Then 2d. 
 On the spot where the dead nun's head fell, a well opened, and poured its salutary 
 streams; and that " Holy Well" works miracles, it is said, until this day. The 3d. 
 St. Beuno took up the nun's head, kissed it; placed it on the bleeding stump; covered 
 it with his mantle: said mass, prayed to the Virgin Mary: And behold St. Wene- 
 fride jumped up, perfectly well ; her head being on exactly as usual : and the evidence 
 of the cure was perpetuated by the appearance of a fine circle, hke a thread, around 
 her neck; — that being the place where the head and neck were nicely cemented 
 together. Apostles and prophets ! did ye ever any thing to match this ! See Butler's 
 Lives, &c. 
 
Roman catholic controversy. 109 
 
 St. David, I presume the king of Scotland, who builded so many chapels and 
 tathedrals, once ordered St. Kired to come to a Synod on weighty business. The 
 saint excused himself on account of being lame and crooked. St. David immediately 
 prayed him straight. But the old saint still lingering, the choleric St. David forth- 
 with prayed him crooked and lame again, to teach him better manners. 
 
 St. Patrick in the Romish legends, receives credit and saintly homage for raising 
 a boy from the dead after he had been nearly devoured by hogs. And on an- 
 other occasion he fed 14,000 people, with the flesh of one cow, two wild boars, and 
 two stags. And to crown the miracle, the simple faithful assure us that the cow wa« 
 «een alive next day, grazing in the pasture field as usual. 
 
 St. Xavier had a valuable crucifix. On a certain day, he dropped it overboard, 
 into the sea. He was quite inconsolable. But, it came to pass, that as he was walk- 
 ing on the shore in the land whither he had gone, to his astonishment and indescribable 
 joy, he saw the very crucifix he had lf>st moving towards him on the waves. As h« 
 hastened down to the water's edge, behold, it was very reverently and devoutly laid 
 down at his feet, by a crab, who had borne it through the deep, miraculously, to the 
 feet of the holy saint. Dr. Milner speaking of St. Xavier's miracles in general, says, 
 that " they were verified soon after the saint's death, by A'irtue of a commission from 
 John Ilf. Kmg of Portugal." See Letter 24, &c. But, as a writer has justly observ- 
 ed, it was no miracle of St. Xavier: the crab has the whole merit: and he recom- 
 mends him to his Holiness' notice to give him due honors, at his next canonization. 
 Palmam qui meruit, ferat. It ought to be St. Crab. 
 
 The Roman saints were particularly successful in their wrestlings, and coups du 
 main with the devil, and his demons. On one occasion St. Philip Nerius, in 1555, 
 «aw a person near the baths f)f Diocletian ; and as he seemed, at one moment, young, 
 and the next moment, old, the saint suspected it to be Satan, at some of his tricks. 
 Whereupon he summoned him *' in the name of Christ to discover himself." And 
 instantly the devil fled in great precipitation, leaving a loathsome scent in the place ; 
 the reverse of the bones of the saints* And hence he knew, says he, that it wa* 
 Satan. Seethe Acta Sanct. Tom. 6. Antwerp edit, of 1688. Mail. 26. This is a 
 famous Roman work, full of similar legends! 
 
 St. Francis was once sorely tempted by a devil in the form of a lovely female — an 
 appalling object, you know, to a holij Priest! But, one evening, as he again assailed 
 the saint, "he spit in the devil's face." The Roman historians gravely add, — bein^ 
 "confounded and disgracefully defeated, the devil fled !" Acta Sanct. Supra. 
 
 St. Andrew of Salus, was once assailed by the devil, armed v^ith an axe, and aided 
 by several demons with clubs and lances. In their assault, the gallant saint invoked 
 St. John the Apostle. Upon this, John instantly appeared, in the form of an old man, 
 and putting his back to the door, to prevent all egress, he ordered the holy ones who 
 accompanied him, to chain down each of the devils, and with the chain taken from 
 St. Andrew's neck, to scourge them thoroughly. This was done to so etlectual a 
 purpose that the devils cried out "Mercy! mercy! mercy!" And the holy St. An- 
 drew, it is added, by our Roman historians, could not restrain himself from bursting 
 into laughter, — "risu correptus est,'* — at the complete belaborinc: given to the^t 
 unruly fiends ; and at their wild screams. See Acta Sanct. Tom. 6. Mail. 28. 
 
 St. Dominick, while sitting in his dormitory, writing by candle light, was assailed 
 by the devil in the form of a monkev, strutting, and making grimaces before him. Ow 
 this, the saint ordered him to come forthwith, and hold his candle, which, without -a 
 
 11 
 
110 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 candlestick, the crafty saint put into the demon's hand. Presently the candle being 
 burned out, the devil's fingers began to be scorched ; and he wailed and howled 
 hugely. Nothing moved by this, the saint ordered him to hold on. And the devil 
 ■was compelled to hold the burning flame, until his forefinger was actually consumed, 
 unto the joint ; " usque ad juncturam manus, totus crematus est." And to complete 
 the victory, this holy founder of the Dominicans, gave the devil a smart blow with his 
 ■walking cane, and said, " Depart thou wicked one." The blow sounded as if he had 
 struck a dry bladder full of wind. " Upon this the devil fled, leaving a mighty stench 
 behind, which plainly discovered who this creature was." See Acta Amflior. St. 
 Dom. August!. 14. Finch p. 410. This, you know, gentlemen, is a morsel of your 
 own sober history, here detailed. 
 
 The fanaticism of the Roman writers, is further displayed in the object for which 
 they hold up these monstrous figments, and diabolical rencounters. Hear their own 
 words. " Truly this man (St. Dominick) is to be extolled among the angelical 
 powers, who so powerfully confounds and reproves diabolical wickedness." 
 
 Finally, not only have men, but even statues and images wrought miracles. So 
 late as 1796 " Official Memoirs,'" relative to "miraculous events," were published, 
 and signed, and authenticated by Dr. Bray, archbishop of Cashel, and Dr. Troy, 
 archbishop of Dublin, and twelve other dignitaries of the Romish church of Ireland. 
 In these " Memoirs" it is stated that in May, 1796, at Toricello, a torrent of tears ran 
 down from the eyes of B.woodtn Virgin Mary ! And such a perspiration flowed from 
 her, as to wet the clothes "■applied hi) the faithful.'"' Mem. p. 217. 
 
 On July 9, 1796, a picture called Deile Muratte, was observed to move its eyes in a 
 miraculous manner. The circular movement of the eyes continued for many months. 
 The result of this was the procuring of many gifts, and 4arge sums of money, for the 
 Virgin ; and a marvellous excitement took place ; and nothing but prayers and vows 
 to holy Mary was heard. Immense crowds of devotees were constantly before the 
 painting; and altars were every where erected to the Virgin ; and a prodigious im- 
 pulse given by this lying wonder, to the Romish devotion. See Oif. Memoirs, p. 35, 
 and Finch p. 280, 231. ' 
 
 5th. Doctrinal scntimenis and rites have been defined and settled by visions and 
 revelations, in the Roman catholic church. The original followers of St. Francis 
 were frightful fanatics. The holij mission of this saint being established by his mi- 
 racles, by his five holy wounds, canonization, and the miracles achieved by him after 
 death, and by his intercession, his followers were prepared to receive him, as a second 
 Jesus. In a book called The flowers of St. Francis, it is written, "that those only 
 were saved by the blood of Christ, who Uved before St. Francis ; but all that followed, 
 were redeemed by the blood of St. Francis J'' See Eymericus, and Wolfii. Leot. 
 Memor. cent. 13. See also Bishop Stillingfleet, on the idolatry and fanaticism of the 
 Rom. church, p. 236. And the votaries of this man, the Franciscans, in the words of 
 Petrus Johannes, made the rule of St. Francis equal,— nay to be the very same as 
 the gospel of Christ, and that by which Christ was directed! 
 
 The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, long distracted "Holy 
 Mother." The Franciscans held that she was born as pure as an angel; and I find 
 that our vicar general. Dr. Power, holds this, and teaches it in his Manual On the 
 contrary, the Dominicans utterly denied it. Who was to settle this? "Deo dignus 
 vindice nodus !" The holy Bible says nothing of her immaculate purity. Besides, 
 » Holy Mother" denies that the word of God is her only rule. Auselm produces the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. Ill 
 
 evidence of an apparition in a storm (a very fit season !) to some Abbot; this vision 
 announced the Virgin's immaculate purity, and admonished all good men to keep the 
 feast of the Conception. One Nerbertus had another vision, — no less than the Holy 
 Virg.n herself enforcing the same thing. St. Gertrude also had revelations to the 
 same purport; then St. Bridget brings not a few, but many revelations to the same 
 purport ; and lastly Johanna a Cruce. These were solemnly declared by the Doc- 
 tors to be such " that no man can reject them unless they intend to be as great heretics 
 as Erasmus 1" The Roman catholic Erasmus! Eheu! 
 
 But unfortunately, fanaticism stops not always on the right side: that is to say— 
 your side, gentlemen, who believe in " the immaculate Conception." For while 
 Baronius gives us the above details, Antonius and Cajetan assure us that St. Catha- 
 rine had a holy vision and a holy revelation ; and it was told her by a spirit of hea- 
 ven, that the Virgin was conceived in original sin like all other people ? Great names 
 condemned St. Bridget's visions. Cajetan, for instance, calls them "old wives' fables 
 and dreams !" — Sit fas loqui ! But she was approved by doctors, and cardinals: and 
 her visions and revelations declared to be divine, by pope Boniface IX., who accord- 
 ingly, enrolled her among the saints, and other idols worshipped in your church. But 
 after all, "Holy Mother" gives each of them fair play, as Bishop Stillingfleet justly 
 observes. She approves the revelations of both : pronounces the authors of the con- 
 tradictory revelations both equally inspired by God ! And in the Roman Breviary, 
 on the 8th of October, you worship St. Bridget; and in your prayers to her, " confess 
 these revelations to have come immediately from God to her.''^ And in one of the lessons 
 for that day, you devoutly " magnify the multitude of her divim revelations.''^ And in 
 the Roman Breviary, April 30, you magnify the saintess who opposed the Immac-^ 
 ulate Conception, as much as its heroine. St. Catharine's " holy ecstacies,'' are glori- 
 fied in the lesson of the day; and you adore piously "the five ra3's coming froin the 
 five wounds of Christ, making five miraculous marks on the correspondent parts of 
 her sacred body, namely, hands feet, and side ! Dr. Power yields his solemn faith to 
 St. Bridget. Pray, to whom do Mr. Levins, and Dr. Varela yield the simple faith of 
 their pious souls ? 
 
 6th. The great monkish orders of your sect have been founded by fanatics, in their 
 raving fanaticism. First, the Carthusians were founded by St. Bruno ; he was guided 
 to the spot where he founded his monaster}^ by a vision of seven stars vouchsafed to 
 his coadjutor St Hugo. " Many miracles after his death," says Butler, — "attested 
 his sanctity and favor with God." Lives of the Saints ii. 459, &c. The manner of 
 St. Bruno's conversion as narrated by no less than sixty Roman catholic writers, indi- 
 cates that he commenced his career in fanaticism. He was standing by when the 
 funeral service was being said over a priest ; when the dead man started up, and said, 
 "By the just judgment of God I am damned!" Having said this, he instantly died 
 again. By this was St. Bruno converted ! — Launoy De causa Sue. Brun. c. v. 
 
 Second. The Benedictines were founded by St. Benedict. This Roman worthy 
 was favored with an incredible variety of visions and revelations. He predicted mar- 
 vellous events, and wrought many miracles. The thorns and brambles on which he 
 rolled, in order to expel his raging lusts, grew up, and had the honor of having St. 
 Francis to engraft roses on them, which always bloomed in winter. When a boy fell 
 into the river, he foresaw it while in his cave : sent his servant, who walked on the 
 water some distance, and pulled the boy out. When some wicked persons brought him 
 poisoned drink, he made the sign of the cross over it, and the vessel burst into a thou- 
 
112 ROMA?f CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 sand pieces. He was so sharp-sighted that he could see spirits. He alone saw "the 
 little black devil which led away a monk from prayers." I am soberly quoting your 
 writer's own words, gentlemen. He saw his sister's soul enter heaven in the shape of 
 a dove; and that of the good bishop of Capua, in a fiery circle I And, finally, "he 
 was rapt up into heaven, and saw God face to face." See Butler. Bollandi Acta Sanct. 
 Fit. Bened. Stilling, p. 263, &c. 
 
 Third. The Dominicans were founded by St. Dominick, whose character, as an 
 extravagant fanatic, we have already noticed. He had his first meeting with St. 
 Francis at Rome ; and there he made known his modest and spiritual vision, namely, 
 " that Christ was just coming to destroy the wicked world ; but his mother, the Vir- 
 £:in, stopped him, and informed him that she had famous servants who were to reform 
 the world; he himself was one whom the Lord approved as one who would do thii 
 work," &c. See Rainald, A. D. 1216, n. 48. Stilling, p. 273. Wolfius, in his 
 Lect. Memor. cent. 13. p. 509, tells us of the statues set up in St. Mark's church at 
 Venice; one of St. Paul, with this inscription: "By him we go to Christ :" the 
 other, a statue of St. Dominick, with this modest Roman inscription: "By him 
 we go easier to Christ!" His order was, in all respects, worthy of such a founder; 
 they w^ere, as Stillingfleet says, "the most blasphemous enthusiasts the world ever 
 saw." 
 
 Fourth. The Franciscans were founded by the companion of the last named fana- 
 tic, and was 'personally more of a fanatic than St. Dominick. St. Bonaventure 
 declared on oath that Christ revealed it to him, that by "the angel ascending out of 
 the east, having the seal of the hving God," St. John meant no other than St. 
 Francis. And this is the audacious motto under his picture, and is applied the same 
 way, by pope Leo X. St. Francis "had no teacher but Christ; and learned all by an 
 immediate revelation." He also heard an instructive voice issuing from a cnicifixr. 
 Even the pope had a revelation approving him, after he had been disposed to reject 
 o-ood St. Francis. This revelation satisfied his holiness' mind ; and he approved of 
 the order of the Franciscans. See Bonavent. Lifeof St. Francis, cap. iii. sec. 1,7. 
 Stilling, p. 272. St. Bridget had solemn vision of him: namely, that the "Fran- 
 ciscan rule was not composed by the wisdom of men, but by God himself; nay that 
 every word in it was inspired by the Holy Ghost." " And this," says this Roman 
 prophetess, " is the case with all the religious orders." Bridgittae Revel. L. 7 cap. 
 20. p. 559, vol. 1. Still p. 27.3. 
 
 Fifth. The Carmelites. Launoy, in his book " De Vis. Sim. Stocki. cap. 1.'* 
 declares that Simon Stockius had a heavenly vision of the Virgin Mary, in which 
 she imparts to him what was befitting respecting the branch of Mendicants called 
 Carmelites. And such was the marvellous condescension of the Virgin Mary, that 
 upon Simon's devout prayers to her, she appeared to him with the very habit and 
 fasion of dress which she would have them wear. And what crowns the whole 
 with a peculiar glory, she gave, says Launoy, a promise greater than any that her son 
 Christ had ever given : namely, " that ichosoever died in that hahit, should not perish 
 in hell P' Precious garment ! Precious Carmelilism! 
 
 Sixth. Even Jansenists had recourse to an attempt at the miraculous ; but they 
 only met with a prompt exposure, and a sad overthrow. See Mosheim V. 209 : 
 
 Seventh. Jesuitism was founded and organized by a fanatic not surpassed by Moham- 
 med, or even St. Francis. This was Ignatius Loyola. He had been a soldier, and 
 ^as lamed in battle. He was a most illiterate creature. But this did not stand in the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 113 
 
 way of visions and revelations. I shall copy a few specimens from the Roman 
 catholic authors Maffeius, Ribadeneira, and Orlandino. St. Peter, say these writers, 
 "appeared unto him before he was so far recovered as to be able to read." In a fit of 
 zeal he made a solemn vow of himself to be a knight of the Virgin. He made this 
 vow on his knees before her image. At that moment the room shook ; the window 
 glasses were broken ; and a dreadful noise took place. " An argument," says Orlan- 
 dino, with solemnity, " that the devil then took leave of him." A point of very ques- 
 tionable uncertainty. It is more likely that the said personage was making an ingress* 
 rather than an egress at this moment; if we may judge from the future horrid con- 
 vulsions of all Europe, by his pious followers, the Jesuits. Some time after this, the 
 Virgin appeared with great glory about her, and her babe in her lap. What Virgin — 
 by the way, — could this be ? And what babe ? Could the man, absolutely insane as 
 he was, mean the glorified Redeemer, Jesus Christ? Ignatius was now fully clothed, 
 on a model given by a divine trance. This fanatic had a long coat of hair cloth ; a 
 bag of water in one hand ; a crab tree staff in the other ; he was girded with an iron 
 girdle, bare headed ; with a wicker shoe on one foot; the other bare. He had a vision 
 of Jesus Christ, and certain most wonderful communications. At another time be 
 had "a vision of the Blessed Trinity, under a corporeal representation." In one 
 trance he continued eight days; during which,-^blessed vision for the benefit, peace, 
 and happiness of mankind; he saw the frame and model of the Society of Jesus, — • 
 says Orlando L- i. 28. In another trance he saw God the father commending St, 
 Ignatius, (that is himself) to his Son Jesus Christ; who very kindly received him and 
 said with a smile, "/ will he favorable to thee at Rome!'''' Ribadeneira was piesent at 
 Rome, when this was told in a domestic conference of the grave fathers of Rome ; 
 and he records it with all becoming and suitable gravity. See Butler's Lives of the 
 Saints, Art. St. Ignat. vol. ii. p. 262. Dubl. edit. 
 
 7th. The leading ceremonies and rites of Romanism are founded in sheer fanati- 
 cism. That is to say, these gradually crept in by designing men, as we showed in 
 Letter VIII ; but they were finally established, as articles of faith of the " simple be- 
 lievers," by visions and miraculous displays. For instance : — 
 
 Istly. The making of the sign of the Cross is a grand characteristic of Popery. 
 Miracles have followed this making of the sign of the cross. We have seen 
 already, that a saint discovered poisoned drink by making the mystic sign over the 
 vessel; and the poisoned cup flew into a thousand fragments. "St. Walthen was 
 haunted at prayers by the devil, first, in the shape of a mouse," — I am quoting gravely, 
 gentlemen, from your Acta Sanct. 3 Aug. Tom. i. — "then in the form of a pig, a 
 harking dog ; then a wolf; and lastly of a roaring long horned hull!'''' But upon his 
 making the sign of the Cross, all comfortably vanished in a trice. See Finch 
 p. 415. Acta Sanct. Aug. 3. Tom. i. 264. 
 
 2dly. Purgatory was a doctrine hard to be established; it cost many a vision, 
 many a dream, many a fanatical revelation. Witness St. Gregory's revelation, deliver^- 
 ing the soul of Trajan from the fires thereof. St. Benedict saw the soul of Gcrmaiiu3 
 escape out of it, and reach heaven. St. Ignatius saw the soul of Hosias, one of the 
 Jesuits, escape, and get to glory, a tough job! — Maff". Lib. 2. cap. 12. Still, p. 323, 
 St. Bridget had a revelation to the same purport with that of St. Gregory : as certified 
 by Salmer. Disp. 27. and Baron. Annal. 604. N. 59. St. Mathildis also was success- 
 ful this way. See Bellarm. De Purgat. 1. 2. cap. 8. Stilling. 251. 
 
 3dly. Bellarmlae in a very gallant manner proves Auricular Confession, by a cer- 
 
 11* 
 
114 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 tain vision of a tall and terribly fierce man, with a book in his hand, who blotted out 
 instantly, all the sins which the humble thief confessed to the priest, upon his knees." 
 Bell. De Prenit. 1. 3. cap. 12. Stilhng. p. 252. 
 
 4thly. It will puzzle any of our priests to name one saint, or saintess, who has been 
 beatified, and canonized, without the evidence of an apparition, a vision, a revelation, 
 or a miracle, sufficient to satisfy his Holiness's conscience, in conferring the ghostly 
 honor ! In proof of this, just let any one turn up Butler's Lives of the Saints ; and 
 he will see on almost every page, the clearest evidence of what we now assert. 
 
 5thl3^ The feast of the apparition of the Archangel Michael, is constantly observed 
 at Rome with extraordinary Romish devotion. This was originated, and established 
 to the "simple faithful" by a revelation vouchsafed to the Bishop of Sponto, and a 
 vision seen at the same time by a few drovers on the mountain Garganus. See Legat. 
 Decoucep. V. Mar. sect. 3. p. 371. Stillingfleet, p. 253, 256.— Ronj. Brev. May 8. 
 
 6thly. The long -and troublesome controversy touching Easter Day was conve- 
 niently and quietly settled, in the Roman church, b}'' a revelation kindly granted by 
 some invisible agent, or other, to Hermes. See Legat. De concept. &c. ut upra. 
 
 7thl3^ The festival of Corpus Christi was instituted by Pope Urban IV. in order 
 to confound all gainsayers against Transubstantiation and the Mass. This famous 
 festival was originated by a revelation granted by some being, or other, to Mother 
 Juliana, of immortal memory with you, gentlemen. This same 3Iother Juliana was 
 no common crone. I shall quote from your writer Bzovius Annal. Tom. 13. Anno. 
 1230. N. 16 ; and Still, p. 254. " She had raptures, exstacies, and prophecies." She 
 was so sharp at discerning things invisible, that she knew people's thoughts : " She 
 wrestled with devils, discoursed with apostles, and wrought many miracles." In all 
 her visions, she ever and anon saw the full moon, '■'with a snip talcen from her round- 
 ness!^^ For twenty years she wrestled with the invisible powers, with all the charac- 
 teristic curiosity of a female, to discover what this same '■'■ snif could possibly typify. 
 This vision she revealed to De Lausanna, who told it to De Trecis, who was after- 
 wards Pope Urban IV. All could not discover what this same "sm'2>" on the moon's 
 circular edge indicated. It was something involving the interests of " Holy Mother 
 Church." Of this mother Juliana was most sure : but still what that was, — she could 
 not read from her mystic lore. But two prophetesses can make marvellous discove- 
 ries. Mother Isabella came, apropos, to her aid. She too had a vision. And say Dies- 
 temius, and Binius, — " This Isabella was so much intoxicated by her vision, that, out 
 of the abundance of her spiritual drunkenness" (these are the Roman writer's own 
 words,) "she declared that she would promote the Holy Feast, although the whole 
 world should oppose her." This same feast o^ Corpus Christi, and solemn proces- 
 sion of the "Bread made god," through the streets, with "devout ruffians" in front, 
 with caibines, to knock down all who refused the new breaden god, — the Creator, 
 created by the priest, in the Mass, — this sam^e feast was mother Juliana's "snip" in 
 the edge of the moon. This holy festival being instituted, the moon was henceforth 
 round as a perfect circle, and all is complete! Such is the edifying origin of Corpus 
 Christi! How much you owe to Mother Juliana, and the moon's snip; and the 
 .simple devotion of Urban IV. In addition to Bzovius, see Diestcmius Blasrus, 
 Arnoldus Bostius, Petr. Procmonstratensis, Vignier, and Molanus. Also Still, p. 
 256, 257. 
 
 Lastly; indulge me in one instance more. Your sanctum sanctorum, and un- 
 inatched peculiarity of the Mass, was established by fanatical revelations. This 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 115 
 
 precious morsel of Romish fanaticism, shall claim our attention in due time. At 
 present I allude to tlie wild fanaticism by which it was established, gradually as an 
 article of faith of the " faithful." This corner stone of Popery had a prodigious variety 
 of revelations and miracles to establish it. I shall select an instance or two. 
 
 Bellarmine De Sacr. Euchar. Lib. 3. cap. 8. narrates several miracles. In one 
 instance, says he, instead of bread, real flesh was seen; that is to say, the loaf, or 
 wafers, were converted not invisibly, as now a days, by half a miracle with you; but 
 visibly, and really, and truly, — into true Jlesh ! He does not say whether human or 
 bestial flesh. In another instance, says he, instead of the wafer, Christ was seen, 
 bonajide, "in the form of a child." But why a child, it is impossible for us heretic* 
 even to conjecture. They cannot mean our glorified Lord. Roman priests only 
 can explain this mystery of popery. 
 
 But all these are comparatively trivial affairs to the devotion and faith of a heretics 
 horse ! Miserable heretics are all Protestants, when even a horse bows down and 
 adores "the breaden god." I quote this from no less a man than your own Bellar- 
 mine, wlio solemnly relates it as sober history in his book De Sac. Euchar. Lib. 3 
 cap. 8. St. Anthony of Padua, had once an encounter with a heretic, an Albigensian, 
 touching the change of the wafer into Christ's flesh. "1 have a horse," says th« 
 heretic, — " to whom I shall give nothing for three days. On the third day do you 
 come with the Host; and I shall come whh the liorse. I shall pour out some corn to 
 him ; but if he foisake his corn, and go and venerate the Host, then shall I believe." 
 On the day appointed all the parties came. And St. Anthony in a truly saint like 
 manner, addressed a suitable and eloquent word of exhortation to the horse. 
 
 " In the virtue, and in the name of thy Creator, whom I truly hold in my hand," 
 •ays he, — "I command and enjoin thee, O horse, to come, and with humility, revere 
 him." "No sooner were the words uttered," says the grave Bellarmine, " than the 
 horse unmindful of his corn hastens towards the Host, in the priest's hand ; inclining 
 his head, and devoutly kneeling on his fore feet, he adored his Lord in the best manner 
 he could, and confuted the heretic." See also Finch p. .343. 
 
 This really crowns the loftiest climax of all the specimens oi fanaticism extant. 
 A priest creating his Creator out of bread. A horse sensibly listening to an exhort- 
 ation. A horse devoutly bowing down on his knees, and worshipping his maker, in a 
 bit of wafer. And what is most amazmg of all, — a priest, — a rational being believing 
 all this. I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 
 
 June 4, 1833. W. B. C. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER X. 
 
 It opens with a descant on the cares, troubles, and disasters of life, with some sentiraen- 
 talism about one's rising above them. " But in mental collisions, defeat is followed by the 
 worm that never c-ies !" 
 
 It is, therefore, with the priest, a very serious matter to engage in polemics ; it is vie- 
 tory, — or no less than perdition ! 
 
 " Dr. B.'s defeat is obvious; it is admitted even by the most prejudiced among the elUe 
 of his flock ! Hence his acerbity of temper, and his recklessness of truth ! Our Victory 
 •ver you excites no stirrings of vanity, for it has been too easily won ! This is not writ- 
 ten in the way of boast! Some concession must be made to the irritability of a mind 
 
116 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 writhino- under the torturing vexation of defeat — so as to cause forgetfulness of your sta- 
 tion, as an interpreter of the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost T' 
 
 " Do you believe the tales of which your last letter is formed to be any portion of Catho- 
 lic creed? Do you imagine Catholics will admit your malignant fictions, while they mock 
 and reject the dreamy legends of the visionary among their own silly writers?" 
 
 " Your rule of faith, your '' matter of infinite importance," is abandoned. Your theme 
 now is farcical carricature of Catholic doctrine." 
 
 " Wc claim the protection of the great Dr. Johnson, who says : 'The diversion of baiting 
 an author has the sanction of all ages and nations, and is more lawful than the sport of teas- 
 ing other animals, because for the most part, he comes voluntary to the stake.' You cama 
 voluntary to the stake.^* 
 
 ** ' The Bible alone,' the preacher says, ' is the rule of faith of every Protestant.* 
 He believes, as an article of faith, the inspiration of the Bible, but this inspiration cannot 
 be proved from ihe Bible, therefore, he admits an article of faith not derived from the Bible : 
 therefore, the Bible alone is not his only rule of faith ; therefore, he contradicts himself; 
 and, therefore, the Bible alone is not a sufficient guide to a future world. This has not 
 been refuted." 
 
 Note : — Cvery one must perceive that this often repeated objection against the only rule 
 of faith, is founded in a play upon the double sense in which the word faith is taken in holy 
 writ. Jude says : '* earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints ; ver. 3. 
 Here faith signifies the system of gospel doctrines. Again: "we are juslfied by faith," 
 Here it means the exercise of the soul, by which we receive Christ Jesus, and walk in 
 him. 
 
 But the priests, by reason of their defective education, confound these two. We say, 
 *'thc scriptures are the only and perfect rule of faith." That is, it contains in it every thing 
 necessary to he known and believed, for our salvation. But, then, that faith, by which we re- 
 ceive these doctrines, and all the evidence of them, is not in the Bible ; it is in the mind of 
 the believer, like every other mental act. Yet the priests, in the most ludicrous manner, 
 insist that unless '•'■ mental faith''' be found '* in the Bible's system of faith,'''' the scriptures can- 
 not be the only rule of faith ! 
 
 Next follows the endless repetitions about Luther ; and the rejected epistle of Jamea ; 
 and the loss of some twenty books of scripture; and about John Wesley ; and the tradi- 
 tions; and the genuine copy of the fathers ; and the change of the Sabbath ; and the 
 utter failure of Dr. B.'s proof of the ru'e; and his Nestorianism ; and his blasphemy in 
 denying ihat the woman Mary is the mother of God ! 
 
 '• From the scriptures themselves it is not difficult to prove that they cannot be the Judge 
 of controversy. Common sense tells us, we must distinguish between the letter of the 
 scriptures, and the sense of the scriptures. St. Paul, 2 Cor. iii. 6, marks this distinction, 
 
 * the letter,' says the apostle, "killeth, but the spirit quickeneth." 
 
 *' Rev. Sir, we say that the scriptures, if we regard the bare letter, cannot possibly be 
 the judge of controversies. We also say, the scripture, even if we regard its meaning, 
 cannot be the judge of controversy ; and we call on the christian public to mark our proofs 
 of these assertions, and the delusion you labor under, in holding the scriptures to be 
 
 * your only rule of faith and judge of controversy.' That the scriptures cannot be our 
 judge of controversy, if we regard the bare letter is thus proved. That which leads men 
 into heresy and error, cannot be the infallible judge of all controversies; but the scriptures, 
 if we respect its bare letter, leads men into error and heresy, therefore, it cannot be the 
 infallible judge of controversies. The major proposition of this syllogism is self evident. 
 The minor is proved by the words of St. Paul, ' the letter killeth,' as much as to say it 
 leadeth us into error." " The letter killed" the Jews; and it " killed the heretics." 
 
 Notes : — 1. Here is another painful instance of our priests very defective education. By 
 *'the letter that killeth" they actually mean the scriptures taken literally ! Need I say that 
 
R03IAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 117 
 
 « the letter that killeth" is the law and broken covenant uttering its curse, including the bur- 
 dens and curses of the legal dispensation of Moses, which is now done away? And it is 
 contrasted with "the spirit that giveth life," that is, the gospel dispensation. Hence, in 
 reasoning against the holy scriptures from this text of'' the letter," the priests really leave 
 out all the gospel of Christ from our rule! 
 
 2. They assert that " the scripture," — in other words, the Holy Ghost speaking in it, — 
 "leads into error and heresy '." 
 
 3. they charge upon the Bible, and upon the Holy Ghost, all the sin, perverseness, and 
 heresy of the wicked children of men. That is, because the blind man cannot see, — there- 
 fore, the clear shining sun is in fault ; because the mechanic, when intoxicated, canno-t 
 use with skill, the correct instruments of his craft, therefore, the error and consequent 
 mischief are owing, entirely, to the instruments, and to him who made them perfect! 
 
 4. The sentence of God's law uttered on us is -'•the letter that killeth.'' See Rom. VH. 9. 
 This sentence of God on guilty sinners, the priests say, is '' as much as to say that it leads 
 us into error" ! That is, when the law " kills" the murderer ; and the judge utters its sen- 
 tence on him, it is as much as to say, they lead him into error ! 
 
 5. They maintain that " even if we regard its meaning," — that is, even if we take up its 
 spirit, and hear correctly the Holy Ghost speaking unto us, — "it is still not our rule" !l 
 This is the consummation of deism, and its necessary consequence, heaven-daring impiety 
 And it is not simply a mistake of our priests personally. It is originated necessarily by 
 the essential doctrines of popery. But we go on 
 
 " The Scriptures are often obscure and hard to be understood. Out of this obscurity 
 many controversies arise as to their true meaning. There must be some judge to deter- 
 mine their true meaning." 
 
 "But common sense tells us, this judge must be distinct from the Scriptures, for the 
 Scripture itself, which is obscure, cannot determine its own meaning. To deny that the 
 Scriptures are obscure and hard to be understood, would. Rev. Sir, ' argue a derangement 
 in the moral faculty :' in truth, it would argue more, it would savor of infidelity. It 
 would certainly be unscriptural, after Saint Peter telhng us, that in the epistles of Saint 
 Paul, there were ' many things mard to be understood.' Now, Rev. Doctor, we humbly 
 submit, that whatever is '• hard to be understood is ol)scure."' 
 
 Then they adduce instances of their obscurity : from their manner, and from their 7??flHcr: 
 « they are full of figures, allegories, and parallels:" "there are prophetical passages : and 
 many apparent contradictions." ' Hence the Bible is a very obscure book :' and common 
 sense tells us, that a judge, whose decisions are so obscure as to leave room foi controversy, 
 is extremely unfit for his office. We are convinced that such a judge would never be 
 appointed, or sanctioned by our Divine and All-wise Legislator." 
 
 "■ Finally, they arrived at this conclusion :— * You have no Scripture for the canonicity 
 of the Scriptures ; therefore, you cannot believe the Scriptures to be canonical : there- 
 fore your Rule of Faith leads to downright Deism,' " 
 
 Notes :— 1. Here men's folly and guilt, "who refuse to be taught," are wholly palliated; 
 and the entire blame rolled over on the unoffending Bible. "The unlearned and unslables 
 are those whom the apostle marks as " wresters," of the scriptures: and the originators 
 of error. Yet, instead of bringing "the unlearned" into the correcting influence of the 
 true learning ; instead of bringing "the unstable" under the hallowing restraints of sound 
 mental, and christian discipline, they cry out against the Holy Bib\e,—'' Aicny with it f 
 Away with it ! Not this, but Barabbasfor our judge ! Crucify it ! Crucify it ! It originates all 
 eontroversiis, errors, and fieresies ! 
 
 2, They studiously keep out of view the doctrine which we have taken pains, distinctly 
 and often, to state; namely, that the Holy Ghost speaking in the Bible is the oni^y 
 JUDGE of controversy. And the Scriptures are as distinct from this judge, as a word from 
 its speaker. Now, can he be a christian man and have the fear of the Holy Ghost before 
 
118 EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 his eyes, who ventures in the face of heaven, to say that the Holy One who " leads us into 
 all triilli,'" cannot determine his own meaning; cannot convey clearly jiis own mind and 
 will, by his own inspired word?" If controversy arise, is it the fault of the Holy One, or 
 the perverse will of impious men ? If men wander deliberately into error, is it not because 
 the sons of darkness hate the holy light of heaven, and choose the guidance of corrupt 
 reason ? If men do not see, and do not understand, is the Bible, is the Holy Ghost under 
 any bond of obligation to furnish eyes, and brains to rebels perpetrating high treason 
 against Heaven ? 
 
 No intelligent and candid Protestant or Roman catholic, has ever complained of the 
 obscurity of the Bible's doctrines of salvation. And all the world knows that if the 
 Romish priests could find popery in the Bible, it would instantly become one of the plain- 
 est and most luminous books in the world ! 
 
 3. They are here chargeable with a characteristic imposition. Because St. Peter says 
 that in the epistles of St. Paul, there are some things hard to be understood, they forthwith 
 convert the word some into many, and thence conclude that all the Scriptures are hard 
 to be understood ! And, finally, they misrepresent the meaning of the whole passage. 
 " Some things are hard^ but, by no means impossible to be understood. 
 
 4. The priests bring " a railing accusation" against heaven itself! '* A judge, — that is 
 the Holy Spirit speaking in the word of God, — "whose decisions are so obscure as to 
 leave room for controversy is extremely unfit for his office! Such a judge," — that is the 
 Holy One, — " would never be appointed, nor sanctioned by our Legislator! ! !" — I leave it 
 to the decision of the christian world, whether the master-spirit of infidelity ever displayed 
 more impiety ; or Judas more treachery : or Rabshakeh more blasphemy, than our priests 
 have done in these extracts ! And, I repeat it, — it is not their personal fault: they act 
 perfectly in character: it proceeds from the natural genius, and essential doctrines of 
 Popery J 
 
 There follows next a quotation from the popish catechism, steeped in deism. This 
 exhibits what is administered to these young immortals, instead of the pure waters of life. 
 May Jesus Christ preserve these children from such soul-destroying doctrines, as are in- 
 stilled into their minds by their " spiritual teachers," and infidel catechisms ! 
 
 The Letter, next, details some of the protestant miracles: such as, a marvellous growth 
 of hair on a person's head, during night, narrated by Dr. Adam Clark : next, the case of 
 Mary Toft, whom our priests gravely represent as " bringing forth rabbits :" of Johanna 
 Southcote, whom the priests endorse as the woidd-be mother o^ Messiah : and finally, of cer-» 
 tain Irish ghosts, who danced on the waters at Poriatown Bridge : and which, no doubt 
 existed,— but only in the guilty and tortured consciences of their popish assussinators ! 
 
 The Letter is closed with these words:—'' Such things," namely, these Protestant mira- 
 cles, — '' as well as your rule of faith, have originated," — that is the holy scriptures, and 
 the Hf»LY (*NE speaking to us in them, — '•'■ have originated in sheer fanaticism, and have been 
 sustained by imposture /" This carries with it, its own refutation ; and proclaims in every 
 one's ear, the origin, and nature of popery. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 " Tria faclunt honum, &c. Three things make a good monk and nun: to speak well of 
 the superior ; to read the Breviary as much and as often as they choose ; and to let things 
 go on just as they please." — " There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their 
 own lusts." — St. Peter. 
 
 Cfentlemen : — By the detail of extracts, in my last letter, I established the fact, that 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. Il9 
 
 your peculiar ceremonies are based in fanaticism: and that your whole system was 
 founded by some of the wildest fanatics, the world ever saw. These extracts I copied 
 from your own standard works, such as Acta Sanctorum, Butler's Lives, &c. You 
 have not denied the truth of one of these extracts ; and you cannot. I invite you to 
 try 3'our logic at a refutation of them. It was supremely silly, gentlemen, to pass the 
 whole over, as you did, in your last letter, with this Jesuitical question: — "Do you 
 imagine catholics will admit your malignant fictions, while they mock, and reject the 
 dreamy legends of the visionary among their own silly writers /" 
 
 Let your bishop look to this daring avowal. Popes have sent tens of thousands to 
 the stake, and gibbet, for things of a great deal less consequence than this wicked 
 taunt on the Pope, and Holy Mother. Why, gentlemen, you pronounce Acta t>ancto- 
 rum, — your achievements of your saints, their miracles, and holy tales, to be dreamy 
 legends! You call your popes, and the various orders of your monks, ''silly and 
 visionary writers /" Nay, have we lived to hear the concessions ! The whole evidence 
 on which your popes gravely proceed in the mysteries of canonization, to manufac- 
 ture new saints, and new gods, for Roman worship, — you actually denounce as wild 
 and " dreamy legends." 
 
 Permit me, gentlemen, to congratulate you on this approximation to the light. 
 Even Mr. L. I shall not despair of: protestant light, and logic have wrought wonders 
 on better men, in compelling them to speak the truth. If Balaam's ass spoke after 
 being well cudgelled, why may not even he have his mouth opened, in the service of 
 truth, by a logical flagellation ? 
 
 You repeat your slanders of Luther, "the Great and the Good." I have only 
 room for tioo remarks here. Every scholar knows that Luther, when more illumined 
 from monkish ignorance, did admit the epistle of St. James into the canon. It stands 
 in Luther's German Bible, and if you will consult Woolfii Curas, Philol. vol. v. 6. 
 and also Fabricius Biblioth. Graec. Lib. iv. cap. 5. sec. 9. you can see your evidence 
 of your slander of Luther. My other remark is this : — Gentlemen, look nearer home. 
 The Roman church, in the 4th century denied the canonicity of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews ! St. Jerome tells you this. See his Treatise of illustrious men, cap. 59, 
 and his Epistle 53 to Paulinus. The Roman church stood out long against " the He- 
 brews :" but she was finally " cudgelled" by the Greek church into orthodoxy, on the 
 canon, so far as it respects "the epistle to the Hebrews." 
 
 You say a good deal in your last, about " the stake ;" and "my coming volun- 
 tarily up to YOUR STAKE." I kuow that your spirit always leads that way. And 
 even to-morrow, had your charitable and liberal sect the ascendency, you would plant 
 the stakes, and light up the Smhhfield fires in our Park. I know it, and you know- 
 it : and even now anticipate it. But may God in his rich mercy, preserve the Lord's 
 church ; and our happy Republic, from the conspiracy of the Jesuits. 
 
 I quoted a fair specimen of your miracles, believed, and by your own Popes, duly 
 registered at the " Office of Miracles at Rome,'' by your knavish compeers. You 
 reply to this proof of Romish fanaticism by a 6m// and frog story from "Adam 
 Clark," about a natural phenomenon, a wonderful growth of a woman's hair! 
 
 You quote the case of Toft, and Johanna Southcote. Is it not marvellous that you 
 should not know that these fanatics borrowed their entire system from your own 
 Taulerus, and Cressy ! But, here is a point we wish to notice. When fanatics sprung 
 up among Protestants, we cast them out, and disown them. But when they appear in 
 " Holy Mother," she sings hosannas to them, and enrolls them among her saints ! 
 
120 Roman catholic controverstt. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I go on to other points. You are pleased to repeat in almoat 
 every Letter, that I do not adhere to the subject of discussion — " the Ruhy 
 
 Now, sc far is your charge from being true, that I have, in fact, thus fan been fortu- 
 nate enough in observing the strictest unity in my discussions. In your first note, 
 you simply asked me " to state our rule of faith, and our judge of controversy." I 
 complied with this, by stating that our rule of faith is the holy scriptures ; and that 
 the judge of controversy is Almighty God, speaking plainly and clearly to us in them. 
 I did not stop here, although this was all you demanded : — I next brought forward the 
 proof, tliat the scriptures were the only and sufficient rule : I showed this from 
 external evidenc6, and internal : I showed it from various passages, that God speaking 
 to us, in the Bible, declared it to be his own word ; and pronounced it jjerfect and 
 sufficient. 
 
 I next endeavored to draw you oiit in defence of your rule! You carefully guarded 
 against this. You know you cannot prove your rule of faith by the 'present authority, 
 and infallibility of your Church. And I give you the credit of ia shrewd and well 
 conceived retreat. But is not your silenCe ominous? x\re you not betraying a con* 
 gciousness that 3'Our clumsy Rule, contained in so many folios, is utterly untenable, 
 utterly indefensible ? You can never prove that Christ delivered to us, by divine in- 
 spiration, the apocrypha, and unwritten tradition, and the unanimous consent of the 
 Fathers. You can never create a paradise out of this continent of mud ! In the 
 midst of your awkward flounderings in this matter, I succeed in drawing you into 
 your " vicious circle :" and I fully convicted you of your Romish sophistry, by which 
 you impose on simple and uneducated partizans. You first proved " Holy 3Iother 
 Church" from certain marks taken from the Bible; then you established the inspira- 
 tion and authority of the Bible, from your "Mother Church!" And the same sophis- 
 try and " vicious circle" appear also in your doctrine of tradition. 
 
 You found it necessary to attempt the proof of tico things here : namely, that these 
 traditions did come from Christ's lips: and that the chain has been faithfully kept 
 unbroken. But no man can, while in his senses, believe without evidence; and no 
 man has evidence unless he be well acquainted with all the dead, and with all the 
 living, who had this chain of tradition, in their keeping. It is entirely different from 
 that which is written down in ten thousand copies, every where received and read. 
 Those traditions floated down on the tongue, by hearsay evidence. Unless we kno-vr 
 the truth and fidelity of all the dead, and of all the living, who did and still do hand 
 them down, it were an insult on common sense, to ask us to believe these traditions I 
 
 How do you get over this impossibility ? Why, by plunging still deeper into absurd- 
 ities. For instance, first, you resort to the unanimous consent of the fathers, and lay 
 down this maxim, that what has this unanimous consent is true tradition ; what ha« 
 it not, is to be rejected. Now, you load yourselves here with a task which, as 
 we showed, no uninspired man can achieve. To establish this unanimous consent 
 you must produce an authenticated copy of the fathers, free of all additions and 
 alterations. And you must demonstrate the fact of this. You must, then, go over 
 all their thirty-Jive enormous folios ; exhibit their 40,000 pages to the j)ublic, and 
 prove infallibly, that there is no error, and no contradiction, or one doubtful sentiment 
 in one of them; but an unanimous consent to all your peculiarities of popery. How 
 many millions of such men as Dr. Power, and Mr. Levins, would it take, with the 
 aid of Dr. Varela, to do this, think you? — No tongue can tell ! 
 
 But, gentlemen, the settlement of this point, is simple and easy on our part. For 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC COITTROVERST. 121 
 
 ^ivhile you are put upon proving a negative, we have the easy task of proving an affirm- 
 ative. I have done it in my Letter VIII., I selected ten of your essential pecuh- 
 arities of popery ; and then adduced from six to seventeen of the best of the fathers, 
 who are clearly against each of your peculiarities. It is of no consequence to ui 
 whether your fathers' volumes be authentic or not. And thus, by the simplest pro- 
 cess, your unanimous consent to your system, has been utterly demolished. No man, 
 in his senses, none but a Jesuit, which is the classic English word for a knave, will 
 venture to affirm that there is any such thing as a unanimous consent of the Greek and 
 Roman fathers. There is an universal contradiction on their part ; both among them- 
 selves, and against all the essentials of popery. 
 
 But second, you all saw this evil, and to remedy it you have invented the wild and 
 extravagant fanaticism of infallibility. And you affirm, with solemn grimace, 
 that *' the Church," — meaning the Roman priests, — " know these traditions by her 
 INFALLIBILITY." Now, mark your sophistry and vicious circle. Who has a right 
 to decide on these traditions, and this infallibility ! "Why, the Church to be sure," 
 say you : "that is to say, the Romish priests." You stand forward with no other 
 power and authority than that which is derived from tradition and infallibility : and 
 by virtue of this said power, from unproved tradition, and unproved infaUihility^ 
 you decid-e formally that these traditions and this infallibility are from God our Sa- 
 vior ! You borrow from these uninspired novelties, all your power and authority of 
 office : and then by this official power, you prove tradition and infallibility divine ! I 
 
 These arguments of yours, are the entire corner stone of your ancient tottering edi- 
 fice, — already tumbling about your ears, — for, blessed be God, the 1260 years of "the 
 Beast's" reign are now verging nearly toward their close. This is the only and 
 entire idea which you have advanced, stript as it has been, of all your verbiage, coarse 
 wit, and blasphemy ? 
 
 But, I did not stop here : j'our rule I next attacked, and logically demolished by 
 TEN arguments. That was no great task : and there was no great honor in doing it, I 
 frankly admit. But these ten arguments have not to this day been touched, far 
 less refuted by you. Thus far, then, was there not perfect unity in my discussion ? I 
 next devoted Letters VI. and VII. to the refutation of various objections which your 
 zeal had collected, against the holy Bible, our rule of faith. And you now stand con- 
 victed of the deism of the Voltaire school ; in the estimation of every christian, and 
 of every sensible deist in the community ? To accomplish this, and strip tiie vizor 
 off your face before an indignant community, was, I repeat it, one main object of my 
 lingering so long on the rule. 
 
 In Letter VIII. I showed that, in abandoning the word of God, as the only rule, 
 you have apostatized from pure Christianity ; and erected a perfectly novel system in 
 its stead. In letter IX., I endeavored to follow out this argument. I exhibited a col- 
 lection of historical documents, to demonstrate the appalling result of your apostacy 
 from the only rule of faith. I proved, from your own authentic books, that 
 your leading doctrines, rites, and monkish orders were estabhshed in fanati- 
 cism ! Is there no unity in all this discussion? Has not the Master told us 
 that, "by their fruits ye shall know them?" Have we not conducted our 
 readers to the pure word of God, which, like the tree of life, bears all manner of 
 fruit ; yielding its fruit and leaves, for the spiritual food, and healing of the nations ? 
 And have I not, amid your unmanly vituperations, been solemnly warning all men 
 against an approach to your fatal tree of death,— more deadly than the tree o^ the 
 
 12 
 
122 R03IAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 East, whose mortal influence poisons the air, and scatters on every hand wasting pesti-^ 
 ience and death ! 
 
 I congratulate you on avowing, for once, the truth, namely, that there is no version of 
 the scriptures in English, authorised by your fope, or Mother church. Your reply 
 to my question on this subject was " TranseatP^ That is, "let that pass;" meaning, 
 thereby, to say, — " Our craft has failed, and betrayed us ; let us boldly make a virtue 
 of necessity : every priest knows that " our Douay Bible,^^ is a sheer hoax on Protest- 
 ants : our Irish superiors, indeed, once ventured by solemn testimony, to declare it 
 '■^authorised by our superiors:''^ but we all know their wise reasons for denying on 
 oath, all this and even their own signatures, before the British parliament. Therefore 
 *'transeatP '^ — Gentlemen, I laud your candor. But, then, you have placed your 
 Vicar general. Doctor Power, in a predicament in which no man of truth or honor can 
 he found. You have "ponf/^ca?/^/," convicted him of a mean and scandalous impo- 
 sition, and at the same time, of a shocking impiety. In Clinton Hall, in presence of 
 the public, he lifted his hands towards heaven, and made a solemn appeal to Al- 
 mighty God that he and his priestly associates, did zealously encourage the reading of 
 ihe holy scriptures by the laity in their own vernacular ! And yet, there is, as you now 
 admit, no authorised version of them in English ! ! 
 
 This is the second extraordinary admission which has been extorted from you. I 
 allude to the avowal in your Letter I. that your religion, and that of the Protestants 
 are not modifications of the one thing : that they are essentially distinct. You say, 
 *' If the Catholics are right, your Reformation was superfluous and a rebellion against 
 heaven. If you hold the truth, the chief part of catholic worship is not only errone- 
 ous, but idolatrous: an offence against heaven, &c." I thank you for this admission 
 in the face of the American people, and I trust it will never be forgotten by the reading 
 and reflecting community. We are as opposite as Christ and Belial ! And by this 
 last admission, you have doomed your own rule ; in as much as it proves that this part 
 of it, namely, the holy scriptures, and also the apocrypha, are utterly inaccessible 
 to many of your priests, and to the great body of the laity. And when we take into 
 consideration the fact that the unanimous consent of the Fathers does not exist; and 
 its proof by you will live and die in the land of promise ; most manifest is it, now, if 
 any doubt did, heretofore, remain, that your rule is by your infatuated admission, de- 
 fective, intangible, false, and utterly useless, and nullified! You have no rule of faith 
 from heaven! ! And, hence, as in all usual processes of nature ; — for monsters beget 
 monsters, — your rule, originated by the prince of darkness, naturally begets apostacies, 
 the novel sect of Romanism with all its putrifying mass of fanaticism, and supersti- 
 tions, and idolatries ; — unparalleled in the moral history of our fallen race ! 
 
 In my last Letter, I drew the public attention to some of the proofs of this. I beg 
 leave to devote another letter to it. Be pleased then, gentlemen, to follow me in the 
 pleasing task ! 
 
 " From the sublime to the ridiculous, there is only a single step," said Napoleon in 
 his fatal fall. In the irrevocable fall of the Romish church, she has united the most 
 lofty and daring in claims of power and homage, to the most fantastic, ludicrous, 
 ineauj and base in imposture, and degrading in action ! The illustration of this will 
 teach us the appalling consequences of abandoning the only guide and rule, as the 
 " Romish anomos, ihe lawless One''' has done. 
 
 I. This " Lawless One" has set up claims on the human conscience, which place 
 at defiance, all sober conceptions. The Romish priesthood grasp the reins of unbound- 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 123 
 
 ed ghostly power over their votaries, the deluded people. Without a special written 
 license from the priest, no man, or woman, dare read the holy Bible, — even admit- 
 ting that there were an authorized version within their reach. That is to say, — God is 
 not allowed, without sacerdotal permission, to speak to his own subjects ! And men, 
 who have to account unto God, each for himself, and not by proxy, are not allowed with- 
 out a polluted and usurping priest's permission, to hear God speaking unto them. The 
 Romish church tells Almighty God, that he shall not be heard, but through a priest's 
 lips ; and even as that priest shall choose ! The Romish church tells the Almighty, 
 that the priest shall explain his divine will, just as the priest, — ignorant, incontinent, 
 and vicious as he is, — shall be pleased ; that God is not the lord of the conscience ; 
 that the priest has a right to dictate to man all that God only has a right to say : that 
 the priest opens heaven ; that he opens, and shuts up in purgatory; and in hell; that 
 though Christ commands " to come icithout money and without •price,'''' the priest and 
 IMother church tell the Almighty that, they shall pay their money, and give the priest 
 his price of the mass ! that though Christ has "the keys of hell and death," and sets 
 his people all free, the pope and his priestlings reply to the Most High, — "Now, thou 
 shalt not wear the ke^^s of hell and of death : I demand them of thee ; because certain 
 popes dreamed a dream, and told us that St. Peter got them from thee, — thou shalt not 
 have them ? Besides, no man shall have freedom from the yoke of bondage, nor have 
 their souls emancipated from purgatory until we shall obtain all the gold and silver 
 from them which we can extract!" This is the mandate issued from your throne of 
 Mammon ! ! 
 
 Hence, Christ and his atonement are excluded : the idol is set up in its place ; 
 human merit, gold and silver, occupy the place of his unspotted righteousness ; holy 
 water, penance, and ghostly absolution occupy the place which the Holy Spirit occu- 
 pies in his own church. The only object of divine worship is now lost sight of, in the 
 confounding and bewildering multiplicity of created gods and goddesses ! The Vir- 
 gin Mary is the queen of heaven: she is, O horrible ! " the mother of God P'' and her 
 mother. Saint Anna, is of course " the grandmother of God /" 
 
 The Virgin has more prayers offered up to her by your ivell educated devotees, than 
 what Christ has ; as every one knows who is acquainted with female Roman catho- 
 lics. And each new saint, added for money, and by some sublime catholic miracle, 
 absorbs for, a season, all the worship. In the year 1171, for instance, there arose a 
 new god. This Avas Thomas a Becket, an impious and haughty priest, the curse and 
 scourge of his country ; and a rebel against the laws of the land, and the authority of 
 his lawful sovereign ; who also screened the vicious and criminal priests from the just 
 visitation of outraged laws, and an insulted community. The haughty rebel was slain 
 by some persons who felt indignant at his insults offered to the king and the laws. 
 
 The court of Rome has never failed to take advantage of these feuds and national 
 disturbances. It has never failed to sustain rebels against their sovereigns, providing 
 it could reap any possible advantages to ghostly power. And the pope has never failed 
 to enrol in his holy calendar as right worshipful saints, those who fell in rebellion 
 againstking and country, to help on popery. Accordingly this EngHsh rebel was duly 
 canonized. In a short time a magnificent altar was erected to him in his cathedral, 
 near those of Christ, and " the holy mother of God !" One main use of altars in our 
 priests' mass houses, is, by the way, to receive the needful, namely, the money / The 
 holy priest must not handle it : he needs no money ; holy man ! his whole soul is in 
 heaven! The altar receives the money; it is given, — not to the priests, — O, no— it is 
 
124 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 
 
 given to God and the saints ! Well, the amount of gold and silver piled up on the 
 altar is the clearest and best evidence which of the saints gets the most devotion ! 
 During the young honors of the new god, the accounts stood thus : On Christ's altar 
 £3, on that of the dead priest, £832! Next year — this priest eclipsed Christ and 
 "the mother of God;" accounts stood at more fearful odds! On Christ's altar, 
 ^^ '■ — nothing ! not one copper farthing, and hence no prayers to him ! On the altar 
 of 3Iary were laid £4. 1.8. On that of the wretched dead priest, £954. 6. 4. ! 
 
 The Roman pontitTs are invested with different degrees of power by the four grand 
 factions existing in the bosom of " undivided Mother Church," The first makes him 
 Inerely a president : the second, an absolute monarch : the third makes him equal to 
 <jod, and calls him "our God," "the Lord God, the pope:" "our God on earth:" 
 "none," says St. Bernard, (1725) "but God is hke unto the pope, either in heaven 
 or in earth." Edgar's Variations of popery, p. 158. The fourth faction makes the 
 pope superior to God. "He has the plenitude of power, and is above law." Gibert 
 ii. 103. Bellarmine, De Pontif. IV. 5, declares that he can bind the church to believe 
 that virtue is vice : and vice is virtue. — " Possumus, &c. We can dispense with law.'* 
 See the Decret. Gregor. III. 8, IV. "The pope (Leo X.) has power above all 
 powers in heaven and in earth." See Labb. Concil. vol. 19. 924. Edgar, p. 161. 
 
 This is the grand practical doctrine exercised with such tremendous mischief at the 
 confessional. Such power is lodged with the priest that he can make sin no sin ; and 
 vice laudable, if committed to oblige and favor the priest. " If you sin with me, and 
 comply with my will" says the holy man possessing a chip of the pope's infallible 
 power, — " I will absolve you, after we are done !" " I will absolve you, for a trifle, — 
 said a holy priest to a lady of my acquaintance of the North Dutch Church, when he 
 was urging her to play cards and gamble, on a sabbath afternoon, on board of the 
 packet. 
 
 In virtue of this unlimited power, the pope and his Jesuits claim authority over the 
 bodies and souls of all men : and over all their property, — be they Romans or Protest- 
 ants ! Does any man possess such feeble conceptions of the nature and spirit of the 
 apocalyptic " Beast," as to imagine that the Protestants' apostacy and heresy have 
 put them beyond the pope's power and claims ? No : he claims dominion over every 
 Protestant as much as ever. 
 
 He claims power, also over all governments, in all kingdoms, and in all republics, 
 be they Protestant or Roman catholic. My credulous fellow citizens will not believe 
 this. But they must allow me to say that this credulity proceeds from the success 
 with which the crafty Jesuits have blinded our eyes, and palmed on us a system, as 
 their system, which every priest knows to be ridiculous and false. I speak not of the 
 enlightened and truly patriotic Roman catholics, who have seen through the mask 
 of ghostly hypocrisy. I speak of the Roman Jesuitical system, with the pope at tlie 
 head of it. " It is a thing most manifest," says a Romish author, Tesora Politico, &c. 
 .1602, p. 20. — "That his holiness has universal power over all: not only in his own 
 :states, but those of other princes, and in all the world, &c." And Bellarmine De 
 Pont. Lib. V. cap. 6, teaches that "the pope has the chief power of disposing of the 
 temporal affairs of all christians, in order to their spiritual good." Yes, for their spirii- 
 tuil good ! Riches and scripture doctrines corrupt men. And, therefore, for man's 
 spiritual good, the priests take away the money and the Bible : and bum the body, for 
 the soul's spiritual good ! And all the world has read the saying of pope Innocent III. 
 " The Church, my spouse, is not married to me without bringing me something: she 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 125 
 
 has given me a dowry of a price beyond all price, — the plenitude of spiritual things ; 
 and the extent of temporal things !" " The pope," said a council with Gregory VII. 
 at its head, "ought to be called the universal bishop; he alone ought lo wear the 
 tokens of imperial dignity ; all princes ought to kiss his feet ; he has power to dethrone 
 empires and kings ; and is to be judged by none !" And Rome never amused herself 
 with empty titles, as do the Persian and Chinese princes. They uttered their diabolical 
 edicts in thunder ; and executed them with fire and blood ! They excommunicated 
 kings ; deposed them from their thrones ; absolved subjects from their lawful allegi- 
 ance ; moved nations to rebellion and blood shed : abrogated national laws : put an 
 end to commerce, and trade : turned once happy nations into fields of blood ! An 
 endless succession of wars in Germany was originated by pontifical pride; no tie was 
 held sacred ; no oath was buiding; no law of God or man respected, if the Roman 
 pontiff could only gratify his satauic passions ; and extend his anti-christian pov.er ! 
 In a word, kings, and princes, and magistrates, were sacrificed to his ambition. And 
 while the flames of war kindled by him, raged over many lands, and while oceans 
 of human blood were shed by his infernal emissaries, the priesthood, — he was all the 
 time busy in diawing in the wealth of the contending nations. He weakened, and 
 divided, then conquered, and gained infinite wealth by national robbery ! All this 
 v.-as done in the name of Christ ; all this robbery was for man's spiritual good ; all 
 this money went into holy Peter's purse for man's salvation ! 
 
 Touching the nature and extent of the pope's supremacy there is a mistake gener- 
 ally prevailing among our fellow citizens. Our political men, and very many of even 
 our christian professors, conceive that it exists merely in name, among the Roman 
 catholics in our country : and that it is not acknowledged now by the enlightened 
 members of that sect. This is a great error. I am indebted to an estimable friend of 
 mine for an important fact which goes to illustrate this matter. He states what took 
 place in our State Legislature about 26 years ago. He was at that time a member of it. 
 Francis Cooper, Esq. one of his associates elected, was a Roman catholic; he could 
 not take the oath of office and allegiance because it bound him " to abjure all allegi- 
 ance to king, prince, potentate and power, whether ecclesiastical or civil." He 
 could not abjure the pope's supremacy : he could not renounce this foreign yoke. 
 On his petition, and that of the Roman catholics, a bill was brought in to strike out 
 the word " ecclesiastical.'' An animated debate took place, and, owing to the rage of 
 IK)litics, and the general want of knowledge of the true nature and tendency of the 
 foreign yoke of popery, it was carried. And so the Roman catholics do not abjure 
 foreign ecclesiastical allegiance ! This establishes the fact that the papal supremacy 
 includes a ghostly despotism over his votaries, not equalled in any Turkish, or any 
 pagan land. 
 
 Some, I dare say, are disposed to admit that the plea of the papists is plausible and 
 right : tiiat they own liim merely as their " spiritual head." I have two reasons 
 wh}- 1 demur to this. First, it cannot be republican ; nor salutary to civil liberty to be 
 tinder such foreign despotism, — that a man cannot think, nor write, nor act, or even 
 read the holy scriptures, without being exclusively moved and dictated to by a foreign 
 despot? A man who thus sells his soul, and his christian liberty, can never be a good 
 and faithful lover of American liberty. It is utterly impossible. But, this is not all, — 
 this separation of the ecclesiastical from the civil and temporal power of the Pope is 
 not authorised, not even recognized, far less allowed by the Pope. It has never been 
 yielded up by hira : and it never can, and it never will. Why ? because a despot 
 
 12* 
 
126 RO»IAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 never yields, but for ever tries to acquire more power : and because, as every papkf 
 pleads, the pope and church are infaUible, and immutable. And it is most manifest 
 that all papists who separate the spiritual from the temporal power, are in the very 
 act of robbing the pope. Thej^ are in the act of robbing the pope of the most brilliant 
 gem in his crown, — his infallibility ! The sentiments of the popes quoted above, fully 
 prove this. And the case of Mr. Farnan, of Brooklj'n : and the late difficulties be- 
 tween the highly respectable and intelligent trustees of St. Patrick's and the priests, 
 must satisfy every one that the priests and Jesuits here have never given up this claim 
 of temporal power ; and they never will. It is true, they tell the Protestant public, 
 that they admit only the spiritual power. But they know, and every intelligent man 
 m the community does know, that the priests have sworn before Almighty God to up- 
 hold the pope in all the extent of his power : they do own his civil power as much as 
 ^lis spiritual ; or, as the alternative, they are, in the pope's eyes, daring rebels ; and 
 before heaven, perjured knaves ! Let them choose the alternative of the dilemma. 
 
 The present Pope has exhibited all the intolerance and bigotry of the ninth century ; 
 and let the American public look to it, — every one of you, gentlemen, and every bishop 
 and priest believe and avov/ the same sentiments. In his Circular Letter published in 
 Europe and America, your supreme Head, lately pronounced from the Vatican, that 
 '■'liberty of conscience is an absurd and dangerous maxim: or rather the ravings of 
 delirium. '^^ And you, gentlemen, believe and unblushingly advocate the same thing : 
 and you have not the assurance to come out and deny it. Let the x-Vmerican public, 
 both political and religious, look at this ; let them watch the priests, if they will dis- 
 avow this bull of their present ghostly leader at Rome ! 
 
 This is not all : the pope and his priests are avowed enemies to the liberty of the 
 Press : to them it is a torturing nuisance. Hear the present Pope's own words in the 
 above named Circular. The hberty of the Press is ''that fatal licensi, of which we 
 cannot entertain too much horror T' And if ever they gain the ascendancy here, they 
 will soon show this, by the Codex Expurgatorius ; by chains, dungeons, racks, and 
 fires ! In admitting the Pope's supremacy, they are sworn, on pain of damnation, 
 to admit and honor all this dictation of the pope, in temporal and spiritual matters. 
 
 II. In Rome's apostacy from the only rule of faith, she has irrecoverably lost the 
 spirit of Christianity. 
 
 The genius of Christianity is love, pure, holy, unsubduable love and benevolence. 
 " God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." " He 
 that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." " If a man say I love God, and 
 hateth his brother, he is a liar !" " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ! and 
 ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." St. John*s 1st epistle. 
 
 Now contemplate the spirit of the Roman catholic church, ever since her great 
 apostacy ; — as displayed in her dogmas, and actions. — The maxim " that 710 faith is 
 to be kept with heretics,'' has been a favorite doctrine with Rome, most firmly believed 
 and rigidly acted upon. Pope Gregory VII. made a decree to this purpose, which 
 has not been revoked. Martin V. said in his letter to the Duke of Lithuania, — "Be 
 assured that thou sinnest mortally, if thou keepest thy faith with heretics !" Gregory 
 IX. made a decree, absolving all people from their vows, and obligations to those who 
 had fallen into heresy. And the Bishop Simanca, sometime professor of law in the 
 University of Salamanca, in his famous work "The Catholic Institutions," — says in 
 his commentary on this lav/ of Gregory IX., that "by this law, all governors are set 
 free from the bond of their oath." " A Catholic wdfe is set free from her obhgations 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 127 
 
 to perform her marriage contract with her heretical husband." And he adds, "Justly, 
 therefore, were some heretics [Huss and Jerome] burned by the council of Constance, 
 although tliey had been promised security !" The general council of Constance did 
 solemnly establish this characteristic, and sanguinary dogma of the Roman catholic 
 church, that "no faith must be kept with heretics." 
 
 Carrying out this principle, Rome pronounces all who refuse to yield unlimited 
 obedience to the pope's despotism in all things, to be heretics ; and heretics are trai- 
 tors against heaven and Almighty God, because they are rebels against heaven's 
 VICAR. And by that fact are their lives forfeited; and it is a duty to burn, kill, cut 
 down, and exterminate them from the face of the earth. "And the blood of here- 
 tics," — say your Rhemish annotators on Rev. xvii. 6, — "is no more the blood of 
 saints, than the blood of thieves, man killers, and other malefactors, for the shedding of 
 which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer." 
 
 By this solemn dogma of the Romish church, all devoted Roman catholics are 
 taught from their childhood, to believe that to kill a Protestant, or a heretic, is cbing 
 God a service, because it is the act of executing Holy Mother church's law. Hence 
 that unshaken enmity, malice, wrath, and murderous hatred, which bigoted Roman 
 catholics feel against Protestants, Jews, and others! They abhor them even as one 
 abhors the prince of darkness I They believe them all to be worse than thieves, 
 robbers, and murderers. Their canons, and their priests daily teach that no man can 
 possibly be saved who is not a Roman catholic. And besides these weekly and daily 
 impressions made by the priests, and the diabolical spirit breathed throughout their 
 books and conversations, " the faithful" are accustomed once every year, at least,— 
 that is on the Thursday of Passion week,— to see the Pope's representative, in hi^ 
 flaming scarlet robes, (the emblem of their bloody purpose) pronouncing the curse of 
 present and perpetual perdition on all Protestants. This is regularly done in our 
 cities, and throughout the land. 
 
 This deeply malignant spirit, has often burst forth as a merciless demon from " the 
 bottomless pit." Hence the murderous wars of the Crusades against the Turks, and 
 the christian Waldenses ! Hence the wars of Germany, and all Europe, in the dark 
 ages, and in the tunes of the Reformation. The Roman catholic princes of the bloody 
 house of the Bourbons, and of Austria, went forth at the pope's nod, " doing God 
 service," for "the spiritual good of man," persecuting, plundering, burning, and 
 massacring Protestants! Hence the horrid interdicts, and excommunications of 
 king-s, and whole nations; hence depositions, and the absolving of subjects from their 
 allegiance and duty to the magistracy, and the laws ; the suspension of trade and com- 
 merce; the refusal to let the dead be buried; and all the innumerable evils which 
 p^^pish fury could devise and inflict on a people. Hence the cool and systematic 
 murders of Protestants and others; in a long and bloody train of executions,— not to 
 speak of the Inquisition. Upwards ofsirtrj-eight millions of human beings, as we shall 
 afterwards show, have been offered upon the altar of the bloody Roman catliohc faith. 
 St. John, in vision, saw Rome catholic "drunk with the blood of the saints." Now, 
 he that hateth his brother, is a murderer. What must Rome be, which has made the 
 hatred of men, who differ from her in religion, an article of her religious creed . 
 What must she be, who has shed such oceans of human blood ? Is it not a mockery 
 of religion and reason to call her a church of Christ ? Is it not an outrage on reason. 
 to call th^i-^christianity, which stimulates her to do such damnable deeds ? Moloch 
 
128 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 and Jugernaut are mere children in murderous crimes, compared to this. Offer no 
 apologies for her, because Protestants have persecuted. They have done so ; but then 
 it is no part of their religion. Calvin and others acted under the unrepealed bloody 
 civil laws, which had been passed by Roman catholics, when Servetus was burned. 
 There is nothing in the canons, nothing in the creed of Protestants, stimulating to 
 persecution. On the contrary, every sentiment in their creeds and confessions, breathes 
 love and benevolence. The early Protestants were only acting out the infamous les- 
 sons which they had, when young, unhappily learned from the Roman catholics. 
 But it is a part of the canons, and elemental part of the religion of Rome, as we have 
 seen above, to persecute and kill heretics ! And as if all this were not enough, the 
 pope claims the power of persecuting even after death. He claims the power of dam- 
 nation. He absolutely claims the keys to shut out of heaven, and shut up in hell. 
 Let any look, for proof of this, into the Bulls. I take up, for instance, the Bull of 
 excommunication against Queen Elizabeth, of England. Here is the title of it. "The 
 damnation and excommunication of Elizabeth, and her adherents, &c." "Pope 
 Pius, servant of the servants of God," — (marvellously humble this knave was) — "in 
 {>erpetuam rei memoriam, &c." — Here we see the result of the Roman apostacy» 
 from the only rule. Can that rule adopted by the Romish church, which stimu- 
 lates to such deeds these monsters in human form, be a rule given to us from infinite 
 love and benevolence ? It is impossible ! 
 
 in. Can a rule of faith which generates the most deplorable ignorance and revolting 
 profligacy, proceed from the fountain of all light and holiness ? 
 
 In every Roman catholic country, the priesthood, according to the letter of instruc- 
 tion, and oath of office, direct their unmitigated hostility against these two things; 
 namely, the promiscuous reading of the holy Bible : and the universal education of 
 the people. " The Bible shall not be given to the people : the laity shall never be 
 permitted to read the scriptures, when, and as they please;" "education shall not be 
 given to the people universally : we are the fountain of knowledge : we the catholic 
 priests have the keys ; — we have the keeping of God's will and secrets : and we let 
 the light out, orally, as we please ! Education and reading the Bible only make 
 heretics ! The more intelligent the people are made by reading, the nearer are they 
 to damnation!" This is on every priest's lips: it is the burden of their preaching; 
 and of their every day conversation. 
 
 The pope, in his late Circular, denounced Bible Societies, as "the device of the 
 devil." And his priests, as in duty bound, by their oaths, re-echo this hostility to the 
 Bible, and to education, every where. And in our own land, as well as in Italy, and 
 Spain, the priesthood are laboriously employed in watching over their flocks: not in 
 instructing them ; not in meliorating their condition; not in communicating education 
 and industrious habits : but in checking the dangerous inroads of light; and the fatal 
 consequences of universal education ! And in those places where the influence of 
 Protestants constrains them to open schools, what do they teach the youthful spirits 
 of our land ? To say ten thousand Ave Marys : to pray to innumerable idols : to 
 hate and execrate the English version of the Bible ; to hate and abhor Protestants: to 
 own the pope's and priest's unlimited despotism : to consider the pope's and priest's 
 power above that of our President : and all our governors : and all the magistracy of 
 the land : that our government and magistrates, being heretics are merely usurpers ; 
 that the time is coming when they shall gain ascendency, and shall crush all hereti- 
 cal rulers ! And, yet, these men would wish to have money from our public funds, 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 12(? 
 
 paid by the taxes levied on Protestants, to support these nunneries, and seminaries, 
 where these principles are taught, subversive of all order in Europe, and America. 
 
 The people who are imbued with popery, are, generally speaking, more ignorant, 
 and far more ferocious than those of ancient pagan Egypt, Greece, or Rome. And ia 
 point of idolatry, superstition and morals, the pagan Greeks and Romans were far 
 purer, and more refined ! The proof of this meets the eye of every traveller in Swit- 
 zerland, Italy, Spain, and in bleeding Ireland. Poverty is the child of Romish idola- 
 try and superstition. In the Eastern despotism, the tyrant robs the subject of the fruits 
 of industry ; and paralizes all his efforts. In popish communities, the priest fleeces 
 the obedient flocks ; and paralyzes the arm of industry. Add to this, that there are 
 many saint days, and lady days, and holy festival days, when no man truly 
 Roman cathohc, dare follow his lawful avocations. These do almost cut off the poor 
 man's little income, and make him miserably poor. And, then, patron saints' days 
 are closed with brutal revelry and debauchery ! They glorify their saints and idols, 
 by fighting, gambling, swearing, blasphemies, and brutish drunkenness. Look for 
 proof of this, to Rome, Naples, Madrid, the South of Ireland, and that portion of father 
 Levins' parish, in the vicinity of the Cathedral, and at the place called " the Fiv9^ 
 Points,'''' in New York. 
 
 We formerly quoted the lives of the popes, and shovv'ed out of your own writers, 
 Baronius and Guiciardini, that "He was usually deemed a good pope who did not 
 excel in wickedness the worst of the human kind." And he being the great fountain 
 head of impurity, — pollution naturally flowed, through his accredited priesthood, as 
 a dead sea over all the land. The moral infamy of a church must be consummat©, 
 when, by the decree of pope Paul III., houses which I cannot name, were openly 
 licensed ; and 60,000 infamous beings yielded their immense revenue of wickedness 
 to the pope's treasures. And it is so in Rome, unto this day. These licences aftbrd 
 large revenues to " the holy father.'''' It is a truth notorious at Rome, that he receiver 
 the one third of the profits weekly, and annually, from these licensed haunts of infamy. 
 
 And it has been a subject of amusement to those who are intimate with our priests, 
 to hear their affectation and prudery about the admirable little narrative "Lorette, or 
 the daughter of a Canadian Nun." They call it "an obscene fiction." What! A 
 Roman catholic'priest affecting to have his modesty shocked at ^'Lorettc,'^ a moral and 
 instructive narrative of facts! A priest shocked at imaginary "obscenity," — into 
 whose ears and imagination, and heart, is daily poured, at the confessional, as into a 
 common sewer, all that is impure, polluting, and loathsome, in a whole parish. 
 " Credat Judaeus Apelles, non ego." 
 
 Let any one take up Paschal's Provincial letters, and that book sold in our book- 
 stores, called " Secrtta Monita, — The secret instructions of the Jesuits ;" and let him 
 read the extracts out of the 336 Jesuit writers, on morality, and he will easily discover 
 that paganism, counting in even Sodam and Gomorrah, had nothing to equal Ro- 
 mish doctrines, and Jesuit criminality. 
 
 I took up the two folio volumes of Ludovicus Molina, the other day, and rea/3 a 
 passage to a friend of mine, out of the 1150 page, 2nd volume, in Latin ; to give him 
 an idea of the moral instructions given to servants, — as he had some Roman catholic 
 servants in his family. I then turned to the extract out of Cardenas, Crisis Theolog. 
 Diss. 23, cap. 2, p. 474 ; and there read to him what is instilled into the ears of the 
 " simple faithful," of the confessional, that he might know how to trust these women 
 who make confessions to expelled Jesuits. Heru are the words. — " Servants ma^ 
 
13Q ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 secretly steal from their masters as much as thej'- judge their labor is worth, moT9 
 than the wages they receive." " In good earnest," exclaimed my friend, " one of my 
 domestics, who is quite punctual in going to confession, has been reducing this literally 
 into practice. I have detected this Roman catholic woman robbing me, to some con- 
 siderable amount." 
 
 " She acted upon principle," said I, " and is an apt scholar : the priest shrieves her, 
 and receives his boon." 
 
 I read him some more extracts. Here they are : "A man is not bound to restore 
 what he has stolen in small suras, however large may be the total." See Tam- 
 bur. Explic. Decal. Lib. 8, p. 205. Again : — " A woman may take the property of 
 her husband to supply her spiritual wants, and to act as other women." That is, 
 women, who are more punctual in confessing to the priest than men are, may rob to 
 pay holy father confessor. See Gordonus, Theol. Mor. Univ. p. 826. Again :— 
 "After a son has robbed secretly his father, as a compensation, the confessor need not 
 enforce restitution, if he has taken no more than the just reward of his labor." See 
 Fran. Xavier Fegeli p. 158. And the followmg will show how a Jesuit feels toward 
 magistrates : — "A priest cannot be forced to give his testimony before a secular judge." 
 See Taberna vol. 2, p. 288. And Tamburinus, Lib. 3, p. 27. teaches that,—" the 
 judge is not a competent lawful authority to receive the testimony of ecclesiastices." 
 Emmanuel Sa teaches in Aphor. p. 41. That " the rebellion of Roman priests is not 
 treason, because they are not subject to civil government." Airault Cens. p 319. 
 teaches this doctrine of assassination, — "If a calumniator will not cease to publish 
 calumnies, you may fitly kill him, not publicly, but secretly, to avoid scandal." And 
 Escobar in his Theol. Moral, vol. iv. p. 274, taught that, — " it is lawful to kill an accuser 
 whose testimony may jeopard your life and honor." And to consummate their vil- 
 lainous doctrine, Busembaum and Lecroix in Theol. Moral, vol. i. p. 295, tedch this 
 doctrine of devils : "In all the above cases where a man has a right to kill any person, 
 another may do it for him, if affection move the murderer !" 
 
 I beo- leave to add here, w4iatour unsuspecting fellow-citizens will scarcely believe; 
 but it can be fully proved from the standard writings of the Romish church ; — it is 
 this, all Jesuits and papists (I mean priests and those bigots who obey them) believe 
 that the property of all Protestants, being heretics, is forfeited, and belongs of right, 
 to "Holy Mother Church," just as in monarchies where the man's property is confis- 
 cated, who is guilty of high treason. Hear their words: — " Every christian govern- 
 ment as soon as they openly abandon the Roman faith instantly are degraded from 
 all power and dignity, by human and divine right." Philop. Respons. ad Edict, p. 
 106. That is, the Roman catholics may seize on their power and means. Bellar- 
 mine teaches, as we have already seen, in Lib. v. cap. 6, that the Pope has the chief 
 power of disposing of the temporal affairs of all christians, &c." And Pope Innocent 
 VIII. in his sanguinary bull, by which he sent a crusade of armed bandits, to extirpate 
 the Waldenses, in the year 1487, " gave a full and entire license," to his Nuntio, 
 "to grant to every one of the soldiers of the crusade, a permission to seize and freely 
 possess the goods, moveable and immoveable : and to give them for a prey, whatever 
 the heretics have brought to the lands of the papists." He then proceeds to say that 
 all who are bound by contract, to assign and pay any thing to them (the Waldenses) 
 are set entirely free from such bonds, to keep and possess what belongs to them. 
 
 I shall sum up the moral character of Jesuitism, which has been thirty-nine times' 
 d>olished and expelled from the different governments of Europe : and in doing this^ 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 131 
 
 I shall employ the high authority of the Arret of the Parliament of France in 1762, 
 when it extirpated the Jesuits. " The consequences of their doctrines destroy the law 
 of nature : break all the bonds of civil society : authorizing lying, theft, perjury, the 
 utmost uncleanness, murder, and all sins ! Their doctrines root out all sentiments of 
 humanity : excite rebellion : root out all religion : and substitute all sorts of supersti- 
 tion, blasphemy, irreligion, and idolatry." Such is the declaration of the ParUament 
 of Paris. See the Secret Instructions of the Jesuits, Appendix p. 111. &c. 
 
 Now, this order, the most daring and outrageous of all the Monkish orders, — which 
 had turned the governments of Europe into fields of blood, and which has been ba- 
 nished from every country of Europe, — was revived, and organized by Pope Pius 
 VII., in 1814. And I earnestly beg all my fellow-citizens to be assured that it has 
 been revived, and is now employed with all its accustomed diabolical cunning emd 
 power, to gain over the U. States under the jjapal yoke ! And amid various facilities, 
 they are availing themselves of the perfect religious liberty of our Republic, to carry on 
 a deep conspiracy against the Protestant religion, and our ci\il liberty. It is a tremen- 
 dous sword, the hilt of which is at Rome ! Every vessel that arrives brings in multi- 
 tudes of Jesuit priests in disguise. And all of them conspire in aiming a tremendous 
 blow, which, if God prevent not, and ward off from our slumbering fellow-citizens, 
 will fall, one day, with the horror of a SkuUabog, an Irish, and Parisian massacre ! 
 
 Now, you have hitherto performed unmatched feats of vituperation : will you permit 
 me, gentlemen, to beg you to meet my charges and arguments. I have copied my 
 extracts from your own books. Disprove and refute them, if the tiling can be done. 
 It can be done only by abjuring your own books ; or detecitng false quotations ; meet 
 them logically : or frankly tell us the truth that you cannot. Either alternative 
 requires, I fear, more courage than what you possess. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 Our priests had already given frequent indications of a desire to retreat. They only 
 wanted, and they were earnestly seeking, a suitable pretext. We had stated their doctrines 
 and ceremonies in strong language, it is true: but this, it is believed, was fully sustained by 
 quotations from their own books. " The greater the truth, the greater the libel." This 
 quaint maxim is understood by every culprit. Each development of their true system was 
 " slander." We were held up to R. C. execration by the priests, witli a view to cover their 
 meditated retreat. Hints of personal violence were often thrown out , but no credit was 
 given to the rumors. A remark in my Letter X. on the vile scenes of the Confessional, was 
 called "slanderous," simply because it was too true for the public car. This brought a 
 repetition of sacerdotal tlireats: and the following Editorial Notice appeared in the Roman 
 Catholic paper, the ferocious design of which was too manifest. This, together with the 
 Card, in reply, here follows. 
 
 "It is to be regretted that Dr. Brownlee, a minister of religion, should so far forget his 
 station as to insult the Irish Catholics of tliis city in his controversial Letter of to-day. This 
 does not prove his rule of faith or judge of controversy. His allusions to Catholics at the 
 Five Points are gross and false'. The Irish catliolics of this city have feelings, and he should 
 respect them. If the honor and dignity connected with his sacred station do not urge him 
 to the expression of truth, they should suggest pruflcncc. Sucii allusions as he makes to the 
 Five Points are insults to Irish Catholics; and insults may excite a spirit which he cannot 
 suppress ; — insults are not always endured by Irishmen." 
 
132 ROMA^ CAtHOLtC CONTROVERST. 
 
 "The Doctor is informed that a foul allusion to the sacrament of confession, is left OBI. 
 
 Its authorship would disgrace tlie keeper of a brothel." 
 
 A CARD. 
 
 Te the Public. — My Reverend opponents, the priests, having exhausted their last idea ; and 
 'spent nearly all the fury of vituperation, seem now to have recourse to threats of personal 
 violence. This appears from an extraordinary article which Mr. Denman has seen fit to 
 admit under his editorial head; but which, however, bears the usual attributes of father 
 Levins's style ! 
 
 To eflfect their evil purpose they hold me up to their partizans, " the rabble," as guilty of 
 outraging the feelings of" Irishmen." This I solemnly deny; and it is too ridiculous to need 
 a sei-ious refutation. It is enough for me to state that among my numerous personal friends 
 I number many "Irishmen" whom I love and honor. I know the noble traits of a genuine 
 Irishman's character : and it is impossible for me to insult their feelings. And I tell the 
 Priests and their Englishman Editor that every sensible man in the Roman catholic commu- 
 nity knows that I am incapable of insulting an Irishman's feelings ! It is "Priestcraft," 
 and its unenviable attributes that I deem fair game ; because it is the greatest enemy to our 
 free institutions, and our religious liberties ' 
 
 But, is it possible that Irishmen do not see through this thin veil of hypocrisy ? Who does 
 not see that Mr. Denman, and his priests have here offered the most outrageous insult to an 
 Irishman's feelings! They have here, identified the character of Irishmen, with the charac- 
 ter of the " Five Points." Who ever deemed any connection between the two, until Mr. 
 D. and his ghostly advisers have declared that he who speaks against the "Five Points," 
 does insult an Irishman's feelings ? In all the annals of vituperation there never was a 
 greater insult offered to Irishmen than this, from Mr. Denman and his Priests ! 
 
 But, it is impossible not to see the design of this article in tlie last " Truth Teller." There 
 is, in it, a characteristic threat of personal violence ; it rouses to deeds of violence and 
 blood ! But we are not in Italy or Spain ! We are in New York, where the laws reign ! 
 For my part, these threats move not me; the word fear, I do not know the meaning of. I 
 shall follow, in my humble course, the immortal Luther. I shall go with him even to the 
 city of "Worms ;" and with Huss and Jerome of Prague; even to " Constance ;" and I shall 
 go, as Luther said' — " were there as many devils in my way, as there are tiles on the houses !" 
 And let them venture on the execution of their sanguinary threats I I do solemnly warn 
 them in the face of the New York community, that the first Protestant blood that is shed 
 here, will raise a flame Avhich all the waters of the Hudson will not quench ! 
 
 I ought to add that the priests ordered Mr. Denman to strike out a sentence in Letter X. ; 
 and it is presented in a garbled form to the public in the Catholic paper; and, moreover, he 
 assigns a reason for doing this, in impure language, such as none but an expelled Jesuit could 
 employ. The banished sentence is restored toils place: and the public can judge of it» 
 truth and relevancy. 
 
 But, after all, what is " the head and front of my offending," which has called forth this 
 threat of violence, from the priests and their editor ? Simply this : In the following Letter 
 I only ventured to compare the state of morals at Rome, Naples, Madrid, and the South of 
 Ireland, with those of the " Five Points" in our city ! Now had Mr. Levins been capable 
 of duly appreciating the morals of all ultra Roman catholic countries ; and had he been pos- 
 sessed of the common sentiments of courtly gratitude, he would, instead of" bloody threats," 
 have made me one of his best bows ; and heartily thanked me for putting him, and this holy 
 portion of his parish, into such good company ! ! 
 
 I am respectfully, 
 
 W. C. BROWNLEE. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 133 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER X. 
 
 This letter occupies nearly five columns of a common newspaper size. It contains the 
 following subjects: — 
 
 1. Personal invectives without O'ConncVs eloquence, or CohheVs degant polish! We pre- 
 sent a specimen. 
 
 " In your last, you, the intimate with the " Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost," 
 have out-Brownleed Brownlee. The merit is great, and only a Brownlee could have 
 achieved it." 
 
 '•Tlic liberty of conscience conferred by your "ever blessed Reformation" must not be. 
 checked, or controled." 
 
 " The consciousness of defeat is evident, in every paragraph of your last. There are the 
 ascerbity of mind, the sourness of temper, the sullenness of disposition, the recklessness of 
 trutii, the indifference to character, the unblushing assertion, the faithlessness in citing au- 
 tiiority, the wilfulness that would inflict injury and the suggestion that would affix a stain to 
 character, which ever have been the last resources of ungenerous minds, Avhen writhing 
 under disgrace, defeat and overthrow,— when tortured by the worm that never dies." 
 
 There is in " your notorious tenth, the deep toned growl of Calvinistic peace and love, 
 Tittered by the religious minister, who vaunts familiarity with an interior spirit, intimacy 
 with the ' HebrcAv and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' and fellowship with ' highly intelligent 
 and ' virtuous ladies.' For shift and subterfuge, contradiction and falsehood, joined to un- 
 <^entlemanlike language, bold calumnies, and rancorous malice, it stands unrivalled. So 
 much of these bitter and damning elements we never expected to meet with in any human 
 being, much less in a predestined clergyman treating of the concerns of religion." 
 
 Such is our priests' gratitude for our painful inquiry into the origin and tendency of their 
 novel system ! This personality occupies upwards of a column and a half. 
 
 2. There follows Luther again with the rejected epistle of St. James : and the German 
 Bible, in one fourth of a column. 
 
 3. Their vindication of the authorised Douay : — 
 
 " Dr. B. says the ' Douay Bible is unauthorised by the pope and church:' and this is the 
 inference you deduce from your ignorance of the scholastic term proposed to you I The 
 Douay Bible printed by Mr. John Doyle, in this city has been approved by the catholic bishop of 
 New York, and by the bishop of South Carolina. It was printed from a copy of the Douay 
 Bible approved by the catholic bishop of Dublin. The Bible printed in Philadelphia was 
 approved by the bishop of that city. The Douay Bible in England is approved and sanctioned 
 by the catholic bishops in England, and what they and other bishops approve and sanction 
 is autharised by the Pope, for they, immediately under the pope, are the guardians of the catho- 
 lic religion. Will you again repeat to the members of the Middle Dutch Ciiurch and your 
 ' christian public' this slander and falsehood ?" 
 
 4. The rest of the letter, about two closely printed columns, contains a renewed Jkttaok.il 
 possible, more virulent than ever, on the perfection of the holy scriptures: they are declared 
 to be utterly inadequate, as a rule: they cannot settle the meaning of certain expressions, as 
 " this is my body,'' — " born of water and the spirit," &c. : thej'-cannot settle one of the great 
 points of controversy between the Roman catholic church and Protestants: they cannot 
 throw lighten certain jioints by reason of their obscurity : they cannot even remove the ap- 
 parent contradictious in them. Finally, after repeating the three questions, so often an- 
 swered, " How do you know the Bible to be the tcord of God,'' &c. they close in this language : 
 
 " But the scripture cannot prove either the canonicity, or the authenticity, or the inspira- 
 tion of its own books ;— therefore, our consistent theologian cannot believe in the canoni- 
 city, authenticity, divinity, or inspiration of scriptures ; tiit-refore, his rule makes him a 
 Deist!" 
 
 "' Sufficient proof has been given in our letters, that Preacher BrownIee"s Protestant rule 
 
 13 
 
334 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY- 
 
 of faith cannot be a safe guide to a future world ; — it establishes no basis for divine faith ;— if 
 followed, it BiusT guide to deism and infidelity." 
 
 ^'What shall be the next subject of discussion between us, and preacher Brownlee?" 
 '•Having disposed of his rule of faith, or, in oilier words, the foundation of his religion, 
 the next topic evidently is, What are the articles of creed determined by his rule of faith, 
 which must be believed in order to secure salvation ? Will the Preacher refuse to enter 
 on this matter ? If he do he will act iiTationally. We wish to be illumined." 
 
 This is a mere ruse du guerre. The priests are meditating a retreat from the arena, and 
 they are planning a pretext to cover their retreat. Hence they say in the close of their let- 
 ter:—" Should the Preacher in the Middle Dutch Church, dechne discussion on this subject, 
 our direct controversy with him is terminated." 
 
 , LETTER XI. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 f " Gia Roma, hor Babilonia falsa, e ria, &c. — 
 
 ■"Formerly Rome, now Babylon, false and guilty — 
 Hell of the living ! It will be a great miracle. 
 If Christ is not angry with thee at last!" 
 
 Petrarch, torn. 4. p. 149 
 
 Gentlemen: — In your last Letter you have exhibited a paralysis : and have almost 
 given up the ghost. I have gone over your epistle twice ; and I deliberately affirm, 
 that no man, Protestant or Catholic, can discover one new idea: or an approach to a 
 reply to any one of my arguments, against your rule, and the fanaticism of your sect. 
 In the close, you repeat, in a condensed form, the one all pervading, and one only 
 solitary idea, which has ever yet appeared in your ten Letters : it is this : — " Preacher 
 Brownlee's Protestant rule," — that is to say, God's inspired AVord, and the Almighty 
 speaking to us in it, — "cannot be a safe guide to the future world: his Protestant 
 i-iile,"— that is, the inspired scripture, and the Almighty speaking in them to us,— 
 " if followed, must guide to deism and infidelity !" Thus then, you dehberately affirm* 
 for the tenth time, that God speaking to man in his own Word, " must guide to deism 
 and infidelity !" 
 
 Will the force of public opinon have no influence in checking this infidelity, and 
 blasphemy ? Let any one read the speech of the blasphemous Assyrian, Rabshakeh, 
 and then say, if he can there discover any thing worse than this mockery of God's 
 lioly Word, and the name of the Holy Ghost ! 
 
 I have drawn you into the net, at last, in the affair of the Douay Bible. You 
 affirm that your " bishop's" permission is " pontifical" authority !— With men thus 
 reckless of truth, no measured terms can be observed ! Do you, then, venture to affirm 
 that "a bishop's" authority is "the Pope's" authority? You know that no bishop 
 can give pontifical authority to any book. And your leading men in Britain have 
 pronounced that to be a falsehood which you have asserted. I now give you the 
 names. Dr. Poynter, titular bishop of London, declared on his solemn oath, before 
 the committee of the British House of Commons, that, "there is no English version 
 of the Bible, at all, authorised by the See of Rome." And Dr. Troy, your Archbishop 
 of Dublin published under his proper signature,— and Dr. Doyle, on his solemn oath, 
 that " the notes of the Douay Bible are of no authority whatever !" Thus your lead- 
 ing men in Britain, give you the lie! And thas, there is most satisfactory evidence 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 135 
 
 that the "Douay Bible" is a mere hoax, and an imposture, palmed on the simplicity 
 of Protestants ! I am reduced to the alternative of either insulting your intellectual 
 power, or of affirming that each of you knows this to be the most certain truth. 
 
 And hov?- can you reconcile your young and unfledged zeal for the use of the Bible, 
 in the hands of your people, in their vernacular; and for "the authorised Yeision of the 
 Douay," with your sworn allegiance to the pope and Tridentine fathers ? You have the 
 fourth " Title of the congregation of the Index,'' lyingbefore your eyes. By the yontifocat 
 authority, the highest with all Romish priests, be it in heaven or earth, it is thus declar- 
 e<.i, — '* It is manifest from experience that if the sacred Bible, translated into the vulgar 
 tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the temerity of men will cause more 
 etrr7 than good to arise from it." 
 
 Now, with the example of these priests in England and Ireland before you, and 
 this notorious canon of the council of Trent, it unquestionably required no small 
 degree of assurance to tell the American public what you did, relative to " the authorised 
 Douay Bible!" Yes. the Bible, in English, is a prohibited book, by the pope and a 
 council. And, yet, your very bishops, who have sworn the solemn oath of allegiance 
 to the spiritual autocrat of Rome, and recorded their pledge, on pain of damnation, to 
 execute, even to the letter, every one of his laws, — have publicly declared that they 
 do permit, and even recommend this 'prohibited English version ! And our priests, 
 for reasons best known to themselves, if not for popular effect, are not ashamed to pro- 
 claim the treacherous knavery. Were similar conduct exhibited publicly as this is, — 
 in any common monied transaction, it would cover our bishops, and our priests, in 
 every virtuous circle of American society, with perpetual infamy. 
 
 I shall now go on with the subject of your church's Superstition and Imposture. 
 
 Charles Butler, Esq. the author of "The Book of the R. catholic church," says: — 
 " May I not ask if it be either just or generous to harass the present catholics, with 
 tlie wealvness of the ancient writers of their communion; and to attempt to render 
 their religion and themselves odious, by these unceasing and offensive repetitions !" 
 This has been also said by our priests in their Letter IX. 
 
 Were these superstitions, and miracles, and this fanaticism, publicly disowned, and 
 condemned by your church, you should never hear of them from us. But all these 
 false miracles and endless superstitions are printed in your "Breviary," used weekly 
 in your worship : they are read in Latin weekly ; applauded, defended, prayed over» 
 and believed by you, and owned by C. Butler himself; even while he wrote the above 
 sentence ! Your popes applaud them, and on the faith of these miracles they canon- 
 ized tlie saints which you worship. Your bishops own and applaud them, and pro- 
 nounce their anathema on all those who disbelieve any one part, or parcel of all the 
 fanaticism which I quoted. Only, — they are all in Latin ! Locked up are they, from 
 common view and public execration, in Latin! Every Saint's day, Drs. Power, 
 and Varela and Mr. Levins, pray over these very superstitions, and fanaticism, and 
 miracles: — even while they publicly call them "silly, dream}'- legends!" You 
 cannot deny your "Breviary!" You cannot disown your book, — the "Acta Sancto- 
 rum." 
 
 Let the honesty, therefore, of Mr. Butler, in the above appeal, and that of our 
 priests, pass for what it is worth. 
 
 In addition to my former observations, I have now to state : — 4th. That the Super- 
 gtition of the Romish church confirms the melancholy evidence of her utter apostacy 
 from the only rule of faith. " Superstition," says Bishop Hall, — " is godless religion : 
 
136 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTRO^'ERST. 
 
 devout impiety : the superstitious is fond in observation : servile in fear : he worshipaf 
 God, but as he Usts : he offers to God what he asks not; and all but what he should 
 ffive; and makes more sin than do the ten commandments I" In your church, gen- 
 tlemen, there is every gradation of this vice, from the sober burlesque, even to the deep 
 tragic flagellation, and penance. It is, as we shall prove, one mass of superstition. 
 
 For instance, it is a part of your religion, to baptize bells, before they are set up. 
 I have before me some instructive instances of this : particularly those that took place 
 of the latest dates, in Canada and Naples. ' A gaudy procession comes into the church, 
 with a priestly attire of motley colors ; like some equipped buffoons for the stage : a 
 god father, and a god mother stand up by the Bell, and take the vows ! The dumb 
 •thing is wetted in the fonn of a cross; then crossed with " holy chrism," while the 
 lips of the priest taking the awful name of the Trinity in vain, baptizes it in the most 
 holy name ! The priest then gives three strokes with the clapper : the god parents do 
 the same ; and then solemnly pronounce the Bell's name. This farce, the disgrace of 
 our enlightened day, is made, moreover, to subserve the cause of a more degrading 
 superstition. The sound of these baptized Bells, as you priests, gravely teach your 
 ])eople, fails not to disperse devils lurking in the air; and make them scamper oflfwith 
 incredible celerity. It also, you as gravely teach, brings souls out of purgatory. All 
 Saints' day is, in Canada, and in all Roman cathoHc lands, a great day of ringing 
 these " baptized bells," and thereby bringing souls out of purgatorial pains, and purg- 
 ing the air of devils. 
 
 The priest's dresses also teem with superstition. Two things go to secure the divine 
 efficacy of your rites and ceremonies. One is the priest's intention of soul to do " what 
 the church" intends ; the other is his consecrated dress. Were the priest to officiate 
 without the appropriate garb: and did that want the "holy shape," and "the appro- 
 priate holy color," for the day and occasion, the priest and laity would be in a mortal 
 sin. Without the orthodox shape, and color, they cannot be accepted by the Almighty : 
 but it is of no consequence whether they have religion, or even the common decency 
 of morals. All your reUgion is in the outer man ; and in ceremony, and in the color, 
 and shape of sacerdotal dress. 
 
 The divine efficacy of prayers uttered in the Latin tongue, which none of the laity 
 iniderstand, is another part of your superstition. You deem it not at all necessary that 
 any one of your people offer up, in his soul, one vow, or prayer, with the understand- 
 in o". Indeed how can he ? He understands not one idea which you utter. The people 
 are thus made a mere tool of: they act without heart and understanding. They do 
 not know one prayer. You mutter barbarous Latin words over them. These are 
 viewed merely as a charm ; a hocus pocus from the lips of the sacerdotal legerdemain. 
 This nurses the ignorance of an unmovable superstition. The priest " negotiates" 
 the whole work of salvation for sinners, who go on in a course of impious morals ; and, 
 at the last, the priestly embassy, they are told, is honored in heaven : and the souls are 
 saved by the virtue of outward mummery ;— and, provided all the church's dues are 
 paid, their debts in heaven are cancelled. 
 
 Farther, the whole appendages of the mass are one train of superstition. I allude, 
 mainly at present, to your prayers offered up by your pious priests and flocks, to smnt 
 sacrament. For be it known, that the sacrament is converted into an idol: and 
 to St. Sacrament devout prayers are offered. The Litany of this saint is too 
 long to be quoted: yet I cannot resist the desire of presenting a specimen 
 of these prayers. "Bread corn of the elect, have mercy onus! Wine budding: 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROL ERST. 137 
 
 from Virgins, have mercy on us ! Fat bread, and the dehght of kings, have mercy 
 on us ! Cup of blessing, have mercy on us !" And so on. All these prayers are 
 offered, while you bow down to the bread and chalice. That is, they are offered up 
 to the bread and cup ! Tliis I venture to say, throws into the shade, and fairly eclipses 
 all pagan superstition ! " For who ever heard," — says Cicero, — '* of a people making 
 a god of that which they eat, and then praying to it?'* But you do make a god of 
 bread, and then pray to it, and then eat it ! 
 
 The use of incense is a fragment of pagan superstition. This characteristic 
 of popery strikes all who enter a chapel ; it is poured forth from the altar, and the 
 wiiimsical play of swinging the censor. In old catholic lands the images of the 
 Romish saints, are as black as the pagan saints in their day, by this incessant smoke. 
 Now, your use of incense is not originated by the custom of the abrogated ceremonial 
 law of Moses. Your custom is purely pagan. And had you lived in the times of 
 pagan Rome, none of you, verily, would have been martyrs, and none of you even 
 deemed christians ! For our ancestors of the pure primitive christians, deemed it 
 strictly pagan : and it was even a test resorted to by the heathen, to entrap a christian. 
 If any one consented to burn incense, he avowed thereby his relinquishment of Christ- 
 ianity ; and he was let go as a traitor to Christ, with the applause of the heathen ! 
 
 The use of holt water is another prominent superstition. At the door of the 
 chapel, each one helps himself from the "holy" reservoir. This is *tiotoriously bor- 
 rowed from the pagan worship. " The Amula," says Montfaucon, " was the vase of 
 water which stood at the door of the heathen temple for the same purpose. La Cer- 
 das, in his notes on the well known passage of Virgil respecting sprinkling, saj's, 
 " Hence is derived the custom of Holy Mother, to proAdde holy water at the entrance 
 of tlie chapel, &c." Even the mixture is pagan; it was that of salt and water! And 
 here I remark again, that had j^ou lived in apostolical and early times, j'^our present 
 superstition would have saved you from martyrdom ; and spared you even the charge 
 of being christians. Dr. Middleton has shown that this was made a test of christian 
 discipleship : if they refused spriukling they suffered. And Julian Apostate caused 
 the food of christians to be sprinkled with "holy pagan water;" and they behoved 
 either to eat it, or starve. Middleton p. 1-36 — 140. 
 
 Your superstition has also engendered many charms and incantations. You are 
 noted for tliis. No thoroughly devout Roman catholic will stir abroad until he has 
 crossed his shoulders and face : nor converse with heretics, nor read their books, until 
 he has crossed himself, and invoked his guardian saint. The whole of your doctrine 
 of saint's relies, is based on this superstition. They are charms to keep devils and 
 *' bad luck," away from the simple faithful. You maintain a brisk trafic in the arti- 
 cle of tlie "ag-nws c/ei," — which is made of wax, balsam and chrism, with the image 
 of " tlie lamb of God," on it. These Agni Dei are consecrated by the pope, usu- 
 ally in the first year of his ghostly reign. And it is no trifle that will keep the faithful 
 fn>m having them, or a chip of them. Whoever is fortunate enough to wear tbem, as 
 you teach your flocks, is "safe from all S])iritual and temporal foes; from all perils 
 from fire and water : and from sudden and unshrivcd death. They drive away all 
 devils, and succour women in child birth : nay, they wash away old sins, and give 
 new grace." In evidence of this "See Franc. Cost. Christ. Instit. Lib. 4. cap. 12. 
 And " Devotion and office of the sacred heart of Christ," p. 375. — Cramp. 364. 
 
 In the French service for " St. 'Sacrament," I see a co])y of "two prayers which 
 were foiuid in Christ's sepulchre at Jerusalem." x\nd whoc\er wears copies of these 
 
138 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 about liis body, is perfectly safe against all the wiles of the devil : against all storms, 
 thunder, and lightning, and sudden death ! Gl. Prot. No. 60. 
 
 Now, I quote not private superstitions, such as the making a sovereign cure for 
 diseases, as is done in Ireland, out of a piece of clay taken from a priest's grave, and 
 steeped in water ; nor the famous " Italian soup," so late as 1817, made with a bit 
 of the shirt of Cardinal Gonsalvi, boiled in it, to remedy all pains and evils, — made 
 and gravely believed in, at head quarters, — namely at Rome. See Gallifico's Letters, 
 published in London, 1812, by John Murray : and Glasg. Prot. No. 148. The super- 
 stitions which I have quoted, are solemnly authorised m your books, as part of your 
 belief, and ancient religion. 
 
 Another peculiarity of your superstition is the use of lamps and ivax candles, in open 
 day, and as a part of holy rites. The origin of this must strike every one, w^ell read in 
 the classics. The Pagans had their processions w^ith lamps ; and tapers were kept 
 burning, day and night, before the idols. The primitive christians, you know, ridicu- 
 led this custom of the idolatrous pagans. Lactantius' words I recommend to you, gen- 
 tlemen, and to all your people. " The heathen light up candles to God," — said this 
 primitive christian wdth keen ridicule, — "as if he lived in the dark! And do they 
 not deserve to pass for madmen who offer lamps to the Author and Giver of Hght?" 
 See Middleton p. 140 — 155. You cannot answer this christian father in the negative. 
 Do you, then, and the laity, take good heed, and see to it : for you have no commu- 
 nion in this thing with the ancient primitive christians ? Your gods and saints live in 
 the dark:" and "you light up lamps to give them light." 
 
 Abstaining from meats in Lent, and other seasons, is another singular attribute of 
 your superstition. Your religion being one avowedly made to consist only in exter- 
 nals, and one avowedly setting aside all piety, purity, and spirituahty in the heart : — 
 it follows, with you, of course, contrary to our Saviour's words, that "it is not that 
 which Cometh out of the heart, that defileth a man ;" but that meat which " enters 
 into the mouth!" This, you gravely affirm, does defile the man! Hence "j^our 
 disciples, on their sick beds," as Bishop Hall said; — " are troubled by no sin so much 
 as by this, that they did once eat meat on a Friday : no repentance can expiate that ; 
 the rest of their sins need none!" p. 171, works folio. But can your people not see 
 through the mist of fanaticism, — that meat, which God has blessed and made goo<.l for 
 our use, can no more defile the soul, than it can spoil a fine thought, or coiTupt a pure 
 idea ! True, you repl3% as you lull them asleep — this would hold good if religion 
 were in the heart ! But our religion being external, altogether outward, and in the acts 
 of the body, the use of meats defiles our religious feelings, and spoils our devotion ! 
 • The discipline and penance of your church are strongly marked with supersti- 
 tion. In opposition to divine authority you insist on it, that hodily exercise is profita- 
 ble to all things, even to salvation! Hence your cruel fastings, — pardon me, I mean 
 in olden times. No charge can be brought against modern priests that they do not 
 know how to live well! The broad shouldered and brawny priest, with the vermillion 
 countenance, was never "fed on dry pease and cold water," as Sir Walter Scott says. 
 It is on the laity that your church lays the healthful blessings of fasting, and season- 
 able lacerations, and flagellations, with the whip ! This mania has occasionally bro- 
 ken out in the overflowings of superstition ; and has drawn bishops and cardinals, 
 and even kings into its vortex. A king of France, and the cardinal Lorrain, have 
 been knov/n to join the flagellation, clothed in sackcloth, and armed with " the holy 
 and sanctifying whip !" And historians tell us, that at a certain season of this disci- 
 
ROMAN CATTHOLIC CONTROVERSt. 139 
 
 pline, the lights in the Church are at the tinkhng of a bell, extinguished : then each 
 devotee seizing the inspiring moment, — strips bare the shoulders; and for an hour no- 
 thing is heard but the noise of the well applied whip, either on their shoulders, or 
 — it may be, — as profitably, on the benches ^\'ithin their reach ! And if any thing far- 
 ther were necessary-, I would point to St. Patrick's recorded macerations of the flesh, as 
 a striking instance of this superstition. Lying on the cold stones, under the open air; 
 repeating daily 150 psalms : making 300 genuflections, his right hand performing 
 800 motions in the sign of the cross daily ! and dividing the night into three parts : one 
 third on his knees : one third sleeping ; and one third standing immersed in cold wa- 
 ter ! ! See the Rom. Brev. March 17. Thus St. Patrick spent his edifying days ! ! '^' 
 
 But, by what name shall I call your worship paid to the wood of the Cross? In the 
 holy scripture, the word cross is used to express, 1st., the cruel and ignominious death 
 of crucifiction ; and in this sense ''the tree" is " the accursed tree ;" and the person 
 dying on it is, in law, " cursed :" — thus " cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree !'* 
 And tliusour Savior "was made a curse for us," to redeem us from all sin. 2d. It is 
 taken for the real and perfect atonement of Christ, because this was fully accomplished 
 on the cross. But contrary to the sentiments and faith of the whole christian world, 
 the Romish church, makes the "cursed tree," not only " a blessed tree ;" but the 
 wood thereof is a real object of worship, with latria; " Quia Debetur ei latria." See 
 Pontif. Rom. Clem. 8. Roman edit. 1595 : folio. Finch, p. 289. 
 
 Here, I shall subjoin a specimen of your prayers offered up to the wood or the 
 CROSS. " O Crux, unica spes, &c. O Cross, only hope; hail! in this glory of thy 
 triumph, give an. increase of grace to the pious, and blot out the crimes of the guilty !" 
 Festa Sept. 14. " O bona Crux, &c. O good Cross, who hast obtained comeliness 
 and beauty from the Lord's limbs, receive me &c." — Nov. 30th. And man3'' of the 
 good citizens of New York have witnessed this idolatrous superstition in the elevation 
 of the Cross ; and its being waved about by a little roguish boy ; as he presented it to 
 the prostrate votaries, worshipping a bit of blackened wood ! " Behold the wood of 
 the Cross!" cries the priest. " Venite, adoremus! Come, let us adore it!" And 
 all are on their knees : and happy is that favorite one who can only get near enough to 
 kiss it, as he adores it ! ! See Rom. Brev. Sat. of Passion week. There is not a more 
 brutish superstition in the annals of paganism! I challenge any scholar to produce 
 its match out of all ancient, or modern heathenism ! 
 
 And the Roman superstition is not confined to priests and old women. The following 
 is the prayer of the priest-ridden ex-king, Charles X. of France, at the baptism of the 
 Due de Bordeaux in 1821. "Let us invoke for him the protection of the mother of 
 God ! tlie queen of angels ! Let us implore her to watch over his days ; and remove 
 far from his cradle, the misfortunes which it has pleased Providence to afflict his rela- 
 tives; and to conduct him by a less rugged path to eternal felicity I" Shall I call this 
 superstition, or sheer atheism ! It is a fair specimen of the revived Jesuitism of France ! 
 
 The next case is that of Ulric, Duke of Brunswick, who in his dotage, took it into 
 his head to be — not converted, for the Romish church holds no such doctrine, — but 
 " reconciled to the Romish church." Never having known the nature of true religion, 
 he was easily seduced by the Jesuits. He wrote a tract called "Fifty reasons of the 
 
 * That is, as papists state. We deny that the venerable Patrick was any such fanatic. In 
 fact, he lived and taught in Ireland, before popery overran that country. We rank him among 
 the pious and orthodox servants of Christ. We publicly deny that St. Patrick teas a papist ! 
 The popish "Life" of this holy man, is a disgusting tissue of monkish fictions and falsehoods. 
 
140 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Duke of Brunswick, for preferring the Ronaan Catholic religion to all other sects."'' 
 The following is his last and crowning reason, which I copy literally. It exhibits a- 
 new specimen of life Insurance! " The catholics, to whom I spoke concerning my 
 conversion (to Romanism) assured me" says he, " that if I were to be damned for 
 embracing the catholic faith, they were ready to answer for me at the day of judg- 
 ment; and to take my damnation to themselves; an assurance I could never extort," — 
 adds the Duke very gravely, — " from the ministers of any other sect, in case I should 
 live and die in their religion!" See this book recommended by your champion. Dr. 
 Milner, Manch. edit. 1802. 
 
 Again : Your doctrine of supererogation is abase, but profitable superstition. Your 
 saints can not only keep all the law of God perfectly you say : but even do quite a great 
 deal over, and above, what infinite perfection requires. This is "the merits of all 
 saints V It is put, as you gravely teach your disciples, into one grand treasury : and 
 the pope keeps the ke3' of it : and he deals it out by way of indulgences, absolutions : — 
 and for the help of all who have no merit ; but on the contrary, much guilt. No man 
 is refused his full share, even to an escape from purgatory, and even from hell : — and 
 triumphant entrance into heaven, — on one small condition, namely, that he pay the 
 fall price fixed by the holy chancery book of the pope ; and the dictation of the priest, 
 in gold and silver! ! ! Shall I call this superstition? Or knavery ? Or both ? The 
 pope collects All Saints' merit into a fund : and makes sale of it! I gravely ask the 
 public if they can name a more barefaced system of knavery, practiced on a poor and 
 deluded people, to abstract their money from them, under false pretences? And espe- 
 cially so, when Dr. Varela, uncontradicted by the bishop, and his associates, has pub- 
 lished the fact, in a newspaper, "that it is a doctrine of the Romish church, that the 
 priests do not know who, or what of their deceased parishioners, are in purgator}^!" 
 I therefore, respectfully appeal through you, gentlemen, to our fellow citizens, of the 
 Roman catholic faith, whether these can be good men, or possessing common honesty 
 who avow, that they do not Jcnowivho are in purgatory ; and yet take your money in 
 large sums for masses to free your deceased relatives from that place ! What do you. 
 call the men around you, who extort money by false pretences ? Look to it. I am 
 not your enemy, who put you on your guard ; and tell you, that God Almighty asks 
 no money for masses, and for pardoning your sins. Will you believe the priests 
 rather than God? Go to him alone, throughthe Lord Jesus Christ, — He offers to do 
 it " without money, and without price." See your own Douay Bible, Isaiah 55, 1. 
 
 Finally : — I shall oblige you and my readers, with only one instance more, of the 
 incurable superstition of your church. I allude to "the feast of asses," — so fa- 
 mous in your churches, until the light of " the heretics' " religion drove this rehc of 
 prietsly barbarism, I believe, into oblivion ; — at least I have not heard of your celebra- 
 ting it in St. Patrick's, or St. Peter's. 
 
 This festival commemorated the flight of Joseph and Mary into Egypt; but the 
 Ass, on which Mary rode, is the most conspicuous personage in the group. Your 
 sacerdotal ancestors selected the prettiest young lady in the town where the festival 
 was held ; she represented Mary : she rode on an Ass in splendid attire ; and superb 
 asinine trappings. She rode the Ass into the church, and up to the altar ; high mass 
 was then begun : the Ass, as he was taught by his devout compeers, and fellow wor- 
 shippers, kneeled down at the altar. After mass, an ode was sung by the priests in full 
 chorus TO the ass ! ! I shall present a specimen of the original, in Latin and French, 
 and then add four stanzas of " the sacred ode" in the Miltonian style, in English : — 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 141 
 
 Orientis partibus, 
 Adventavii asinus, 
 Pulcher et fortissirnus, 
 Sarcinis aptissimus, 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, 
 Belle bouche rechignez, 
 Vous aurez du foin assez, 
 Et de V avoine a phantez. 
 Lentus erat pedibu!^, 
 Nisi foret baculus 
 Et eum in clunibus 
 Puno^eret aculeus. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &c. 
 Ecce magnis auribus, 
 Subjugalis filius 
 Asinus egregius 
 Asinorum dominus. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Hez! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &c. 
 
 Saltu vincit hinnulos, 
 
 Damas et capriolos, 
 
 Super dromedarios, 
 
 Velox Medianeos. 
 Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &,c. 
 
 THE TRANSLATION. 
 
 " The Ass did come from Eastern climes ! 
 
 Heigh-ho ! my Assy ! 
 He's fair and fit for the pack at all times ! 
 Sing, father Ass ! and you shall have grass, 
 And hay, and straw too iu plenty ! 
 
 -' The Ass is slow and lazy too ; 
 
 Heigh-ho, my Assy, 
 But the whip and spur will make him go, 
 Sing, father Ass, and you shall get grass, 
 And straw, and hay too, in plenty. 
 
 " The Ass was born and bred with long ears ; 
 
 Heigh-ho, my Assy, 
 And now the Lord of Asses appears, 
 Grin, father Ass, and you shall get grass, 
 And straw, and hay too, in plenty, 
 
 " The Ass excells the hind at a leap. 
 
 Heigh-ho, my Assy, 
 And faster than hound or hare can trot. 
 Bray, father Ass, and you shall have grass, 
 And straw, and hay too, in plenty." 
 
 Here are beauty, elegance, taste, aud devotion combined. I have only to add that 
 the Jinale was exquisite. The service was always closed with a braying match be- 
 tween the holy and venerable priests in full uniform, around the altar, and the laity, 
 in honor of the ass. The stubborn animal would not regularly unite in their rational 
 sen^ice, therefore they condescended to his estate. The priests appropriately " repre- 
 senting the ass," brayed in a fine treble voice, three times. This was replied to by 
 the devout crowd, who, in full chorus, brayed three times. Then the solemn and as- 
 tonished ass, with his devout cortege was led away home to his hay and straw. 
 
 No lover of antiquity, nor modern traveller has yet discovered a parallel to this 
 exquisite piece of Roman devotion ! 
 
 It is probable, gentlemen, that you may deny the honor of this festival, as you have 
 my other quotations, with your books lying open before the public. But you are per- 
 fectly aware that this asinine festival is as real and genuine, as is your mass ! 
 
 I refer you to Du CLmge Gloss. Paris Edit, of 1733: vol. iU- 426. Velly's Hist. 
 
142 ROMAN CATHOLIC C0NTR0VER3T. 
 
 Du France. Paris Edit, of 1561 ; vol iii. 537. And Edgar's Variations of poper^r 
 Dublin Edit. p. 46. See also Recreat. Magaz. Lond. and Bost. Edit. p. 180. 
 
 Lastly : — The Roman catholic system has been sustained by Imposture and Frauds. 
 Here I have materials for volumes. I can give only a specimen of gleanings from 
 your Roman catholic works. In former ages of your dark system, you studiously 
 kept the people in profound ignorance : and thus you carried on the imposture 
 with every facility. Hence your sweating images: your weeping images, — tears ran 
 down from their eyes in floods ! Hence your images which rolled the eyes and 
 shook the head ! At the Reformation when sad havoc was made with these miracle 
 makers, several rare specimens were publicly exhibited. Instead of brains, these 
 Romish idols had springs and complicated machinery to give motion to the eyes and 
 to the head, and excite the piety of " the simple faithful." 
 
 In lands purely catholic, the people, when paying for their masses, wish, very 
 naturally, to know if the soul has received benefit, and is delivered; — although father 
 Varela has let out a dangerous secret, namely, " that their church teaches that no one 
 of their priests knows what soul is in purgatory." Well, the priest tells "the simple 
 faitliful," that as long as the soul is not dehvered, — by looking into a httle door in the 
 Sacrario, or tabernacle, they can see it,— that is to say, the departed soul, in the farm 
 of a mouse ! When it is set free from the purgatorial pains : that is, when all the money 
 that can be exacted for masses, is obtained, then the mouse disappears ! See Master 
 Key, vol, i. p. 168, 170. Contemptible as this may seem to men of taste, yet it is 
 %-vhat I should call one of the fraternity's more respectable impostures, in " the mystery 
 oif iniquity." 
 
 It is a matter perfectly evident from the records of your Breviary, — and Butler's 
 Lives, and the Acta Sanctorum, that your whole system has been carried on in the 
 cells of monks and nuns, by one continuous tissue of visions, revelations, and mira- 
 cles. The " Religious," as they all misname themselves, spend their time in manu- 
 facturing this godly sort of ware, for the common benefit of Holy Mother, and ♦' the 
 simple faithful." Miracles are recorded on the pages of Butler's lives, (3 vols. Dub- 
 lin Edit.) "as plenty as blackberries." Saints walk like St. Dennis, without their 
 heads. Devils are discomfited by legions. The dead are raised. The wafer is not 
 only converted into Christ's flesh — ^but is often seen transformed into a little babe. I 
 invite my Roman catholic and Protestant friends to examine Butler's Lives, the most 
 accessible of books. I offer it for their inspection : and the Dublin copy of the Car- 
 melite scapular. See also the book called " The Frauds of the Monks." 
 
 Again : — Your characteristic talent at cursing and excommunicating, in pontifical 
 form, with all its dire effects, has not been confined, in its game, to men and women ! 
 For the common benefit of the faithful, it has been successfully fulminated against 
 four legged beasts, and creeping things. That is to say, your pontifical wrath has 
 been expended not against heretics only ; but against vermine ! What a valuable 
 thing a priest is ! Whenever rats, locusts, mice, have overrun fields, the priest in his 
 consecrated robes, with the grace of intejttion, to render the rite all efficient, walks 
 over the fields, and sprinkles them, in the form of a cross, ^vith holy water : and so- 
 lemnly curses and excommunicates these vermine. In Provence, in France, the 
 locust were thus cursed sacerdotally ; but, as my author states, they heeded not the 
 holy man, or Holy Mother's fulmination. The pope was informed of their heretical 
 obstinacy! His holiness being infallible, gave a salutary advice to the faithful. 
 He ordered the obstinate locust to be again solemnly cursed^n November. It was 
 
ROMAjy CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 143 
 
 .punctually done. And lo ! all of them perished in one night, — by the frost ! See the 
 account of this in llurd's Hist. p. 229. 
 
 The famous Jesuit Toussain Bridoul, and after liim, the well known writer Gavio, 
 in his " Master Key ofPoperjs" gives numerous instances of beasts, birds, and bees, 
 pausmg miraculously, in their gambols, and graver pursuits, "to bow to, and adore 
 the Holy Mass ! " Petrus Cluniac, Lib. 1. cap. 1. — with whom, of course, you, gen- 
 tlemen, are well acquainted, — gives us some edifying instances of bees adoring, and 
 even dying before the Mass! One instance is this: — The wafer being conveyed, 
 some how or other into the hive, — the bees were found dead, — and in the midst of 
 them, the wafer had become an infant Christ!!! I am gravely quoting from your 
 own approved author ; — and you know it, if you know any thing of 3'our own minute 
 history! And Cantiprat, Lib. 3. Sec. 1. cap. 40, relates that a hive of bees being 
 heard to hymn most harmoniously, — on inspection, the consecrated wafer of the mass 
 was found among them, while they were devoutly humming its glory ! Now this 
 may seem incredible to many! But 1 have only to say that I copy it out of the 
 Roman books. And for my part, I am not surprised that bees should adore the mass ! 
 To me it is far more miraculous that a two legged animal, — a man, with a rational and 
 immortal spirit should sing its glory ! To me it is far more miraculous that rational 
 beings should be able to believe that a priest can create his Creator out of a little wafer, 
 —and then — eat up his Creator ! This is matched only by the every day prayers of 
 our Eutychian heretics, the priests, who make JVIary "the mother of God!" And 
 St. Anna "the grand-mother of Almighty God! !" If there be impostures equal to 
 this in any part of God's dominions, I should be glad to be made acquainted with 
 them. What is the reason why I cannot get any one of you, gentlemen, to come out, 
 and touch this part of my argument ? The reason is obvious ; you know that what 
 I speak is nothing but truth : and you dare not — and j'^ou cannot defend these dis- 
 gusting — ^but publicly avowed and believed catholic absurdities ! ! 
 
 Yon are, of course, gentlemen, well acquainted with the annual miracle of St. 
 Januarius at Naples. The blood of this saint is kept in a bottle ; it is usually a crust ; 
 but on his day, at the invocation of the faithful, it becomes something different in 
 the bottle ; — the token of his presence and protection. By the way, he is, you know, 
 the guardian against the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. Well, on a certain day, after 
 innumerable ceremonies, of which all pagans of all heathen lands, are innocent, — 
 this saint's blood, — if he condescends to be propitious, becomes a bubbling red hquid in 
 the priest's hand. Dr. Moore, the father of General Sir John Moore, and the tutor 
 of the late Duke of Hamilton — in his "Tour," gives a true and full account of this 
 annual ceremony, from ocular inspection. Sometimes the holy saint is rather obsti- 
 nate : he will not soften and dilute his own blood, while it is daylight. Towards the 
 evening, the mob becomes very obstreperous ; and chide the saint in no set phrase ; 
 "You sooty, yellow faced old fellow! why will you not yield, and melt at the pious 
 invocation of our priests ?" These words Dr. Moore heard uttered. TVhen it begins to 
 be conveniently dark, the blood in the bottle becomes liquid, — the priest proclaims it : — 
 then is the boisterous cry of praise heard, in favor of "the beautiful, and fair St. 
 Januarias." So much for the saint who takes care of Naples; and has the charge of 
 Mount Vesuvius. It is a pretty, and profitable imposture withal. For money flows 
 in plentifully, when the saint yields — that is, melts his crusted blood in the priest's 
 bottle, — and the priest's coffers overflow with silver. 
 
 I shall present you another instance of imposture. About seventeen years ago, 
 
144 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 says an eminent writer in 1820, a lady now living in Edinburgh, was on a visit to her 
 Dublin relatives. Through, the influence of a Scotch gentleman, she was introduced 
 to a popish chapel, on an occasion when a number of souls was to be translated out of 
 purgatory. The chapel was brilliantly lighted. The priest who sat in a lofty place 
 with a table before him, took care that there should be no exhibition until he was 
 paid. Several of the relatives of the deceased persons, whose souls were to be released, 
 rose up, and passing before the priest, each laid down a well filled purse on the table. 
 The money being stowed away with a nod of satisfaction, he stated to the audience, 
 now on the tip-toe of expectation, that the souls were actually translated, and in evi- 
 dence of this, they would soon make their appearance. Instantly a moveable part of 
 the floor, a kind of trap-door, communicating, as it were, with the infernal regions of 
 purgatory, slowly opened, and there appeared black, burned, brandered, and seared, 
 little creatures, crawling heavily and awkwardly out over the slanting board. As they 
 began to move about, amid shouts of a miracle, a miracle, the lights were, in order to 
 prevent detection, extinguished as if by magic ! The lady who had eyed these suffer- 
 ing representatives of troubled souls, being within reach of one of them, slyly picked 
 it up in the dark, and conveyed it to her pocket, — for ladies wore pockets in those 
 days,— and carried it home : and pulling it out, to the utter astonishment of all, it turn- 
 ed out to be A CRAB, in a newly fitted on dress of black velvet ! This was communi- 
 cated by an eminent clergyman, who had it from the lips of the lady's daughter, who 
 carried off' the emancipated spirit! See McGavin's Glasgow Prot. ch. 78. 
 
 I cannot resist telling another, which I had from my friend the Rev. W. Wilson, 
 residing near Pittsburg, Pa. He had it from an eminent counsellor, who was an eye- 
 witness of the scene. In their neighborhood, in Ireland, the heretics had been mak- 
 m<T dangerous inroads. To check this evil, a miracle was proclaimed; and it was to 
 be no less than the casting the devil out of a maniac ! A stage was erected in a 
 field, near a morass ; there sat the bishop and his priests in their robes. Onr coun- 
 sellor being a Roman catholic, was admitted on the stage. The maniac wajs brought 
 up, in heavy chains, foaming, and screaming, and gnashing his teeth. The form of 
 exorcism was duly gone through : all was in painful suspense : the priest officiating, 
 then, raising his arms, the right one over the head of the maniac, he cried " Co-me out 
 of him thou devil!" That moment a black bird, like a raven, issued from the man- 
 iac's head ; the chains fell off' as by a charm, and the maniac leaped up full of joy, 
 and perfectly restored. The roar of a miracle, a miracle, shouted by the crowd as 
 their eyes followed the black devil flying away into the morass, was deafening. — 
 " But," — said the sly counsellor, " I saw with my own eyes, the crow come out of the 
 jrriesVs wide sleeve : and every one could see that the chains were so contrived that, by 
 touching a spring, they could fall off" instantly." The knave, in a word, acted the 
 maniac well ; and was M-ell paid for his pains by the priests. 
 
 I shall conclude with the imposture of St. Peter's chair. "At the extremity of the 
 great nave of St. Peter's, Rome, and behind the altar, stands, — or rather once stood — a 
 sort of throne," says a late traveller. "This throne enshrines the real, plain, worm- 
 eaten wooden chair, in which St. Peter commonly sat, when he was pope." When 
 the French under Napoleon visited Rome, not being much disposed towards the faith 
 of the simple faithful, they seized this holy relic. Upon a close examination of its 
 decorations, certain letters and figures were traced. It was carefully washed fi-om its 
 cobwebs and dust ; and the sentence copied from the back of " St. Peter's identical 
 chair." It was in Arabic character. Alas, for Saint Peter's pontifical'chair. Alas, 
 
ROMA^ CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 145 
 
 for the pope's infallible succession in this chair. The sentence was translated, papists 
 unfortunately for infallibility, — are no scholars in the Oriental languages. — Here is the 
 translation, — ''There is one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet!."'' It had been a 
 sad mistake. Instead of Peter's stool from the older churches ; or his seat at Antioch. 
 the ignorant Romanists had plundered a Mohammedan priest of his chair, and thus 
 robbed the mosque to decorate Saint Peter's at Rome. Thus, the pope had been sit- 
 ting from time immemorial, not in St. Peter's chair, but in a Mufti's chair. And 
 hence, as they count their succession by " a chair," the pope has upset his infallibility, 
 and derives his legitimate succession from Mohammed. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, yours truly, &c. 
 
 ^V. C. B. 
 
 On the same day in which the above Letter appeared, the following Notice was 
 issued in the same Roman catholic paper, which contained my Letter XL, July 1-3, 
 18:33. 
 
 TO DOCTOR BROWNLEE, A PREACHER IN THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH. 
 
 Dear Sir — We must again iterate the question proposed to you in the " Truth 
 Teller" of last Saturday. 
 
 A proposition was proposed to Preacher Brownlee in our last letter, — "What articles 
 of faith, found in the scripture in express terms, must be believed in order to be 
 saved?" We expect a direct answer from Preacher Brownlee. No subterfuge. The 
 continuation of our controversy with him, 'personally, will depend on his answer. 
 
 John Power, 
 
 July 5th, 1833. Thos. C. Levins. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, AND LEVINS. 
 
 Gentlemen : — You have honored me \vith a Card, containing a fresh challenge : 
 
 and in last Saturday's paper, you reiterate it. You could not but be aware when you 
 wrote these cards, that your editor had no less than two letters on hand, from me : 
 namely, one to Dr. Varela; and one to you, in the regular order of discussion. Had 
 I been two letters or Cven one in arreai-s, you might have had some plausible reason 
 for this zeal and impatience. As it is, — I leave the pubhc to judge with what kind of 
 grace you make this new and bullying challenge. Your editor keeps up my letters, 
 and ludicrously enough offers his columns to you to reiterate fresh calls on me to come 
 out! And yet, he gave me his assurance that he would deal fairly. 
 
 Your new challenge is contained in this ungrammatical and blundering card. *• A 
 proposition is proposed to Preacher Brownlee ; What articles of faith found in the 
 scriptures in express terms must be believed in order to be saved? The continuation 
 of our controversy with him personally Avill depend on his answer!" 
 
 One aim you have ever kept in view from the first, in all this discussion ; — it is 
 this, — to prevent me, by all possible means, from exhibiting in their native deformity, 
 the dogmas, and rites of your church. For this purpose you adhered to "■the rule," 
 and would hear of nothing but " the rule ;" even after its evidence was full, explicit, 
 and complete : and after you had exhausted even the last of your borrowed ideas ; and 
 spent the last expletive of ferocious vituperation. It is true, you thought you had 
 
 14 
 
146 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 caught rae in your trap, when I changed my purpose, and agreed to discuss the Rule. 
 But, you were not aware until it was too late, that I had laid a trap for you. You wer« 
 not aware that we were, all the while, drawing you out : and setting you before the 
 American public, in all the unenviable character of convicted Deists; more vulgar 
 than Paine ; and more blasphemous than Voltaire ! I thus succeeded in a double 
 object, — namely, the exposure of your corrupt church, and your personal deism ! 
 
 And, now, not yet having found an excuse palpable enough to cover your retreat ; 
 you assume an inquisitorial air ; and not only dictate to me a subject, which will 
 draw me entirely away from that which the public expect and demand from me : but 
 you take it on you to declare, that unless my answer shall be precisely according to 
 vour views, and wishes, you will then retreat, and leave the ground ! 
 
 But 1 call on you to keep strictly to the point under discussion. Upwards of twenty- 
 Jive arguments I have had the honor of presenting to your consideration, and that of 
 the public ; refuting your rule of faith ; and exposing the divisions ; and novelty of 
 your church; her superstitions, fanaticism, and impostures! None of these have 
 been answered. If you do retreat, — I here enter my solemn protest against it, before 
 the public, that it can be for no other reason than this, — namely, that you cannot vin- 
 dicate your church from one of all these charges ! If you do retreat, I protest that it 
 shall be pronounced a public acknowledgment, that popery is indefensible before the 
 enlightened American people ! 
 
 In reply, — the articles of faith put forth in express terms in the scriptures, and 
 necessary to be believed by us, in order to our salvation, are these : — "Hear O Israel, 
 the Lord our God is one Lord." — " There are three that bear record in heaven, the 
 Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." " God sent his 
 Son into the world to save us." "Thou art the Son of God ;" " I and my father are 
 ONE." "The sow of man came to seek and to save them that are lost." "Jesus the 
 Son, — is the true God, and eternal life." " In the beginning was the Word, and the 
 Word was God." "Jesus proceeded forth and came from God." The Holy Ghost 
 is God ; "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost? Thou hast 
 not lied unto men, but unto God!" "The S])irit proceedeth from the Father:" "and 
 He is also the Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ." Gal. iv. 6. 
 
 " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." He that believeth 
 and is baptized, shall be saved : he that believeth not shall be damned." " Shew ye 
 forth the Lord's death, until he comei " Do this, (celebrate the eucharist,) in remem- 
 brance of me." " This is life eternal to know thee the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ whom thou hast sent." "If thou shalt believe in thine heart, and confess with 
 thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved." " Except a man be born of the 
 water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." "Except 
 ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." " Walking in all the commandments and 
 ordinances of the Lord blameless," — "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor, as thyself." " We are justified by 
 the faith of Jesus Christ; and not by the works of the law." *'By the works of the 
 law shall no flesh living be justified ;" that is, before God, our Heavenly Father. 
 "By works," the fruits of holiness "is a man justified, and not by faith only," sayg 
 St. James : — that is, before men, we give evidence of justification by our piety and 
 holiness. By faith in "Christ's imputed righteousness alone without works, are wo 
 justified at the bar of God, in our justification before God. Thus Paul and James ar« 
 reconciled, and plainly too, even to an infant scholar ! 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 147 
 
 Here is a specimen of the articles in express terms of scripture. I omit, for want 
 of room, those about Christ the only king and head of the church: about ''the Man of 
 Sin:'' and about " the mark of the beast on the forehead, and in the hands,'' which will 
 doom a man to perdition. Now, if we believe these in the lieart by the true faith of 
 God, the Holy Spirit's operation, and "if we confess them with the mouth we shall 
 be saved." And I give them in the express words of God, in his scriptures. And who 
 will venture to gainsay the express words of God ? Which of you dare impugn tha 
 counsels, decrees, and doctrines of the Almighty ? 
 
 And now, having, I hope, fully met your challenge, I demand it, as my right, to go 
 on with the main point in hand, namely, the exposure of the old " Harlot, Mother of 
 Babylon/' And, in courtesy, you will allow me in my turn, to challenge you to fol- 
 low me, and my arguments. By the grace of God I shall not retreat. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, yours, Sic. 
 
 July 20, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER XI. 
 
 It opens with a grave discussion on "the gentleman" and "the writer.'' They admit Dr. 
 B. to be " a writer," but very strongly deny that he is " a gentleman." And they call him 
 
 " A LIAR !" 
 
 "From your gasconade ' challenge^ to the catholic bishop and priests of New York, to the 
 last paragraphs, the 'purgatorial crabs' and the 'Mufti's chair,' in your letter No. XI , there 
 are not ten consecutive lines in your eleven letters, that do contain either a deliberate false- 
 hood, ov di proof less assertion. This will be amply proved ere the present controversy be 
 closed." 
 
 " When wilful falsehood is used by a preacher in the most sacred cause that can be un-. 
 dertaken by man — Religion : when it is used to subvert the creed of his neighbor, and uphold 
 his own, then the strict and honest appellation for this preacher, though he may be a Ches- 
 terfield among 'virtuous ladies,' — a liar ; no other word can designate the real character of 
 the man!" 
 
 Note : — It is much easier to employ this characteristic vulgarity, than to prove one of ouf 
 arguments a failure, or one of our quotations from Romish books false. 
 
 The following exhibits a specimen of the ludicrous, with a little spice of Jesuitical rancor 
 and the repetition of their everlasting ''Tillitudlum,'' Having mentioned my twenty-five argu- 
 ments, they add, — " but there are two of those ' twenty-five arguments' to which the 'chris- 
 tian public' should especially attend, ag frw^/ts of a more eminent order. The first is your 
 gross, unchristian, and false charge against the poor catholic servants of this city ; — the other, 
 your sanction of the obscene tale, Lorette. But our catholic rule rests as solid in its eternal 
 strength, and the walls of St. Patrick's cathedral arc as free from fissure as if they had not 
 been pelted by the preacher's ' parallel passages' from his ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy 
 Ghost.' " 
 
 Note : — I brought no false charges against "catholic servants." I stated facts which can 
 be established in a court of justice. It was protestant compassion that prevented my friend 
 from sending the Roman catholic culprit, to Bridewell. And I stated it as a native result of 
 the infamous priestcraft that whispers the atrocious doctrine of " legal theft," at the con- 
 fessional. I call the attention, once more, of priests and laymen to L. Molina, vol. ii. 1150, 
 and the extracts from the Jesuit Cardenas : — " Servants may steal secretly from their masters, as 
 much as they judge their labor is worth, more than the wages ichich they receive.'' It would secure 
 the public safety, and preserve the purity of morals, if the " holy priests," who instil this 
 nimnoral and dangerous doctrine, into the minds of " silly women, laden with iniquity," at 
 
148 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 the confessional, were they committed to Bridewell, instead of their less guilty victims. — Tcf 
 these charge:^ I have thus presented facts, and unquestionable extracts from their own 
 books. 
 
 I ought not to omit, that it is ludicrous to enrol " this charge against the poor servants," 
 and my " sanction of Lorette" among the twenty arguments against the priests' rule ! 
 
 Having run over their endless repetitions against the holy Bible, our only rule of faith, 
 tliey arrive in their second column, attlieirold quarters, thus : — 
 
 '• Therefore, your rule of faith leads directly and necessarily to Deism and Infidelity ! 
 Tiius, Rev. Preacher and erudite in the " Hebrew and Greek of th^i Holy Ghost," is the 
 " hook in yournose.^' 
 
 Having spent a quarter of a column in defending their ungrammatical and blundering 
 card, they notice the feast of asses, evidently no novelty to them : and they invite Dr. B. " as 
 possessing eminent qualifications to join in the procession of the next feast of asses around St. 
 Patrick^ s cathct]ral .^^ Butthey do not specify whether he is '' to bray, in treble, with the holy 
 priests ; or in solemn bass, to bray with the priest-ridden laity !" 
 
 There next follows an expression of amazement at our creed, expressed, in substance, in 
 scripture language, in our card. Why, exclaim they, the Arians believe as much! The 
 Nestorians believe as much, the Pelagians, the Eutycians, who confound Christ's two natures 
 nto one, and make a female tJie mother of the Deity, — why they all believe as much ! " In 
 he name of common sense can this be your creed ?" 
 
 Note. They should, have added, — and they all professed to believe the same Bible, 
 therefore we should throw it away. They all used human clothing and human food ; there- 
 fore, to be utterly at antipodes with them, and to have no communion with them, we ought 
 to reject both the one, and the other! 
 
 They close the Letter with anew demand, — too simple to attain their object, which they 
 never lose sight of, namely, to turn us aside from our purpose, — " What article of catholic 
 faith is contradicted by the express texts of scripture, inserted in your new creed ? Let this be 
 noted by your christian public." 
 
 Note. I reply, — all the peculiar tenets of popery, saint and image worship, the new 
 mediators, and mediatrices, tJie mass, wluch. takes the place of our Lord's atonement; holy 
 icater, and purgatory, which take the place of the Holy Spirit, and his influences ; confession, 
 and absolution, in which a wretched priest thrusts himself into the place of Hiai, even '' God 
 who, alone, can pardon sins ;" the ghostly supremacy of the pope, who usurps the throne of 
 Him who "-has all power in heaven, and in earth ;^' infallibility assumed by a vicious and pol- 
 luted priesthood, — from the pope, doAvn to the uneducated priest, \vho knows not nmmpsimus 
 from sumpsimus,^ in his own Vulgate, — as it thrust itself into the judgment seat of God 
 Almighty, — are all opposed to, and contradicted by, these texts. The sword of the Spirit 
 aims a decisive blow at the head, and the heart of the Apocalyptic Beast ! And with these, 
 every limb, to the remotest extremity, must die ; and die to live no more I 
 
 * A certain zealous Roman catholic priest in the days of the immortal Reformer, Luther, was ab?olute-ly so 
 rude and illiterate, that he had, for thirty years, read mumpsimus, for the Latin word sumpsimus. When the 
 Reformer reproved the barbarism, and offered to put him right, he gave this truly orthodox answer, according 
 to the standard of the unreforraable court of Rome, and popery,—" It may be so ! But I shall not give up my 
 old MUMPSIMUS, for your new sumpsimus !" 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC COrfTROVERST . 149 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 TO DRS. POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 '• Sic et Babylon apud Johannen, &c. Thus also Babylon is, in our John, a figure of tho 
 «ity of Rome ; which is great and proud in empire ; and a subducr of the saints." 
 
 TertuUan. 
 
 Gentlemen :" — We have shown that the Roman cathoUc reUgion is not found in 
 the Bible ; that, in fact, the whole system is irreconcileable with the word of God. 
 Wc have also finished our discussion on the superstition, fanaticism, and impostures of 
 the Romish church, and clergy. The subject which now claims our attention in the 
 natural order of logical dependence, is that of the notes, or marks of the Roman catho- 
 lic church. 
 
 It is well known to those who are familiar with Romish books, or have intercourse 
 with Roman catholic priests^ and laity, that " Holy Mother church" is the main 
 object of their faith. That sect h£is so completely apostatized from the truth, that it 
 seems actually to have no idea of saving " faith in God, and in Christ." Justification 
 by faith in Christ, and the renovation of the heart by the Holy Spirit, are doctrines 
 which form no part of their system. They "beheve in Holy Mother church." 
 They receive, by faith, all that she teaches : they only aim at dying in her bosom ; 
 this is all the justification, and all the sanctification they look for. ''The temple of 
 tjie Lord! The temple of the Lord, are these!" This is as often and as sincerely 
 repeated by the Romish sect, as it ever was by the Jews of antiquity. They have, in 
 fact, publicly assumed the very ground, which the apostate Jews took, against our Lord 
 and his kingdom. They not only crucify him afresh in every repetition of the Mass ; 
 but they say wc are the children of " Holy Mother Church ;" wc are of " her who i.-? 
 the immutable church :" we are of her to whom the Lord gave the promise that " tho 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against her." This promise which our Lord gave ta 
 his pure, holy, and only church, they insultingly and arrogantly appropriate to them- 
 selves ; even as did the persecuting and murderous Jews. The latter said " We be 
 Abraham's children !" and they gravely inferred that the Almighty was bound, in 
 virtue of that, to save them, vicious and apostate as they were. The former, the Ro- 
 mish sect, say — " We are of Holy Mother I" And let their character be what it may : 
 though they are at war with God's law, and are rebels against all our Lord's offices, 
 rejecting him as a prophet, by their traditions and infidel rule of faith ! rejecting him 
 as a priest in each renewed rebel act of the mass, which they call a sacrifice for tho 
 (piick and the dead ! rejecting him as the only king in Zion, bj' the blasphemous 
 supremacy of the pope! though they practice all vices, and sell even publicly, as at 
 vendue, the pardon of sins, past, present, and future ; yet because they are of "Holy 
 Mother," and are in her bosom, they shall all be saved ! And no human being out of 
 her pale, are, or can be saved ! 
 
 Hence we hear the Roman catholic priests and laity pronouncing tlie solemn doom 
 of perdition on all men, — themselves only excepted, who are the exclusive favorifea 
 of heaven. To their partizans in iniciuity, they say, as men who have taken iho 
 keys of the kingdom out of the hands of him who alone can bear them and 
 wield them, — "If you die in Holy Mother's" bosom at last, it is no matter what 
 you have been, or have done, or what you now are : you are safe ! We are the onh/ 
 church: and the gold and silver, paid for "absolution" and "extreme unction," 
 
150 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 wash away sins ! And as a tokeu of this, the priest, counterfeiting as much gravity 
 as possible, wraps up his deluded votary in a rag of old " Holy Mother's" tattered gar- 
 ment : then he dictates a certificate to God the judge, that this said rag of the Roman 
 "Harlot," is the very robe of the Redeemer's righteousness: and all the church dues 
 being paid, he must, of course, acquit him, at the priest's bidding! And why ? Be- 
 cause God had given an assurance to his true church — not at all to the Roman apos- 
 tacy, — that what she " bound on earth" by way of wholesome discipline, " he should 
 bind in heaven." 
 
 From all this it must be obvious, with what anxiety the Roman catholic priests 
 endeavor to establish the truth of their church, by certain marJcs. The most promi- 
 nent of these are antiquity, catholicity, succession, unity, &c. These we are now to 
 discuss. 
 
 Ji'irst: — ANTIQUITY. — There are few points by which the public have been more 
 imposed on, than by this claim r " The church of Rome is of the ancient religion." In 
 the ears of the superficial and weak, this claim of "the old religion," sounds as a 
 resistless charm^. " It is the old religion." ' And from this they draw an inference 
 befitting men who neither think, nor reason. Instead of listening to evidence and argu- 
 ment as proof of the utter apostacy of Romanism: and, thence, justly inferring that 
 the " age and antiquity" of a rotten carcass only make it infinitely more rotten ; they 
 profoundly and very logically conclude that the antiquity of corruption makes it 
 sweet and good! " It is the old religion," say they, without stopping to listen to 
 the proof that "Old Mother" has been dead and buried; though pagan-like, she has 
 been set up in her grave clothes, to receive the worship of her children. And because 
 they deem her the " old religion," therefore she is the only true religion. And the 
 name " Protestant," being a new name — some two or three hundred years old, — there- 
 fore the religion presented under that new name, is new, and a false religion. The 
 public mind must be disabused on this point. And for this purpose I beg your atten- 
 tion to a two-fold sophism in this universail cant of papists about their antiquity. 
 
 1st. Antiquity is no evidence when taken alone, of the truth of a theory. Sin and 
 error are as old as Adam. Does that ripen and mellow them into God's truth I The 
 kingdom of Satan is considerably older than even that of Rome, and the popery there- 
 of. If popery be true from its antiquity, much more so is the kingdom of Satan, the 
 reign of the truth. The Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which placed the earth in 
 the centre, and made the sun and worlds move, as it were, round a grain of sand, is 
 far more ancient than the Copernican : and therefore, by Romish dialectics, conse- 
 crated to the defence of" Holy Mother," the former system is true, and the Newtonian 
 system is false! Sir Isaac Newton's philosophy is new ; it is only some hundred 
 years old. Therefore the systems of Egypt, and the dark ages, are the true philoso- 
 phy ; and Sir Isaac is an impostor like Luther ; and his system, like the Reformation 
 is falsehood ! 
 
 2. Another portion of your sophistry lies here: the Roman priests designed!}' con- 
 found the name of " Protestants," with the system of religion, which they maintain. 
 And, thence, in true Romish logic, they conclude that because the name " Protest- 
 ant,''^ bestowed on the Refonners, in consequence of their solemn Protest and appeal 
 to a general council, against the decree of Charles V., and the Diet of Spires, in A. D. 
 1529, — is a new and recent' name, therefore their religion is no older than the name / 
 Now let us try the force of this delectable Romish logic. "-Ireland'' is a name of 
 modern date : only some few centuries old. Before this, it was called Hibemia. But 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 151 
 
 because the name is a few centuries old, it follows by the certainty of our Romish logic, 
 that the thing itself, — even the Emerald Isle is a mere novelty, and had only a recent 
 existence! "Great Britain" is a new name; it used to be called "Albion;" — in 
 short, England, Scotland, France, America itself, are all new and modern names: 
 and as, by the Romish dialectics, the name and the thing designated by it, are of 
 equal date in duration ; therefore, these countries only began to exist when they got 
 these modern names ! ! 
 
 In my letter VIII. I examined the maniac logic of the priests. We showed that 
 the Romish church wants the essential marks of the true church. I then offered ten 
 proofs in evidence of the historical fact, that the Romish church and her characteristic 
 system are a mere novelty ; invented chiefly after the sixth century, by wicked men. 
 and despots ; and the very master piece of satan and priestcraft! These we sustained 
 by appeals to historical documents. And if silence be consent, then have the priests 
 given me their unlimited assent to each and all of these ten arguments ! On this 
 mark of their church, I need not long insist. I shall only observe, in brief, that the 
 great fundamental tenet of Romanism, — namely, the supremacy of the Pope, or of 
 the church, is a mere novelty in the history of the church. Pope Zozimus in A. D. 
 420 seems to have been the first who attempted to set up certain claims of supremacy 
 for the Roman See, over all other churches in the West. And this he tried to esta- 
 blish by an impudent forgery of some decrees, purporting to be the decrees of the 
 council of Nice ; in which he had caused it to be written " that it was lawful to ap- 
 peal to Rome, from other churches." The famous Milevitan council in Africa, of 
 whom your own St. Augustine was a leading and faithful member, opposed and con- 
 demned these impious claims of the Pope. They even sent a special embassy into the 
 East, to obtain from the Greek church attested copies of the acts of the council of Nice. 
 
 And by these copies they publicly convicted the popes of Rome, even "the infalli- 
 ble" Zozimus and his " infallible" successors, of falsehood, fraud, and forgery ! I 
 shall give you the words of this council, which solemnly denied and repelled the 
 pope's claims of su})remacy, so late as the fifth century :— " Quod si ab eis, &c. But 
 if they, (the clergy) think it necessary to appeal from them, they shall appeal only to 
 African Councils, or to the primates of their i)rovinces. If any one shall appeal be- 
 yond the seas, let him be received into communion by none in Africa." The signa- 
 ture of St. Augustine is the fourth to this solemn decree. See Mansi Council. Col- 
 lect. Tom. 4. p. 507. Venet Edit. 1785. Finch, p. 156. 
 
 And so late as A. D. 590, Pope Gregory I. declares the apostle Peter " not to be 
 the head, but only a member of the church." See Regist. Lett. Tom. 2, p. 743. 
 And again, " I confidently say that whosoever calls himself imiversol Mshop, or de- 
 sires to be called so, is, in his pride, the forerunner of Antichrist,'" &lc. See Lib. 7. 
 Indie. 15. Epist. 33. Bedict. Edit. Paris, 1705. In another place, he atfirms tliat the 
 " three bishoprics of Alexandria, and Antioch, and Rome," are from the same Peter, 
 " which is of one, but in three places, — quae in tribus locis unius est." Tom. ii. p. 
 887. 
 
 It was not until the days of Boniface III. A. D. 60G, that the pope was raised to the 
 supremacy o£ universal bisJwp. And this was done, not by the will of God, but by 
 the civil power of the ferocious tyrant Phocas, who murdered the king his master, and 
 by murder and treason, usurped the imperial throne. And even this supremacy, ob- 
 tained by the most atrocious means, extended to the Western churches only. The 
 Eastern, and the Greek churches stood out against papal usurpation, and do resist yoa- 
 
152 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 unto this day. Now, this supremacy, partial and sectarian as it was, being the device 
 of the poHtical Judas, called Phocas, at the instigation of Western schismatics, in the 
 9eventh century, where is the boasted antiquity of the Roman catholic sect? I venture 
 to say that no well read Jesuit can refrain from laughter, without an unusual effort, 
 even while he is putting forth this knavish claim of antiquity ! 
 
 The MASS, the grand arcanum of Roman craftiness, the sublime creature of priest- 
 craft, which lays golden eggs, can boast of no great antiquity. This fiction w^as, after 
 many a struggle, established in the bosom of Holy Mother, in A. D. 1215; and con- 
 sequently it is now only six hundred and nineteen years old. And I invite any priest, 
 well versed in the history of the church, to prove any thing to the contrary. 
 
 Auricular confession, one of the main springs of ghostly power ; the copious 
 source of wealth ; and of all possible wickedness, was finally established by Pope 
 Innocent III., in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and is no older than the 
 
 Mass. 
 
 Purgatory, notwithstanding the golden harvests which it was foreseen to afford 
 " Holy Mother," is of a quite recent date. It required all the darkness of the dark 
 ages to brutalize sufficiently the human mind, in Europe, for its faith and reception. 
 The priests had long labored by pious frauds, and miracles, and visions, it is true, to 
 establish the lucrative fiction. But maugi-e all their influence, it was really not 
 elevated into a proud article of faith among the simple faithful, until A. D. 1430. This 
 was done by the notorious council of Florence. It is, therefore only 404 years old ! 
 
 The creation and invocation of saiiits have long been another profitable affair in 
 your church. In order to make the manufactory of this ware profitable, there must 
 be invocation. Pope Clement XI. created four saints in one day, namely, Pius V; 
 Andrew of Avelim ; Felix of Cantalice ; and Catharine of Bologna, for each of which 
 he received 100,000 crowns ! Here the spiritual job brought him 400,000 crowns, in 
 a couple of hours ! Yet notwithstanding the Romish efforts in behalf of this lucrative 
 dogma, the invocation of saints was not fixed, as an article of faith, until the 7iinth 
 century ! 
 
 But we must cut short our details. The use and worship of images were condemn- 
 ed so late as A. D. 700, by the council of Constantinople. In the ninth century, the 
 darkest hour of the darkest ages, they were finally set up by impiety and imposture, 
 as objects of worship in your church. Telesphorus invented and brought in the Len- 
 ten feasts. Calixtus instituted, by arbitrary power, the four ember fasts of the year. 
 Hyginus exerted his genius in inventing the "sacred chrism or oil." The marriage 
 of priests was finally prohibited by Pope Gregory VII. near the close of the eleventh 
 century, say A. D. 1070. And the abstraction of the cup from the eucharist, or the 
 communion without wine, after it had been forged, and invented by impostors ; and 
 opposed by Pope Gelasius, was finally decreed by the council of Constance, which 
 met in A. *D. 1414. And it is therefore, an imposition only 420 years old I 
 
 And it is due to truth, to observe here, that all these papal innovations, now alluded 
 10, and more fully narrated in my Letter VIII., were not quietly permitted to usurp the 
 throne of Christ our Lord, and displace his doctrines. On each one of them there 
 was a struggle before the arch-deceiver prevailed. I am prepared to produce from five 
 ' to seventeen of the best of the fathers against each one of these innovations of Rome. 
 The want of room only, prevents me from quoting them. St. Augustine with Jerome, 
 who called Rome " the great Babylon," and St. Ambrose, take the lead. Every Ro- 
 man priest has read of the two " thunderbolts of war" against Romish impositions,— 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 153 
 
 namely, Bertram, and Berringer, \vho, in the days of Gregory VII. called also by the 
 more emphatic anil appidpriale name of " Hellbrand," impugned the idolatrous fiction 
 ot' the mass. Who has not read the immortal Robert Grosthead, the Roman catholic 
 bishop of Lincoln, sirnamcd the pounding Hammer of the Romish beast? Who has 
 not heard of Gallus, and Petrarch, and a host of others : and in later times of Claude, 
 and Nicholas Clemangis? 
 
 On the contrary, every peculiar doctrine, and rite of ancient Christianity, as our 
 Lord revealed it in the holy scriptures, have been religiously believed, and professed by 
 the Protestant church of the Reformation. Call us by any name you elect : call u& 
 Protestants ; or the children of the old Italick church, or Waldenses, or Albigenses ; or 
 Bohemian brethren ; or Lollards; or Huguenots; or the associates of Luther ; or Cal- 
 vin; or Zuingle; or Knox. W^e hold up to pubHc view " The syntagmata Confes- 
 sionum,'^ " the collection of the Confessions" of the Reformed Church. On every 
 doctrine, and sacrament of the pure primitive and apostolical Christianity, all the 
 " Reformed churches," are entirely at one. Not so in Rome ; every essential doctrine, 
 and the two sacraments are buried, and utterly lost in the rubbish of " Babylon the 
 Great!" 
 
 And were we even to outrage truth and historical evidence, by admitting the Romish 
 church to be a true church of Christ, can any man be so stupid as not to know thai: 
 the church at Jerusalem, the Syriac church, which Dr. Buchanan found existing in 
 the interior of India, are far more ancient than that of Rome? Can any man 
 be so ignorant of historical truth as not to know that the churches of Egypt, particu- 
 larly that of xllexandria; and the church of Antioch, and the whole Greek church, aro 
 more ancient than that of Rome. Nay, every sensible man knows that the old 
 Italick church was before the church of Rome, as she now is, being the same in doc- 
 trine and rites as the " apostolic church at Rome." The arguments, therefore, of the 
 Roman writers on this point, are not only vicious sophistry, but false in fact. 
 
 2d. Catholicity.— The term Catholic, a Greek word, signifies general or univer- 
 sal. And the Roman church clauns the exclusive use, and honor of this title. They 
 are the catholic, the universal church. 
 
 When applied to the church of Christ, "which he bought with his own blood;" as it 
 is appropriately used in the creed, " I believe in the holy catholic church," the Protest- 
 ants understand it thus :— It takes in all those who are, or shall be in the kingdom of 
 God above. "The church," says St. Jerome, "does not consist of walls, but of 
 true doctrine. Wherever the true faith is, there the church is." Oper. vol. vii. p. 388. 
 " The church of Christ," says St. Augustine,— "is in the saints : the church of Christ 
 is in those who are written in heaven:— the church of Christ is in those who do not 
 yield to the temptations of the world." Oper. Tom. iv. Expos, of the 47th Psalm. 
 Again, says he, on the 62 Psalm,—" Christ's whole (catholic) church, which is 
 gpread every where, is his body, of which he is the Head." In the same sense do all 
 Protestants correctly use the term. The church catholic includes all who are now in 
 glory out of our ransomed family: all tvho are noiv in Christ by faith; and all who 
 shall be in him, the Head of us all. 
 
 But the Romish sectarians are about as modest as some of the Eastern prmces, 
 who gravely claim dominion over sun and moon ; and derive titles fnmi these exten- 
 sive and "catholic" dominions, in the heavens! They are the "catholic," the 
 "universal" church! They have tw^o arguments to sustain this romantic claim.— 
 l«t. The apostles gave them the exclusive name of catholics. I shall quote their own 
 
154 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 words ; for it explains the singular reason why neither in Rome, nor in New York, 
 the priests ever call themselves christians. " When heresies sprang up, — the nam© 
 christian was too common to sever the heretics from the true faithful men : hence th« 
 apostles by the Holy Ghost, imposed the name catholic on those who are obedient to 
 the (Roman) church's doctrines." See Rhem. Annot. on Acts xi. 26, and 1 John ii. 
 2. and Bell. De Eccles. iv. 4. That is to say, — for this Romish mysticism needs a 
 translation, — the apostles who wrote the scriptures in Greek, and who, themselves, 
 belonged principally, and especially to the Syriac and Greek churches, without any 
 command from heaven, gave to an obscure Jewish assembly of christian converts at 
 Rome, consisting probably, at that time, of a few hundred, the title of " The univer- 
 sal church of Christ /" 
 
 You may gravely ask where any one can find the command, if any ever was giv- 
 en ; or where any statement is made in civil history, authorizing the belief, that the 
 apostles of our Lord, in the midst of the great and flourishing churches of the East, 
 such as those of Syria, and Egypt, and Greece, took it solemnly into their heads to 
 bestow the title of " church universal or catholic,'*' on a few obscure christians in 
 Rome ! I answer no one has been yet bold enough to risk his character in asserting, 
 with proofs out of ancient documents, that the apostles did so. The simple word of 
 the interested " infallible," is all that has been pleaded. But if there be no weight in 
 the estimation of all who do not believe by yroxy — there is a second argument resort- 
 ed to by the romantic advocates of popery. "They are the catholic or universai 
 church,'' say they — "because in respect of time, place, and person, the Roman 
 church has always been in the world ; in all countries in the world : and has flourished 
 in all nations!" That is to say— for this needs a friendly exposition : " The Romish 
 church has always been in the world," — except when the Jewish church existed; — 
 which was before the Romish church had a being! " The Roman church has always 
 been in the world :" That means for a few centuries ! " The Roman church haa 
 been in all countries, in all the world," That is, except in Asia, and Africa, and the 
 greater part of America, and some of the most extensive empires of Europe. *' The 
 Roman church has flourished in all nations. Except England, Scotland, Holland, 
 Ireland, Denmark, Russia, Prussia, all Asia, all Africa. " The Roman church takes 
 in all people." Yes, except about eight hundred millions out o(nine hundred millions 
 of the human family. "The Romish church will always be in the world," except 
 from the close of the 1260 years, and the whole period of millenium, when she will 
 be annihilated by a catholic overthrow. 
 
 Such are the ludicrous and maniac claims of this sect of schismatics, to catholicity, 
 or universality ! The person who does not see the absurdity of this, most assuredly 
 merits our pity and compassion. The claim of " catholicity" in fact, sets all sober 
 reason utterly at defiance. The ])ope, prelate, or priest, who soberly claims the title 
 of "catholic" for his sect, must either be forsaken of reason and common sense, and 
 thence be a maniac : or which v.e believe to be the truth of the case, he acts the im- 
 postor and knave. And, conscious of the ridiculous nature of his claims, like the char- 
 latan, he advances them with an unblushing- impudence to cheat his votaries into 
 compliance, by his lofty and swelling words of vanity, merely to advance his own 
 interests, in his pretensions to ghostly and temporal power. "A Roman catholic!** 
 That is to say, in plain Enghsh, " a particular general !" " A Roman catholic." That 
 ia to say,— the little affair called " Rome," is all Syria, all Greece, all Asia, all 
 Europe, all America! "A Roman catholic I" That is to say, the little comes 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 155 
 
 *nd nook of "jRont€," is catholic, — is all the world, all the universe! And the few 
 bigotted dogmas, invented by the most worthless of men, for the most infamou8 of 
 ends, namely the extinction of religion and civil liberty, form the whole religion 
 of the whole world ! 
 
 " Oh ! judgment, thou hast fled to brutish beasts, 
 And men have lost their reason." 
 
 The church catholic and universal is — we repeat it, — a glorious assembly. It 
 embraces all those who are now in heaven ; or on the earth, walking in the unity of 
 llie spirit, in the beauty of holiness, and the bond of peace : or who shall 3/ef, in duo 
 time, be united to Christ; and shall ere long, reach "the general assembly, and 
 church of the first born." But what man, in the sober exercise of his reason, did ever 
 apply this title of the "church universal" to a sect of apostates from Christ ; con- 
 temptible even in point of numbers, compared with the great mass of the human 
 family, who composed the true church of the Jews : and the true church of the New 
 Testament, A sect, moreover, which has filled the ears of all good men with 
 direful rumors ! A sect which has made the very heavens re-echo with the horrid 
 cries of treason, rebellion, and crime ! A sect which has drenched the earth with the 
 blood of sixty-eight millions of human btings, whom it has sacrificed on the altar 
 of its bloody and horrid superstition. 
 
 It deserves to be noticed here that various sectaries, besides the Roman church, 
 have affected to call themselves " catholic ;" and to boast of their numbers. For 
 instance, the Donatists did so, in the da^^s of St. Augustine. See Aug-. Epist. 48. 
 The Pelagians also set up claims to this inordinate title ; as appears from St. Jerome, 
 Lib. 3. Advers, Pelag. " Quid si te alius catholicum dlxerit, &c." "VVliat if another 
 call thee catholic ? Shall I give consent?" 
 
 But it is remarkable that neither they, nor, as I have just observed, the Roman 
 catholics, have ever adopted the holy and honourable name of Christian! It can be 
 shown from respectable authors, and it is an extraordinary fact — that the Romish 
 priests, from time immemorial, have despised this venerable and divinely appointed 
 name. "It is notoriously known, that in Italy, and at Rome, the most honourable 
 name of Christian, is actually a name of reproach; and usually it is abused to signify 
 a fool, or a dolt! see Christ. Franch. coll. Jesuit, near the end ; and Fulk's Refuta- 
 tion of the Rhem. Annotators. Acts xi. 26. And in our day, if any humble soul 
 should happen to stumble into Rome, the See and country of the Antichrist, and should 
 venture to call himself a Christian, in what may be termed the second rate society, of 
 archbishops and bishops, — he would be received with peals of laughter and merriment, 
 as some antideluvean creature ! But if he avowed himself, in the simplicity of his 
 soul, to be a Christian in the Pope's presence, before his godly court of cardinals, he 
 might deem himself fortunate if he escaped a dungeon, or assassination. 
 
 I cannot close without observing another material evidence against your claims to 
 •'catholicity." These claims are not only illegal, absurd, and contrary to historical 
 evidence; but actually contrary to the doctrine of Christ and the sentiments of your 
 best fathers. " Fear not little flock," said our Lord : " Many are called, few are cho- 
 sen." And St. Jerome writing against the claims to catholicitjs set up by the 
 Pelagians, says in his third book against them; "The multitude of your fellows doth 
 not, therefore, prove you a catholic ; but rather a heretic." See also St. Augustine, 
 De Pastoribus. And one of the more sensible of your Popes, namely, Nicholas L in 
 tiia Letter to the Emperor Michael, says, — "A small company hinders not, where 
 
156 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 piety aboundeth : neither does a great company further, where impiety abounds : glory 
 not for the multitude, for not the multitude, hut tlie cwby. justijieth, or condemneth.''' 
 
 Finally ; — From the sixth century, no one of your advocates can estabUsh any true 
 claim of connection, on your part, as a church, with the church of Jesus Christ. The 
 Eastern churches indignantly cast off your infamous usurpations, over them : so also 
 did the African church, with your own St. Augustine at their head. You have been 
 continually diverging from the good old church of God at Rome ; and the good old 
 Italick church, from whom our pure and holy forefathers, the Waldenses and Albi- 
 ^enses proceeded. You, like Ishmael, are against every section of the church of 
 Christ : and every church against you. You are no longer the pure river of God wa- 
 terino- the earth; but the sluggish and muddy ba3'OU, bursting forth from the majestic 
 and chrystal river of God ; and threading your way, amid the putrid exhalations and 
 swamps of a Dead Sea ; sending forth, to an immeasurable extent, moral pestilence, 
 and death, over the nations. 
 
 On the whole, the Protestant faith is not only the most ancient, but the most true cath- 
 olic faith. With the church of God in all ages; with them on earth; and with them in 
 heaven, we are perfectly at one, on every doctrine, and on each of the sacraments, 
 which have characterized the church, the chaste spouse of Christ. We, therefore are, 
 of the true catholic church of Clirist, — you are the Roman catholic church' of Anti- 
 christ. We move forward under the pure white flag of the Redeemer's standard ; the' 
 true cross of our Blessed Redeemer ; you move on in darkness and in blood, under 
 the standard of your prince, Abaddon, "j^our king, the angel of the bottomless pit." 
 But I must nause. I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 CARD. 
 
 It is necessary to remind my readers that the priests, in their second challenge 
 chose to make it a condition of their continuing the controversy, that I should aban- 
 don the attack on their system, and defend the Protestant system. I promptly 
 declined obedience to this unreasonable dictation, being determined to force my way 
 into their very citadel, and into the interior of the "chambers of imagery." They 
 declined publishing any reply to me, last Saturday. Having prepared the 
 preceeding letter, I sent a card on Monday morning to Mr. Denman, editor of the 
 Roman catholic print, requesting him to say whether I was correct in understanding, 
 the information conveyed to me from his office, through my friend Mr. T. ; namely 
 that no more was to be published by him on either side. In reply to this Card, I 
 received a letter, abusive and insulting ; while the writer took care to answer me 
 neither negatively nor affirmatively. I replied by again soliciting a definite answer, 
 whether he would allow me to go on as usual, in his columns. I waited two hours 
 and a half for his reply ; none came. I then entered into arrangements to have my 
 letters published simultaneously, in the three papers which have hitherto copied them 
 from the Roman catholic print ; and, at the time, sent a copy of my letter XII. to the 
 office of the Roman catholic paper. And it is proposed, by the grace of God to follow . 
 up the retreat of tlie priests, by a letter every second week, until the end of August : 
 and then by a short letter weekly, until the victory shall be complete. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 157 
 
 In The Truth Teller of August 3, appeared this Editorial Notice. 
 
 " Dr. Brownlee has sent us the following communication as his answer to Drs. Power 
 and Levins' Letter No. 12, published in our last. We consent as a matter of courtesy to its 
 appef.rance — and also to gratify Dr. Brownlee whose private communications to the editor 
 for publication, are of the most urgent nature. In complying with Dr. Brownlee's solicit- 
 ations we must here state, that unless he will confine himself to the topics under discussion 
 we must close this controversy." 
 
 This '' communication" was nothing more than the introduction to my Letter XIL, which, 
 by ti. private message, I had begged the editor of the R. catholic print, to place at the head of 
 the manuscript Letter, which had been some time in his hands. It follows : — 
 
 TO DRS. POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 Gentlemen : — I have carefully read your 12th letter on the 27th of July. You are heartily 
 welcome back again after your temporary retreat. Stand to your post, I exhort you, as good 
 Romans ; we are only beginning the tug of war. But .seriously, I thank you for your letter. 
 It helps on my cause marvellously. What a miserable cause must yours be, when Bishop 
 Dubois's THREE sclcct champions can venture out, before an American public, with such a 
 production as this ! Hence I thank you for it ; it establishes with fresh evidence, all I have 
 advanced relative to your deism. The evidence is now full and running over. 
 
 I agree with you, also very cordially, in believing that no small degree of degradation 
 attaches itself to the labor of detailing out of your books, the accounts respecting " the Duke 
 of Brunswick ;" " and St. Patrick's miracle," and " St. Dennis carrying his own head, after 
 he w^as beheaded," — " and your Du Cangis' account of your feast of the Asses," and the 
 true " account of the purgatorial crabs, with their velvet coats," and " St* Peter's chair 
 plundered from a Mufti's mosque." I admit that it is degrading in your historians to detail 
 them. And one really feels himself loAvercd to be compelled to quote such trash ! But then 
 what must be the infinitude of the degradation of the "infallible pope," and the "infallible 
 church," and of the " infallible priests of Rome," who have gravely recorded all this impo- 
 sition, in their devotional books, — ay, in their Breviary ; and do solemnly command their 
 votaries to believe it all, on pain of damnation! Yes, hypocrisy will affect to deny all 
 these ! You even aflfect, in matchless assurance, to tieat them as fictions ! This is pure 
 homage to our enlightened American public; and an item of that Jesuitism, by which all 
 Roman priests arc sworn to conceal their real tenets and rites, from the eyes of protestants 
 and republicans. You and your bishop know that if } ou Avere in Italy, or in Spain, and 
 ventured on the disbelief of these miracles; or even the affectation of ridiculing them be- 
 fore enlightened men : — yes, if you were heretic enough, in S]iain, to smile at the headless 
 St. Dennis carrying his head under his arm; or at the edifying talcs of other saints sailing 
 over the sea, on their cloaks, with their companions for ballast, — you w ould forthwith be 
 the inmates of dungeons ; and escape burning only by a well timed recantation on your 
 knees ! 
 
 Your ultra " zealotry," is "ambitioning" too much, to use your classic style, when you 
 find fault with my scriptural creed ; or indeed any christian creed. Tlie religious public can- 
 not but smile at three men, publicly convicted of open and avowed deism, aftccting to sit in 
 judgment on a christian creed ! 
 
 In fine, as there is not a new idea in all your letter; and as I have proposed to myself to 
 go forward into " Holy Mother's" chambers of imagery, even were its entrance guarded by 
 Cerberus, witii its three heads. I shall go on with the regular discussion. 
 
 This letter was published in tiie Christian Intelligencer of last Satm-day : to which we 
 
 refer the readers of the Truth Teller. 
 
 W. C. Brownlee." 
 15 
 
IgQ iROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY, 
 
 A CARD.— To THE Public. 
 
 The editor of the Roman catholic print called "the Truth Teller," has now in his hands, 
 TWO letters from me, which he has refused to publish : namely, one addressed to Dr. Varela, 
 designed to expose the impiety and blasphemy of the title " the Mother of God,'* which the 
 Romish sect has invented, and long used in its idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary: the 
 other, is my twelfth letter to the Rev. Drs. Power, Varela, and Levins. He has assigned no 
 reason why he refuses to publish the^rsf. He seems to ofter tico reasons for refusing to 
 publish the last. First, he aftects to refuse its admission into his columns, because it appeareil 
 in otlier papers. Now, this is extraordinary : for this twelfth letter was put in manuscript, into 
 Mr. Denman's hands, by my friend, actually two or three entire days before any paper pub- 
 lished it ! Nay, he had actually refused its admission, and had put the Priests' letter in its 
 place, bcforchc knew that other papers would publish it on the same day. So much for Roman truth ! 
 The second reason is this: "It does not come to the point; it is no reply to the Rev. 
 Priests." And he is pleased to repeat this, in his last Saturday's paper, in these words,— 
 '' Unless Dr. B. will confine himself to the topics under discussion, we must close this contro- 
 versy." Now, I will not gravely ofter to refute what the asserter himself never has believed. 
 He and his readers know well that I have stuck ''terribly'' close to the topic under discus- 
 sion : and the excoriations of the retreating priests make them feel it. No one, it is true, 
 can claim any merit in doing this: one only sees what a plain, and simple exposition of gos- 
 pel truth and historical facts can do on the bare nerves of a culprit's guilty conscience ! 
 Does any man think so meanly of the intellects of Drs. Power, Levins and Varela, as to im- 
 agine for a moment, that they seriously helieve in all that impious nonsense which consti- 
 tutes the doctrines and rites of the Romish sect? No, they laugh it to scorn, while they 
 teach it. What Cicero spoke of the old Roman Augurs, I apply as a scourge of scorpions 
 to these priests. After they return from the exhibition of this bufloonery, trumpery, mira- 
 cles, and mummery in the chapel, " they cannot help laughing in each other's faces, as they 
 pull oft' their motley robes, and charlatan dress!" 
 
 But even admitting that these men did think my letters wide of the point, and that " I never 
 confine myself to the topics in discussion," who constituted William Denman and the 
 Priests, the judge, counsel, and jury, to pronounce on me ? I tell these men that I am the 
 only and sole judge of what I deem fit to say : and the christian public is the only umpire 
 between us. But, after all, if the editor and his holy council of priests deemed my letters 
 " so silly, so extravagant, and so wide of the point," do they not see that this icas the very 
 reason why they should publish them ? Yes, publish them, and cover the heretic with confusion ! 
 
 It is proper hereto state, that the editor of the R. catholic paper, took it upon himself not 
 only to witlihold my Letter from his readers , but to convert my short introduction, into a 
 formal Letter, and even to forge and append my signature, as above, to these introductory 
 sentences. And he has, moreover, had the audacity to insert a sentence which I did not 
 write, in order to serve the purpose of making me convey the idea that I meant to give my 
 Roman catholic readers no other answer whatever, to the last Letter of the priests, than the 
 above. 
 
 As it now is, I deem it disreputable to any man of honor, to have any further inter^^ourse 
 with him, in the premises. 
 
 I shall, therefore, ofter no more of my letters to his columns, until he publish the two letters 
 which he now has on hand ; and also make the amejide honorable before the christian public, 
 for these crimes which he has committed against good taste, honor, and sound morals. 
 
 I am respectfully, 
 
 August 5, 1833. ^' ^ ^ 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 159 
 
 LETTER Xin. 
 
 TO DRS. POWER AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 "Ante Nicocniim concilium sibi quisqiie vivcbat: f 
 
 Et ad Romanam Ecclesiarn parvus liabcbatur respectus." 
 ^neas Sylvius, Pope Pius II. Epis. 288. 
 
 Gentlemen : — We noticed in our last Letter, your idle claims to antiquity and 
 catholicity. I have now to observe, — 
 
 3d. That succession is another mark claimed by the exclusive Roman catholic 
 sect. By this their writers mean to convey the idea, that their sect alone is that churcli 
 to which Christ gave the promise "I am with j^ou :" and the assurance "that the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against it." They alone, say they, have the direct 
 lineal succession from Christ by St. Peter, and the other popes: all the other claim- 
 ants in the Greek church, the Syriac, the African, the Old Italick, the Waldensian, 
 and Protestant church, are all, to a man ^^ damnable heretics, for lohich there is no sal- 
 vation ; it being iinpossible that God can save any except Roman catholics.'''' This is 
 tiie genuine and immutable doctrine of the Roman sect I And your books contain- 
 ing this insane doctrine lie open before the American public ! 
 
 I will not discuss here, the question of ordination. I simply observe that we advo- 
 cate it on gospel principles ; and reject with abhorrence, the superstitious and fanatical 
 rite which Romish priests are pleased facetiously to call ordination, and consecration ! 
 It has no more authority from Christ the only head of the church, than has any rite 
 of Mohammed, or the living idol of Thibet. This we noticed formerly. There must 
 be a call of God's providence (Heb. 5. 4.) and a call of a church given to a pastor, — 
 " Come over and help us." The man who wants these, has no right before God, or 
 the church, to ordination. He who wants these, "climbs up another way," and has 
 the seal of reprobation branded on his forehead, " as a thief and a robber !" Such is 
 the appointment and destination of the Roman priest by his bishop : no call, no con- 
 sent of "the church," is asked for : they are ipso facto, usurpers, put "into livings," 
 by ghostly tyranny, and usurped power. The whole system is a conspiracy against 
 Christ's crown and authority, and an outrage on the consciences, and rights of 
 freemen. 
 
 In their claims of succession, the Roman sect ludicrously assert that they have an 
 unbroken line of descent from " Christ the first pope," through " St. Peter the second 
 pope," down to this day. This is ingeniously figured forth, and proved, by a painting 
 to be seen in Roman catholic families, and which was described to me, the other day, 
 by a friend of mine, to whom it was shown in Philadelphia. In this portion of their 
 " genuine tradition," strong as proofs of holy writ, Christ is represented as ascending: 
 and a stream of his blood is issuing in an arched line from his veins ; and is entering 
 into the veins of St. Peter; and through him into the veins of the popes, in regular 
 succession. Hence they are the genuine successors "63/ blood relationship." And 
 this morsel of tradition, ingeniously committed to paper, is more firmly believed by 
 "the .simple faithful," than is any passage in all the New Testament. Such is the 
 force of invincible but culpable ignorance. 
 
 Now, to reap any benefit from '■'■the succession,'^ one would naturally suppose that 
 the " universal particular church of Rome," should first, prove their succession ; and 
 then prove their exclusive succession. For he who claims all the inheritance, and 
 
160 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 leaves none to any other, must, of course, prove that no one but himself is heir. But 
 imfortQnately for these exclusive claims of the Roman bigots, the Greek church has 
 genuine apostolical descent. The church at Alexandria, in Egypt, had it ; the most 
 ancient and famous church at Antioch has it, and has its Patriarch sitting in St. Peter's 
 chair to this day ; also the church of Africa, once so famous ; and through the genu- 
 ine Old Italick church, from A\hich your sect apostatized, the Waldenses had their 
 true, apostolical succession. Then hear the words of your own Pope Gregory I. of 
 whose writings you and your bishops are so scandalously ignorant. That " saint," 
 and pope has declared, and you ought to know it, that " St. Peter's primacy descend- 
 ed to three bishopricks, namely, that of Antioch, of Alexandria, and of Rome." See 
 his Epis. 40. Lib. 7. Tom. ii. p. 887. Paris Edit, of 170.5. And, moreover, he pro- 
 nounces the title and claims of " Supreme and universal bishop,'' to be the invention 
 of antichrist, who was already in the world." — Even a priest's ignorance cannot deny 
 that St. Gregory the pope wrote this. Now, if you believe him, you must renounce 
 your exclusive succession : if you do not believe him, then do you pronounce him a 
 lying heretic : and therefore " the infallible" " Holy Mother and pope," who canonized 
 him, and "the infallible and immutable Holy Mother church," who worships him on 
 his saintly day, is no more infallible and immutabk ! Choose ye with which horn of 
 this dilemma, you shall be pierced, and ecclesiastically slain. 
 
 You are perfectly aware that no satisfactory historical evidence has ever been pro- 
 duced by your writers that Peter ever was at Rome. Every intelligent Roman ca- 
 tholic is aware that it rests solely on the fictions of interested priests. Several writers 
 have, on our side of the question, entered into accurate chronological arguments to 
 jshow that Peter never was there, as a presiding teacher. I beg to refer to Willet's 
 Synopsis Papismi, p. 141. There is no evidence in the Bible that Peter was at 
 Rome ; far less that he was a pope. If he was pope, how utterly inexcusable, un- 
 dutiful, and wicked, must St. Paul have been ; who resided there so long; and never 
 had the grace or good manners to salute him, or send his due pontijical salutations, or 
 even to mention the name of " the lord your god pope Peter .'" Nay, if " lord Peter" 
 had been pope, he must have been a most unprincipled man. For Paul, when brought 
 ])efore Nero, at least two years before Peter's death, says, "At my first answer, no 
 man stood by me : but all men forsook me : I pray God that it may not be laid to their 
 charge." Now, you must admit, either that " lord Peter," was not pope, and not even 
 present in Rome ; or that he was a foul traitor to Christ, and the cause for which 
 Paul was nobly suffering. You insist on it that he was present: that he was pope. 
 Therefore you compel us to believe that you and "the Holy Mother church" are no- 
 torious slanderers of your own pope Peter. 
 
 Besides it is singular that your writers should betray such ignorance of your own 
 canons. I beg you to look into Decret. pars. I. Cap. 2 Anacletus, Sec. These canons 
 make your ridiculous fictions aljout Peter's headship, stand out in bold relief. I shall 
 quote the canon,— "Ambo Ecclesiam, &cc. Both Paul and Peter did consecrate the 
 Roman church." Irena^us says the same. Lib. iii. cap. 3. And, as St. Paul was 
 "not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles;" and did even administer a severe 
 apostolical, and therefore a super-pontifical rebuke to " lord Peter, the pope,"— you 
 must, to make your succession and exclusive claims good, show the evidence of your 
 succession from "lord Paul," the pope, also. Or, as a necessary alternative, you 
 must abjure the Bible evidence ; and what is more with you, you must abjure and deny 
 your own canons. Or, finally, if you choose for once to be honest men, renounce 
 
ROBLiN CATHOLIC CONTKOVERSY. 161 
 
 your absurd succession. "Quid faciam Roma), — mentiri nescio," — **What can I do 
 at Rome, I cannot fabricate lies," said a true prophet. 
 
 But, gentlemen, even admitting that the apostles had successors as apostles^ which, 
 we have already proved, they had not ; and even admitting it possible that you can 
 get over the infinity of historical and chronological difhculiies, which every body sees 
 lying in your wa}', — your succession has failed, and is lost in inextricable ruin ! 
 This I took the liberty of proving in my Letter IV. and you made no reply : you 
 durst not touch the subject: your silence was ample evidence that you cannot disen- 
 tangle the question of succession from its labyrinth of confusion, and contradictions. 
 There is not one sensible man among you that, for one moment, believes it. I should 
 insult your intellectual powers did I even insinuate that you, gentlemen priests, do 
 3'ourselves believe this " fundamental tenet." And as for "the simple faithful priests"' 
 who know no better, and "the simple faithful laymen," who belieAC infinitely more 
 tJian they know any thing about, — why, they believe in the succession and the de 
 scent of the "//o/^ prastes,'' just as strongly, and on just as good evidence, as do the 
 intelligent pagans of the East, that " the world is a large flat body, resting on the back 
 of a huge land turtle!" 
 
 I shall only add here that your line of succession from the apostolic church is bro- 
 ken otf, by the total and utter loss of the bond of holiness. You are " The man of 
 sin," trallicking "in sin," and in "the souls of men," as I shall show, when I come 
 to indulgences, and the pope's chancery book containing the registered price of every 
 sin, and the fixed price of men's souls! The succession of doctrine also is utterly 
 and incurably destroyed. This I showed in Letter VIII. You have renounced every 
 grand peculiar doctrine of the gospel : even your recognition of the Trinity, is merely 
 nominal : the main object of your worship is " The Queen of heaven," she who 
 "commands her son," — namely the Virgin 3Iary, she is in your spiritual heaven, and 
 in your temples, what Veiius was in the East, and Jupiter was among the Greeks and 
 Romans! You have practically lost the most holy doctrine of Trinity, utterly in 
 vour thirty thousand gods and goddesses, usually named saints, and sainlesses ! And 
 this being the case with the object of divine worship, it is easy to see that not even one 
 essential doctrine of the gospel has kept its place in your system. All these have been 
 quenched in your heavens ! All is dreariness and darkness : your skies are covered 
 with a veil of blackness: no one soliiar}- star sparkles there! Now this being the 
 case, hear the words in St. Clement's Epist. I. wliich you admit to be genuine ; St.- 
 Peter there declares that " the true succession is in the succession of doctrine." Alto 
 your Pope Felix says — " Qui participes, &c. those who would share the apostlesbip, 
 must follow the apostles' doctrine." So also in your Decret. P. I. dist. 40. cap. I. 
 " Petrus, &c. Peter left the inheritance of innocence to his heirs." And let me add 
 a valuable extract from Gregory Nazianzen: — "To ^tcv yap &ic. He that holdeth tlic 
 same doctrine is of the same chair ; but he who is an enemy to the doctrine, is an 
 enemy to the chair." Orat. 21. In Laud. Athanasii: Paris Edit. 1778. Therefore 
 your SUCCESSION is broken off" utterly, and forever! 
 
 This is not all. We shall pay our respect to some of the prominent popes, through 
 whom you claim your "holy and unbroken line of succession." Asimpic detail from 
 history will show what kind of a thing this "holy and unbroken line of Roman suc- 
 cession" is. 
 
 The popedom of Peter, and that of /oon, the female pope, rest on equal evidence. 
 Peter's papacy was not mentioned for several centuries after his death : Joan's was 
 
 15* 
 
162 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 not registered for two hundred years after her decease. But even supposing the fiction 
 true, that he was pope in good earnest, the Roman writers, and even the ancient 
 fathers cannot agree who were the immediate successors of lord Peter, the fisherman ! 
 Seven of the fathers with Augustine, make Linus the second bishop of Rome. Tertul- 
 lian and the Latins make Clemens the second. Cossait, in his great work, the Con- 
 cilia^ cannot determine from any existing evidence, which of these was the successor 
 of lord Peter. lie frankly admits "the uncertainty of the pontifical succession." 
 Latterly the supposition inclines to favor Linus. But, it so happens that "the Apos- 
 tolical constitutions" bear witness that Linus, your second pope, was ordained not by 
 pope Peter, but by Paul. This fairly upsets the succession from lord Peter, by Linus. 
 See Ap. Con. Lib. vii. 4G, and Labbeus, Lib. i. 63. 
 
 Again, Baronius, Bellarmine and others make Cletus, and Anacletus two different 
 popes: Cotelerius, Fleury, and others make them the same man : Bruys and Cossart 
 declare that it is perfectly uncertain whether they were, or w^ere not the same man ! 
 Twenty other Roman writers have entered the lists to settle this interminable point ! 
 See Cotelerius, Tom. i. p. 387.Binii Concilia Tom. i. p. 30, «S:c., &c.; Edgar's Va- 
 riations of Popery, p. 75, Dublin Edition. 
 
 The learned and solemn triflings of Romish writers fully establish this point, — 
 namely, that there was not a soul of them that knew any thing about the papal suc- 
 cession! And the sum of the ivhole is this, — it is a truth about as certain, and as 
 valuable, as that of the true successor of Robin Hood, or Jack, the giant killer ! Thus 
 gentlemen, to avail mj^self of a truly expressive Irishism, — the pontifical succession 
 was fairl}^ cutoff, before it began ! 
 
 But passing this, — and supposing the impossible thing to have happened, the grand 
 schisms have utterly cut off your succession. Dr. Geddes in his valuable work, in 
 four volumes on the papacy, enumerates twenty-four schisms: your Baronius tiventy- 
 six ; Onuphrius the most accurate of writers, makes thirty: this, said Edgar, in his 
 Variatioiis of popery, is the commonly received estimation. The detailed account I 
 have before me by Geddes and Edgar: and could I find room for it, I should exliibit 
 a history of wars, bloodshed, perjury, treason, blasphemy, and the most horrid 
 impieties, reigning triumphant in the very throne of the pope, and in all bis dominions ; 
 and unparalleled in all history^ ! A few specimens I shall glean from the principal 
 writers. 
 
 The second schism was between popes Liberius and Felix in the fourth century. 
 Felix was chosen by the Arian faction to oppose Liberius, who vras thence banished. 
 But having signed the Arian creed, he was recalled: then commenced the bloody 
 wars between these two Arian popes. " The wars raged long, the clergy were mur- 
 dered, by the opposing factions, in the very churches." 
 
 St. Augustine, and Jerome, followed by the moderns Fleury, and IMorery, Tom. 
 iv. p. 42, unite in pronouncing pope Felix an Arian heretic ! St- xA-thanasius, Ad 
 Sol., calls him a monster raised to the Roman hierarchy, by the malice of Anti-christ ! 
 See Labbeus, Tom. ii. p. 99L — Bruys, Hist. Des papes, Tom. i. p. 123, Edgar's 
 Var, p. 76. 
 
 And will the American public believe me, when I declare to them that these two 
 bloody monsters and Arian heretics, were after all their murders^ perjury, and heresy, 
 solemnly enrolled in the ghostly list of Roman saints! St. Felix ! St. Liberius ! These 
 are their tides. And here are the words w^hich our priests address to them in prayer, 
 on their festival days, — even to these murderers, and deniers of our Lord's deity. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 163 
 
 "O/i/ St. Liberius, the light of the holy church, lover of the divine law, whom God 
 loved, and clothed with the love of glonj, —procure for us by thy interceding merits, the 
 pardon of all our sins P^ See Rom. Breviary, p. 35. And Rom. Missal, p. 14. The 
 same worship is to this ver^' day, offered up to the bloody and atrocious Felix as a 
 saint, a pope, a martyr! And to this kind of gods, do Drs. Power, Levins, and 
 Varela, offer up this kind of prayers! If they neglect to do it, they know that they 
 are perjured men. For tliey liave taken the great oath to do it, and to do it regularly, 
 on pain of damnation in their soul, and their body ! 
 
 The /o«r</t schism was between popes ICulalius and Boniface in the fifth century. 
 After many shameful scenes, the emperor decided the matter, and by imperial and 
 military powers, commanded Boniface to be pope ! It is evident that at this time, the 
 Roman emperor dictated the election. Our ])riests, and "Holy Mother," must there- 
 fore admit that Peter's spiritual lordship had, at this early period, yielded to the tem- 
 poral power of the emperor Ilonorius, and his successors. 
 
 The seventh schism was originated by popes Silverius and Vigilius, in the sixth 
 century. Tlie first was elected by simony and fraud; and he was ordained by force 
 and violence. He was created pope by the king of the Goths. Vigilius his rival 
 was elected by another faction, by simony and fraud, equal in atrocitj^ to that of his 
 antagonist. He received 700 ])ieces of gold, and the popedom from the empress 
 Theodora, on condition of his aiding her purposes. This he accepted ; and was 
 raised to the papacy. This "holy and infallible pope," in order to get rid of his 
 rivals, suborned false witnesses to swear tliat Silverius was plotting to betray Rome 
 to the Goths. He paid two hundred pieces of gold for his testimony of the perjurer. 
 It succeeded : the rivaH^as banished, and shortly after this, he was starved to death ; 
 others say, assassinated. See Godeau, iv. 104. Platina, GS. Now, it is obvious 
 that, according to your ov\^n canons, both of these popes were illegally chosen. Here 
 the links of the chain were again broken. Besides the cliaracter of Vigilius who 
 professed to transmit the succession, was atrociously wicked. Covetousness, and 
 the impious mockery of the laws of God and man, were among his least sins. He 
 murdered his secretary liy the blow of a club: he scourged his nephew to death; and 
 was accessary to the murder of the pope, his rival. See Platina, 68. 
 
 The thirteenth schism took place in the cb)seof the ninth century : it disgraced the 
 papacy of Fonnosus, and Sergius. The first was elected contrary' to the bulls of 
 popes Nicholas, and .Tulius. But he was sustained by the power of the king of the 
 Goths. Sergius, his rival, was finally expelled, and died an exile. Formosus did 
 not long enjoy his guilty power and honors. Six years after his election, he died. 
 The atrocious jiope Stephen was his successor. This "Vicar of God" or<lered his 
 predecessor, Formosus, also a " Vicar of God," to be dug out of his grave. He had 
 liim dressed in his pontificals : and gravely brought into court, to be tried. The 
 question was put to him, " How dared \ou, being bishop of Porto, to allow yourself to 
 be raised to the Holy Sec?" The dead body not making any reply, as njight natu- 
 rally be expected, his silence was deemed guilt; he was solemnly condemned, his 
 popedom declared illegal and invalid : his head and three of his fingers were cut off; 
 and his mangled body cast into the Tyber. The scenes which followed this, were 
 outrageous and horrible. The "holy and infallible father" Stephen died in a dun- 
 geon by the rope! Bruys pronounces his eulogium, — "This father and teacher of 
 all christians," says the popish writer, — "was as ignorant as he was wicked." "He 
 was guilty of a wicked and unheard of sacrilege," says Barouius. Pope John X., in 
 
164 ROMAN CATHOLIC COr^TROVERSY. 
 
 his turn helped to cut off' your succession by condemning pope Stephen and re-esta- 
 blishing the interests of pope Fomiosus. But all things are mutable in "immutable 
 £md infallible Rome." Pope Sergius III. pronounced his ban on the decrees of pope 
 John X., reverses his acts : restores the ordination of pope Stephen, and condemns 
 the ordinations of pope Formosus. See Platina, p. 127. Now, it is utterly idle for 
 any man to attempt to trace the genuine succession through all these confusions 
 and tumults, and wickedness. If these men were christian pastors and '^ the pure 
 s^iccessors''^ of Peter, then what holy and exalted saints must Nero and Tamerlane 
 have been ! 
 
 Baronius, I am aware, ventures to make a somewhat different inference from this. 
 After a suitable degree of railing at the Protestants, as he always does when he is con- 
 strained to narrate some of the infamous acts of the popes, by way of a Jesuit's offset, 
 and ruse de giisrre, he very gravely pronounces this succession of abominable popes 
 "a clear demonstration that the supreme authority of the Roman see can never 
 possibly be destroyed. For, if it could," says he, " such a long succession of monsters 
 in vice and folly must infallibly have ruined it." What an admirable argument 
 this would have been in the lips of the Roman pagan emperors, who, you know, 
 were also the supreme pontics of the pagan superstition. "Verily," they might have 
 said, " we have here the evidence of the truth of our holy pagan idolatry, and a demon- 
 stration that our poniifical authority can never possibly be destroyed. For if the 
 pagan religion were false, and if my pontifical authority could be destroyed, — surely 
 such a long succession of atrocious despots, must, by their vice and folly, long ago 
 have ruined it!" The fact is this, in each of these cases, the boasters had nothing to 
 lose ! The divinity of Roman catholic despotism and of pagan despotism ; being 
 equally doubtful of proof; and equally from Peter and from heaven! 
 
 The nineteenth schism happened in the beginning of the eleventh century. It re- 
 vealed scenes more shocking than any thing hitherto conceived. As Rome catholic 
 advanced in age, she increased, by a double compound ratio, in all possible wicked- 
 ness. There were three popes in this schism. Benedict was elected in A. D. 1033. 
 He was placed in the "holy chair," by simony, the universal and every day sin of 
 Rome ; and by faction, and tj'ranny. His life was a compound of all the pollution of 
 the Roman pagans compressed into one little soul and body. This was " the holy 
 father of Rome," the only "judge of all controversy," "the fountain of indulgences 
 and pardon of sin" for money! Silvester was put up as a rival to this monster; and 
 he expelled Benedict. John was the third pope, at this time. Benedict, without 
 resigning, sold the papacy to John for £1500: and was quiet as long as this money 
 ministered to his diabolical lusts and wickedness. Silvester who had been driven 
 away by one faction, again returned and seized the Vatican. Benedict having spent 
 his money, also renewed his claims to that office which he had sold for gold. These 
 three ruffian popes, by violence and bloodshed, kept possession of the Lateran, the 
 Vatican, and St. Mary's. "A three-headed beast," said your two writers, Labbeus 
 and Binius, " rising from the gates of hell, infested the holy chair in a vvoful manner." 
 Labb. vol. xi. p. 1280. Bin. vol. vii. p. 221. And Baronius, your orthodox Roman 
 historian also calls them "the three headed beast which had issued from the gates of 
 hell!" Tom. xi. Annal. A. D. lO^-l. — You have Cerberus, then, in the "pure and 
 holy line" of your succession ! ! 
 
 And how was a remedy brought to this state of things? Your Baronius has faith- 
 fully told the tale in Tom. xi. Annal of A. D. 1044, " As the mouths of the real Cer^ 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 165 
 
 herus, with its three heads, were stopped only by ♦ a pitchy mouthful,' says he, so a 
 certain ' pious man' of the name of Gratian, bethought of a similar scheme." The 
 three mouths of this monster pope could be stopped, he was sure, with money. For 
 money you know, gentlemen, is the only omnipotent god of your " Holy 31other" and 
 her priests! This man, Gratian, actually bought the pope's chair, with all the spirit- 
 ual powers, and honors, and apurtenances, thereto belonging, be they less or more. 
 He bought it, with all its names, titles, and attributes, of anticjuity, catholicity, succes- 
 sion, unity, miraculosity, and sanctity. The three popes formally made over " Holy 
 Mother Church" for gold ! ! Benedict, one of the holy fathers, for instance, was to 
 have all the revenues arising from England, while he lived : and the other holy pair 
 had their just share! And the purchaser, by the merits of his gold, was duly made 
 Pope, "Vice-God," and the "Holy father" of the faithful, to open heaven and shut 
 it on whom he pleased. This new and fourth existing pope assumed the name of 
 Gregory YI. I have only to add that your writers, Platina and Damian tell us with 
 much gravity that Benedict, this wicked pope, who caused this schism, and bloodshed, 
 and misery was subjected to punishment after death. Yes, the father of the faithful 
 and "God's vice-regent" was doomed to punishment! He appeared, say they, to a 
 traveller, with the graceful countenance of " a bear," and a head decorated with the 
 "long ears of an ass!" he was ornamented also with the long tail of an ass! The 
 traveller had the courage to ask him, — having found out that it was his " Holiness,'* 
 what could possibly be the cause of such a wicked and unholy transformation? 
 "Ah!" said the deceased Holy Father, — "this is the due reward of my pollution 
 when I was the head of the Holy Mother !" This pcmtiff, adds one of your saints, is 
 doomed to be dragged headlong, until the day of judgment, through thorns and filth, 
 in regions continually exhaling sulphur and stench, and burning with fire. See Da- 
 mian, c. 3. Platina, 142. Spondani, Epit. Baronii VI. 1094. Edgar 82. 
 
 I shall notice only one instance more : the twenty-nintli schism, usually called the 
 great Western schism, began in 1378. On the death of Gregory XI. the conclave, con- 
 sisting of twelve French cardinals, and four Italians proceeded to choose a pope. The 
 citizens of Rome had recently received back the i)Oi)e and court, after 70 years ab- 
 sence, at Avignon. They very naturally supposed, that unless an overjjowering mul- 
 titude should give them some salutary hints, backed by some well-timed club-logic, to 
 regulate their heterodoxy, they might be wicked enough to choose a Frenchman, for a 
 Pope : and he, of course, they had reason to fear, would retire to Avignon, there to 
 spend his riches. Guided by such disinterested motives, they placed n guard of honor 
 around the holy conclave, and ])roceeded to give them the necessary hints by 30,000 
 armed men ;— namely, that if the holy fathers did venture to choose a Frenchman 
 for Pope, it must be for no other reason than their own anxiety to get to heaven before 
 their time, as martyrs!! The cardinals are remarkably prudent men; they never 
 had given a martyr to " Holy Mother" yet; and they did not choose, at this time, to 
 begin the precedent : their Uves were exceedingly valuable ; g(Jod men were then 
 scarce. They took the liint from the mob : and adopted measures to get ample ven- 
 geance on both friends, and foes, and " Holy Mother" too ! 
 
 They formally chose Urban VI. And then retiring beyond the reach of the Roman 
 mob's discipline, they as formally elected Clement VII. Here your conclave chose 
 two opposing heads of " Holy Mother." Clement set up liis court at Avignon : 
 Urban, at Rome. And from that day all Europe was convulsed with wars. 
 
 This great schism lasted about 50 years. All Europe was a great ecclesiastical 
 
166 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 arena, on which kings and popes who are the worst of men, entered the lists with 
 deadly animosity, against popes and kings. What little remains there was of religion 
 in Europe, was nearly extinguished. The ghostly factions acted, usually, without 
 policy, and always without christian principle. " The pope's conscience," says Ed- 
 gar, " evaporated in ambition, selfishness, and characteristic malignity." The cam- 
 paign was opened by a volley of spiritual artillery. The electors denounced pope 
 Urban, and he excommunicated every soul of them, and formally gave the holy car- 
 dinals all over to the devil, soul and body ! ! Clement paid Uiban back in full tale. 
 It was a fair trial which pope could curse his antagonist with loudest thunder and 
 deepest anathemas ! Kings and Queens shared in the horrid curses ! No bishop, or 
 priest escaped. They cursed all on each side, mutually : and each pope declared 
 that " What he bound on earth was bound in heaven." Hence each believed, and 
 declared that his antagonist, and all his adhering bishops and priests, were cursed and 
 excommunicated; and thence stripped of office, and sanctity! And in as much as 
 each of them was duly elected pope, and each of them was a gentleman of egwaZ honor 
 and equal credit, we are bound in dut}-, to believe each of them to have been cor- 
 rect I And as each of these duly elected popes had annulled and vacated all the ordi- 
 nations, collations, and promotions of his rival, of course there was not one bishop, or 
 one priest in all Europe, who was not duly deposed, and duly excommunicated from 
 the church, and stripped of his office. They annihilated the hierarchy of Rome; 
 and it was regularly and duly done ! And I respectfully challenge all the Roman 
 priests in our Republic, to show an}' thing even plausible, against this historical fact. 
 
 As if to make things doubly sure, in this formal deposition, the council of Pisa 
 deposed and set aside these two popes; and elected pope Alexander. This, instead 
 of healing, made three acting popes! And all Europe sustained afresh convulsion 
 by the three fierce ecclesiastical factions. 
 
 The council of Constance, of atrocious memory, met in A. D. 1414. By this time 
 pope John had succeeded pope Alexander. The council required the three popes to 
 resign forthwith : each on oath solemnly'- 3'ielded ; and swore on the holy evangelists, 
 to obey. But each of them instantly resumed his papacy : and thus, says an able 
 writer, '■'•Holy Mother had three perjured heads; and there were three ferjured Vice- 
 gods /" John was deposed for his infamous crimes : the council actually proving 
 and declaring " the holy father" guilty of " perjury, incest, rape, murder, and sodomy," 
 See Labbeus vol. xvi. p. 173, 222, and Dupin vol. iii. 14. — Gregory the next pope, ab- 
 dicated and renounced the papacy : the third one, Benedict, stood out : he retired into 
 a strong castle, and there, deserted by all his friends, he consoled himself in his dotage, 
 by excommunicating twice in the day, with bell, book, and candle, all the nations of 
 Eiurope who had deserted his holy " personal cause !" Pope Martin was raised to the 
 papacy. And the infamous council made itself an execration to all generations, by 
 their treachery and infernal cruelty. They condemned, and burned alive, the famous 
 martyrs Huss, and Jerome of Prague, against w^hom they could bring no charge, but 
 that of being devoted christians, and faithful opposers of the heresy of the Romish 
 sect. 
 
 W^e might go on to adduce a list of ujiwards of 200 popes of a character, in all 
 points, similar to these. But this we deem enough, both to give the public an idea of 
 the line of succession boasted of by the Roman catholic sect : and, at the same time, 
 to annihilate their ridiculous claims of descent from the apostles! I shall only add 
 that, were I asked to select a list of the worst men : and the most wicked rulers : 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 167 
 
 ■even the most imprincipled of the species, — such as atheists, despots, mockers of 
 virtue and rehgion ; the common enemies of God and man; I would pass by the 
 Kings of Egypt, and Syria, and the despots of Assyria, and Babylon; I would leavo 
 out the atrocious Alexanders ; and the Caesars ; and the Greek despots ; and the Ro- 
 man emperors : I would even omit the News, and the Tamerlanes : — and I would, 
 after making an honorable selection of a few worthy names,— give "the Popes of 
 Rome," as furni^ihing that horrid list ! Their enormities, perpetrated under the mask 
 of holy religion, exceed, in fact, the powers of description. The characters of these 
 men, as hinted at in St. John's Revelations, "as drunk with the blood of the saints," 
 
 and as exhibited in the history of their lives, can no more be adequately portrayed 
 
 than can the character of the prince of darkness ! What man— what church, that 
 respects the character, and claims the honor of being Christian, would ever claim 
 sjnritual, or ecclesiastical succession through such a line of inhuman, and despotic 
 tyrants ! Men ! such as the arch-deceiver would select as his prime ministers ! Men ! 
 who have been the head, the heart, and the ever ready hand of that bloody Romish 
 sect, which has already murdered sixty-eight millions of the human family : and 
 is now seeking with an insatiable ghostly ambition, to regain its power, and would, 
 
 if possible, murder as many more ! ! 
 
 I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 In The Truth Teller, under the date of August 8, the following Letter appeared as 
 the finale of the Priests. 
 
 TO DR. BROWNLEE, 
 
 A PREACHER IN THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH. 
 
 This man began to build, and was not able to finisb. Luc. 14. 30. 
 
 Rev. Sir: — Our controversy with you, personally, is terminated. It would be folly to 
 continue it with a preacher who can neither form nor appreciate argument. Public 
 opinion must be respected, — our own character must not be dishonored. To continue 
 polemic discussion with you cannot add to reputation, for your substitute for argument are 
 falseliood, ribald words, gross invective, disgusting calumny, and the recommendation of an 
 obscene tale ! These have been your weapons from your first to your last puerile letter. 
 
 "In the 'Truth Toller' of July 6th and 13th, the following proposition was proposed to 
 you : ' What articles of faith, found in the scriptures in erpress terms, must be believed in 
 order to be saved V You were, at the same time, informed ihat ' the continuation of our 
 controversy with you, personally, would depend on your answer.' After a cautious delay 
 your answer was concocted,— your articles of faitli found in the scripture in express terms, 
 were given. Our last letter contained our remarks on your Bible creed. By this creed you 
 exclude the trinity, and the incarnation. What is your answer to our letter? this: 'Your 
 ultra zealotry' is ' ambitioning' too much when you find fault with my scriptural creed,— or, 
 indeed, any christian creed! This is your theological answer! tiiis is the answer of the 
 erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost !' This is the answer of the preacher 
 in the Middle Dutch Church ! He says we 'ambition too much when we find fault with 
 his scriptural creed.' But his scriptural creed excludes the trinity and incarnation, and to 
 find fault with the exclusion of the trinity and incarnation is, from his own avowal, ' ambition- 
 ing too much !' Hence, to secure the favor and approval of preacher Brownlee, we must 
 not 'find fault' with the scriptural creed which excludes the trinity and incarnatian. Wej 
 
1(J3 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 ask his * christian public,' is not this an ample and practical illustration of his protestant rule 
 
 of faith." 
 
 " But, further he writes; ' Fou 'ambition' too much when you find fault with any christ- 
 ian creed !" Therefore, in the opinion of preacher Brownlee, no christian creed is to be con- 
 demned. This is liberality ! But why does the preacher ' find fault' with the catholic ? 
 Is this consistency ? Any christian creed may be adopted : this is the final, logical, and ortho- 
 dox conclusion from the twelve polemical letters of preacher Brownlee on his protestant rule 
 of faith. This is the triumph achieved by preacher Brownlee for himself, the members of 
 the Middle Dutch Church, and his ' virtuous ladies.' As the bard sung of the burial of Sir 
 John Moore, 
 
 " 'We leave him alone with his glory.' " 
 
 John Power, 
 August 8th, 1833. Thos. C. Levins. 
 
 LETTER XIV.— AND LAST. 
 
 TO DOCTORS POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
 
 "Therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn 
 THEE BACK by the way, by which thou camest." — Isai. xxxvii. 29. 
 
 Gentlemen : — Indulge me in a few words on parting, seeing that nothing can stop 
 your RETREAT from the defence of "Holy Mother." And I trust, I shall not be 
 deemed greatly guilty, should I adopt a more playful humor, or, the philipic of the 
 great master of eloquence. The former is useful to relieve all parties, in the midst of 
 a rigid argument, and the sombre task of searching tlie pages of the fathers, and the 
 dull lumbering volumes of the Romish writers. The use of the latter is as necessary 
 and legitimate, in rousing our slumbering fellow citizens to a sense of their imminent 
 danger ; and in scourging the conspirators against our repubhcan institutions, our Pro- 
 testant religion, and our civil and religious liberties, — as ever it was in the hands of 
 the great master, against the enemies of Greece, 
 
 You inform the public, gentlemen, that "your controversy with me, 'personally is 
 at an end." I pray you, gentlemen, to beware of rash words. Controversy with me, 
 personally, you do not mean to end. It is true, this theological, and historical discus- 
 sion has not, I trust, been personal on my part. Personal sins, and flagrant delin- 
 quency I have rebuked : but that is no " personality," which is levelled against crime. 
 No, I chose a higher aim. No priest can, in a general discussion, be an object of 
 personal attack; when such game is started, and in full view, as ^' Holy Mother,'^ and 
 priestcraft! It is the head of all evil, on earth, namely error and vice personified, 
 and completely embodied in Roman Antichrist, at which the honest Protestant aims 
 the arrows of his quiver; — and his "Jerusalem blade," when he comes to close 
 quarters ! But for you, gentlemen, — you have labored in your vocation of endless 
 personalities. Jesuitism is by nature and training, given to personalities ! Jesuitism 
 would die of spleen, outright, if it did not vent its personalities. You have given the 
 most perfect specimens in this discussion. You have, moreover, established the fact 
 to the satisfaction of your enemies, that Romish logic has never yet distinguished 
 between argument and personal abuse. I do not say that this is your personal in- 
 firmity. No. It is of the essential nature of the whole system. Jesuitism is by its 
 very nature, at war with all mankind, and the good of all civilized society ! Issuing, 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 169 
 
 ss ir did, from the bottomless pit, if its natural malignity and hatred of all that is 
 good were changed, or modified, it would of necessity die. ^^ No faith ivith heretics,^^ 
 is the watchword of its bloodhounds. The clanking of chains, and the moans of the 
 tortured victims in the Inquisition, have been its favorite music : and the fires of the 
 AUTO DA FE, light up its dreary and horrid pathway ! The bowels of Jesuitism 
 yearn over us, according to its natural parental feelings ! Wherever it had the as- 
 dency it lighted up the gleaming fires of persecution. When its slave. Queen Mary, 
 mounted the throne of England, the fires of Smithfield were lighted up. We cast 
 our eyes over the massacres of Paris, and of Ireland, and in Piedmont ! We shudder 
 at the Auto clafes of Spain ! And "you may expel nature with a fork," as the Ro- 
 man poet said ; but nature will return in its unsubdued prurience, — and to-morrow 
 would Romanism light up the Smithjidd Jires, in our Park, had this bloody sect the 
 political ascendency and poicer, in our land! 
 
 How could you, then, Rev. Sirs, be so utterly off your guard as to commit your- 
 selves, by giving a pledge you never will redeem ! — But so it is : — as your own favor- 
 ite hath it : — 
 
 ^' A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain." 
 
 You have again repeated your blundering and ungrammatical card, demanding, — 
 *' What articles of faith found in the scriptures, in express terms, must be believed in 
 order to be saved ?" That is, what articles are to be believed to be saved? You 
 have in all your letters, given the American public suflficient specimens, in all con- 
 science, of the deficiencies of a Romish theological education: you might have spared 
 the public taste this last infliction ! But this little Card is the youngest and last of the 
 family : and of course it is a pet with you ! It is natural ! In a family, the youngest, 
 little, rickety child is always the object of an absorbing parental fondness, — especially 
 when its parents are waxing old, and are feeble-minded ! 
 
 You have given us another specimen of Romish logic in your remarks touching 
 my scripture creed. You facetiously affect to infer that we reject certain doctrines 
 because we do not mention them in express words. On your principles a man does not 
 believe what he does not find room to express in certain phrases ! Hence, on the prin- 
 ciples of your profound logic, our Lord, who does not, in express terms, mention either 
 the Trinity, or the incarnation, in the Lord's prayer, did not himself believe in them i 
 This, however, is not my main reply. Had your education embraced in it, tha first 
 elements of a sound christian theology, and the analytic method of evolving truth — 
 you must have seen, that in the very first text which I quoted, namely, " Believe in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," — the true christian necessarily be- 
 lieves in the Father, who sent his Son to redeem us : and in Jesus Christ the incarnate 
 God, who in human nature, suffered, and died for us: and in the Holy Ghost, who 
 *' creates us anew in Christ," and gives us that very faith by which we receive Christ. 
 However, I have availed myself of your suggestion: — Nam fas est et ah hoste dtKcril 
 I have, to satisfy you, added a few more texts to my *' scripture creed," in the second 
 edition of my Letters ; which you will admit to be now correct. 
 
 I shall not, therefore, follow you any farther, in your disjointed, and bald declama- 
 tion about " Creeds of christian faith" and "articles of belief." "Physician, I say, 
 heal thyself!" Those men, who have been fairly convicted of deism, on evidence 
 which would satisfy any jury of twelve honest men ; and who in fact, have openly 
 declared in the face of the public, that they, and their sect do absolutely reject 
 
 16 
 
1^0 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 God's word, as ^'utterly defective,'" and utterly insufficient to he the rule of faitfi,'^'*-» 
 are not to be listened to, in discussions about christian creeds, and articles of faith.< 
 Is it not sheer hypocrisy ? " And of all the cantings of this canting world, the cant 
 of hypocrisy is the worst." And of all the hypocrites, the most insufferable are these 
 two classes ; — namely, — the solemn drunkard, on the alehouse bench ; and the infidel 
 priest demurely discusssing creeds, and the pure doctrines of our holy religion ! 
 
 The highly complimentary truth which closes your last letter, would have been 
 duly appreciated by me, had it not been wrung from you by constraint. Here the 
 priests of Rome have been, in one respect, like the fair sex ; — pardon me, ladies, for 
 jDlacing you, even in supposition, in the company of the priesthood of Rome, with 
 whom, we are all aware, no virtuous lady can associate for one moment. But in the 
 fair one's letter, one can never arrive at her real feelings and meaning, until he comes 
 to the postscript. There, every thing is wrapt up in the last sentence. Even so, 
 after all the priests' vituperation, and scandal, and personalities, the truth is evolved 
 in their last sentence, — namely, — "We leave him alone," that is their opponent — 
 '•in his glory!" There are, I assure you, few polemics who can boast of receiving 
 such a compliment as this from their antagonists ; 
 
 It means, — "We abandon to him the whole cause, in despair! " ?Fe leave him 
 alone in his glory ! Our Roman catholic rule is utterly untenable ! We abandon 
 the defence ! The heretic's ten arguments have fairly capsized us ! They have 
 crushed our rule ! And the one score and five arguments against Holy Mother's 
 "idolatry," and her "superstition," and her "fanaticism," as he calls them, have 
 annihilated our hopes. They are tremendous! Conscious innocence can withstand 
 any thing ! But a guilty conscience makes one feel one's self annihilated! Holy 
 Mother's " antiquity," who can defend, when we have a conviction in our consciences, 
 that all our leading tenets and rites were, in sober truth, recently invented by our 
 popes and the priesthood. Then these treacherous fathers, — and that fatal Want of 
 the unanimous consent ! These monks of the dark age have much to answer for! 
 When they did alter, erase and add, why did they not do their job thoroughly, like 
 honest sons of "Holy Mother?" They have done their work in an imperfect and 
 slovenly manner. They have left, on their old pages, enough yet to paralyze us ! 
 And to crown the mischief, these books of our fathers, have got into the hands of the 
 heretics. And, only think, our heretic in his terrible Letter VHI., has let the fatal 
 secret out from these — our own hooks! Our plea of " catholicity" is gone, — unless 
 we oppose stout denials to our own standard writers ! The plague rest — as our 
 Shakespear says, on this cunning, reading, thinking ^'•American puhlic,''"' — and this 
 '■'religious public'^ of his ! What a serious mistake we have fallen into! We have 
 learned, — but it is too late, that we are not in Spain, and the blessed South of Ireland ! 
 We had hoped to make this "American public" believe that particular was general; 
 that Rome and our church, were the universal world! Our succession is ridiculed 
 too ! Those schisms, and those diabolical popes, set forth in all their horrid garnish- 
 ment, will kill us outright ! That Baronius, that Labbeus, and Binius, and Bruys, 
 and Du Cange, and Dupin, and the rest of our slovenly, truth betraying writers, can 
 never escape purgatory, for their wanton crime of affording materials to the heretics ! ! 
 Why did our own sons lift the veil off " Holy Mother !" 
 
 Alas ! for the stately bark of St. Peter ! It has been shipwrecked in Europe. And 
 •our last hopes were in bringing these United States under our grasp, and the holy des- 
 potism,— the salutary despotism of Rome, and the Inquisition ! We were working 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 171 
 
 ^ur way secretly and slyly. We had got many Protestants, — " silly fools," we admit, 
 who actually sent their daughters into our nunneries, and their sons to our pure and 
 holy seminaries of Jesuitism, to be educated ! ! And carefully and successfully did 
 we train them: and return them into the bosom of their heretical parents; deeply 
 imbued with pure monarchy and Romanism ; and faithful to the catholic Jesuits' cause ! ! 
 But alas! the cunning "American public" is now waked up! And our hopes are 
 blasted ! The curse of St. Patrick, as Shakespear says, be on these discussions! It 
 is true, we knew the wholesome rule of our Jesuit Busseus: "Avoid, if you can, all 
 controversy on the articles of faith, with heretics!" We did act on this all along! 
 But these obstinate heretics would not be way-laid. They plunged right onward ; 
 and they got in spite of us, into our citadel, — into the very chambers of our imagery ! 
 The veil so carefully thrown over all our weak and deformed parts, has been most 
 unceremoniously stript off. And St. Patrick, as Shakespear says, only knows what 
 is to be the end of these things! Our blessings on this officious, meddling "Ameri- 
 can pubhc" of his ! We had once thought that we could easily train, by our Jesuit 
 legions swarming over the land, the people of this same American republic ! Our 
 doctrines, our rites, and church government, sustained by a foreign power, cannot 
 thrive, — they cannot even live in a Republic ! But when we shall receive the power, 
 we shall teach these stiff headed Republicans another lesson. Spain, Austria and 
 Italy shall be the fair model of a new and renovated government ! But the maledic- 
 tions of St. Peter and St. Paul, as our Shakespear says, be on those ill advised dis- 
 cussions ! Our secret plans, from our head quarters in Europe, have been suddenly 
 divulged, before they had ripened into perfection! Our benisons on this "reading 
 and thinking" generation! Ten thousand anathemas on this "light and knowledge," 
 as the heretics call it. They paralyze us ; they strike us bhnd, as do the sun beams 
 the owl of the forest!" 
 
 Such, gentlemen, are the frank admissions conveyed in the last sentence, and part- 
 ing scrap of poetry, of your last letter. We thank you for the concessions : we shall 
 give wings to them ! 
 
 But, finally, permit me to grace your retreat with an appropriate historical expo- 
 sition of your favorite text at the head of my letter. It was not foi nothing that you 
 quoted it so often, and so apropos. " Coming events cast their shadows before !" You 
 had a presentiment of this ill fated retreat: and it was impossible that you could 
 forget the retreat of the great personages, alluded to, in the premonitory passage of 
 the prophet. 
 
 These were Senacherib, the despot of Assyria : with his two mischief-making sons, 
 Adramelech and Sharezer ; who closed the chapter of their father's accidents, in a 
 bloody tragedy. These, with their servant, Rabshakeh, came up to invade the fair 
 land of Judah, and destroy Mount Zion. The king of Assyria was but another narne 
 for a cruel /oreififn despotism, exercised over the souls and bodies of men. You know 
 who is the antitype of this unenviable character. The two sons of that prince, children 
 of Belial, may represent the two men who are the right and left hands of the symbol 
 of foreign despotism, — men, who, Hke these sons, would kill their sovereign ! And 
 Rabshakeh was a vain, blustering, swaggering, wine-bibber ; much given to gascon- 
 ade ; a captain of the Assyrian host ; fighting against Zion, and against the Most 
 High ; much given to speak and write blasphemy in the ears, and before the eyes, of 
 the people : much given to taunt "the Hebrew of the Holy Ghost," and prefer the 
 Babylonian traditions, and oracles of the heathens, to the pure and holy word of God. 
 
172 ROMAJf CATHOLIC CONTHOVERST. 
 
 Moreover, for some misdemeanor or other, by the law of his despotic prince, he wa» 
 doomed never to marry, nor to be received into the company of " virtuous ladies.'* 
 Hence he exercised himself much in the language of Ashdod, in speaking evil of all 
 *' the virtuous of the sex." For he did, — 
 
 "Like Moses praise and bless, 
 The Canaan which he never could possess." 
 
 But haste we to the sequel — Never was defeat more public and more complete, 
 than that of our Assyrians! Never was a Retreat of any vain glorious foemen 
 covered with more infamy than was that of the despot, his two sons, and Rabshakeh ! 
 Not one strong hold of Israel could they approach with a hand of harm ! Not one 
 arrow took effect in any one fortress of Zion. They missed their aim : they lost their 
 cause : they lost their honor , they lost their whole host ! The Mighty God of Zion 
 breathed on them in the burning wrath of his Samiel, — and lo! they were all dead 
 men ! The few struggling partizans, made their Retreat, in death like silence, and 
 with unutterable confusion. God fights against all anti-christian powers ! 
 
 Then, mark the end of the despot. The hands of those whom he trained up to 
 wickedness, did overthrow him ! As for Rabshakeh ; — as you are admirers of tradi- 
 tion, let us seek his fate in the Misnah, and the Gemara of the Talmud. It is very 
 obscure ; but the most feasible may be this : — being a great patron of human igno- 
 rance, he kept the people as blind and ignorant as possible. He hated reading and 
 writing : it only made people averse, he would say, from the patient bearing of the 
 yoke of priestcraft and despotism ! He took care to burn every copy of the book of 
 the law, that he conld find in the people's houses. Bui even the longest chain has an 
 end. The tide of popular fury turned on him ; and banished him into some eremite's 
 cell, to lead a life of penance and unalloyed misery. And he died as he fived, the 
 enemy of God, the curse of civil society, and the execration of all enlightened people ! 
 His bleached bones were found by some humane shepherd, who placed them under 
 a large rock, upon which, in process of time, some one wrote an epitaph. This epi- 
 taph probably found its way into the Gemara : and some amateurs having translated 
 it,— the famous Robert Burns added the charms of a poetic version to it, in the fol- 
 lowing manner : — 
 
 " Beneatli these rugged stones 
 Lie old Rabshakeh's bones ; 
 O death ! it's my opinion, 
 You ne'er took such 
 Ablatherin' bitch, 
 Into your dark dominion ! !" 
 
 Yours very truly, and respectfully. 
 W. C. Brownlee 
 
 Notice.— The priests having finally retreated, and having entirely given up their 
 cause, in this discussion it would be as discreditable to address anymore letters to them, 
 as it would be in a soldier, who keeps in his ranks, to consort, or correspond with 
 cowards and deserters. I shall claim the continued and kind indulgence of the christ- 
 ian community while I go on in the regular discussion, in Letters addressed to the 
 Members of the Roman Catholic Church : retaining my right, however, to return to 
 the charge, should the Priests come out with "more last words." 
 
 New York, August 13, 1833. W. C. B. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 173 
 
 A.- 
 
 *.. PART II. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE R03IAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 ■■' There is not such a great difference between our church, and the Protestant, that you 
 should leave us," — said a priest to a young convert to Christianity. — " There is onlv this dif- 
 ference between us," replied the youth: — " Tiie Roman catholics worship the god whom 
 the priest creates out of the wafer; we worship the God who creates the priest." — Malan. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — The priests having left the field clear, and undisturbed to us, I 
 could think of no other to whom I should address myself, than to you. And I beg 
 leave to do it, with great respect, and christian salutations. It can neither be to your 
 interest, nor to mine, to be deceived in this solemn matter. And God knows I wish 
 your salvation as well as my own. Permit me, therefore, to present myself respect- 
 fully before you. And until we become better acquainted, let me introduce myself 
 with a pleasant parable of olden times. 
 
 Once upon a time, the good St. Peter was sitting, in the cool of the morning, under 
 a rich clustering vine, in the lovely green vale of JehosajDhat : and in earnest discourse 
 with a friend. The holy Apostle, and he, had retired from the dust and heat of Jeru- 
 salem ; and they were discussing an important question, in a grave and solemn man- 
 ner, befitting such men. The apostle's friend was a chief priest : a noted man ; and 
 a bosom friend to Nicodemus. His faith had been shaken in the Jewish system ; and 
 he was devoutly inquiring how he should arrive fully at the truth, and be saved. He 
 had discovered with no small degree of alarm, that truth was no longer in the Jewish 
 system, and church. The pure word of God, the Jewish doctors had impiously dis- 
 placed; and rendered void by the fatal traditions of their fathers. The pure system 
 of Moses was no longer honored and received by them : and, with a singular incon- 
 sistency, what was abolished in the ceremonial law, they now clung to with great ob- 
 stinacy. The high priest, and his associates in despotism, had usurped power over 
 the souls, and consciences of men : they set no bounds to their avarice, pride, and , 
 luxury. They traded "in the souls of men:" they even professed to open lieaven ; 
 and shut the gates of hell, at the ecclesiastical chancery prices ! They sold pardons, 
 and permissions to sin, at all rates ; from Judas's sum of 30 shekels, up to the talent 
 of silver, and the lordly talent of gold ! 
 
 "The temple is converted into a house of merchandize — my dear Peter," said the 
 chief priest, as he fanned his burning brow with his snow white turban, — "In the 
 midst of this universal corruption, the kingdom of God I cannot find. Now, in as 
 much as he declared to our father x\braham, that his church should never fail, and 
 repeated it to David, and all the prophets ; and as it would be mockery to look for it 
 amid the universal corruptions of our high priest, and our chief priests and rulers of 
 the synagogue; — it must be found somewhere else. Is it to be found in the ntw, up* 
 start, christian church, just organized : or is it not to be found even there V 
 
174 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 St. Peter opened up to him the scriptures, and went on, comparing the Old Testa- 
 ment doctrine, with those of Christ, in order to show him that this neiv, reformed^ 
 upstart church, — the christian church alone, held the whole and only genuine truths of 
 God. And he was patiently bringing home to his heart, with many prayers, these 
 apostolical instructions : and instructing him in the right way of the Lord God of his 
 fathers ; while he kept a strict eye on a singular, suspicious, and ill-looking stranger, 
 who had entered the arbor ; and had placed himself not far from them. He was be- 
 decked in a fantastic dress, of many colors, neither exactly Jewish, nor altogether 
 Gentile in its shape : and there was a wildness in his looks, and antic gestures, 
 which indicated the phrenzy of a madman ; or, to say the least, the air of a designing 
 knave I 
 
 St. Peter went on, discoursing of the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement ; faith, 
 and repentance; and the justification of a sinner by faith in Christ, without the deeds 
 of the law ; and thence the absolute necessity of good works, and a holy life. He 
 was very particular in showing him that God only is the supreme Lord of the con- 
 science : that no human or ghostly jjower on earth, should be permitted by any who 
 calls himself a man, and not a dumb brute, to usurp power over the conscience ; or 
 dictate a form of religion to it. "Think, read, judge, decide for yourself. None of the 
 Jewish priests, nor any priest under these heavens, can dare to prescribe to your con- 
 science. Go to God's law, and word, and his inspired apostles. God speaks: 
 listen ; obe}'^ ; and count that man an emissary of the devil, fresh from the burning 
 lake, who would dare to lord it over your conscience ; or offer to appease God for you ; 
 or to pardon your sins for a few Jerusalem coppers! He is the arch impostor, — the 
 antichrist; of which our beloved brother John will tell you more fully." 
 
 Here the singular stranger grew so impatient, that he could no longer contain him- 
 self: and he rudely cut short the apostle's discourse, by abruptly crying out, — "Do 
 you call me the impostor and the antichrist?" Then addressing himself to the chief 
 priest, for he was evidently a stranger to St. Peter, — he besought him not to give heed 
 to one word uttered by that " hoary headed deceiver ;" for the holy order of the high 
 priest, and the chief priests have the entire keeping of men's consciences. And they 
 negotiate with heaven the whole of man's salvation for a moderate consideration. — 
 But I am forgeting himself. To give divine efficacy to my words, and confound all 
 heretics, I must have in my soul the intention ; and on my body the consecrated apos- 
 tolical raiment, — such as St. Peter the prince and pope : were he present, — would 
 laud and bless." And upon that he applied himself to the work. 
 
 He rose up and made certain genuflections, and prostrations to the east and west : 
 he then decked himself out in party-colored patches and rags, of red, purple, and 
 white, and green ; and putting on a thing resembling three crowns, on his head ; he 
 went to an adjoining thicket, and cut a tall rod the top of which he twisted into a 
 shepherd's crook. And coming gravely up ; he stood with a solemn, demure, half 
 crying countenance, for a few moments ; then whispered "Now 1 have got the unction 
 of holy intention ; now for the grace procuring gestures, and genuflections." And 
 with that he applied himself gravely to a succession of bodily exercises, forty-Jive in 
 number; sometimes he bowed: then he kneeled: then he elevated his arms aloft. 
 And having counted his forty -fifth, he sat down quite out of breath. " Now," said 
 he, " what I am going to say, no one dare gainsay, under peril of salutary cold 
 steel, and the hotfre ; — to wit, heading and burning ! This crown, the emblem of 
 power, and this sceptre, the symbol of pastoral qualification and care, God Almighty 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 175 
 
 made w-ith his own hands ; and with his own hands, he placed them on my head, and 
 in these hands!" 
 
 The apostle would have interrupted him : — but he silenced him with an outrageous 
 clamor; and he went on, engrossing- the whole conversation himself. "I am God's 
 vice-god, upon earth : I am supreme: by me kings and priests reign and act : I am 
 the lord of the liuman conscience : God has put this ghostly power in my unworthy 
 hands, who am a servant of servants." — And while the words of humility were on 
 his lips, he tossed his sceptre : and w^aved his lordly triple crown on high. — Then he 
 went on: — " The revelation which God has given to the Hebrews and the Christians, 
 derives all its authority and all its evidence from me : it is the word of God if I say it : 
 it is not, if I say nay : I add to it, and I take away ; and who shall set bounds to this 
 spiritual sceptre ! I have the keys of hell and of death ! I open heaven : and I 
 open hell! I shut them both as I will! Through me alone, God speaks ! Through 
 me alone, men shall apply to God. I am on earth, what the Almighty is in heaven ! 
 Hence I have pc vf r to alter what Christ did establish: I can add to his doctrines, 
 when it can be made profitable to bring in much gold. lean add as many sacra- 
 ments as I please to his humble and plain two. For this is also profitable •, — if not 
 for doctrine, — at least for establishing my supreme power over the souls of my slaves, 
 and minions. And ihe^^ also bring much silver and gold lo our coffers. Then gold 
 brings jnight : and might, according to sound ghoslly policy, always makes right! 
 These are the maxims of my court !" 
 
 Here the ^vrath ef St. Peter was kindled fiercely against him. He had hitherto 
 set him down in his own mind, as stark mad ; and he had viewed him with pity. But 
 as he went on in detail, he saw that he was a knave, possessed w4th a legion of raving 
 devils! ''Who is he?" said he to his host. "Verily Iknow^him not;" — said the 
 horror stricken chief priest: I took him at first, for some of your friends: then in my 
 mind, I thought him a poor demoniac, humbly following in order to get the devil cast 
 out of himself: he frequently, I thought, mentioned your name and your authority. 
 I suspect that he was a noted companion of Judas Iscariot !" " Who are you? AVho 
 sent you, sirrah ?" cried St. Peter, addressing him in terms of strong indignation ; 
 and unsubduable zeal for God's glory. 
 
 " Who am I ?" replied he slowly and solemnly ; — " I am the spouse of the church ; 
 and the church is my chaste and beautiful spouse. — God's vicegerent, and the infalli- 
 ble vicar of Christ : I come from holy St. Peter the prince of the apostles." 
 
 "Your proof, sirrah!" said Peter. " There is my ])roof!" said he gi-avely. And 
 he held out a roll of parchment : " I certify this roll to be the true and genuine roll, 
 and deed of right and power, conveyed to me, through lord j)ope St. Peter from 
 God !" 
 
 "Very well, sir impostor:" said Peter; — "you certify for that roWs authenticity : 
 then pray, who certifies for you?'" " WTiy look ye here, — my pity on your weak- 
 ness, old man ; — only inspect this roll ; and it will tell all about me ; and fully certify 
 that I am the only legal claimant." 
 
 " And what then, sir knave, will you do, if we ridicule this ludicrous reasoning in 
 a circle?" said Peter. " Why, I'll tell thee, hoary headed doubter, — if any one ex- 
 presses a doubt, — I have the sword, the axe, the fire, and the stake ! like the sword of 
 earthly kings, this is my holy spirhual weapon: my ultima ratio! my unanswerable 
 argument!" 
 
 "What is your object," replied St. Peter ; — "for you are a creature I never to my 
 
176 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONtROVERST. 
 
 knowledge saw before, — is it your object to save men's souls ?'* " That is a secondary 
 object." " What is your primary object then ? You may suppose me to be your St. 
 Peter, — and tell me." "You St. Peter! — you a plain fisherman, St. Peter! — why 
 St. Peter wore his red, and purple, and fine white robes, and his golden mitre I 
 Christ made him prince of the apostolical college!" "Thou art stark mad, I tell 
 thee," said St. Peter, — " but go on : dost thou set up thy kingdom solely to save men?" 
 " Yes, I save them in the way of making a good job of it." " But, how ? I pray thee, 
 go on." 
 
 "Why heaven is a great way off; and the way is very steep; and my flock are 
 not very steady, or moral, sometimes: — "Very well," said St. Peter, — "you lead 
 them to the fountain of the Redeemer's blood, I hope." " It is far easier, I tell thee, 
 ignorant man, to lead them to the basin of holy tvater.^^ " Holy water !" cried St. 
 Peter; — "I do not know that thing: and never heard of it before: but do you not 
 teach the holy atonement to be the only sacrifice for the sins of man." " No, no ; we 
 are inventing the thing called the mass, though it will take centuries to get men so 
 well taught, as to leave to me all the right of thinking for them ; and then take my 
 bare word for every thing : to call black, white, and the devil, Christ, if I only say it !" 
 " The mass!'''' said St. Peter : — "that is perfectly neic to me : the Master never said a 
 word of it: he appointed the Holy Supper, to commemorate his death, and his one, 
 real, and perfect atonement." 
 
 "You know nothing at all :" cried the wild man, — " We need not the atonement of 
 Christ ; ive offer up in the mass, daily, a sacrifice for the quick and the dead, to ap- 
 pease God!" "Hold, in silence, thy blaspheming lips," cried St. Peter; "thou 
 must be the Antichrist I But what said you about getting 3'our people near to the far 
 distant heaven? "Why, we make a sacrifice for them ; and wiiat is defective in that 
 we make up by putting the deceased souls into purgatory, and there, a smart burning 
 of well applied flames, consumes in a salutary manner, all their sins, aud follies." 
 " Well, that, we know, is taken from the abominable heathen; — but you do not mean 
 to say that it has any thing to do with us. Christians ? I never taught it : and 
 the Master never spoke of it : this he said, — ' The blood of Jesus washes all sins 
 away.' That is God's only purgatory that I ever heard of: for there is no other 
 Savior than Jesus. "But what get you for all this? — Are your holy water and 
 masses, and purgatoiy a free job ?" 
 
 "Oh! no: we save souls in the way of making gold and silver, and building up 
 our power ! If we condescend to spare the time from our luxuries and pleasures, souls 
 should be very thankful ; and pay their fees wdth less grumbling!" "And as you 
 have added five new sacraments," said St. Peter; — "do you bestow grace through 
 them, free to all, and gratis /" " Oh ! no : there is no divine efficacy in one of them, 
 unless the church's dues be paid: it is the church's dues : it is St. Peter's pence P' 
 " So, then this marvellous and newly invented system is all adapted to make gain — 
 these shepherds shear the sheep, and flay them, and take all the milk to themselves! 
 I thought that our Master had said, — ' Ho ! every one that thirstetb, come, diink : 
 come without money and without price,' God's word says this." " That may be," 
 said the demon, "but times shall be changed : these were Christ's laws: but I speak 
 now of owr holiness's laws." " Why the Master had his children mainly among the 
 poor;" said St, Peter; ' and to the poor is the gospel preached.'" "No, no; our 
 infallibles declare that the rich can bu}' pardons for any space, — limited only by the 
 limit of money, where that stops short, reprobation begins ! Know ye not that the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. illf 
 
 Streets of Heaven are paved with gold. As we have the laying out of the city ; and 
 of course all the paving, how can we have paving of gold ready, in every street, 
 unless the people give us their gold!'''' 
 
 "Marvellously said:" whispered St. Peter, — "now do I see whither we have got: 
 but repeat what thou saidst about a certain Saint Peter:'' "Why St. Peter was the 
 prince of the apostles, infallible, and" — " ah !" cried the apostle interrupting him, 
 " where gottest thou that novelty : — ay! prince he must have been, because he was 
 a blundering, forward man: infallible, too," added the humble apostle with deep sor- 
 row ; " they have got me to be what I never heard of from the Master, — infallihhf 
 
 verily ! Ah ! this mockery is offered because I did deny my Lord ! I am humbled 
 and mortified," continued he; "they call me infallible and prince! I suppose be- 
 cause Paul sternly rebuked me, and showed himself justl}^ my superior ! But go on,"^ 
 added he aloud : " After this ebulhtion what shall we hear next, I wonder?" " Why 
 we select St. Peter to be the foundation of our church." "The blessed Master keep 
 me out of such a church, with such a rotten foundation" — exclaimed St. Peter with 
 holy indio-nation. " Give me, O my blessed God, give me grace to belong to that 
 church that is built on the Rock of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ! That is the 
 Christian church," — cried St. Peter. "And that is the only, pure, and immutable 
 church, which I also long to be a member of," — said the pious chief priest ; but go 
 on; let us hear all!" 
 
 "You know nothing,"—cried the Demoniac in reply—" did I not lay hold o^holy 
 intention ? Do I not stand up in my sanctified robes ? Am I not, therefore, infal- 
 lible ? If you doubt, you shall be damned, by me ! I will cast you into purgatory ; 
 and none of my holy priests shall pray you out — unless for a ruinous sum from your 
 heirs ! 
 
 Here the apostle, eyeing the motley buffoon from head to foot, burst out into a loud 
 laughter : but, suddenly recollecting himself he said' — "I am determined to hear the 
 possessed mad man out : go on : I will not interrupt thy extravagance : the pagan 
 kings claim power over sun, moon, and stars ; but thou art " the wild beast whose tail 
 sweeps the third part of the stars from heaven :" and with thy paws thou throwest 
 men into sheol ! Go on, I pray thee." 
 
 "Having laid my foundation of empire on St. Peter, I shall go forth to subdue all 
 nations, kingdoms, tongues, and countries. My power extends to all the world, and 
 all heaven, and all hell !" 
 
 Here the apostle sprang up from his seat; he could not stand it. " Nay, then. Sir 
 Gascon, have done, at last. I see who thou art. Our sovereign and blessed Master 
 Jesus Christ, warned us of the great Western maniac prince, who would be intoxicated 
 with the blood of the saints. The system was conceived and plotted in hell: and 
 thou art the demon let loose for a season ; and charged with the execution of it ! 
 Already, I see, art thou wandering to and fro through the earth, and hatching thy 
 diabolical plots. Now, hear me, I am St. Peter ! and had not the Master drawn the 
 veil over thy mind, thou mightest have known me." Then, by a holy impulse, he 
 laid the glorious system of the truth of Christ, as opposed to the system of Antichrist^ 
 before the vigorous intellect of the mischievous demon : it shone brilliantly as a 
 polished steel mirror of the daughters of Judah : the truth beamed from it with unut- 
 terable brightness, and flashed over his guilty conscience and heart. 
 
 The demon, who is also the soul and spirit of Antichrist, cast his small, sunk, and 
 twinkling eyes, first, on St. Peter, with fear and terror ; and then on all the objects 
 
178 ROMAN CATHOIilC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 around him, exclaiming: " Art thou come then, to betray, in thy apostolical writings, 
 and those of thy associates, the secret of our kingdom, which I have thoughtles&ly 
 blabbed out ! Art thou come to torment me and mine before the time ?" Then, with 
 a hallow scream, he fainted away under the beams of the truth. And a sweeping 
 whirlwind and vivid flashes of fire, and roaring thunder, the symbol of heaven's irre- 
 sistible vengeance, — swept him away down the vale, into the Dead Sea ! 
 
 Fellow Citizns : — I need not stop here to interpret the parable. Your own good 
 sense will lead you to understand it. 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, with christian salutations, 
 yours faithfully. 
 August, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 TO THE MExMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 *' We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the 
 proper things of the body, according as he hath done, either good or evil." — Douay Test, 2 
 Cor. V. 10. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — If you will unite cordially with St. Peter, in the wholesome 
 doctrines here taught by him, in his replies to the evil spirit of Antichrist, then» 
 assuredly, you and I shall be better acquainted : and you will not count me your 
 enemy, because I tell you the truth. 
 
 No one of us, in this " land of the free and the home of the brave," wishes you ill. 
 No one of us ever says, " ill-luck to you.'''' No one of us does wish you to forsake 
 the trv£. religion of your fathers. They are designing men, and impostors, who seek 
 to persuade you that we have any such intention. We do solemnly assure you before 
 God, that all we wish and beg of you is this; — that, as men, as immortal beings, who 
 are soon to stand before the awful throne of Almighty God, to be judged, each one 
 for himself — you would study the holy scriptures ; and draw your religion out of God's 
 word alone. It is God's word. God speaks to you and to us, in it : it is not obscure : 
 make the trial and you will see : he speaks to us as plainly and clearly, as does a 
 father to his children ! 
 
 Break the chains of priestcraft in pieces, and be free ! It makes you poor, — who are 
 laboring men : it keeps you in abject poverty, and unsufferable bondage. You see 
 the highly intelligent and learned men of your church despising, and laughing priest- 
 craft to scorn ! Do the well informed ever go to the abominable confessional of a 
 licentious priest ? Would the genteel and well informed among you permit their 
 wives and their daughters to go to hear such infamous and obscene questions put to them 
 by the bloated and pestilential lips of the priests! No, never! Resolve to be free 
 from this cruel yoke. Go to Almighty God alone for pardon : go and confess to Him 
 alone : he asks no money : he never sent any priests to rob you, to pay for pardons. 
 Go in humble faith, to the only Savior, the great God, our Redeemer: he alone can 
 pardon. It is impossible that any thinking and reflecting mind can, for a moment, 
 believe that the infinitely holy God, would commit to incontinent wicked priests, the 
 power of absolving from sin ! A priest rebuking wickedness ! Behold the renovation 
 of Milton's scene of " Satan reproving and chiding sin /' Who can believe, — who can 
 foe so much of a knave, as to believe and teach that Almighty God who commands 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 179 
 
 you '• to come, without money and without price," would send a priest to barter in 
 pardon, and sell absolutions, and take money for letting souls out of purgatory ? Re- 
 solve at length to rise up and be free from this worst of paganism ! Break the cruel 
 chains of priestcraft from around your immortal and noble souls! Resolve, and 
 declare, and appeal to heaven, that you will, that you shall be free, like all other 
 christians around you ! 
 
 Can any one of your families be said to enjoy liberty ; and mutual confidence in 
 each other, when a ghostly tyrant establishes such an espionage over you; and 
 employs the wife to watch the husband, and the husband the wife? Where i& 
 liberty and mutual confidence, and family peace enjoyed, when all the members of 
 that family, are constituted spies over each other, and carry all the family secrets to 
 the intermeddhng priest! How can you, in one instance, trust your wife's honor to 
 a man who puts the most loathsome and obscene questions to her ; and does it to 
 entice her affections away from you ? How can you answer it at the bar of God, for 
 allowing a modest and innocent young child to go to the confessional ; to have her 
 mind, and body poisoned, and polluted by a priest, at whose confessional, I do pub- 
 licly and boldly say, no pure and virtuous woman can appear, without being shocked: 
 and without actually suffering the loss of modesty and moral character! The dark 
 ages have rolled away: therefore, no sober minded man in our republic can sink to 
 such a degradation as to make such a bargain with a wretched priest, as did the late 
 duke of Brunswick, who made his bargain and paid his price to the ''holy'' priest to 
 be damned in his stead, if he should happen to be damned for his apostacy from Christ 
 to Antichrist! 
 
 I am perfectly aware that in purely Roman catholic lands, no sentiment is more 
 common than this, that the priest undertakes <o negotiate the whole concern of salvation 
 for his victims ! I implore you to rise from this state of infinite degradation. A man 
 who can think and act as the Duke did, has a meanness of soul that is immeasurably 
 contemptible ! Nay, he cannot be a believer in Christianity ! Nay, he cannot be a 
 believer in a future judgment, or rewards and punishments ! Nay, he is not even a 
 beUever in the existence of God ! Permit yourselves no more to be the victims of an 
 infidel priesthood. In the name of God I beseech you, remember that if you die in 
 your sins, after following the wicked priest, God will condemn you both. Every 
 priest, whose conscience is not absolutely 'seared as with a hot iron,' knows that he 
 neither will, nor can take your place. Bankrupt and beggared, he has no credit,— no 
 i-nfluence in the court of heaven. His own damnation is deep enough : and he can- 
 not answer for you ! 
 
 Open your eyes to the infamous imposture of purgatory, practised on you to cheat 
 you out of your money ! As certainly as God is Almighty and just, and holy, so cer- 
 tainly is there no such place, or thing, as purgatory ! The vile fiction, we have for- 
 meriy shown you, is only a few centuries old. Mark the imposition. Dr. Varela has 
 told you lately in a newspaper, that it is the doctrine of his church, that no man 
 knows who, or how many, of your departed relatives are in purgatory ! ! Now, tell me, 
 I beseech you, how you can permit yourselves, or your wives, to be robbed of your 
 money, in order to bring souls out of it, when none of these priests, who get the wages 
 of their robbery, can even tell who is in purgatory ! Depend on it, my friends, if 
 their masses, and their prayers, had any— even the least interest and favor with God, 
 he would not conceal from them who, and how many of those are in the fires, for 
 whom they pretend to pray. 
 
JgQ ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 This is not all : there is another sheer imposture in this matter. It is not true that 
 your priests either do, or can, say all the masses for the departed souls. If they did, 
 they must be saying masses, day, and night, every hour of all their lives! You need 
 
 not, you ought not to pay any more for at least a thousand years — for your priests, 
 
 every where, at least, are a thousand years in arrears ! — Make them pay up in masses, 
 "before you pay another copper ! How is it that you are so slow, — so utterly without 
 judgment, at making equitable bargains ? 
 
 The late Rev. Dutch minister of Sourland, Somerset, N. Jersey, was very intimate 
 
 with father P , who occasionally officiated there. Once, while in a jocose and 
 
 free conversation, the Dominie said to the priest, — " Father P , it is all nonsense 
 
 to profess that you believe in purgatory : you have too much learning and good sense 
 to believe in any such thing! Come now, ami not right?" "Ah!" said father 
 
 P , " you are too severe : but come now, I declare solemnly, that I do believe in 
 
 purgatory, as earnestly as any other priest I I am honest and loyal to Holy Mother." 
 And he shook his vasty sides, and laughed right merrily ; and added, — " Come over to 
 my chambers, and I declare to you, that I will show you purgatory." " What — show 
 me purgatory?" cried the astonished Dominie ; — '* Yes, you shall see it, on my honor, 
 with your own eyes !" 
 
 You may be assured that the curious Dominie lost no time in visiting the priest. And, 
 after a refreshment of no ordinary a kind, — for there were no temperance societies, in 
 those days, the Dominie reminded his host of the promise touching the vision of pur- 
 gatory. " To be sure"— said. the father, — " Y^ou shall see it : follow me." He con- 
 ducted him into the confessional ; and approaching a small bureau, he pulled out the 
 drawer containing some silver pieces, — such as dollars, half-dollars, and occasionally 
 some few shining bits of gold ; — then turning on his guest the most quizzical look im- 
 aginable, he said — " There, my good sir, is my purgatory : and the only one I know of, 
 or care for!" 
 
 My respected friends, every one knows, that in a figure of speech, the effect is often 
 put for the cause. Here is an instance of it. The silver and gold were the effect of 
 his victims' belief in purgatory. The jiriest here gravely took the effect for the cause : 
 he believed firmly in the visible effect ; while he left the cause to the faith of " silly fools 
 laden with iniquity," who believe without evidence, and trust in the existence of a 
 non-entity ! The most of the priests may, perhaps, be as learned, and as -wdse as this 
 father : but, most assuredly, few of them are as honest and as candid as he was. 
 
 I have thus respectfully, and most earnestly urged on you the duty of asserting 
 your independence, and claiming your unalienable birth-right, to think for yourselves, 
 and choose your own religion. Do not, any more, repeat what assuredly is not true, 
 that we aim at persuading you to forsake your religion, and the religion of your 
 fathers, This is sheer priestcraft. The priests have taught you to say this. They 
 do it merely for effect, and deception. We ask you to abandon, — not what you ever 
 voluntarily chose ; not what you embraced after accurate scriptural research, and 
 earnest prayer to God for fight; but that which has been palmed on you for religion! 
 Had you sought it simply from God, and out of his holy and only inspired Word, you 
 would have found that which we would never have asked you to forsake. What we 
 beg you to abandon is, that system of mental tyranny ; those human devices, not 
 found in all God's word: that cunningly devised system, which takes away your pro- 
 perty wtthout giving you any instruction, or any equivalent whatever in return ; which 
 robs you of real peace : which, by imposing flattery, leads your souls astray, from 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 181 
 
 the only shepherd and bishop of souls, the Lord Jesus Christ; and chains you to the 
 car of an unrelenting priestly vassalage, and the worst of all despotism ! We implore 
 you, fellow citizens, to hasten your escape from this yoke of bondage. Read, — think, 
 — and boldly assert your rights to judge for yourselves ! Sustain the digniiy and glory 
 of your nature. In this happy land the souls of all are free, but yours. The chains 
 of the dark age are still rivetted on you, by ghostly tyranny. Reject with indigna- 
 tion, and spurn from you the disgusting legends, traditions, and impostures of men, 
 who are six centuries behind all other people in knowledge, and morals, and religion ! 
 Ofmen, who reap gain from ungodliness, whose untiring effort is to stop the progress 
 of the Bible and christian knowledge ; and whose pleasure and gain lie in keeping 
 the species wrapped in the profoundest ignorance ! Hitherto have the priests dictated 
 for a religion to your consciences, what God never taught by his prophets ! And 
 this they know as well as we do ! These inventions, and their mummery, and mock- 
 ery of God and of man, are what we implore you to abandon. Choose your religion 
 out of the pure and unadulterated word of God ; and no longer yield your souls a prey 
 to the impostures of ignorant, profligate, and designing priests ! We appeal to the 
 Most High, our common Lord and Master, that we long over you, to see you raised 
 to the spiritual liberty, which all your fellow citizens enjoy, in our happy Republic. 
 You only of all the Repubhcan family, have not rid yourselves of the execrable spi- 
 ritual vassalage, from which, by the grace of God, our fathers set themselves free 1 
 
 One of our fellow citizens, the other day, gave a Bible to a Roman catholic neigh- 
 bor, in Brooklyn. He is a respectable man : and he can read and write. It was 
 given him as a great curiosity ; and he promised to read it. But he soon brought it 
 back. His own mind filled with the traditions and nonsense of priestcraft, under the 
 whisperings of his spiritual guide, was itself the standard and rule. For tradition and 
 prejudice are the real and genuine rule of faith of the men, who exercise their souls 
 by proxy, and think by proxy : and believe by proxy : and who, if they drop unexpect- 
 edly into hell, they expect to be recalled by priestly proxy, or else they have the con- 
 solation that their proxy is to be "damned in their stead!" He threw the Bible to 
 his neighbour.—" Take it back " cried he, " His a dangerous hook! It contains dam- 
 nable errors; and it has no Roman catholic religion in it: not even a word for "the 
 Mother of God,*' " the Queen of Heaven." I go with the priest in ail that he says : 
 and if he be damned; then I am willing to be damned too !" This authentic anec- 
 dote I am prepared to prove by two respectable citizens who stood by, and heard him 
 utter it. 
 
 In some political straggles, when party spirit has run high, we have heard of some 
 warm politicians ''^ going the whole hog.'"' But here is a novel display. Here is a 
 daring spirit who carried the bold experiment into the world of mind and immortality ! 
 Here is a master spirit, who bows so lowly before the throne of Antichrist; and burns 
 with such zeal to support the crusade of priestcraft, and despotism against God's holy 
 scriptures, and the christian rehgion,thathe is prepared to sacrifice body, and life, and 
 even his soul, and even heaven ; and plunge into the gulph of perdition, to grace the 
 cause, and win a triumph for the prince of darkness ! 
 
 But, pardon me, I ask you, my respected friends, if this man acted with the dignity 
 of a man ? Is this conduct rational, or befitting a human being ? Can such a wretcli 
 as that, be fit to grace any office, or occupy any post, — but the handle of the oar of a 
 galley slave ; or the handle of the hammer of a wretched culprit hi the mines o 
 Mexico, or Peru ? 
 
 17 
 
J32 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 
 
 Here is another specimen, I heard it uttered the other day by one of yourselves, he . 
 was a ffood cathoUc. He "swore he was in the full faith ; and believed all that the 
 priests believed : he was not quite so moral, he frankly admitted, as some others: but 
 *'he swore he was of the genuine faith.'' "Now, Doyle," said I, "what do you 
 believe?" "I believe as the holy church believes." "Well, Doyle, what does the 
 church believe?" "Arrah now, she believes, I swear, exactly what I believe!" 
 "Well said, Doyle, but tell us what you both believe?" He raised his fair Milesian 
 face, and declared with the best humored smile in the world, — "Arrah! now we do 
 believe exactly alike the same thing." 
 
 Having now, I trust, formed an acquaintance, and having mutually refreshed our 
 memories with what we have gone over, in my former Letters to the Priests : I beg 
 leave here to pause ; offering soon to present myself on a graver subject, and in a 
 graver manner. I am, fellow citizens, with respectful and christian salutations, 
 
 Your sincere friend, &c. 
 
 W. C. B> 
 
 LETTER m. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCE*- 
 
 Avrjp h (p£vyo)v, Kai va\iv jjLa^r}asTai^ 
 
 " The man who fights, and runs away 
 May hve to fight another day." 
 
 Demvsthenes. 
 
 'I'ellow Citizens : — You have penetrated the reasons, before now, why the bish- 
 op's three champions have deserted your cause ; and abandoned the defence of " Holy 
 Mother." At any rate, every intelligent Protestant perceives the reasons. One of 
 them was this : — -There is a certahi rule laid down by the Jesuits, whose order has 
 been revived, to plant Romanism in our land ; and sap the foundation of our repub- 
 lican institutions. That rule binds the consciences of the Jesuits, my late opponents. 
 The rule I alluded to, is thus expressed by Busseus, ''Never discuss the doctrines 
 of Holy Mother Church with a heretic, if it can fossihly be avoided.'' You all know 
 how scrupulously my antagonists obeyed this Jesuitical rule. They poured out their 
 ebulitions of malignity against the only rule of faith ; and exhausted the last shaft of 
 infidel animosity against God's holy word. This they would do. But they shunned 
 all discussion of their church's doctrines and rites. Another reason was this : — when 
 they entered the lists, they had no idea that we possessed the books, which we have; 
 and which are written by their great men. They had no conception that these works, 
 now in our possession, and which we have been quoting, were in the United States ; 
 but were on the contrary slumbering in the monastic hbraries of Spain, Italy, and 
 Austria. Hence they began, and actually practised, for a while, the ruse de guerre^ 
 common with all Jesuits in places where the people have not their books ; and know 
 not their tenets. They denied their own books : they denied their real doctrines. 
 But it is impossible to describe their astonishment and confusion, when we quoted 
 the originals of their own works, and named page and chapter. From that time, 
 they evidently drew back : and dealt no more in denying their books and principles. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 183 
 
 One of my antagonists exclaimed in the hearing of a friend of mine, — " ^Vhere in 
 the mischief, do these fellows get all these books !" If it would be in any way edif^^- 
 ing I would tell him. Under providence we are indebted to Napoleon, and his "re- 
 forming" troops, for many of them. These soldiers broke up many a Jesuit's and 
 Inquisitor's librarj^, in their visit to Italy, Spain, and Naples. These volumes were 
 sold to these "reforming soldiers;" as plunder, profitable to themselves : and it is 
 probable, moreover, that they had wit enough to discover that any body ; even heretics, 
 would make a better use of these volumes than the dull, sleek-headed, fat, contented, 
 ignorant monks of the cells, ever could do. I have in my possession a Latin work 
 308 years old. It was written by the bishop of Rochester against Luther, in defence 
 of king Harry VIII. before that prince dashed off the pope's crown and put it on his 
 own head. I have another to7ne of 3000 pages folio, and lately the property of one 
 of the pope's " Apostolical Protonotaries ;" whose name and coat of arms are bla- 
 zoned in front of it. It is a precious body of Jesuitism, — its laws, and doctrines, 
 drawn at full length ; — namely, the works of L. Molina. And whatever uninform- 
 ed men may say, these very doctrines of Jesuitism, as we shall show ere long, are re- 
 \ived in our country by the newly revived sect, in all their immutable virulence. 
 He is unpardonably ignorant of European history, who does not know the genius of 
 Jesuitism, the master piece of Satan's deepest and utmost stretch of invention : and 
 also that every government of Europe has denounced them as equal to legions of in- 
 carnate fiends : and the unrelenting foes of liberty and religion : the desperate ene- 
 mies of God and man ! And that x\merican citizen is as unpardonably ignorant of 
 the present state of things in Europe, and his own Republic, who does not know that 
 Jesuitism has been lately revived with full powers by the popes, ivith one grand spe- 
 cific object ; openl}' avowed here and in Europe, namely, to overrun this republic ; 
 put dowm our republican institutions : establish despotism : and finally, the Romish 
 hierarchy, and the inquisition : and then organize crusades against the Plotestant 
 religion ! ! It is true, we smile at their diabolical and fruitless intentions ; and appeal 
 to the Most High for protection. But belt remembered : — this is to be prevented by 
 the glorious schemes, and the means now used by the christian public : and by the 
 missionaries, and by Sabbath schools in the vallies of the Mississippi : and by the Tract 
 and Bible societies : — and not by these lukewarm christians, and lukewarm politi- 
 cians in our countr^% who cry, — "no danger," — "no fear!" And who, moreover, 
 betray on whose side they are, by sending their children to be trained up by licentious 
 and expelled European Jesuits ! And who betray their country's cause by contribu- 
 ting sums of money to build up Jesuit's chapels and colleges, out of which are to 
 issue men, who will make deadly war against our republican institutions, and our 
 religious liberty ! ! Who does not see that this is treason against our republic ! 
 
 These are some of the reasons why your priest's have retreated from the field. The 
 object of Jesuits is to carry on their work in silence, darkness, and concealment.-^ 
 They are determined secretly to undermine us. And when they think they have the 
 power, we shall hear of the American gun-powder plot ! Hence our priests 
 hate nothing more than the exposure of their real doctrines, and their real object. 
 And, hence, fellow citizens of all ranks, you perceive the reason why I must go on ; 
 and tear the whole mask off from the face of Jesuitism ; and the w^hole of the faded 
 purple robe off the old paralytic limbs of " Mother Babylon !" I have received let- 
 ters from many parts of the United States; particularly from New England, Vir- 
 ginia, Ohio, Kentucky; and the "far West," urging me to go on. These contro- 
 
184 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt. 
 
 versial Letters of New-York, and Philadelphia, are read with avidity, by, perhaps:, 
 four millions o{ our fellow citizens. Does any man think that I can prove recreant 
 to my God, and my country ; and like the priests, turn my back and retreat 1 Shall 
 I obey two oi three individuals ; and refuse the loud call of millions? No! sooner 
 let my arm fall from my shoulder blade ! I shall not stop until I am done : and the 
 priests know what that means. I throw myself on the kind indulgence of the chris- 
 tian and political public, who have hitherto sustained me. And I entreat of all my 
 fellow citizens, a patient and full hearing. 
 
 I shall now go on with the regular discussion.— I have despatched three marks of 
 your priest's church. I now beg your attention, fellow citizens, respectfully, to the 
 examination uf the next mark. 
 
 Fonrth.^Yom sa.vctity. By this attribute of their church and priesthood, your 
 priests mean to convey the idea that they, their associates, and popes, are really 
 HOLY. They are quite separated from the wicked men of this wicked world : they 
 are HOLY I They care nothing about power: nothing about money, — vile trash ! 
 They would not take it from their devout and pure disciples! They are above it, — 
 and above the world, and above its dainties ! Revelry and wine, and mirth, are to 
 the HOLY and spotless priesthood, an utter abomination ! It makes them even fain^ 
 at the idea of social company ! - Their spirits die away in them at the idea of earthly 
 joys, and merry entertainments! They are holy ! They are sublimely weaned 
 from the world. A dinner on meats, and icine on Fridays, at home, or in a steamboat, 
 would shock and kill them ontright ! The very presence of a female,— the very 
 name of wife, would make them expire in fits, and give up the ghost! ! 
 
 This is not all. They are holy in their pope and cardinals, who have not yet 
 practically believed in the existence of the Deity. The prince bishops of the old worlds 
 who boast that they believe in no other world than the -present, are holy ! The 
 priests who know not the first elements of religion, are holy unto their god /" Their 
 rites and doctrines, all invented since the sixth century, and invented by tyrants and 
 knaves, to plunder the people of the fruhs of their industry, are all holy ! Their vest* 
 ments of motle}^ color, and unmatched shape, are all holy. If a priest ''swears by 
 his holy vestments,'' as every devout Roman catholic knows, it is an oath vs^hich none 
 of the simple faithful ever doubts. In a word what the priest does, isholT/ : what the 
 priest says is holy; what he blesses is holy ; what he consecrates, such as relics, were 
 they even tlte bones of a convict, or a Turk — they are holy saintly relics! The 
 chapel is holy : the floor is holy: the ahar is holy: the candles are holy : the water 
 is holy: the oil is holy : the incense and its smoke are holy! All that is absurd, and 
 stupid, and outrageous on common sense, — such as the wafer consecrated into a God. 
 is holy. All — all is ^oZi/, except only such small concerns as these; namely: the 
 soul, the heart, and the lives of the priests, and their victims ! When the priest ut- 
 ters holy anathemas on all but his own sect, he is holy ! When he dooms the whole 
 Protestant world to hell, he is holy ! When he grants absolution for sin at the stated 
 price, in the pope's chancery book — and blots out iniquity on the graduated scale of 
 pounds, shillings, and pence, he is holy ! When he grants an indulgence at a stipu- 
 lated sum, to secure an indemnit}^ against future penalties and sins, just as far as the 
 sum, fixed upon, goes, he is holy ! In fine, the centre of all apostacy, sin, tyranny* 
 persecution, and ghostly despotism, is pronounced at Rome to be holinr ss. And he 
 who bears tlie title and Hvery of Antichrist, is called "His holiness," in the ab- 
 stract ! And on the same principle, when the princes and rulers under the chief 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 185 
 
 prince of darkness, address each other in council, in Milton's Pandemonium, it is quite 
 supposable that in courtesy they politely address each other by the names and titles 
 of -what they once were, — as "Your holiness!" "Your sublime gravity ! Your 
 immaculate virtue !" And all this takes place while they are plotting the ruin of the 
 blessed Redeemer's church ! And every student of human nature, and of things, 
 knows that with deep designers and profligate men, there is a special advantage in 
 calling things by names the perfect reverse of the truth ! If I plot the ruin of my 
 country, I assume the name of patriot, and clamor loudly about patriotism ! If I am 
 going to utter the most palpable lies, and fictions, and slanders, — I call my pages 
 *' Truth Teller !" If I am going to persecute, murder, and massacre good men ; 
 and extirpate the true religion of Christ, I call myself "His Holiness." If, like 
 Satan, a masterspirit tries to do the work of darkness, " he transforms himself into an 
 angel of light I" 
 
 I am aware that no Roman priest believes what he utters about " holmess.''^ It is 
 used simply for effect ; to rivet the chains of deluded victims ! 
 
 The entire argument of their champion Dr. Milner of England, is this. "If the 
 church was holy once, she is holy still : because the church never changes her doc' 
 trines, nor suffers any one in her, to change them." Letter 19. In this sophism, he 
 takes the "church," in one sense; namely, to be the church of God: in the rest of his 
 sentence, he takes it for granted, without any proof, that the Romish church is the only 
 church. And hence he infers that the Romish sect is the only and entire church of 
 God ; and, thence, that the Romish sect is the church in heaven : and the church on 
 earth ! And, from this unparalleled impudence of assumption, he tries to compose 
 his muscles into sufficient gravity, so as to infer that the Romish church is holy ! 
 
 This is, precisely, the sophistry which pervades our vicar general's one sermon, 
 which he preaches on this subject, always, and over all the world. He first sets 
 about proving that " God's church is holy." He then solemnly concludes, not with- 
 out a little pompous bravado, that "holy mother church of Rome is all the world 
 over, pure and holy !" It is remarakble that he never took it into his head to prove 
 that the church of Rome is the church of God ; which he behoved of necessity to do, 
 in order to prove her holy. His fatal logic leaves out, entirely, the connecting pre- 
 mise ! On this principle, and mode of argument, the Jews have infinitely the advan- 
 tage of him. "We the Jews once were holy, as no believer in the Old Testament can 
 deny." But once holy, always holy : for the church of God is immutable ; no matter, 
 though we forsake the laws and doctrines of our fathers !" Hence the Jews constitute 
 the one only true church !" And I shall venture to say that no vicar general, with 
 the aid of all the bishops, and of all the popes, can refute their plea. And this is what 
 every reasonable man must admit. 
 
 Your priests try to compose their faces so far into a semblance of gravity, as to lay 
 claims to spotless sanctity in doctrine, sanctity in rites, sanctity in priesthood and 
 vestments; and sanctity in the children of hol}^ mother! In my Letter VII. I 
 established the fact that your priests have so far deceived you, my fellow citizens, 
 that they have not left one distinctive genuine gospel doctrine pure and entire, in your 
 church. If there be one, I invite any sensible man to point it out. "Why, the 
 Romish priests believe in the Trinity and in one God!" That I beg leave to deny. 
 The priests create a god at every mass : and moreover, to the one only object of 
 worship tliey have added " the mother of God," and some thirty thousand other saints 
 and saintesses, to whom they offer incense : and say more prayers than to God ! 
 
186 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 *'But they believe in the incarnation of Christ." This I affirm they do not retain 
 *'pure and entire." The wafer converted into the body and blood, soul and divinity 
 of Christ, is offered up as their incarnate god and christr'' 
 
 "But, they adore the Holy Ghost." Can any one gravely profess to believe so^ 
 who has ever associated, in familiar intercourse, with a Romish priest ? Can any one 
 soberly believe this who has read your priests' taunts about "the Holy Ghost?" 
 No, I do assure you, fellow citizens, that they have no practical belief of the Holy 
 Spirit : they believe not in his influences : nor in regeneration, nor in gospel hoh- 
 uess: nor in "justification by faith, without the deeds of the law." Their incense, 
 their holy water, their saintly intercessions, their priests' intention, and the efficacy of 
 their rites to convey grace, have utterly excluded the Holy Ghost from their system of 
 belief. Their rule of faith excludes the prophetical office of Christ : their mass and 
 their own prieshood, have displaced Christ's priestly office: and the blasphemy and 
 despotism of the pope's supremacy have taken the kingly crown off the head of 
 our blessed Redeemer I In one word, the whole system of the Romish priestcraft is 
 "a gospel" as completely different from the gospel of Christ, as the " great whore of 
 Babylon," is different from the chaste spouse of Christ, and as different as the first 
 born of Satan, is from the great God our Savior! 
 
 The only personal sanctity which your priests advocate, and require in your mem- 
 bers, is wholly external. They must be sprinkled with holy water, and anointed 
 with the holy chrism ; pay the church's dues ; go, at least, once a year to confes- 
 sion : and die in the bosom of " the church," meaning the Romish church: and, then, 
 whatever may have been their unbelief, and vices, they are safe. The priest gives 
 each man, even the most unrefoniied profligate, even a Charles II., or a Louis, a 
 passport into heaven : and St. Peter and St. Patrick w411 suffer no refusal from any 
 there ! Let me add that the priest's sanctity lies also all on the outer side. He must 
 have had the lock shorn off, and his crown shaved : and the consecrated vestments 
 on, with its orthodox cut, and orthodox color : and all is holy ; — even though his hands 
 be polluted with the worst of crimes ; and his heart destitue of charity : and even 
 possessed with a legion of devils! He is holy! in proof of this I quote your own 
 accredited writers. Bellarmine, De Eccles. Lib. 3, cap. 7. There you will find it 
 stated that a man who is a drunkard, a profane sv/earer — nay, an infidel and "even 
 a reprobate," may yet be a good member of the Romish church ! See also the Rhe- 
 mish Annotations on John, ch. xv. and Sect. 1. So completely is gospel holiness lost 
 in the Romish sect ! 
 
 Your priests present exclusive claims to sanctity also from their possessing "the 
 only holy institutions and rites," by which '^they convey grace,'' to their devotees. 
 Pray what holy rites ? " Why, the seven sacraments." What! the five rites which 
 you have added to our Lord's appointed sacraments. Do you really mean such 
 sacraments as that of "holy matrimony?" "Yes, we mean that! and by that, 
 through the priests' 'intention' are conveyed the virtue and purity of holiness to the 
 married." What ! and yet you deny it to the priests ! You impose celibacy on them. ! 
 You deny them the holy efficacy of that sacrament, which, of all men living, they 
 stand infinitely the most in need of! Do you mean the sacraments of penance* 
 extreme unction, and all the other additional rites, which your priests facetiously call 
 '■'•sacraments.'' Why, so far from possessing sanctity, or conveying it, they are sheer 
 impositions invented by despots and knaves ! They are the offspring of priestcraft» 
 invented after the sixth century : and have been too successfully employed to rob 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 187 
 
 simple and credulous people of their properly. For proof of this, may I beg your 
 attention to my Letter VIII ? They are mere forgeries. And there is not one of your 
 prieets so utterly destitute of intellect, as not to know this. They have been false 
 tokens by which money has been fraudulently gained : they are forged notes and 
 checks by which property has been taken feloniously from the ignorant and unsus- 
 pectinc^. And, now, I beg leave, fellow citizens, to put this question to everj' candid 
 man in the community, whether the money obtained from people by these coun- 
 terfeit sacraments, be not as wickedly obtained, as ever any money was obtained of 
 our fellow citizens, by the forgers and counterfeiters that prowl on the comm^unity? 
 Is the " splended robbery" less criminal because it is perpetrated under the name and 
 sanction of religion ? Is it less atrocious, and less ruinous to men, because the trans- 
 action is the parchase and sale of men's spiritual liberty, and the souls of immortal 
 beings, instead of the common articles of every day's business? Is it less damning 
 before the eyes of pure Heaven, because, in the just and perfect hberty granted to 
 religion, true and false, the laws of men reach not the ghostly felony 1 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours truly &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 '• The hypocrhe in mask !— He was a man, 
 
 Who stole the livery of the court of heaven 
 
 To serve the devil in ! In virtues guise, 
 
 Devoured the widow's bread ; 
 
 In /2o/?/j;//rflse transacted villanies 
 
 That common sinners durst not meddle with !" 
 
 Follok. 
 
 Fellow Citizens :— Your priesthood has laid claims to exclusive sanctity from 
 this additional plea, that your head, the pope, is ''holiness itself r' and that, moreover, 
 you had all the saints within your own church, to shed an exclusive glory o£ holiness 
 on you. 
 
 In a former letter on the succession of the popes, I showed you fully, that the list 
 of the popes, contained a majority of names of the most atrocious monsters ! Men 
 they were, that invented and perpetrated crimes which surpassed, so far as we know, 
 any thing ever conceived at the council board of Pandemonium ! Men who led 
 ou the blood thirsty troops of Rome, and murdered slity eight millions of human 
 beings ; not to mention the fearful destruction of immortal souls, caused by their 
 deadly errors ! Are these men ''holiness unto the Lord !" And, as for the saints, 
 their lives and adventures are those of bloody knaves, such as Loyola : and fanatics, 
 macerating their bodies by endless acts of personal and social cruelty ; and suicides! 
 Monstrous " miracle-mongers" hke St. Dennis and four others, who took up their 
 heads after they were cut ofT, and walked with them under their arms— or, like St. 
 Patrick and others, sailing over seas on their cloaks, and on mill-stones. I refer for 
 proof to Butler's Lives of the Saints, the Acta Sanctorum, and to your Breviary. 
 
 The history of celibacy and monachism in general, affords the most impressive illus- 
 tratiofl of the priests' claims to sanctity. I shall merely allude to this at present. 
 
Jgg ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Until the time of pope Gregory VII., in 1074, the priests married, and Uved with their 
 families, like oiher honest men, notwithstanding certain fanatical laws, which before 
 the times of this execrable and wicked tyrant, lay dormant. He enforced these laws 
 and parted husband ^mU T.ife. From this time, honest and pure men were excluded 
 from the priesthood : none were employed but those who took an oath to denounce 
 sacerdotal marriage. Personal purity was now at an end in the Romish priesthood. 
 A deluge of whoredom and pollution covered, and drowned them in perdition. With 
 priests, the word chastity has been always used in a sense diiferent from that of all 
 good men. With the incontinent priest, it means "not mamed.'' I have heard our 
 New York priests use it, in this exclusive sense. '* To live in chastity," is to live 
 *'Twt married:' It never means in the priests' vocabulary, mental and bodily purity. 
 A priest, by their canon, is " chaste,''' if he be vnmarried: even though he is known 
 in private, and at the confessional, even as a common rake and fornicator! Every- 
 one who has seen their private manners ; and every devotee who kneels at the con- 
 fessional, has had perfect e%idence of all this ! The Roman catholic bishop Scipio 
 De Ricci has demonstrated u by facts. See his " Memoirs" published in London. 
 
 It is a fact, true to a proverb, and proclaimed publicly by the best of the Romish 
 writers, that from the days of Gregory VII., monasteries and nunneries were vast 
 extended sodoms ; and the priesthood, in every respect, hke the inhabitants of the 
 cities of the plain ! The temples of x\starte, and of Babylon, and of the Greek and 
 Roman Venus, -vere, really, decent and moral, amid all their pagan pollution, com- 
 pared to the d-ns of the monks, and nuns, and priests ! It is impossible for me to tell 
 the miUionth part of the horridly impious doings of these men ! It v/as even publicly 
 enacted that marriage in a priest was a deadly sin : but he might keep his concubine 
 publicly : and the lordly bishop also might have his concubine publicly : and his 
 Turkish seragho privately ! 
 
 Will any priest deny this? Will any man who has read the pages of history 
 venture out even to question this ? No ; it was even enacted oublicl}- and unblush- 
 in^ly by the council of Toledo : and what is more, ratified by Pope Leo of that day. 
 I appeal to history. See Binii ConciUa. torn. i. p. 737 and 739. Crabb. Concil. 
 torn. i. p. 449. edit, of 1551. Pidiou Corp. Jur. canon, p. 47. These councils 
 indeed, went so far as to prohibit the holy priests ''from keeping more than orw con- 
 cubine."'' Thus, by an ecclesiastical law, sanctioned by a pope, tl.e marriage of a 
 priest was declared a "mortal sin:" but fornication was taught, practised, and recom- 
 mended by the priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes! And what must have been the 
 morals of laymen ? See Canisius, Thes. Tom. u. p. 111. Edgar, p. 503. 
 
 Suffer me to quote a few morsels from the most authentic Roma.: authors, in proof 
 of this point ? And I beg to quote them, for the sake of my felJow citizens. Avho 
 have actually sent, and do still send their daughters to nunneries and Romish semi- 
 naries, for education. I implore them to study the pruaciples and morals of these 
 European Jesuits, who guide their children's education and morals. And one word 
 more : remember that the lav/s and sentiments I quote are yet in full force, believed, 
 taught, and practised, this day, among us, in their colleges and nunneries. And I 
 challenge all the Jesuits in the land, to detect a false quotation, or disprove aught I 
 shall advance. Costerus teaches that " a priest sins, if he commit lornication ; he sins 
 more heinously if he marries!" Cardinal Campeggio taught that "a priest who 
 marries, commits a more grievous transgression than if he kept many concubines." 
 See Costerus, cap. 15. Carapeg. in Sleidan p. 96 ; and Thuan. Hist. u. p. 417. The 
 
ROMA.V CATHOLIC CO.NTROVERST. 189 
 
 Consequences of these doctrines were horrible. Your own St. Bernard in the twelfth 
 century, declares to the world, that "bishops and priests committed, in secret, such acts 
 of turpitude as u would be even scandalous to express I" See Bern, in Con. Rhem, 
 1728. And Agrippa, in Bayle, i. tells us of a Romish bishop who boasted on one 
 occasion, of having in his diocese, eleven thousand priests who paid him, each, one 
 guinea, annually, for a papal license to keep a concubine I Clemangis, your own 
 famous A\Titer, and an honest reprover of your priests' vices, declares "the adulter\', 
 impiety, and obscenity of the priests to be beyond all description!" "They crowd 
 into houses of ill fame," says he, " the}' spend their time in taverns, in eating, gam- 
 bling, drinking, revelling, and dancing. These sacerdotal sensualists fought, roared, 
 rioted, and blasphemed God and the saints. And from the company of infamous 
 women, they would pass to the altar, and the mass 1" " To veil a woman in those 
 days, or make a nun of her, was synonymous with prostituting her, — c'est la prosti- 
 tuer." See Clemangis 26, Lenfan. i. 70, and Bruy, Tom. iii. p. 610, 611. And 
 And Mezera}^ says of the Romish clergy before the Reformation, that they were nearly 
 all fornicators and drunkards." " They held their offices in taverns, and spent their 
 money in debaucheries." Mez. Hist, de France, Tom. iv. p. 490. Edgar, p. 511. 
 
 The council of Valladolid say of the Spanish priests, that, "prodigal of character 
 and salvation, the clergy led lives of enormity and profligacy in public concubinage."" 
 See Labb. vol. xv. p. 247. This declai-ation was renewed in the council of Toledo, 
 in 1473. See Labb. vol. xix. p. 369, and Binii Coucil. vol. viii. p. 957. — Gildas and 
 Fordun have frankly unveiled the Roihish priests of England. Eves in "the sixth 
 century the British priests," says he, "were a confraternity of the filthiest forni- 
 cators !" See Gildas Epist. 23^ 38. Oxford edit. 1691. And Fordun gives us king 
 Edgar's description of them in the close of the tenth centnr\'. " The clerg\-," said 
 the king to their face, " are lasci\-ious in dress, insolent in manner, and filthy in 
 conversation. Their time they devote to revels, debaucheries, and abominations; 
 and their abodes are the haunts of harlots!" So much for his majesty's opinioB 
 of the Romish sanctity ! See Fordun cap. 30, and Bruy ii. 219. Edgar p. 512. 
 
 We have an extraordinary- anecdote to illustrate the '' holiness^' of the Spanish 
 priests in the fifteenth century'. Their revolting impurities awakened the zeal of even 
 popes Paul, Pius, and Gregory ! These issued their bulls against the priestly " se- 
 ducers." These bulls compelled the Inquisition to take the matter up : and the 
 *• holy inquisitors" summoned the attendance of all the frail fair ones who had been 
 assailed by these sons of Belial, and of Sodom. It made a terrible commotion. Maids 
 and matrons, nobles and peasants, flocked in numbers incredible, to lodge informa- 
 tion. You may fonn some idea of the extent of ''priestly holiness and yurity,'' from 
 the numbers of the fair informers at the single city of Seville. All the inquisitors 
 and their officers, with twenty notaries, were employed for thirty days in taking down 
 the depositions. The number crowding in, was not a whit abated: they took thirty 
 days more, three several times ! But there was no end to the business! The patience 
 of even Inquisitors could not get through it. What was tlie result ? Just what might 
 have been expected, when the inquiry on such a matter was committed to priests and 
 bishops ! " He that was without the sin," wished to go on. But the bench of priests, 
 and bishops, and notaries, was deserted ! " The multitude of fair criminals," says 
 my author, " and the jealousy of husbands, and above all, the overvshelming odium 
 thrown upon auricular confession, and the poi)ish priesthood, caused the " holy tri- 
 punal" to quash the prosecution, and destroy all the depositions I" See Gonsal. 185. 
 
190 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Lorent. Hist, of the Inquis. p. 355. Limborch, Lib. iii. p. 17. and Edgar's" Var. p^ 
 513. 
 
 There is one prominent attribute in popery, which marks itself in perfect opposition 
 to Christianity. The latter, just in proportion to its extent and influence, promotes 
 virtue and purity. But popery, just in proportion, to its extent, and the influence of 
 the priesthood, promotes the most revolting impurity, and universal pollution ! Be- 
 hold Rome, and Italy, and Naples, this day ; and next to these, Spain ?nd Portugal ! 
 They are one vast temple of Astarte, and Venus ! The land of Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah was inhabited by virtuous, decent, and orderly people, compared with the 
 priests and nuns of those lands of poper}'^ personified! " The Lateran palace of the 
 pope," says Labbeus, XI. p. 881. "which had been a sanctuary of virtue, has been 
 turned into a brothel." A council convicted one of the popes, namely, John XII. of 
 fornication, murder, adultery, and incest! See Labb. XI. p. 882. Tliuyn i. 215. and 
 Platina 132. 
 
 The council of Lyons, in which was assembled the chief of the bishops and cardi- 
 nals of the Homish church, converted that city into one great temjile of pollution. 
 M. Paris p. 792. has recorded the speech which Cardinal Hugo had tlie unblushing 
 impudence to pronounce to the citizens after the council was dissolved. "Your 
 city," said the '' holy and chaste 'priest,'" contained only three houses of ill-fame, 
 when "the holy Synod" met here. Now there is only one! But, that one compre- 
 hends the whole cit}^ between the East gate, and the West gate !"' See also Edgar 
 p. 516. The " Holy council of Constance was attended," says your own approved 
 writers, " by fifteen hundred infamous females." See Labb. Vol. XVI. p. 14-35. and 
 Bruy IV. 39. " These trained bands," saj^s Edgar, "were the companions of the 
 infallible doctors, who made speeches in defence of popery, and burned the heretics 
 John Huss, and Jerome of Prague. 
 
 In the council of Basil, it was publicly avowed, and maintained by argument, by 
 Carlery, your famous chamjnon, that infamous houses were necessary, and proper, 
 and a source of great revenue ! No man will venture to deny this quotation. Let 
 him see the fact stated in Labbeus, Concil. Vol. XVII. pp. 986. 988. Venice edit, of 
 1728. See also Canisius, Thesaur. vol. IV. p. 457. Antwerp edit. 1726. And every 
 person acquainted with the elements of Romish history, knows that pope Paul III. 
 who convoked the far-famed council of Trent, made no scruples of availing himself of 
 the revenue that could be raised from licensed houses of infamy ! .And as 45,000 of 
 these infamous persons were receiving the protection of his "holy" apostolical licen- 
 ces, his revenue from this source was very great! See McGavin's Glasgow Protest- 
 ant, ch. 15. These licenses continue under "his Holiness' " care to this day! 
 
 But it is not from this revolting sin alone that " Holy Mother" draws her revenues. 
 She has traded, and does actually trade in all sins. In the far famed book called 
 "The Taxes of the Apostolical Chancery," the prices of each class of sin are laid 
 down. And let no Roman catholic priest, or layman expose his Jesuitisn"' and igno- 
 rance, by denying the existence of this book. Editions of it were sent out from Rome 
 in 1514: from Cologn in 1515; at Paris in 1520; in 1545; and in 1625. It is still 
 in the libraries of the curious in Europe. It has been fully quoted by the " Morning 
 Exercises," 4to. Edit, of 1675 London. And your own well known author Claud 
 D'Espense in his comment on Titus, cap. 1. digr. 2. p. 479, makes this mention of it. 
 *' It is a wonder that this filthy index (the Taxa Concellariae) the pope's tax book, 
 has not been suppressed : there is not a book more to their reproach : in it a price i% 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSTj 191 
 
 ^et to all buyers." And finally the Protestant princes at the Reformation, made pub- 
 lic mention of it, and inserted it in their statement of the causes why they rejected the 
 council of Trent. 
 
 From this au hentic tax book, I shall present a specimen of the "holy priest's" 
 traffic, and his prices of sin. In papal refinement of sin, the prices are fixed either 
 for sins aboui to be designedly committed, — and this is called an Indulgence : or, they 
 are paid for sins past, — and that is called Absolution. 
 
 Extracts from " Taxa Cancellarue Apostolica^^^ 
 OR His Holiness' tax book ; 
 Being a list of sins pardoned, and their orthodox prices, in British money. 
 
 For a layman killing a layman, £ 
 
 For killing a father, mother, wife, or sister. 
 For laying violent hands on a priest, without breaking the skin. 
 For a priest to marry, no money can buy it, but to keep a concubine, 
 
 from one guinea to 
 To eat meat in Lent (as bad as the murder of a father or a mother,) 
 For a Queen to adopt a child, 
 To procure abortion. 
 
 For taking a false oath in a criminal case, 
 For robbing, or burning a house. 
 For violating a maid. 
 For incest, with sister or mother, 
 
 Behold the impcnng claims of sanctity, admirably demonstrated ! And we are 
 not copying the doctrines and practices of the dark ages. Popery never changes 
 TO THE BETTER ! This is the immutable law of its nature ! And no well informed 
 man, nor any who has travelled in popish countries, needs to be told this. Men who 
 read not on thi:i subject, and who think less, and those who have none of the genu- 
 ine Roman cataolic books, but who draw some superficial views, from some of their 
 amiable and liberal cathohc neighbors, and friends, are seen to labor under fatal mis- 
 takes in this matter, Tliey believe the Romish sect to be improved and reformed! 
 My humble prayer to God is, that He would open their eyes, and convince them of 
 their error. I declare with deep solemnity ; and I appeal to ancient and modern his- 
 tory, for evidence, — (hat the popery of Rome never has altered, never can alter for the 
 better, without being destroyed and annihilated. The Romish church claims immuta- 
 bility and ir.fallibihty. She appeals to God ; and says she never has erred : never 
 committed deadly sins : never has changed : never has reformed : nor has ever need- 
 ed reformation ! 
 
 Every man who has been in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in Smtzerland, in South 
 America, and Mexico, has seen this inscription on the fronts of the various churches, 
 even to this day, — " Plenary indulgences sold here,^^ at such and such prices. Again— 
 
 "The bishop of ^ sells indulgences here at" — such and such low prices. "An 
 
 English gentleman," said my friend Dr. Avery, "was with me at Naples: and on 
 reading the sign over the Indulgence shop, he went in and gravely purchased for a 
 small sura, an indulgence to do any sin for one, hundred days I 
 
 
 
 7 6 
 
 10 6 
 
 10 6 
 
 10 6 
 
 10 6 
 
 )0 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 6 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 7 6 
 
192 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 I would beg those men %vho think so favorably of modern popery, to read Dr. 
 Moor's Tour in Europe ; and Graham's Rome in the 19th century. I refer to Rome 
 as it is, a Tour in Italy, by Miss Morion : she finds and pronounces Italy a large 
 nation of Atheists ! Also Lady Morgan's Rome in the 19th century. 
 
 In South America, the morals of the priests are as bad as they were, and still are, 
 
 in Spain. My friend Capt. M , has seen them "in their rohes at the cock-pit, 
 
 bull baiting, drinking, gambling, and involved in every possible licentiousness pub- 
 licly and unblushingly, as if there were no sin in any thing they could do /" And 
 one most atrocious attribute of modern priestcraft is this ; — they sin with men and 
 women, over the whole catalogue of the ten commandments ; and then at the close 
 of the crimes, they will solemnly pronounce, on the victims of their seductions, their 
 priestly pardon and absolution for the sins then and there committed! We may 
 gravely question if even Satan himself, were he to walk forth in a visible form, in 
 his robes of diabolical concealment, could invent more impious mockery of religion, 
 or show a degree of atheism at all greater than this ! 
 
 Such are the doctrines, discipline, and practice of the Jesuits, who now swarm 
 over our land, and are opening colleges, and seminaries, and are offering to teach 
 our sons and daughters. And, Protestants, will you, — can you bid them God speed '? 
 Has, then, judgment fled from Protestants, and enlightened politicians, to brutish 
 beasts ! Have men lost their reason ? "To veil a daughter, or put her into a nunnery," 
 says even a Romish author, just quoted by us, — " is the same thing as to prostitute 
 her!" And no father or mother can rise up from the perusal of the true, — alas! too 
 true narrative of "Lorette, the history of the daughter of a Canadian nun," — with- 
 out a deep conviction of the modern, and ever unchanging infamies of priestcraft and 
 popery ! And what parent who wishes not to murder the peace, and the very soul 
 of his child, could be tempted so far from parental duty, as to send his daughter for 
 education, into the atrocious haunts of a nunnery ! What ! can a father be so lost as 
 to place a sweet, innocent, unsuspecting daughter within the very fangs and grasp of 
 the Jesuits ! Would to God I could open your eyes to view this matter as christian 
 parents should view it. These European Jesuits, and their partisans, initiated into 
 the deep and damning policy of Rome, preside over these seminaries, which spread 
 traps for you, and them. They carry over sea with them, all these doctrines, and 
 immoral practices, which I have been unveiling. What ! can you barter the purity 
 and innocence of your sweet and amiable daughters, and sons ? What i in the name 
 of mercy, will you immolate the souls of these dear and immortal beings, whom God 
 has given you ? Can you have a doubt remaining, after all the quotations made, 
 touching the real policy and designs of popery, and of those men, on whom every 
 government of Europe has uttered the ban of an universal curse and execration? In 
 the name of the God of truth and mercy, let me lift my pleading voice to utter this 
 my solemn warning to you, one and all ! I do earnestly declare unto you, that it will 
 be discovered by you, when it is too late, that those who place their daughters and 
 sons in the haunts of such m.onsters of vice as the Jesuits are, — are far less ten- 
 der hearted than the Hindoo who sacrificed her child to Gunga ! Or the wretch 
 who placed the smiling babe in the red hot arms of the image of Moloch ! These 
 destroy the body : those poison the soul with the venom of the worm of the second 
 death ! 
 
 So much for the claims of holiness, facetiously set up by the partisans of intriguing 
 priests, and their church. Our laughter at these pretensions to holiness, is checked 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 193 
 
 ouly by the bitter conviction forced on us, that under these unnatural claims, they 
 conceal a deadly conspiracy against virtue, morals, and religion ! 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours respectfully, 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 " An Petrus Romae fuerit, sub judice lis est : 
 Simonem Ronite, nemo fuisse negat !" 
 
 " We are not sure that Peter ever sat 
 
 In Rome : but Simon did, — we're sure of that !" 
 
 Prov. of the IGth century- 
 
 Fellow-Citizens, — It is one of our privileges, as citizens of this republic, and one 
 of pre-eminent importance, that we, the people, claim and exercise the right of watch- 
 ing our public servants. We inspect, and decide upon their public character, and 
 official conduct with freedom, and independence. The constitution and legitimate 
 laws are the rule and standard, by which we require them to regulate their conduct 
 in public life. If they recede from the spirit of these, and seek their own aggrandize- 
 ment, and sacrifice the patriotic virtues, and the public good, on the altar of personal 
 interests, and ambition, we consign them promptly, by our legal vote, to the obscurity 
 of private hfe. This is our birthright ; and it is unalienable. 
 
 Now, what should we think of any political, or military officer, who would tell the 
 people, they have no right to think for themselves on politics : no right to elect their 
 public servants : no right to dictate to them : but that they who have clunbed into 
 office, it may be, by iniquitous means, have the sole prerogative of appointing men 
 to all offices in the state ? In a word, that the servants of the people are above control, 
 and accountable to none ; that they are every thing, that the people are nothing, and 
 as the dust under theirfeet ? No republican,— no honest man could endure this cant 
 of the old world's despotism. Yet this, you know, is the identical despotism of everj^ 
 Roman catholic government of Europe. And its galling chains are rivetted, just in 
 proportion to the power and influence of Catholicism pervading the souls of a bru- 
 talized people. Canyon, fellow citizens, look without disgust and horror, upon this 
 state of things ? Is your gratitude to this republic, so small that you would not dis- 
 countenance, and put down the knaves, who would sap our free institutions, and 
 bring back upon you and upon us, this degradation, and despotism of European 
 catholics ? 
 
 But are politics so far superior to religion? Are the interests of time so far exalted 
 above those of eternity ? Is it gallant and glorious to vindicate civil rights, while 
 you allow the revolting ghostly despotism of the dark ages, still to crush your immor- 
 tal souls in the dust ? Will you spurn from you the edicts of civil tyrants, and kiss 
 the hands of the wretched minions of Antichrist, who urge their claims to rule over 
 your souls, bodies, and property, with the iron mace of a Hildebrand ! Ytuir priests 
 not only allow of no liberty of conscience, but unblushingly laugh it to scorn ! They 
 tell you, that you have no right to read the holy Bible : that you must not hear your 
 Maker speak, except through the priest's mutterlngs : that if you dare to think on 
 
 18 
 
104 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 religion, or even to speak to God, or even breathe a vow to him in any other wa^^ 
 than as the priest shall frame it, and offer it up for money, you commit a mortal sie'! 
 Your bishop declares to priests and people that he is lord absolute over you all : that- 
 vou have no right to choose j'our own spiritual guides : no right to choose your officia- 
 ting ministers in the chapels, which you rear ! He dictates his own favorites to you : 
 and tells you that you have no right from man or from God, to refuse. This you see 
 outrageously practised every day in this free republic ; and land of clear christian 
 light, and liberty ! We behold the darkness and horrors of the tenth century in free 
 and enlightened America ! And of a Sabbath day, the priest, before he can ascend 
 the desk to officiate, must throw himself down on his knees in the dust, and adore the 
 bishop and kiss his hand, and worship the image of the absent pope, in the august 
 person of the bishop who represents, in our republic, the intruding and usurped 
 ]iower of a foreign despot I This you see the devout and holy priest Levins do in St. 
 Patrick's chapel, from sabbath to sabbath ! Is this the deportment of freemen ? Is 
 this the Christian religion ? Is this becoming the dignity of reasonable men ? Is this 
 not degrading, like the superstition of pagans ? Is it not unspeakably worse than the 
 degradation of Turks ! How long, I beseech you, will you lick the ghostly tyrant^s 
 foot ? How long will noble and immortal beings be the crushed down vassals of a for- 
 eign antichristian tyranny ? 
 
 I have, in my preceding Letter, set before you, fellow citizens, the moral character 
 of your priesthood, from the humblest even to the pope. And their moral pollution, 
 which we were constrained to unveil frankly, is not the result of human infirmity 
 merely ; or adventitious circumstances alone. It is necessarily engendered by the es- 
 sential elements of popery. Auricular confession and priestly celibacy ever have 
 covered, and ever will cover the Romish church, with a flood of pollution ; and 
 will drovrn it in perdition. And, fellow citizens, has it never occurred to you, how 
 minutely your priests have fulfilled, unintentionally, the prediction uttered from the 
 Holy Ghost, in the Bible? See 1 Tim. iv. .3. The apostates from the truth were not 
 only to depart after "the doctrines of demons," — that is, — the worship of demons 
 and departed souls; but were to be noted ''by their forbidding to marry. '^ And, 
 moreover, the great aposlacy of Babylon was by inspiration, called " the mother of 
 harlots and abominations.'' In no other apostate christian church or sect, in all the 
 world, is " marriage forbidden,'' but by your priesthood and in 3"our church ; and in 
 no pagan land, know we of such a systematic course of deep and damning pollution, 
 as in your church's monastaries, and nunneries, and at the confessional! 
 
 From a sketch of this revolting immorality, I pass, v^dth your leave, to exhibit the 
 DOCTRINES taught in your priests' books, colleges, and seminaries. I thus pass from 
 the streams which flow, like the waves of the second death, over your church, to un- 
 veil the great fountains thereof. The main one is the infamous code of ethics taught 
 bv your Jesuit priests. And I quote these to open, if possible, your eyes to the infamy 
 of Your spiritual guides ; and to awaken the slumbering consciences of those ill-in- 
 formed Protestants, who send their children to Jesuit seminaries. And may the God 
 of mercy grant that our solemn warnings may be the means of putting parents on 
 their guard, to pluck those exposed young Protestants, as " brands from the devouring 
 fires!" 
 
 I would just observe that the order of Jesuits, after being put down, and deemed 
 accursed by the Christian world; and expelled from every government in Europe, 
 was revived by pope Pius VII. in 1814. He took them under his special care : 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. lOS 
 
 placed them at the head of his seminaries and colleges; as 'instruments most capa- 
 ble of forming youth to christian piety r The plain meaning of which is this; 
 that all other men had some remains of conscience ; but the troops of this sect were 
 without conscience, and could, in cold blood, teach all that Rome could suggest ; and 
 practice all that the prince of darkness could require ! And the pope after settling 
 them as his chief apostles, closes his Bull with telling the world that "those, who 
 should infringe ui>on this Bull; or by an audacious temerity oppose," these his dear 
 and best beloved sons, would incur "the wrath not only of Almighty God, but of 
 St. Peter !" These are the men who are, like the filthiest plague of Egypt, creep- 
 in'^ up over the length and breadth of the land: and are threading their pathway into 
 our schools, and nurseries, and bed-chambers ! 
 
 Their constitution is strictly ??ioHarc/iJo/. A general or prince, is chosen over them 
 for life : his power is supreme, and universal : to him every member of the Society 
 must submit his sentiments, and his will: to his injunctions he must listen, "as if they 
 were uttered by Christ himself:' "No member can have any opinion of his own: 
 ''and the Jesuit Society has it^ prisons independent of the secular authority P' See 
 Pascal's Prov. Letters, p. 15. N. York Edit. Hence those dungeons and cells, under 
 their chapels, and college buildings, which any one may see, as their buildings go up : 
 and which have been so accurately and publicly noticed by the late veteran Lorenzo 
 Dow, in his appeal to the American pubhc on this matter. 
 
 The doctrines taught by these men, in the Romish books, and seminaries, are calcu- 
 lated to give a death blow to civil liberty, as well as to our holy religion. In tlie opin- 
 ion of all the eminent political men, of all the governments of Europe, their senti- 
 ments, instilled into their pupils and devotees at confession, were more fatal to the 
 liberties and rights of mankind, than even to religion. This is recorded in the pages 
 of history. " Jesuitism is a familiar devil who enters the house, crawling in the dust: 
 tmdends by commanding with lordly haughtiness !'' This graphic delineation I copy 
 from the late admirable w^ork on Jesuitism, by Mons. De Pradt, the Roman catholic 
 archbishop of Malints. I beg leave also to draw your attention to the Arrtt of the 
 ParUament of France, issued in 1762, containing a statement of the reasons for the 
 extirpation of Jesuitism. These with the pontifical reasons of the pope Ganganelli 
 for his bold measure in dissolving the society, in 1772, exhibit in their true hght, this 
 ))and of conspirators against our civil and religious institutions, — the curse of our land, 
 as they have been the scourge of all Europe I 
 
 The first tenet of their creed exalts the pope to a monarchy, " unlimited by demo- 
 cracy, or by aristocracy." This is civil and spiritual: he claims and receives homage 
 as much as a civil prince, as a spiritual. Dr. Pise, and also all our New- York 
 priests have had the uhblushing hardihood to deny that they own the pope, or do him 
 homage, as a temporal prince!" With men so reckless of truth, and who, availing 
 tliemselves of the Jesuit doctrine of inental reservation, say one thing, and believe 
 another, it were needless to reason on this point ; and folly to listen to what they say. 
 They know as accurately as any well read Protestant does, that the temporal and 
 spiritual claims of the pope, never were separated for the benefit of American Ro- 
 man catholics. They know that these claims never can be separated. It is a matter 
 of recorded fact, that the pope clahns power over the bodies, and souls of all men, 
 Protestants, as well as catholics ; and over all Protestant, and non-Protestant govern- 
 ments ! The Protestant government of England, and of the United States, are only 
 rebels, who are to be regaiaed back by the conversion of Jesuits, or by force of arms 
 
196 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 in due time ! In the solemn belief of every pope, and every true Roman catholic, 
 the Protestant kings of Holland, and England have no more right to reign than had 
 the excommunicated Harry VIII., and Queen Elizabeth! In the solemn belief of 
 the pope and every Jesuit, our protestant and venerable chief Magistrate, has no 
 more right to bear the reins of government, than Harry VIII. or Queen Elizabeth 
 had in England ! The fact is, every protestant prince, every protestant President, 
 subject, and citizen, are annually excommunicated at Rome, and in these United 
 States. And I assert in the face of the most unblushing Jesuit, and before the Amer- 
 ican community, that it is a matter of the most notorious evidence, that on every 
 Thursday of passion week, annually, according to the Bull, In caiia Domi?ii, our 
 protestant President, and all our protestant magistrates, governors, and every pro- 
 testant member of our city corporation, are publicly, formally, and solemnly excom- 
 municated, cursed, and sent to hell and perdition, in every Romish chapel in the 
 United States! But, then, it is pronounced in Latin, and not generally known. 
 Every priest takes " an oath on the evangels, and the cross" to do this. And if there 
 be one of them that can have the assurance to deny that he does this, then he is by 
 his own confession, a perjured knave ! I shall afterwards, give the priest's oath, 
 and this Bull of " universal ban, and damnation," pronounced by the foreign tyrant, 
 and his charitable, holy, and christian servants, the Romish priests, on all of us, — our 
 President, governors, and the whole magistracy, and the Protestant people of these 
 United States. 
 
 I am, vours truly, &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 "The scarlet colored whore ! Avhose priests are lords. 
 
 Whose coffers held the gold of every land ; 
 
 Who held a cup of all pollutions full. 
 
 And with a double horn the people pushed !" 
 
 Pollok. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — If you possess truly republican, and truly religious views 
 and feelings, you will consider that man your best friend and benefactor, who labors 
 to undermine the powet of priestcraft, and to aid in achieving your liberty. Yes, 
 fellow citizens, you v/ill thank me for raising my warning voice, and assuring you 
 that you know not what deadl}^ vipers you are warming and cherishing in your 
 unsuspecting bosom ! What I do you believe that a Jesuit priest can deem himself 
 bound to render allegiance and obedience to magistrates who are anathematized by 
 his "Lord God on earth," the pope ? Can any citizen be so weak, or so ignorant of 
 human nature, as to believe that a Jesuit priest will teach his pupils, or his devotees at 
 the confessional, to own a government made up of protestants, who are cursed, and 
 excommunicated by his spiritual dictator, the pope ? To be sure they will not con- 
 fess this : they would not be Jesuits if they admitted it. They have the same pro- 
 found oath of secrecy as free masons had. They are to keep the secret until they 
 gain the ascendency. I call on every magistrate of the land, and every protestant 
 fellow citizen, to read the Secreta Monita, or Secret Instructions of the Jesuits 
 (Princeton Edition of 1831.) We are indebted, for this "terrible book" of Jesuits' 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 197 
 
 secrets, to the parliament of Paris. They passed the act to aboUsh the Jesuits, in 
 secrecy; and the execution came on the Jesuit college like a thunder stroke. Their 
 palace was surrounded by troops, and their papers and books, and these "-Secret hi- 
 st rue' ions'' were seized before they had heard that the parliament had taken up their 
 cause ! 
 
 Now hear their own words by which they teach their pupils in the United States 
 the absolute supremacy of the foreign despot, the pope. "The pope, speaking froni 
 his chair, is exempt from all ignorance, error, and mistake." See Dupin Disserta- 
 tions, p. 333: Bellarmine, iv. 1, 15, and v. 9. And Labb. vol. xiv. p. 1428. Edgar 
 p. 157. They are in the habit of calling the pope "Our Lord God,'' — not merely a 
 '■'■god," as magistrates are sometimes called : but "Our Lord God." And even on 
 their own explanation, they call him " a god," as a magistrate, — here is a public 
 admission that they own that foreign ruler in his temporal and civil power. And 
 hence no Roman catholic, strictly so called, can take the oath of allegiance to our 
 constitution and government, ivithout mental reservation, or falsehood, and perjury / 
 I appeal to our professional men of every denomination. 
 
 I shall give only one quotation farther. The following homage to the pope, was 
 expressed by an archbishop, in the council of the Lateran, in the hearing and 
 presence of pope Leo X. And hence it has the sanction of a pope, and a council ; and 
 it is^ in the belief of every true Roman catholic, of equal authority with the holy 
 Bible ! The homage was this: — "The pope has power, supra omnes potestates tarn 
 ccbU, quani terra, — above all the powers of heaven, as well as of earth!" Nay he 
 professes to do what God himself does not, — and cannot do. In " the mass" he and 
 his priesthood profess to create their Creator! Out of a wafer, they make God! 
 Now, the Most High never created, never could create himself!! And thus the 
 instructions taught in our Jesuit seminaries, are an unparallelled compound of cruel 
 ghostly despotism, and blasphemy! Can the most resolute infidel in all the land, 
 can the christian magistrate^ or a christian citizen be persuaded to hazard his chil-. 
 dren in the seminaries, and under the instruction of such teachers! Whosoever he be 
 tliat does tliis, with his eyes open to v/hat every one cannot but see, must be pro- 
 nounced an enemy to God, a traitor to his country, and the destroyer of his children's 
 innocence, and their immortal souls ! 
 
 I shall now present you with a specimen of the moral doctrines of your priests. 
 These correspond, in all points, to their theological tenets. iEneas Silvius, after^ 
 wards pope Pius ii. says in his Epist. 26 : " Nihil est quod, ^-c. There is notliing 
 which the Roman court does not give for money: "it sells the imposition of hands,** 
 (the ordination of priests. Alas ! — then, for the succession!) "it sells the gifts of the 
 Holy Ghost, and the pardon of sins is not given to any but such as are well-moniedi" 
 And, well said a poet of their own, namely, Mantuan, Lib. 3. "All things are salcabla 
 at Rome, — temples, priests, altars, prayers, heaven, — yea God himself," in the iiass, 
 to wit, — " are all for sale !" And hence the standing miracle at Rome which i)riest]y 
 modesty strangely forgets to enumerate in the " miracles of the saints." By the sale 
 of her trijle^ such as the sight of relics, and her prayers, and her indulgencies, and the 
 pardons, she possesses the power of converting lead and fmthers into solid gold! Tlie 
 greatest, and, in fact, the only unpardonable sin in tlie Romrn church is poverty ! If 
 you have only money you can buy the best seat in heaven, nnd the sauggest joys of 
 all paradise ! If you have no money, you can get nothing, not even a drop of water 
 to cool the tongue ! And what is really inhuman, — if the priest knows your poveriyj 
 
 18* 
 
198 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 he has not the bowels of compassion enough to pray you out of purgatory ; although 
 by his own testimony, it would cost him only a single word of his mouth ! ! This is 
 the first article in the code of his ethics. The most horridly immoral thing is poverty} 
 "The poor cannot be comforted!" 
 
 "As the Jesuit's morality is entirely pagan," says Pascal, Letter V., "nature is a 
 suflficient guide to them." x\nd nature does guide them with a vengeance ! The 
 force of this doctrine of probable opinio7i is wonderful. If a man be in a dilemma 
 about duty : this, for instance, appears vice ; that^ again, is virtue : or this, at another 
 rime, seems virtue, that, a vice. To relieve him, he requires no more than "the 
 PROBABLE opinion" of some one. And to comfort him, the opinion of even one 
 grave doctor, "will make an opinion probable! And be it ever so wrong and im- 
 moral, if he only follow the probable opinion, it is saintly purity, it is true virtue I 
 And what is still more accommodating — should two grave doctors diflfer on the point, 
 and each of them declare an opinion; why, then, each of "the grave doctors" makes 
 his opinion probable : so that you have a probable opinion on both sides. And in that 
 case, the way is clear, whatever law or gospel say. Take either side you please^ 
 just as it suits your own views, and interest. That which you do is virtuous, and alto- 
 gether right! Hence the old Jesuit proverb ; — Saepe premente Deo, fert Deus alter 
 opem! "If one god press hard on us, another god brings us aid!" That is to say^ 
 both sides, namely, the right, and the wrong are both right,— just as our interest 
 requires it. See Pascal, Prov. Lett. V. And what is very marvellous in ethics, — 
 if a person following a pro6a&?e opinion, commits an enormous sin, the priest mwsf 
 absolve him, even though the priest holds an opinion utterly the reverse. And what 
 is more still, — if the priest refuses this boon, he is himself guilty of a mortal sin I 
 this is taught by Saurez, Tom. iv. dist. 32. sect, 5, also by Vasquez, Disput. 62, cap. 
 7. and by Sanchez, N. 29. Pascal, Lett. V. p. 79. For instance, one doctor says, 
 "thou shalt not m.urder in any case." Another grave Jesuit says, "it is just and 
 useful to take off a man, like Henry IV. of France." The assassin follows this 
 '* probable opinion,'' and does murder him. And the Jesuit priest is bound, under 
 pain of a "mortal sin" to grant absolution to the assassin, and free pardon, and an 
 entrance into heaven : while he is conscious that he deserves the pains of hell, and is 
 actually plunging into it ! ! 
 
 Passing by others, I shall quote the very accommodating principle o^ '' directing the 
 intention.'" By this simple expedient, the Jesuit school can convert an immoral, and 
 even an atrocious deed, into what is commendable. For instance, a man may fight a 
 duel, and kill a man; providing he direct his intention simply to retrieve his honor. 
 He fights not with the intention to kill, but to do a service to himself. In hke man- 
 ner, a man may kill a witness whose testimony may ruin him. To take away the 
 immorality of this action, he has only to intendhis, own good, and not intend to murder 
 even lehile he kills ! This has been taught by Reginaldus, in Praxi, v. 21, sect. 62, 
 by Lessius De Just. Lib. ii. cap. 9, by Escobar, Tr. 5, Ex. See many more revolt- 
 ing instances in Pascal, Lett. VII. 
 
 I shall close with a few quotations illustrating other branches of practical morality, 
 "A man," says one of your most respectable moralists, "who makes a contract of mar- 
 riage, is dispensed, by any motive, from accomplishing his promise." Sanchez Oper. 
 Mor. Decal. pars. 2, Lit. 3. Again,—" A man may begin his testimony with, / 
 swear ; he can add this mental restriciion. to day, in a whisper he may repeat, 1 say ; 
 and then resume his former tone, — I did not do it /" See Filiucius, Quest. Mor. vol. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 199 
 
 lu No. 328. Again, " no witness is bound to declare the truth, before a lawful judge 
 iLf his deposition will injure him, or his posterity." Taberna vol. ii. cap. 31, p. 288. 
 "A priest may equivocate before a secular judge; — because such a judge is not a 
 lawful competent authority to receive the testimony of an ecclesiastic /'' See Tambur. 
 Lib. 3, p. 27. Again, " the rebellion of Roman prisets is not treason, because they are 
 not subject to the civil governmeiit.'" See Emman. Sa, Aphor. p. 41. And, fellow 
 citizens, hear the words of the Romish favorite Bellarmine, De Rom. Pon. in Lib. v. 
 cap. 6, p. 1094. "The sinritual power must rule the temporal by ail sort of means, 
 and all expedients, when necessary. Christians,'' that means with them R. Catholics, 
 " should not tolerate a heretic king!'" Now, every Jesuit priest in the land, believes 
 and acts on this, when he has the power. But all the members of our government 
 do, by the pope's decision, consist of heretics. Hence no Jesuit, and none of his 
 devotess would tolerate our government for one day, if they had the power ! 
 
 Again, " aman condemned by the pope maybe killed wherever he is found." See 
 La Croix, vol. i. p. 594. Again : " it is not a mortal sin to steal that from a man 
 which he would have given, if asked for it. It is not theft to take any thing from a 
 father, or a husband, if the value be not considerable." See Emmanuel Sa, Apor, 
 under the ^vordfurtum, theft. Once more, "a child who sen-es his father, may 
 secretly purloin as much as his father would have given a stranger for his compen-^ 
 sation." See this in Escobar, Mor. Theol. vol. iv. lib. 34, p. 348. And ag-ain, — 
 " Servants may secretly steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor 
 is worth, more than the wages they receive." See this in Cardenas, Crisis, Theol. 
 Diss. 23, cap. 2, p. 474. And Ludovicus Molina thus teaches, that if " a man or 
 woman servant (hired persons) have not a sufficient support, or what is usual and 
 necessary, he or she may secretly take, and use out of their master's goods, what is fit : 
 they are not to be blamed for doing so, — providing they first asked him for leave so to 
 do, and he refuse it." See Mol. De Just, et Jure : Tom. ii. p. 1150, Ment Edit, of 
 1614. 
 
 Thus it is manifest from their approved books lying open to the world, that the 
 Roman catholic priesthood are the grand depository of principles bearing a deadly 
 hostihty to the christian religion, and to our free institutions. And I renew my appeal 
 to the great American family, that the Protestant, who countenances these principles, 
 or aids them with his money ; or sends his children to their seminaries to imbibe these 
 tenets, is an enemy to God, a traitor to our republic, and the destroyer of the peace and 
 happiness of h is childre n ! 
 
 I am, most respectfully, vours, &c. 
 W. C.B. 
 
/ 
 
 200 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 On the Unity of the Romish Church. 
 
 "The other shape, 
 If shape it might be called, that shape had none 
 Distinguished in member, joint, or limb ; 
 Or snbstance might be called that shadow seemed: 
 For each seemed either." — Milton. 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — I trust I have in my last two letters put to rest, the claims face- 
 tiously made by the Roman catholic priesthood to sanctity. All the personal and 
 sacerdotal holiness, to which they can lay any honest claims, lies wholly in their mot- 
 ley consecrated garments, of duly orthodox shape, and holy cut! This easy and 
 accommodating holiness is readily put off; and most conveniently put on, during '' a 
 holy fair," and " a solemn gala day ;" while in the inner man, they are .stouthearted 
 deists, with few exceptions, and mockers, of the holy scriptures : and in morals, as we 
 have shown, the most consummate rakes, and polluted pests of civil society ! I rest 
 my proof with the American community ; I appeal to the history, and the voice of 
 Europe, South America, and Mexico, for the fuller evidence of this disgrace, and foul 
 blot on human nature ! I come now to speak of the unity of the Romish church. 
 
 Were this unity which the priests proudly boast of, a mere harmless extravagance, 
 like the lofty titles of eastern princes, w^e should pass it in silence. But it is constituted 
 a mark of their being the one only true church. And all the churches of Christ, on 
 account of the supported want of it, are doomed to be heretics, not one solitary soul 
 of whom, as your priests daily teach you, can possibly be saved. Hence, in the Ro- 
 mish church this is a dangerous and bloody dogma. It eats out the vitals of broth- 
 erly love and christian charity. It is the parent and nurse of bigotr}^ discord, and 
 every illiberal feeling. This is too manifest in every community where popery has 
 any influence. Your priests take the lead. WTien these charitable, and chaste exclu- 
 sives walk our streets, or look into a Protestant assembly, they cross themselves, and 
 whisper out, — "These are odious heretics! These men, women, and children, will 
 all be damned ! As soon as they die, they will all be in perdition !" 
 
 And this proceeds not from " constitutional malignity," or mere morbid misanthropy. 
 It is engendered by the elemental doctrines of popery-, in the heart of even females, 
 and those who are naturally delicate, and humane. " You ought to be executed for 
 'propagating th^se tenets, and opposing Holy Mother."' — said a young lady, in this 
 city, only two years an apostate from a presbyterian church, — only two years a 
 papist ! 
 
 This is the very spirit engendered by the doctrines of Roman Catholicism. It is 
 avowedly taught by your ethic writers. Here ai-e the avowed declarations. " Those 
 whom our lord the pope has condejined may ee lawfully killed, any w^hereI" 
 See La Croix, Tom. i. p. 294., and Secreta Monita, p. 114. Princeton edition. 
 
 This is the law and theory : the practical result is exhibited in the Inquisition, in 
 the Parisian, and Irish, and Waldensian massacres ! And every one will admit that 
 the executions, and the laws of popery are true, to the life, to each other ! 
 
 I have to add that in the popish charity, a heretic in faith, is viewed precisely in 
 the same light as a common murderer ! 
 
HOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY* 
 
 201 
 
 Therefore, it is the decided opinion of all Roman priests, that it is as lawful to kill 
 iieretics, as it is to kill murderers ; nay that it is as necessary, and as dutiful to kill the 
 first, as to kill the last ! Hence, when the church of God has quoted that text, in the 
 Revelation, as descriptive of popish persecutions, and in proof that Rome was the 
 Babylon ''that was drunk ivith the blood of the saints ;— Holy Mother replies in the 
 words of the Rhemish Annotations on Rev. xvii. 6., "Their blood is not called the 
 blood of saints, no more than the blood of thieves, man-killers, and otlier malefac- 
 tors, for the shedding of which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer.'* 
 
 Such a dangerous tenet must not, therefore, pass unnoticed. 
 
 The Romish priests should be the last men, in the world, to prefer claims touMTY, 
 in any sense. There is, in fact, no unity in the priests' church. Will you, I pray 
 you, follow me in the examination of this point. 
 
 I. The christian world has been against you, and you have been against the chris- 
 tian world. You have been Ishmaelites on the face of the earth. There have been 
 churches who, from primitive times, have stood out, not only unconnected with you, 
 but immoveably opposed to your whole system. These have testified against your 
 most obnoxious abominations ; and, as is evident from the venerable monuments of 
 their history, still existing, they hold in then confessions and creeds, the great leading 
 principles of modern Protestants. European Christendom has been the grand theatre 
 of the Waldensian church. These christians were immensely numerous ; as is evi- 
 dent from the prodigious number of 3-our church's murderous armies deemed requi- 
 site to be sent out against them. These people were called by different names, by 
 your persecuting forefathers ; but the three great divisions of them were, — the Jfal- 
 denses, the Alhigenses, and the WicUiffites. These had one common faith : they 
 unanimously rejected images, saint worship," the mass, purgatory, and all the essen- 
 tial tenets of Romanism. And in all the essential doctrines of Christ, they were at 
 one with the reformed churches. See Jones' Church Hist. 2 vols. N. York edition. 
 Reinerus, the DoiPxinican writer, says in cap. 4. " that these were the most ancient 
 heresy ; and that they existed from the days of Silvester ; or, others say, from the 
 days of the apostles." Holding the apostolic doctrines, they dated their origin, as 
 three Romish ^vriters admit, "and their defection from the Romish communion, from 
 the time of pope Silvester ; and they regard Leo, of the times of the emperor Constantine, 
 as their founder." Romanism, as Edgar observes, at this time gradually ceased to be 
 Christianity; and these inhabitants of thevallies, left the antichristian communion of 
 Rome. Your church, and the world, have changed around this devout christian so- 
 ciety ; while its principles and practices, through all the vicissitudes of time, live im- 
 mutably the same. " The Waldensian church, though despised by the Roman hier- 
 archy, illumined, in this manner, the dark ages; and appears, in a more enlightened 
 period, tlie clearest drop in the ocean of truth ; and shines the brightest constellation 
 in the firmament of holiness; and sparkles the brightest gem in the diadem of our 
 Immanuel : and blooms the fairest flower in the garden of God !" See Edgar's Var. 
 i). 59. 
 
 Turn now, with me, to the East. The Roman catholic church was boldly rejected 
 by the Greek church, an immense body of christians, in the isles, in Turkey, in Rus- 
 sia, in Europe, and in Asia. The Romish church was as decidedly rejected by the 
 Nestorians; by the Jacobins, or the churches planted by James; by the churches of 
 Armenia; and by the Syriac churches. To form some idea of the extent of the 
 Greek church, let me state, that in the eleventh century, the patriarch of Constant!- 
 
»« RO!kL\y CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 nople governed 65 metropolitans ; and 600 bishops ; and each bishop had thousands of 
 priests under him ! — See Thomassin, Dsciphne de L'EgUse, Pan 4. 2. 17. And 
 Allatius vol. I. 24. The Greeks, I must observe, are the farthest perhaps from the 
 purity of the Reformed churches, for this painful reason, that they unhappily remain- 
 ed the longest in connection with the corrupt church of Rome ! But it is a matter of 
 recorded history, that that immensely numerous body of Christians, has, as a church, 
 renounced papal usurpations, corruptions, and tyranny. And they have formally and 
 regularly excommunicated the Roman catholic church ; and denounced her with 
 solemnity as no longer a church of Christ. See Simon, cap. i. and Canisius vol. IV. 
 p. 493. And yet your priests, in the most ludicrous manner, cease not to prate about 
 
 U.MTT and CATHOLICITY ! 
 
 Moreover, the Armenian church, an immensely extended body, spread over Armenia, 
 Persia, India, Turkey,— -have opposed, and also anathematised the Romish church. 
 Then there is the Syrian church, who have in ancient times denounced you as an 
 apostate sect, and no more a true church. And this primitive apostolical people have 
 existed in the heart of India, to this day, as it appears from their remains which were 
 visited by the late Dr. Buchanan. See his Star in the East. And, in a word, the 
 European, the Asiatic, and the African churches, who have thus solemnly dissented 
 from the Roman catholic church, have been at least, four times more numerous than 
 the members of the Roman church, even before the Reformation, when she was in 
 all her glory." And I invite all the Jesuits in the United States to gainsay this by 
 any one historical document. Yes ! it is a fact, clearly established by history, of 
 which the priests take infinite pains to keep you all perfectly ignorant, that popery, 
 instead of unity and catholicity which are its vain and empty boasts, was never 
 embraced,— never countenanced by more than one fifth part of Christendom. Yes I 
 every man well read in church history which the priests carefully conceal from you, 
 fellow citizens, does know assuredly that all along from apostolic times, there were 
 four christians or dissentients for every one Roman cathohc. 
 
 The countless thousands, and hundreds of thousands of the Waldenses, and the 
 immense multitude in the Oriental aud African churches,— even amid their painful 
 " divisions about minor matters of words and ceremonies," did all oppose with firm- 
 ness and unanimiiy, tiie cruel tyranny, and revolting corruptions of the Roman 
 catholic church." Yes ! four to one, of all these were opposed " to the sons of error, 
 superstition, and popery," See our appendix. No. i. And yet your priests boast with 
 unparallelled assurance of their unity and universahty ! Behold, fellow citizens, 
 how these French, Spanish, and Roman Jesuits insult the American cou>munity, as if 
 you were ignorant of the first elements of European and popish history ! They walk 
 forth in the midst of us, and babble of unity and universality, as if we were enveloped 
 in the popish darkness of the tenth century. They enjoy our liberties, they walk forth 
 in our social intercourse, they smile in our faces, — and gravely tell us, — " Ye are 
 all hejetics ! Ye are as bad as murderers ! We have, however, this consolation 
 over you, that though we want the power to justify you at the stake, and the 
 gibbet, — ye will all soon be doomed." 
 
 H. Your priests boast of unity and harmony among yourselves. This is quite face- 
 tious, and if you intend it for a sally of wit, why, itis tolerable for monks and priests. 
 But I shall suppose that you are serious, and gravely refute your claims. Need I 
 remind you of the fatal schisms in your church, with which we refreshed your 
 memory in a former letter ? Where was your unity ja those days when two anc| 
 
lOMAN CATHOLiC COP^TftOVERSf . 2(1B 
 
 Ihnt popes, with their bloody partisans, rent Holy Mother's family into agitatied par- 
 lies ? Must I remind you of the bloody wars, which impious and atrocious popes 
 excited, to accomplish the end proposed by their rebellions against their lawful 
 sovereigns, the emperors? Need you be reminded of the civil wars which raged 
 during the reign of the emperor Leo between those who opposed images, and "the 
 furious tribe of image worshippers? Need I tell you how the popes Gregory I. 
 and II. were the authors, and ringleaders of these civil commotions, and insurrections 
 in Italy, in their excessive zeal in behalf of image worship ? See Mosheim ii. cent* 
 8, part. 2, ch. 3. Has not the whole world heard of pope Zachary who excited 
 Pepin to rebel against his sovereign, the king of France, and depose him, and reign 
 by violence, in his stead ? And of pope Stephen whose restless ambition stirred up 
 the French king to carry on war, and shed the blood of the Lombards, to extend his 
 papal dominions ? AVho has not shuddered at his inhuman destruction of the tens of 
 thousands of his own good catholics, as this priest fought to wrest property and 
 dominion from the emperor? See the pages of your own writer, Platina, in the life 
 of pope Stephen, ii. ; and Stillingf. p. 367. Trace, I beseech you, the progress of the 
 papal throne, to power and sacerdotal glory. That papal throne was founded in out- 
 rage and rebellion against governments : it was built on the ruin and lives of millions* 
 and cemented in human blood ! " So great was the devastation and blood shed caused 
 by popish unity and popish harmony, that, as two of your writers relate, — " the country 
 about Rome suffered more, about that time, than in the invasions of Northern bar- 
 barians, for 344 years before!" See Platina, in Life of Stephen II. ; and Blondus, 
 Decad. 2, Lib. i. Stilling, p. 369. Need I remind you, moreover, of the infamous 
 treachery of pope Gregory IV. who undertook a journey into France, professedly 
 with a view of composing differences betw^een the emperor and his two sons, but who 
 had no other object, as the result fully proved, than to excite the sons into an open 
 breach, and war with their own father? And thus, the head of unity kindled the 
 flames of discord which were not quenched but by the blood of thousands. " Pope 
 Gregory IV.," — says Hincmar the Roman catholic bishop of Rheims, — " came into 
 France: and there was no peace from that day, in the country." Hincmar, Epist. 
 p. 577, Stilling, p. 371. Need we, also, rehearse the doings of pope Gregory VII., 
 who has been well named, ''the hell-brand?" This pious head of the Roman 
 catholic unity, excited continual wars in Germany, and the adjacent kingdoms. The 
 «mperor, Henry IV., fought in his time, no less than sixty-two pitched battles, (that 
 is, ten more than Julius Cjesar fought,) and all of them at the instigation of the pope, 
 in one way, or another. See the Chron. of Ursperg. p. 226, and the history of that 
 period : and Stilling, p. 372. Need I recite the horrid tumults which that pope 
 caused by his enforcing the laws of celibacy upon the priests ? Or tlie public distrac- 
 tion caused by his inhuman treatment of Henry IV., notwithstanding all his ser- 
 vices? His making that poltroon prince stand at his gate, three days, clad in sack- 
 cloth, bare headed, and bare footed in winter, before he deigned to give him an audi- 
 ence ? Was this characteristic of the head of unity and harmony ? If you have any 
 doubts on the matter, I shall recite in evidence the only good thing which this 
 scourge of mankind during all his lifetime, either did or said. I allude to his dying 
 words, as recorded by Math. Paris. His. Anglic, A. D. 1087. Having called one of 
 his friends to him, he confessed that ''it was through the instigation of the devil that 
 he had made so great a disturbance in the christian icorld /" This is an instructiv«f 
 lesson of a pope, on unity ! 
 
204 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 In one word, it is clearly manifest to every reader of history, that in all the endless 
 train of tumults, insurrections, and wars which have convulsed Europe, and drenched 
 her in seas of blood, for about the last eleven hundred years, the pope and the 
 Romish prelates have been the grand agitators, and prime causes ! And yet the 
 priests boast of unity and harmony^ as an exclusive mark of their being the true church ! 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours &c. 
 W. C. B 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 -" About her round, 
 
 A cry of hell-hounds, never ceasing, barked. 
 
 With wide Cerberean mouths, full loud, and rung 
 
 A hideous peal!" Milton. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — We go on with the proof that the unity of the priests' 
 church is discord. 
 
 For, — III. The various orders and rules of the monks exhibit a house divided 
 against itself. These Orders are so many regiments in the pope's army, who act in 
 concert only against the common enemy. Each of them has its own esjjrit du corps; 
 and has, from time to time, caused the fiercest contests and tumults on various parti- 
 zan questions. There is 1st the Benedictines with their rules ; and dressed in the 
 characteristic solemn black, from the color of the /ayonfe raven, which attended Bene- 
 dict in his solitude, and which as a sensible and judicious creature, the holy monk 
 appropriately called his "brother;" and was, in fact, as Dr. Geddes, vol. iii. 367, 
 recites out of the writings of the order, ''' his first brother in the soUiude.^^ Then 2d, 
 there are the monks of Climy, founded by the wild fanatic St. Odo, who did not con- 
 ceal that he was infested by flocks of mischievous foxes wherever we went ; no man 
 could tell where they came from, until a humane wolf volunteered most devoutly and 
 obligingly, to be his guard by day and night ! Then 3d, there are the Cameldunians, 
 whose clothing is white, because the ghost of St. Apollinar walked out, in clothing 
 of pure light, from below the altar, and appeared to their founder. The 4th order is 
 that of the Gilbertines, named after their founder, who was moved to institute the 
 order from the presence of a crucifix, gravely and sensibly nodding its head at him, 
 as do the statues of our modern Mandarines ! The 5th order is the Carthusians ; — 
 *' an inhuman order," as Dr. Geddes justly styles them, from their crucifying every 
 fine feeling, and social principle of human nature ; a thing our priests are not guilty 
 of, as we have seen ! The 6th is the Cistertia?is, which differs as much from that of 
 the Carthusians, as that did from all its preceding brothers! This order is clothed in 
 •white, because the mother of the founder was favored with a marvellous and appro- 
 priate dream, that she was about to give birth to a ivhite dog.' Then there are the 
 three orders of the Cekstines ; tlie Williamites ; and the Silveste mites. 
 
 Besides these, are the Canons Regular ; and the fourteendifferent orders of St. Au- 
 gustine. Then we may enumerate the Dominican, and other Mendicant orders, which 
 differ widely from the monkish orders : and there are the strong army of the Francis- 
 cans ; and to crown the whole, the authors of all mischief, the Jesuit's order. Each 
 of these has a particular resident virtue and efficacy ; and they gravely tell us that it 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 205 
 
 Ued ill some holier article of their holy dress. For instance, the Dominican's virtue 
 lies in their u'hite scapular: that of thu Monks lies in their belts: that of the Francis- 
 cans in their sleeve. And it is proper for us all to hnow this, that when the golden 
 dream;s of the })opc, and his monks, are realized, and when they have conquered this 
 fair republic, and established these orders : and when they will swarm on our streets, 
 ia their holy processions, " as plenty as blackberries," — we may carefully put our- 
 selves on our good manners : and so, by the orthodox Roman way of thinking, and 
 worsliipping God by human proxy, save our lives. We must, for instance, swear in 
 these days, by the Dominican's white scapular; salute the monk by kissing his belt; 
 and the Franciscan by kissing his holy sleeve, as we kneel in the dust, for the honor 
 ui' having his blessing, or the saintly honor of laying the foundation stone of a vile 
 iiunuery, or of worshi])ping and lauding to heaven the priest's fovorite nieces, under 
 the name of sisters of Love! All this they do, in popish lands! 
 
 Between these different orders, and the bishops, and the parochial clergy, there 
 have been perpetual wranglings in all Roman catholic countries. And the pope 
 shrevv'dly avails himself, of their influence mutuall}^. When the bishops are refrac- 
 tory, he judiciously foments quarrels by the monks; when the latter become turbu- 
 lent, he throws in his papal sword to make the bishops' scale w^eigh down ! Besides, 
 there have been as deadly feuds between these orders, as ever there have been among 
 Highland clans, and Border reivers ! The Jesuits cherish violent feuds against the 
 Jansenists ; the Dominicans maintain bloody strifes with the Franciscans, and the 
 Scotists with the Thomists ! And all these orders know club logic, infinitely better 
 than arguments of grace ! 
 
 In fact, the Romish church, in its interior, has been like a boiling caldron, over a 
 fiercely burning fire ! The agitated scalding waves now thrown up one thing, and 
 now another. There is no rest, no peace to priest, to pope, or to prelate ! And yet 
 these men glory insultingly over the Christian world, in their unity and harmony ; and 
 hold this up as the divine mark of their possessing in fee simple, the only true church ! ! 
 
 IV. There is no unity between the doctrines, and rites of the Roman catholic 
 church; and those of the holy Scri])tures, and the Fathers. Follow me in the proof 
 of this. First, the papal supremacy is the corner stone of your fabric, if this falls, the 
 whole system falls, and the trodden down people regain their rights and liberty. 
 
 Now there is no evidence in the Bible, or in sound tradition, (hat Peter had any 
 supremacy from Christ. On the contrary, all evidence, and sober tradition are against 
 it. YMur priests impose on you, and confirm the evidence of their impostures, by 
 their marvellous ignorance of Greek criticism, and painful specimens of their literary 
 knaver}' ! Christ alone is that Rock on which the church is built : Peter is not, and 
 he cannot be the Rock, as your priests pretend. This is the point on which we are at 
 issue : we exalt Christ Jesus the eternal Son of God, as our only foundation. Your 
 priests actually prefer to this honor, an erring and feeble mortal, the man Peter! . Is it 
 not mortifying to the dignity of human nature, and man's noble powers of reason, 
 that any man should be so lost, and so atheistic in his principles, as deliberately to 
 prefer a frail mortal creature to the Great God, our Savior, Jesus Christ I Fellow 
 Citizens, I im])lore you to shake off the chains of ghostly ignorance and imposture, 
 which the priests rivet on you. Tell them that you choose not to be stulti'i'd, and crush- 
 ed down to the level of brutes, by them! What! can you possibly prefer a frail, er- 
 ring man, for the foundation of the church, and the basis of your own eternal hopes, 
 and reject Christ, the Almighty God ? If you do, fellow citiiiens, you renounce the 
 
 19 
 
206 nOMA-N CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 ilignity, and the honor of maD ; you throw wantonly away every thing that ennoblBa 
 the Christian ! 
 
 It is well known to every Greek scholar, that the Roman catliolic priests, in labor- 
 ing to establish their fanatical error, on this point, have fallen into a disgraceful gram- 
 matical blunder, for which a school boy would be disciplined. This they do in their 
 critical exposition of the words in Matt.xvi. 18. "Thou art Peter, a rock, and upon 
 this rock will I build my church." By this imposition on the illiterate, they ex- 
 pose their ignorance of Biblical criticism ; or, as the only alternative, they betray a 
 mischievous act of knavery! 
 
 The true rendering is this: — "Thou art Petros ; and upon this the Petrckr^ 
 em TavTji rjt Jlcr^a — I will build my church." Now, it was not Petros, Peter, who 
 was to be the foundation. Christ said no such thing. These priests slander our 
 Lord : — he said it was the Petra, not Pttros, on which he built the church. And from 
 the very phrase, namely, '■'•ufon this the rock,^' it is manifest that the Lord pointed to 
 his own person, as he said, "upon this the rock;" as, on another occasion, he saidy— 
 " destroy this temple," — meaning not the outward temple before them ; but "this, ttr« 
 temple of his body." 
 
 Now, it is notorious that your priests have fallen into the very error, into which th« 
 Jews fell. They understood him to say, " their splendid temple of stone and timber," — 
 and not his "own body." In like manner your priests make the Petros the same as 
 ^'this the rock,'' meaning not the divine iierson of Christ, but the frail man Peter ! 
 
 And ours is the exposition given by St. Augustine : — " I have said in a certain pas- 
 sage, respecting the apostle Peter, that the church is founded upon him as upon a 
 rock." But now mark what this great man said afterwards, — " But I do know that I 
 have frequently afterwards so expressed, that the phrase " wpon f/iis rocZc," should be 
 understood to be the rock which Peter confessed. For it was not said to him thou art 
 Petra, but thou art Petros, for the rock was Christ." See Aug. Oper. Tom. i. p. 32. 
 the first book of his " Retractationes." Bendict. Edit. Paris, 1685. This is also the 
 judgment of seven other fathers. And let it be especially noted that what our Lord 
 said to Peter about "the keys," and "the remission of sins," he also said to th© 
 church of God." See Matt, xviii. 17, 18. and also to all the other apostles, to whom 
 lie gave "the keys," and power of disciplinary remission, just as much, and as expli- 
 citly, as to Peter. See John xx. 23. 
 
 'And, I pray 3'ou, fellow citizens, to remember that your priests are at open war with 
 the holy scriptures on this point. Let the inspired writers explain this matter to us. 
 See 2 Corin. ix. 4. Paul says, " that rock was Christ.'" Will you give more heed 
 to ignorant and profligate priests, than to the inspired and holy St. Paul? Hear him 
 again in Ephes. ii. 20. " We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and proph- 
 ets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor jier stone," or rock. And in Revel, xxi. 14. 
 St. John declares "that in the foundation were the names of the twelve apostles,"— 
 and not Peter's merel}'. Read, think, and judge, I beseech vou, for yourselves. Nay, 
 hear St. Peter himself explain this ; you certainly will give more credence to St. Peter 
 than to those illiterate and licentious priests, whom St. Peter in his hasty wrath, were 
 he here, would " smite, and cut their ears off." In his first Epistle ii. 6, 7. he declares 
 Christ to be "the precious and elect, and chief corner stone, and the Petra, the 
 Joc/c." Ver. 8. 
 
 And moreover, our Lord himself settles the question about Peter's " supremacy." 
 Soe Matt. xx. 25. Mark x. 42. There he puts all his disciples on a perfect footing of 
 
ROMAX CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 207 
 
 equality. He charges them to borrow no model of power from the heathen : to allow 
 of "no lordships ;" " no exercising of authorit}'," over each other as his apostles, and 
 ministers. These were "Gentile" customs, and not christian. And Peter never 
 claimed supremacy ; and none of the apostles ever gave it to him in a compliment. 
 Hear his own words, in 1 Epist. ch. v. while he is addressing "the elders who have 
 the oversight of the flock," that is " teaching elders," or " the pastors.'' He assumes 
 no supremacy over them; he claims no other rank than that of a fellow *■'■ elder. '*'' 
 " I am also an elder," — says the holy and humble apostle. And placing himself in 
 tlieir ranks, he charges them "not to be Lords over God's heritage!" How could he 
 be supposed guilty of that tyranny and crime, against which he thus solemly guards 
 tlie christian ministry? — Now, suppose one of their pious elders, or "priests," if 
 you will, had said, — "Our Lord Peter! Our Lord God Pope Peter!" What 
 would he have said ? Our Lord's words to himself, on another occasion, when 
 he showed that he was neither supreme, nor infallible, would have ministered to him 
 the words of the severe but just rebuke, — "Get thee behind me Satan I for thou 
 savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men !" Hence he had no 
 supremacy; and if Peter had no supremacy, — your popes, u-e re they even his suc- 
 cessors, have none. 
 
 But farther, I can produce seven of your fathers against this supremacy of the 
 bishop of Rome. 1st. St. Angmtine signed the decree of the Mil* vitan Council 
 vJ'hich declared that " if any man shall appeal" from his own bishop, to any one, 
 " beyond seas, let him be received into communion by none in Africa^ Thus he de- 
 dares that there is no supremacy of the bishop of Rome, over the African bishop;?, 
 and churches. See Mans. Concil. Collect. Tom. iv. 507. Venet. Edit, of 1785. 
 
 I am aware thai popish writers quote the following out of Augustine's Ei)ist. 43 
 alias 162. — " The supremacy of the Apostolical See, has always remained in th«2 
 church of Rome." 
 
 But can this be genuine, and no forgery; when, as is testified above, Augustine 
 signed the famous decree of the Milevitan Council, protesting against the pajial su- 
 premacy of Rome; and solemnly excommunicating all who should even appeal to 
 Rome against his own church and bishops in Africa ? 
 
 But the point, is settled witliout supposing a forgery. The fathers had not alwavs 
 the unanimous consejit with themselves. In Tom. i. p. 32. Retract. Lib. i., Augustine 
 frankly admits that he had made Peter the Rock, and the foundation of the church. 
 But this he retracted; and declares that "the Rock is Christ whom Peter confessed," 
 " for," adds he, — " it was not said to him thou art Petra ; but thou art Petros : for tho 
 Rock was Christ." 
 
 2d. St. Jerome says, — "The church of Rome is not to be deemed one tiling, and 
 the churcli of the wholf^ world, another." — " Wheresoever a bishop is, whether at 
 Rome, or Eugubium, or at Constantinople, or Alexandria, or Tanais, he is of the same 
 worth,'' &c. "But all bishops are successors of the apostles. Why do you produce 
 to me the custom of one city?" See Jerome to Evagr. Tom. ii. p. 512. Paris Edit. 
 1602. Again he says — " Bishops should recollect, that they are greater than ciders, 
 rather by custom than the truth of the Lord's appointment ; and that they ought to 
 rule the church in common." Jerome, on Titus, Tom. i. Lib. i. cnp. 1. — Finch, 
 p. 166. 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
208 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTP.OVERST, 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condtmntd by the Scriptures and the Fathers. 
 
 " In the first six hundred years, there was )io church, no one doctor, no one martyr, no 
 one confessor, no one member, in the West, or in any other part ot' the world, whu Ava& 
 properly and formally a papist." — roetius. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — We have seen in the progress of our discussion, that your 
 priests have a cumbrous and inaccessible load of materials for their rule of faith. To 
 the holy scriptures, they add the apocrypha, and oral tradition, and the unanimous 
 consent of the fathers. The effect of this is obvious. If I add to "any rule," or 
 nieasi;re, two inches, or cut off two, from it, — it is no longer a rule: it is utterly 
 destroyed. The very object for which it was made is lost. This leads infallibly 
 into deism. Hence every Roman preist, just in proportion as he is a consistent papist 
 is an irrecoverable deist; and a stout-hearted opposer of God's word. His Jfirst les- 
 son, and the first element of his system is this : The holy scriptures are not the rule 
 of faith : they are not perfect ; their authority is given to them by the pope and his 
 priesthood ! They have no divine authority over the soul and consciences of men, 
 but what a profane priest gives to them ! 
 
 This overwhelming truth our New York priests have taken incredible pains to 
 convince the American community, in each of their letters, before they retreated. 
 And there is not a reflecting man among us, whether he is christian or deist, who 
 does entertain a doubt on the subject. Every body knows that the priests here arc 
 as resolute, and as stout-hearted deists, as Voltaire, Hume, or Paine was ! And 
 having gone this fatal length, it is no wonder that there does exist among our Ameri- 
 can, as well as European Roman catholic priests, the same division which exists 
 among the deists : namely, the immortal deist, who believes in a future state; and the 
 mortal deist, who does not believe in a future state! And in this they have, by the 
 way, pontifical precedent and example. One of the popes of Rome, on his death 
 bed, summoned his favorites around him, and made this extraordinary remark, " I 
 am dying ; and I shall soon have three doubts solved, which have long hung on 
 my mind ; namely, — v/heiher there be a heaven, — whether there be a hell, — and 
 whether there be a God !" 
 
 But, by abandoning the evidence and weight of divine authority, for his religion, 
 the Roman priest gains his great object. He throws the whole proof of his novel 
 system on the evidence of human authority, — and on that alone ! He is compelled to 
 do this, because he is conscieus that its essential doctrines, and rites were entirely 
 invented, some centuries, after the Bible was given by God to the church. 
 
 One principal fountain of the priests' authority and evidence, is the unanimous 
 consent of the Fathers. On tliis I join issue with them : to this test I cheerfully 
 follow them ; and we shall see that they are condemned by the fathers, as well as by 
 the scriptures. Now, let me here state explicitly, the Roman catholic maxim and 
 law on this point. It is this: — " That doctrine and rite which has the unanimous 
 consent of the Fathers, is binding on the human conscience: that which has not the 
 unanimous consent is of no authority whatever." This is the radical and fatal doctrino 
 on which Romanism as a system of novel religion, is founded and reared. 
 
ROMAjr CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 209 
 
 Now, I can easily show that the distinctive doctrines and rites of Rome, do abso- 
 lutely and utterly want this, their own essential evidence. And here let it be 
 especially noted, that it is of no consequence to us whether or not the Romish priests 
 produce quotations perfectly the reverse of those genuine ones which I shall produce. 
 Let them do it : only let them quote fairly. We wish them to offer opposite quota- 
 tions. In doing so, they will only ruin their cause the sooner. They will prove that 
 the fathers do not only not agree wiih each other, — but that they do contradict them- 
 selves. Hence, there can be no unanimous consent of the Fathers^ 
 
 I have formerly given a specimen of the Fathers on the jjopish supremacy ; I shall 
 add a few more. And it will be edifying to give the exposition of a few of them on the 
 famous text, " Thou art the Peter, and on this rock will I build my church,'^ ^c. In my 
 last letter, I gave St. Augustine's exposition. " It was not said to him, thou art Petra ; 
 but thou art Petros: for the Rock was Christ." Tom. i. p. 32^ Retractions. Again : 
 "Did Peter receive those keys, and did not John and James, and the other apostles 
 not receive them? "What was given to him, was given to the church." Sermon 
 149. Tom V. p. 766. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685. 
 
 St. Jerome declares *' Christ to be the Petra, the Rock ; who granted to his apostles* 
 — donavit apostolis — that they also should be called rocks." On Amos ; Tom. v. p. 
 263, Paris Edit, of 1602. But, I shall help your priests to another quotation ; for I 
 wish to be impartial. In Tom. iv. p. 15, he makes Peter the Rock, and the chuich 
 founded on him! Ag-ain, in Tom. iii. p. 173, this consistent saint says: ''The 
 catholic church," (he does not say the Roman catholic church,) but, "the catholic 
 church is founded in a firm root, upon the Petra, the Rock Christ." 
 
 Ij; is proper to state, however, that some who are well skilled in Jerome's writings, 
 do maintain that when he makes Christ the petra, — the rock ; he extends this to all 
 the apostles equally : " they are all rocks : the church rests on them all equally. 
 
 I must also vindicate him from a quotation which your priests here, and in Eiirope, 
 have given out of his book. Adv. Jovin. Lib i. cap. 14. It is this, — "Among the- 
 twelve to prevent schism, one is elected, and established as the head."" Here the 
 Jesuits are guilty of a partial translation ; and of garbling the entire sentence. I 
 ghall give the true rendering, and the entire sentence: "But thou say est, the churcli 
 is founded on Peter, although in another place, the vein/ same thing is done upon all 
 tlie apostles; and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of lieaven; and the 
 strength of the church is established equally upon them alh Yet, therefore, among 
 the twelve one is chosen, that, the head being appointed^ the occasion of scliism may 
 be taken away," — that is, the one chosen was " head," or president to keep order. 
 This was, in Jerome's view, all of Peter's supremacy. And even this is questioned ; 
 for when the full college of apostles met, which was only ^vhile they were at Jerusa- 
 lem, it was not Peter, but James who was "the head," and president. Acts XV. 
 
 St. Chrysostom says "Chri>t did not say upon Peter, for he did not found his 
 church upon a man ; but, upon faith. What, tlierefore, means this Petra, — Rock ? 
 Upon the confession contained in Peter's Avord." Oper. Tom. vt p. 233. Paris 
 Edit. 1621. The same idea he advances in Sermon 54. on Matt. xvi.. 18. 
 
 In like manner Origen on Matt. xvi. : and Athanasius in his letter to Serapion^ 
 Paris Edit. 1627. Also St. Cyril of Alexandria, Tom. v. p. 500, Paris «dit. 16-38. 
 Also St. Amtjrose, De Incarn. Sac. Lib. i., Paris Edit. 1690. And it helps my cause 
 to add, that St. yVmbrose is so destitute of tlie unaiiimous consent, that he advocatcsjt 
 Peter's sujjremacy. Let the priests produce this contradiction^ on his pages^ ajyj^ 
 
 19* 
 
210 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 thereby aid our cause. And finally, St. Hilary makes the rock confessed by Pefer, 
 to be the only foundation of the church. See his work, De Trinit. Lib. vi. Paris 
 Edit. 1652. The original of all these Greek and Latin Fathers, I am prepared to 
 give, at any call. The original, in Greek and Latin, is lying before me. I omit 
 them only for want of room. 
 
 Theodoret the Greek father, thus wrote in 451 ; " Christ alone is the head of all : 
 but the holy church is ttis body ; and we say that the saints are the members of hi& 
 body ; one, indeed, is the neck ; and another the feet. By his tegs, understand St. 
 Peter, the first of the apostles." On Canticles, Lat. Edit. Paris 1608. Thus he 
 makes Peter the legs, which are borne up by the feet ; and by no means the head ! 
 
 Next, let me present you with a quotation or two from Turtullian : "Peter was 
 called a stone, or a rocky for tho building of the church. All the apostles were rocks." 
 Contra Marc. Lib. iv. Again; — "Survey the apostolical churches, in which the 
 very chairs of the apostles still preside over their stations ; in which their own epistles 
 are recited; uttering the voice, and representing the presence of each of them. Is 
 Achaia nearest to thee? Thou hast Corinth. If thou art not far from Macedonia, 
 thou hast the Philippians, and Thessalonians. If thou canst go to Asia, thou hast 
 Ephesus ; but if thou art near Italy, thou hast Rome, whenee to us also authority is 
 near at hand." De prceserip. adv. Haeres. cap. 36, p. 215, Paris Edit. 1675. 
 
 This is the famous passage^ which the Jesuits and other popish writers had sported' 
 so long, as an irrefragable proof, from one- of the most ancient of th-e Faihers, of the 
 supremacy of the Roman See. But the imposture has been detected, and exposed^ 
 Will my reader believe me, when I assure him. that in quoting the above, they left 
 out all the lines printed in Italicks ! In the Priests' Book, the quotation begins with, 
 "If tb)u art near Italy," &c. See Finch's Romish Controv. p. 214. 
 
 Ambrose Ls ixsually set in opposition to Peter's supremacy. Hear his- 
 words; — "Faith is the foundation of the church; for it was not said of the fiesh 
 of Peter, but of his faith ^ that the gates of hell should not prevail against it." De- 
 Incarn. Dom. Sacram. Lib. 1. Cap. 5 p. 711. Bened. Edit. Par. 1690, Again; 
 "What is said to Peter, is said to the Apostles." In Psal. 38. Tom. i. p. 858. Once 
 more, — " not unmindful of his place, he enacted the primacy, — a primacy of confes- 
 sion, not of ho7ior : a primacy o( faith, and not of order.''' De Incarn. Lib. i. as above. 
 
 Let me next carry you to St. Cyprian, who thus wrote in A. D. 248. — " The other 
 Apostles were the same as Peter, endowed with an equal fellowship of honor, and 
 power, &c." De Unit. Eccles. p. 107. Oxford edit. 1682. Once more, in his pre- 
 fatory Address to the bishops at the Council of Carthage he said, — "No one of us has 
 set himself up as the bishop of bishops ; or has driven, by t3Tannical fear, his col- 
 leagues to the necessity of obeying him; since every bistop has his own will for the- 
 exercise of his liberty and power &c." And this was the sentence of the council of 
 Carthage. See Labb. and Cossart's Coneil. Tom. i. p. 786. 
 
 St. Hilary we must not omit: hear his words uttered so. far back as A. D. SSS- 
 "The building of the church is upon this Petra, Rock- of his (Peter's) confession: 
 this faith is the foundation of the church :. through this faith the gates of hell are 
 weak against it." De Trinit. Lib. 6. Par. Edit. 1652. Again in his Expos, of Psal. 
 52, he says, — " The apostles obtained the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Once 
 more; — "we have known no rock but Christ; because it is said of him, — bujt the 
 Rock, Petra was Christ." Expos, of Psal. 140. Enarr. p. 1138. 
 
 Finally; St. Gregort, the pope, makes an enhghtened opposition lo the supre.- 
 
ROMAN CArflOLIC CO.VTROVERSr. 211 
 
 macy of the pope, in A. D. 590. I could fill pages from him; but I select the fol- 
 lowing,—" Ego autem fidenter dico, &c. I confidently say, that whosoever calls 
 himself Universal Bishop, (Pope,) or desires to be so called in his pride, is the fore- 
 runner of Antichrist: because he, in his pride, prefers himself to the rest. And he 
 is conducted to error with a similar pride. For as "- that tvicked one'' wishes to appear 
 a god above all men, so, whosoever he is who de*ires to be called sole bishop, 
 extols himself above all other bishops." Lib. 7. Indie. 15, Epist. 33, Ad. Maur. Aug. 
 Bened. Edit, of Paris, 1705. And in Lib. 7. Indie. 15. Epist. 40, he shows beyond 
 the denial of Jesuits, that the bishops of Alexandria, and Awfioch, with him of Rome, 
 were equally descended from the Apostle ; and that the one had no supremacy over the 
 other. And this man, remember, I pray you, was a pope, and one of your saints, 
 whom you worship, and adore with the burning of incense. Hence, you should tell 
 your priests, who scandalously impose on laymen's ignorance of history, that they 
 stand a poor chance in their hopes of getting into paradise by the merits and prayers 
 of Sf. Gregory, the pope! For they oppose and blaspheme this demi god, by their 
 modern popery. You may depend on h, if St. Gregory, the pope, has any control of 
 the gates of paradise, not one soul of the Jesuits can ever get in for love, or money I 
 
 To the authority of the Father's, I shall add the decisions of councils, against tlie 
 papal supremacy. It is well known that before the council of Nice, which first 
 divided the government of the chruch into four Patriarchal seats, Rome had very 
 little, or rather no pre-eminence. All the Jesuits are, of course, well, acquainted 
 with the verses ofiEneas Silvius, who became Pope Pius ii., namely,— "Antequam 
 Ninceuum, &c. Before the Nieene council, every bishop or pastor, lived to him- 
 self: little respect was paid to the church of Rome." See Pope Pius, ii. Epist. 301 : 
 and Willet's Synopsis p. 158. In the Nieene council, no primacy of power was 
 given to Rome, over the whole church. The Patriarchs of Jerusalem, of Antioch, 
 and Alexandria, were independent of the bishop of Rome. The fact is, the bishop of 
 Rome was really a small concern in those days. The Oriental churches knew 
 scarcely any thing of his name, and nothing of the modern facetious claims of abso- 
 lute supremacy, made by our Romish fanatics! 
 
 Lastly : your own master spirit, the Jesuit Bellarmine admits unluckily, what 
 overthrows the papal supremacy. He says, 1st. that—*' It doth not depend on 
 Christ's institution, sed ex Petri facto, but from the fxt or deed of Peter, that th£ 
 bishop of Rome, in preference to the bishop of Antioch, or any other See, should be 
 St. Peter's successor." "It is,'* says he, ''jure humano, non jure divino :'' — by 
 "human law, not by divine right, or law, that he has all that power, which he has." 
 "It is not ei- prima institutione, ^c. from the first institution of the pontificate, 
 which is read of in the gospel." Again, he frankly admits,— " jRomonw/n pontificem, 
 <Scc." that the Roman pontif is the successor of Peter, is not expressly set down hi 
 the scriptures ; but it is grounded on St. Peter's tradition." See Bellarm. Dc Pontif. 
 Lib. ii. cap. 17. also cap. 16. 
 
 Thus, your principal writer abandons all proof from scripture. Hence, it is disho- 
 nest, and sheer imposition, in any of your priests to quote ths text o{ Peter, the Roch 
 to prove the pope's supremacy. And touching this writer's proof of Peter's supre- 
 macy from tradition, — his whole argument, in one word, amounts to this. A priest 
 goes into court to claim the possession of an immense estate : — " It is true," says he, 
 "I do not claim it by any written deed, or by the will of the true owner. But the 
 genuine members of my family, John Roe, and Nicholas Doe have a tradition in o«r 
 
2J2 . ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 favor, from time immemorial, — and, therefore, we claim it, in opposition to those \vho 
 have the genuine and authentic will ; in as much as our tradition is better than any 
 deed or will, in the possession of the lineal heirs ! !" This is the whole amount of the 
 Roman catholic argument. 
 
 And thus the supremacy of the Romish church and pope arose, not from the will 
 r)f God, or any command of Christ; or the voice of Peter, or any legal deed of tlie 
 church : but, like the power and supremacy of CsBsar, Alexander, or Tamerlane, — 
 it arose out of human pride and ambition ! It was reared by iniquity, fraud, and 
 atheism : it was erected at the expense of millions of human lives : and the blood of 
 »ixty eight millions has cemented it ! ! And wo, wo, wo be to the man who, in any 
 way, aids, or sustains it. It is an enemy to the human race ! It shuts up as far as 
 it can, the gates of heaven ! It has already been the eternal undoing of millions ! It 
 is the most malignant enemy of God. And the Almighty has pledged all his perfec- 
 tions to destroy it for ever and ever ! See Rev. chap, xviii. 
 
 Your sincere friend, &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 
 
 " O alienate from God ! O spirit accursed I 
 Forsaken of all good I I see thy fall 
 Determined " Milton. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — I finished, in my last letter, the quotation of testiinonies 
 from the Fathers against the supremacy : I now beg leave to observe t — 
 
 Second, tlmt the use of images in divine worship is condemned by Scripture and the 
 Fathers. 
 
 Hear the voice of God to you: — "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
 only shalt thou serve." Math. iv. 10. " Little children keep yourselves from idols." 
 1 John V. 21. Deut. xxvii. 15. "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or 
 molten image, an abomination unto the Lord ; the work of the hands of the crafts- 
 man ; and putteth it in a secret place : and all the people shall answer and say, 
 Amen.'^ And hear the voice of God in the second commandment: " Thou shalt not 
 make unto thee any graven image ; or any likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, 
 or tliat is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth : thou shalt 
 not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.''' And the whole of the scriptures, 
 on every page, denounce idolatry as rebellion against God, and sheer atheism ! 
 
 But the popish priests leave out the whole of the second commandment from their 
 catechism, except a line or so. They make three commands in the first table, and 
 seven, in the second. They express the first precept thus: "Thou shalt have no 
 other gods before me : thou shalt not make unto thee any graven thing, &c." See 
 the Catech. of the council of Trent, authorized by pope Pius V. There is a double 
 act of treason here against Almighty God. They leave out the word image, and 
 render it " graven thing :" and they cut off the whole of the precept after the word* 
 "graven thing." And to make up the ten precepts, they divide the tenth into two^ 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC COIVTROVERSY. 213 
 
 For Instance; their ninth commandment is : "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
 house." And the tenth is : "Tliou !?halt not covet thy neighbor's ■s\'ife." &c. 
 
 Let us now hear the Fathers against the use of images in the worship of God. St 
 Augustine says: "This is the chief cause of this mad impiety, that a figure resem- 
 bHng a living form, operates more forcibly upon the feelings of these wretched men, 
 than its being manifest that it is not living ; and therefore, that it ought to be despised 
 by the living." Expos, of Fsal. 113, Enarr. Again, in his 44th Epist. to Max. he 
 says, — "know thou, that none of the dead, or any thing made of God, is worshipped 
 a^ God, of the catholic christians." Hexe he states that those who worship, or bow 
 down to the dead, or to creatures, are not catholic christians. There is another 
 famous passage in St. Augustine in Lib. De Mor., or his Manners of the catholic 
 cliurcli, — in which he declares the worshipping of sain fs tombs and pictures, to be as 
 bad as gluttony and drunkenness. Here are his words : "I know that many are 
 worshippers of tombs and pictures; I know that there be many who banquet most 
 riotously over the graves of the dead, and giving meat to the carcasses, do bury them- 
 selves upon the buried ; and attribute their gluttony and dnmkenness to religion." 
 Quoted in the 14th Homily of the church of England on the Peril of Idolatry, part 2. 
 Again, he says, — " Images be of more force to crooken an unhappy soul, than to 
 teach and instruct it." Again, — "When images are placed in temples, and set in 
 honorable sublimity, and begin once to be worshipped, forthwith breedeth the most 
 vile affection of error." See 14 Homily, ut siipra. 
 
 Hear Tertullian, — " Omnis forma, &c. Every form, or little form must be called 
 di idol." " God forbids as well the making as the worshipping of an idol. — the 
 divine law proclaims thou shalt not make an idol.^'' De idol. cap. iv. p. 87. Paris 1675. 
 
 St. Athanasius says: "OXwf.'jrwj/ &c. The invention of idols is not good, but 
 altogether evil. For that which has a bad beginning, being wholly bad, cannot b« 
 deemed good in any way." Orat. Contr. Gent. Par. Edit. 1627. Finch, p. 195. 
 
 St. Ambrose thus writes: "The gentiles worship wood, because they think that 
 is the image of God : but the image of the invisible God is not in that which is seen ; 
 but in that which is not seen." On Psalm 118, Tom. i. p. 1095. Bened. Edit. 
 Paris 1690. Again, — " The church knows no vain ideas, and vain images of figures ; 
 but she knows the true substance of the Trinity." On the Flight of time, Tom. i. 
 
 Of the same sentiment, are Origen, Clemens xilexand. Eusebius, Cyprian, Lac- 
 tantius, and Epiphanius. Gregory insists that images may be used, " but are by ivo 
 means to be worshipped or bowed down untoJ''' See Registr. Epist. Lib. ii. Ind. 4. p. 
 1100. Bened. Edit. Paris 1705. 
 
 Memorable are the words of Lactantlus, Lib. ii. De Orig. Error. Tom. i. p. 385, 
 Paris Edit. 1748 : " Tliere is no doubt but tliat there is no religion in that place where- 
 ever any image is. For if religion stand in goodly things, and there is no godliness 
 but in heavenly things, then are images without religion." 
 
 In like manner writes St. Cyril. But I shall close this with the words of the coun- 
 cil of EHberi in Spain, held in A. D. 300. " Placuit picturas, &c. It haih seemed 
 good tons that pictures ought not to be in the churches, lest that which is worshipped 
 or adored be painted on the walls." Finch, p. 2.56. Thus scripture and the Fathers 
 condemn the use, and the icorship of itnasrcs in the church. 
 
 Third. — The ivorship of angels and saints is condemned by the scriptures and the 
 Father.-. Col. ii. 18. "Let no man beguile you in a voluntary humility, and wor- 
 ijhipping of angels." When John in an unguarded moment fell down to worship the 
 
214 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY^ / 
 
 angel, (Rev. xix. 10.) he was sharply rebuked, — "see thou doit not — worship God.^'' 
 In Psalm Ix. 11. we are taught by the Lord how vain is the help of man, be he 
 dead, or living, — "O God, give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of manP* 
 In Jeremiah iii. 23. we are taught to look to no created being : but unto God only fbr 
 salvation: — " Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." In Acts iv. 12. 
 it is declared by St. Peter, who spoke by the Holy Ghost, that no angel, and no saint 
 can help to save us : — " There is no salvation in any other, than in Jtsus : for there is 
 no other name under heaven, given among men, ivhereby ice must be saved.'' No, not 
 one among all angels under heaven: none among all men, in heaven, or on earth! 
 And to make it doubly sure, God has thus proclaimed, in Jerem. xvii. 5, — " Thu9 
 saith the Lord, cursed is the man that trusteth in man ; that maketh flesh his arm: and 
 whose heart departethfrom the Lord.'' — Hear also the words of our Savior, in Matt. iv» 
 10., "Jesus saith unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shall worship 
 the Lord thy God, and him o^ly shall thou serve." 
 
 From all these divine passages we gather these two essential doctrines : — 1st. All 
 persuasions, or motives to use, or worship idols, and go after other gods, come from 
 Satan. 2d. There is no place in divine worship for saints' merit, or saints' worship. 
 For it is certain that none of all his creatures can bring up to the throne of God any 
 personal worth, or merit, or sanctity, which he can add to our Lord Jesus Christ's In- 
 finite atonement, and his holy and prevalent intercession. No angel, or man can be 
 supposed to be a suitable object to pray to, unless they know the hearts of all men. But 
 God only is the solo object of v/orship, because "he only knoweth the hearts of all 
 the children of men." 1 Kings viii. 39. 
 
 Now hear the Fathers on this point : — St. Bernard on Ileb. i. 14. says, — " Evidently 
 are they our ministering servants, not our masters, or lords." And on Psal. 90. sec^ 
 11. " If not our lords and masters, then are they not to be worshipped." 
 
 St. Augustine thus declares, — "Christ is the High Priest who has entered, for os, 
 within the veil, and who alone of those ivho have appeared in the flesh intercedes for 
 ns." In Psal. 61. Tom. iv. p. 633. Bened. Edit. Paris. And the following is irre- 
 sistible, — "Respondent, &c. they answer, we worship not evil spirits, we worship 
 those beings whom you call angels, the powers and servants of the great God. I wish 
 you wouLd worship them, and you would soon learn from them, not to worship them. 
 Take the angel for a teacher." He then refers to St. John, and the angel who rebuk- 
 ed him. Aug. Oper. Tom. iv. p. 1054, in Psal. 96. Bened. Edit. 
 
 The words of St. Athanasius are equally decisive, — Ovk 6vv irt &c. It belongs 
 alone to God to be worshipped, and the angels themselves are aware of this; 
 for although they surpass others in glory, they are all creatures, and are not beings to 
 be worshipped, but beings who worship the Lord." Third Orat. against the Arians; 
 Paris Edit. 1627. To the same purpose are the words of Origen, Theodoret, Greg- 
 ory Nyssen, Epiphanius, and others. 
 
 Fourth. — Prayers in an unknown tongue are condemned by Scripture and the Fa- 
 thers. The Breviary, used by the priests, is in Latin ; and their prayers, and the 
 mass, are exhibited in Latin. It is true, Roman catholic prayer books are found in 
 English. But I have had occasion to observe in a former Letter, that these books put 
 forth in English, are very different from the genuine Breviaries. They are sheer im- 
 positions on you, their own devotees, designed mainly to impose upon Protestants. In 
 these English mass books, they appear marvellously orthodox ; and do make a mar- 
 yellpus approach to Protestant prayer books. They have, it is true, the prayers to 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 215 
 
 the saints, and ** the rosary of the Mother of God." But these are shorn of their chief 
 blasphemies, to stop the mouths of uninformed Protestants. The infamous blasphe- 
 my contained in the prayers to the Virgin, for instance, is carefully expunged in the 
 English versions of the Breviary. I mean the phrase '''■Holy Mother command thy 
 Son, ^-c." In the Latin Breviary, it is "jube filio," command thy son. "Holy Mo- 
 thej, ora patrem, jubeflio, — pray to the Father, and command thy Son." 
 
 Again, — " Jure matris impera dilectissimo tuo filio Domino nostro Jesu Christo; 
 By the rights of a mother, command thy most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 See Bonavent. Cor. Beat. Virg. JMaria: Tom. vi. Rom. Edit. A. D. 1588. 
 
 Again, — "O felix puerpera, nostra plans scelera, jure matris impera Redemptoril 
 Qra suppliciter (Patr'em ;) praecipe sublimiter (Redemptori.") That is, — "O happy 
 Mother of God, by virtue of the rights of a mother, atoning for our crimes, lay thy 
 commands on the Redeemer ! Humbly supplicate the Father ; lay thy imperial com- 
 mands on thy Son, the Redeemer!" See Hist. Sec. Char. August. De Commem. 
 Beat. Mar. Fir.— Morn. Exer. p. 523. 
 
 Now, these horrid blasphemies are weekly perpetrated by ^''our priests in Latin. 
 But did such a prayer book lie before the public in the common tongue, and were 
 such monstrous fictions, absurdities, and blasphemies, as are recorded on the pages of 
 the Latin Breviary, uttered in a New- York, or any American audience, — they would 
 be shocked to such a degree thatthey would start from their seats, and leave the 
 Chapel, to save themselves from the inflictions of such prayers, and vows as are fit 
 only for Rabshakeh, and the court of the King of Assyria ! 
 
 I hesitate not to affirm, that this reveals one of the chief reasons for your priest's 
 employing Latin. No priest dare come out in the vulgar tongue, among an enlight- 
 ened people, \\ith their prayers to the saints ; or with the monstrous, and revolting 
 fictions of the mass, in English. They would as soon venture out with an English 
 translation of St. Bonaventure's psaltery; in which all the psalms are altered so as fo 
 be addressed to the Virgin Mary : or, with an English version of the most infamous 
 and obscene questions put by priests to persons, — and even females, in Etiglish, 
 at the confessional I 
 
 This practice of Latin prayers, and services, is condemned by St. Paul, speaktag 
 by the Holy Ghost. See 1 Cor. xiv. "If any man speak in an unknown tongue, 
 let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter let him keep silence in the church." 
 Again, Ver. 9. "Except ye utter by the tongue, words easy to be understood, how 
 shall it be shown what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air!" " If I know 
 not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh, a barbarian, and 
 he that speaketh, shall be a barbarian unto me !" 
 
 Here, my fellow citizens, St. Paul declares that j'^our priests make themselves, ab- 
 solutely, nothing but barbarians unto you. And if you believe St. Paul, speaking by 
 inspiration, you are bound to believe them barbarians, when they insult you by their 
 senseless Latin mummery ! ^\Tien will you rouse up and begin to act as men, — as 
 rational beings! When will you assert your mental and spiritual liberty; and loU 
 off from you these endless wrongs, and insults, heaped on you, by designing sacer- 
 dotal knaves ! Arise, and maintain your rights. Were you going to petition a friend, 
 or the Corporation, or the Congress, for a special favor, would you address them in 
 an unknown tongue? Do you not see the monstrous absurdity o( Latin prayers, 
 which scarcely even one of your priests can translate, or even read accurately, and 
 none of all the people can understand ! Docs not your Maker command you to ur« 
 
216 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY* 
 
 a known tongne? Hear the words of Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 15., "I will pray wiih thd 
 Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." But no people can obey thi« 
 command, under your priests' impositions. None of you can understand one word ! 
 
 Hear, now, the Fathers of the church. They condemn the prayers in unknown 
 tongues. Origen says, — " Christians in prayers, use not the very words of scripture" 
 (that is the Hebrew and Greek,) " but the Greeks use the Greek, the Romans, the 
 Latin, and so every one according to his own dialect, does pray unto God, &c." " And 
 he who is the Lord of every language, hears the prayers put up to him in every lan- 
 guage.'^ Contr. Cels. Lib. 8. p. 402. 
 
 Hear St. Ambrose, — "If ye come together to edify the church, those things ought 
 to be spoken that the hearers may understand : for ivhat does he profit the people^ who 
 speaks in an unknown tongue ?" In 1 Cor. xiv. And if your priests do not know 
 that the Hebrews attempted this innovation, before them, let them now know it. And 
 let them know, moreover, that St. Ambrose rebuked the folly thereof. In the place 
 rbove quoted, he thus adds, — " There were some, especially of the Hebrews, that 
 used the Syriac, and the Hebrew tongue, in their services, but these aimed at their 
 own glory and commendation, not at the people's benefit." What a rebuke to your 
 haughty priests, from one of your own sainted fathers. Let them writhe under the 
 scourge of St. Ambrose ! 
 
 But hear St. Augustine next : "Intelligere debemus, &c. We ought to understand 
 ■w'hat we pray for, that we may not like birds, but like men, sing unto God. For 
 black-birds, and parrots, and crows, and magpies, &c., are taught to sound forth 
 wliat they understand not. But to" (and this includes, as in David's psalms, 
 both prayers and praisings,) "sing with understanding, is granted not to a bird, but 
 to a man, through God's good pleasure." Enarrat. in Psal. 18, Morning Exer. p. 
 303. Thus you see that father Augustine, and his ancient associates, considered 
 prayers in an unknown tongue, as similar every way to the pratings of a magpie, or a 
 parrot ! Origen, Chrysostom, Jerome, Basil the Great, are decidedly of the same 
 opinion. Their original words are before me. I omit them for want of room. See 
 Fulk's Confut. of the Rhemish Test, on 1 Cor. xiv. 
 
 But I cannot omit Cardinal Cajetan, your own champion's words. In his Com- 
 ment, in 1 Corin. cap. xiv. he says : " Ex hac Pauli, &c. From this doctrine of St. 
 Paul, it follows, that it is better for the edification of the church, that the public 
 prayers which the people hear, should be made in that language which both priests 
 tod people understand, than that they should be made in Latin!" Hear, finally, 
 St. Thomas Aquinas, your angelical doctor, — "Plus lucratur, &-c. He gains most 
 who prays and understands the words which he speaks, &c." "Mehus est, &c. It 
 is better that the tongue which blesses, should interpret, for good words should be 
 spoken to the edification of faith." Now surely where the people listen to the Latin 
 jjtayers, no man can understand — no man can diligently say, amen ; no man can, 
 along with the priest, oflfer up a petition. How forcible the words of the apostle Paul : 
 " I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all ; but I had rather speak five 
 words to be understood by, and to edify, those that hear me, than ten thousand words, 
 in an unknown tongue !" 1 Cor. xiv. 18. 
 
 Thus far, we see, — your system is condemned by the word of God and the anciint 
 Fathers of the church. 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours respectfully, &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
lirOMAN CATHOLIC CaNTROVERST-. 217 
 
 I LETTER XI. 
 
 TO THE MEMB£rRS OlF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 
 
 "iBut the abominable, and murderers, and impure, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all 
 liars, shall have tiieir part in tire lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." — Rev. xxi. 8. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — Having despatched the chief wari^s and! notes of your priests' 
 church, I thought it proper, before I entered on a minute -examination of your sacra* 
 meuts, and essential rites, and doctrines, to take a rapid view of your system, as a 
 whole ; and to show you that wc do not lightly affirm that popery is condemned by 
 scripture and the Fathers. 
 
 Your priests have their grand iesf-of the truth of th'eir whole system ; namely, th-e 
 unmiimoiis consent of the Fatlhers. These Fathers explain the scriptures, say they, and 
 give " the only true meaning-of them :" these Fathers conveyed the genuine traditions, 
 and handetl down the holy Roman catholic rites, ceremonies, and sacraments. In 
 fact, the wianimous consent of the Fathers is the pillar of popery. This unanimous 
 consent of the sainted writers, you say, is wielded by the pope, and the church, with 
 infallible and immutable precision. It. props up the tottering stool of St. Peter, and 
 sustains the pope on it ; and he in his turn, sustains the unanimous consent of the 
 Fathers. I am justifiable, therefore, in taking some time, and pains to overthrow it. 
 
 And before we dismiss it, I trust it will be made to appear as absurd and ridiculous, 
 as the claims of the holy and chaste priests to sanctity ! AVe therefore go on : — 
 
 Fifth. — Your peculiar worship offered to the Virgin, '''the mother of God,^' is 
 condemned by scripture, and the Fathers. Whatever is not enjoined of God in his 
 worship, is to be considered will-worship ; and is, therefore, to be rejected, as forbidden 
 of God. That which Paul in Col. ii. 1"8, calls dpricKua the w-orshipping of angels, is 
 by him called in ver- 23. c6c\oQpmKEia will-worship. 
 
 Now, in all the New Testament, there is no command to pray to Mary, no example 
 favoring it, either on the part of Christ, or of his apostles. The-angel used the words 
 to her, which you torture wickedly into a prayer, "-Hail Mary! Ave Maria!'' Now, 
 who that impious blasphemer was, who first conceived the monstrous idea of this 
 being -a pray-er, and an act of worship, is not known, — history does not reveal the 
 infamy of his name. The angel simply used the common salutation, X.itpc. And it 
 no more includes the idea of worship, than our common salutation, " How are you / 
 or, Goodbye, — a contraction for '•'' God be with you.'' "Hail Mary!" It is the same 
 word used by our Savior in Matt. v. 12, to hi« people, and there rendered re/ozce ye ! 
 Did our Savior in this address, worship his audience? If so, then the angel also 
 adored Mary. And if so, you are correct in worshipping her with your Ave Maria! 
 If not., then you are imposed upon, by knavish priests ! 
 
 Our Lord, wbileas man, he did his mother reverence, — as one " under the law,"— 
 never adored her, never admitted her right to interfere as intercessor, or adviser, in 
 his mediatorial work. There is a strong instance and proof of this, in John ii. 4. 
 Mary seems to have suggested the idea that he should miraculously give wine : he 
 replied in language of the most polished respect, — Twai, Lady, what to me, and to 
 thee ? " My hour is not yet come." That is, — " Lady, — I honor you as my mother 
 in the flesh, as Son of man : but as Son qf God, what is common between me and 
 
 20 
 
213 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 thee ?" Nothing : I receive no hints, no instructions ; as Son of God, I have no 
 mother: I have no sovereign, "My hour," fixed by me as God, "is not yet come. I 
 sliall work a miracle v^^hen my hour comes." And the fact confirms this exposition. 
 If your prayers had been due to her, then St. Peter and St. John, and all the apos- 
 tles were very impious, very negligent, and most criminal men. They never name 
 her ; they oifer no vows to her : rear no altars to her : made her no statues ; brought 
 no incense to her! What impious atheists these men, the holy apostles, must have 
 been, in the belief of all Roman catholics dyed in the wool ! 
 
 But let us hear the Fathers; — Epiphanius bishop of Salamis, in 366, thus wrote, — 
 " AXX' dvTc HX.'af &c. But neither is Elias to be worshipped, although he be 
 alive ; nor is John to be worshipped." ***** " Nor is Thekla, or any one of the 
 saints worshipped. For that ancient error shall not prevail over us, to forsake the 
 living^ God ; and to worship the things that are made by him. For they served and 
 worshipped the creature more than the Creator, and became fools ! For if an angel 
 will not be worshipped, hoiv much more will not she that teas born of Anna, (Mary) ?" 
 Contra Haeret. 79. p. 448. See also Usher who quotes it: and Finch, Controv. p. 
 242. — Again he says, — "HMaupt&c. Let Mary be in honor, but let the Lord be 
 worshipped." Again,—" Let Mary be in honor, and let the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost be worshipped. Let no man worship Mary. This mystery is ordained, I say not 
 for woman, bat not even for a man ; but for God. The angels themselves do not assent to 
 this doxology." Do. p. 450. and 449. And Usher in his Reply to the Jesuit Fisher : p. 345. 
 St. Augustine claims your unwavering faith here, and surely one of your demi- 
 gods, as he is, must be submitted to implicitly, by every priest, who is not a rebel to 
 the saints in the ghostly calendar. ''Who is my mother, and who my brethren?'' 
 Then pointing to his (/iScipZes, he added, — "these are my brethren, and whosoever 
 shall do the wall of my father, the same is my brother, and my mother, and my sis- 
 ter." Now hear St. Augustine, — "What else did he teach us by tlijs, but that we 
 should prefer our spiritual to our cartial relationship," &c. — "Mary, therefore, ivas 
 more blessed in adopting the faith of Christ, than in conceiving his flesh. For when one 
 said. Blessed is the womb that bare thee, he answered. Yea rather blessed are they that 
 hear the wrord of God and keep it." — " Her maternal relation would have profited Mary 
 nothing, if she had not borne Christ more blessedly in her heart, than in her flesh.'' 
 See Oi)er. Tom. vi. p. 342. De Sanct. Virg. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685. How completely 
 does St. x\ugusune here overturn and destroy the popish monstrous tenet of Avorshipping 
 Mary as " the Mother of God !" " Rermaternal relation," says this Roman infallible 
 oracle, — " would have profited Mary nothing if she had not borne Christ more bles- 
 sedly in her heart." Instead of being "Mediatrix," and a "goddess," and "inter- 
 cessor," — as your priests feign, — she needed salvation from Christ, as well as the 
 humblest sinner. How completely does St. Augustine, then, annihilate the blas})he- 
 mous title invented by the priests, and given to Mary, namely, " the Mother of God.''' 
 Sixth : — The judicial power of your popes and priests to forgive si7is, is condemned 
 by scripture, and the Fathers. The council of Trent, Sess. 14. Canon I. declares 
 penance a sacrament, and dooms "to perdition," the unhappy man who doubts this, 
 or denies that it was instituted by Christ, — "to reconcile those christians to God, 
 who have fallen into sin after baptism." It is divided by your priests according to the 
 council of Trent, into two parts : 1st. The matter, or the acts of the penitent, contrition, 
 confession, and satisfaction. 2. The judicial absolution of the priest in these words, 
 " Ego to absolve, I absolve thee." And, once in each year, at least, must every true 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 219 
 
 Roman catholic go to his priest, for confession, penance, and absolution. Thus, at 
 one short kneeling, a man must confess the sins of the whole year! But, then, your 
 priests affect, though under the hazard of a "mortal impiety," to divide sin, — 1st into 
 deadlv sins, — of which there are only these seven classes, — pride, covetousness, luxury, 
 anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth! 2d. into venial sins; or those easily forgiven; or, 
 to use the words of your writer Sonnius, — " venial sins are worthy of pardon ;" or as 
 Bellarminc hath it, — " they make not a man guilty of eternal death." Andradius 
 and your St. Bonaventure are even more accommodating, — " For venial sins," say 
 
 tl^ey, " we do not so much as need repentance." Now, all sins, not ranked under 
 
 the seven deadly sins, are venial. These mortal sins the professed '* penitent" affects 
 to confess in the priest's ears. And upon " the exact confession of them," says the 
 council of Trent, Sess. 14. cap. 6. '*the penitent has absolution pronounced on him, 
 not conditional, or declarative only, but absolute, and judicial:' And thus the priest 
 pronounces an absolute and eternal pardon, " not conditional," for he cannot know 
 the heart, he cannot know whether the penitent does truly and sincerely repent: it is 
 '* not conditional." And the deluded man is assured that he can plead it before the 
 bar of his Maker, with infallible success ! The penance to "make satisfaction," is 
 some bodily suffering, as fasting, kneeling in church, beating the breast, polling the 
 head, going in hair cloth, saying many Ave Marias, or as the simple faithful do in Ire- 
 land, crawling round the course, at Loch Dearg, or Holy Well, on their bare knees, 
 on the sharp pebbles ; or walking a number of miles on pilgrimage, with their shoes 
 filled with dry pease, which the "knowing ones," particularly the delinquent priests, 
 take care to boil! But, all cases of penance are dispensed with, as usual, in this 
 infamous system, for a stipulated sum of money, from 25 cents, to one hundred, or 
 five hundred dollars! 
 
 This monstrous system of impiety is worse than heathenism. But this was the 
 predicted feature of " Babylon the Great," the master-piece of popery. That system 
 stands out alone in this eternal infamy, that it made merchandize in the souls of men." 
 The slave dealer traffics in human bones, muscles, and flesh ! But according to the 
 prediction of John in the Apocalypse, popery traffics in human souls. See Revel, 
 xviii. 13. Monstrous as this appears to every one, your priests, nevertheless, affect 
 gravity enough, to quote holy scripture for it. For instance, Matth. xvi. 19. is pres- 
 sed in as an evidence. Peter "received the keys of the kingdom." Hence he has 
 the exclusive power "of binding, and loosing." 
 
 Here, there is the commission of manifold errors in pressing this text into their ser- 
 vice. First, admitting it to have been spoken exclusively to Peter, it remains to be 
 proved that your popes are his successors : and even although they were so, at first, 
 we have demonstrated by a chain of evidence that no priest can break, that the suc- 
 cession has, in every point, been cut of!', entirely, and forever! Second: the power 
 of "binding, and loosing, and opening," whh the keys, was given to the other apos- 
 tles, in every respect, as much, as it was given unto Peter. I refer you to John xx. 
 23. " Jesus says unto them (the apostles) receive ye the Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins 
 ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." 
 
 But, third, this power was given to the church, who, by her proper officers, has the 
 conservative power of discipline, and of restraining and casting out from her holy 
 communion, the impure and wicked. I beg to refer you to Matih. xviii. 18. "Verily 
 I say to you," says Jesus Christ to all his apostles, and ecclesiastical officers, in holy 
 •uccession,—" u'Aaisoerer ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and what- 
 
220 ROMAN CATHOLIC COIVTROVERST. 
 
 soever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Where two or three art 
 gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.'" Hence, Christ being 
 in "the midst of us," in his church, gathered in his name, tlie deed is his own, when 
 duly done; and by him is it ratified. 
 
 Of these things are your priests wilfully ignorant, for they are miserably defective 
 in theological science ; and the accurate knowledge of the Bible. It forms, in fact, 
 no distinctive part of their studies! 
 
 By "the Jdngdom of heaven," in the gospel, is meant the church on earth. How, 
 else, could it be compared to " a field having tares and wheat J' Or to "the net hav- 
 ing fishes, good and bad." Mattk. xiii. 47. Or the wedding feast chamber, having 
 guests good- aad bad? But your priests, stupidly enough, make it the heaven above ; 
 and give Peter the keys to open up those gates which Christ alone opeQed>. into 
 
 HEAVEjy ! 
 
 This point settled, the matter is easy. The church, by her proper officers^ exer- 
 cises the keys of discipline, receiving in the truly penitent, on their confession :: shut- 
 ting out the apostate and vile : and receiving back again the truly contrite. "-The 
 power of remitting sins, given to»thechurch," sajs bishop Jeremy Tayloi's works, p. 
 587. " is nothing but an authority to minister that far don given by Jesus Christ.'' 
 And St. Jerome says, " the church pardons sins, as the Levitical priest cleansed the 
 lepers; — that is,, he did discern whether they were- clean or not, and so restored them 
 to the congregation ; or shut them out." And memorable are the wards of St.. Au- 
 gustine, — "ApudDeum, &c.. God regards not the sentence of the priest; but the 
 life of the penitent." He adds, " The priest is something as to the ministry, and the 
 dispensation of the word and sacraments : but nothing as to the purifying, and justify- 
 ing of the sinner, for none works that, in the inner man, but He ivho created the tvhole 
 man.!' S>ee Bishop Taylor, DuctorDub. p. 587. 
 
 I arn, fello\y citizens, yours respectfully, 
 
 W. C. R. 
 
 LETTER XIL 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.. 
 
 On the Unity of the Romish Church. 
 
 " If there is aught, thought, or to think, absurd, 
 
 Irrational and wicked, this is more, 
 
 This most; the sin of devils, or of tliose 
 
 To devils growing fast." PoUok. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — I invited your attention, in my last, to the judicial power 
 claimed by Roman catholic priests, to forgive, and absolve from sins. 
 
 This impious sj'^stem of your priests, is not only based on the perversion of scrip- 
 ture, but it is, in every form, opposed to the whole system of Bible truth. "Christ 
 is the author and finisher of our faith :" he has, by his one sacrifice forever perfected 
 them that are sanctified :" " by the deeds of the law, no flesh living can be justified." 
 " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us." If 
 man can make satisfaction, Oind can propitiate God by pains, penance, and prayers, 
 then is not the atonement of our Lord perfect? And if not perfect, it is no atonement 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 221 
 
 at alt. To make place for penance and human satisfaction, is to utter the lie to our 
 most blessed Savior, who, when dying, said, in reference to his atonement, — "/< is 
 Jinishedr^ If there be any thing of the penalty, or the curse still remaining in tempo- 
 ral evils, and afflictions, then has not Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law! 
 That wretched priest who has the audacity to hear deluded victims of popery, at the 
 confessional, and pronounce his absolution, and pardon judicially and absolutely, is 
 placing his vile carcass " in the throne and temple of God, calling himself God !" That 
 miscreant who pretends to grant absolution ; and who gravely sells indulgences for 
 money, does "traffic in men's souls ;" and has the insufferable daring of the atheist to 
 call men away from the Lord Jesus Christ ; to call men away from hig one, only, and 
 perfect atonement; to call men away from his only avaihng intercession, to his own 
 infinitely degraded system of chicanery ; his miserable system of trading in souls for 
 pounds, shillings, and pence ! The infinity of this littleness, and matchless bathos, 
 is surpassed only by its matchless atheism ! Over the whole pages of the Bible, this 
 one great, and all pervading doctrine is spread out, and made most manifest to all, that 
 Almighty God alone pardons sin: that he does it to the believer, only, for Christ's, 
 sake ; that he cannot, and will not, deny his justice, insult his purity, or degrade his 
 Eternal Son, by accepting of any human merit, or any human works, to fill up 
 the measure of his all perfect atonement. And, hence, these words of Jehovah, 
 which are the summary of the gospel : " /, even /, am he that blotteth out your trans- 
 gressions/or mine oivn sake ; and will not remember thy sins.'* Isaiah xliii. 25. 
 
 We may sum up the scripture argument thus. The divine law required no human 
 penance ; no works, to procure pardon of sin ; nothing but the sacrifice only ; and that 
 pointed to Christ's atonement. If God pardon sin for his own name's sake, then he 
 does it, not for the sake of any sinful man, or impure priest. If the lamb of God takes 
 away the sin of the ivorld, then no sinner — far less an impious priest, can do it. We 
 "are saved through faith ; by grace; not of ourselves; not of works." Eph. ii. 8, 9. 
 Then is there no place for penance, none for merits, or ghostly buying, aud selling ! 
 "God gives us, along with Christ, freely, all things." Rom. viii. 32. And, hence,^ 
 he not only grants us the remission of sins, but remits the punishment, temporal and 
 eternal also. Hence, there Is no room for penance, or the impious intrusion of 
 a priest's absolution. Christ " trode the wine press alone ; and of the people 
 there was none with him." None could be associated with him: none "could be 
 baptised with his baptism :" "he is God : beside him there is no Savior ' " His was 
 the only name under heaven, by which we can be saved." Hence there is no place 
 for saintly intercession, nor penance, nor ghostly imposition of absolvings from sin ! 
 
 The case of the woman convicted of adultery, (John viii.,) affords us a demonstra- 
 tion on this point. If ever our Lord had ordained penance, here it would have been 
 enforced. "But He required of her no penancey no satisfaction for her great sin. He 
 only sealed his pardon to her, and dismissed her saj'ing, 'Go and sin no more !' 
 Hence no satisfaction for sin by us is required in the scriptures." — Luther. 
 
 The saints in heaven were saved by Christ's merits only; and their song of grati- 
 tude is the everlasting admission that they had no merits of their own. They had 
 nothing but what they received of grace. And in reference to their obedience to the 
 law as a rule of life, that law requires absolute perfection, and spotless purity, in 
 soul, in tongue, and in the whole moral deportment. 
 
 Now the saints are far from having any merits over and above all the requirements 
 of the law of Ck)d, as your priests, tempting the patience of heaven, do most auda-. 
 
 20* 
 
222 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 ciously, affirm. They do not, in this Ufe, even come up to the smallest requirement* 
 of the pure and spotless standard of moral duty. "In many things," says the highest 
 authority, "they offend all." Jas. iii. 2. Hence, fellow citizens, there is no truth in, 
 nor even the slightest foundation for the ludicrous fiction of priestcraft, ihat the saints'' 
 merits, composed of the materials of all that perfect obedience, in word, deed, and 
 thought, which they render to God, over and above all that his holy law requires, are 
 carefully collected and laid up in a golden heap, in the pope's treasury ; and that the 
 pope keeps the key of this same treasury : and graciously, and very disinterestedly 
 sells out for pounds, shillings, and pence, the merchandise of the merits of the saints, 
 under the name o^ indulgences and absolutions ! This profitable ghostly manufactory 
 has by the wretched ignorance, and infinite degradation of all popish nations, been 
 the pope's grand mint ! At this he has coined more money, counterfeit coin I admit, 
 in his traffic in souls, than has been coined at the Mint of the United States ; or at 
 the Mint of England ! For he has had a brisk and uninterrupted trade in souls, and 
 indulgences, for more than twelve centuries ! ! What devoted followers they are of 
 their founders, Judas and Simon Magus I ! 
 
 Let us now conduct you to the Fathers. St. Augustine speaks in the strongest 
 terms, against the judicial powers of priests, or any man to forgive sins. Having 
 quoted the passage out of John xx. 23, and solved some difficulties, he goes on, thus : 
 " Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted, &c. But since these words are introduced, 
 when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost ; and then 
 was conferred on them the remission, or retention of sin, it is sufficiently evident that 
 they themselves did not do this ; but the Holy Spirit, by their ag-ency, as he said in 
 another place ; It is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit who is in you. See Aug. 
 Oper. Tom. ix. Lib. 2, p. 42. Contra. Epist. Parmen. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685. 
 Again, — " Peccasti, &c. Hast thou offended thy brother ? Make satisfaction to him." 
 These satisfactions in private and public we admit : but satisfaction to God, neither 
 he nor we acknowledge." See, in Math. Serm. 16, De Pcenit. cap. 10. 
 
 St. Jerome says: "The bishops and presbyters not understanding that passage, 
 assume to themselves something of the arrogance of the pharisees, so far as to imagine 
 that they may condemn the innocent, and absolve the guilty ; whereas with God, it 
 is not the sentence of the priests, but the life of the guilty, that is looked into." Then 
 having quoted the case of the priests and the leper under the law, he adds, — "In the 
 same manner, as the priest, there, made a man clean or unclean," (that is, declared 
 them clean or unclean) "so, here, the bishop or presbyter binds or loosens, not those 
 who are innocent or guilty, but ojjicially, when he has heard the nature of their sins 
 he knows who are to be bound, and who, to be loosed." Oper. Tom. vi. in Math. 16. 
 
 St. Chrysostom in one place, speaks strongly against this power of forgiving sins 
 judicially: "To forgive sins truly, indeed, is possible with God only." On ] Cor. 
 15. Homil. 40. Tom. v. Mogunt. Edit. p. 451. And against auricular confession, he 
 says: ''' Aia rovro &c. For this reason, I beseech thee and pray thee, to confess 
 continually to God. For I do not bring thee into the theatre of thy fellow servants, 
 nor do I call on thee to discover thy sins to men. Uncover your consciences to 
 God ; and show him your wounds; and seek a cure from him." Horn. 5, De incomp. 
 Nat. Dei. Par. Edit. 1621. And his Homil. De Poenit, et Confess. Tom. v. Lar. 
 Edit, he says — " It is not necessary to confess your sins to witnesses, — let God 
 alone, see thee confessing." And farther, in speaking against the forgiving of sins by 
 priests, he says vehemently: " Kat n &c. And why do I speak of the priests? 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 223 
 
 Neither angel nor archangel can perform any of the things which are given from 
 God. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost administer all things. The priest furnishes 
 his tongue, and lends his hands." Horn. 8C, on John xx., Lat. Edit. Basil, 1539. I 
 am fully aware that this Father advances a sentiment, in his De Sacerdote, quite 
 opposed to the above : and quite opposed to the sentence above, taken from St. Je- 
 rome. But I leave it to your priests to quote that, to help on my cause by setting 
 this Father in arms against himself; and against St. Jerome; and against the 
 unanimous consent ! 
 
 St. Ambrose thus writes : " To you, he says, I will give the keys of the kingdom 
 of heaven, that you may bind and loose." " What is said to Peter is said to the 
 apostles." In Psal. 38, Tom. i. p. 858; Paris Edit, of 1690. Again : "Ecce quia, 
 &c. Behold I truly, sins are pardoned by the Holy Spirit. But men hrmg a ministry 
 for the remission of sins; they do not exercise the right of any power." De Spir. 
 Sane. Lib 3. c. 18. Again : " Sine peccato, &c. No one is without sin, but God 
 alone." " Also, no one pardons sin but God only, because it is written, who can par- 
 don sins, but God alone?" De Spir. Sand, ut supra. 
 
 Pope Gregory I. the saint, who lived before your modern popes and priests had 
 invented the prominent and facetious fictions of your system, thus writes against the 
 judicial power of the priests to forgive sins ; " Thou who alone sparest, who alone 
 forgivest sins. For who can forgive sins but God only !" Greg. Expos. 2, in Sep- 
 tem Psalmos Poenit. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1705. Finch, Controv. p. £40. Thus, your 
 lX)pe and saint, Gregory, overthrows the main pillar of your priestcraft ! 
 
 St. Basil says: "EX^ero &c. Let the true lawgiver come, the powerful Savior: 
 he alone having the power to forgive sins." Comment, in Isai. cap. 6. 
 
 St. Hilary, in 358, thus wTites : " Verum enim, &c. But it is true that no one can 
 forgive sins, but God alone. Therefore it is God who forgives sins : but no one for- 
 gives but God." On Math. Con. 8, Paris Edit, of 1652. 
 
 To the same purpose writes St. Cyprian, De Lapsis, sec. 7. Edit, of Oxford, 1682. 
 And St. Cyril speaks thus decidedly against the modern fanaticism and extra- 
 vagance of popes and priests ; — " He only, who is by nature God, has the power of 
 absolving from their sins. For whom does it befit to release the violators of the law, 
 but the author of the law himself?" See much more of this forcible wTiter, who con- 
 demns your priests, in all their impious system. Comment, in Johan. lib. 12,^Tom. 
 iv. p. 1101. Paris Edit. 1638. 
 
 Finally, Clemens Alexandrinus, in A. D. 250 thus writes; for he and all his 
 associates knew nothing of popery in those days : the prince of hell, and the popes 
 had not yet matured the lie. " Aia rovro novos Wherefore, he alone who was appointed 
 to be our Master, by the Father of all, — can forgive sins : since he alone can distin- 
 guish between obedience and disobedience." Paidag. Lib. 1. cap. 8. p. 116. Paris 
 Edit, of 1611. 
 
 I have dwelt longer on these topics, than 1 had anticipated : but I was anxious to open 
 to your view the solemn testimony, and sentence of condemnation, passed by the scrip- 
 tures and the Fathers on some of the most important dogmas of the church of Rome. 
 He who prays to the Virgin Mary, and goes to a priest to confess his sins and receive 
 judicial pardon, is doing what the sainted Fathers condemn in the very strongest 
 terras ; and what Almighty God forbids by the mouth of his prophets and apostles. 
 Hence he who persists in praying to the Virgin Mary, and seeks absolution from a 
 sacerdotal impostor, is a rebel against the " unanimous consent of Fathers, is at war 
 
224 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 with Almighty GoJ, who alone can pardon sin ; and, as an idolater, is in deadly 
 peril of^ damnation! See the 14th Homily of the Episcopal church, entitled, On the 
 Peril of Idolatry. The language which I have all along used, is feeble in comparison 
 with that of this honest, and truly apostolical Homily of the Episcopal church. And 
 here, by the way, let me observe for the heneft of the present generation, that of all the 
 writers that have entered the lists, in English, against the Roman Antichrist, none 
 are more intelligent, more forcible, more violent and invincible, than the Episcopal 
 WTiters. I need only name Archbishop Usher, bishop Jeremy Taylor, bishop 
 Hall, Chilling\\"orth, the immortal Willet (Synopsis Papismi, folio,) and all the rest 
 of the old genuine Calvinistic Fathers of the Episcopal church of England. For 
 there were giants in those days ! 
 
 Oct. 5, 1833. I am, fellow citizens, yours &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 P. S. Permit me, here, to record an historical fact, which throws a new and unex- 
 pected light on two prominent attributes of Holy Mother, and the pope: namely, their 
 immutahilitij, and the pope's power to dispense, thereby making that which was sin by 
 law, to he no sin. The fact is this: — only a few days ago, it was a mortal sin in a 
 Roman catholic, to eat flesh on Saturdays. This mortal sin was defined by an infal- 
 lihle law oiimmutoMe Rome ! 
 
 But bishop England, just amved from Rome, has promulged the immutable decree 
 by which the former immutable decree is done away. The pope ha? made that 
 which was lately a mortal sin, to be now no sin. The simple faithful are permitted to 
 indulge freely, of a Sa'urday, in beef, pork, and mutton, henceforth, without sin, or 
 anv damage to a tender conscience, all the former immutable laws of infallible Rome 
 t.0 the contrary, not^vithstauding. 
 
 This, fellow citizens, you ought to hail as one step towards your emancipation from 
 the yoke of a cruel foreign despotism ! You will, next, be allowed to eat meat on 
 Fridays also ! 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condemned by the Scriptures and the Fathers. 
 
 " But tlie unfaithful priest, what tongue 
 
 Enough sliall execrate ? Hi:? doctrine may 
 
 Be passed, the' mixed witli most unhallowed leaven, 
 
 That proved, to those who foolishly partook, 
 
 Eternal bitterness!'' Pollok. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — Bigotry and fanaticism possess singular attributes. In all 
 lands where they have the ascendency, they answer arguments by sending their op- 
 ponents to the gibbet, and the stake. These are their last and only arguments in 
 popish lands. But in Protestant countries where they are chaintid up, like the tiger, 
 they rail at all discussions of their religion and pretensions, as "arrant persecution." 
 And they whine and fret under unanswerable argument, as *'the ungodly raillery of 
 the reprobate !" And, finally, when driven from the field, by the force of truth, they 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 225 
 
 hire the anonymous scribbler, ^vllo sells himself for a morsel of bread, to abuse the 
 character of their opponents, and even invade the decencies of family, and social 
 order. The late controversy of your priests, and the Saturday columns of the Ro- 
 man kennel press, notwithstanding his late castigation, afford us painful evidences of 
 the truth of this. 
 
 My fellow citizens,— I attack not the religion of your fathers. This charge against 
 us, is one of the sore evils under the sun, engendered by priestcraft, and propagated 
 by their kennel i)ress. Their cry is,— "Will any thing persuade you to forsake the 
 religion of your fathers? Will you listen to one, who would seduce you from your 
 fathers' religion ?" What impostors ! What imposition! Now hear me. Yo.u had 
 fathers who lived under the benign influence of the genuine christian religion^ before 
 your i)riests, and the popes had completed the invention of the novel fiction of poperj'.. 
 Whether you come from Ireland, or France^ or Scotland, or Spain, — your ancient 
 forefathers enjoyed Christianity long before popery was born, or swaddled by the 
 popes. There was pure Christianity in Ireland, in Scotland, and in Spain, long be- 
 fore the popish emissaries invaded these countries, and reduced your later forefathers 
 to its abominations. In my Letter VIII. I have ])rove(i that, during the first six hund- 
 red years, there was not one that was properly a papist. Your ancient fathers held 
 the same opinions in religion, that are now held by Protestants. Your later ancestors- 
 were seduced by a heartless band of ghostly impostors, into the atheistical principles 
 of popery; just as the children of the Seven churches of Asia have been reduced by 
 tlie Turks into /s/rtmis7n. Now, what would you think of those iJioJem Turks, the 
 children of christians, who, when urged and entreated to forsake Mohammed, and be- 
 come christians, would reply, — " Will you dare to seduce us from Islamism, the reli- 
 gion of our fathers?" W^ould you not urge upon them that their more ancient fa- 
 thers were true christians, — and that they ought to cast off the imposture of Moham- 
 med, and become what their fathers once were! 
 
 Now I am doing nothing more than this. Your ancient, and well informed fathers, 
 in Ireland, Spain, France, Scotland, England, — were true christians, before the 
 emissaries of popery overran these lands. We are imploring you, by the fear of Al- 
 mighty God, and the bowels of mercy, in the Lord Jesus, to return to the pure, and 
 holy religion of your forefathers ; and cast off the impostures, and fictions of popery ! 
 Reject, with abhorrence, the novelty of popery : — return to the ancient, pure, primi- 
 tive Christianity of your forefathers, as it is found in the holy Bible. Should a sedu- 
 ced child of the ancient Greek church, believe his Turkish deceivers, or the solemn 
 voice of Christianity calling him back to the Christianity of his fathers ! Should you 
 rather believe the ghostly deceivers who trade in your souls and bodies ; and who in- 
 vented popery for this traiiic,— than the deeply solemn voice of truth summoning 
 you back to the religion of Jesus, as held by your forefathers ? 
 
 But I shall now go on with my discussion. 
 
 Seventh : Your priests' leading tenet that the holy Scriptures arc not the RvU of 
 faith is deism; and is condemned by the Scriptures and the Fathers. 
 
 The arguments on the divinity, and perfection of the Bible, as the only rule of 
 faith, I need not here repeat. Sufftce it to say that Almighty God has given his 
 holy Word for this one vnique purpose, — namely, the only rule of faith. And has 
 moreover, pronounced it perfect, " The law of God is. perfect, converting the soul : 
 the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple , the statutes of the Lotd 
 are right, rejoicing tho heart ; the commandnieQt of the Lord is pure, enlightening 
 
2'26 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 the eyes: the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether." Psalm xix. 
 *' All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect, 
 thoroughly furnished unto all good ivorks." And, finally, the apostle says to Timo- 
 tliy, — "from a child thou hast known the scriptures," — he says not "the traditions," 
 " the unanimous consent of uninspired men," — but " the scriptures, u'hich are able to 
 make you wise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.'' 2' Tim. iii. 
 15. 17. 
 
 Now hear the Fathers who condemn the modern system of the infidel priesthood, 
 on this matter. 1. St. Hilary, in the 4th century says — " Fidem, &c. Bo you seek 
 the faith, O Emperor ! Hear it then, not from neiv ivritings, but from the hooks of 
 God.'' To Cons. Aug. p. 244. Paris Edit. 16.52. Again,—" Qu« Scripta, &c. let 
 us read the thi7igs that are xoritten, and let us understand what we have read ; and 
 then we shall fully discharge a perfect faith." De Trinit. Lib. 8. 
 
 2. Basil in 369 says, — " ^avtpa &c. It is a manifest falling from the faith, 
 and a crime of the greatest pride, to desire to take away from the scriptures, or to in- 
 troduce any thing that is notivritten. For Christ says that his sheep hear his voice, 
 and not the voice of another." Sermo De Fide p. 294. Tom. ii. Bened. Edit. Paris, 
 1722. Again : — To yap vpos Slc. It is right and necessary that every one should 
 learn what is useful from tlie holy scriptures, to furnish the mind with greater piety, 
 and also in order not to be accustomed to human traditions." Reg. Brev. Resp. 95. in 
 Tom. ii. p. 449. 
 
 3. Tertullian, who lived in the close of the second centur}', says : — " Scriptum, &c. 
 Let the school of Hermogenes show that it is written : if it is not written, let them 
 fear the curse directed against those who add or diminish." Adv. Herm. p. 241. Paris 
 Edit. 1671. 
 
 4. St. Ambrose in the close of the 4th century says: — " Qufe in Scripturis, &c. 
 How can we adopt those things which we do not find in the holy scriptures?" De 
 Offic. Minist. Tom. ii. Lib. 1. Paris Edit. 1690. Hear him on traditions, — Again, — 
 " Lego, &c. I read that he is first, I do not read that he is second: let those who say 
 that he is second, teach it by reading." De instaur. Virg. Lib. 1. 
 
 5. St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, in A. D. 386, thus wrote : — Tovrcjv rag &c. Of those 
 books (the Canon of Scripture) "read two and twenty; but have nothing to do with 
 the Apocrypha, — jiriSsv ex^ koivov, — have nothing in common with them." Cat. 4. 
 Oxf. Edit. 1703. x\gain : — " aci yap , &c. Not even the least of the divine and 
 holy mysteries of the faith, ought to be handed down without the divine scriptures." 
 M;;(j£ tjiot. &c. Do not simply give faith to me speaking these things to you except 
 you have the proof of what I say, from the divine scriptures. For the security and 
 preservation of our faith are not supported by ingenuity of speech, but by the proof of 
 the divine Scriptures." Cat. 4. p. 56. 
 
 6. St. Cyril, of Alexandria, in the beginning of the 5th century, thus condemns 
 the priests' fictions, and deism; — O yap ovk &c. For how shall we receive, and 
 reckon among the things that are true that which the divine scripture has not 
 spoken ?" Glaph. in Genes. Lib. 2 Paris Edit, of 1638. 
 
 7. St. Athanasius, — a name sufficient in itself to be weighed against all the popes 
 and priests whom antichrist has ever canonized, or named, — thus writes, — " £( toivw 
 &c. If then ye are the disciples of the gospel, speak not unrighteously against 
 God; but walk in the things that are written. But if you will speak any thing be- 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 227 
 
 sides that which is UTi^^en, why do you contend with us, who are determined neither 
 to hear, nor to speak any thing but that which is written? The Lord himself says, if 
 ye continue in my word, ye are truly free." De Incarn. Christi, Paris Edit, of 1627. 
 And again : — " AvrapKcn &.c. For the holy and divinely inspired scriptures are, of 
 themselves, sufficient for the discovery of divine truth." Orat. Cont. Gentes. 
 
 8. Orig-e/i speaks thus admirably, in condemning your priests' errors : — "As all 
 gold, M-hatsoever it be, that is without the temple, is nta holy; even so every sense, 
 which is toithout the divine scripture, however admirable it may appear to some, is 
 not holy, because it is foreign to the scripture.'" See his 25 Horail. in Math. Lat. 
 Edit. Basil, 1571. Again; " Consider how imminent their danger is, m;^o neglect 
 to study the scriptures, in ivhich alone the discernment of this can be osccrtavied.'' 
 Lib. X. cap. 16. in Rom. Basil Edit. 
 
 9. From St. Chrysostom I could copy an entire column of noble sentiments, con- 
 demning the deism, and sacrilege of your priests, who dare in the face of heaven, to 
 deny the holy scriptures, to be the rule of faith : and prohibit the use of them to the 
 lay community. I shall copy a few extracts from this Greek father; — "What need 
 is there of a homily ? All things are intelligible and straight in the divine scrip- 
 ture : all things that are necessary are clear /" Homil. 3. in 2 Thess. ii. Mentz. Edit. 
 Again, in his Homily on the text, — " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," — 
 he saj^s, "Hear, — how he enjoins j'-ou in particular (viz. the man "in business, and 
 who governs a wife and children,") "to know the scripture, and not lightly, nor, as 
 it may happen, but with great dihgence." "If ^-ou will have nothing else, get the 
 New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Gospels, as your constant teach- 
 ers.'''' "Ignorance of the scriptures is the cause of all evil: we go unarmed, to the 
 battle." Hom. 9. in Epist. ad Coloss. 3; Tom. vi. : Mentz Edit. How utterly does 
 this eminent Father and saint overthrow the deism, and the impious fictions of 
 popery ! And is there one intelhgent member of the Roman catholic church, so tho- 
 roughly priest-ridden, as to yield his faith and conscience to the keeping of a bigotted 
 and ignorant priest, who can count beads, and mutter pater nosters, — it may be, but 
 who is utterly ignorant of the Bible, and of the Fathers ? Is there a human being, 
 endowed with reason, who would yield himself to the guidance of such men, in pre- 
 ference to St. Chrysostom? In his Sermons on Lazarus, he removes, and scatters 
 to the winds, all the objections of your infidel priests, who deny the use of the scrip- 
 tures to the plain and unlettered. He enumerates the objections of " tradesmen," 
 and " business men," — he then goes on, — "I am engaged in the things of this life ; 
 it is not for me to read the scriptures, but for those icho have taken a farewell of the 
 ivorld, who dwell on the tops of mountains, and live constantly after that fashion. 
 What sayest thou, O man ? Is it not thy business to study the scriptures, because 
 thou art distracted with a thousand cares 1 It is thine much more than it is theirs, 
 &x;." 
 
 Your priests, to sustain their imposture of keeping the Bible out of 3'our hands, 
 usually corrupt the translation of our Savior's words, — Search the scriptures. They 
 render it thus, — " Ye do search ;" and thence take away our Lord's command. Now 
 hear Chrysostom on this text. "He did not say. Read, — hui, Epcvmrc, — search ye 
 the scriptures, since the things that are said of him require much research. For this 
 reason he commands them to dig with diligence, that they may discover the things 
 that lie deep." Hom. 40. in Joh. cap. 5. 
 
 In his Serm. 53, De Utilit. Lect. Scrip, he declares that in all lands, in the east 
 
528 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 and west, and south, all men read, and reasoned out of the scriptures. On the noted 
 text "all scripture is given by inspiration of God," — he thus reasons: "the man of 
 God could not be perfect without the scriptures. In the place of me, says he, you 
 have the scriptures ; if you desire to learn any thing, you may therein do so. But if 
 he wrote this to Timothy, who was filled with the Holy Ghost, how much more did 
 he write this to us ?" Homil. 9, in 2 Tim. &c. Mentz Edit. Tom. xii. p. 602. Did 
 your priests retain th-e power of feeling compunction in their seared conscienecs, or 
 possess the characteristic attribute which lingers, to the last, in fallen humanity, — the 
 faculty of blushing under crimsoned guilt, — ^assuredly this doctrine of the Greek Father 
 would make them blush, and even writhe under his inflictions ! 
 
 I cannot resist another extract from this father, In which he answers the objections 
 of sacerdotal deism alledged against the obscurity of the Bible. It is true, no priest 
 has ever been so stupid, as to believe what he daily affirms, on this point. For 
 every man, possessing the le^st intellect, cannot but know that the Bible, as a book, 
 is plainer, clearer, and more easily understood, than any one of all the canons, rules, 
 and fictions over the breadth >and length of popery I But hear St. Chrysostom : after 
 having answeredthe objection, How can 1 understand them? — he thus goes on ; " It is 
 impossible that you, alone^ should be ignorant of every thing. For this cause the 
 grace of the Holy Ghost has arranged, that publicans, fishermen, tent-makers, and 
 shepherds, and goat herds, and common, and unlearned men, should compose the 
 books (»3f the scriptures) in order that no -one of the common people may be able to 
 fiy to this pretence ; and that the things declared may be -understood by all ; so that 
 the artisan, the servant, the poor widow, and the most unlearned of all men, may be 
 profited by the hearing." 
 
 Ao-ain: "The knowledge of the scriptures is a powerful defence against sin; while 
 the ignorance of them is a cieep precipice,^-a profound gulph ! It is a great betraying 
 of salvation to know nothing of the divine laws ! This it is, which has given birth to 
 heresies:; and has caused the corruption of morals, &c." "'He therefore, who does 
 not use the scriptures, but entereth" (as your pope and priests do) "by some other 
 way, (namely by tradition,) cutting out for himself a way contrary to the prescribed 
 way,^-i?e is the thief!'' De Lazar, Concio. 3, Paris edit, of 1621. 
 
 10. Let me next refiresh you out of St. Jerome : "The church of Christ possessing 
 churches in all the world, is united by the unity of the Spirit; and has the cities of 
 the law, the prophets, the gospel, and the apostles. She has not gone forth from her 
 boundaries, — that is from the holy scriptures J'' Oper. Tom. v. p. 334 comment, in 
 Mich. lib. i. cap. 1, Paris Edit, of 1602. How completely have your priests and pre- 
 lates " gone forth from her boundaries," when they absolutely reject the scriptures 
 altogether, as " the rule ;" snd have built the -novel system of popery upon traditions, 
 and the dreams, and visions, of uninspired saints ! 
 
 11. I close with extracts from St. Augustine : " Ci vitas Dei, &c. The city of God 
 detests doubts, as the madness of the Academicians : for she believes the holy scrip- 
 tures of the Old, and New Testaments, which we call canonical ; whence our faith is 
 derived ; by which the just lives ; and by means of which we walk without waverings" 
 De Civit. Lib. 19, cap, 18, Tom. vii. Bened. Edit. Paris 1685, Again :—" Licet, si 
 nos, &c. // we, and he added immediately what follows, or an angel from heaven, 
 declare unto you any gospel, besides that which ye have received, in the legal and 
 evangelical scriptures, let him be accursed."' Now, note this every one of you. Here, 
 St. Paul, and St. Augustine pronounce heaven'-s terrific fulminations on your priests, 
 
^ ROMAN CATHOLIC COXTROVERST. 229 
 
 and their whole S3'stem, who in common with deists, banish the holy scriptures ; ex- 
 clude from their chapels and altars the gospel of Jesus ; and introduce "a new gospel," 
 which Jesus never revealed, and which Paul and the Fathers never heard of, nor 
 conceived ! See above in Aug. Oper. Tom. ix, p. 302. Lib. 3. Contra, ix. Liter. 
 Petit. Edit. Supra. 
 
 Again : — " Who is ignorant that the canonical scriptut-es of the Old and New Tes- 
 taments, are contained in certain limits : and that it is to be preferred to all the subse- 
 quent writings of bishops ; so that no man can doubt, or dispute about it, whether 
 whatsoever is written in it, be true, and right, &c." lie then goes on, at length, to 
 show that all liuinan writings, and councils, are to be amended by this holy standard : 
 in fact, he places the authority of scripture above all that is human, and uninspired. 
 See Tom. ix. p. 93. Bened. Edit. Paris 1694. 
 
 . Li fine, he thus writes, — " In things openly set forth in the scriptures, all things 
 are to be found, which comprise faith and moral conduct." Be Doctr. Christ. See 
 Tom. iii. Lib. 2. cap. 9. 
 
 And so far is St. Augustine from admitting the authority of the church to determine 
 and fix the authority of the holy .scripture?, as the Roman catholics do, — tiiat he de- 
 clares that it is in the divinely inspired Bible that "we must seek the church." He 
 declares that the holy church is proved not by human documents, but by the divine 
 oracles." And it was impossible that St. Augustine could be guilty, with your super- 
 ficial priests, of reasoning in a circle, and thence proving the authority of the Bible 
 from the church. See Aug. Oper. Tom. ix.341. De Unit. Eccks. cap. 3. 
 
 If the priests can produce out of his pages, a contradiction to these passages, I shall 
 be obliged to them. They will thereby aid me in destroying their doctrine of the 
 unaninioiis consent. — Thus, fellow citizens, I have redeemed my pledge given to my 
 late opponents, the priests, that I would, in the proper place, produce eleven of their 
 best fathers against their anli-christian rule of faith: — and on behalf of our Protest- 
 ant rule of faith, the holy scriptures. 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours, «fcc. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popenj condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 
 
 " For I tc-nlfy,— that if any man sliall add to tho words of the prophecy of this book, 
 God shall add to him the plagues that are written in tliis book." 
 
 Jesus Christ, Rev. xxii. 18. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — In pursuing my argument on the condemnation of the Ro- 
 man catholic church, I solicit your attention to another fatal error: it is this: 
 
 Eighth :— The impiety of your pope and priests adding the apocryphal books to the 
 sacred canon of scripture, is condemned by scripture, and tiie Fathers. These books, 
 bound up in some of our Bibles, commencing with Esdras, and ending with Mac- 
 cabees, your priests with an airectation of gravity, impose on their simple flocks, as 
 
 ''the word of God.'' This I call, unceremoniously» ''uttering a falsehood in the 
 name, and under the very eye of the Almighty r I beg of you to be assured, fellow 
 
 21 
 
230 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 citizens, that the authors of these Tracts, did" never even indulge the thought of lay- 
 ing claim to divine inspiration. They were not sent of Cod: they no where affirm 
 this : their writings have none of the evidence of their divine mission, as prophets : 
 they abound with puerility, Jilthiness, errors, and glaring contradictions. Let me only 
 direct your attention to the fictions about the angel's grave recommendation to make a 
 smoke out of the heart and liver of a fish, to frighten away devils out of men! Tobit. ch. 
 vi. 7. and viii. 3 ; and the disausiing fiction about Tobit's losing his sight. And, in the 
 close of Maccabees, the author has not only disavowed all guidance of divine inspira- 
 tion, but even apologises for his deficisncies. And his errors are numerous and even 
 ludicrous. For instance, he puts Antiochus three times to death, by three different 
 kinds of death ! See 1 3Iac. vi. 16. And 2 Mac. 1. 15. 16. And ch. 9. And, 
 finally, the author was so ignorant of the law of Moses, and the custom of the Jews, 
 that he actually represents Judas offering acceptably, a,nd with applause, sacrifices to 
 the dead, — a thing never commanded by the law: and never done by the Jews, while 
 they were the faithful people of God. And yet, fellow citizens, this ludicrous error 
 is the only cause and reason of this book being admitted into the eanon by the Ro- 
 man catholic priests ! It countenances their prayers and sacrifices for the dead ! 
 
 Now hear the testimony of the Fathers. Your priests do not even pretend that the 
 Fathers of the Jewish church ever received these books into their canon. All the 
 Jewish saints and fathers, are, therefore, unanimously against them. So are the 
 best of your own Fathers, and saints. 
 
 Origen, in his list of canonical books, omits all the apocryphal books. See his 
 Commentary on Psal. 1. And Euseb. Lib. 6. cap. 25. 
 
 St. Athanasius, in his " Synopsis of the sacred scriptures," gives a list of the caiv 
 onical books, as we have them ; and adds, at the close of the list of the Old Testa- 
 ment, these words, — "There are other books of the Old Testament, besides these, 
 which are not canonical.'" And having recited the principal books of the Apocrypha, he 
 adds, — Tocavra kui ra, &c. Thesc, and such like, are not canonical." Synops. Sacr. 
 Script. Paris Edit. 1627. 
 
 St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, enumerating the canon, adds, — " but have nothing to do 
 with the Apocrypha." This he wrote in the close of the 4th century'. See Cyr. Cat. 
 Oxf. Edit. 1703. 
 
 St. Jerome specifies the apocryphal works of the Old Testament, and certain forged 
 works of the New Testament times, and says, — "these are not canonical, — non sunt 
 canonci — but are called b^ the ancients ecclesicstical : — "all of which they thought 
 fit to be read in churches but not brought forward for the confirmation of the faith," 
 See Oper. Tom. ix. p. 186. Symbol Rujfini. Paris Edit. 1602. Again, — having enu- 
 merated the true canonical books, he adds, — " Quidquid extra hos, &c. Whatsoever 
 is without these, is to be placed among the apocrypha. Therefore, Wisdom, com- 
 monly called the wisdom of Solomon, and the Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach, and 
 Judith, and Tobit, &c. are not in the Canon." See his Pref. to the book of Kings : 
 Tom. iii. Lib. 24. — I refer you, also, to Jerome's Preface to Daniel; he there calls 
 the story of "Bell and the Dragon, mere fables." So also does St. Augustine, in 
 his work, De Mirabil. cap. 32. lib. 2. 
 
 St. Cyprian having enumerated the true canonical books, says: " Sciendum est, 
 &c. It must be known that there are other books, besides these, not canonical, but 
 ecclesiastical, so called, as Wisdom, &c." See his work. In Symbolum. 
 
 St. Augustine goes all the length of St. Jerome against the apocrypha. His re- 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 231 
 
 mark on Judith is a specimen :— " The Jews are said not to have received it into the 
 canon of the scriptures ; and it is of small authority to strengthen any doctrine that 
 Cometh into question." De Civit. Dei. 18. 26. 
 
 The council of LaoJicea, canon 59, and 60, declared the fixed canon of scripture, 
 enumerating all the books of holy writ; and leaving out the apocrypha. See Sacr. 
 Concil. L/'^bffii. et Cossartii. Tom. i. Paris Edit. 1671. 
 
 I am fully aware that your priests are in the habit of supposing three testimonies 
 in opposition ♦:o this council of Laodicea, and to these testimonies of the Father.-, 
 against their canon of faith; namely, the decree of the council of Carthage, and of 
 two later Roman councils. These they quote as favoring the apocrypha. 
 
 Now, shall I say that this betrays imposture, or sheer ignorance ? INIark the true 
 state of the case. Every one of your priests has access to the Decretals and Canons. 
 The council of Laodicea was ratified and confirmed by the canons of the Roman 
 church. In proof of this, see Decret. p. i. Dist. 16. cap. 11. Nay, it was, also, sol- 
 emnly confirmed by the sixth General council, Canon 2. as Gratian also witnesses ; 
 See Decret. p. i. Dist. 16. cap. 7. Hence the sixth General council became respon- 
 sible, or rather, re-enacted what that of Laodicea had enacted. And now, are your 
 priests so exceedingly ignorant of their own canon law, that they do not know that 
 the pope is sworn solemnly, to observe the Eight General Councils : of which the 
 Trullane was the sixth? Hence your pope is sworn to sustain the decision of the council 
 of Laodicea, which excludes the ajjocnjpha! ! And if you, and he do not, you -perjure 
 your souls, and bring on you a mortal sin! The proof the pope's oath and vow to do 
 this, you can see in Decret. Par. 1. Dist. 16. cap. 8.— And, moreover, every scholar 
 knows that it was decreed in the council of Constance, Session 39 : and in the council 
 of Basil, Session 38, that ♦' the newly elected pope should take his oathnot to violate the 
 faith of the eight General Councils. Here is the fullest and plainest historical evi- 
 dence given, that in swearing to sustain the faith of the eight General Councils, the 
 pope and all your priests, are pledged under the penalty of mortal sin, to sustain the 
 faith of the Laodicean council. Htnce every pope, and every bishop, and every Ro- 
 mish priest, are bound by their oath, to reject the apocrypha! If your priests, and 
 popes do not, then are they perjured men ! But of truth and verity i,t is, that the 
 pope, bishops, and priests do cHng to the apocrypha ! ! Therefore^ they stand con- 
 victed before the pubhc,and the christian world, as perjured men, before God and man ! 
 
 This is not all. By thus setting up council against council, each of which was 
 sustained by a pope, your priests have ruined and annihilated their infallibility and 
 immutability ! ! Alas! poor Rome! And, yet, this is not all. 1 have the testimony 
 of Gregory I. pope and saint, against the apocrypha, and against the council of 
 Carthage, held in 397, and confirmed by pope Innocent I.; and by t^e other two 
 Roman councils. Pope St. Gregory flourished in the close of the sixth century. He 
 declares that the Maccabees belong not to tiie canon: — Here are his own words :.-« 
 " De qua re, &c. Concerning which thing, we do nothing irregularly, if we adduce 
 a testimony from the books ivhich, although not canonical, are published for the edifr- 
 cation of the people," &c. He then quotes from the books not canoniQaL namely, — 
 tlie Maccabees,— the account of Eleazer, 1 Macvi. 46. wounding and killing the ele- 
 phant, and perishing under the falling animal. Greg. Mor. Lib. 19. in Job 39. Bened. 
 Edit. Paris, 1705. Hence, St. Gregory, the i)ope and saint, was perfectly atone with 
 St. Jerome, and St. Augustine, in declaring against the apocrypha; and, therefore, 
 against your popes and priests, — in solemnly condemning your rule of faith ; which 
 
<*«:> 
 
 R03IAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 embrnccs these Ininian fictions, and additions to God's holv word I — I now leave mv 
 earnest ap})eal with the American public, if I have not succeeded bv the aid of the 
 Romish weapons, to pull down this, the Diain pillar of their heathen temple ! 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, vours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMA>- CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condemned hy the Scripivres and the Fathers. 
 
 " Though contradicted evci-A' day by facts, 
 
 That sopliistry itself would stumble o'er, 
 
 And to the very teeth a liar proved, — 
 
 kSlie cries, — / lead the s)noolhest tray to hcurcn ! 
 
 Ah ! none return tbat went witli her: the ('.^ad 
 
 Are in her house, her guests in dej>ths of hell. 
 
 She weaves the winding sheet of souls ; and lays 
 
 Them in the urn of everlasting death !" ' Polloh. 
 
 Fellow Citize>"s: — I have now reached what one justly called the golden 
 doctrines of your priests, and the master-pieces of their superhuman inventi; n ; — doc- 
 trines dear to every Roman priests heart, and fondly adhered to, as the subiimest, 
 and most longed after, in the whole cherished system of Holy Mother, — for the best of 
 all reasons : they bring into the ghostly treasury the steadiest and greatest revenues, 
 in their brisk traific in "human suuls !" I mean transuhsiantiation, the vwss, and 
 jmrgalory. I shnil devote my attention to each of them, before I retire from the field. 
 What I intend, is a brief sketch of each, showing the public that the§e are infamous 
 fictions condemned by scripture and even by your Fathers. And may I beg you to 
 follow me in this important discussion ? I do not war against the pure Christianity of 
 your forefathers. I war againt the novelty of popery, which your ancient forefathers 
 neither believed, nor even knew. 
 
 ^V h}' are you so slow to receive instruction, and our warnings against your greatest 
 foes? And who, think you, are they ? I shall answer by directing you to a deeply 
 interesting portion of dear old Ireland's historv'. There was a jjure apostolic church 
 n Ireland before my countryman, your St. Patrick, arrived. St. I bar was an eminent 
 man in it. It was he who declared to St. Patrick, — "that the pure Irish church of 
 Christ never acuiiouiedged the supremacy of any foreigner !''' For 760 years this ancient 
 and pure christian church flourished. St. Patrick was not a Roman catiiolic : he 
 and the Irish church submitted to no popery, and to no pope of Rome I This was 
 the brightest and loveliest period of Irish history. But, hear me, who were the 
 traitors? They were the pope, and Henry II. of England. They conspired the 
 subjugation of Ireland. Henry overran Ireland, and betrayed it to the Roman pope. 
 This national degradation and ruin were consummated in the traitorous council of 
 Cashel, in A. D., 1172. Popery, from that year, overran Ireland : her pure christ- 
 ian pastors were driven off, and destroyed : impious priests of Rome ruined your 
 fathers' lovely christian church. And England has held your land in bondage to 
 this da}'. The pope was the instigator, and Henry II. the tool. The pope, therefore, 
 and the k:ing of England, were the despots and traitors who compassed tlie ruin of old 
 
 i 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVKRST. 233 
 
 Ireland. Sec Dr. O'Halloran's Roman catholic antiquit'ut ; and O'Driscoirs Vitict 
 of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 85. 
 
 Is tbe spirit of your prinnilive fathers fled and gone? Is there none of the pure 
 Irish families left to rise up ai,'ain?t the predominant Roman party who have ruined, 
 enslaved, and beggared your country ? If there be, then hear me. Side byside with 
 vou, I war ar^ainst the gross, degrading, and impious inventions of men; against a 
 ghostly despotism, which has riveted its chains on your immortal souls ; and which 
 your ancient and primitive fathers, in the old world, would have dashed from them 
 with horror. I wage war against the impieties, fictions, and heaven daring knavery 
 of Roman priestcraft. I war against a system, — not only not found in the Bible, 
 but condemned in it, by the Almighty God, our Redeemer ! I humbly ofTer you aid 
 against men who have "traded in human souls;" who have their stipulated price 
 for every species of sin and crime; their price of each soul, — be the man rich or poor. 
 I war against men who profess to open heaven's gate unblushingly, for money : men, 
 who are so destitute of the bowels of mercy, that they will not pray one of you out of 
 pumatory without money ; — men who would let iheir best friends and neighbors lie 
 in "flaming waves of purgatory," for millions of years, unless they are bought by 
 lar^e sums of money, to do this! We come as humble aids, to assist you against 
 impostors and barbarous despots,— -compared to whom Mohammed was pure ; and 
 Nero, mild and merciful ! You cannot, then, fellow citizens, with any show of reason, 
 or justice, deem me your enemy when I ttll you the truth .' Be this as it may, I tell 
 you with deep solemnity, that there is a day coming, — if not in time, before you die, — 
 most certainly in eternity, and at the bar of our common Judge, the Lord Jesus, when 
 you and these priests shall know whether I have spoken the truth to you ; and warned 
 vou in tlie name of the Eternnl God I To that day I desire, with humble devotion, 
 to carry forward my ajjpeal to God, and your consciences. I now go on. 
 
 yinth : — The doctrine of tTanauhstantiation is condemned by scripture and th© 
 Fathers. In this doctrine unmatched by dogma of Turk, or Brahmin, your priests 
 afiect with as much gravity, as they can pyt on, for the time, to teach and persuade 
 vou to believe what no one of them in their sober senses ever believed : — namely, that 
 by the muttering of the few Latin words, — ^'hoc est corpus mewm," &c., the little 
 wheat wafer is actually "chan^-ed into Christ's body and blood, soul and divinity;" 
 and the wine in the chalice, " into his real blood, bo^Jy, soul, and divinity." See 
 Gratiani Decretum, p. ."349, De consecratione Bhl. ii., are these words, — " After tho 
 consecration of the bread and wine, the true body and blood of Je.sus Christ are, in 
 reality, and according to the testimony of the senses, (sensualiter,) handled by the 
 priest; and broken, and crushed by the teeth of the faithful." — See also Canones tt 
 df.craa Concil Tridenli, Lngd. F:dit. 1824 Sess. 13, cap. 4, Trent Catech. De Sac. 
 Kuch. Sect. 33. And in section 31. That " holy council" taught that " a whole 
 Cliiist" is in the wafer, even liis body, bones, and sinews :" verurn Christi Corpus, — 
 veluti ossa, et nervos, &X'." And my friend Dr. Aver\', who spent a winter in Rome, 
 told me that he once saw two of the priests in that city, lake the wafer, and as they 
 chewed it, they grinned, and said, — "hear, howl cranch his bones, nerves, and 
 sinews I" I have two copies of this section of the Trent catechism before me, one 
 in Latin, and an ancient English copy. These have the words, — "his body, bones, 
 nerves, sinews," are in ilie transubstantiated icnfer. But I am also aWare, and I shall 
 here impart the ser-ret to you, that in Britain and Ireland, the priests, in their newly 
 assumed power to change even the catechism of their last holy council of Trent, hav# 
 
 21* 
 
234 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 actually left out this shocking cannibal phrase, about ^'his bones, nerves, sinews,'^ 
 being in the wafer. The above Latin is quoted from the Venice Edition of the Trent 
 Catech. of 1582. page 241. See also the ancient English Edit. p. 212. 
 
 Your priests quote two passages to prove this monstrous and incredible doctrine. 
 The 1st is John ch. vi. Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, ^-c. This they 
 take literally. If this be correct, then they must take the other expressions as literally. 
 For instance, " he that eatethof this bread shall live for ever." Of course, if they be 
 correct, then, all, each, and every one, without exception, who eats of the wafer, 
 which is Christ's flesh, shall infallibly be saved ; and all who eat it not, — as baptized 
 infants, and thousands of adults, — and among others the penitent thief on the cross, — 
 even all these must, according to the Romish doctrine, be damned ! Nay, if we take 
 the words literally, in one part of the sentence, we must do so in the whole. Hence, 
 *'he that eats of this, will never hunger, literally: — never thirst literally." John vi. 
 35. Of cour -e, if the priests be orthodox — all who have been so happy as to eat their 
 wafer, will bid a glorious farewell to all the trouble of eating and drinking. They 
 will never more hunger, never more thirst! What glorious news for our poor hard 
 working laborers ! Only go the priest, and secure the wafer, — he will keep all the 
 wine to himself, it is true, but no matter, in the wafer you have "the whole bod\% 
 bones, and nerves, and sinews," — and you will nevermore hunger after eating this: 
 never more thirst ! You will need no more foot! ! You need never go to market ! So 
 monstrously absurd are the doctrine, and the proof thereof! Does the priest soberly 
 believe that his victims are rational beings ! 
 
 The other proof of " the learned priests," who are only two hundred and fifty 3'ears 
 behind the Protestant world in knowledge, and general literature, is this: ''This is 
 my body : this is my blood of the iiew covenant." 
 
 This they interpret literally ; and venture to teach that this means that the wafer 
 is truly Christ's flesh, and bones, and bod3\ 
 
 But our Lord says in John vi., " /am the living bread which came down from heaven.'^ 
 Of course, this must be taken literally. Hence, in the Romish mode of interpreting, 
 our Lord was most certainly transubstantiated into a piece of rea/ bread; that this 
 piece of real bread had animal life in it: and that this "animated bread," literally 
 came down from heaven. The priests are bound, in honor and principle, to believe all 
 this, and make the victims of their superstition believe it, if they believe in transubstan- 
 tiation. But this is not all. 
 
 Were your priests biblical scholars, — and did they know the elements of Hebrew 
 literature, they would know what every Hebrew tyro knov^^s, that the Hebrew and 
 Syriac languages have no term to express the word " signify.'" They always, of 
 course, use the word " is." Let any man open his Bible, and see the proof. Here 
 are some instances: "The seven ears are seven years:" " the seed is the word : " the 
 seven candlesticks are the seven churches :" "the woman is the great city:" (Rev. 
 xvi. 18.) " Judah is a lion's whelp :" " all flesh is grass" " the lock of hair is Jeru- 
 salem." Ezek. V. 1, .5. 
 
 Now, if the Ronjan priests' interpretation of the sentence, — " this is my body," be 
 just and correct, — then the seven ears of corn were converted, substantially and really, 
 into seven years of time! The seven cows were really converted, bones, hides, and 
 horns, into seven years ! The seed of wheat was converted, in the hands of the 
 astonished sower, into the pure and real word of God ! The seven candlesticks were 
 ehanged substantially into the magnificent and splendid array of seven real churche« 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 235 
 
 Judah was doomed by this doctrine, to be a yelping lion's whelp! All flesh, human 
 and bestial, — even each on« of our bodies, is, by an unparalleled hocus pocus, become 
 the green, long, waving grass! And last, though not least, — a lock of hair, shorn off' 
 by the barber, is in the hands of the astonished prophet, marvellously transubstantiated 
 into a solid, beautiful, walled city, — even Jerusalem ! Verily, we need only give ^le 
 Roman priests elbow room, in abundance, and no man will be so stupid, or ungene- 
 rous, as to say that the age of miracles is past ! ! 
 
 I shall not insult my reader's understanding by insinuating that any man in the 
 exercise of reason, will say that this monstrous doctrine finds any countenance from 
 reason or the holy scriptures. We do the Roman priest no injustice when we say, 
 that no man has ever susjyected them of believing in it any farther than the counterfeiter 
 and issuer of base coin, does believe in his own base manufactory'. He believes in it, 
 just so far as it robs his victim of his money, and enriches himself at the expense of the 
 ignorant and unwary. So has the public said for many centuries ! He believes in 
 in it just so far as it puts his victim's gold and silver into his own purse ! ! 
 
 It is worthy of the notice of our learned men, and those who have reformed the 
 philosophy of the schools, that the Roman catholic pope, and priests, who are as far 
 behind, in the improvement of philosphy, as are the Mohammedans, and some of the 
 Hindoos, avail themselves of defence from the old exploded philosophy of Aristotle. 
 While all the learned and enlightened world reject the absurdities in the system of 
 Aristotle, the Roman priests, enveloped in the fogs and mists of the eighth and ninth 
 centuries, believe more in Aristotle, than in the Bible : and bring in to the aid of their 
 monstrous doctrines, his savage, and antiquaied sophisms ; namely, that " tJiere may 
 be taste, wherenothing is to be tasted ; that there may be color, without any thing to be 
 represented ; tangibility, without any thing to be touched; roundness, ivithout any thing 
 that is round, &c." And when the progress of science sweeps away the remains of 
 the barbarism of Aristotle; and the false philosophy of the East, — that same light 
 which scatters the darkness and barbarism of Turkey, and Hindostan, and China, will 
 help to sweep away Romanism from the face of the earth! 
 
 The Roman priests are at one with the Unitarian here ; and affect to say that the 
 same objection which we cherish against this conversion of a wafer into Christ's bones, 
 muscles, sinews, soul, and divinity, does militate equally against the mystery of trinitv. 
 The cases are infinitely different. In the most Holy Trinity there is no contradiction 
 to reason, and the evidence of the senses. The doctrine of trinity holds out the God- 
 head to be three in one sense, and one in another sense. When I say that God is one 
 in essence, and three in persons, I say nothing contradictory. I can say I have " a 
 soul, a body, and a spirit ;" and yet I am one. But to say that my body is a wafer ; 
 or that a wafer is Christ's bones, sinews, muscles, soul, and God-head : that a priest 
 makes and creates his Creator, and then eats him, is beyond conception, mon- 
 strously absurd ! It sets reason, and the evidence of the senses; and all gravity 
 utterly at defiance ! 
 
 Your priests say, *'Why is it incredible : Almighty God can do it!" Very true, 
 but has he converted it into Christ? The Almighty can annihilate idolaters ; has he 
 done it, while your priests are alive ! 
 
 "But the church of Holy Mother is a witness that he does it." No, fellow citizens ; 
 the testimony of Rome, is the testimony of the " Man of sin."^ 
 
 *'But the real jrresence of Christ is in the wafer, — it can be no idolatry, therefore, 
 to worship the host !" The real presence of God is in all the works ofnature,heisin 
 
336 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 that tree in that river, in that stupendous mountain, — vfould you, therefore, worship 
 
 tiiese ? 
 
 This doctrine contradicts all the evidence of all my senses. Now, it is just as 
 much the fixed and immutable law of his government of nature, that 1 should be- 
 lieve the evidence of all my senses, — as it is the fixed law of his kingdom of grace, 
 that I should believe the testimony of his Word. This monstrous fiction, therefore, 
 seduces you into a violation of God's immutable laws : it makes you infidels against 
 the God of nature ! This is not all of its evil consequences. 
 
 If I distrust the strongest evidence of my senses, I must be an unbeliever in mi- 
 racles. If I stood b3% and saw our Lord raise Lazarus from the dead ; if I believe in 
 vour transuhstantiation, I could not confide in my senses ; taught as you are, to believe 
 contrary to the evidence of my senses, I could have no abiding faith in our 
 Lord's miracle. It might seem to me that I saw Lazarus rise ; but I could not believe 
 it certainlv; the wafer seems just as certainly to my senses to be a wafer as that rising 
 of the dead man ; yet it is the body and blood of Christ really ! It may seem a resurrec- 
 tion, it may seem a miracle, but I cannot trust my senses : I cannot believe the 
 miracle ! Hence no man who believes the dictate of your priests here, can believe 
 in miracles ; nor be a consistent christian. 
 
 And this is not all ; the man who does really believe in transubstantiation, never 
 can be relied on, as a witness to give credible testimony on any thing. Suppose in a 
 case of murder, a real believer in this fiction is brought to testify. The bench says, 
 " look on the prisoner at the bar ; did you see that man inflict the blow that killed the 
 deceased ?" He says, " I did ; I heard him, I saw him do it. That is the identical 
 man." " Take care what you say," replies the counsel for the criminal, — " bring 
 no false charges ; for any thing that the evidence of your senses can make you believe 
 to the contrary, that thing standing there at the bar, may really be a piece of bread !'* 
 
 " Why, sir, I cannot be deceived ; I see him; 1 know him; I feel him ; I hear 
 him; and I say, he is the one who murdered the deceased." 
 
 "No, sir, let me correct you; you firmly beheve, maugre all the evidence of all 
 your senses, that the priest's wafer is the very body, blood, bones, soul and divinity of 
 Christ! You believe this on the priest's word, in opposition to all the evidences of 
 your senses. Now, my word is as good as the priests' word ; and I say, as solemnly 
 as he says, and as seriously and truly as he says, that the thing that you see at the bar 
 is, in fact, a loaf of brown bread ! And, sir, if you believe the one, and profess to deny 
 the other, you are a knave. Hence, on no principle of consistency, canyon be a wit- 
 ness here !" Exit, in sUeniio alto I 
 
 And, yet, unconvinced by argument, or by ridicule, enslaved minds will do as their 
 masters bid them; and will, as in duty bound, believe just as honestly, and as truly, 
 that a bit of a wafer is the bod}-, soul, and di\dnity of Christ, — as do a nation of the 
 Asiatics, that our world is a great smooth body, as flat as a pancake; and borne up 
 by the back of a huge land turtle ! 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B, 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 237 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 
 
 " Mon cher Ddphini, sure you will agree, 
 That, for a bishop, none so tit as h(\ 
 • Who gives the king such very good avis .'" 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — We have heard the voice of reason, common sense, and 
 scripture, on the fiction of transnbstantiation ; now let ns hear the Fathers, — They 
 tanght that the bread and wine were consecrated, simi)ly, from a common to a holy 
 use, — sacramentaily to signify Christ's body and blood. 
 
 1. St. Iren-eus of the second century, bears ample testimony that tliis doctrine was 
 unknown to the church, in liis days. "All the bread wliich is of the earth," says he, 
 "when it has received the divine invocation, is no longer common bread, hut the 
 eucharist, consisting of two things, an earthly bread, and a heavenly. Thus, also, our 
 bodies, when they have received the eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the 
 hope of eternal life.''' Contra. H^fres. Lib. 4. cap. 16. p. 251. Benedict. Edit. 1710. 
 And Bellarm. De S. Each. Lib. 2. cap. 2. This ancient Father, it is obvious, held 
 the true apostolical doctrine, that the bread was still earthly oread, anil a symbol of 
 the heavenly food^ after invocation. 
 
 2. iS^ Ignatius gives no countenance to your priests, — "Eva aprov &c. Break- 
 ing one bread, which is the medicine of immortahty, the antidote by means ot 
 which we shall not die, but live forever." Epist. Ad Ephes. Oxf. edit. 1708. 
 Again; — "If any one is without the altar, deprive him of the bread of God." He 
 says not, " the flesh of Christ and his divinity." Again; — "Do you, then, resuming 
 long sutlering, re-establish yourselves in faith, which is the flesh of Christ our Lord; 
 and in love, which is the blood of Christ." Epist. Ad Trallesios. 
 
 3. Gelasius L, the pope who wrote, in 492. Having noticed that the sacraments 
 are divine things, by which we receive the body and blood of Christ, he says ; — 
 " Tamen esse, &c. However the substance, or ntiture of the bread and wine ceases not 
 to exist: and assuredh' the image and similitude of the body and blood of Christ are 
 celebrated in the performance of the mysteries.'" Gelas. In duab. Nat. in Christo 
 contra Eutych. This strong and most decisive testimony of a poi)e against the re- 
 volting fiction of the mass, does of course meet with opposition from your popes. 
 But your own writer Dupin exhibits the certain and conclusive evidence of the au- 
 thenticity of this part of Gelasius' writings, by four arguments. See Dupin's Nouvelle 
 Biblioth.' 5 cent. Edit. Utrecht, 1731.— Finch, pp. 242, 243. 
 
 4. St. /fj/ary wrote thus :—" In fide, iScc. For the sacrament of the heavenly 
 bread is received in the faith of the resurrection ; and whosoever is without Christ, 
 ghall be loft fasting for the food of life." P. 531. Edit. Paris, 10.52. 
 
 5. St. Cyprian, — "Nam quia, <Scc. For since Christ carried us all, and since he 
 bore our sins, we see that the peoj)le is understood by the water; and that the blood 
 of Christ isshoim by the wine.'' Epist. Ca?cil. Fratri, 05, p. 153. Oxf. Edit. 1582. 
 
 0. St. Ambrose says, — " In comedendo, «Scc. In eating and drinking the things 
 offered to us, we sirrnify the flcsli and the blood. You receive the sacrament as a 
 similitude; it is the f gun of the body and blood of the Lord: you drink the likeness 
 
238 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 of his precious blood.^^ De Sacram. Lib. 4. cap. 4. Paris Edit. 1690. How sensibly 
 
 and thoroughly does St. Ambrose oppose your priests' fictions I 
 
 7. Tertullian wrote after this manner, — " Acccptum, &c. The bread which he 
 had taken and distributed to his disciples, he made his bod}', by saying this is my body, 
 that is, — the figure of my body. He then goes on to notice the words of Christ in 
 John vi., and shows, in our Lord's words, that the phrase is to be taken not corporally 
 and fleshly, but spiritually. See Advers. Marci. Lib. 5, p. 4.58. Edit. Paris, 1675; 
 and De Resur. Cam. cap. 37. p. 347. 
 
 8. St. Theodoret says, first, in his Dialogue II. in the name of the ill informed 
 Eranistes, that "the symbols after invocation are changed and become another thing, 
 &:c." He then corrects him, and gives his own mind thus, — " You are taken in a net 
 that you made yourself. For the mystical signs do not, after consecration, depart 
 from their own nature. For they remain in their former substance, figure, and form, 
 and may be seen and touched as before.^' Paris Edit. 1608, in Latin. 
 
 9. Eusebius says, — IluXtr yao &c. For again he gave to his disciples the sym- 
 bols of the divine economy, and he commanded them to make the image of hisown 
 body." Again, — " He commanded them to use bread as the symbol of his own 
 body." See Demonst. Evang. Lib. 8. cap. I.Paris Edit. 1544. 
 
 10. Justin, the Martyr, thus wrote in 150, — ''Onycvow &c. I also affirm that 
 the prayers, and the praises of the saints are the only perfect sacrifices acceptable 
 to God. For these only have the christians undertaken to perform : and by the 
 commemoration of the wet and the dry food, in ivhich we call to mind the sufferings 
 which the God of gods sufi[ered through Him whose name is blasphemed, &c." See 
 his Dial, ivith Trypho the Jew ; Paris Edit. 1515. p. 345. 
 
 11. St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, writes: — ''Evtvwco &.c. In the type of the bread is 
 given to you the body, and in the type of the wine is given to you the blood, that you 
 may be a partaker of the body and blood of Christ; and one body and one blood 
 with him.'' Catech. Mystic 4. 1, p. 292, Oxf. Edit. 1703. Again :— " Tevo,xtvoi &c. 
 For they tasting, are not ordered to taste of the bread and the wine, but of the anti- 
 type of the body and blood of Christ.'' Cat. Myst. 5. 17. p. 300, Finch, p. 202. 
 
 12. Clemens Alexandrinus is full, and exphcit against your priests, and iheir novel 
 figments. He wrote thus in A. D. 220; — "Emi6e &c. And then he said the bread 
 that I will give you is my flesh : but flesh is irrigated by blood ; therefore the wine 
 allegorizes the blood." Again, — "Thus the word is fre(|uently described allegorically 
 as food, and flesh, and bread, and blood, and milk." — "Nor let it appear strange to 
 any one, when Ave say that milk allegorically describes the blood of the Lord. For 
 does not wine allegorize it?" See his Paedag. Lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 104. 105. Paris Edit. 
 1641. He has many similar expressions declaring the bread, and wine to be the 
 mystical or solemn sacramental sy77ibols. See p. 100, and 156. 
 
 13. St. Athanasius, upon that passage of scripture, " Quicunque dixerit, &c. 
 whosoever shall say, ^c", writes fully against your priests' impostures. Having quoted 
 the words uf our Savior respecting '' eating his flesh," he proves that this means not 
 carnally, but spiritually. " Our Lord," — says he, — " spake both of the spirit and of 
 the flesh, and made a distinction ; between his spirit, and his flesh, that believing in 
 what was visible to their eyes, and in his invisible nature, they might learn that the 
 things which he said were not carnal, aapKiKa but spiritual." He then adds a potent 
 refutation of the fiction of the priests. "For, for how many would his body have 
 sufl[iced for meat, that it should become the nourishment of the whole world ?" 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 239 
 
 Again, — " the flesh he spoke of was heavenly nourishment, and spiritual food from 
 above." And he adds that Christ " draws them away from the corporeal sense, and 
 teaches them to take it in this spiritual way." See the Paris Edit, of 1627. 
 
 14. Origen is as fully and decisively against the priests. "Katoi^ &c. It is not 
 the matter of the bread, but the words spoken over it, which profit him that eats not 
 unworthily. And these things I speak concerning the typical and symbolical body." 
 Comment on Matth. Rouen Edit. 1668. Again; — •' There is in the New Testament, 
 a letter which killeth him who does not understand spiritually the things tiiere said. 
 For if vou take this according to the letter, — Except ye eat my flesh, and drink my bloody 
 — THIS LETTER KILLETH !" Homil. 7. OQ Lcvit. 10 ; Basil Edit. 1571. Once more ; 
 '•If, as these affirm, he had neither flesh nor blood — of what flesh, of what body, and 
 of what blood, are the bread and cup, (which he delivered,) the images ? By these 
 symbols, He commended his memory to his disciples.'" Dialog, iii. contr. iMarc. Basil 
 Lat. Edit. 1571. 
 
 15. St. Chrysostom in one place, holds the doctrine o: Consubstantiation with 
 Luther: — "Christ prepares for us his body, not only in faith, but in very deed.'"' 
 " We have become one body and one flesh with Christ. " Chr^^s. in Matt. Homil. «■/? 
 In another passage he opposes this, and also Transubstantiation. For instance : — 
 "If Jesus did not die, of what are the things we perform, the symbols?" Same 
 Homily. Again: — "As before the bread is consecrated, we call it bread ; but when 
 the grace of God has consecrated it, by the priest, it is freed from the name of bread, 
 and is reckoned worthy to be called the Lord's body; although the nature of bread 
 remains in it," &c. Chr^s. to the monk Caesarius. 
 
 That this treatise is genuine, we have the testimony of Peter the Martyr, and the 
 arguments, at length for it, in Dupin's Nouv. Bibl. Tom. iii. Utrecht Edit. 3731. 
 
 16. St. Bernard in Serm. 5. in Psal. says, — " Quid est manducare, &c. WTiat 
 is it to eat his flesh, and to drink his blood ; but to communicate \nth his passion, and 
 to imitate his conversation in the flesh." Willet. p. 510. 
 
 17. St. Jerome writes : — "In typo sanguinis, &:c. As a type, or symbol of his 
 blood, Christ offered not water, but wine." Tom. ii. Lib. 2. Advers. Jovin. p. 90. 
 Aaain, — " Because the flesh of our Lord is true meat, and his blood is true drink, in 
 an exalted and spiritual sense, — juxta avayuyriv, — we have only this good in this life, 
 if we eat his flesh, and drink his blood, not only in the mystery, but also in the read- 
 ing of the scriptures." In Eccles. cap. 3. Tom. v. p. 24. Paris Edit. 1602.— Once 
 more, " I believe that the Gospel is the body of Christ. I believe the holy scriptures 
 to be his doctrine ; and when he says, he who does not eat my flesh and drink 
 my blood, (although this may be understood of the mystery,) yet the word of the 
 scriptures, and the divine doctrine is more truly the body of Christ, and his blood 
 If, at any time, we go to the mystery, whoever is faithful, understands that if he falls 
 into sin, he is in danger ; so if at any time, we hear the word of God ; — and the word 
 of Christ, and his blood, be poured into our ears, and we are thinking of something 
 else, how great is the danger we incur!" Tom. vii. p. 420: in Psal. 147. So com- 
 pletely does this father show his ignorance of the novel fictions of your priests, that 
 he believes in the body and blood of our Lord, as purely spiritual in the gospel, and 
 in the eucharist ; — not carnal, in the hands, and mouths of priests ! 
 
 18. Finally, St. Augustine gives this admirable exposition of "eating Christ's 
 flesh,"— in opposition to you. " If a passage is preceptive, and either forbids a crime, 
 or enjoins usefulness, or charity, it is not figurative. But, if it seems to command a 
 
240 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 crime, or forbids charity, &c., it is figurative. Unless ye eat thejiesh of the son of 
 ■man, and drink his blood. Here he appears to enjoin wickedness. It is, therefore, 
 lin-urative, teaching us that we partake of the benefits of the Lord's sufferings," &c. 
 De Doctr. Chr. Tom. iii. Lib. 3, p. 52: Bened. Edit. 
 
 Ao-ain, so far from beheving that the bread and wine are converted into the 
 
 divinity, he says, — " How shall I put forth my hand to heaven, and lay hold of him 
 who sitteth there ? Put forth your faith, and you will have laid hold of him." Tom. 
 iii. p. 630. Ajiain, — " This is the word of God, that ye believe on him whom he 
 hath sent. To do this is to eat the meat which perisheth not. Why do you prepare 
 your teeth and your stomach ? Believe only, and you will have eaten." Tom. iii. 
 p. 490; Tract 25, in John vi. Lastly, — " When the Lord was about to give the 
 Holy Spirit, he said that he was the bread which descends from heaven, exhorting us 
 to believe in him. For to believe in him, is to eat the living bread.'* p. 494. 
 Again, — "It seemed to them a hard sa^dng, when he said — except a man eat my 
 flesh, and drink my blood ! They received it foolishly ; they thought on it carnally ; 
 they supposed that the Lord was about to cut off httle pieces from his body, and give 
 them to them." *'Bui he taught them saying — it is the Spirit that quickeneth : the 
 flesh profiteth nothing ; my words, they are spirit, and they are truth. Understand 
 spiritually what I have spoken. You are not about to eat this body which you 
 see : nor to drink that blood which they shall shed, who shall crucify me. I have 
 recommended to you a certain sacrament^ which, if spiritually understood, shall 
 quicken you." In Psal. 9S. Also Tract xi. in Ev.Johan. i. ii. vi. 
 
 Had St. Auo-usiine lived in our times, and among the most enlightened Protestants, 
 no language could he have employed more clear, and decisive, in condemning the 
 monstrous fictions of popery, and in confirming our Protestant doctrine of the holy 
 Supper. 
 
 The Liturgies of Chrysostom, and Basil, universally used in the Greek church, 
 condemn this novel doctrine. Thus in the former it is said,—'' In rememhrance of 
 this command of our Savior, we ofiTer to thee thine own, out of thine own gifts; we 
 offer thee this reasonable and unbloody worship. &c." Thus they call the bread and 
 wine after invocation, gifts ; thus precluding all idea of change into real flesh. 
 
 In the Liturgy of Basil we have these words, — "Laying before thee, these symbols 
 of the body and blood of thy Christ, we beseech thee, &c." Goar. Euch. Grsec. 
 Biblioth. patrum. Tom. ii. fol. 1624. 
 
 The Liturgies of St. James, and Mark use the same word "gifts," when speaking 
 of the bread and wine. The Ethiopic Liturgy, used in the church of Abyssinia, after 
 the prayer of consecration, says, — "Now, O Lord, we, celebrating the memorial o[ thy 
 death, do offer thee thi^ bread, and this cup, &:c." 
 
 Cyril, the patriarch of Constantinople, in the 16th century, thus expressed the 
 views of the Greek church, — "In the eucharist, we do confess a true and real pre- 
 sence of Christ ; but such a one as faith oflTers us, not such as a devised transubstan- 
 tiation." Cyr. Respons. cap. 17. p. 60. Lond. Prot. Joum. vol. iv. p. 144. Finally, 
 Metrophanes, the patriarch of Alexandria, thus expresses the sentiments of the Ori- 
 ental churches : " We call the Lord's supper a sacrifice, but a sacrifice that is spiritual 
 and commemorative ; spiritual, as having nothing carnoHn it; commemorative, as be- 
 ing performed in remembrance of the sacrifice once offered on the cross. This is 
 taught by St. Chrysostom, and the whole church, saying. This is done in remembrance 
 of what wag done then." " We never believed that Christ was bodily present in the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY, '241 
 
 mysteries." See Metropb. Conf, Cirh. et Apo:>lol. Eccles. in Orient. Lond. Prot. 
 Journ. iv. 145. 
 
 To the ani])le testimonies of the christian world against your priests, we solicit 
 your candid attention. 
 
 How long will you suffer yourselves to be imposed on ? Is there the form of a 
 rational being, but yourselves, who can believe that an impious, God-despising 
 priest can create his Maker? What I Create the Almighty out of a little flour and 
 water ? The most degraded of the heathen, made his god out of the trunk of a stately 
 tree. One part he cut up, and made fire of it, to cook his food : of the other jiart he 
 made a god ; and he bowed down to it, and adored it ! This was infinite!}- degrading, 
 and contemptible ! But your priests sink you all beneath the infinite degradation of 
 even these pagans ! He makes his god, and your god out of a little flour and water ! 
 He actually makes the idol of his, and your adoration out of a little wafer! And 
 after you have bowed down to this bran idol, and on your knees adored it with pra\'- 
 ers, and with incense ; and after you have carried it about through the streets, as you 
 do in Catholic lands, and compelled, by violence and arms, others to commit the 
 damning sin of adoring the bra7i god, also : — you then actualhj eat it up ! Did 3'ou 
 ever hear of the most brutish pagan eatmg his gods ! He might worship animals and 
 vegetables! But brutish as he was, even his Itek and his onion thsi he worshipped, 
 he would not eat! But your priests, like the hero of Pope in the Dunciad, take a 
 long race, and jump the deepest into the abyss of abominable idolatry ! 
 
 And what of the god is not eaten up, is put into the Pix, (box). And if some of 
 the god falls in xhe form of crumbs, the dogs pick up these parts, and pieces of the 
 god! And ihese dogs have the god'in them. Remember the instructive story of the 
 Lady's lap dog, \vhich suddenly swallowed the wafer as the priest was giving it to 
 its mistress! The little fellow was actually put into a Nunnery, and kept as a holy 
 personage, — as hol}'^ certainly as any of his sacerdotal compeers — no one doubts it .' 
 And when full of days, tliis little dog which had the god in him, died, he was buried 
 in holy ground! Moreover, the vermin, such as wonus, and mice, and rats, have 
 entered the Fix ; and eaten the bran god ! Vv'hat a sublime god ! What a ghostly 
 elevation of sentiment ! Your god eaten u\) by men, and dogs, and worms, and mice 
 What! Can he not take care of himself, then ! How can he take care of you? If 
 he cannot save himself from the devouring throats of beasts and reptiles, how can 
 he ever save you from death ! 
 
 Had this unparalleled doctrine of Rome been obtruded on the faith of the most de- 
 graded of the pagans, how would they have blushed for human nature, disgraced and 
 insulted by beings, — men shall I call them ? who invented and imposed on you, 
 fellow citizens, for the sake of gain, this monstrous fiction of trans ubstantiati on ! 
 
 I ain, fellow citizens, yours re3i)eclfullv, 
 
 W. C^ B. 
 
 P. S. I have the pleasure of announcing the conversion of another R. C. priest. 
 Lately, the Rev. John Burk leftthe Romish church, and joined the Episcopal church 
 in Virginia. The Rev. Mr. Peixota, lately left the church of Rome, and joined the 
 Lutheran church in Pennsylvania. And, now, the Rev. S. B. Smith, many years a 
 priest, has united himself with the Presbyterian church, in Philadelphia. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
242 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 TO THE 3IEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condemned by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers. 
 
 The very origin of the word Mass establishes the identity of popery and infidelity: It* ? 
 MissA est: Go; our unbloody sacrifice now offered, is sext to heaven and accepted ! 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — Having paid our respects to transubstantiation, I go on to it« 
 cognate doctrine, and observe in ihe next place, — 
 
 Tenth : that the Mass is condemned by reason, scripture, and the Fathers. A» 
 many of my readers have never seen " the ludicrous flay of a grand mass, in pontijif 
 calibus,'' I intend soon to devote a letter to a graphic painting of it. My present aim 
 is to utter its condemnation from these three testimonies, from which hes no appeal. 
 
 First, Reason condemns it. The Mass, in Roman style, is the offering up, in sacri- 
 fice, the wafer, converted b}'^ transubstantiation, into the real flesh, and soul, blood, 
 and divinity, of Christ. This, the priests with an ill affected gravity, contrive to make 
 you believe, is a real sacrifice for the quick and the dead! This same "body and 
 divinity" are offered up; yes! " the divinity" is offered up in sacrifice ! The divine 
 nature of our Lord was the altar which made his true and only sacrifice of the human 
 nature to be of infinite value. But the Roman priests take " the divinity and soul as 
 'well as body of Christ," in his hands, and offers all of them in a sacrifice ! 
 This, reason revolts at : — this, reason pronounces a horrible blasphemy ! Moreover, 
 all men, possessed of the least grains of common sense, are fully convinced that a ma- 
 terial body cannot be in millions of places, at once. " Tolle spatia, &c., take away 
 from bodies," says Augustine in Epist. 57, — "their existing in one place, at one time, 
 and they no where exist." But the Mass assumes this principle without proof, tliat 
 the one human body of Christ is in heaven, and in all parts of the earth, at once ; — 
 that it is in glory, and yet it is daily and totally eaten up, and devoured by a million 
 of Romish mouths, every day ! And the next moment it is as ready to be eaten up 
 again, as ever ! It is at once visible, and invisible ! Divisible, and indivisible ! It 
 is all here in the priest's box, and it is not here, but elsewhere ! It is one whole, and 
 yet in a million of bits, in a million of different mouths ! It is contained in heaven, 
 and yet not there contained ! It existed formerly, and yet it is daily made, by the 
 priests muttering of the words, — " hoc est corpus.'* It is one, and a whole human 
 body, in small bits in a million of different stomachs, and 3'^et it is altogether external 
 of all these same stomachs ! It is to be made daily, and yet never to be made ! In 
 a word, our Lord, according to the doctrine of the Mass, while sitting at the first 
 table, was at the same moment, in the mouth, and the stomach of each of the apostles. 
 While sitting, he took his own perfect body, head, and all, into his own hands : and 
 while sitting, he broke himself into pieces, and with his hand, still sitting, after bs 
 was broken, he gave himself to each of his people; and was eaten by them all, whil* 
 he was yet sitting, and talking to them. And after being eaten up by eleven men, 
 he walked out, and made the intercessory prayer, while he was the same mo- 
 ttiwat, — in the stomachs of eleven different men ! And finall}^ after being eaten and 
 digested by these eleven different men, he was crucified, he rose, and ascended to 
 hea?€ri! 
 
ROATAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 243 
 
 All these unparalleled absurdities the Roman priest teaches his victims : and actu- 
 ally coiPmands them to believe them, — "on pain of damnation!" 
 
 Second: The holy scriptures condemn the Mass. It is a fundamental doctrine of 
 liome, that the mass is a real, propitiatory sacrifice, offered up to appease the wrath of 
 God, for the dead, and the living. The priests hrst create our blessed Lord out of a 
 little wafer: and then otTer up this new made bran god as a real sacrifice, to appease 
 the wrath of God! And they worship with solemn adoration and incense, this god 
 in the wafer. 
 
 The scriptures pass a sentence of double condemnation on the mass. First : as a 
 horrible > lolalry, at which every pious man shudders. The priests and their victims 
 worship a newly made wafer god ! Now, the Bible says, "Thou shalt worship the Lord 
 thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The worship of the host, and the mass, 
 is not a whit more justifiable than the idolatry of the Jews, or the Pagans. The 
 mass, is as degrading, as impious, as God-despising, as God-provoking, as the mon- 
 strous idolatry of the Jews in worshipping f^e golden calf! And in point of atrocity, 
 it comes the nearest of any sinful devices, to that of human sacrifices ! For if we 
 ma}^ believe the priests, they use real human flesh, and real human blood in the 
 mass ! 
 
 I beg you and your priests to hear how this abomination of the mass is condemned 
 by^ first, the Old Testament. You know that our blessed Lord, after the flesh, was a 
 Jew, and so were his disciples. And he came to fulfil the law, and not to break it. 
 This you admit. Now. then, you teach that our Lord converted the bread into his 
 mm flesh, really, and without deception ; and the wine of the cup into his oivn real 
 blood, — that is into human flesh, and human blood, without any imposition. And hav- 
 ing done this, he made his disciples, who were all Jews, — eat this human flesh, and 
 drink this human blood! Here your priests represent our Lord, as an impostor, de- 
 liberately breaking the law of Moses, which prohibited the use of the blood of 
 beasts,— infinitely more that of a human being. May I direct your attention to Le\dt. 
 xvii. iO, "Whatsoever man there be among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I 
 will even eet my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him oft^ from 
 among the people." And, moreover, your priests represent our Lord as having broken 
 a noted law of Moses recorded in Numbers xix. 11, whi<:h prohibited a Jew from even 
 touching a dead body of a man; if he did, "he was unclean seven days." But, 
 ■with these laws of Moses before their eyes, your priests do in the mass, — Oh I most 
 horrible, represent our Lord and his disciples not merely " touching a dead body," but 
 absolutely eating living human flesh ! Yes ! to crown the climax of Satanic impiety in 
 the mass, your priests make the Lord, and his disciples, and all the " simple faithful," 
 to be absolutely guilty of cannibalism ! In the name of ail that is sacred,— how long 
 will you, fellow citizens, permit these impostors to make cannibals, and idolaters 
 of you ! 
 
 Second : Let your priests hear how the mass is condemned by the New Testament. 
 In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle contrasts the daily, and ever repeated sa- 
 crifices of the Jewish ciuirch, with the one sacrifice of our blessed Lord, once ofiered 
 for us; and thence shows the imperfection of the former; and the infinite perfection 
 of the latter. The v.ho'e weight of the argument of ins])iration, rests on the divine 
 fact of the perfection of the one, and never to be renewed sacrifice of Christ. Take this 
 away, as your Roman priests do, and you destroy the whole force, and beauty of the 
 opQStle's divine argument. "This man," says the apostle, "after he h^d oflT^red o?t£ 
 
244 ROMAN CATHOLIC i ONTROVERST. 
 
 sacrifice for sin, forever sat down on the right hand of God." "By one sacrifice he 
 hath perfected, forever, them that are sanctified." Heb. x. 12. 14. And Si. Peter 
 says, " Christ hath sutfered once for sin." 1 Ep. iii. 18. 
 
 But in a heaven daring manner, in the very face of all these divine testimonies 
 borne to the truth of the o?ze, perfect, and never to he repeated sacrifice of Christ, your 
 priests pretend to offer up Christ, daily, in his "real body, soul, and divinity," a 
 sacrifice for the sins of the quick and the dead. Now, we ask them, was our Lord's 
 sacrifice perfected, at his death ; or was it left iviperfectl If imperfect, it was worse 
 than none ; it was a mockery of an unclean, and spotted thing, offered to God ! You 
 will not, — you dare not openly avow this blasphemy, which would make even Satan 
 blush! If it was perfect, — then it is utterly impossible, nay, even blasphemous to 
 suppose that you can renew it, and repeat it, and make it acceptable to God for the 
 quick and the dead ! 
 
 Again; supposing for a moment, that your priest's mass is "a propitiatory sacri- 
 fice," it must be, either the same as our Lord's atonement : or, it must be a continua* 
 tion of what he began on the cross; or, it must be a renewal, and reueration of it. 
 It cannot possibly be the same as Christ's; any more than xhe first Lord's Supper, is 
 that of our day. If it be the continuation of what Christ began ; — then our Lord must 
 have left his work incomplete, imperfect, and, therefore, utterly useless ! If it be a 
 reiteration, and renewal of what our Lord did on the cross, — then your priests are 
 placing the perfectly finished imrk of Christ, on the same footing as the imperfect, and 
 ever renewed sacrifices of beasts, in the ceremonies of the Mosaic law : and, thence, 
 it can be no more availing in its efficacy than the blood of bulk ! This they will not 
 dare openly to avow. The Bible declares, Rom. vi. 9. 10.. that " Christ being 
 raised from the dead, dieth no more.'" " He died unto sin once.'' '-'By one offering 
 he hath perfected, for ever, them that are sanctified.'" ''After Christ had offered one 
 sacrifice for sin, he forever sat down on the right hand of God.'' Heb. x. 12. 14. 
 
 This, your priests seek to evade by an extraordinary distinction. It is this : — 
 There is one bloody sacrifice, not to be repeated: but we offer up "the unbloody 
 sacrifice of the mass." Here, in your painful and disgraceful ignorance of God's 
 holy Word, you contradict divine revelation; and deny what God has declared. 
 Thpre can be no propitiatory sacrifice without blood : — there may be sacrifices of 
 prayer and praise ; but there can be no propitiation without blood. " TIa^ unbloody 
 sacrifice of the mass" is an impious and diabolical invention. God has declared it, 
 and all the puny rebels of Rome cannot gainsay it. Hear his own awful and eternal 
 ■vtords: — "■ It is the blood that maJceth an atonement for the soid." Lev. xvii. 11. 
 ''Without shedding of blood there is no remission." Heb. ix. 22. " An unbloody 
 sacrifice," such as that of the mass, we, therefore, pronounce, to be the wickedest of 
 all the inventions to which the devil, and the pope of Rome have ever yet given cur- 
 rency ! 
 
 I^hird: — The Mass is condemned by the christian Fathers. These writers knew 
 neither the name, nor the thing, — ofmass. They called the holy Supper of our Lord, 
 "the gift," " theeucharist ;" and more generally, as St. Jerome does, "the mystery." 
 And, with them, this was synonymous with a symbol, by which solemn and invisible 
 things were represented by outward, and visible elements. See St. Jerome ; Evagr. ; 
 Tom. iv. Again: St. Jerome calls it "the table of the Lord," and speaks of "the 
 bread," and the "cup of the table of the Lord." Here he confirms tv/o points: 1st. 
 That the cup was given to all; as well as the holy bread. 2d. That the holy Supper 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 245 
 
 oTour Lord, was, in the belief of these Fathers, a feast upon a sacrifice ; and not "a 
 sacrijice ; not an altar.''' See St. Jerome, Lib. 7, De Ordin. 
 
 lu like manner, Damasus, Epist. 4, calls it, " the table of the Lord ;" not " an 
 altar," not "a sacrifice." This was Paul's designation of it; and our Lord was not 
 sacrificed at, or on "a table ;" but on the cross. 
 
 St. Augustine calls it "the Eucharist^" — the thank oftering. C. 88. And Willet's 
 Synops. p. 579. And that eminent Father, in Libr. Ad Fratres in Erem. when speak- 
 ing of the prodigal son's return, and the fatted calf being killed, says, — "He slew 
 tlie fatted calf, when He renewed in the sacrament of the altar, the memory of his 
 passion, in his mind, — memoriam passio7iis, &c." Thus Augustine makes the 
 Eucharist a sacrament, — not a sacrijice of the altar ; a commemoration of his passion 
 and death. I shall offer one memorable sentence more, from this father, against your 
 priests. "Hujus sacrificii caro et sanguis, ante adventum, ^c. The flesh and blood 
 of this sacrifice of our Lord, before his coming, was exhibited in the type of the sacri- 
 ficial victims: during his actual suffering, it was presented indeed, and in truth; but 
 after his ascension, it is celebrated through the sacrament of his commemoration.'" Aug. 
 cap 20. Lib. Contra. F. Manichaeum, Turet. vol. iii. p. 601. So decisive is this emi' 
 nent Father against the modern fiction of the mass. 
 
 St. Bernard thus writes, — "Sicut Christus, &c. As Christ is daily offered up, 
 while we do show forth his death ; so he seemeth to be born, when we- faithfully 
 represent his nativity." Bern, in Vigil. Natal. Sem. 6. Can any thing be more 
 decisive against the sacrifice of the mass ? If Christ be often sacrificed, as the priests 
 say, — "then," says St. Bernard, "is he often born T^ In the Lord's Supper, there^ 
 fore, St. Bernard advocates a holy sacra:ncntal remembrance of him ; and by no mean» 
 a sacrifice of him. 
 
 The Decretals are positively against your mass- Thus, in Decret. p. 2. Caus. 
 1. Qu. 1. cap. 72, Gregory calls it "Me communion ;" he never dreamed of it being 
 called a sacrifice. Again, in cap. 63, it is called, — " Sacramenfum pietatiSy'' the sacra- 
 ment of piety, — not a sacrifice. In cap. 12. Gelasius, it is called "the mystery." 
 In cap. 5, it is named, " the sacrament of the body and the blood of the Lord." 
 These were the names, and the sacred meanings and use of the Lord's Supper, 
 before the revolting modern fiction of the mass. I beg leave to give another extract 
 from the Decretals, — " Quod factum, &c." That which was once done is done in our 
 memory, every year.''"' Deer. Par. 3, Dist. 2, cap. 51. And in cap.. 53, we find thew 
 words : — " Quod nos, &c., that which we do, is done in the remembrance of him.'" 
 
 Pope Gregory says: — " Sine intermitisione, &:c. Without ceasing, our Redeemer 
 immolates a sacrifice for us, in demonstrating, or shoicing forth to his father, his incar- 
 nation, &c. See Greg. Moral. Lib. i. cap. 10. This pope had not conceived, as yet, 
 any thiug even like the figment of the modern mass! 
 
 St. Chrysostom thus opposes the ma&s: — "Tovro yap &c." "For, do this, h« 
 gays, in remembrance of me. We do not perform a different sacrifice, as the high 
 priest did then ; but always the same : or, rather wo make a memorial of the sacri- 
 fice.'" In Epist. ad llebr. cap. 10. 
 
 Justin Martyr, in A. D. 150, thu3 wrote: — " Ort fiw, &c. I also affirm that the 
 prayers, and praises of the saiats aro the only perfect sacrifices acceptable to God. 
 For these only have the Christians undertaken to perform ; and by the communication, 
 ofthz wet food, and the dry, in which ice call to remembrance the sufferings, in which 
 the God of godi suffered &c." Dial. Cum Tryph. Judaco, p. 345. Paris Edit. 15I5-. 
 
 23^ 
 
24G ROMAN CATHOLIC CO^TROTIlRST. 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus in like manner, thus wrote : — " Ert yow, &c. Oor earthly 
 altar is the assembly of such as join together in prayers ; having, as it were, a com- 
 mon voice and mind. For the sacrifice of the church is the word ascending as 
 incense from holy souls; their sacrifices, and their whole minds being open to God." 
 Stromatura. lib. 7, p. 717, Paris Edit. 1641. These were the only sacrijices then 
 known, in the primitive, pure, and apostolical church. 
 
 Tertullian, in one of his books, shows us how utterly ignorant he was of the 
 mass, both as to name and thing. "IVamcjue quod non terrenis sacrificiis, &c. For 
 we must not think of appeasing God with earthly sacrifices, but we must offer to him 
 spiritual sacrifices.'^ " Thus, therefore, spiritual sacrijices are meant; and a contrite 
 heart is shown to be an acceptable sacrifice to God." See his book Advers. Judaeos. 
 cap. 5. p. 188: Paris Edit. 167.5. 
 
 Lactamtius, in like manner, had no conception of the modern Mass ; or of any 
 ghostly sacrifice of wafer, and wine, and water! See his Book De Vero Cultu. Lib. 
 6. Tom. i. p. 509: Paris Edit. 1748, — "Duo sant &c. There are two things which 
 iihould be offered to God; a gift, and a sacrifice; a gift should be for ever, a sacrifice 
 for a time, — in tempus.''' And having shown that no gifts nor sacrifices can now be 
 given to God to propitiate him, since Christ has died, he adds in explaining the nature 
 oiuur gifts and sacrifices as christians, — " Therefore to God is to be offered, — incor- 
 forale, the incorporeal offering, which he makes use of. The gift is integrity of 
 mind : the sacrifice is praise and a hymn." 
 
 I have thus far been insensibly led on, in the examination of the mass ; and in con- 
 trasting primitive purity of doctrine, with this revolting figment of Ronnsh priestcraft. 
 I shall close this Letter with a few miscellaneous remarks on the mass. 
 
 Although the Mass is sustained by neither reason, nor scripture, nor the early 
 Fathers, — it is yet mightily sustained. It is sustained by the whole posse of priests 
 from the pope, down to Vicar Power, and Padre Levins. And in spite of rhyme and 
 reason, they will cling to it, until the whole system tumble in ruins. It is the grand 
 specific to convert every thing into money. "Whither tendeth the doctrine concerning 
 the mass being a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead," — says Dr. Barrow, vf)l. vi. p. 
 233,, — " but to engage men to leave, in their wills, good sums to offer on their behalf !" 
 " By this, the priest makes an irresistible appeal to the dying wretch, of every class, 
 everwhelmed with all the vices and attrocious pollutions, in which popery steeps its 
 abused victims; and in which it entertains them in the deepest sleep of moral death, 
 mitil its convenient hour comes, — that is to say. the fittest moment for making the 
 most lucrative speculation on (he soul of the dying wretch! For it is then, under 
 the exquisite tortures of conscience, and the merciless goadings of priestcraft, that he 
 will eagerly purchase deliverance from the pope's hobgoblin flames, — on any terms, 
 and for any sum of money, and for any lands, — especially when he knows, he can 
 carry none of them with him! 
 
 It is a curious fact, and it ought to be more generally known, that the old Mortmain 
 law of England, and which stands unrepealed in the statute book of our state to this 
 uav, was imperatively called forth by sacerdotcil rapacity, and the incredible success 
 of the priests in selling their purgatorial flames! By ^his lucrative speculation, they 
 were laying field to field, and domain to domain ! Had it not been for the interven- 
 tion of this law, prohibiting such bodies from receiving such bequests, the priests 
 wx.uld, probably, soon have possessed the landed property of all England ! They 
 
EOMAX CATHOLIC CONTROVEttST. 247 
 
 would soon have made the rich exchange of the dark flaming waves of purgatory, for 
 the beautiful domains of England ! 
 
 The priests have invented masses admirably adapted to suit every body, and all 
 times. There are the occasional masses, and the ordinary masses; there are high 
 masses, sung by the choristers, with the aid of the deacon, &c. ; and there are the low 
 masses, in which the prayers are merely rehearsed. The masses for the dead, de- 
 signed to relieve, and finally, to bring out souls from purgatory, are the most conveni- 
 ent, and protitable, because they are the best paid ! For who would not give all he 
 has, and even leave his wife and children to beg, — if he can only bribe — what is no 
 easy matter, — a luxurious, indolent, and avaricious priest, to set his poor soul out of 
 purgatorial flames I The splendor, value, and efficacy of masses, are purely in pro- 
 portion to the amount of the cash paid. The most magnificent and earnest mass, being 
 the best paid, is when the Chapelle ardente is erected. Thatis, when a representation 
 wl" the deceased, the new inhabitant of purgatory, is set up, amid the blaze of wax 
 candles. Then, when the gold and silver are heard to tinkle in thecoflur; a solemn 
 absolution is pronounced, forthwith, on the poor wretch in the flames. And, forth- 
 with, at the simple nod of the priest, as he pockets the money, all the demons, and the 
 devil himself, — so the priest says — quit their hold ; and the pure soul of the lately 
 oppressed wretch, is in a moment winging its flight to heaven, to the bosom of Abra- 
 ham! How amazing is the power of gold in Rome ! 
 
 But, so far as we can penetrate the priestly secrets, our "dealers in human souls," 
 and the traders in Purgatory flames, have the candor to admit, that this class of Ro- 
 mxin redeemed souls, are not admitted exactly into the same place where those, who 
 are saved b}^ grace alone, sing the praise of redeeming love. For those persons cannot 
 possibly join, with any kind of good grace, in the same heavenly song. They can 
 »ing only, in truth, of what saved them. They cannot sing of that in which they had 
 no interest, and from which they had no benefit. They can, with no kind of truth, or 
 honesty, sing of any thing else than the singular praises of priests, silver, and purga- 
 tory! And in no other possible form can the chorus be framed, than in this, — " f Wor- 
 thy are the priests, and the silver, and purgatory, to receive our most cordial praises, a7id 
 hearty commemorations forever ! 
 
 1 have only to add, that, to accommodate all persons who have the means, and a 
 taste for this ghostly merchandize, with the priests, there are masses to be sold and 
 »aid for cattle, for strayed beasts, for stolen goods, and for travelers, going a journey, 
 that they may have '^priestly good luck.'' These are styled votive ?nasses. Verily, 
 as the pi jet sang, — 
 
 *• Bill laymen mo?! renowned for devilish deeds, 
 Lriborcd at diataucc still beliind tlio priest!" 
 
 PuUok. 
 
 I am fellow citizens, yours, &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
RDMAli CATHOLIC CONTEOVEBSY. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 TO THE MKMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Popery condemned hy Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers. 
 
 *' One is led to ima'^ine that the Pope is no other than the incarnation of the ancient idol 
 Xmninon, and that the^'priests are his tax gatherers."— McGai^iw. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — I have at length, arrived with you, at Purgatory; and if 
 you have no fears of entering into the priestly fabric, I propose a thorough investiga- 
 tion of it. It is the temple of Mammon incarnate ; wherein his Holiness, the genius 
 of the place, and the worshipped idol, has erected, before all the world, his "trajffic in 
 human souls;" — and where he deals in purgatorial flames, and "souls of men;" sur- 
 Toainded by his money changers, and his " tax gatherers, the priests." 
 
 That some, although few of even your priests, have believed in purgatory, I am 
 rather disposed to admit. For I find a few instances of even your priests, in Ireland, 
 actually bequeathing all the little money they had, — (one really left £500 sterl.)— 
 foi masses for their souls — it seems to be the only evidence, that such men can give, 
 of the sincerity of their faith in it. But as it respects the great mass, nearly all tha 
 body of the priesthood, from the pope, down to the humblest priest, there are few in 
 America, and almost none in Europe, who ever supposed, for a moment, that yo"ur 
 priests believe in their own purgatory. For my part, I cannot think so meanly of 
 their intellects, as even to insinuate that they do believe in any such thing. It is a 
 difficult matter enough, to many of them, to believe in even a heaven, or a hell, — 
 not to mention a purgatory! Your priests can tell you the names of many a pope, 
 ■w:ho made heaven and hell, and ajudgment seat, the subject of their merriment ; and 
 of another, namely, pope Leo X., who used to call Christianity "a pretty and profit- 
 atble fable, withal !" And an author of no mean note, quotes from some of your old 
 ■writers, the following instructive anecdote of an eminent cardinal of Rome. One 
 dgj his eminence, disposed to be talkative, began to " pose" his chaplain, and try the 
 extent of his profound theology. "How many masses, I pray you," said he gravely — 
 "will it take to pray a soul out of purgatory?" The chaplain was struck dumb at 
 the weighty question. After a painful silence, during which he had rummaged evety 
 corner of his brain, and exhausted his knowledge of the Fathers, he frankly told tb« 
 trnj}!^ — a thing not usual in Rome, — that he could not tell his eminence: that it was 
 prodigiously beyond his depth." 
 
 "Well, 1 will tell thee!" said his eminence, with a condescending air, — while the 
 godly chaplain was all eye, and ear, to receive the awfully important discovery ; " It 
 will take as many masses to relieve a soul out of purgatory, as it will take snow balls to 
 heat our oven I'''' See the Preservative against popery p. 113. 114. Glasgow Prot. 
 chap. 76. 
 
 In tracing the history of purgatory, like the other prominent and peculiar oere- 
 raooies of your priest's church, we find it imported from the pagans. We disco- 
 ver it many hundred years before the birth of Christ. Nay, on the pages of Homer, 
 Plato, and Virgil, we discover the heathen fiction. I refer to the Odyssy, Lib. 12, 
 and Virgil, ^neid Lib. G; where, in the former, the ghosts of Elpenor utter their sor- 
 rows ; and in the latter, Palinurus utters his ; and where the ceremonies, used to relieve 
 
ROMAN CATBOLIC CO.^TRO VERST. 249 
 
 them, as described by these great poets, are remarkably similar to those of the Roman 
 catholics, used to relieve the Roman ghosts in the improved model of purgatory. 
 
 This pagan ticlioa of purgatory, was unknown to the true christian church in the 
 frstjivt centuries. The man is no scholar, nor at all read in genuine history, who 
 will risk his reputation in affirming the contrary. I admit that a few individuals, 
 philosiphr^rs, and monks held this from early ages; and that these men were nomirml 
 christians. For, it is a painful fact that when Christianity mounted the throne of the 
 Cffisars, in the person of Constantine the Great, paganism became unfashionable, and 
 unprofitable ; and Christianity became of course, profitable to men of rank, and to 
 philosophers. And these " great" men when they came into the churcli, did not ** put 
 od' the old man" — they did not strip off paganism, and its pagan tenets. They put 
 on the mask of the hypocrite, over the pagan man ! A thing, by the way, done by 
 millions in Europe, and perpetuated to this day. Hence with paganism, the rites of 
 this system, and its doctrines found their way into the early christian church. But, 
 as a systematic tenet, purgatory was not tolerated in the Roman catholic church, until 
 the days of pope Gregory, the great, or, the end of the sixth century. 
 
 It is true, Origen, Jerome, and Augustine have left some wild speculations on it; 
 which indicate that they had been occasionally staggered by the extravagrnt specula- 
 tions of the baptized pagan philosophers, who had crept into the church, but we shall 
 examine the Fathers presently. 
 
 I showed in a former letter, that the leading rites of "Holy Mother" were founded 
 in fanaticism, and by the visions of fanatic "saints." This was emphatically the 
 case with purgatory. As soon as pope Gregory was known to favor this wild, pagan 
 fiction, every monk's cell began to team with visions, apparitions, and miraculous 
 disclosures, — all designed to give a divine sanction to the purgatory of the heathen; 
 and to baptize it, as a christian reaUty. "The flames of ^tna and Vesuvius," says 
 Archbishop Wake in his "Discourse on Purgatory;" "were thought to be kindled 
 on purpose to torment souls. Some were seen, in vision, broiling on gridirons ; others 
 roasting on spits; some burning before a fire; others shivering in water; and not a 
 few smoking in a chimney." Nay, says he, the way to purgatory was found out; it 
 was situated ip the centre of the earth ; and one way to it, lay through Sicilj", another, 
 in Pozzoeto ; and another was found out in favored Ireland ; namely the mouth of St. 
 Patrick's cave ! 
 
 During the seventh and eighth centuries, there were mighty disputations about its 
 locahty, and the species of its torments. The disputants, wholly taken up about the 
 circumstances, gradually wrought themselves into the belief of the main fiction. \ et 
 even in the uosom of Rome, many opposed the ridiculous folly. In 1146, Otto Fri- 
 singcnsis, in Chron. lib. 8. cap. 26, thus writes,— "That theie is in hell, a place of 
 j)urgatory, wherein such as are to be saved, are either troubled with darkness, or 
 decocted with the fire of expiation, some do affirm.'' See Morn. Exer. p. 252. This 
 conveys the fact that all did not then believe this popish fiction. '"And even pope 
 Adrian," says Mr. Gavin, "confessed that there was no mention of it in the scripture, 
 or in the writings of the Fathers." See Master Key, vol. i. p. 166, c^c. And an anr 
 eient Latin writer gravely tells us that the Jesuit Cottonm was so puzzled for a text of 
 scripture to confirm it infallibly — but which he never could discover, " ut ab ipso de- 
 mone, &c. that he did not blush to implore from the devil, a passage of scripture most 
 apt to establish it." But he got no answer ! For even the devil himself, it seems, 
 could find no proof of it from holy writ I 
 
l50 RT3MAN CATrtoLlC COW^ROVfiRfff. ' 
 
 BuMike every Other enormity of Rome, designed to advance the power of priestctafl, 
 and pour in immeasurable revenues into the pope's treasures, and the priests' purse*, 
 it was stistained by all the weight of the priesthood : and was, finally, established by 
 the council of Florence in the year 1430. And therefore, it. is, properly speaking, 
 only 403 years old ! And lest your priests should venture to call this the invention 
 of heretics, I rhall here, give a quotation oUt of their famous writer, Johannes Roffen, 
 quoted in Polyd. Virg. De Invent. Rerum. Lib. 8. cap. 1. "Nemo certe, &c. No one 
 true believer now doubts fif purgatory, whereof, notwithstanding among the anciente. 
 there is very litih, or no mention at all. The Greeks, to this day, do not believe a 
 ]p«urgatory. Vet who will, read the Commetitaries of the ancient Greeks. And the La- 
 tins did not all of them together, receive the truth of this matter, but by little and 
 little. Neither, indeed, was the faith either of purgatory or pardons, so needful in the 
 jmmitive church, asnoiv it ?s." See Poly. Virg. De Invent. Rerum, Lib. 8. cap. 1. — 
 And Morn. Ex. p. 25L 
 
 This is from two of the most candid Romish writers that ever wrote. For, besides 
 admitting thai purgatory and pardons are modern inventions, and recent innovations; 
 they frankly atoign the true reason of the invention. In primitive times, the holy, 
 and good men did not live the luxurious, and proud lives of Roman tyrants, and ghostly 
 despots, wallowing in pride, crimes, and luxuries, beyond bounds ! Now, the court 
 of Rome " needs" the revenues of purgatory, to sustain their pomp, and the infamouip 
 course of their lives ! 
 
 In the progress of time, the monks, and friars have greatly improved upon thi« 
 lucrative fiction. Mr. Gaven in his Master Key of Pojjery, vol. i. p. 166, &c. has 
 given us much light on this matter. And he was well able to do it. He had been long 
 a Spanish priest, and had been deeply instructed in the system of this ghostly bank- 
 ing business : and he knew the whole craft of adapting purgatory, and its " apart- 
 ments," to the greatest advantage. He was converted from popery to Christianity, in 
 1715. 
 
 The priests and friars, says he, have distributed the dungeons of purgatory into 
 eight apartments ; corresponding to the eight classes, into which they have divided 
 society. And this division is shrewdly made to increase their gain ; which is always 
 the onl3'-, and all absorbing object of these holy despots! There is an apartment for 
 each according to their wealth and rank. For, assuredly a king, or a gentlemen would 
 rather endure a more rigid, and hot fire of purgatory, and pay higher to get out of it, 
 than to be crammed in, among coblers, and beggars, even in a less hot atmosphere ! ! 
 Hence, says Mr. Gaven, they place the poor people in the first apartment, where the 
 fury of the fire is the least. In the second, they put gentlemen, gentlewomen, and 
 tradesmen's wives! In the third, which is hotter than either of these, they dispose of 
 the ladies of quality ! In the fourth, — hotter still, — are placed merchants, and trades- 
 men. In the ffth, which is very hot, indeed, they put noblemen. In the sixth, 
 which is amazingly hot, they arrange the grandees, to be properly scorched. The 
 seventh, which is terribly fierce in its flames, contains princes. And the eighth, the 
 superlative degree, the deepest, darkest, and hottest of all, contains kings! Each of 
 these has a tariff of prices nicely, and accurately adjusted by the ghostly financiers. 
 And, what displays a shrewd policy in this novel trafic, there is power lodged with 
 the disinterested, and holy priests, to change, at any time, the lodgings of these people. 
 That is to say, should a poor man, or a tradesman get rich, — he can buy the priest's 
 iflterest, for a suitable sum, to transfer his poor dead ancestor into a more genteel ajiari^ 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTnoVERST* 251 
 
 ment, in purgator\' ! He can buy the priest's influence with " the court of heavenf" 
 to transfer the soul, for instance, into that of " the gentlemen." And should he grow 
 very rich, and rise in rank, he can buy the priest's prayers, to transfer him even into 
 the apartment of " noblemen !" It is true, the elevation will make the poor soul feel 
 hotter flames : but men must pay not only money to the priest, but also bear pains, to 
 be fashionable, and to be in genteel and noble com^pany in purgatory ! 
 
 This is quite an important branch of the ghostly trade in those lands, where all 
 ranks arc completely priest-ridden ; as in Spain, Italy, and Austria. Mr. Gaven 
 gives us instances to illustrate this. *' A cobler's wife, ignorant and pre ud. discovered 
 that her father was among the beggars in purgatory. She implored the aid of a friar, 
 of the Franciscan order to elevate him. "How many masses can you spare for it?'''' 
 said the priest. She said ftfo. It was too little. " He is among the beggars, — even 
 the lowest." The lady wept; and promised him more money, as soon as she got it. 
 And the quantum being duly fixed, and paid, the "holy" priest graciously transfei- 
 red him to the fourth apartment. The poor soul, no doubt, was unspeakably mors 
 tormented ! But then, his daughter after this, boasted that she was the daughter of a 
 rich merchant! See Gaven vol. i. p. 166, &c., Glasg. Prot. vol. i. chap. 77. 
 
 Could I find room, I might give my reader anecdotes to illustraiG the good accoltm 
 to which the priests convert their purgatory. In Ireland they have Penny a Week 
 Societies, called Purgatorial Societies. And those who pay into this "charity" a 
 penny a week, are entitled when they die, to so many masses. And thas, b}' paying 
 before hand, and their kind friends paying for them after they are dead, they get the 
 better chance of being, probably, sooner out ! At any rate, as the priest gels all th« 
 I^roceeds of "this charity," he receives by this ingenious scheme, double pay! See a 
 ccgiy of "the Constitution of a Purgatorian Society," in Glasg. Prot. vol. i. ch. 77. 
 
 The appropriate sale of these purgatorial fires, for cash payments, has brought iin- 
 m^se wealth to Holy iMoiher; and filled, to overflowing., the coffers of men, bouiwl 
 by the holiest oaths, to their vows of perpetual poverty ! 
 
 And they have been rigidly exact, and shrewd in the collection of these wages of 
 their perjury and damnation! They have grinded the faces of the poor! They hav« 
 taken from the poor widow her last mite, and the very garments, and ihe last moi- 
 «el from the weeping orphan! Their cunning has had no bowels of mercy! Yet, 
 occasionally their knavery has met its match : and they have sustained losses f/om 
 men more shrewd, though not more wicked than themselves. 
 
 A certain heir of a profligate father was long importuned by tJie disinterested priest 
 to pay tor masses to relieve "his poor broiling father!" Tired with his importimi- 
 tiefl, he bade him go on, and relieve him. An apartment in tbe castle, was arranged 
 for him ; and the son remained by the devout priest, to witness the masses, and watch 
 the holy process of deliverance. At each proper pause, and the close of a mass, down 
 went the gold. The priest went on: and the young lord still counted out the gui- 
 neas! Masses must be over by twelve. It was now eleven. " How comes he out?" 
 said the youth. "We have him nearly all out," — says the priest, as he melo- 
 diously chanted the mass; with a sublime devotion, quickened by the music of 
 the descending guineas! "Hold on," cries the youth, "we must have him out 
 before twelve !" A large heap of gold now lay on the table. " Is he not out yet ?" 
 eried his lordship. " Patience ; my good sir, your father was a tough old sinner," 
 gays the grave priest: "he has been pretty deep in the fires, audit needs many masses 
 to bring him up !" Down went more money : and another mass was chanted; and tbt 
 
^2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY 
 
 smoke of the incense ascended. At length the priest, suspecting that he could get no 
 more money, exclaimed, "He is out; he is fairiy on his legs!" " Glad am I of it," 
 says the youth ; " and now being on his legs, let him shift for himself; for he had a 
 pair of good heels, when he was in this world." And saying this, he sv/ejjt up all the 
 money ; and wishing the astonished and confounded priest a good morning, he left 
 him to jjlanhov/ to be more watchful in all future barterings of the kind ! 
 
 The anecdote of priest T/iomof Dublin, I have heard related by an Irish gentleman. 
 I have, since, seen it published in the Glasgow Protestant vol. i. ch. 75. And the 
 Editor of the Philanthropic Gazette, published it in Oct. 27, 1819; and assured the 
 public that he was responsible for the truth of it. A landlord in Dublin called on 
 one of his tenants for the rent. The poor woman apologized for not being able to pay 
 it; and informed him that she had appropriated it to ''a holy use.'' ''In short," say» 
 she, "the holy praste came along the other day, and says to me, 'have you heard 
 from your husband?' " "Says I — and how can I, when he is dead, — and sure he 
 is !" " Oh ! yes — but have you not heard the great news ? A mighty crowd were pass- 
 ing over the bridge of purgatory to heaven; and, och! and ill luck to it, — it fell down, 
 and a mrghty number fell on the wrong side — and your husband is one of them! 
 And nov/, I am come to get your share of the money to help to build up the bridge." 
 "iVnd sure am I," continued she, "I could do no less than give him all the money I 
 had, — for he assured me it would be an expensive job to rebuild it !" 
 
 I have the pleasure of saying that the gentleman had this impostor brought before 
 a magistrate, — who whined out, as he reluctantly restored the money to the poor 
 widow, — "that he only wanted the use of the money for a few days, and played this 
 trick to obtain it, — and that he was coming, at any rate, to restore it." 
 
 I shall only add here, that there are hundreds of respectable gentlemen in this city, 
 who have witnessed, at an Irish catholic funeral, what is called the auction for the 
 soul. After getting all he can, at the mass, the priest takes a plate and goes round, 
 in the house, and among the crowd, and out of doors assembled at the funeral, call- 
 ing out, " Who will give a leetle more to help the poor soul ? Will none of you have a 
 ketle more pity? Will not one of you give us more? Remember the soul of your 
 poor neighbor now in purgatory!" And thus he continues to dun, until his own, and 
 the people's patience is completely exhausted. And no wonder he is zealous in this 
 " charity" for " the poor soul ;" for, all this money goes into his purse, for his own use ! 
 
 In this happy country (which may God mercifully preserve from the withering 
 blight of priestcraft) we know nothing of the practical evils of this, and the other parts 
 of the popish s^'stem. Ask our enlightened travellers, in Europe, and in South Ameri- 
 ca; ask our highly intelligent Naval officers, who have been there. They will tell 
 you what they have seen and heard, a mere tithe of which I am not able to disclose, 
 I present the following specimen from which we may form some idea of the jugglery, 
 and practical absurdities, with which the fiction of purgatory has been inseparably 
 connected. It is copied from a paper stuck up in the churches of Madrid, in Spain, 
 three years ago. 
 
 "The sacred and royal bank of piety has relieved from purgatory, from its 
 establishment, 1721, to November 1825, 1,030,395 souls, at an expense of £1,720,437 
 11,402 do., from November 1826 to Nov. 1827. 15,276, 
 
 1,041,797 souls. Total expense : £1,725,713. 
 
RODMAN CATHOXIC CONTROVERSY. 253 
 
 '^•The number of masses calculated to accomplish this pious work, was 558,921 : 
 consequently each soul cost one mass and nine tenths, or thirty-four shillings and 
 fourpence." 
 
 Behold ! on the one hand, the economy of the Roman church! Souls brought to 
 heaven Deo nolente, autvolente, whether Cod will or not, at the rate of seven dollars, 
 and thirty-five cents, and a half, each! And on the other, behold! the amount of 
 mone\'- brought into the priest's hands, namely; seven miiliofis, three hundred and 
 thirty one thousand, four hundred and twenty two dollars, and forty cents ! And all thig 
 in Madrid alone, and for purgatory mei.^ly, and in a hundred aud five years! Who 
 can form an estimate of the whole amount ])lundered by these ghostly robbers, from 
 the people, through the Roman catholic church, ^y this and all ^he rest of the basest 
 and the most diabolical of false pretences ? If a culprit in our crimint^. courts, is 
 sent to the States' Prison for plundering his neighbor out of a few hundred dollars, 
 under pretences, and by forgeries far less atrocious than those — what do the Roman 
 priests not merit, at the judgment bar of the nations, for the countless sums they have 
 plundered out of the pockets of their insulted and wretched victims! 
 
 May I be permitted to beg your very candid attention to this sore and alarming 
 grievance, enacted daily before your eyes. 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XIX, 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 ■Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 
 
 " Pope Gregory the Saint, sa^v the soul of Pascasius boiling in the hot baths of St. An- 
 gelo !" " Bishop Tlieobald heard a naked, shiverinjr soul crying out of a lump of ire. ; and 
 prayed it out by melting its icy prison !" " St. Bernard i;;ever could decide whether the 
 pains of purg ilory were iw Jire.^ in ice, or sometliing else." Greg. Dial. IV. 40. — Hotiino-er, 
 VI. 1360.— Bern. 1719. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — I shall now go on to show the condemnation of purgatorv.'. 
 First, reason and scripture condemn it. Here, let me observe, that we do all admit 
 a purification of the soul, by afflictions, as it were, bj fire, under the grace of God. 
 ** Thou hast .'^ent a fire into our bones;" "we have gone through fire and water." 
 These are the instrumental causes ; but, as the meritorious and efficient cause, "the 
 blood of Christ purgeth us from all sins." Heb. ix. 14. 
 
 This is the only purgatory admitted of, by the. primitive church, and by ue. And 
 to this purpose we quote Origen on Levit. lib. 9. " Without doubt we shall feel tha 
 unquenchable fire, unless we shall now entreat the Lord to send down from heaven, 
 a purgatory of tire unto us, by which worldly desires may be utterly consumed in 
 our minds." 
 
 But the Roman purgatory is a part of hell, and is in the future world, and io entered 
 after death. Here all that entei , Jo finally reach heaven, after they iijve been purged 
 from their "venial sins," and " Lave satisfied the temporal punishment for their mor- 
 tal sins." From this they are relieved by solemn masses, and the suffrages, or voivs 
 of the church. See Canons of the Council of Trent Sess. 25. 
 
 •23 
 
254 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEBSY. 
 
 The texts of scripture pressed in for mere show, to sustain this impious, but lucra- 
 tive fiction, are these. Matt. xii. 32. "There is a sin that will not be forgiven in 
 this world, or the world to come." Now, say your profoundly learned logicians, 
 ♦'this implies that other sins may be forgiven in the world to come." This is a false 
 conclusion; he is speaking only of this sin and of no other; and it i^ utterly absurd 
 to draw from a particular premise, any such general conclusion. To settle the point, 
 let Matthew, in ver. 3J, and Mark iii. 29 explain their own expression, — "He hath 
 never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." And in the words, — "in 
 this world and the world to come," or more literally, in this age, and the age to come^'^ 
 our Lord seems to reprove thaidle traditions of the Jews, thatiu " the age to come,'''' or 
 the days of Messiah, "grace would be much more liberal; and reverse more rigid 
 decisions." No, says our Lord, this sin will not be forgiven in this Judaic state, nor 
 in the new dispensation of I^Iessiah. That is, in the words of Christ, recorded by 
 Mark, — " it will never be forgiven." But after all, what has this text to do with 
 the 'purgatory of your priests ? They must be conscious that what it speaks of, and 
 their purgatory, are two perfectly different things. Tiiis text speaks of ^'forgiveness 
 ofsin.''^ Now, purgatory has nothing to do with "forgiveness." It is no place of 
 " forgiveness." The priests themselves declare it to be a place oi^ suffering until th« 
 victims have, by these torments, given all the required satisfaction.' How improper 
 is it to appeal to such a text I 
 
 The next text pressed in by you is, Matt. v. 25. 26. " If thou be cast into prison ; 
 verily, thou shalt, by no means, come out thence, until thou hast paid the uttermost 
 farthing!" Here the "learned priests," find purgatory, not hell, in the prison; the 
 "pay" is human suffering : and "venial sins" are "the farthings!" But, they have 
 not yet proved that it is fur gator y, and not hell, that is here meant. And, again, they 
 leave this point unproved, that this infinite debt ever can be paid. But the finally 
 impenitent never can pay it. Therefore, they never can get out ? This is the expla- 
 nation given by all judicious expositors : and that by your own Jerome. Hear his 
 words: — "Semper non exiturum esse, &c. He will never come out, because he 
 will always he paying the last farthing ; ivhilt he pays the eternal puiiishment of his 
 tarthly sms." Tom. v. p. 684, in Lament. Lib. 1. cap. 1. Paris Edit. 1602. 
 
 There is another text, on which they lay the greatest stress; 1 Cor. iii. 13. — 15. 
 "The fire shall try every man's Avork," — "if any man's work shall be burned, he 
 shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." There is no allu- 
 sion here, to any future, middle state. The apostle speaks of different preachers 
 building on the foundation laid ; his doctrine is his " works" here spoken of. Now, it 
 can have no reference to purgatory: for, there, you say, men are tormented in their 
 souls ; but this text says, " the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." 
 Again, this fire tries the work of every man: as well those who build gold, as those 
 who build stubble. But, b}' your own confession, every man does not go to purgatory : 
 the pure enter heaven, and the atrocious men dying "in mortal sins," go to hell. 
 Finally, it is not affirmed here thnt "ct manis saved by fire,''"' but " he is saved as by 
 //•€." Hence it has no reference whatever to the purgatorial flames; but to that 
 purification, which is effected by trials operating on his soul, as it were by fire. 
 
 But their Herculean club by which their unique Romish logic levels all opposition^ 
 
 i- taken from 2 Maccab. xii. 43. &c. "He sent the 2,000 drachms to Jerusalem, to be 
 
 laid out in sacrifices for the dead. It is a pious and wholesome thought to pray for the 
 
 ■ dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." This is the form in which Bellarmirie 
 
RCMAN CATHOLIC CO.NTROVERST. 255 
 
 quotes It. But he is guilty of perverting the Greek of the original writer. It runs 
 thus — " He sent 200, not 2,000 drachms, to Jerusalem, to buy sacrifices," "pio peca- 
 to," for sin, —or a sin offering. The words, — " pro morluis," "for the dead," is a sheer 
 forgery of that writer ! Maccabees, it seems, sent money for the purchase of victims 
 for a sin offering. But in rct'erence to the writer's recommendation "of praying for 
 the dead, <&lc." it is of no mere weight than a sentence from Voltaire, or Pope Hilde- 
 brand ! The book was not written by inspiration: the author apologizes for his defects 
 in the close of it: and the Jews never received it into their canon, and this, Bellar- 
 mine has confessed; and what is unspeakably more to the confusion of all your Jesuits, 
 St. Gregory the pope pronounced the Maccabees ''ex librisnon canoncis, not canoni- 
 cal books." ?eo Greg. Mor. Lib. 19. in cap. 39, Beati.Iobi. Benedict. Edit. Paris 1705. 
 It is manliest, I trust, to every unprejudiced mind, that there is no one solitary 
 passage in all the holy Bible, which can be pressed in to give any countenance to the 
 Roman fiction of purgatory : that there is no one solitary sentence in it which can be 
 tortured even to utter the most distant allusion to it ! Hence the scriptures are utterly 
 against it. Besides, the Bible declares that " Christ hy his one offenns;, forever 
 2)erfected them that are sanctijied.'' And "there is no other name under heaven ])y 
 which we can be saved, but by Ci rist's name." It is the one, great, uniform doctrine, 
 in scripture, that " ?Ae hlood of Christ ivashes away all sin.''' But this doctrine of 
 purgatory sets up a rival to ChrisVs atonement; and teaches, with infidel audacity^ 
 that millions enter heaven by the merits of their " own torments and praj'ers for the 
 dead." Hence it is as o,/posite to God's wdll, expressed in the Bible, as is th^ deadliest 
 infide'ity of Voltaire, and Hume ! 
 
 The foilowir.af texts I shall merely set down, as condemning your doctrine, Eccles. 
 ix. 10. Rom. viii. 1. — 2 Cor. v. 1. and ver. 10. Rev. xiv. 13. 
 
 Anu, here, I might call 3'our attention to many extravagant absurdities, in the doc- 
 trine of your priests' purgatory. But I shall mention only a few things to prove how 
 much it is abhorrent from reason, and scripture. First: — It is founded on the suppo- 
 sition that God Almighty, after having forgiven us aJi our sins, does yet punish and 
 torture us for them ! Let it be distinctly understood, thatyouteach that no one goes into 
 purgatory, but those ichose sins are pardoned ; for when a man dies under mortal sin, 
 or is unpardoned, he is doomed to hell. Now, here you teach that, after God has 
 forgiven us, and while Christ loves us, and the Huly Ghost comforts us, — we are yet 
 sent into ineffable tortures for thousands of years! ; Can any man in the exercise of 
 his reason, with the Bible before his eyes, believe that your god who presides over 
 your purgatory, is really the compassionate God of our salvation? 
 
 Second: — Your priests in their purgator}', represent God as punishing those whom 
 he loves, wl;h horrid tortures, of inexpressible flames on the soul, merely for the pu- 
 mshmenVssake. They admit that guilt is taken away, they admit that those in purga- 
 tory have ihei^ sins all pardoned; and that they "are in a state of perfect grace.'' 
 These pains are endured as a pur ishment, (tremendously severe,) for venial sins, and 
 something or other, called "'temporal punishment due for sin^ — and,— "the crime of 
 punishment!" " Cum reatu culpae, culpis suis remissis." These I quote from Bel- 
 ^r-rmine, De Purg. Lib. ^. cap. 1. sub fine. Now, when guilt is removed, is not pu- 
 nishment remos'ed? And when these men in your pur-ratorv', "«re pardoned and in a 
 fitatt oj perfect grace," can any man under the .-^un, tell us what the ''crime of puniah- 
 ntnV Means? It either has no meaning ; or it represents the merciful Father of our 
 souls, as torturing his own pardoned children- in the flames, for the mere s<^ke of pu- 
 
S56^ ROifAN CATHOtrc CONTROVERSY. 
 
 nishing them! ^^ Cum reatu culpa/'' See Dr. Sherlock's Find, of his Preservathe 
 against Popery, p. 71. 72. 
 
 Third: — This doctrine of purgator5% in addition to its ineffable absurdities, revre- 
 gents your priests as meti absolutely destitute of the bowels of humanity — as unspeak- 
 ably more cmel than sava^ges oJft7;ng up human sccrifces ! I take the evidence froai 
 their own statements. Here are thousands of their own "beloved flocks," their for- 
 mer kind, and obliging nei.^hbors ; their very "dear friends," "rolling in the hottest, 
 and most horrid flames;" all of them "in indescribable tortures, and agonies." And, 
 yet, O monsters ! they refuse to pray tliem out : even although, by their own confes- 
 sion, they can, by a word of their lips, or by a mass or two, and a little brie: praj-er, set 
 them free from their agonies! Unless the stipulated exaction of money he paid down, 
 they will not spend one breath, — they will not be at the cost of even a cheap wafer^ 
 and a few masses, to pray out their dearest friends, or one individual of their " very 
 dear flock!" They whine, and cant, and haggle about a few coppers, wi.ile their 
 "beloved friends," for whom "they feel so much," are "broiling in the fiercest 
 flames !" May the mercy of heaven deliver me, and you, my fellow citizens, from 
 the jaws, and fangs of these Romish tigers, compared to whom the red lion of Africa 
 is tender mercy. He devours the bleeding, lacerated body : they devour substance^ 
 and body, and soul, at once ! 
 
 Fiimlly: — Pur&atory is condemned by the Fathers. 
 
 1. Justin Martyr taught thus : — " Mcra 6z &c. After the departure of the soul from 
 the body, there is instantly made a distinction between the just and unjust: — the 
 souls of the righteous are brought to paradise with the angels : the souls of the wicked 
 to places in hell. Respo?is. ad Orthodox. Quest. 75 : Usher p. 121 . 
 
 2. Lactantius says ; — " Let no one imagine that a soul is judged immediately after 
 death, for all are detained in one common custody, till the time arrives, when the 
 supreme Judge examines their merits. Then those whose righteousness is approved, 
 shall receive the rev/ard of immortality'," &c. He then notices the doom of the 
 wicked. He thus taught the Linibus patrum, but he had no idea of a purgatory. 
 Tom. i. p. 574, De Yit. Beata. Lib. 7. Paris Edit. 1748. 
 
 3. Hilar}-, in 358, says : — " Futuri boni, &.c. There is hope of future good, when, 
 departing from this body into the entrance of the heavenly kingdom, all the faithful 
 shall be preserved in the custody of rhe Lord ; being placed, mean time, in the bosom 
 of Abraham; the approach to which is forbidden to the wicked by the intervening 
 gulph." On Psalm 2, also on Ps. 120, p. 978, Paris Edit. 1652. 
 
 4. Cyprian is full and explicit in the testimony that he never heard of modern 
 purgatory. In his Book De mortalitate, section 2, he says : " Ejus est, &c. It is for 
 him to fear death, who is not willing to go to Christ. It is for him to be unwilling to 
 go to Christ, who does not believethat he begins to reign with Christ," &c. Thus he 
 represents death as "our going to Christ :" and " all who live by faith, when they die 
 go to Christ." And quoting the words of Simeon he adds: — "This proves and wit- 
 nesses that the servants of God then have peace, — then enjoy free and quiet rest, 
 T^'hen, being drawn from these storms of the world, we seek the haven of an eternal 
 seat, and security ; when having paid the penalty of death, we arrive at immortality." 
 Again, in section 11, he says, — "The righteous are called to a refreshing; the Un- 
 righteous are dragged av/ay into torment : safety is quickly gi-anted to the faithful ; 
 but punishment to the wicked." See the Oxford Edit. 1682; or the Edit, of Pame- 
 lius of 1593, which I use. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 257 
 
 5. Tertullian, so far from believing in these tormenting flames to purify Gcu's- 
 peo't^le, or even pitying the dead, says;— " Chriftum, &c. We injure Christ, wheu 
 we do not bear, with fortitude, the departure of those who are called away by him ; 
 as if they were to be pitied ! 1 desire, says the apostle, to be received, and 
 to be v:ith Christ. How superior does he show the desire of the christian to be! 
 If, therefore, we impatiently grieve for any who have obtained this desire, we show 
 that we are unwiUing to obtain it!" If this Father had believed in your purgatory, 
 he would, with you, have pitied, and mourned for them, in the flames! If he had 
 believe 1 in your purgatory, he would not have thus uniied our departure at deuth, with 
 our being immediately with Christ. Tert I-e Patientia. cap. 9, Paris Edit. 1675. 
 
 6. Gregory Nyssen says : " sia-cp dw &.c. As by a certain abuse of speech, we call 
 a bay of the sea, an arm, or a bosom, so it seeniPth to me that the word signifies the 
 exhibition of those immeasurable good things, by the name of a bosom, into which alt 
 men that sail by a virtuous course through thia present hfe, when they loose from 
 hence, put their souls into a good bosom ; or as it were, into a haven free from dann 
 g«r." JJiai. De Anim. et Resur. Tom. ii. p. 651, 1'aris Edit. 
 
 7. Gregory Nazianzen taught, — '' Q.i PeXnov &c., — that it is better to be corrected 
 and purged now, than to be sent to the torment there, where the time of punishing 
 is, and not of purging." Orat. 15, in Flag. Graudinis: and Usher's Works againsu 
 Popery, p. 123. 
 
 8. St. Basil thu ' expressed himself, — " Ouro? h aiov &c. This is the time of repent- 
 ance, — the other life after this, is that of retribution : this, of working ; that of 
 rewarding." In Proem, in Regul. See Usher, p. 123. 
 
 9. St. Ambrose taught that death " is a certain haven to ihos^ who had long beeu- 
 tossed in the sea of life."—" It makes not a man's state worse ; but such as it findeth 
 ia every one, even such it reserves unto future judgment : and refreshes with rest." 
 ^' It is a passage from corruption to incorruption ; from mortality to immortality ; 
 from trouble to rest." De Bono Mortis, cap. 4. 
 
 10. An ancient Greek Father, usually bound up with Justin Martyr's works, says : 
 "McraSt &c. But after the departure from the body, a separation of the just and 
 unjust takes place. The righteous go into paradise with angels, unto the vision of' 
 Christ; and the souls of the wicked into hell, &c." Q^uest. et Resp. ad OrthodoxoSy_ 
 p. 437. Finch, 206. 
 
 11. Justin Martyr writes: — "Tw 6c Szc. When we assert that the souls of the unjust 
 are in existence after death, and are sensibly tortured ; but that the souls of the g-ood 
 are happy, free from punishment; wn think we sang tho same things that the poets 
 and philosophers have done." Apolog. pro Christ.. 2, Paris Edit. 1515. Thus he- 
 believed in two states only, — heaven and hell. He lived in A. D. 150. 
 
 12. Cyril of Jerusalem, says — '"O nc^reiov &c. He who believes in the Son of God 
 is not judged, but is translated from death to life. The just, indeed were tried through 
 many years, but that which they obtained by the diligence of a long life, Jesus freely 
 confers on us, in one hour. For, if you believe, you shall be saved, and translerred- 
 ro paradise, by him who therein introduced the thief." Cat. 5, Gxf. Edit.- 1503. 
 
 I do not conceal from you that the priests who can r«ad Greek, may find out a 
 passage in this Cyril, somewhat favorable to modern popish errors. But it is com- 
 fortable to reflect that we can produce you two credible witnesses, that Cyril was not 
 deemed by the primitive men, quite orthodox after his later vagaries. " Cyril's faiih 
 was suspected." Ruffinus and Jerome observe that he often changed his faith, an<ir 
 
 S3* 
 
258 ROMAW CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 communion." Diipin denies that be did change his faith, but these two Fathers had 
 the best means of ascertaining this. See Dupin's Eccles. Hist. 4 cent. 
 
 13. Cyril of Alexandria speaks thus decidedly : — " Asjc yap &c. For I think we 
 ou"-ht to decide it, as being highly probable that the souls of the saints, when they 
 depart from their bodies, are commended unto God's goodness, as unto the hands of 
 a most dear Father ; and do not remain on the earth, as some unbelievers have ima- 
 gined, until they have had the honor of a funeral; neither are they carried, as the 
 souls of the wicked are, unto a place of immeasurable punishment, that is into hell ; 
 but rather fly to the hands of the Father of all ; — our Lord and Savior having first 
 prepared a way for us." In Johan. Evar g. Lib. xii. cap. 36, Tom. iv. p. 1069, 
 Paris Edit. 1(338. 
 
 14. Chrysostcm vv-rites thus, in opposition to purgatory : "The kingdom of heaven 
 is like unto a man that is an householder. The man that is the householder, is Christy 
 to whom heaven and earth are as a house. But his families are celestial, and terres- 
 trial ; for whom he builds a hotise, with three chambers, that is hell, heaven, and 
 earth. The combatants dwell upon the earth ; the vanquished in hell; and the con- 
 querors m heaven." Homil. in Math. xii. 
 
 15. St. Athanasius wrote thus : — " Om tan &c. That is not death that befalleth the 
 just ; it is a translation ; they are carried out of this world into eternal rest: they go 
 as out of a prison, from their wearisome life, to the good things prepared to them." 
 De Virgin. See also Usher, p. 121. 
 
 16. St. Jerome, in Eplst. 25, comforting Paula, on the death (,T her daughter, 
 mentioas only the two states, — " hell, and its eternal fires, and glory to which believ- 
 ers are instantly conducted by angels." See Usher, p. 123. 
 
 17. St. Augustine, in some parts of his works, seems rather inclined to go with 
 Origen, as if he inclined to v.-aver respecting the eternal pains of hell. In his Tom. 
 vi. p. 222, Enchir, ad Laur. he speaks of it being "not incredible that there is a cer- 
 tain purgatorian fire after this life," and "it may be inquired whether there be such a 
 thing, &c." Hence, being doubtful, it connotbe supposed to have been, vvuh him, an 
 article of faith. But, notwithstanding the idle blundericgs of your priests, and a 
 sciolist who lately made some quotations out of Augustine, it is manifest, that this 
 eminent Father, in his best, reflecting moments, goes decidedly against purgatory.. 
 Hear his words, — "After this life there remains no compunction,, or satisfaction." 
 Again : — There, is all remission of sin ; here, be temptations to sin ; here, is the evil 
 from which we desire to be delivered ; but, there, (in the other state,) are none of: 
 these." Again, — "We are not here without sin; but we shall go hence without 
 sin." See Homil. 50. Tom. x. Enchir. c. 115. Perkins, vol. i. p. 607. folio. More- 
 ■decidedly still speaks he m his book De Peccat. Merit, et Remiss. Lib. 1. cap. 28. 
 ** There is no middle place for any, he must needs be with the devil ivho is not with 
 Christ.'''' Again, — " The catholic faith resting on divine authority, believes the first 
 place the kingdom of heaven: and the second, hell ! A third we are wholly igno- 
 rant of." Again, — " There is no place for the amending of our vv-ays, but in this life ; 
 for after this life, every one shall receive according to what he seeketh after in this." 
 
 13. St. Bernard in Epist. 266, says» "What is it to thee,, and thine earthly vestures,, 
 that being about to go to heaven, thou hast the more glory to put on instantly?'^ 
 
 VJ. In like manner the venerable Bede speaks in the most decisive terms. Here 
 are his words, on Psalm vi. "Here only is the''place for mercy; after this world, 
 there is plu^e only for justice.''' 
 
&OMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 259 
 
 20. Anselm on 2 Cor. V. says of the pardonerl,--" Instantly on their leaving the 
 flesh, they do rest in htavenly faith." 
 
 21. Epiphanius asserts that; — "The saints are in honor; they rest in glory; and 
 their departure hence, is into perfection." See Adv. Haeres. 78, in the end : Perkins, 
 vol. ii. p. 569. folio. 
 
 22. Olympiodorus says, — "Ej/'w^e&c In whatever place, therefore, whether of 
 light or of darkness; of evil doing, or of virtue, a man is taken at his d ath, in that 
 doth he remain: either in light with the just, and with Christ: or with the wicked, 
 and the prince of tins world." Expo-- of Ecclesiast. cap. xi. ; Usher, p. 127. 
 
 I shall close with two remaikable testimonies against purgatory. 1st, The councilor 
 Aquisgran, now, Aix la Chapelle, thus decreed : — " Tribus itaque, &:c. By three modes 
 are the sins of men punished : by two in this life ; and one in the life to come." The 
 two "are by compunction and repentance; and by God's corrections. "The thirds 
 in the other world, is awful and tremendous; when the Judge shall say, "Depart ye 
 cursed into everlasting fire, with the devil and his angels." See Aquis. Capit. 
 Concil. Ad Pipinium mlssa; Lib. 1. cap. 1 : Usher, p. 129; and Labb. Concil. Tom. 
 ix. 844.— Crabb. Concil. Tom. ii. 711. Edgar's Var. p. 466. 
 
 2. At the council of Basil, in the year 1433, the deputies of the Greek church, gave 
 in their solemn dissent from the Latin church's purgatory. "Ilio &c. A purgatory 
 by fire," said they, " that is temporal, and shall have an end, we have neither receiv- 
 ed from onr doctors ; nor do we know that the church of the East receives it." They 
 added, — "No small fear doth trouble us, lest, by admitting of a temporary fire, both 
 penal and purgatory, irt shall destroy the full consent of the church!''' "Hence we 
 never have affirmed, nor will we at all ever gfiirm it." S. Senens. Lib. 6. Bihl. Scmct. 
 Annot. 259- Also Martin Crusius, In Turco Gracia, p. 186, Arch. Usher, against 
 popery, p. 182. 
 
 The crafiy Latins did, indeed, cajole, and entrap the Greek deputies, to admits 
 " for th' -ake of peace, and unity," a kind of half purgatory ; namely, without Jive. 
 But the Greek church did, with indignatiou, reject this union, and the belief of Ro- 
 mish purgatorv^ And to this day, do all the churches of the East reject it. Usher,. 
 p. 132. 
 
 Can auy thing, therefore, equal the audacious impudence of Bellarmine, who 
 permits himself to say, — " that all the ancients, Greek and Latin, from the apostles' 
 days, did constantly teach that there was a purgatory." De Purg. Lib. i. cap. 15. 
 
 But it is pleasant to 'ind virtue enough in some of your own writers, to give this 
 Jesuit the lie ! Three of them declare that "in the ancient writers, there is almost 
 NO mention of purgatory, esi -cially in the Greek writers. And, hence, the Greeks 
 believe it not until this day." I refer you to Alph. De Castr. Cont, Hccr. in Indulg. 
 Lib. 8.— J. Roffens. Luth. Confut. Art. 8.— And Poly. Virg. De Invent. Rer. Lib. 8. 
 cai). 1.— Usher, p. 124. 
 
 Thus, amid the diversity of the opinions of the Fathers of the primitive ages, we- 
 perceive in the most certain and distinct manner, that jmrgatonj was utterly unknown 
 to them! Hence, as it wants x\\g unanimous consent oi the Fathers, your priest* are 
 bound in Linor, to reject and condemn it as, — in fact it is, — an impious, and diabolical 
 invention. If they yet sustain it, without the unanimous consent, then do they take 
 incredible pains to make us believe that they are knaves, and that they deem all their 
 victims to be utterly void of understanding! 
 
 And, my fellow citizens, \t<u will readily admit that, in view of the whole argu- 
 
560 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVBRST. 
 
 ment on purgatory, I cannot give you, and the priests a better advice than that of 
 good old archbishop Usher, " Those of you, who bUndly toUow cardinal Bellarmine, 
 may do ve-'y well to look a head, lest, while you are seeking for purgatory, you may 
 stumble into hell !" 
 
 I havtj, thus finished my argument on the condemnation of popery, by Reason, 
 vScripture, and the Fathers. And I rest the decision with the enlightened American, 
 public. 
 
 I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c. 
 
 New- York, November 5, 1833. W. C. B. 
 
 P. S. It is somewhat "ominous," that the date of this Letter, falling out, in lue 
 
 usual course, has happened on the famous day cf the celebration of " the d'scovery of 
 
 the popish gunpowder plot, in Great Britain! May Almighty God preserve our 
 
 republic ; and grant that, as h nation, we may never need to celebrate any such day 
 
 of national deliverance ! Amci^. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC. 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " Siceiides Musse, paullo majora canamus, * 
 
 Non omues arbusta juvant, humilesque myricae." 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 REVEREND Fathers: — It is not unknown unto you, that we and your learned 
 priests of New York, have been discussing the doctrines of your church, until they 
 retreated from their defence, and abandoned the cause of "Holy Mother," to the no 
 small grief and scandal of the "simple faithful." We next, in continuation of the 
 discussion, addr^osed ourselves to the members of your flock. " The condemnation 
 of Popery by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers," — has been uttered before the 
 American puL)lic : and no one of your priests has opened hi« mouth to assign a rea- 
 son before the people, why popery should not be sentenced, in pursuance of the ver- 
 dict found and declared. I leave it to the public to pronounce the sentence. Before 
 I close, I beg leave to make my appeal to your ears. Reverend Fathers. And, in as 
 much as every section of the churches, is on a perfect footing of equality in this glo- 
 rious, free, and happy republic; and in as much as my office is as high, and as 
 honorable, in my church, as yours is in your church, — I shall speak as one who feels 
 himself on a perfect footing of equality ; recognizing your superiority only in years, 
 and in that exclusively. And I do it under the perfect consciousness that your tenets 
 and principles, — and mine, are all open to the inspection of our fellow citizens ; while 
 to Almighty God alone, are we all accountable, as the only Lord of the human con- 
 science. 
 
 Now, in the first place. Reverend Fathers, — the call on you is loud and impera- 
 tive, for a general Reformation in your church. The religious tenets, and morals, 
 patronized and sustained by you, are those of the dreary times of the dark ages. Bet- 
 ter men, and men invested with higher offices in your church, than any of you, 
 Fathers, have felt the necessity of a Reformation. Gregory VII. in the eleventh 
 
ftOMAN CltBOLIC COfllROVE^.ST. 2^1 
 
 century, deplored the errors and the vices of tht Church. In the Lateran Council 
 called in 1215, Pope Innocent iii. deplored in a moving manner, the wretched state 
 of Holy Mother. "It is time," said he, "that j';d^'mejit begin at the i.ouse of God, 
 For all the corruption which is in the people, chiefly proceeds from the Clergy, sinccr 
 if the priest who is consecrated, sins, he causes the people to sin, facit delinquercr 
 populum, &:c." Again, — "Perit fides, <fcc. — faith perishes, religion is disfigured^ 
 liberty is confounded, justice is trodden under foot, heretics" (we know what he means 
 hy her tti 3) "spiing up, schismatics gather strength, the wicked rage." Set Sac 
 Concil. Labbaei et Coss. Tom. xi. p. 134. Pari^^ F.dit. 1671. 
 
 These complaints were repeated in the first Council of Lyons, in 1245, Pope Inno- 
 cent IV. otated as his first reason for calling it, — 'the various excesses of the Clergy.'^ 
 The same were repeated in the second Ccnncil of Lyons, in 1274. Church discipline 
 and ''the licentiousness of the Clergy'" called aloud for reformation. See Delahogue, 
 Tract. De Eccles. Append. 2. p. 447. and Dupin Tom. x. 
 
 You all know the famous speech of Dr. Chancellor Gerson, delivered in the Coun- 
 cil of Pisa, in 1409, before Pope Alexander. He thus introduces Holy Mother apos- 
 trophising the audience; — "Ah! wo is me ! Unhappy me! From what a height of 
 dignity am 1 dragged down, by the hands of the wicked ! How is my beautiful com- 
 plexion changed, and the splendor of ray countenance obscured, &c." This is equal 
 to the language of Luther, describing the noted old "Mother of Babylojp." And lest 
 you may suppose that Dr. Gerson meant this to be the evil doings of the "heretics,*' 
 he goes on to enumerate the cause; namely, the vile archbisho])S ignorant of, or 
 despising their superiors; and simonical clerg}', ignorant and vicious. He holds up 
 "the v.-arlike," and carnal prelates to execration. "From what roots," he exclaims, 
 '/can I believe these evils to have sprung? From the abominable pollution of the 
 Clergy /" "Those to whom marriage is forbidden, that they may attain to angelical 
 purity," (yes, verily, to angelical purity !)— ''I behold polluted with immorality, and 
 uniting: impure deeds, with impure words, filling their stomachs with feastmgs, and 
 skilled in getting drank; and snoring over their cups, — these, and a thousand other ills 
 have been i)ispected by me /" Gers. speech, in Counc. Pis. 1409- See also Mansi 
 Collect. Concil. p. 414. Venet. Edit. 1784, and Finch p. 90. 
 
 And not only so, but even the popes were deposed in theCouncil of Pisa as ''SchiS' 
 inatics, notorious heretics, entangled in the enormous, and infamous crimes ol^ perjury, 
 and violation of promise.'" And this is excelled in its manly force and accuracy of 
 delineation, onlv by your historian Baronius, when describing the three rival popes 
 in 1044. He calls them ''the three headed beast, u'ho had issued out of the gates of 
 hell!" Baronii Annal. Tom. xi. A. D. 1044. This festering evil, by the very laws 
 of corruptioii, went on waxing worse and worse. Even your holy Council of Trent 
 was avowedly called for thl>, among other reasons, — "to procure a rej.)xmation of the. 
 clergy and the christian people." And the Legates rehearsed the same reasons, and 
 avowed that "the evils whicli oppress the church surpass in number, thcsea-san^; 
 and cry out even to heaven!" 
 
 I speak of things well known to you all. Reverend Fathers. You do know ihat 
 your starichird historians record, how the bishop of Bitonto, iu his Oration, on a Sab- 
 bath, before the Trent Fathers, said—" Quibus enim, &c. With what monsters of 
 baseness, with what a heap of pijllution, with what a pist of iniquity, are the priests 
 and the people corrupted in the holy church of God !" You know that Friar George, 
 t>f Lisbon, in his Oration, on the first Sabbath of Lent, before these Fathers, declared 
 
2C2 aOMAN CATEOLIC CO^T»OVjlkSt. 
 
 that " ibe children of Holy Mother, had fallen into the hands of rolhers, oppressitfe 
 rulers, impious princes, and infidel prelates /" I refer you to Labb. el Cossart. Concil. 
 Tom. XI w 733,734. 
 
 But no reformation has been ventured on : no nerve in all your ranks was blessed 
 with courage enough, to turn the river in, to cleanse the Augean stable 1 And as cor- 
 ruption by the fixed laws of nature, always waxes worse and worse, when left to itself, 
 ^ — what, in the name of all that is sacred, must now be the state of things in Holy 
 Mother c T Rome ! In our republic, it is true, your church presents the aspect of, in 
 some degree, a comparative purity, and correctness. But your priests dare not come 
 out to defend, and practice your doctrines, as in the Roman catholic churches abroad. 
 For this less offensive state of things, — you, and! should, in justice, say, we also are 
 indebted, exclusively to the potent influence of American opinions, and Amerioan 
 morals ! 
 
 And, Second, you cannot possibly be ignorant, Reverend Fathers, that the deplo- 
 rable slate of yourchurchcs in point of knowledge and morals, is of necessity altoge- 
 ther, produced by certain doctrines, tenets, and rites of your church. I have establish- 
 ed the fact by sufficient evidence, and also by the confession wrung from the reluc- 
 tant lips of your priests here, that i\\Q first and grand fundamental tenet of the Romish 
 church involves deism., — as necessarily as cause does effect. You boldly, and unblush- 
 ingly deny the holy scriptures to be the only rule of faith and practice! You sit in 
 judgment on the holy Bible, and pretend gravely to give it all the authority it has, 
 or can have. You sit in the temple of God ! You do usurp God's throne, by tradi- 
 tion, and your church's authority, — even as does the deist, by his unenlightened rea- 
 son. Hence the pestilent morals of deipm pervade your church throughout ! 
 
 Contrast, I implore you. Fathers, the state of your flocks, and that of all Roman 
 catholic lands, in point of knowledge and intelligence; in point of virtue and sound 
 morals, with those of the same class, in society, among those whom priestly intole- 
 rance is pleased to call heretics, — hereby meaning good Protestants. Is there a man 
 who has eyes, or who can connect three ideas in his mind, who does not perceive the 
 astonishing difference between the two classes, — Roman catholics, and Protestants, — 
 in. all lands? Compare Spain with England, Ireland with Scotland, the United 
 States v.ith South America? It is not owing to any inferiority, by nature, in the 
 Spaniard and the Irishman. These are — especially the Irishman, a noble minded, 
 warm hearted, and generous race of men. They are deteriorated purely, and alone 
 bytheparnlizingand infernal influence of popery! And you act on principle, you 
 know. VV nenever a nation becomes an illumined, and moral people, — forthwith is 
 (he cruel and savage yoke of civil, and ghostly tyranny broken off, and dashed on the 
 ground. Hence the pope detests knowledge and sound morals, as he detests the loss 
 of power and of gold ! 
 
 Now, Reverend Fathers, — how long will you permit wicked ra^n, arid profligate 
 shephf : I3 to prey on the flocks? How long will you allow a simple and unlettered 
 people 10 be abused by priests putting such questions as they do, unblushingly, to them 
 at the confessional? How long will you allow them to corrupt the youth, and 
 maidens, and married women, by pouring in their ears, ideas which virtue and modesty 
 cannot listen to without horror; and which can be breathed by none but sacerdotal 
 libertines, and other cognate minions of vice, so far gone in conformity to the image 
 pf their Father, that the}' do all his damning service without even a blush ! 
 
 yes, Fathers, we possess copies of these questions, in Latin, French, and Spanish, 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 263 
 
 •svhich these pr.estly libertines are permitted, by you, to put to 3'oung females, and 
 married women, in our land, weekly, and daily ! Were I to set them down in 
 English before my readers they would be horror stricken! Yet, the reciting and 
 teaching these most obscene questions, in the ears of wives and maidens, forms a 
 part of your religion ! The reciting of these corrupting and loathsome questions 
 forms a part of the daily instructions given to Protestant young ladies, in the nunnery- 
 seminaries of your church ! 
 
 In the name of the Most Holy One, 1 call on you. Reverend Fathers, to put a stop 
 to this pollution i I implore you to banish the shocking abominations from the con- 
 fessional, and from the land! Can it be wondered at that in Europe, monasteries 
 and nunneries have been, even to a proverb, denounced as so many Sodoms and 
 Gomorralis ' The ipost, if not all of you, are foreigners : and you, therefore, have 
 had the best opportunities of knowing this to be a fact beyond denial ! You knoiu 
 what I mean ! I appeal to the Mtimirs of Scipio De Ricci, now before the public I 
 
 But your very standard books of morality, Reverend Fathers, are full of corrup- 
 tion. The order of Jesuits, you know, has been revived especially for the purpose of 
 overrunning this heretical government and republic ! Regiments of these papal sub- 
 jects and household troops are pouring in upon us ! And their standard works of Jesuit- 
 ism — so often condemned in Europe, are put into the youth's hands in the popish 
 seminaries here. Novv hear a specimen of these books used in the Jesuit schools. 
 
 I have referred to them, once and again. But as these moral writers are the order 
 of the day, with you; and as they are the manuals tor Protestant young men and 
 young females, whom cruel parents abandon to the fangs of Jesuits, I shall quote a 
 few, again. 
 
 " A child who serves his father, may secretly steal as much as his father would 
 have given a stranger for his compensation! Escobar, Theol. Moral, vol. iv. lib. 
 •34. p. 348. Precious instruction for our sons ! Hear again, — •' Servants may 
 secretly steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor is worth, more 
 than the wages which they receive." Cardenas, Chr. Theolog. Diss. 23, p. 474. To 
 this agrees Tabernas; and also Lud. Molina, Tom. ii. p. 1150. This last writer 
 says, "De bonis, &-c. They may secretly abstract something of their master's goods, 
 providing they have asked, and been refused : and provided they can do it without 
 iniury to themselves, and their shame," &c. Hear the instructions to a thief, "A man 
 is not bound to restore what he has stolen in small sums, however large may be the 
 total." Taraburinus Explic. Decal. Lib. 8. p. £05. Next, hear what a good wife 
 under a Jesuit, confessor's hands, may do, — "A woman may take the property of her 
 husband, to supply her spiritual wants; and to act like other women." That is, to pay 
 her priest for putting to her these infamous questions at the confessional! See Gor- 
 donus, Theol. Moral. Univ. Lib. 5. p. 826. But I beg leave to refer my reader to a 
 world of similar quotations in Secrtta Monita of the Jesuits, Appendix, Princeton 
 Edit. And to Paschal's Provincial Letters, vi. viii. ix. 
 
 Now, I put it to your consciences. Reverend Fathers, whether such doctrines, and 
 the licentious questions put at the confessional, and the easy rates of absolution, and 
 pardon of sin granted to those who confess, and pay the church's dues, have not pro- 
 duced the present appalling state of morals in the Romish church. And v/ith all this 
 impiety, deism, and immorality, in your communion, in popish lands, are you grave, 
 or in jest, when you actually afhrra that there is no salvation out of your Roman 
 catholic church ? As it is really impossible that you can be in earnest, I tell you 
 
2i()4 ROMAN CATHOLIC COFTllOVERST. 
 
 gravely, Reverend Fathers, that you do carry your jests too far, when you persuade 
 your simple victims that all Protestants are damned ! ! 
 
 But, THIRD, — We have already demonstrated that your succession from St. Peter, 
 and the true church, is utterly cut off: I beg to refer to my Letter VIII., &c. : that 
 you have lost the succession of the ministry, which became utterly aud finally cut off 
 at the Council of Trent, when the church of God came out of "Holy Mother," and 
 left her "as a cage of unclean lirds;" that you have lost the pure doctrines of the gos- 
 pel, and the holy ordinopxes of Christ: that you have substituted a sacrifice and an 
 offering of, as you say, human flesh and blood, called the mass, instead of the Holy 
 Supper; and a human device of anointing with chrism, instead of the baptism of the 
 Lord : and have, moreover, added five rites, — such as marriage, holy orders, extrem* 
 unction, &c. ; which you have very facetiousl}' honored with the title of sacraments. 
 
 Now, Reverend Fathers, the most serious doubts are entertained by good men, 
 whether your church of Rome be not, in verity, a perpetuated branch of paganism! 
 Conscious that such grave inquiries are very congenial to your grave habits, I shall 
 soon resume this theme. 
 
 I am, Reverend Fathers, yours, &c. 
 
 Nov. 19, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 ^■0 THE LORD ARCRBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF TEi: ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The Romish church a perpetuated branch of ancient paganism. 
 " Hail, holy Pantheon ! house of all our gods !" 
 
 Keterend Fathers — I introduced a very grave subject in my last; such as is, 
 m all respects, very befitting your Reverence's devoutest investigation. May I beg 
 you to follow me in the serious inquiry ? 
 
 It is certain that neither you, nor we, can find your church in the holy Bible. 
 Hence you have been compelled by complicated, and mortal errors, to reject the holy 
 scriptures, as the rule of faith; and betake yourselves to traditions, to keep yourselves 
 in countenance with your interminable load of ceremonies and rites! Pardon me, I 
 err. We do find her in the Bible; but on the wrong side of the holy pale of Christ's 
 true and pure church. We find her in Revelations, ch. xvii. ; and in 2 Thess. ch. ii. 
 But, if we cannot find you as a true church in the ])ages of the Bible, we can find 
 your whole system in the field of paganism ; only under a new nomenclature. It is 
 baptized paganism. 
 
 Let us approach one of the pagan temples, then, Fathers, one of your cathedrals. 
 What a harmony ! What a consistency ! What a fair sisterhood ! When we enter 
 a pagan chapel, the first thing we find was "holy water, and a priest sprinkhng it." 
 "The Amula," says Montfaucon, "was a vase of holy water, placed by the heathens 
 at the door of their temples, to sprinkle themselves with." This is exactly what you 
 have ordered to be placed in your chapels ! The true church, following the corn- 
 mauds of Christ, has no such thing. 
 
 The next thing which strikes ui as we enter* pagan temple, is the cloud of smoke 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 265 
 
 from the burning of incense. This is exactly the same in your chapels ! In the 
 heathen temple, j'ou could see, in their large apartments, a number of altars, all 
 blazing, while the curling volume of smoke ascends in a cloud ; so it is exactly in 
 your cathedrals ! A number of altars are reared, and are smoking with incense. 
 In the heathen temples, the images stood in rows, all around, as in the Pantheon : or, 
 -as in other temples, the conspicuous image of the ido;, the genius of the place, stood 
 alone. So it is exactly in your temples! The Pantheon of Rome, in olden times, 
 the house of all the gods, is now the temple of Mary, the mother of God, and all the 
 JSaints! The whole form, and the idolatry, are the same to the very letter; only 
 new names are given to the idols. The 3Iother of God, has the place of Jupiter, 
 "the father of the gods." Of old, every pagan could find his own god, here, and 
 worship him : even so, now, ever\ one of the simple faithful, from all countries, can 
 ^nd his ov/n patron saint, and worship him, in the temple dedicated by pope Boniface 
 to St. Mary, and all the saints ! ! 
 
 in the pagan temples, the images and paintings were black with smoke. Even so 
 are the idols in your old temples. When Dr. Middleton saw the "holy image" of 
 our Lady in the temple of Loretto, he was amazed to find her as black as the image 
 ■«.»f ancient mother Proserpine, or, of an old negress! 
 
 In the heathen chapels, lamps and torches were kept continually burning before the 
 faces of the idols, and n.t the altars ; and near the dead. This was so peculiarl}^ a pari, 
 of the heathen religion, chat the primitive christians opposed, and ridiculed it. " They 
 light up candles to God," — says Lactanlius, — " as if he lived in the dark : and do not 
 the}- deserve lo pass for madmen, who offer lamps to the Author and Giver of light? 
 In this, your church copies the pagan model exactly ! Each altar, and each image 
 has its lamp, and candle ! And what an array of wax candles you light up to the 
 dead, to illumine their path through the dark vjlley ! But it must Le their misfortune, 
 not your fault, that these magnificent wax candles do not move, and travel through 
 the valley of death, with them ! 
 
 Let us, in imagination, pass farther into the interior of the heathen temples. We 
 behold their votaries on their knees, before their Jupiter, or Mars, or Venus, beating 
 their breasts, and performing their holy evolutions. Enter a Romish cathedral, and 
 you behold the same. Near an altar, a priest kneels, and goes through his canonical 
 gestures, and contortions, and evolutions! At another, or near the favorite idol, an- 
 other kneels, or some hiniible votar\', praying, — " O holy Mother, by the rights of a 
 mother, command thy Sou to hear us !" Vv hile the priest repeats this in tlie canonical 
 Latin, *'0 felix puerpera, nostra plans scelera, jure matris, impera Redemptori !" 
 
 There is another shocking piece of conformity, too striking to pass unnoticed. The 
 pagans offered up human hangs, — htiman flesh, — human blood, on their altar! Now, 
 Reverend Fathers, if we are to believe your solemn word, and that of your ])riest3, 
 the wafer and the wine are, in transubstantiation, turned really into ChrisVs very body, 
 hones, nerves, muscles ; and the imne into his real blood, ivhich floived in his veins! 
 This is either most certainly so, or, you utter an imposing falseliood before the world. 
 Unless you utter falsehood, then, you do offer up daily, and weekly, human flesh, and 
 human blood, in sacrifices of the mass! That is, if you utter truth, you yourselves, 
 do as really offer up human sacrifices, as ever did, or do the heathen ! And j^ou make 
 your victims of imposition eat this human flesh, and drink this human blood/ In the 
 name of humanity, and of common sense. Reverend Fathers, will you persist in such 
 literal conformity to paganism, as to perpetuate human sacriJicesJ Wil! you persis 
 
 24 
 
266 ROMAN CATHOLIC COI^TROVERST. 
 
 in maklnf^ the simple faithful cannibals, as were, and slill are the heathens ! Speak- 
 the American public demands an answer. 
 
 In every heathen temple, the priest, in his outre vestments, was attended by a little 
 boy, in a white, fantastic dress, with a little box, or chest in his hands. This contained 
 the incense for the altar. This was too pretty a part of the show, to be omitted by 
 your church. Hence every one has seen a little boy, clothed in a surplice, — yes, a 
 5ur]9Zice, like a young Astyanax, strutting near his father Hector. The youth bears, 
 with solemn grimace, the sacred utensils, and the incense pot; which the prie?t, with 
 a number of ludicrous grimaces, and gestures, swings around the altar, exactly a» 
 the pagan priests, in every respect, did. See Middleton's Letter from Rome, p. 
 13G, &c. 
 
 How ingeniously, and industriously you have copied, and even exhausted the 
 pagan ritual! I have discovered another prominent feature of your pagan model. 
 It is well known that the priest has a little box, called the Pix. In this is kept hi? 
 wafer god ; into this he puts what of the wafer god is left, after communion. This 
 he carries about with him, to be always ready, " to prepare a sinner for dying," and 
 give him a bran god passport to heaven, by laying it on his tongue ! Now, I was 
 pretty confident that this was borrowed : for the Roman priests are by no means 
 geniuses, or remarkable for their own inventions! I discovered, lately, the origin of 
 this, in Mr. Hope's Collection of statues, and antiquities. There is in that collection 
 an Egyptian Pastophora holding the god Horus. And in a London publication of 
 January, 1833, we have a description of it. " A Pastophora was an initiated woman, 
 who, in the religious processions of the Egyptians, carried the god Horus, in a boz 
 before the people, and presented the idol to the 'adoration of the multitude.'' Here we 
 have, at once, the origin of the Pix, with the god in it; and of the carrying it about; 
 and also the elevation of the host, to the adoration of the admiring Roman catholic 
 mobs! It is purely pagan ! 
 
 My learned author adds, that "the language of Clemens of Alexandria, one of the 
 Greek fathers who lived in Egypt, who mentions the females called Pastophora, 
 (Paed. 3. 2.) v/ith respect to the lifting up of the covering of the box, and the direc- 
 tions of the Roman canon of the Missal, are curiously similar. The " discooptrit 
 ca/jcer?i," of the Mass Book, would seem to be almost a literal translation of Clemens' 
 
 Greek sentence, which is, as follows : " O\tyov erravacreCKag tov KaTairtracriiaTOi og 6ti^uv rov 
 
 Qnvy That is,— "Having drawn the veil aside, a little, as exhibiting the god." See 
 Prot. Joura. of Lond. Jan. 1833. p. 44. 
 
 The processions of the heathen through the streets, carrying their idols, dressed 
 out in flaunting display, with the votaries bearing wax candles, or flambeaux in their 
 hands, have been faithfully, I should say, slavishly copied, in all Roman catholic 
 countries. To see one of the processions on Lady day, and the overgrown ruddy 
 faced priests waddling along, in all their motly dresses, like so many well fed buffoons, 
 with grave men, and even magistrates, and even delicate ladies, with long wax can- 
 dle^;, at noon day, in their hands, — does actually remind one of the days of pagan 
 Rome, and the ceremonies of demon worship throughout all pagan lands! 
 
 The ancient temple of Romulus was sacred to that Roman hero god. Here infants 
 were presented by the ancients to be cured of diseases by this god, " who was gracious 
 to children." Itis remarkable that this temple at Rome, is now dedicated, says Mid- 
 dleton, to the clirislian hero god, or saint Theodorus, who had been exposed when an 
 infant, like Romulus, and who like him, cures their diseases. When the Doctor 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. ^^7 
 
 Visited this church, he actually saw a dozen of well dressed females, holding ihelr 
 sickly infants before the christian Romulus, — saint Theodorus! ! Here we actually 
 have a wicked superstition perpetuated from the founding of Romulus' temple, to tliis 
 day, by chc Holy Head of the Holy Mother Church.' 
 
 Even the cruel superstition and lacerations of the priests of Bellona, and the vota- 
 ries of Isis are kept up, under the pious care of your Holy Father ! In their proces- 
 sions, these pagans used to lash, and cut their bare backs. The only music they used 
 was the crack of their lashes, and the suppressed groan of the victims, atoning their 
 warlike deity by their own tortures ! Your sect of the Flagellantcs, or the Whippets 
 do keep it up, even to the letter. Besides, at the season of Lent, in Romish countries, 
 the procession o{ the Jitshly disciplinarians, march into the chapel: at the tinkling of 
 a bell, the lights are extinguished, their backs laid bare, and their whips are applied 
 to effectual purpose, by the modern votaries of Bellona. Nothing is heard, in the 
 dark, during the canonical hour sacredly devoted to seif torture, but the cracking of 
 the consecrated whip! It is not to be understood, however, I believe, that the blows 
 fall certainly on their backs. The wise ones know, that they can make as much noise 
 in the diirk, and get the flesh as well mortified, by applying the whip to the benches! 
 It might be highly beneficial, and might contribute speedily to bring to theii" senses, 
 thesedevout " whippcrs" and "'holy disciplinarians of the unruly flesh,'' ifhisHoli- 
 ness would re-enact the edict of the judicious and wily old emperor Commodus, 
 which " compelled these Bellonarii to lash and cut themselves in good earnest ; and not 
 feign it merely, and impose on the people.'' This point of holy discipline, I beg to 
 refer to you, Reverend Fathers. And bishop England can carry the projected model 
 of improvements to Rome, when he- returns to his. Holiness to complete his schemes, 
 on our country's subjugation ! 
 
 Even the water idolatry of the pagans has been kept up by your church, where she 
 has flourished gloriously. The ancients, and also the modern pagans — you know, 
 held certain rivers holy. And to wash in them, was equal to the purifying fire of 
 vour lately invented purgatory : and to be drowned in tliem, did forthwith open up a 
 pathway to immortal glory I Now, who has not heard of St. Patrick's Purgatort, 
 an island in Lochderg, in Donegall county, Ireland? "To this lake and island im- 
 mense multitudes are sent, annually, by the Romish priests there, to wash away 
 their sins, precisely in the same manner, as is done in the Ganges, and in India ! .^ec 
 a similar description to this, in the Glasgow Protestant, ch. 54. 
 
 You have left few important parts in the pagan rites uncopied ; and especially 
 have they met your pious and devout imitation, wheij they could be rendered useful 
 to the gain of the priestly craft. The ancients used the sprinkling of holy water not 
 only on men, but on beasts. They sprinkled their horses, as Middleton has shown, 
 in the Circcnsian games. From this is borrowed the Roman annual festival iii 
 January, at Rome. All who wish "good luck" to their horses, asses, and mules, 
 bring them up to the door of the convent of St. Anthony, near St. Mary's the Great- 
 There stands a holy priest clothed in his sacred surplice, armed with his consecrated 
 brush, and his tub of holy water, wailing with a solem grimace, the approach of his 
 brother cattle. As they come up, he souses them with his salt brine ; and in retura 
 for his " Benediction of the cattle," receives for each a sum, proportioned (o the 
 zeal or ability of the devotee. This, says Dr. Middleton, " procures a revenue suffi- 
 cient to keep no less than fifty idle, kzy, fat monks, for a whole year I" Letter from. 
 Rome, Ti. 14L 
 
2G5 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.. 
 
 Thus I have traced ihe origin of your prominent rites, ceremonies, and custom?. I 
 ought to have added that the pope bears the very title, and office of the ^reat officer 
 of the pagan reUgion, in Rome pagan, namely, Pontifex Maximus, the chiefest 
 pantif. This, true hislor}^ declares to be his genuine founder, — and by no means the 
 humble, and holy St. Peter, who would absolutely have been shocked into a fit of 
 holy zeal against the impious sycophants, had he been hailed Pontifex Maximus, or 
 our lord god the pope Peter. It is well for you, Reverend Fathers, and his " holiness 
 of Rome," that the choleric apostle is not alive, nor among you. For, if he were, he 
 would let you feel the "temporal sword" about your ears; as manfully and sharply 
 as he exercised it in "cutting off the ears" of, by far, your betters, in olden times! 
 
 Thu&, I have shown, I trust, to the American community, that, at the rise of what, 
 Rev. Fathers, j'-ou affect to call the Roman catholic hierarchy, — conversion had become 
 a very different thing from what it was in the days of the holy apostles of our Lord. 
 In their days it was a devout and holy "turning from idols, to serve the living God." 
 But in the early popes' days, it was a conversion from Christianity to the service of an 
 innumerable rabble of saim-gods ! The Romish christians so called, to use the words 
 of McGavin: "instead of converting heathen to the faith, icere, by the influence of the 
 Intter, turned from the faith, and converted to heathenism P' "In point of fact," adds 
 he truly, "idolatry is as palpable at Rome, at this day, as it was in the days of Nero!" 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Picture of the Mass. 
 
 "^l^'dovs Y^^^'''^^ a^iovs Kai SaKfVcov. 
 Mummery worthy of laughter, and of tears!" 
 
 Ar,iphUockius. 
 
 Reverend Fathers : — In my last, I traced the origin of your chief tenets, from 
 prirfanism. The least degree of acquaintance, with your system, and with the reli- 
 gion of Greece and Rome, will satisfy any man of the correctness of my positions. 
 
 I propose as a kind of appendix to this inquiry, to give a picture of a High Mass, in 
 PontifcGlibus ; and our readers will be the better enabled to judge whether the show 
 be christianlike, or pagan, in its every feature: or, rather, whether it does not actually 
 out-pagan every si)ecies of paganism ! 
 
 "• Speotatum admissi, risum tcneatis. aniici ?" 
 
 The Mass includes almo-t the whole oi the Roman catholic worship. Its inventors 
 have lavished their genius in the device of the most singular antic gestures ; and an 
 endless routine of cerem-onies ! Henoe going to Mass include? nearly all a Roman 
 cathoUc's religion, and piety. It is the grand test of discipleship ; and, the evidence 
 of wearing "The mark of the beast in the face, and in the hands !" 
 
 Now, were we to view the Mass as a comparatively innocent innovation, a mere 
 
ROMAN CATHOUC CONTROVERSY. 269* 
 
 idle ceremony, a show to gratify overgrown boys and girls, we should not here notice 
 it. But it is that which you. Reverend Fathers, have substituted for the one only and 
 perfect atonement of Christ.' It is a damning innovation, in as much as it is the 
 substitute of our Blessed Medeemefs perfect righteousness! It takes the entire place 
 of the one and only blessed Savior. And it excludes "his finished work of satisfac- 
 tion on the cross," as cora])letely as does the Koran of Mohammed exclude our 
 Lord from the mosque ! And our proof of this strong assertion is this : — The Mass as 
 you solemnly profess it to be, is, '" the offering up of a sacrifice of human flesh and 
 human blood, for the sins of the quick, and the dead to pacify God?" 
 
 And this substitute of our Redeemer's atonement is not only an anti-christian idola- 
 try, and superstition, as we have in former Letters shown : — ii is a curious show, at 
 which grave christians cannot but smile. And tiius it exmbits " a mummery worthy 
 of laughter, and of tears !" 
 
 The Mass, as viewed by a s])ectator, seems to consist of five divisions. The frst 
 we may call the robing of the bishop in his poniifcais, — which musi: afibivl a highly 
 intcllectu-al, and a purely spiritual feast of soul, to the spectators, — worshippers, sliall 
 I call them ? 
 
 The bishop enters the chapel in a woolen pontifical cope, which has its tail borne up 
 by a chaplain: and going to the altar., he kneels down and says the "introibo, — I 
 will go in, &c." He then walks to the place where the Paramenia (or robes and 
 ornaments) are laid, and seats himself; surrounded by the proper quota of chaplains 
 and deacons; one of whom acts as his prompter, to tell him what to say: and to 
 point, with his finger, to the place in the book where he is to read. Near them, lie 
 the various, solemn paraphernalia, and sacred vessels. 
 
 The attendants having duly put on their sanctified copes and surplices, the bishop 
 rises, and turning towards the altar, says the Lord's prayer secretly. Then crossing 
 himself from his brow to his breast, he says, " God be my helper, &c." And whil 
 the choir responds, he turns towards the altar, between two bearers of wax candles, 
 and says, " the Lord be with you, &c., and other prayers. Then gravely laying 
 aside his pluvial, or cope, he takes the ornament called his planet, approaches the altar, 
 and sits down, while the psalm of the hours is being sung. During the dnging, the 
 holy sandals are brought out : one deacon lifts up the corner of his cope, while another 
 lake^i off the holy man's shoes : then uttering certain prayers, he at last says, " Shoe 
 me with the sandals of gladness!" And the dutiful deacon then puts on the conse- 
 crated sandals. And so he answers this fervent prayer ! 
 
 Then standing up, he says, " O Lord, strip the old man offmc !" The scutifervs, 
 or shield bearer, answers this prayer, by stripping him of his flowing cope. Then 
 looking on his hands, he says, " O Lord, give virtue to my hands!" This grace is an^ 
 swered by another deacon bringing a basin and water to wash his hands, while he sits. 
 The towel and basin are held by the most honorable and exalted layman, who throws, 
 himself on his knees, and pouring out a little water into the basin, he sips and tastes, 
 it. Meantime another of the ghostly menials is taking ofi'llie holy consecrat' •! rings, 
 from the bishop's fingers ; and then the distinguished layman, rendered in mcrtnl by 
 this honor allowed him» with the aid of a deacon, washes the saintly bishop's hands^ 
 dries them, and carries back the basin and towel to the credentia. 
 
 Thus the bishop's feet being shod with the gospel preparation, by the pious act oT 
 putting on sandals ; and the old man being put of, by devoutly pulling off his old 
 woolen cope; and having washed his hands in virtue and innocence, by getting fft«v> 
 
 {i4« 
 
Z/i)- ROMA?f CATHOLIC C0.NTR0TER3T. 
 
 2vashcd in water, — he approaches the rebes, and prays : *' O Lord, put on me the 
 helmet of salvation, &c." At this signal, the paramenta, or robes and ornaments are 
 all brought forward,, with sanctimonious bowing and grimace, — ffteen in number. 
 The bi«:hop approaches,, bows, and kisses five of them, — namely, the amictus, the 
 p^ctoril, and the cross, the stole, and the -pall. All these the deacons receive from 
 the chaplains, one by one, and put upon the bishop. 
 
 And, first, with edifying solemnity, they take the Amictus, and having all kissed it, 
 ihcy put it over the bishop's heatl, and fix it on him. His' head being thus armed 
 with Me shield of salvation, he stands up and prays: " O Lord, clothe me in white, 
 &c." Upon this they put on tlie white surplice. Then he utters another prayer, while 
 all the people look on him with wonderful ])iety and edification, saying, " O Lord, 
 gird me with the girdle of faith, «Scc. On this, in answer to his devout prayer, the 
 ghostly menials take his girdle, and place it round his holy corpo7«fjon, and buckle it 
 in front. Then addressing the cross, the bishop thus prays, — "Deign, O Lord, to 
 fortify me, &c." On this the deacon, in the due exercise of his sacred functions, takes 
 the cross, and holding it up to the bishop to be kissed, hangs it round his neck, so as to 
 make it rest on his holi/ breast. 
 
 Next, the bishop in following up his devotions, sa\-s to the£tole, "O Lord, give me 
 the robe of immortality, &c." The deacon, whose office it is to answer this prayer,, 
 now puts on the robe, nicely adjusting it,, as any mantua maker's maid would do, on 
 his sacred person. Next,.tl4e saintly man pram's, — as he looks on the tmiicella, or little- 
 coat,. — -'Put me in the coat of jocundity, and clothe me, O Lord, with the garment 
 cf joy,: — tunica jucunditatis, &c." Here they put it on hire, fitting it with mantua~ 
 maker like exactness, to his holy neck, and holy hands. He next prays, — " O Lord, 
 clothe me with the garment of salvation, &c." Here they ])Uton liim thedalmatick, 
 or episcopal vestment, with tasteful niceness. The holy man next fixes his devout 
 eyes on the gloves, and prays, — ''Circumda manus, Domine," &c. Clothe my 
 hands, O Lord, with the purity of the new man," &c. On thi.s, the deacon, whose 
 ofRce it is to answer all these devout prayers, first kisses liis right hand, and puts a 
 glove on it, then k!«:ses the left, and puts a glove on that; and so he clothes his hands, 
 with lieavenly purity ! 
 
 This being over, the bishop prays another new prayer, saying, " O Lord, thy yoke 
 is eas3'," &:c. On this, the spiritual menials who are illuminating the congregation 
 by all this sublime play, take the bishop's ornament called ''the planet,'^ and put it 
 on, bringing it back, so as to give his arms free exercise. The pall is next brought ; 
 the deacon takes hold of it by the cross an the right side : and the sub-deacon by the 
 cross on tlie left side, and' hold forth the cross in the middle, that the bishop may kiss^ 
 it: tnen, while he mumbles a juayer or two, they put it round his neck, making part 
 of it on the left ehoulder to lie double: and the whole is so tastefully, and so tailor- 
 like put round bis neck, that his arms are not hindered. 
 
 Then comes the putting on of the three thorns with their jewels. This, none but 
 the sanctified and initiated can well describe; ihejirct thorn goes into the breast of 
 the pall: tlie second into the cross on his left shoulder: and the third iuio the cross 
 behind. And these thorns, by the orthodox dressing, must not go quite through the 
 cross ! It is a matter of deep concern to be orthodox here I 
 
 After this, the bishop, speaking io the mitre, says in way of prayer — -'Mitram, 
 Domine, &c. Put on me, O Lord, the mitre, and the helmet of salvation," &l,o. 
 Here ho sits down : and the dutiful and busy deacon devoutly puts the mitre on the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 271 
 
 bishop's head; the sub-deacon as devoutly holding up the glaring baubles, and rib- 
 bons that hang from it. The bishop sitting, prays, '• Decora cordis, &c. Decorate 
 with virtue, O Lord, the fingers of my heart, and body," &c. Here the deacons, in 
 consummating his devout prayer, put the rings on his fingers. Next, the grtmial, a 
 rich piece of silk held by two priests, between the bishop, and the people, when he 
 says the ma^s, is laid on his lap. This done, he prays to the manipulum, or the cloth 
 which is on the left arm, at mass — saying, — "Merear, &c. May I be worthy, I pray 
 O Lord, to carrN' the manipulum, with a mournful spirit," &c. Upon this, the said 
 cloth is put across his arm. 
 
 At this stage of the sanctimonious manoeuvre, the incense is prepared in the proper 
 vessel, with about one dozen gesticulations, and contortions. Then with a nicely ar- 
 ranged procession, the bishop comes to the steps of the altar, and makes a full halt- 
 Here the deacon takes oflT his mitre, and religiously combs back, and smoothes down 
 his hair. Then follows the confessiori of each of this holy confraternity. The bishop' 
 bowing reverentially to the altar, begins the confession of his sins. The deacon kiss- 
 ing the bishop's left hand, goes up to the altar, with the manipulum, and the gospel 
 open in his right hand. The bishop next, with suitable prayers, goes up to the altar, 
 and kisses it with deep solemnity, and also the book of the gospels. Having next ap- 
 proached the horn of the epistle, he takes the incense pot, puts incense into it, and 
 causes the cloud of smoke to cover the altar. And this religious, and very edifying^ 
 service is done thus : — having adored, with profound reverence, the image on the cross, - 
 he whirls the pot of incense three times round it : then he whirls the pot tiirice round 
 the image, and sacred relics, on the right : and then around those on the left, as often. 
 Next he gives three holy swingings of the pot, round the image and relics, near the 
 corner of the epistle : and as many he gives to the horn of the gospel. He then delivers 
 the pot to the deacon, who swings it round the bishop himself, and smokes him 
 efic'ctually ! 
 
 After a number of other edifying gestures, and molions, the bishop is lifted up by 
 the arms, as if he were suddenly become paralytic ; and being on his legs, he as sud- 
 denly gels well. And standing sturdily on his legs, he says the " Gloria Deo, Glory 
 to God,^^ &c., taking care, in the most orthodox manner, to join his hands on his breast, 
 at the word, God. While the choir sings a hymn, he has his mitre and gremial brought 
 to him : they are again taken off him, as the hymn ends. He is again helped on his 
 legs by the activity of the sturdy deacons; and he cries out to the people, — ''Pax 
 vohis, Peace le unto yon ;" and he keeps his hands before his breast, until the edified 
 and devout audience rcj)ly, ''^ And with thy spirit/^ He then says, " Let us pray," 
 and then he goes on with his prayer in Latin, to console and edify those who do not 
 imdcrstand a single word of the mtimmery ! 
 
 After an incredible number of similar gestures, the burning of incense, and kiss- 
 ing of the bishop's hands, and bowing, and reading what they call the gospel, and 
 after the bishop has been again perfumed with incense smoke, and has stood up without 
 mitre and gremial, — he sits down to listen to a sermon. The preacher, now, comes- 
 np, and on his knees adores the bishop, kisses his hand, and asks his blessing. This- 
 he freely gives by making the sign of the cross over him. That finished, with much 
 gesture and bowing, the preacher gives the bishop his absolution, &c., Sec. 
 
 Second: Tiie bishop or priest sings five psalms : then uncovers, combs down hia 
 hair, and washes his hands. Next comes the sprinkling of holy waters and singing 
 the introitus, as the bishop approaches the altar. After a great many gestures, agaia 
 
272 nOMAIT CATHOLIC CO.tTROVERST* 
 
 airoitly performsd, there is much chaunting. A linen cloth full of pictures is carried" 
 as a canopy over the bishop, by four sturdy ecclesiastics. Here again follow incense,, 
 and chaunting. There is the gradual, and the hallelujah : and the tractus, — so called 
 from the long, drawling tone, and nasal twanging of the priests affecting much sorrow, 
 as they sing it. 
 
 The third partis ike constcration, more properly so called. The gestures, and par- 
 ticularly the bowings, and adoration here are not easily recounted. The sub-deacon 
 puts on a long veil ; takes the patiyi with two choice hosts, or wafers, and the chalice ; 
 and coverin/them with the veil, goes up with them to the altar, following the bishop. 
 Another brings the wine and water. The bishop now puts on his ejAscoyal ring and 
 mitre, and couaes to the altar. At the altar, his mitre is taken off; and he adores with 
 lowly bowing to the altar. The deacon now takes one of the hosts, and touching the 
 vatin and chalice with it, inside and outside» makes the sub-deacon taste of it. The 
 other host he offers to the bishop, who takes it with both hands, and holding it up 
 before his breast, repeats the prayer, " O Lord accept it," &c. This is called the 
 Offertory, fromits being offered to God; and from the people's making an offering of 
 gifts to the priests. 
 
 The priest before he offeio the host washes hl^ hand? a second time. In the interim, 
 the deacon throws over the altar a clean linea cloth called corporale, or palla, because 
 they say, it covers Christ's body. The chalice is also covered with another palla, or 
 corporale. The deacon having pres-nted the patina, with the host upon it, to the 
 bishop, also presents the ?u..lice, iu vv hich the priest mbces wine, and water, and con- 
 secrates it. In the consecration, the water only is blessed by the priest when mixed, 
 not the wine, because the wine they say, represents Christ, who needs no blessing. 
 The host is placed on the altar, between the chalice and the priest, to intimate that 
 Christ is mediator between God, (v^-ho, they say, is represented by the priest,) and the 
 people, which the water in the cho.lice, as they say, represents. The priest agfJ a 
 perfumes the altar and sacrifice, three times in ibe manner of a cross; bows : iriself, 
 and kisses the altar, and repeats very softly the prayer which they call secreia ; rtiough 
 this prayer Is said in silence, yet the conclusion of it is uttered with a loud voice Per 
 omnia secula seculorum. Then follows what ihey call prafatio, which begins AWth 
 thanksgiving, and ends with the confession of God's majesty. The minds of the people 
 are prepared v% irh these words, Lift up your hearts. The answer to v.-hich is, ff'e 
 lift ikizm up unto the Lord. Then is sung the hymn, Holy, holy, holy. Lord God, 
 &c. Heaven and earth is full of thy glory. Then follows the hymn Hosanna, and 
 next the canon, v/hich is also called Actio, (because it is a giving of thanks) which 
 is uttered with a loud voice. The canon, besides thanksgiving, consists of various 
 prayers for the pope, cardinals, bishops, kings, all orthodox christians, gentiles, Jews,- 
 &c. These, also, are particularly remembered for whom the sacrifice is to beoffered,. 
 and their names rehearsed. Prayer is also mL 3 for those that are present at mass ; 
 and for the bishop himself. Then mention is made of the Virgin, the apostles, evan- 
 gelists, and martyrs. Next, after many crossings, follows the solemnity of the conse- 
 cration of the host, by the pronouncing aloud these words, ''Hoc est corpus meum:'' 
 This is my body ; to which the people answer, Amen. The priest now falls dov/n on 
 his knees before the consecrated host, and worships it, offers prayers to it, and, rising 
 . «p, he elevates it, that it may be adored by the people. Then after seven several 
 croisings of the /losf, and chalice, this part of the mass is concluded with prayers for the 
 
ROMAN CATaOLIC CONTROVERSY. 273 
 
 dead, and the people's ofTerings of money to the priest, as a reward for his prayers in 
 behalf of their dead friends, for their delivery out of purgatory. 
 
 The fourth part of the mass begins with the pater nosttr, and some other prayers. 
 The sub-deacon delivers fhe patina covered to the deacon, who uncovers ii, and de- 
 livers it to the priest, and kisses his right hand. The priest kisses the patina, hreak» 
 the host over the chalice, and puts a piece of it in the wine, to show that Christ's 
 body v/as not \vithout blood. Then the bishop pronounceth a solemn berjediction. 
 Next is iung the hymn Ague Dei, that is, O Lamb of God, that taJcest away the sin 
 of the world. Then the kiss of peacie is given, according, as they aiiege, to the 
 aposrle's commands, Salute one another with an holy kiss. 
 
 Tiieffth, and last part of the mass, contains their communion. The priest, or 
 bishop communicates first himself. He takes the one half of the host for himself, 
 the other half he divides into two parts, the one for the deacon, the other for the sub- 
 deacon. Next, the clergy, and monks communicate; and after them, the people; 
 but they have only the consecrated wafer allowed them, and put m their mouths, the 
 cup being withheld from them, and drunk by the priests, or clergj' alone. The priest 
 holds the chalice with both hands, and drinks three times, pretending thereby to signify 
 the Trinity! The whole is concluded with what they call ]iost-cor.imunion, which 
 consists in thanksgiving, and singing of antiphonits. The priest then kisses the altar, 
 and removes again to the right side of it, where having uttered some prayers for the 
 people, and blessed them, the deacon with a loud voice, cries, "/^e, missa est,'' that is^ 
 " Go in peace, the host is sent to God the Father, to pacify his anger." See StepK 
 Durant de Rit. Ecclesia?. lunocentlll. de Mj^st, Missfs. Bernard. deOffic. et Gabriel. 
 Bicl. de Canone Missa?. See also Dr. M. Geddes' Works on Popery, vol. iv. p. 
 206, &c. 
 
 Such, ch'islian reader, is a faint outline of the chief parts of the mass. To com- 
 prehend the imposing puerility, you must see it. I repeat nothing ot what we said of 
 its idolatry, and outrageous insult offered, by it, to the one holy, and all perfect atone- 
 ment of our blessed Redeemer ! I now speak of it as a splendid compound of impo- 
 sition and quackery, and childish inventions, played off, upon an ignorant, gaping 
 assemblv by large, and bearded youths; each of whom, as a sophomore, is taught to 
 stru;. his boyish parts on the ecclesiastical stage of the consecrated theatre ; and to go 
 through his ghostly pantomiine, without laughing outright I And who are each of 
 them nearly ready, as hopeful, bearded boys, to be transferred to the Jtntjordepartm.ent, 
 to studv the first elements of logic, and common sense; and con over the primar^j 
 parts of the gospel theology I 
 
 I appeal, from you. Reverend Fathers, to the enlightened, and Inghly intelligent 
 American community. And I beg ihem to decide whether the mass be not wholly 
 thp. mventionof Romish priestcraft, throwing completely into the shado, all the idol- 
 atry, superstition, and ghostly manipulation ever known, or ever heard of, in Greek 
 and RoLiaii paganism ! 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, vours, &e. 
 VV. C. B. 
 
274 ROMAN CATHOLIC CO.VTKOVERSr. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 TO TUZ LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IV THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the Idolatry and Superstition of Poptry. 
 
 '• Confounded be all they that serve jraven Image*; that boast themselves of idols: wor- 
 ship Him, all ye gods!" Pb. xc. T. 
 
 Reverend Fathers : — In tFacing, by the light of scripture and history, the true 
 origin of your church, its doctrines, and rites; and in demonstrating its pagan pater- 
 nity, it would be unpardonable to omit the most striking and irresistable demonstra- 
 tion of this, set glaringly before all eyes, in its idolatr}-^ and superstition. 
 
 Thert is a six-fold idolatry which I charge upon you. Fathers, and your ehurch of 
 Rome. And, before God, and the enlightened American community, I offer to make 
 good this charge. First, your worshipping o[ images. Second, your worshipping of 
 saints. Third, your worshipping oi relics. Fourth, your worshipping of the cross, — 
 the wood of the cross. Fifth, your worshipping of the host, or the consecrated wafer. 
 Sixth, your worshipping of the sacrament, under the name of St. Sacrament. Your 
 Reverences will, of course, patiently hear me on each of these, in order. 
 
 By idolatry is meant the ascribing of divine honor of latreia, to idols and other 
 objects, and the worshipping of God by images. If there be meaning in words, this 
 is condemned and proliibitcd by the law of God. " Thou shall not make unto thee 
 any graven image," — that is, as all admit, for religious uses and worship. " Thou 
 •halt not bow down thyself to them," — that is, in adoration offered to them, or hefor© 
 them." And, Reverend Fathers, the reason is obvious, why your Trentine council 
 crowded tiiis precept out ; and why others of your writers cram it into a corner, not, 
 if possible, to be visible, or to stand out openly, as a commandment. Hence the third 
 commandment is your second one. I beg leave to quote other passages of God's law : 
 ■' Cursed be he that maketh a carved image ; or molten image, which is an abom.i- 
 nation to the Lord, — and setteth it up in a secret corner; and all the people shall say 
 amen!" Deut. xxvii. 15. This doctrine pervades the whole of the Old Testament. 
 And even your own Apocrypha utters the following words on your ears : '* Cursed 
 is the idol that is made with hands, yea, both it, and he that made it." Wisdom, ch. 
 xiii. and xiv. In the conclasion, the author of this portion of your "sacred canon," 
 says that the honoring of abominable images "is the cause, the beginning, and the 
 end of all evil ; and that the worshippers of them are either mad, or most wicked." 
 And you cannot be ignorant, Fathers, that this same "canonical book" of your church 
 says, — "The painting of the picture, and the carved image with diverse colors 
 enticeth the ignorant, so that he lionoreth and loveth the picture of a dead image, 
 that hath no soul." Now, it is quite manifest that this sensible writer must hare 
 looked often in^o a pagan temple: — if not, in a shrewd vision, into a Pepish chapel, 
 and seen the paintings, and statues of the worshipped saints; and flaring, party 
 colored robes of the "adored bishops and priests!" He adds the following bold and 
 thundering denunciation : read it. Fathers, and let all your flocks read it. They that 
 love such evil things, they that trust in them, they that make them, they that favor 
 them, they that honor them, — " Shall feel a judgment worthy of God,'' — even.^ex- 
 treme damnation upon them.''' — Wisdom, ch. xii. 26, 27, and xv. 4, 6. 
 
ROMAF CATHOLIC COKTROVZRST. Mi D 
 
 In a word, it is the one grand, pure, and simple doctrine of the Bible, that we 
 "Should worship the Lord our God ; and serve him alone.'" And the second grand 
 item is this. — Thou shalt not make, nor use paintings, and images, to worship God 
 by them. " Take good heed, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the 
 Lord spake unto you in Horeb; — " lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make unto you a 
 graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male, or female ."* Deut. 
 iv. 15, 16. 
 
 Reverend Fathers, is it possible that you can be ignorant of these passages of God's 
 holy word ? Can bishops possibly be so ignorant, as not to know that Almighty God 
 has uttered this against the pagans, and against you, their too faithful descendants? 
 
 Some of your more sober writers really have tried to defend your system oHdolatnj. 
 '■'We do not worship figures, these painted eaints, these statues: we vvorship God, 
 through them." 
 
 How deeply you are dyed in paganism ! This was exactly what the heathen said, 
 — "We do not worship these statues, but our gods through them." "But I beg two 
 replies to this your defence: 1st. In addressing a saint through his statue, it is 
 supremely absurd to say that you worship God through that statue. You pray ; not 
 to God, but to a dead man, or a dead woman! In praying to, and adoring a dead 
 man, you are as guilty of idolatry, as in praying to a stump of wood, carved into a 
 Madonna! But, 2d. God has prohibited in the most positive terms, the use of images, 
 in his pure and spiritual worship. He has not only said : " Me only shalt thou wor- 
 ship; and have no other God before me:" but be has also uttered the most solemn 
 command " not to make any graven image ; nor to bow down to it, or before" it, in his 
 worship. 
 
 Ag-ain, the champions of your renovated paganism say "We are not idolaters ; wc 
 distinguish between latreia, and douleia : the fi.rst, and highest worship, we render to 
 God only : the latttr, or the lower, we may, and do apply to the creature." To this 
 we reply, that these iivo words are used reciprocally, both by sacred and classic 
 writers. The Hebrew word, to serve God, is rendered sometimes by latreia, and 
 sometimes by douleia, by the Seventy. See Exod. iv. 23, and xxiii. 25. In theso 
 texts they use latreia to express the holiest service of God. In Deut. xiii. 4, and 
 many other places, they use the word douleia to express the same divine servic«. 
 And, Rev. Fathers, if you will look into Laurent. Valla's Annot. in ch. iv. of Mat- 
 tiiew, you will perceive that he proves beyond gainsayiug, that these two words have 
 no difference in their meaning, and application to divine worship. This also i« 
 admitted by your own Nich. Sarrar. in Litan. 2, Quest. 27. And by Mouline de 
 Novit. Pap. L. vii. cap. 13. I have only to add here tJiat St. Augustine is considered 
 the one who first cometZ this distinction, where no diffl'rence exists. But like your- 
 selves, — Fathers, and your priests, he ivas no Greek scholar, as he himself frankly 
 confesses in tln^se words; " Ego, quid Gra;C8e linguae perparum assecutus sum,et prope 
 nihil.'' Aug. Cont. Petit. Lib. ii. cap. 28. Cont. Fau^t. Lib. xx. cap. 2L And this 
 is not all ; that good Father never intended the distinction now used in the popish 
 sense. He actually confesses that both the terms belong only to God : " The one,— 
 says he — " is due to him, as our Lord ; the other to him, as our God." And you arc 
 well aware that St. Paul, in describing his own character and office, calls himself, 
 doulos, a servant of Christ. And surely, he did not thereby give Christ the inferior 
 worship. 
 
 Farther, to establish our point beyond the gainsaying of every Roman writer, let mc 
 
276 ROMA-V CATHOLIC CU>'TROrKRST. 
 
 t3nly say that when the devil tempted our Lord, it was not the higher order of worship, 
 the latreia, that he demanded ; nor did he himself pretend to be God ; he would have 
 been content with "a little religious worship, a little prostration;" just exactly such 
 as you exhibit in bowing down to idols. And yet Christ says to him, — " Get thee 
 behind me, Satan : for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
 oidy shalt thou serve." You need not, — you cannot reply to this, by alledging that 
 it was the devil that demanded the ivorship : but that you profess to demand worship 
 to sainVs itiiages. To this I reply, by reminding you of St. Paul's words in 1 Cor. 
 X.19. 20, that what "the gentiles sacrificed to their idols, they sacrificed to devils.'" 
 Your idols, Rev. Fathers, are just as much devils, as are the idols of the Gentiles. 
 And if Christ refused the " lower worship," as you call it, to the devil ; then is every 
 christian bound to refuse your " lower worship," to your newly baptized "-devils!'^ 
 I crave pardon. Rev. Fathers, if I have not spoken in plain enough and sober terms, 
 to you. 
 
 The more grave of your writers nov admit, that it is a vile species of idolatry to 
 make images of God ihe Father, and of the Holy Spirit. And well may they do so. 
 For it is impossible to represent in visible materials, the invisible God. Every image 
 of this nature, does represent the Deity infinitely different from what he is. Hence 
 these images are designated by divine inspiration, " a lie." For they utter the most 
 glaring, and most pernicious FALSEHOOD, that can possibly be conceived. Rom. i. 25. 
 ^'They changed the truth of God," the true representation of the infinite and omni- 
 present one, " into a Zie, and worshipped, and served the creature, more than the 
 Creator." 
 
 But youinsiston making, and adoring images of Christ: and you carry this into 
 practice to such an extent, that these images, and those of the Madonna and the child, 
 are as numerous in your chapels as the Jupiters, and Venus, with her Cupids, were 
 in the pagan temples of old. Now, any image you can make of Christ, must exhibit 
 an imaginary countenance, and features; no man, or church on earth, has retained 
 his true likeness. As portraits, or statues of him, therefore, what you show off', are 
 actually mere fictions; mere impositions; and they are, like all idols, a lie. Besides, 
 no christian in his sound senses ever did, or ever will worship the manhood of Jesus 
 Christ. We worship him exclusively, and only, as ''the eternal Son of God,^^ or 
 "//te Great God our Savior,'^ And in this character, in which we do worship him, 
 no image, no paintina", no similitude, ever can be made of him. A few rude materials 
 of straw and dust, can never represent the invisible, eternal, and omnipresent Deity ! 
 To worship an image of a man, which you are pleased, without reason, or propriety, 
 to style a '* Christ," is the grossest idolatry ! And according to the above argument, 
 it is doubly "a lie."' First, as to his manhood: and second, as to his Godhead! 
 Hence our answer to your vulgar reason, in behalf of using images, — namely, that 
 they are "picture books,"—" the instructive books," to lead and guide the illiterate 
 and vulgar into truth : — " and that they exhibit, at one view, what it would take vol- 
 umes to express." Yes ! they are the illiterate man's picture books : but they mis- 
 lead, and impose on him most scandalously. They are the infamous tools of a 
 reckless pagan priestcraft, to crush intellect, reason, knowledge, piety, and if possible, 
 the pure christian religion! Yes! — "They are the books of the unlearned." And 
 be it so : — but whoever saw a man in his senses, fall down, and worship, and pray 
 to ''his books,'' out of which he was reading ! 
 
 I beg leave to extend my remarks also to the images of your saints, — namely, 
 
ROMA>T CATHOLIC COMtROVERSt. 277 
 
 fiedd men, and dead ivomen ! Do you pretend to worship their dead bodies, or their 
 living S(juls ? Not their bones, and dust surely ! If so, avow it openly. But how 
 can you pretend to make an image of a soul, now in heaven! Do you believe that 
 these rude, material images represent the invisible soul? No! Then, surely, they 
 resemble not the body of the deceased: for you have lost the true likejiess of St. 
 Peter, and St. Paul, and ten thousand others of your adored saints. And I am sure 
 you will all admit that these images represent not the human soul. Here, then in 
 both cases your images are an utter " lie !" And, of course, they convey to the minds 
 of your illiterate, and degraded victims, the very falsest impressions which can, even 
 by Salan, be conveyed to mortals! 
 
 •■ Image worship, and image use, in chapels are, therefore, not only without authority 
 from God's law, but absolut'^'ly against the very spirit, and letter of it. 
 
 The man's intellect must be only a single, visible point above rationality, who can 
 persuade himself (a thing which none of you. Fathers, nor any rational man, in the 
 ranks of the priesthood, ever for a moment believed,) that St. Peter, or the Virgin, 
 can be every where present, to hear their million of votaries! How can the saints, I 
 pray you, hear a million of diflerent supplicants, in all parts of the world, at the 
 same moment I If they cannot ; and if they need to be told by God that such a one, 
 is, that moment, praying to them, then they cannot, without God, do any thing for 
 them! Nay, even if God told tbem, they could not listen, or attend to a million at 
 once! And I put it to you, if. in that case, it be not infinitely more proper, to refer 
 all the intercession to our Lord Jesus, whose infinite merits can certainly admit of no 
 addition, and of no human, or angelic help: and to go directly to God, who 
 only can hear, and loill hear ; and can help, and ivill help, those who come unto 
 him through Christ. Why seek helpless aid, when we have omnipotent aid, at 
 hand! 
 
 An instructive anecdote is recorded in the history of the ancient house of Gordon. 
 A faithful, old tenant had got into ditficulties ; and could not pay his rent. He went, 
 first, to the under, and then to the chief factor. They spoke roughly to him, and 
 would make, or accept of no compromise : the loss of his cattle, and the failure of the 
 crops, were nothing to them. They demanded the full rent, under the pain of being 
 imprisoned, and all his goods sold, and his family turned out of doors. In his cala- 
 mity, he resoh^ed, in despair, to make his way to the Chief. He pressed into the very 
 presence of the Duke, and implored his pity, and interposition. His grace no sooner 
 heard him, than he kindly offered him all the relief he solicited. As he showed him, 
 on his de|)arture, the paintings, and statues in the chapel of the castle, honest John 
 Gordon asked his Chief " what was the use of these gaudy figures ?" Now the Chief 
 was a papl^t ; and he reproved John's ignorance very heartily ; and chid him for not 
 knowing that these "were St. Peter, and St. Paul, and the Holy Virgin." *'Antl 
 what can ye possibly do \vi' them a'?" cried the plain Scottish Protestant. "Why, 
 John, I pray to them to intercede for me with Christ, and his Father!" "Ah! gude, 
 my Lord, ye're a' wrong. Saving your presence, it is Htter vanity, and worse! Trust 
 to no saint, ray Lord, but go directly to God himself, our Savior. I have tried it just 
 now : these small fry bring no aid : in niy own case, — ye see it. I first tried little 
 vSandy Gordon; anrl I tried mcikle Sandy Gordon, but a' would na' do: but when I 
 came to your own good Lordship, I got the whole desire of my heart! I beg you, my 
 Lord, to go and do likewise." And the honest man's well timed, common sense in- 
 struction was effectually blessed. The family record says that his Lordship was 
 
 25 
 
278 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 awakened, and finally by God's grace converted, and he was the first of that distin- 
 guished long line of that noble Protestant family of Scotland. 
 
 The subject of images, you know, Fathers, has, in your fierce agitations, absolutely 
 deranged the unity of Holy Mother church. You cannot be ignorant that the sen- 
 timents of your sect, are of the most opposite, and discordant nature. 
 
 There are three conflicting opinions in your church ; and I beg leave of you to ask, 
 to which of the three factions, in your Unity, you and your priests belong? Or, are 
 vou as much distracted on this point of idolatry', in these States, as is your broken, 
 and distracted sect in Europe ? 
 
 Bellarmine, and Juenin, you know, divide the popish system on this topic, into the 
 following three classes. The first class use images, but do not worship them. That 
 is, they allow the Romhh superstition, but reject the idolatry of it. According to 
 these, the image has neither sanctity, nor power; they worship the holy One only 
 before the presence of the image. " They honor the images only as the Jew did the 
 Ark, or the christian, his Bible." This marvellously refined superstition character- 
 ized the system of popery, as held out before Protestants. It was professed by Bossuet, 
 Juenin, Gerson, Dupin, Challoner. But as Edgar observes, " they were prudent in 
 publishing their opinions at a due, and respectful distance from Spain, Portugal, Goa, 
 and the Inquisition." See Bellarmine on this. Lib. ii. 20., Juenin, Instit. vol. iv. p. 
 414. Bassanus, Edit. 1773. And Edgar's Var. p. 402. 
 
 The second faction, in your church, patronize both the idolatry and superstition of 
 Romanism. They offer the lower worship,— the douleia, to the images and paini- 
 ings. This faction is numerous. It boasts of Bellarmine, Baronius, Sanderus, Estius, 
 Godeau, and Spondanus. This, says Bellarmine, was the doctrine of the Nicean council. 
 They held that " images are holy, and communicate holiness ?" They also enacted the 
 curse on those who used pictures only, to assist their memory, a?id not for adoration! 
 Bell. Lib. ii. 20. 21. &c. And Labbeus vol. viii. 700. The council of Trent, which met 
 after the Reformation, professed to follow the Nicean fathers. But, such were the force 
 of lisht, and the influence of literature and philosophy, shining on them from heretics, 
 that the Trentine fathers have been constrained to present a less pagan, and a more 
 rational view of the subject, than that of the Greek council. By the Trent canons, 
 the " worship of the holy images," is made to dwindle into ''honor and veneration.''' 
 Dupin ii. 6.36. Lab. ii. Tom. xx. p. 171. 
 
 The third faction in your church, carry out their theory into the grossest idolatry of 
 paganism. They give the same worship to the images and paintings which they 
 give to the originals ; that is, they give the same solemn adoration to the images of 
 God, and his Son, as that rendered to x\lmighty God, and to Christ himself. To the 
 imao-eof Lady Mary, they give hyperdoulian, or intermediate worship; while that of 
 the saint receives inferior, but still truly divine homage. This is the system of Aqui- 
 nas, Cajetan, Bonaventura, Carthusian, Turrecrema, and the Schoolmen. See Bell. 
 Lib. ii. 20. Aquin. iii; 2.5. Edgar, p. 403. 
 
 Pope Adrian, and the Nicean council, pretend to find proof of this very gross idol- 
 atry, in the existence of the cherubim over the mercy seat; and in the brazen serpent. 
 Is it not amazing. Fathers, that the infallible pope, and these Greek fathers did not 
 happen to discover that these were neither the images of saints, nor the objects of 
 worship ? The cherubim were in the Most Holy place, and never ivere seen by the 
 people. x\nd it surely did not require very profound knowledge of the Bible to disco- 
 ver, that, when the brazen image was made an object of worship by some besotted 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 279 
 
 Jews, it was forthwith dashed into fragments, by one who '» acted rightly in the sight 
 o( God." 2 Kings, xviii. 4. 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, vours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the Idolatry and Superstition of Popery. 
 
 " With crucifixes hung, 
 
 And spells, and rosaries, and wooden saints, 
 Like one of reason reft, he journeyed forth, 
 In show" 
 
 Reverend Fathers :— With your permission, I shall present to the American 
 community, some specimens of the peculiar and gross idolatry of the Romish church. 
 And, through you, I beg my readers to be assured that lam giving specimens of idola- 
 try,— -not of the dark ages,— -but of such as has been perpetuated from antiquity down 
 to our time : — of idolatry practised in our land, in our cities, and in our own days, as 
 you, Rev. Fathers, very well know. And you can assure them past all doubt, on 
 their inquiries made of j^ou, that all I speak on this matter, is the simple unvar- 
 nished truth: that it is all exhibited in your books; sustained by your ghostly power, 
 and practised at your bidding, by the supple priests, and minions of antichrist. I 
 have spoken of your idolatry in the use and worship of images, in my last. I prO' 
 ceed to exhibit your idolatry in the worship of^ saints. I select promiscuously. 
 
 Thomas a Becket is an illustrious saint in your calendar, to whom you pay your 
 worship. So great was his saintship's influence in heaven, for about 400 years, that 
 your " simple faithful" said actually more prayers, and offered more gifts to him, than 
 even to Jesus Christ ! I beg to repeat what I formerly had occasion to quote from 
 bishop Burnet, that "in one year, there was offered on Christ's altar, in his church at 
 Canterbury, about £3; on the Virgin's altar, about £63; and on Becket's altar, 
 upwards of £S32 I Next year, the amount of prayers and donations stood thus: — 
 On Christ's altar, — nothing! on the Virgin's £4, and a few coppers: on Thomas a 
 Becket's, upwards of £954! ! Now, here is a specimen of the prayers which your 
 victims offer up to this knave, who justly fell for the crime of high treason against 
 his lawful sovereign ; but whom you make an inferior g-oi/. "May this communion, 
 O Lord, cleanse us from sin, and by the intercession of blessed Thomas a Becket 
 thy martyr, make us ellectual partakers of this heavenly remedy." Rom. Catli. 
 Missal for the use of the Laity, p. 85. Again : Tu per Thoma? sanguinem. Sec. Do 
 thou by the blood of St. Thomas, tvhich he spent for us, — quern pro nobis impendit, 
 grant that we may ascend whither he has ascended." 
 
 In Scotland, in A. D. 1551, it was taught as salutary doctrine, by the popish priests 
 and prelates, that the Lord's prayer be uttered in devotion to the saints. See Fox, p. 
 1274. Willet, p. 384. To this day you utter Pater nosters to them ! 
 
 Your homage to saints is admirably arranged. Lucian in his Dialogues of the 
 heathen gods, introduces the god Mercury as complaining to Jupiter, with a ruefu^ 
 
280 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 countenance, that he had too many offices, and too much work assigned to him ; thai, 
 as a god, he was killed outright with work and toil ! Now, you have been more 
 judicious than the ancients: you select a potent host of saint-gods; and hence 
 none of them, except the holy Virgin, has got loo much work. St. Dennis takes care 
 of France: St. James, of Sj)ain; St. George, of England ; St. Andrew, of the Scot- 
 tish men ; St. Patrick, of the Irish; St. David, of the Welch; St. Nicholas, or Santa 
 Glaus, besides taking care of the sea, watches over all good Dutchmen; and is, more- 
 over, the patron of all young females, who wish to be married ! St. Anthony, the 
 Abbot, presides over /re and inflammations ; hence in these, and in fires, you rmpTore 
 him, "O St. Anthony, graciously defend us from fire!" St. Anthony of Padua, 
 again, preserves his votaries from ivater, — " O holy Anthony, keep us from drowning !"' 
 St. Barbara takes charge of the faithful in time o^ thunder, and war, — " O holy Bar- 
 bara, pra}^ for us : and keep us from thunder and war !" St. Blass cures all disorders 
 of the throat; and to this saint you have recourse when hoarse, or laboring under 
 colds: — " O holy St. Blass, pray for us, and cure our throats I" St. Lucia takes care 
 of the eyes: and all those who want to have good ej-es, or diseased ones cured, must 
 pray to her: "Merciful and kind St. Lucia, pray for rae and cure my eyes!" St. 
 Agatha cures sore breasts. St. Margaret presides over midwives. St. Ramon, — 
 nobody can tell who he is, — ^but on the ghostly calendar, he is declared to watch over 
 married ladies who are in that state in which all good ladies wish to be, who love their 
 husbands. St. Lazaro is bis kind assistant ; for he takes them off St. Ramon's hands, 
 at the moment when their labors begin. St. Polonia has the care of the human teeth : 
 and all who have the tooth ache, or who want good teeth, devoutly adore St. Polonia I 
 St. Domingo cures /ei-ers: St. Roque wards off" f/iep/ag-i<e.' See Townsend's Travels 
 in Spain, vol. iii. p. 215; Cramp, p. 352. 
 
 This is a very small specimen; but you have saints to ])reside over all diseases; 
 and over all cattle. There is a saint solemnly stationed, you know, over the geese and 
 "pouUrij ; and others over less important matters and animals : all are kindh^ provided 
 for! 
 
 In some instances, our Lord is represented in your pra3'ers, as mediator with the 
 saints, to obtain from them what their votaries ask. For instance, under the name 
 of St. Wenefride, you have this prayer drawn up for your victims: "O blessed St. 
 Wenefride, hear the prayers and receive the humble supplications of thy devout pil- 
 grims, and obtain, by thy pious intercession, that God will be pleased to grant us a 
 full pardon and remission of sins; that we may increase and persevere in God's grace, 
 and enjoy eternal life with him in heaven. This tee beg of thee, O blesred Virgin, 
 and martyr, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.'' Here she is put in the place of God, 
 the Father; and she is implored to grant the favor /or Christ, the hittrcesfor's sake / 
 This is copied from a book published by the papists in Britain, in A. D. 1817. See 
 Glasg. Prot. vol. i. chap. 47. 
 
 The following is the prayer used at the consecration of images, by pope Urban VIII. 
 taken from the Roman Rituale. "Grant, O God, that whosoever, before this image, 
 shall diligently and humbly, on his knees, worship and honor thy Son, or the Virgin^ 
 or the saint," (as the image may be,) " he may obtain, by his, or her, or their merits 
 and intercession, grace in this life, and eternal glory in the next !" Now, we ask in 
 the words of an eminent writer,—^' if this be not idolatry of the grossest nature, let the 
 church of Rome show us ivherein the worship of Jupiter and Apollo ivas idolatry.'' 
 One word more in reference to the common band of all the saints;— each of them, 
 
 I 
 
RQMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 281 
 
 individually, is invoked as a god: and the Almighty is implored for the sake o{ their 
 merits, to grant all blessings. Here is a specimen of the whole, or All-Saints, taken 
 from " ihe Roman Missal, for the use of the laity,'" London edit. 1813. " Oramiis te, 
 tSce. We beseech thee, O Lord, by the merits of thy saints, whose relics are here; 
 and of all of the saints, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to forgive us all our sins. 
 Amen." 
 
 The Hoi V Virgin is your great goddess and queen of heaven! The following is 
 from " the Hours of the Blessed Virgin,'' Paris edit. 1553 ; and it is remarkable only 
 for this, that pope Sixtus IV. has solemnly granted as you well know, 11000 years 
 pardon of sins to all who devoutly say it before her image! — "Ave Maria, hail most 
 holy Marv, mother of God, queen of heaven, gate of paradise, mistress of the world," 
 &c. Again, from the Roman Breviary, Sep. 8, Lee. 6. "Perte, &c. By thee we 
 hope for the jiardon of our sins : and in thee, O most blessed Lady, is the expectation 
 of our rewards." The following I copy from " The devotion of the sacred heart of 
 Christ, with the devotion of the sacred heart of Mary.'' ]2tii Lontion edit. 1821. 
 This book is surpassed in authority, with you, only by the Missal. — For Friday, — 
 *' I revere vou, O holy Virgin Mary, the holy ark of the covenant; and with all the 
 good thoughts of all good men, on earth, and all the blessed saints in glory, do bless^ 
 and praise you infnitely ; for that you are the great mediatrix between - d and nan, 
 obtaining for sinners, all they can ask, and demand of the blessed Trinity! 
 
 Millions of such prayers arise daily from the baptized paganism, w hich you are 
 pleased to call your church. And yet, after all, these are not the most offensive, or 
 blasphemous. I appeal to the pages of one of your saints, which I have repeatedly 
 quoted ; and beg leave, again, to quote, in order to sustain this heavy charge. I allude 
 to St. Bonaventure, whom you worship on the 14th of July, — a day sacred to his 
 service. — "Jure matris, &c. By the rights of a mother, order thy beloved Son, our 
 Lord, &c. impera filio tuo, &c." Cor. Beat. V. Tom. 6. Roman Edit. 1588. 
 Aguin, — " Ora patrera, jube natinriy'r— "O felix puerpera, <^c. Pray to the Father, 
 command thy Son." " O hapjiy Mother of God, atoning for our crimes, by the rights 
 of a mother, order tliy Son, the Redeemer, — uostra pians scclera, jure matris impera 
 Redernptori ! !" I have thus given the original, that all may judge of the translation 
 I give. See Hist. Sec. Char. August. De Com. B. Virg. And to crown the climax 
 of the most shocking and revolting idolatry, compared to which, that of Greece and 
 old Rome was tame and moral, — for they never placed their Venus, or Diana, or any 
 female deity, above their Ju|)iler, — your Saint Bonaventure has written "the Psalter 
 of the l^ady Mary," in which he hns ndnpied the psalms to the worship of Marv; by 
 insert inir instead of Lord and Cod, the name f)f Mary, and our Lady ! Here is a 
 specimen , — " In thee, O Lady, do 1 put my trust; let me never be confounded." Ps. 
 Ixviii. opens thus : — " Let our Lady arise, let her enemies be scattered." Psalm xcv. 
 thus opens, — "O come, and let us sing unto our Lady : and make a joyful noise unto 
 the Uiieen of our salvation!" One instance more ; the 1 lOth Psalm o})ens thus,-^ 
 "TIh! Lord said unto my Lady, sit ihou on my right haiid, until I ^nake thine ene- 
 mies thy footstool !" — And yet. Fathers, you gravely call yourselves christians ! Nay, 
 you allect to be the only pure, apostolic church ! " O judgment, thou hast fled to 
 brutish beasts; and men have lost their reason !" 
 
 But, even all this idolatry, horrible as it does appear, is not the icorst ! You 
 pay adoration to the relics of the saints. You venerate old bones, old chains, old 
 garmillis, and the coals which burned certain suiiits! Yes! to u^e the words of 
 
 23* 
 
282 ROMAN CATHOLIC COIfTROVERST. 
 
 bishop Hall, Works, folio, p. 630, who quotes the idea out of Erasmus, you havo 
 among your worshipped relics, "St. Francis' cowl; St. Anna's comb; St. Thomas' 
 shoes; St. Joseph's breeches; and a piece of the Virgin Mary's green petticoat!" 
 These you devoutly venerate ! Verily " to be grave defies all length of face !" You 
 religiously venerate, in certain of your churches, in Europe, to this day, says bishop 
 Hall, St. Martin's boots: St. George's scabbard: St. Crispin's paring knife; ^he 
 parings of vSt. Anthony's toe nails ; and the tail of the ass which carried our Lord ! 
 In France they have /owr heads of St. John; and in Rome, says Dr. M'Culloch, 
 Jive pilgrims arrived with a budget of relics, for the faithful : among which each of 
 them had afoot of the <iss, which carried our Lord into Jerusalem! Popery Con- 
 demned, vol. i. 
 
 But the cross, even the wood of the cross, is in great request among you. No chapel 
 is thoroughly consecrated, unless it have a bit of the holy timber. 
 
 Now, I particularly beg your attention to two things relative to this affair. 1. You 
 adore the loooden cross itself 2. You render it not the inferior, but the superior ado- 
 ration ; that is, latria : which is precisely the same as that which, you sclmit, dees 
 belong to Almighty God. This doctrine is sustained by the highest authority of your 
 church. St. Thomas i\quinas says, — "If we speak of the very cross, on which 
 Christ was crucified, it is to be worshipped with divine worship, &c. " Wt both speak 
 to the cross, and pray to it, as if it ivere Christ crucified on it:' P. 3. Qu. 25. 
 Art. 4. 
 
 " The Roman Pontifical, revised and published at Rome,'' in 1595, by order of pope 
 Clement V^IIL, contains "the order for the processional reception of the Em],eror." 
 Here are the words I allude to ;— " CruK legati. &lc. The cross of the legate, because 
 latria is due to it, shall be on the right hand; and the sword of the Emperor on his 
 left." Folio copy, p. 672. Finch, p. 289. 
 
 The following are the prayers oflered up to the ivooden cross: — "O crux, &c. O 
 cross, only hope ! hail ! In this glory of thy triumph, give an increase of grace to 
 the pious ; and blot out the crimes of the guilty." "Exalt, of the cross, Sept. 14." 
 Again, on the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30. you teach your deluded victims thus to 
 pray, — " O bona crux, &c. O good cross, who hast obtained comehness and beauty 
 from the Lord's limbs, receive me from men, and restore me to my Master." And 
 this adoration of the cross may be seen in our cities, on Saturday in Passion week. 
 The priest uncovering the cross, says, " Ecce lignum, «Scc. Behold the wood of the 
 €ross !" Then the chorus sing out, " Come let us adore !" And all fall down and 
 adore the wooden cross ! In another part of the ceremony, he proceeds to the middle 
 of the altar, and uncovers the cross totally, as he cries aloud, — " Ecce lignum, &c. 
 behold the ivood of the cross, on ivhich the salvation of the ivorld hangs! Come let us 
 ndore .'" Then bearing the cross to another place, he kneels, and places it there. 
 Then putting off his shoes from off his feet, he approaches "to adore the cross,"— 
 kneeling three times before he kisses it! Then after him, come the other clergy, and 
 laitv, two by two, who kneel thrice, and adore the cross, — adorani crvcem ."' See 
 Rom. Missal. Dubl. Edit. 1795. "The Roman Missal, for the use of the laity," 
 has omitted the closing part of this idolatrous ceremony, — because it is a translation, 
 in English; and is given to the Protestant public. Finch, p. 291. 
 
 The worship of the consecrated wafer has been repeatedly noticed, as a prominent 
 part of your idolatry. You convert it, by the muttering of ^'■hoc est corpus,'' into 
 the Host; thai is the hosiia, or victim to be offered up in sacrifice for the quick, and 
 
KOMAK CATHOLIC CONTROVEHST. 283 
 
 the dead. This idolatry, while it is as palpable, and as brutish as thai which was 
 the reproach of the ancient Egyjnians, is decidedly the most degrading in all the his- 
 tory of human infamy. The ignorant Egyptian would never degrade himself so low 
 as to eat his idol calf; or his onion god : he could never be so far brutalized, as to 
 become a cannibal; and eat a sacrifice of human flesh! But, j'ou, Rev. Fathers, 
 and your victims, less fastidious, make your bran god; then adore him; and, then, 
 tat him up! You convert the 67*an g'orf into human flesh, and human blood; and 
 then, like cannibals, you eat this human flesh, and drink this human blood ! 
 
 Then, only think of the prayer which you offer up to this ivafer god, before you 
 despatch him into the stomachs of the faithful, and, thence, " into the draught." Here 
 it is; — "O saving Host! thou that openest heaven's door, — the arms of our enemies 
 enclose us; we need thy help: O speedily help us, we humbly implore thee!" See 
 "Manual of godly prayers, and the hymn of Aquinas in it." And Glasg. Prot. 
 chap. 60. 
 
 In fine, being infuriate with the spirit of idolatry, you do actually convert the 
 sacrament into a god! Yes, Fathers, you actually worship and adore it, under the 
 name of St. Sacrament! "The manual of godly prayers," contains the litany of 
 this new Roman catholic deity. A few extracts from it will close this Letter. ~ And 
 I request my reader to remember that these prayers are addressed, not to Christ, not 
 to God, but to St. Sacrament; as is evident from the words of a little book published 
 in French, in 1669, entitled, "Practice to adore the holy Sacrament," which begins 
 thus, — "Praised and adored be the most holy Sacrament of the altar !" Here is a 
 part of the litany; — "Bread corn of the elect, have mercy on us! Wine budding 
 from virgins, have mercy on us! Fat bread, and the delight of kings, have mercy 
 on us! Supersubstantial bread, have mercy onus! Word made flesh dwelling 
 i:* us, have mercy on us I" 
 
 To understaud this last phrase, we have only to remember that they had swallow- 
 ed the wafer ; and that wafer, being the body and blood, sovl and divinity of Christ, 
 was in their stomachs, at the moment of uttering this extraordinary prayer ! 
 
 " Sacrifice, of all others most holy, have mercy on us! Dreadful, and life-giving 
 sacrament, have mercy on us ! Unbloody sacrifice, have mercy on us .'" 
 
 Such are a few specimens of your unparalleled idolatry and superstition ; as they 
 are believed and practised by you, this day, in our cities ; and over the land. Yes! 
 such is the idolatry and superstition of your harned priests; and ''highly polished, 
 gifted, and accomplished bishops,"' whom one of the editorial corps, the other day, 
 called " the ornament of letters, and the glory of our land !" I rest my appeal, with 
 the enlightened American community, if the idolatry and superstition of your soi- 
 disant christian church, do not utterly eclipse, and completely throw into the shade, 
 the foulest idolatry and superstition, of the most pagan lands, in their most pagan 
 condition ! 
 
 I am, Reverend Fathers, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
334 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVKRST. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UMTED STATES. 
 
 On the internal symptoms of certain decay, and jinal ruin, in Popery. 
 
 " Babylon the great is fallen, — is fallen! Her sins have rcaciied unto heaven; and God 
 has remembered her iniquities !" Rev. xviii. 2, 5. 
 
 Reverend Fathers : — Having done some justice, to your doctrine of the mass, 
 and purgatory ; and having, as you will generou.sly admit, made a fair exhibition of 
 the idolatry and superstition of your church, it may be proper now to notice the 
 symptoms of necessary decay in your novel and sectarian system. Every heresy has its 
 weak side, and vulnerable parts.' Every apostacy from pure Christianity, and your 
 church is the grand apostacy, foretold even to the letter, — has in it the jarring and 
 deadly elements which work its death. The King of Zion has so ordained it. As sin 
 necessarily works death in the human body, even so there is that mortal element in 
 every apostacy which, necessarily, by the laws of immutable justice, worketh its death 
 and extinction. In the natural world, the kind and benignant Deity sends an anti- 
 dote to kill the viper's poison, where vipers al)ijund ; and to neutralize the vegetable 
 and mineral poisons, where these exist. Even so it is in the spiritual world. No 
 error, no heresy, no apostacy has ever yet appeared, without some potent element of 
 truth set forth ; or some fatal internal disease to work its gradual destruction ! And 
 just in proportion to the greatness of the evil system, so is the remedial element found 
 to be potent and irresistible. The king of Zion is very wit-e, and boundless in mercy. 
 Hence he has ordained, in mercy to a bleeding and agonized world, that when a 
 system, such as popery, or Mohammedanism is the mortal eneniy of the human race, 
 in civil and religious things, — there shall be not only seK remedial elements, but even 
 a suicidal principle embodied in it, by its impious fabricators. 
 
 Now this, if I mistake not, is pre-eminently the case with popery. And you can 
 correct me, Fathers, if in aught I err on this ])oint. There are elements wrought up 
 into your whole system, which are ahsolutely suicidal ; and will, as naturally and 
 necessarily, work the death of the whole system, as God's laws, in nature, produce 
 their own proper effects. And it is a comfort to reflect that tliis process in the moral 
 world, and in religious systems, is just as certain in its effects, as in the natural world. 
 For instance, the systems of the Brahmins, and other pagans, which are founded and 
 sustained by darkness and ignorance of the sciences, must fall to the ground when 
 ever its victims are illumined in tlie arts and sciences of the christian world. That 
 religious system which has, for a part of its solemn creed, a belief that the earth is a 
 vast plain, and not a globe; and that it rests on the back of a huge land turtle, must 
 fall to ruins before the science of astronomy and geography. Even so as certainly 
 must popery fall by its own jarring elements, and the influence of its own corruption. 
 
 Plrst : — Your system lays no foundation for saving faith. This follows as a legiti- 
 mate inference from what we have established in our preceding letters. To the object 
 of divine worship, you add angels, saints, relics, and the wood of the cross, to which 
 you render latria, or the higher worship. In the mass you have an entire substitu- 
 tion of priestcraft, for the one, only, and perfect atonement : in the doctrine of justifi- 
 
ROMAZV CATHOLIC CO.NTROVERST. 285 
 
 cation before God, your church has thrown away the righteousness of Christ, and 
 has substituted good works, as the only meritorious cause of our personal acceptance. 
 Justification b\' our own merits was established in the sixth session of the council of 
 Trent. And your standard writers universally teach the damning error. Moreover, 
 one needs only to open the Roman Missal, in order to see that you otier up prayers to 
 the saints, that God, "through their merits" would deliver you from all sin. I open 
 the book at random, — my eyes have just met this prayer of yours to St. Nicholas, — 
 " O God, grant, that by his merits and intercession we may be delivered from eternal 
 flames." Rom. Mis. for the use of the Laity, p. 527. It is taught by your unblush- 
 ing priests, that the saints have not only merit in God's sight to procure their own 
 salvation, but they have an immense surplus thereof, which they kindly lend to 
 others: and the pope has generously assumed the keeping of this fund; and as 
 generously weighs it out, for ready gold and silver, to the simple faithful ! Hence, it 
 is obvious that (he entire foundation of saving faith is taken away. 1 do not deny that 
 there are pious men in your church ; but if there be, they are where they ought never 
 to be. But that victim of your delusions, who believes as the Roman church believes, 
 and dies in its faith, must either leave heaven, or Jesys Christ must leave it. They can- 
 not possibly live in the same heaven! As surely, then, as Christ's cause must 
 flourish, so surely must popery wither away and perish utterly. 
 
 Second : — The day is coming when the contradictions so glaring in the system of 
 Popery; and its jarring elements, will cause every man of sense, forthwith, to aban- 
 don it, as infamous. A folio volume might be filled with gleanings of these: I can 
 give only a few specimens. The Roman church calls itself chrisiian,— yet there is 
 now, no one doctrine of Christ which it has not altered, and completely changed. 
 "You are saved by grace," says our Lord. " No! ye are saved by your own works, 
 and the merits of the saints!" Says your Lord, the Pope. "By the deeds of the 
 law no flesh shall be justified," says our Lord "By the deeds of the law, all good 
 Roman catholics are justified," says your lord, the pope. "Thou shalt worship the 
 Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve," says our God. "You shall worship 
 and invoke angels and saints, and Mary the queen of heaven, the great mediatrix 
 between God and man," says your god the pope. " By his one sacrifice and one offer- 
 ing, Christ has perfected them that are sanctified," says our Lord." "No! in the 
 mass we offer up continually a real propitiatory sacrifice, to appease God, for the 
 quick and the dead," says your lord, the pope. 
 
 Our God has jirohibited the making of images for religious use and service, and 
 enjoins us "not to bow down to them." "This by no means forbids us to make, 
 and use images in worship,"' savs your lord in the Trentine Catechism, par. iii. sect. 
 33, &c. 
 
 Our God prohibits all images of himself,— '* Take good heed to yourselves, for 
 ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake to you in lloreb, lest 
 ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of ony figure!*^ 
 "No, tliis is not to be obeyed," say your lord, the pope, and the Trentine fathers, — 
 " for no otience is comtiiitted against God's law to express, and shadow out, by signs 
 any of the persons of the Trinity," — "it is lawful to shadow out the Trinity by some 
 figures." See Trent. Catech. ])art iii. sect. 36. p. 350. 
 
 Our God prohibits male and female images to be made, for religious uses, or wor- 
 ship. "Take heed to yourselves, — lest ye corrupt yourselves, — and make the simi- 
 lilude of any figure tlie likeness of male, or female f'' Deut. iv. J5. 16. " This we 
 
2S6 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 do not obey, nor believe," cry your lord, the Pope, and the Councils of Holy Mother, 
 — " We do make, and we shall make, and we shall adore miages of male saints, and 
 of female saints /" 
 
 The regenerate have to mourn the power, and evil fruits of sin that dwelleth in 
 them. "I delight in the law of God after the inner man," says St. Paul, — ''But I 
 see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind ; and bringing 
 me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." Rom. vii. 22. 
 *' This is not true ; it is heresy," — cries your lord, by the voice of the Trent Fathers. 
 '■''There is nothing in the regenerate that God can hate ; and that they are inwardly 
 jmre, and without spot.'' See Concil. Trent. Sess. 5. And while they hold that he is 
 thus "pure inwardl}', and without spot ; and while there is nothing in him that God 
 hates," they teach that, with all this perfection and love of God, " a man doubts, and 
 must doubt, his salvation as long as he is in this life :" and needs purgatory, after all! 
 fSee Trent. Conf. 6. chap. 9. 
 
 It is a standard doctrine of Rome that each of their seven sacraments "conveys 
 grace." Na^s more than that, — in the mass, by the wafer, there is conveyed i?ito 
 each of their church members, a real, whole, and entire Jesus Christ : he is in them. 
 Hence the prayer we formerly noticed in the Litany of St. Sacrameiit, in the 
 Manual of Godly Prayers, — " O word, made flesh, and dwelling in us, have mercy 
 on us." This is addressed to "the Christ fn them," after he is swallowed in the 
 wafer. Now, all men, who choose to say that they are of Holy Mother, — even all 
 who choose to come under the priests' care; even the most infidel, and flagitious who 
 walk the earth, can possess the "real grace," — and what you call the divine and 
 only Savior, as really in them, as food is in the stomach ! And yet, at the moment 
 of taking in this special grace, and real Savior, they are living* in mortal sins against 
 the law of God. And hence, when they die, — they descend, not into purgatory, — 
 that is too good for them; they descend into hell, with the special grace of Saint 
 Sacrament — and with " the real and true Jesus Christ dwelling in them."" That is, 
 they take grace and "the true Savior," to hell, along with them! ! 
 
 Hence, in perfect consistency with all this mass of absurdity and contradic- 
 tion, the lihemish annotators teach, "that wicked men and even reprobates, if they 
 only remain in the public profession of the church;" that is, the Romish church, 
 *' are true members of the body of Christ." Rhem. An. in. Joh. 15, Sect. 1. And 
 therefore, it is of no consequence how a man lives, — the most obstinate unbeliever, 
 the adullei-er, the murderer, the liar, the thief, the perjured, are all safe, if they only 
 ^^2/' — yes, only say it to the priest, that they do belong to "Holy Mother church:" 
 nnd do swallow down into their stomachs " the real Jesusin the wafer," they are quae 
 63fe! They may probably be subjected to a scorching and severe singeing in purga- 
 tory, — but they will certainly for the matter of a few dollars and cents, get out of 
 even that. The Romish church, and doctors laugh to scorn those who teach the need 
 of "saving inward grace, and a new birth." Nothing more is needed, says Bellar- 
 mine, than "the external profession, and their union to Mother church." See Bell. 
 Lib. iii. De Eccles. cap. 2. And we need oaly to add, here, their sentiments 
 respecting the holy scriptures, in which, as we have fully proved, they embrace reso- 
 lutely the most inveterate deism! 
 
 Nothing is more certain, therefore, than this, that the Romish church is strictly 
 and properly speaking the mother of deism. She rejects, and even ridicules that 
 \>'l^icl;i the Bible makes the test of discipleship in th§ christian: — "If any man be m 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC COh'TROVERST. 287 
 
 Christ, he is a new creature." This, to the pope and his bishops, as you well know. 
 Fathers, is a nauseous, and disgusting doctrine. She takes away the very fountain 
 head of purity, virtue, and godliness. Hence she is as much the mother of vice and 
 all abominations, as she is the mothtr of deism ! 
 
 Does any man ask for proof? You can see it on every page of your decretals, 
 canotis, and books of doctrine! You can see it in your late pope's Bull against the 
 Bible, and all Bible societies ! You can see it in the opposition of every Romish 
 priest, directed with a persevering, and rancorous malignity, against the reading of 
 the holy scriptures. You can see it in their diabolical etlbrts to burn every Bible 
 which they can find in the hands of the laity ! You can see it in the flagitious lives 
 of the priests ; especially in all lauds where poepry reigns in power. You know it 
 to be a canon of your house, and a practical law of popery, that priests may keep 
 their concubines : but wo, wo be to those, who shall, like good old St. Peter, marry 
 and support an honest wife ! To live in the damning sin of fornication, ihe Romish 
 church has granted a free canonical toleration to every "holy" priest in her service ! 
 Should the priests dare to marry, they are forthwith guilty of a mortal sin! But 
 should they keep concubines, and frequent the houses which "lead to the chambers of 
 death," they are (piite honest, clean, and pure priests! Nay, Fathers, blush not 
 while you affect lo frown ! I appeal to facts. Every body sees it here. And it is a 
 recorded fact of history, that the priests of Italy, Spain, Naples, Austria, are a con- 
 gregation of whoremongers of the most infamous and unblushing class! Even the 
 nobles of these countries, bad as they are, — blush for them ! — Hence also deism covers 
 these lands. Both priests and the people, of the better and well informed class ; 
 and (hose who read for themselves, are all deists, — nay. Fathers, they are atheists!'' 
 "I mu>.t either worship the virgin Mary, or no one," — said a genteel Italian, to my 
 friend Dr. Avery, while in Rome: "And I chose as a man," continued he, " to- 
 worship no God ! For, if this be the true and only religion, then say I deliberatel}', 
 there is no God!" And thisexpresses the sentiments of nearly the whole body of the 
 middling and higher classes of that community ! It is not in human nature to be 
 otherwise. The master craft of Satan prevails over the human reason and judg- 
 ment, in these jjopish lands of the darkness of the shadow of death. Under the influ- 
 ence of your church's diabolical priestcraft, men are taught, are tempted, are con- 
 strained to reject all that is named christian, by those villainous priests' lips; nay, to 
 laugh to scorn even the existence of a God! I appeal to the most manifest facts of 
 hist(jry ; and what every traveller sees with his eyes; and hears with his ears. 
 Every popish country, thoroughly imbued with popery, is a laud of deism and athe- 
 ism: No sober man ever thinks of doubting it. The priests and bishops, as Mr. 
 Noah, in the Evening Star, justly observed of Bishop England, "are merely men of 
 the world, and politicians.''^ They traffic in the ghostly trade of popery: they deal 
 in masses, and confessions and purgatory for ready money. They care no more 
 for the articles they deal in, than the Yankee does for his wooden nutmegs. Providing 
 they get ready money and can conceal the craft, in order to make another draft on 
 the simple faithful, when they are again in funds, they care for nothing, present, or 
 future ; for nothing in heaven, or in purgatory, or in hell ! ! They laugh in derision 
 at hell, and heaven! It is the trade they have been brought up to; and they follow 
 it as the farmer, or the jockey, or the gambler does his vocation. The sole object of 
 Romish priestcraft is gain, and guilty pleasure ! 
 
 Hence, popery, by its deism and atrocious vices, and its tyranny over the souls and 
 
2S8 ROMAX CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 bodies of men ; and by its systematic robbery of its victims, and exactions for masses^ 
 and at the conftssional, is infallibly working its own ruin, and total downfall. The 
 explosion of the old French Revolution was one legitimate effect of po])ery. It 
 gendered the t/eis/?i of the French ; and thence t'eir af^ejsm. And, like the unguarded 
 man who is blowing up rocks according to rule, it lays the train, unwittingly, to 
 blow itself up, in an hour when it thinks not of it. And just as certainly as deism, 
 the fruits of popery, overturned the house of the Bourbon, Louis XVI ; and just as cer- 
 tainly as the Jesuits' excess of zeal for Holy Mother produced the explosion which 
 drove the priest ridden Charles X. from his throne, — so certainly is popery laying 
 the train over Italy, Naples, Spain, Portugal, and Austria, which will, ere long, 
 produce such another explosion, as Europe has never yet witnessed. For, — 
 
 "There will never be peace while Anti-Christ reigns!" 
 
 I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the aymptoms of decay, and certain ruin, in the Romish church. 
 
 "The Man of Sin, shall be revealed, the Son of Perdition, who, as God, sitteth in tho 
 temple of God, sliowing iiiinself that he^is God." — '2 Thess. ii. 
 
 Reverend Fathers: — In addition to my former tivo specifications, I have^ 
 thirdly, to beg y<n]r patient admission of another severe, but most manifest truth, on 
 this point. It is this ; — The gross immorality of popery, and demoralizing tendency of 
 all its jieculiar tenets, indicate the certain decay, and ruin of that system. 
 
 It were an easy matter to show that the Romish church has, in theory and practice, 
 repealed all, and each, of the ten commandments. In reference to the^rs^ and second, 
 behold your neio go<ls, saints, angels, and images ! The third the}'- abrogate, by 
 giving to their idols, and saints, the divine titles, attributes, and works, — "Holy I\lary, 
 for instance, is Mediatrix between God and man." They appoint days of worsliip, and 
 institute ordinances to adore and praise them, and they swear by them, to the neglect 
 and contempt of ihe only true God. The fourth precept is virtually repealed, by 
 their institution of the days now alluded to, which are kept holier than the Sabbath. 
 By a late bull of the pope, which was published in the Episcopal paper of Philadel- 
 phia, the holy priests are prohibited from going into theatres, on Wednesdays and 
 Fridays; as a mortal sin! But they may go into theatres on the Sabbath day! 
 And this is actually done, as every traveller well knows, in all catholic Europe, and 
 in South America, and even in New Orleans, in our own country! It is, indeed, a 
 matter of recorded history, that just in proportion as popery prevails in any land, is 
 the Sabbaihof the Lord desecrated, and utterly despised! This follows as naturally 
 as our other position, that popery is the parent and nurse of deism ! 
 
 Theffth precept is abrogated by placing the clergy above the law, and without the 
 reach of civil law, and above the judgment bar of the magistracy, in Roman catholic 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 28i.^ 
 
 laads: and by the insolent usurpation of the pope, in setting subjects free from their 
 oath of allegiance to their lawful rulers. This j)ower is acknowledged by all bishops, 
 as you very well know, Fathers. And as soon as you can gain an ascendency, here, 
 you have your secret instructions, you know; and you are bound by your oath, to 
 loose all the citizens from their oath of allegiance to our republic; and to own, as in 
 duty bound, allegiance to the pope, "your only legal superior." This is enjoined on 
 every bishop, in his oath, — namely, to sustain ^;nd support the pope's power against 
 all princes, and presidents ! And thi.^^ you would do, to render God a service by set- 
 ting men free from the power and rule of our magistrates, whom you curse and 
 denounce as heretics ! This, you are aware, is manifest from the words of your oath ; 
 aud from your books. And it has been actually done in every country in Europe, 
 •where the pope has l)een, by the wrath of God, permitted to rivet his galling chains 
 on the neck nf magistrates and people. Hence the cases of king John of England, 
 and the Enineror Henry IV. of Germany, whom he trampled under his feet ! 
 
 " Thou shalt not kill."" — This sixth precept they repeal by opening an asylum to 
 murderers; and preventing mmderous priests from suffering the due penalty of th« 
 civil law; by preaching the doctrine of '* no faith with heretics," and by teaching 
 that it is lawful, and even praiseworthy, in God's eyes to murder heretics, and all 
 enemies of "Mother Church." Hence the applauded assassinations of princes, and 
 other men by your members ; hence your authorized, and applauded massacres, per- 
 eecutious, and inquishions? Popery is a system which patronises murder by whole- 
 sale J And we will show in another Letter, that the scarlet Beast has already on its 
 hands, and its head, the blood of sixty-eight millions of human beings, — murdered in 
 cold-blooded persecutions ! 
 
 The abrogation of the seventh precept is, par excellence, the most noted trait of the 
 Romish church. The scriptures of the New Testament, with all its perfect refine- 
 ment, calls that church " The whore of Babylon ;" " the mother of harlots," — " the 
 mother of fornication." See Rev. xvii. She is shadowed forth as a "drunken wo- 
 juaii, — drunk with the blood of the saints!" Nay, she is — pardon me, I use Bible 
 phrases,—" a Beast in all pollution !" See ver. 3, and 11. 
 
 I have materials in my possession describing the character, and vices of the clergy, 
 which 1 cannot put down in English! It would make even the profligate shudder, 
 and cry out, for shame ! And, if it be so bad to name, — or even to allude to it, — what 
 a horrid sceue would it present, to lift up from the haunts of nuns and monks, the 
 veil which keeps the public from looking, with steadfast eye, at the priests of Rome, 
 as they really are ! I beg leave to refer my reader to the pages of the Romish writer 
 Nich. Ci;:nangis; and to Edgar's Variations, last chapter, on " The ceUbac}' of the 
 Romish clergy." 
 
 It is notoriously known that houses of infamy, are publicly licensed at Rome, by 
 the pope, and that he receives, quarterly, his shares of the wages of infamy and crime \ 
 And did I set down here the materials furnished me by my friend Dr. Avery, who 
 resided a whole winter at Rome, it would fill all honest men with horror at the vices 
 of thf past, and present priesthood of Rome I And yet, one of your own number, 
 bishop England, in vioLuion of all truth, and the dictates of his own conscience, 
 bepraiscs tliese infamous adulterers, and ghostly debauchees, as " holy and virtuous 
 men." — " Heaven save the mark !" 
 
 VVhy. thfi men and women of Sodom and Gomorrah, were quite modest, and vir- 
 tuous personages compared to the priesthood of Rome, in ages past, and at this day. 
 
 26 
 
^90 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 In Spain, the council of Toledo, in its 17th canon, allowed priests to have concultneSf 
 publicly ; but to marry was pronounced, in them, a deadly sin! In many parts of 
 that country, the priests have as numerous families, as any honest men have! They 
 are holy fathers, without ivives! The Roman writer Clemangis says,— "The adul- 
 tery, impurity, obscenity, drunkenness, and reveUings of the clergy, are beyond all 
 description !" See Clcman. 26, Lcnfan. i. 70. Others of their own writers declare 
 the Romish clergy over all England, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, " as a confra- 
 ternity of the filthiest, and most infamous fornicators! SeeBruy. iii. 610. Mezeray 
 IV. 490. GildasEp. 23. 38. M. Paris 8.— "The priests almost universally, would 
 hasten from iheir haunts of infamy, and drunkenness, to celebrate mass," says Lab- 
 beus, "and feared not to touch the body of the Lord, with most polluted hands." 
 vol. XV. 247, and vol. xix. 389. Even "holy" councils treated purity and chastity 
 with bitter sarcasm. These "holy" fathers, wherever congregated in councils, turn- 
 ed the city, where they met, into a Sodom; then with unblushing and diaboHcal 
 assurance boasted of it! After the council of Lyons, for instance, Cardinal Hugo, 
 in his speech to the citizens, had the characteristic assurance to say, — "When the 
 holy council assembled here, you had two or three houses of bad fame. But now. 
 there is only o)U ! But that one extends from the east gate, to the west, without in- 
 terruption !" See Labb. xvi. pp. 1435, 1436. 
 
 In the ccmcil of Basil, the holy fathers taught the theory, which was reduced to 
 practice, in the councils preceding it, namely, those at Lyons, and Constance. It 
 was in that Romish assembly, publicly advocated, that ''houses of infamy wert 
 necesmry and proper!'' And what crowned the climax of damning infamy, — " th» 
 horrible atrocity was sanctioned by the holy, unerring, apostoUc, Roman church." 
 See the fact stated in Labb. vol. xvii. p. 986. 988. And Canisius iv. p. 457. Edgar 
 p. 518. ilence they form a portion of the pope's revenues ! How appropriately she 
 is, by you, baptized,— Ho/i/ Mother! ■ 
 
 The eighth precept is repealed in the Roman church, by turning the temple of God 
 into a ] lace of merchandize. All things have been, and still are, set up for sale at 
 Rome to the highest bidder;— namely, "the priesthood,— bishoprics, and even the 
 chair of St. Peter:" and prayers, and masses, and "the souls of men!" For pur- 
 gatory-is nothing more than "a ghostly market place,"— opened up for the sale of 
 masses, and trade in human souls ! For the fixed price, any soul is set free from 
 its pains, and put to "repose:" and without the sti])ulated price, no soul is delivered. 
 And as this place, is purely a fiction of priestcraft, as every one of you knows very 
 well, Reverend Fathers,— all the money procured by masses, and for delivering 
 souls out of purgatory, is just so much property got under false pretences, and by 
 sheer forgery ! You not only procure money by purgatory, but you sell the king- 
 dom of heaven to the highest bidder. You usher all your victims, you tell us, 
 infallibly into heaven, according to the sums fixed by the apostolical tarilT. Absolu- 
 tion, and a passage into heaven, are given to those of you who receive it, and pay 
 the church's dues !" Now, Fathers, whether does that man, or your Romish church, 
 offer the greatest outrage to the eighth command ? He, who sells lands in the Texas, 
 and receh-es the ready money, while he owns not one square yard there :— or the. 
 pope, and his priesthood, who sell, /or monej/, the kingdom of heaven : while every 
 one of you knows that you have neither title, nor deed to the smallest portion of that 
 ;.ngdom ! This venality of Rome has passed into a proverb in all lands. Hence 
 tl ^ -crdotal yvaichword,— ''No penny, 710 pater noster!'' And Chemnitius in his 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 291 
 
 Examtn, has given us the copy of the following verses, written over an altar in a 
 popish cathedral. 
 
 " Ut tibi sit poenac venia, sit aperta crumena, 
 Hie dat'jr exponi Paradisus venditioni, 
 Hio si large des, in ccelo sit tua sedes, 
 
 Which may be rendered thus : — " That you may have the free remittance of punish- 
 ment, only let your purse be widely open! Here Paradise is set forth, and exjiosed 
 to sale ! Here, if you give liberally, in heaven shall be your abode ! For the paltry 
 affair of money only, can you rejoice in the highest heavens!" 
 
 The ninth precept you repeal, by the false witness you have borne, as a church, 
 against God's people, for upwards of a thousand years. Not only as a body, have 
 the Roman catholics ultered the foulest slanders against the best of men, whom they 
 put to death, under the slanderous name of heretics : but individual members deem it 
 a virtue in the sight of God, to utter slander against all the churches, and ministry, 
 and pious members of the Reformation ! Open the popish books ; listen to the usual 
 declamation of priests, and monks, and friars, of catholic Europe: and our own 
 country, — and you w-ill perceive that no measured terms are observed with the Pro- 
 testant world ; and those who differ in the minutest point from " Holy Mother !" 
 All men not within your pale, you pronounce accursed, and certainly dormed to per- 
 dition. This is the immutable, and very charitable doctrine of "Holy Mother." 
 The ninth precept has. therefore, no practical place in your bloody code! 
 
 Finally, the tenth precept is repealed by your whole system, wiiich is one entire 
 and thoroughly concocted system of covetousness, and a cunningly devised scheme of 
 money making; — from the vending and selling- cardinals' hats, and the pope's tiara, 
 down to the manufacture of: scapulars, and the selling of consecrated leads, and relics! 
 And in theory, this holy precejjt is repealed by the Jesuit doctrine of your r-ect, that 
 '' the emotions of covetousness in the human soul, are no sins^t all, unless bancdon- 
 ed by the consent of the man I" That is, — " sin dwelling in us," is no sin ! 
 
 Thus, popery has in it the elements of inveterate corruption! And, according to 
 the eternal laws of heaven in the natural, and moral world, it must be dissolved, and 
 utterly destroyed by its own internal elements. Such errors, — such heresies, and 
 infamous vices will necessarily annihilate popery; as time will reveal. 
 
 I have not noticed distinctly, here, the political tenets of popery; its tyranny over 
 the body, and the soul of man; its incessant, and unsubduablc aim at universal, and 
 unlimited power, by chaining down nations, and fixing them, in the most wretched, 
 and degraded slavery, as bond slaves to tug at hs bloody car ! To this I must devote 
 a se[)arate Letter. 
 
 I have only to observe, at present, that tyranny is the sovl and spirit of popery ! 
 Take away that, and thereby set the nations free, and it will speedily die, and be dis- 
 solved, and utterly annihilated. No man knows this more accurately than priests. 
 No man is more thoroughly persuaded of this truth than those men who are hired to 
 write it up in our community ; and who labor to persuade their victims that the genius 
 of popery is, — mirahile dicta! the fostering genius of liberty and the rights of man! 
 
 Now, Fathers, the eyes of the nations are opening. This deadly hostility of 
 popery to the rights and liberties of mankind, is working its downfall, in Mexico, and 
 in the South; and in our own happy republic: and over the Roman catholic nations 
 
292 ROMAN CATHOLIO CONTROVERSY. 
 
 of Europe. And I tell you, Fathers, that the pope, and his minions, may as soon 
 chain the winds, and hurl back the lightning of heaven, as keep the nations of 
 Europe much longer in the grasp of its ferocious claws, and the bloody dungeons of 
 its unheard of tyranny. 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &;c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXVIL 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the internal symptoms of certain decay, and ruin in Popery. 
 
 " Tiiey that see thee, sliall look narrowly upon thee, and consider thee, saying, ii thii tha 
 man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ?" Isaiah, xiv. 16. 
 
 Reverend Fathers: — The influences of an apostate and false religion areas 
 necessary and certain, in their kind, as are those of the pure and holy religion of 
 Chiist. But, while they are equally certain and necessary, they are perfectly oppo- 
 site to each other. A false religion is the parent of ignorance and superstition : it 
 throws a deep and impenetrable cloud of darkness over the gloomy minds of its vic- 
 tims. But the holy religion of Jesus scatters the most joyous rays of light and truth 
 over free and happy minds. A false religion hates the light, shuns discussion; and 
 locks op the sacred fountain of truth, and refuses even a solitary rill to thread its 
 way over the arid plains of the desert. The religion of Jesus courts the fullest and 
 freest investigatipn : it fears nothing: it throws open the pure sparkling fountain of 
 the waters of life and bids every one come forward, and receive it as freely as the air 
 which he breathes; and the flood of light which is poured around him. False reli- 
 gion is a gloomy, and horrid tyrant grinning on his throne of darkness over his pros- 
 trate and trodden down votaries : true religion is a holy being from the skies, lovely 
 as the face of Jesus, smiling on us. An apostate religion wields his iron mace ; and 
 his clanking chains; he points to dungeons, and cells, and the horrid Inquisition's 
 tribunal; and talks, when he deigns to converse, of penances, and of purgatorial 
 tires ! True religion speaks in accents of redeeming love : and leads the weary and 
 the blind, and the halt, and the lame, to the heahng fountain, and everlasting com- 
 forts ! False religion kindles the fire of inhuman persecution, and lights up the 
 blazing beacon cf deadly wars, and deluges the nation with human blood ! Trne 
 relifijion breathes nothing but love, pure and undying as the love of angels: it 
 cleanses the heart, and binds man to man in ties never dissolved even in eternity. 
 It r '^ver raised the war shout : it never prompted to deeds of resistance, except in self 
 defence, according to heaven's first and necessary law. False religion debases th6 
 human mind, and brutalizes the people with atrocious vices, which, so far from check- 
 ing, it rather nurses; not purely from an enmity to the Most High, so much as from 
 its accursed lust of gold, in turning sin into a very lucrative article of trade and gain, 
 by means of penances, and indulgences ! True religion exalts the mind, and ele- 
 vates the humblest in society to the nobility of soul, which characterizes tho 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 293' 
 
 christian, and which makes him scorn a mean, and wicked action. False religion 
 leads on its disciples, blindfold, to the precipice impending over the gulf of perdition. 
 True religion leads man over the barren wilderness, with a cloudy pillar by day, 
 and a shining fire by night, while the smitten rock ministers to them in streams of 
 consolation, the purest and most exalted joys! True religion, in a word, waxes 
 brighter and brighter in virtue and glory, until she reaches her own native skies, and. 
 the pahice of the King of Heaven. False religion has. in her, the seeJs of death and 
 dissolution; and exists after death, — only in her horrid works, and images in hell! 
 
 Fathers, — behold the one on the papal throne, pulling forth its influences like the 
 smoke, and nameless phantoms, as seen in vision by John, issuing out of the mouth 
 of the bottomless pit. Behold the other, clothed in the robe of light, walking forth 
 over the prntcstant nations and .shedding her choicest blessings on the people who 
 own Imraanuel, Jehovah Jesus, for their king. And we bless God, that the lime is 
 now fast coming when the pure, one, and lioly religion of Jesus will cover the whole 
 earth with a flood of glory. For false and apostate religions, with Rome at their 
 head, are tumbling into ruins by their own innate corruption, like the old loitering 
 weather beaten tower walls, smitten by the gleaming thunder bolt of heaven ! 
 
 I have enumerated three of the internal symptoms of decay and certain ruin of 
 popery. Tlie spirit of your church is the spirit o£ antichrist : hence, — 
 
 Fourth: — The Roman catholic church has formally condemned the es>ential, and 
 holiest doctrines of the gospel. In addition to those formerly specified, 1 mid ihc fol- 
 lowing from Tom. i. Indicis Librorum expurgandorum, S^c. Of the index of Books 
 expurgated, by Jo. Mariam Brans. Master of the sacred apostolic palace ; Rome, 
 1607. Under the title '•'■ Bihlia Rob. Sftphani,''' we find the following: "From the 
 Index of thcM^ Bibles, on the books of the Old and New Testament, let there be Hotted 
 out the following propositions as suspected of heresy: viz: — . 
 
 1. *' Sins are remitted to the believer in Christ." 
 
 2. "The believer in Christ shall never die eternally." 
 
 3. "The Moly Spirit is received by faith." 
 
 4. "Our hearts are purified by faith." 
 
 5. " God prohibits images to be made that we may adore them ; and bow ourselve* 
 down before them." 
 
 6. "There is no righteousness in us :" Rom. vii. 18. 
 
 7. "We arc justified by faiih in Christ." 
 
 8. " Chritii. Is our righteousness." 
 
 9. " There is no justifying righteousness from the works of the law." 
 
 10. "There is none just before God." 
 
 11 . " Believers are about to enter info their rest. 
 
 12. " We are not set free (from sin) on account of our works." 
 
 13. " Go.l lesires, or wills, all men to repent." 
 
 14. "Repmlance is the gifi of God." 
 
 15. "The word of God alone is to be obeyed." 
 
 16. "That each man may have his own wife." 
 
 These pure and evangelical propositions are condemned by the Romish church a* 
 **damnablc heresy!" Hence your church errs mortally in doctrine. Your whole 
 system of dtjctrine is, in fact, as opposite, and as hostile to the simple and holy gospel 
 of Christ, as is the code of Mohammed ; or the Shasfer of the Hindoo! And just as 
 certainly as the church stands, or falls with these doctrines; — so certainly does that! 
 
Z9-k ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 apostate church, which dares utter its veto against heaven's eternal law, and decree?, 
 — bear, in it, the elements of its speedy and irretrievable ruin ! 
 
 " He that sitfeth in the heavens shall laugh ; 
 
 The Lord shall have them in derision: 
 
 He shall speak to them in his wrath ; 
 
 And vex them in his sore displeasure ; 
 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iion, 
 
 Thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel." 
 
 Fifth: — The jarring elements in your church, relative to the grand fundamental 
 tenet of the papoi supremacy, are now working tlie ruin of your sect. 
 
 This I call a fundamental doctrine : it is the foundation of the whole S3Stem. On 
 it rest your claims of infallibility, and the im})ossibility of the church of Rom© 
 erring! On it rests the pope's claim of absolute power over your souls, thoughts, 
 faith, bodies, and property! By it, he is the potter, and you the clay and dust! By 
 it, he wields the potent sceptre over kings as well as bishops. By it, he opens heaven 
 to his favorites, and slaves ; and dooms all heretics to hell ! By it he places hi* 
 half ivashed flock, in the fires, and waters of purgatory, that complete the work, 
 which, he avows, the infinite merits of Christ's blood could not do! It is, in fine, 
 the main pillar of popery, the master-piece of Satan's deep laid conspiracy against 
 the rights of man ! 
 
 Now, God, in mercy to mankind, has not permitted this execrable evil to enter our 
 world, without an element in it, which will destroy it. I allude to the wars, and 
 feuds in " holy and infaUiole Mother," on this matter. 
 
 You, Fathers, and your prices have taken much pains to convince the American 
 public that you own the pope, not as a civil prince, — not as possessing any temporal 
 power at all, — but siiuply as a spiritual head of union. Now, were it even so, it is 
 dangerous enough to our republic to have men, — even the whole of your bi&hops, 
 and all your priests, and all your members absolutely at the spiritual nod, which is 
 far more potent than the political nod, of a foreign despot ; who, in case of a war 
 with any of his favorite powers, would lay you all under an injunction to rise 
 against our government, to a man, under the terrific pains of purgatory, and the eter- 
 nal pains of hell ! 
 
 But, vf'U do own this foreign despot as much as a temporal prince, as you do ov/q 
 ^m a.i a spiritual head. You know it. Fathers ; you have never disowned this; it is 
 beyond any man's gainsaying. Your oath to him as 'nishops, binds you, under pains 
 of eternal perdition, to own, and as>^ist, and sustain the pope in all his characters^ 
 poxvers, rights, and claims. And, let me tell your people, — and you know it well, — 
 that if any one of you dared to disown his temporal power, to his face, in Rome, or 
 itt any Roman catholic nation in Europe, you would forthwith be stript of your 
 bishOjaic, hurried into a dungeon, and loaded with chains. Dr. England can tell j'ou 
 how manv instances, and proofs he has seen of this. I invite Dr. England to stand up 
 before the American nafion, and publicly disavow the temporal power of the po}>€. 
 
 Besides the struggles which have already been displa3'ed by your priests against 
 the ofiice of Wardens in your church in the United States, show clearly enough that 
 the priesthood are determined to exercise absolute power over the temporals, and the 
 pro|>erty of the church. Mons. Reze, in a letter to a person in Europe, and published 
 in a priaied "Report," which reached us, says, — "Mgr. the bishop of Cincinnati, 
 has tiib happiness of governing his chuvchesy without church Wardens.''' " Were we 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 5^5 
 
 to establish them, they might be useful to us, but we should fearschims, dissentions, 
 oF all evils the greatest. Despotism exercised against the pastor, and division, and 
 disorder, in many other churches, assure us of this." And in "the Annals," you 
 •tate that, in the national council which met at Baltimore in 1829, you discussed 
 this subject, — " What is necessary to be done in regard to trustees, and the means of 
 repressing their pretensions.'"' And you pronounce this a struggle between the claim* 
 of priests and laymen to exclusive power over all temporals, and church property. 
 This is a plain, and irresistible eviilence of the pope and his priests' unalienablt 
 claims to temporal power. And, finally, did you ever 3'et hear of a Romish national 
 church existing without such a union of church and state, that the church has an 
 absolute power ov^er the state, and guides the conscience of even the king, as a tutor 
 guides a child. The papist, be he priest or layman, who ventures to tell the Ameri- 
 can public that he owns not the pope's temporal power, must have no ordinary a 
 degree of unblushing eflrontery ! 
 
 But, even admitting that you do not, here then you form another great faction in 
 the bosom of Holy Mother. You di.Ter, hereby, on the pope's supremacy, from }our 
 European fellow members in the church. 
 
 In Europe there are four prominent factions in Holy Mother's bosom. The frsl 
 maintains the pope to be supreine, as a president, — " the pope is only the first of 
 the bishops." He has power, not legislative, but executive only ; he is inferior to a 
 general council ; and is by no means infallible : and has no right to depose kings. 
 This is the prevalent doctrine of the French catholic church. See Dupin Diss. p. 
 335, Lenfent i. p. 107. Gibert iii. p. SCO. This sentiment was held by the early 
 popes, as Pius, Julius, Zozimus, Adrian. See Lannoy, i. p. 295, 314. Dupin 442. 
 It was also the avowed doctrine of three general holy councils, namely, of Pisa. Se» 
 Dupin Dissert. 404. ; also of Constance ; see Gibert ii. p. 7. Labbeus xvi. p. 73 : 
 and of Basil; see Labb. xvii. 236, 390. And Dupin Hist. iii. 38. 
 
 The second Roman faction invests the pope with unlimited sovereignty, they mak» 
 him a temvoral and spiritual despot, even the same precisely in "their church," as tb« 
 grand Ti:;k, or the great Mogul is in his realm. He has power unlimited over all 
 bishops and priests; over all princes, and kings, and nations; be they heathen, or 
 christian : be they Protestant, or Roman catholic. Hence he is superior to councils.. 
 This is the doctrine of the Italian school. They add, that the pope, speaking as 
 pope, ex cathedra, is absolutely infallible. " He is exempted from all possibility of 
 ignorance, error, or mistake T' See Bellarm. iv. 5. 8. p. 987 &.C., and Dnpin 
 Diss. p. 333, Gibert iii. p. SG, 487 ; and Labb. xviii. p. 1428. This monstrous doc- 
 trine is held by Bellarmine, Barronius, and other nineteen leading doctors. It haa 
 been also held, of course, by all the popes, except the early ones ; and by thret 
 general councils, namely, — of Florence, which made the pope absolutely infallible,, 
 and the vicegerent of Almighty God; see Labb. xviii. p. 1310. Cajetan i. p. 10^ 
 Gibert i. p. 93. Also by the fifth council of the Lateran. And the council of Trent, 
 after an exasperated contest between the Italian bishops, on the one hand, and the 
 French and Spanish bishops, on the other, declared for this infallibility and unlimited 
 power in the church universal. See Cramp's Text Book; Gibert i. p. 181 ; Labb. 
 XX. p. 96. 
 
 Here, by the wa}', we find infallible doctors against equally infallible doctors; 
 universities pitted against universities; councils against councils ; and popes Dama- 
 9US, Felix, Pius, against popes Leo, Gregory, Urban, Paul, and Sixtus ! And all of 
 
S96 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 them gravely maintainiag the unbroken, and undisturbed ujiity, and infalUbility of 
 Holy Mother ! 
 
 The third faction actuall^^ raises the pope to an equality with God! This is not 
 wonderf'il. The heathen interest, it might be shown, has triumphed in Rome, from 
 the days of Constantine. They became wm?;ersrtZZj christians, when the ejuperor 
 declared for chri fiinity; as they would have declared themselves Hindoo.., had the 
 emperor been converted by the Brahmins ! And, hence, even to this day, under the 
 name and mask of the christian name, there has been a regular succession of pagan 
 men, and loomen; as thoroughly pagans, idolo.tors, and superstitious devotees, as ever 
 lived, and moved, and had their being, in Rome pngan ! 
 
 Now, the ori2;inal pagans were duly accustomed to hear Domifian call himself in 
 his edicts, " Venter Domiiius Dtus,^^ ''your Lord God!''' And Caligula called him- 
 eelf Deus maximus et cvtimas! God, the greatest and best!'' Kence, their 
 lineal descendants in place, in faith, and in practice, very naturally and appropriately 
 call the successor of the Ntros, the Bomitians, the Caligulas — Noster Domiiius Deus 
 Papa!'' Our Lord God the pope!" This excites no surprise in the least. The 
 pagan emperors were as pious, and holy, and respectable, as any one pope that ever 
 sat on the old Saracen's stool, humorously called the chair of St. Peter, since 606! 
 You know, moreover, that the canon law of the liomish church, says, — " Papaiion 
 est homo!" The pope is not a man! "See Sext. Deer. L. i. Tit. vi. cap. 18. 
 *' The pope is a God, who has all power in heaven and in the earth." "None is like 
 Ood, except the pope, either in heaven or in earth." See Turricr. Ques. 11 : Gianon 
 10 c. 12, Bernard, p. 1725. Edgar, p. 159. 
 
 Monstrous as this really is, and shocking to the ears of piety, there have beea 
 doctors, canonists, p<ipes, and councils, as we have already seen, who have sanc- 
 tioned t'lis damning blasphemy': and have appropriated to the spiritual despot of 
 Rome, the titles, attributes, and work of Almighty God! The canon law, we have 
 seen, and ^he fifth Laieran council bestowed these honors on the pope. "The Lord 
 our God, the pope!" is the title in Can. Extrav. Tit. 14. cap. 4. And this, be it 
 remembered, is the salutation of the kneeling votary, who stoops to kiss the pope's 
 foot. See Edgar's Var. for a complete specimen of these names, and titles of blas- 
 phemy, p. ICO, 161. 
 
 Hha fourth faction absolutely setting reason, piety, and common sense, outrageous- 
 ly, at defiance, makes the pope superior to God! The canon Law says, — "Habet 
 plenitudinem, &c. He has the plenitude of power; he is above all law and right t 
 he can change the substantial nature of things; and transform unlawful into lawful." 
 Thuanus vi. p. -397. Gibert ii. p. 103. Durand i. p. 50. Edgar, p. 161. And even 
 Bellarmine avov/s this. Premising that the pope cannot err, euher in the decrees of 
 faith, or in the precepts of morals, he says, — "This must be so, — or else. — secun- 
 do, quia tunc necessario erraret etiam circa hdem. Nam, fides catholica docet om- 
 nem virtutera esse bonam, omne vitium esse malum ; si autem papa erraret praecipi- 
 endo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, tenerelur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona, et vir- 
 tutes, malas; nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare." De Pontif. Lib. iv. cap. 5. 
 Tom. i. p. 083. That is, — "if the pope should err by enacting vice, or prohibiting 
 virtue, the church would be bound to believe that vices are virtues, and that virtues 
 are vices, unless she could be willing to sin against her conscience." And in the 
 council of the Lateran, this sentiment was openly avowed, — "that Pope Leo possess- 
 ed power above all powers, both in heaven, and in earth." — See Lubb. xix. p. 924.. 
 
ROBIAN CATHOLIC COItTROVERST. 297 
 
 And this consummatioa of arrogance and blasphemy, is not confined to an obscurd 
 faction \n Italy. It is avowed openly, and unblushingly taught in the most public 
 manner by every pojje, every bishop, every priest. " They arrogate to themselves 
 the power of creating their Creator, nay, of communicating to their underlings, the 
 power of moJcing their Maker! Deum cuncta creantem, creant." Labb. Tcm. xii. 
 960. "Elevees a cet honneur supreme de creer la Createur!" See Bruy Tom. ii. 
 p. 535. Tnis, they assure us, gravely, they do in every mass. They convert, or 
 create out of the wafer, "the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ." Now, 
 that God can create himself is an utter impossibility! But these sons of Belial, and 
 of holy Mother, if fAeir word may be in aught believed, do this at every mats making! 
 They do make a common business of doing, they say, what the Creator cannot do! 
 
 Now, shall the throne of iniquity be established, which frameth mischief by a law! 
 Can the seed of evil doers ever be renowned, in a temporal, or eternal well being! 
 Can such jarring doctrine?, such monstrous claims and usurpations, which ;iirow all 
 pagaai5m, and all ordinary wickedness, and all councils of pandemonium, uiio the 
 back ground, exist long in power, in the dominions of the Holy and Just One I No. 
 no: — L must waste away, and utterly disappear, as the fogs and vapors, charged 
 with pestilence and death, in the natural world, are dispersed by the benevolence of 
 the Deity ? I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &i_. 
 
 V/. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 T» THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS Or THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the internal si/mptoms of decay, and self destruction in Popery. 
 
 " Si qui? dixerit, in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt, et conferunt, non requiri intenti- 
 onem, saltom faciendi quod facit ecclesia ; anathema sit .'" — Concil. Trident. 
 
 Reverend Fathers: — In pursuing this subjectl beg leave to observe, — Sixth: — 
 That your doctrine of intention, carried out in its legitimate tendency, nnjtt ruin 
 your svstt^m of popery, in the judgment of every man who puts himself to the trouble 
 of thinking, for a moment, on tlie subject. Your church holds this doctrine: — '* that 
 the efficncy of the grace, conveyed by every one of your sacraments, depend^ upon 
 the inlentiun of your officiating priest." If this intention be awanting on the part of 
 the priest or bishop, then is the sacrifice without grace, without efficacy; ni:'l, and 
 void! That is to say, — unless the priest officiating, has an intention in his soul, con- 
 science, and heart, to do that thing which "the church" intends that he should do; — 
 unless hp intends in his soul and conscience, to make that sacrament, and the thing in 
 the sacrament, to be just that thing which the church intends it to be — then there is 
 no grace, nor efficacy in the sacrament. 
 
 Now, that this doctrine is an essential article of your creed, is evident from the ex- 
 tract at the head of this letter. Council of Trent, Sess. 7. Canon H,— " Si quis &c. 
 If any one shall say that the intention is not required of the ministers, when they 
 make, and administer the sacraments, let him be accursed I" From your standard 
 hook,— ''The abridgement of the Christian doctrine,"''^! copy the following: "Is 
 
298 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 the intention of the minister to do that which Christ ordained, a condition, withoiit 
 which the sacraments subsist not ? Ans. It is ; as also the intention of the receiver, 
 to receive what Christ ordained, &c." In all the sacraments, every adult receiver 
 must have the intention, as well as the priest : otherwise the sacrament is null, and 
 void ! Doyle's Edition, 1833, p. 76. 
 
 Now, it is astonishing that the inventors and fabricators of popery, should have al- 
 lowed such a fatal doctrine to be embodied into their system. It can be accounted 
 for only on the singular interposition of divine Providence, in pity to his bleeding and 
 suffering church, in order to work the certain ruin of popery. Qwewi vult Deus fer- 
 dere, ■prius denientat. Whom God wishes to destroy, he first renders infatuated. 
 This jessential doctrine of intention, established by the decrees of the pope, and the 
 Trent Council, renders every thing utterly uncertain in your church. There is no 
 one sacrament, no priesthood, no canon, no doctrine, in any degree certain, or effi- 
 caciou-. It destroys the pope's supremacy, and the church's infallibility: it de- 
 stroys your articles of faith : it annihilates all peace, all hope, all comiort ! It shuts 
 up, or rather expunges purgatory from the list of your fables, and shuts up, and bolts 
 your gates of heaven against you all, who believe in the intention! 
 
 And even some of 3'our own leading doctors have had the confession wrung from 
 their lips. They felt the appalling confusion into which this doctrine throws your 
 system. "Nullus celebrans potest evidenter scire &c. "No priest," says one of 
 tJiem, "who celebrates, can know, evidently, whether he be baptized, or lawfully or- 
 dained." See Gab. Biel, in Epit. Can. Missas. And Belarmine, while laboring to 
 overturn another doctrine in his way, unwittingly is constrained to speak ihe fruih, in 
 the following extraordinary confession: — "No man can be certain, by the certainty 
 of faith, that he does receive a true sacrament; because it depends upon the irttention 
 of the hvaister ; and no one can see another man's intention. Sacramentum non 
 conficiaiiir sine intentione ministri, et intentionem alierius nemo videre possit.^^ Bell. 
 Lib. Just. cap. 8. 
 
 Now, in perfect accordance with the uncontradicted admissions of these great doc- 
 tors, let me offer you. Reverend Fathers, a specimen of the necessary destruction 
 which this doctrine works over the whole field of 3'our fabricated S3'Stem. The in- 
 novators who got up the Romish church, took it into their heads to enact seven sacra- 
 ments : that is to say, — exactly fve more than the Lord Jesus, the only King of the 
 church, did divinely ordain. This is not all : you not onh' added /re things humo- 
 rously called sacraments, — you have romanized the only two out of all existence, in 
 your sect. We shall, however, let that pass. We need not stop gravely to refute 
 each, when we are on your suicidal doctrine of intention, which actually executes on 
 its own sacraments, what the noted Judas did on himself! 
 
 The first is your Baptism. This you make essentially necessary to salvation. 
 And hence this question, and atrocious doctrine put forth in N'our '■^Abridgement of 
 Christian doctrines,''' p. 109. " Whither go infants that die without baptism ? Ans. 
 To that part of hell, where they suffer the pains of loss, but not the punishment of 
 sense; A>fD shall wever see the face of God." 
 
 But, by the doctrine of intention, no person in the Roman church can know that 
 he is baptized. For he does not know, certainly, that the priest who baptized him 
 was himself baptized : he knows not, certainly, that the bishop had "the intention" 
 to ordain that priest, when he was apparently ordained. Hence, there is a doublt 
 chance against his being a priest at all ! And, finally, he does not know whether the 
 
R0MA5 CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 299 
 
 priest, who baptized him apparently, had the intention to do it ! Hence, no member 
 of the Roman church can possibly have either a certainty of his baptism, or any 
 »oHd faith of being saved ! 
 
 The second sacrament is " confirmation." It is not my design to stop here to re- 
 fute this, or any other gaudy ceremony. It is enough to say that your elevating it to 
 the rank of a sacrament, and your using oi7 and balm "to sign your victinio with tb» 
 chrism, &c." are acts of persevering high treason against our Lord, the King of the 
 Church, who never breathed one word, who never caused to be written in all the holy 
 Bible, cue sentence originating, or countenancing this superstition. We need oifer no 
 farther refutation than the doctrine of intention. The person going up to tlie bishop 
 to be confirmed "by cross, oil, and balm," never can have any evidence of*his con- 
 firmation, for three reasons. He cannot certainly know that the bishop was baptized 
 with intention ; nor that he was ordained with intention : and he has no evidence 
 whatever that, in the act of his apparent confirmation by rubbing oil and balm on 
 him, the bishop has in his soul the intention to give confirmation. Hence no benefit, 
 no grace can arise to him, from this rile. 
 
 " Holy Orders" is a third sacrament. By this, say you, " a character is given ;" 
 by it " the grace is conveyed" to make a man a priest, a bishop, a pope. New, it is 
 ■vrith 3'ou of infinite importance, that it be done right. If any thing be awanting, 
 particularly, if the intention to make the man a priest, a bishop, or a pope, is really 
 awanting, then is this sacrament void. And the man apparently a priest, or a bishop, 
 is only a lay man! And the flock under his spiritual care, has no sacraments, and 
 thence, no grace ! — For you know. Fathers, that all the grace you ask, or at all car© 
 for, is " ♦hat which a priest conveys by intention, through the seven mcrame at s. And, 
 hence, to be under care of a priest, who is one only in appearance, is to be exposed, 
 as you teach, " to certain damnation'' — without even the poor chance, or the poorer 
 benefit of purgatory. 
 
 This IS not all; as you can, by no means, prove the intention of the minister, you 
 cannot prove that any one pope was ever duly inducted into his chair, as a baptized 
 man, or a true priest of the church ! You have no evidence to believe, that any of 
 your bishops have been in "holy orders," or "ordained with the intention! And 
 thence, you cannot believe, (for you have no evidence) tliat any one of your priests 
 has ever been "in holy orders," or "ordained with the intention^ There is not 
 one man among you, guided by reason and evidence, who can, for a moment, believ« 
 that your church has a pope, or true bishop, or true priest in the whole world ! If 
 any man can believe this, he believes without evidence ; and, therefore, acts unlike a 
 rational b'ing! Every Roman catholic must, therefore, on this radical point, either 
 cease to act as a rational being ; or surrender the whole system of popery. 
 
 \ fourth sacrament is the Eucharist, and the Mass. Herein you worship "the 
 body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ." Now, you admit that there may be 
 defects to render this sacrament void : particularly, if the intention of the priest is 
 awanting. If he does not intend to turn the wafer into Christ; then it is not Christ, 
 And even you admit that, in this case, in worshipping that untransubstantiated wafer 
 — and not Christ, you are guilty of idolatry! Now, it is impossible for any Roman 
 catholic audience to have the evidence of the priest's intention as he rapidly mutters 
 over the words, — ''Hoc est corpus meum," which, by a marvellous charm, turns the 
 real wafer into the real Christ. The must unblushing Jesuit dare not insult his vic- 
 tims, by even insinuating that any one of ihera has the least evidence of his mfenfio/i, 
 
300 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 to make Clirist out of the wafer. Hence, when they bow down, and worship the 
 Host ; th'-y are worshipping what, they have not even the least shadow of evidence 
 to belf^ve, is the true God! Hence, the whole Romish church is actually worship- 
 ping what they have no evidence, in the least degree, to believe is God, in the wafer- 
 That is, the Romish sect are reduced to this dilemma; they either believe without 
 any evidence; and thence act unlike rational beings, or, they are guilty of the mor- 
 tal sin of idolatry ! 
 
 But, to be brief, — let my readers be kind enough to apply this form of argument to 
 the ffth, and sixth popish sacraments, of Penance and Extreme Unction; and 
 they will arrive at the same result: that is, — the doctrine of intention takes away 
 all certainty, all faith, all peace from the dying man, in the article of death. Even 
 extreme unction brings him no relief. He is told, it is true, to believe that the anoint- 
 ing hiio with oil, by the holy priest,, '^ conveys grace to his sow/;" and makes him 
 **readtj to die.'''' But, he has not the least shadow of a consoling ])roof that the priest 
 has the intention. He may tell him so; but even there, the intention to tell the truth 
 may it^'^lf be wanting. He lives in a cloud of uncertainty ; and dies, alas! in men- 
 tal confusion, and the dreariness of a dark, dark night: and sinks into an unknown 
 state ! ■ te has strayed far from his God, and Savior, being seduced by the unprin- 
 cipled slaves of Antichrist, who have rejected the gospel, and enveloped themselves, 
 and their victims, in an endless mist of uncertainty, and darkness; in order — Ohi 
 •hame on human villainy, — to trade in souls, — and barter heaven's holy light ; and 
 «ell God's unsold pathway to paradise, for filthy lucre ! 
 
 Lastly, Matrimony is a seventh sacrament of popery. This very novel sacrament 
 *' conveys grace to those who enter into it; and yet, Holy Mother scandalously denies 
 this potent instrument of "conveying its grace" to the one class of men in her, who 
 of all other men under the sun, do stand the most in need of it, — 1 mean the priests J 
 Now, — for I let this pass, — by your doctrine of intention, there is not one married 
 couple in our city, or in all the land, of all the Roman catholic church, that can exhi- 
 bit even the sUghtest shadow of evidence that they are lawfully married. 
 
 For, unless the officiating priest had the intention m his soul, and conscience, at the 
 nuptial ceremony, to make the irian and woman then standing before him, husband 
 and wife, they are not married! This is not all. You require intention in the 
 receiver, as well as in the minister officiating. If the bridegroom, as he takes the 
 woman's hand, does not intend in soul and conscience, to make that person liis wife, 
 they are not married ! And, to crown the chapter of chances against the luckless 
 couple, — if the bride does not, at that moment, intend, in her soul, and conscience, 
 to make that man her husband, they are not married ! Here are three chances against 
 one / And no person, no, not a catholic in all Christendom, can prove either the 
 priest's, the groom's, or the bride's intention! Hence, no couple in all the hmits of 
 *' catholicity," has even the shadow of evidence that they are not living in the mortal 
 sin of concubinage ! And if they should die in that mortal sin, they are doomed for 
 ever to hell, without the benefit of purgatory I 
 
 This appalling doctrine is calculated to throw civil society into the greatest disor- 
 der. One evil growing out of it, is this: — Divorces are sued out on tbis assumption, 
 in Roman catholic countries. A man, or a woman goes into the proper court, in 
 Rome, for instance, and declares, on oath, that, at the marriage ceren;0Py, he, or she 
 had not the intention to be married: — Or, a villain, who "married" a young person 
 whom he could not otherwise gain to his wishes, — needs only to go into a ghostly 
 
KOMAX CATHOLIC COKTROVERST. 301 
 
 court at Rome, and swear that he did not intend to marry that young wonian when 
 the nuptials were solemnized, — and the apparent marriage is dissolved ! 
 
 I refer my reader, for proof of this, to every intelligent traveller who has resided, 
 any time, in Rome, and has taken the pains to visit these courts, by a priests' favor, 
 and introduction. I refer also to Bishop Burnet on the thirty-nine articles, Article 25. 
 He narrates wnat ho witnessed in Rome, him.^clf: and he adds "that such divorces 
 are very frequent there." I refer also to T. Wardell's valuable Letters, on Intention, 
 &C.1). 1.3. N.York, 1830. 
 
 Seventh : — Your hostility to the progress of knowledge, and the sciences, v. ill worlc 
 the downfall of popery. 
 
 The system of popery is hostile to the progress of the arts and sciences, — except only, 
 painting and sculpture, which are, in a melancholy manner, dragged in, to minister 
 their enchanting powers, to an idolatrous religion, bloodier, and more destructive ilmn 
 paganism ! The evidence of this hostility, is found in the Inc^uisilion ; and the stern, 
 unyielding hidex Exjmrgatorius, by which almost every elm sic author of Britain, 
 America, and France is prohibited. There is scarcely one of all the classic, English 
 authors which a Roman catholic is allowed to read. Milton is a doomed author; 
 Young also; Cowperis in the Index ; Watts too; our historians ; our immortalJohn- 
 son ! All the renowned theologians of England, of Scotland, of America, of France, 
 are under the ban. And no Roman catholic dare, under pain of purgatory, open a 
 single volume in a Protestant's whole library of our most approved wriiers. 
 
 This is a point but little known, and l)y the Romish priests usually concealed from 
 Protestants; and most stoutly denied by them.ostof ihem! But you, Fathers, know 
 how true this is. 
 
 Even in our enhglitened da\-, — and in our city, no priest dares, without a written'per- 
 mission from his bishop, look into a book written by a heretic, — thai is, a Protestant! 
 If the bishop allows any one to do it without this license, he breaks his solemn oath, 
 and violates the law of Rome laid down in the Index ! No man in your communion 
 dares to think for himself, or even use his own conscience, witliout priestly permission 
 and dictation. Then, what blunders in sci'^nce, has Infallibility fallen into ! In settling 
 the place of purgatory, for instance, we have seen that pope Gregory, the sai;it, and 
 Bellarmine, and even Dr. Rosaccio placed hell, and purgatory in the earth's centre ; 
 at a distance of 18300 1-2 miles below the surface. This has never been corrected ; 
 nor even apologized fori Infallihility, right or wrong, can never correct itself! 
 
 It is very well knov/n that the famous Galileo was formally condemned and 
 punished, simply for daring to invade the Romish darkness, by teaching that the earth 
 is a sphere, turning on its axis, and moving round the sun. Here I shall present, an 
 extract from the sentence of the Inquisition of Rome, in 1633, acting under the eye of 
 pope Urban, "the infallible vicar of God." " Whereas, you Galileo, aged 70 years, 
 were denounced, — for holding as true, a false doctrine taught by many, that the sun 
 is immovable in the centre of rhe world, and that the earth moves; therefore, this 
 holy tribunal, desirous of providing against the disorder, and mischief, proceeding and 
 increasing, to the detriment of the holy faith, — by the desire of his holiness, the 
 two propositions, are qualified by the theological qualifers, as follows: : — 
 
 1st.- The proposition that the sun is the centre of the world, and immovable from 
 its place, is absurd, pliilosophically false, and formally heretical; because expressly 
 contrary to the holy scriptures. 2d. The proposition that the earth is not the centre 
 of ths world, nor immovable; but that it moves, and also has a diurnal motion, is 
 
 27 
 
JO^ ROMAN CATHOLIC GOJCTROVERST.- 
 
 aUo absurd, philosophically false, and theologically considered, at least, erroneous Is 
 faith." See The Life of Galileo, published at Boston, 1832, pp. 179, 180. 
 
 Such was the decision of pope Urban, "i^e infallible head'' of the church, and 
 his lord cardinals, and doctors I And this was as late as 1633 ! Pope Zachary hady 
 indeed, pronounced his " infallible" ban against Virgil, a Bavarian bishop, for pre- 
 suming to teach the shocking heresy, that " there are men living on the opposite side 
 cf the earth, from us." " If he persist in the heresy/' says he to his legate, " strip 
 him of his priesthood: and drive him from the church, and altars of God!" See 
 Life of Galileo, p. 192. But, then, this "infallible pope" pronounced the curse 
 against Virgil, and his antipodes in the middle of the eighth century, when ther«" 
 were no hereties to pour light upon the eyes of pop^s and infallibles! There can be 
 no excuse, therefore, for the ghostly judges of Galileo, but the invincible and incur-' 
 able depravity of popery. And, unless you also be under its influence, you will 
 excuse the honest warmth of the bosom friend of Galileo, namely Micanzio, who- 
 escclaimed of pope Urban, and tbe other tyrants who condemned Galileo,-^"! shall 
 devote these unnatural, and godless hypocrites, to a hundred thousand devils !" 
 
 It is right here to remark, that this doctrine, and thes^ sentences of pope Zachary,- 
 and Urban, against bishop Virgil, and Galileo, stand unrepealed by pope, bishop, or 
 doctor, to this day, in the Romish church. Hence you, and the pope, and all yowr 
 priests sustain it, and avouch it, as much as Zachary, and Urban did. For no way 
 has yet been invented to correct one infallible^ by another infallible ! 
 
 Hence, upon the whole, as the light of science,^ and as the influence of virtue, and 
 true religion, are spread over the regenerated nations : and as knowledge, like the 
 rays of the dazzling and glorious sun, gains an irresistible ascendency over the whole 
 world, popery, as a system, — the enemy of God's glory, and of man's happiness 
 must necessarily fall; — and fall, to rise no more! And your Reverences will, no' 
 doubt, unite with me in saying, — Amen, Aif d amExV ! 
 
 I am. Rev.- Fathers, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLtr 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the internal symptoms of decay, and certain ruin, in Popery. 
 
 " So I went into the chambers of imagerv and saw ; and beheld every form of creeping 
 things; and abominable beasts; and all the idols of the house of Israel; pourtrayed upon 
 the wall, round about." — Ezek. viii. 
 
 Reverend Fathers:— I have had the honor of drawing your attention to a few ©f 
 the more striking symptoms of decay and certain ruin in popery. I beg leave to spe- 
 cify a fourth one, vividly displayed in your religious use of Relics. You believe ia 
 their divine efficacy; you worship them; you maintain a brisk and lucrative traffic in 
 them. 
 
 Now, when truth and sound philosophy, in their irresistible progress, shall opea 
 tiie eyes of the blind, the contempt and abhorrence of all men will be poured upon 
 this system of imposture. 
 
9.0MXS CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 303 
 
 One naturally feels astonished that a system of darkness, emerging from the Dark 
 Ages, should find a moment's rest for the soles of its feet, amid the flood of light poured 
 out on the present age. We alluded before to the influence of astronomy and geogra- 
 phy putting to flight the systems of paganism founded in principles of the darkest 
 «ges. Can a child, initiated into these sciences, ever be seduced to believe in a reli- 
 gious system tliat the world is a flat body, and rests on the back of a huge turtle/ 
 Can a child believe the gravely related Romish doctrines, in many instances as su- 
 premely absurd as this. Pope Gregory the Great and saint, places hell and his pur- 
 gator}' in the hollow centre of the earth! Cardinal Bellarmine advocates the same 
 theory. Gregory adduces the spouting flames of /Etna and Vesuvius in proof of this, 
 for these come from hell and purgatory ! There is, to be sure, one redeeming truth 
 in this theory: ne placed the opening into these infernal regions in a correct latitude; 
 that is to say, — in his own immediate vicinity, — the seat of "the Beast." 
 
 Dr. Rosaccio improves on this theory, and fills up the measure of its glory. H« 
 also makes a hell and a purgatory in the earth's centre. But let our infant scholars 
 mark the Romish geography. He makes purgatoiy^xactly 2550 1-2 miles below 
 the earth's surface ; and 15,750 above hell. By adding these, we find that the popish 
 doctors make it exactl}- 18,300 ]-2 miles to the central cavity of the earth: whereas 
 the earth is only 8000 miles from pole to pole, through the centre ! I refer to Bellar- 
 mine, De Purg. Lib. ii. cap. 6^ in Tom. i. mihi, p p. 1923 &:c. And Edgar, p. 536. 
 
 Yet all this is rational and sublime, in comparison with the priests' world of Re- 
 lics, set forth on the altar, and around the chapel, and in their variegated chambers 
 of imagery .' 
 
 And, then, such Relics ! And held up, too, for the religioits worship and homagt 
 of human beings I Why, they would absolutely derange the gravity of our protestant 
 children! Let us notice a few of them which garnish and consecrate your sanctua- 
 ries; and, thence, draw in large revenues to your "Immaculate Mother" in Europe. 
 I shall not rehearse the wondrous bits of wood of the cross ; and the four nails, by 
 which our Savior was nailed to the cross. Like the four heads of John the Baptist, 
 in France, there are several duplicates of these four i(/cnh'caZ nails! You have "the 
 parings of St. Edmunds's toes," and several chapels have some of the coals which 
 roasted St. Laurence ! Among the Glastonbury relics, you show us the identical 
 stones which the devil tempted our Lord to turn into bread ! In France, Spain, and 
 Flanders, they have eight arms of St. Matthew ! Of course antiquarians must bless 
 you fur the amazing discovery that he had 40 fingers ! And the author of one list of 
 relics, in the possession of the late Mr. McGavin, declares that he had seen three 
 arms of St. Luke. In the Lateran church in Rome, they show the very Ark of the 
 Lord, made by Moses; and the rod with which he did his miracles! In the same 
 church, they have the entire table on which our Lord eat the first Supper. And in 
 Spain, and in Flanders, they have genuine fragments of the table! In the same 
 church they have the entire heads of St. Peter and St. Paul. And inBilboa, there is 
 a largo ^art of Peter's skull, in the possession of the Augustines; and a large frag- 
 ment of Paul's skull, in the convent of the Franciscans! In St. Peter's church at 
 Burgos, they have the cross of the good thief: '''•somewhat worm eaten;''' with Judas' 
 lantern; and the very dice which the soldiers used in casting lots for our Lord's gar- 
 ments! They show also the tail of Balaam's ass! In the same place, they have a 
 little of the manna in the wilderness; and a few blossoms of Aaron's rod! They 
 have relics of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and also the Virgin's conjb; and a comb 
 
30i ROMAIC CATHOLIC COXTROVERST, 
 
 of each of the 12 Apostles, ^^ nearly as good as neiv."' They have a part of Sf" 
 Mark's borly; with an arm, and a finger of St. Ann, the Virgin's mother. The cata- 
 logue, also, shows the Virgin's identical veil ; and St. Patrick's staff, with which he 
 expelled the toads and vipers from Ireland! They have, also, what is very appro- 
 priate in a den of traitors, a hit of the roi)t with which Judas hanged himself! There 
 is, also, some of the Virgin's hair; with several vials of her milk. x\nd what is a 
 rare and devotional thing, they show a little butter, and a bit of cheese (very rare,) 
 mado out o^ her milk, which never decays! ! ! See Philos. Library for 1818; and 
 Glasgow Prot. chap. 52. 
 
 In the Cathedral of Glasgow, they had a choice museum of these adored relics. 
 For instance, the}'^ had a bit of St. Bartholomew's skin : and the Virgin's girdle : and 
 a bone of St. Magdalene: with four vials of the Virgin's milk ! Also a vial of St. 
 Keutigern's blood; and a bit of the manger where onr Lord lay; and St. Martin's 
 cloak, " rather moth eaten.'^ See Beauties of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 217 ; Glasgow 
 Prot. ch. 53. 
 
 In 1663, Pope Alexander FII. sent into France, three chests of holy relics for 
 " Hospital Church." They were bonnd with silk cords, and sealed with Cardinal 
 Ginetti's seal. On the opening of the rclico. with much pomp and devotion, there- 
 was found in the third chest, the heofl of St. Fortunatus. There unfortunate!)' hap- 
 l)ened to be present a medical gentleman, who, with a heretical eye, perceived a bit 
 cf painted cloth above the ear. This led him to exaniire the skull; he scraped it,, 
 and pierced it with his knife. And lo ! the holy relic, pronounced to be the true bkull 
 of the saint, by your infallible head himself, turned out to be a piece of pasteboard .' 
 See Archbp. Tenison's Reply to Mr. Pulton, ]). 72. Edit. 1687. 
 
 Now, if ever tliere was a thing called a liisiis natura', verily, here is one! And it 
 will be duly and gratefully chronicled by the Antiquarian Society! And I call the 
 attention of our amateurs to it, not merely in its physical, but in its moral bearing. 
 ^Ve have here poniifcal authority, from the chair of St. Peter, that a man can, in the 
 most perfect manner, MSI the \\(\y functions of a RoiTian priest; and be a Roman 
 saint, — and ye^ after all, have only a pasteboard skull, and brains to correspond ! 
 
 There was a famous crucifix at Bexley, in Kent, Old England. Its eyes, lips, and 
 head moved gracioush% at the approach of its votaries, to pay their adoration to ir» 
 and the holy relics. At the Reformation, says Hum.e, the bishop of Rochester 
 broke off its head, and showed to the people its springs and whee^-, by which it w^as 
 moved. Henry III., king of England, used to sport a rare an.i precious relic — no less 
 than a vial of your Lord^s blood, sent to him from Jerusalem.. He used to show it 
 devoutly to all the great men of his court! King Canute very devoutly paid the 
 priests one hundred talents of silver, and one of gold, for the old black withered arm 
 of St. Augustine. My authors do not inform me what these honest traffickers in hu- 
 man limbs, charged the kings of France, and Spain, and Naples, for similar arms of 
 that Afi-ican father! In the Lateran church at Rome are "some planks of the cove- 
 nant;" in St. Paul's, are Paul's body, and such a mmiber of vials of holy blood, 
 tung round the walls, that a stranger is apt to think he has got, by some mistake, into 
 an apothecary's shop ! Here is, also, the very pillars on which the cock crew, when 
 Peter denied our Lord! See Owen*s Travels, vol. ii. p. 52. In another church, is 
 shown the comb of the said cock, that set Peter a weeping. In Paris, at St. Penys, 
 they show a real likeness of the queen of Sheba ; with SolomGn''s drinking cup ; ancj 
 Judas' brass lantern, full of chrystals. Here ia, also, the linen with which Chiisi 
 
ROMAlf CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 305 
 
 wiped the disciple's feet ; with a bit o.' the wa.er pots of Cana I See Evelyn's Me- 
 moirs. In St. Basil's Chapel, at Bruges, Campbell, (Journey, p. 39, quarto,) saw 
 the sponge lull of blood which Joseph of Ariraathea wiped oil our Savior! At 
 Aix la Chapelle, he saw the very chemise of the Virgin ; the cord that bound Christ, 
 and some of St. Stej)hen*s blood nicely preserved in a hit of earth, on which it 
 dropped ; In the Cathedral of Mnnster, Mrs. Piozzi saw the very sword which St. 
 Paul wore ! And behind the high altar, is a backgammon tahle^ which belonged to 
 John the Baptist, or, as the keeper said, "to some baptist P' In Upsal they have 
 Judas' bag, and one of the thirty pieces of silver; with the identical pair of red slip- 
 pers, in which the Virgin paid a visit to her cousin ! See Wraxall's Northern tour, 
 p, 127. In the church of Durh^^m, they showed the teeth, and the head of St. 
 Aiden : and what is a very rare matter, two eggs of the griffin! See Smith's Beda, 
 Append. No. 15. 
 
 And, to crown the climax, I shall give an extract from Stephen's Traite preparatif 
 a VApologie pour Herodote, chap. 39. He relates that a monk of St. Anthony saw- 
 "a bit of the finger of the Holy Spirit, (piite sound :" also the nose of the angel that 
 appealed to St, Francis : and "a finger nail of a cherub !" There were, moreover, 
 "a rib of the word made jizsh!'' and a feather of the angel Gabriel 1 And, besides 
 the vial of St. Joseph's breath, caught by an angel, as he was cleaving wood, — there 
 is '• a hem of his garment." Another scarce relic is this, — "a quantity of the iden- 
 tical rays of the star v.-hich led the wise men to our infant Savior I" There are also 
 the identical square buckler, and the identical steel sword of St. Michael, which he 
 employed in his battle with the devil : together with a vial of his sweat, which he, 
 the angel, sweated on that occasion ! " All these have I devoutly brought home with 
 me," — added the monk. See the Clavis Calendaria, vol. ii. p. 56, &c. : and the 
 Recreat. Magaz. Bost. Edit., p. 384, 386. 
 
 I hold up this system before the eyes of the x\merican people. Behold, fellow citi- 
 zens, a system of unparalleled knavery, which blushes not to palm these lying ivonders 
 on the ignorant part of our communit\% even as if ihe reign of the Dark Ages had not 
 yet passed av/ay ! Here is a system, whicji, worse than paganism in Greece and 
 Rome, holds up these solemn puerilities of gods and rotten bones, as objects of reh- 
 gious worsliipin their chapels; which compels its victims in all catholic lands. — yes, 
 and in our ov/n enlightened land, io fall on theii* knees, and worship these motley 
 remnants of bones, and garments, aad angels, and dust: and yield up their property 
 to the immeasurable exactions of these gbostly traficers: which robs its votaries of 
 their last shiUing to sustain this villainous imposition, and throws them on the public 
 charities of our country; and plunders ihem of even the pittance of supplies, yielded 
 by public charity, to eke out the imposture to the closing scene of their ruined vic- 
 tims I O merciful heaven! can such a curse be permitted to scourge the human 
 family forever! How long shall these deceptions, and lying wonders, and workings 
 of Satan, find a place among civilized men! Not long, my fellov/ citizens. The 
 rising light will chase away this darkness : these ludicrous, yet blasphemous absurdities 
 are hastening, by irresistible necessity, its irrecoverable downfall ! And from all 
 lands, the joyful signal will be uttered : Babylon is fallkn, — is falle>- I 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
 
 W. C, B< 
 
306 »0MA5 CATH0L1G COPfTROVEKST- 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCilBlSHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THE ROMAIC CATHOLICT 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Popery essentially despotic ; and incompatible with the free institutions of our republic.. 
 
 "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes! 
 O Teucri, lie credite eqiio !" 
 
 1 have mv motives, Reverend Fathers, in spreading out all your ''solemn tillee,'" 
 before our plain republican citizens. Your titles indicate the genius of your hierarcliy ; 
 that lordly and absolute despotism, which has rested, as a horrid incubu «, on the 
 breast of slee])ing Europe, for so many centuries : and which you are seeking to press- 
 on the bosom of our republic ! 
 
 I disclaim all personal reflections, and even allusions. Indeed, Reverend Fathers,. 
 both you, and your head the pope, we deem too humble, and too little known among: 
 us, to be the subject of any personal reflections, in the presence of the people of this 
 great republic. Without bating one jot of your consequence, which you borrow and 
 import from Rome, the whole of your hierarchy and ])riesthood in our republic, are, 
 in fact, as the fly on the horn of the noble bull, mentioned in the fable. You can do 
 no lasting mischief, were our fellow citizens only awake, to the inestimable value ©f 
 their civil and religious liberties. Our only dangers are these : — the lethargy of our 
 republic, and the unwearied efTorts of foreign Roman catholic, and despotic powers, 
 to invade us, and corrupt the fountain of public opinion. Disclosures have been 
 made, which establish the fact, that an extensive conspiracy is formed by the des- 
 pots of Europe, to make a dangerous attack on our {ree institutions. This they are 
 doing under the garb of the old and only religion, called Roman catholicisvi. They 
 dare not send in among us, their political emissaries, under the name of "poHticians'' 
 to teach us, and our children, their Romish politics, and despotism ! This would b& 
 too barefaced. It would ruin their cause sooner, than if " Satan transformed into an 
 angel of light," did shove the cloven foot and horns, out from beneath his ill adjusted 
 robe, and ma^k i But, all the world linows that the order of Jesuits was revived in 
 1814, by pope Pius VII., for the ex[)iess purpose of gaining ghostly power in Europe ; 
 and especially to gain over the United States.. And latterly, the Roman catholic 
 princes of Europe have entered deeply, and zealously into tlue enterprise. These, it 
 is trne, care little for the pope, and far less for his system of inventions, which he is 
 plearcd, facetiously, to call the christian religion! The truth is, that as men, enter- 
 taining their own private opinions, neither pope, nor the Roman catholic princes, in 
 Europe, ever gravely aftected to believe in the system of the Romish religion- 
 Viewed strictly as a regular system of priestcraft and tyranny, it is a wretched substi- 
 tute for Christianity, and to it, strictly speaking, as such, is applicable all that Voltaire 
 and Hume wrote. In their ignorance of the holy Bible, they mistook popery for 
 CHRISTIANITY. So does the pope ; so do his ghostly court ; so do the despotic princes- 
 of Europe. 
 
 But, nevertheless, this system, — a compound of absurdities, pomp, and puerility, 
 as it is, — his been an admirable tool in tyrants' hands. It amuses lounging cour- 
 tiers and sinecure professors, and keeps them out of political plots : it edifies the weak 
 
nOMAV CATHOLIC COIf TIIOTXRST. 30 7 
 
 minded ; and feeds the pious ignorance of fanatics : it lodges unlimited power with 
 prie.-is and tyrants. And, then, it frowns on no damning crimes ; it allows men to serve 
 the devil, the world, and the flesh, to their heart's content, as long as they live ; and, 
 then, for a small consideration, — (they cannot take their money with them at any 
 rate,) it shrieves these children of the devil, and gives them a passport to glory. 
 Moreover, it fills the coffers of bishops, and monks, who have made vows of poverty r 
 it feeds an army of twenty millions of priests and monks, who are ready, at an hour's 
 warning, to march to the onset agr.inst knowledge and liberty, even to the ends of the- 
 earth I And, finally, it strikes a very salutary terror into the trodden down poj.ulace, 
 which loves iniquity, and fears the flames of purgatory, which are sold by the 
 priests ! 
 
 It is, therefore, consummately adapted to create, and sustain despotism, on the 
 largest scale. In the pursuit of his object, the pope haa never ceased to add as proper 
 instruments, the power, and influence of Roman catholic sovereigns, to that of his 
 army of ghostly militia, the cardinals, bishops, monks, and priests. And these Roman 
 catholic princes, who relieve their grave, filial obedience, by fits of the merriest 
 mockery of iiim, and all his array of ''' shavelings ;^^ and send him, and them, daily, 
 "to the devil," — over their cups, — do in their turn employ him, his bisho})S, and 
 priests, as their political minions, to crush, still deeper, their wretched, and plundered 
 subjects ; and to prevent the progress of light, and knowledge among them ; that their 
 bondage may be perpetuated ; and, finally, to overturn every free goA'crnmcnt under 
 heaven ! 
 
 There is nothing to which these despots of Europe look with more uneasiness, and 
 real pain, than to the progress of liberty, and the establishment of self government 
 on our continent. Especially is our Republic the object of their unmitigated and un- 
 subdur.ble hatred. I do not say that the people, their subjests, do so view us. They- 
 admire, or envy us. But the princes, and tyrants who have put the screws on their 
 people in church establishments, and in state usurpations, do view our republic with 
 immeasurable vexation and hatred. Hence the present conspiracy ; and combined 
 eiForts to execute that conspiracy, by these European despots. "And the Jesuits, — 
 who have convulsed every nation and government in Europe, they have, as 
 the last resort, selected as the means to accomplish our ruin. And every man, in 
 our Uuion, who has eyes to see, and has looked steadily^n, for a few years past, has 
 perceived that an army of Jesuits are at work over the land. The effort now made, 
 — ^and I implore my fellow citizens to mark it, and watch the progress; — the untiring 
 effort, and aim of these foreign emissaries, of European despots, are to a;et theciluca- 
 tion of our children, and young people, male and female, into their ou-n hands! And 
 all those unhappy victims whom they can obtain, they send home, — verily igno- 
 rant enough of the usual ornamental, and useful branches, — but, then, their ojie,. 
 only grand aim is achieved. They send them home into the bosoms of their families^ 
 unblushing, irreligious, bigoted Roman catholics! This, as you know, Rev. Fathers, 
 is the plan adopted in the conspiracy against our free institutions. The foreign des- 
 pots know that it is vain to attack us with armies, and navies : ihnt political eimaaanes- 
 and writings could fiufl no jdace here. They attack us under the mask of religion ; 
 the Jesuits arc their soluiers ; the De propaganda of Rome, and that of the south of 
 FrancL :rain their soldiers: the despots, and the ''Leopold foundation," at Vienna, 
 furnish the money. E\ery son of his holiness is taxed to support the emissaries in 
 our land. Tliey are '' teachers of religion.'" Yes: but they cease not to leach in 
 
508 ROMAN CATHOllC CONTROVtilST. 
 
 their religion, the senilments of the Holy Alliance ! They are " teachers of religion /" 
 Yes : but they instil into their pupils, despotic principles .' They are " teachers of reli- 
 ffion" ! O, yes ! But at the confessional they utter execrations against liberty and 
 republics' They appland monarcliy: and popery, and absolutism! They are 
 ^eac/iers of religion." Yes! and that religion dooms all /iereh'cf/Z governments: and 
 leaches that no heretic has a right to rule : or even hold property : that no Protestant 
 heretic has a lawful heir, because no heretic is legally married, according to the papal 
 law! They are ^'teachers 0/ religion "I Yes I But in every nunnery, and in 
 everv male seminary, it is their religion to hold up the pope as the legitimate master of 
 all magistrates: and his court, and platform of rule, as tlie only model of perfection 
 in the art of government! No poKiics, no political emissary, — no armed bands can 
 be more fatal to our country, than these " teachers of religion'" ! And their very 
 jealousy, and eternal outcry of "■ religious persecution,'''' when we expose their conspi- 
 racy ci gainst our unsuspecting peo]>Ie, is to me, a manifest demonstration that iheir 
 whole, system is a political conspiracy. The teachers of pure christianit\- conrt pub- 
 licitv : they move in light, and triumph by the force of iruth. But those "religious" 
 eonspira'ors " creep into houses ;" and move la darkness, and fear nothing more thaft 
 light and publicity I 
 
 I beg leave to lav down, einphaticnlly, before the public, this doctrine : — 
 
 Popery is essentially despotic, and utterly incompatible with the free instiiutions of 
 cear Repuhlic. 
 
 Here. I have to combat the prejudices, and ignorance of superficial men, who 
 maintain thai popery is so altered, and so modified, and reformed, from what it used 
 to be, in the Dark Ages, that it can do little, or no harm. Reverend Fathers, no one 
 knows better than you do, that these ages were created Dark Ages by the plastic power 
 of prij-.ery I And if she could have crushed the influence of the Bible ; and quenched 
 tlie light of truth, and science, we should have been in the Dark Ages still. Modern 
 light and improvement bring no improvement to her. One fact is enough to show 
 this: — Popery claims absolute supremacy for her pope, and infalhbility ! Hence, 
 she declares "-she never errs I"" She can never alter one decree: nor revoke one 
 false step: nor abaie one evil that ever existed in her. You affect to compliment her 
 by calling her improved and reformed ! Were yon in Spain, you should receive for 
 your compllraeat a corps du gard, to escort you to a cell in the dungeon of the bishop, 
 — the inquisiior, in his osvn diocese! You ought to know that you offer Rome the 
 greatest insult, v.-hich in her estimation, 3'ou can contrive to offer her in this land: — 
 bv allediilna- that she is in any respect altered : for, in doing this, you take away the- 
 largest and brightest gem from her CLOwn. You take avray her infallibility and 
 supremacy. 
 
 The fact is this : — Popery is altered so far. that she puts on the mask, and a false 
 garb. For she feels that she is in an enemy's land. She suits herself in appear- 
 ance, to the decent appearance of Protestants. But, as you know, Fathers, the 
 moment vou can get the power, you will forthwith revive old Irish, Spanish, Italian^ 
 and Austrian times. All our cities will gleatn with the Auto da Fe! 
 
 I need not appeal, here, to vv^bat has been done by popes and couHcils of old. The 
 pope claims, to this day, absolute and undoubted supremacy as a temporal and 
 spiritual prince, over all persons, and their property : and over all countries, as well 
 Mohammedan, as Protestant, and catholic and pagan. Has any one forgotten that 
 tlie pope claimed, aiKl still claims the giving away of newly discovered lands, to hi& 
 
ROMA!? CATnOLIC CO?»TROVERST. 300 
 
 favorite princes ? From tlie beginning of the eighth century, the pope claimed this 
 power in Spain. It is true, Dr. Gedcles has estabhshed the fact, beyond all Romish 
 gainsaying, thai the po])e's supremacy was not owned, nor even knoivn in Spain, 
 until about the close of the seventh century. But early in the eighth, the pope threat- 
 ened king Witiza, for allowing and authorizing the priests to marry, that if he per- 
 sisted, he should lose his kingdom. See Dr. M. Geddes' works against popery, vol. 
 ii. p. 29. It is true, king Witiza of Spain, denounced the pope ; and assembled the 
 great council of Toledo, in A. D. 704; which declared and decreed that, — "the 
 bishops of Rome had no authority in Spain, either in church, or in state." See Ged-» 
 des ii. p. 31. Yet tlie pope set up claims to that realm ; letters of pope Gregory vii, 
 were produced out of the Vatican Library, addressed to all princes who were willing 
 to invade the moors of Spain, and drive them out. In these Letters, this spiritual 
 despot published his solemn grant to all princes, who should conquer the Moors, 
 " that they should have, and hold from him, the pope, the use of all the countries in 
 Spain, which they should conquer from these Moors. But," adds he, — "-the property 
 of these countries, he could not part with, or give it to them: because it belonged to 
 St. Peter ; and the See of Rome /" Geddes ii. p. 30. 
 
 The pope's spiritual supremacy was, in defiance of the great but unsuccessful 
 struggles of all good men, fully established in the most of the countries of Europe^ 
 about the beginning of the seventh century: and his temporal power and supremacy, 
 about the year 756. Through the influence of that infamous traitor and usurper, 
 Pepin, this wasefTected. By him was pope Stephen ii. made Exarchate of Ravenna. 
 By insatiable ambition and lust of power, the popes continued to make constant acces- 
 sions to their domains, and revenues. Charlemagne made very great and important 
 additions to the gift of his father Pepin. This monarch, bigotted and superstitious, 
 helped on the Romish power towards its height. He was the Jirst emperor that was 
 crowned by the pope. Give tyranny, especially ghostly tyranny, the least degree of 
 unlav.ful power, and its thirst becomes burning and insatiable for more. From this 
 time, the popes actually assumed the right of crowning kings : and, thence, they set 
 up the claims of conferring the crown ; and with it, the right of conferring the 
 sovereignty of the empire. For, wiiat was the crown " without the holy p^^^e's bene- 
 diction." From that time the popes claimed absolute sovereignty over all kings, and 
 magistrates, from the lowest to the raosiexalr?d in all lands! 
 
 Such is tlie origin of papal supremacy. Nothing less than a traitor and a mur- 
 derer of his royal master, and the usurper olhis throne, could have conceived it; and 
 his bloody son consummated it! From tliat lime, the illicit union of the spiritual 
 and the temporal power, by a frightful amalgamation, gave birth to the papal Beast, 
 as foreseen in the visions of St. John ! 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, 5:c. 
 W. C, B, 
 
JIO ROMAX CATHOLIC Co:<TROVKRSr. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN TH£ UNITED STATES. 
 
 Popery essentially despotic: and incompatible with our free institutions. 
 
 " Per varios casus, per tot discrimina renim, 
 Tendimus in Latium!" Virg. 
 
 Reverend Fathers: — Through you, I earnestly beg the attention of my fellow 
 citizens, to the open and avowed doctrine of the Romish church on this point. These 
 papal claims are laid down by popes and councils; and they are viewed, and acted 
 on, as '■'■ the essential doctrine of Christianity." And these claims of tha pope, his 
 bishops, and priests extend to our republic, to our president, and congress, and gov- 
 ernors, and all the magistracy as fully, and as entirely, in their undiminished pre- 
 tensions, as unto any Roman catholic power in Europe. I implore my fellow citi- 
 zens not to be imposed on by the Jesuitism of the men who pretend that " they do 
 not own the pope as a temporal prince." There is not a Roman catholic in Europe, 
 or in the United States, who does not fully believe that the pope has just as absolute a 
 right, and supremac}^ over Protestant Holland, and Protestant Britain, and over our 
 Protestant Republic, and over all our bodies, and our souls, and our real, and personal 
 jTToperty, — as he has over Spain, or Italy itself! This is ihe solemn faidi of every 
 Roman catholic, as it is laid down in his books; and taught him daily. And you 
 know, Fathers, that papists could not expect to be saved, if they did not believe this. 
 It is true, the}' refuse to admit it: they even deny it. But this, you know, is denied 
 only before Protestants, and in -all Protestant lands. They would be guilty of a 
 mortal sin if they did not believe that which they thus deny! I shall produce from 
 your own books, your authentic doctrines on this point; and we shall then see how 
 .atrocious and dangerous they are. 
 
 "The pope,'' — saj^s the council which had Gregory A^II. at its head, — "ought to 
 b« called the universal bishop : he alone ought to wear the token of rm^^maZ dignity : 
 all princes ought to kiss his feet: he has power to depose emperors and kings, and is 
 to be judged bj^ no man." Pope Innocent III. proclaimed himself thus to th« 
 world : — "The church my spouse, is not married to me without bringing me some- 
 thing. She hath given me a dowery of a price, beyond all price : the plenilude of 
 ^in7waZ things: and the extent of temporal things: the mitre for the priesthood; 
 and the crown for the kingdom; making me the lieutenant of Him who has it written 
 X3n h's thigh, " King of kings, and Lord of lords :" to enjoy the plenitude of power, 
 ihat others may say of me next to God, — "out of his fulness have we received." 
 
 To deny this unbounded temporal poicer, was deemed by the pope the greatest 
 iieresy ia the kings of Europe. Every one has read of the troubles and degradation 
 to which King John of England; and Henry H. of England, in the affair of the 
 villainous and treason working knave. Saint Thomas A Becket, were subjected, by 
 this usurped power of the pope. Every student of history is familiar with the 
 power claimed by the two popes who excommunicated King Henry VIII. ; and by 
 pope Pius VI. who put Queen Elizabeth under his ban, and called, authoritatively, 
 ppon all her subjects, as his subjects, to rise up in rebellion against her, "whojn he, 
 
 1 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC COKTR0VER8T. 3lt 
 
 by virtue of power from God, had judged and damned," — yes, damned! For h« 
 affected to be " Lord, and God," of both worlds, and judge of the bodies and souls 
 of all men ! 
 
 When King Philip of France, showed a disposition to slight the pope's power, th« 
 pope thus addressed him in his Bull, — " We would have you to know, that you, 
 king of France, are subject to us, both in things s]nntiial and temyoral : and ice pro- 
 nounce all those who believe the contrary, to be heretics .'" On another occasion, 
 addressing the same monarch, the pope said, — "Do not imagine that you have no 
 *uperior: or, that you are not in subjection to the Head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy , — 
 he that maintains this is an infidel !" 
 
 And this has been practically pla^^ed off by way of a comment, and a lesson U) 
 kings, and magistrates. A king of England, and a king of France, were compelled 
 to hold the pope's stirrup, and act as his groom's man. An emperor of Germany 
 laid his neck at the pope's feet: and the pope, in lordly pride, put his heel on hie 
 prostrate neck, as he blasphemously repeated the sacred text; — "Thou shall tread 
 upon the serpent, and trample on the dragon, and lion I" Henry IV., the emperor, 
 did penance before the pope's gate at Canusium: three days did he stand there, 
 barefooted; bare headed, and in a wretched woollen cloth wrapped round him. On 
 tire fourth da}', the haughty despot deigned to give him aft audience ; and he promisexl 
 him absolution, on condition of his submitting to the dictates of a comicil, to be call- 
 ed by the pope. That council, at the nod of this pope, — I mean Gregory VI I., deposed 
 him: and chose a new emperor; to whom the pope sent a crown bearing this motto: — 
 "Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho." "The Rock gave the crown to 
 Peter, and Peter gave it to Rodolphus !" 
 
 This supremacy of the pope, " over all persons, and things," says Bellarmine, 
 "is the ?jaix substance of Christianity!" Hence the following doctrines of th« 
 Roman catholic church, which I submit to every citizen of this republic. Cardinal 
 Polus, De Concil. 41. says,—" Petri cathedram, &c. The chair of St. Peter, Christ 
 has constituted, above all imperial thrones: and all regal tribunals!" 
 
 Blasius, De Rom. Eccles. Dignitate, Tract 7, pp. 34. 83. 85, says,— "Unicus Dei 
 Ticarius, &c. The Roman Pontiff is the only vicar of God : — the pope's power is 
 OTer all the world, pagan, as well as christian : the only vicar of God, who has su- 
 preme power, and empire over all kings, and princes of the earth ! As there is on« 
 God, the monarch of all, who presides and rules over all mortals ; so there is ont 
 wicar of God : kings ought to be under Peier: and must bow down and submit their 
 aecks to him, and his successors : who is prince, and lord of all, whom all emperors, 
 aud kings, and potentates, are suhject to ; and must humbly obey." 
 
 Pope Boniface VIII. proclaims in the Extravagantes, (the extravagantes are the 
 decretals of popes, and councils, and of the civil powers.)—" Oinnes Christi, &c. It 
 li necessary to saWation that all christians be subject to the pope!"" 
 
 Bzovius, De Rom. Pontif. Col. Agripp. cap. i. 3. 16. 32. 45. teaches thus : " Papa 
 est, &c. The pope is the monarch of all christians: supreme over all mortal?: 
 from hhn lies no appeal. He is judge in heaven; and in all earthly jurisdiction, 
 supreme: he is the arbiter of the world." 
 
 Mancinus, De Jur. Princip. Rom. Lib. 3. cap. i. 2. "Papa est, &c. The pope 
 is Lord of the whole world. The pope, as pope has temporal power : his temporal 
 power is most eminent. All other powers depend on the pope." 
 
 Moscovius, De. Majest. Eccleg. Milit. Lib. i. cap. 7. p. 20, teaches the Romish doctriBe 
 
312 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 fully and frankly : '* Pontifex Romanus, ^-c. The Roman Pontiff is universal judge : 
 kinsr of kings, and lord of lords ; because his power is of God. God's tribunal and 
 the jiope's tribunal are the same ; they have the same consistory. All other poivcrs are 
 his subjects. The pope is judged of none but God." See also Pithou, Corp. Jur. 
 Can. 29, Decret. Tit. 7, c. 3, also Cibert ii. 9. Bruy, ii. 100, and Labbeus, viii. 6Q(j, 
 and Binii Concil. ix. 54. 
 
 Scioppius, in Eccles. Jacob. Mag. Brit. Reg. Oppos. cap. 138, 139, 241, says, — 
 *'Catholici non tantum, Sec. Catholics helieve the pope's power to be not ouly 
 ministerial, but iinperial, and supreme; so that he has the right to direct, and compel, 
 with the power of life, and of death." 
 
 Maynardus, De Privil. Eccles. Art. 5, Sect. 19, &c. Art. 6, Sect. 1, &c. Art. 13, 
 Sect. 19, says : "Emperors and kings are the pope's subjects. The pope has power 
 in the ivhole world in temporals and spirituals. Statutes made by laymen do not hind 
 the clergy!''' 
 
 Simanca, in his Enchir. Judicum. Tit. 67. Sect. 12. p. 349, says,— " Heretici 
 privati sunt, &c. Heretics (Protestants) are deprived of all dominion, and jurisdic- 
 lion; and their subjects are freed from their obedience." 
 
 Emanuel Sa, Aphoris. Confes. Verb. Cleric, p. 41. thus teaches,— "Clericirebellio, 
 &c. The rebellion of a priest is not treason : because clergy are not the king's,'' 
 (nor the repubhc's) "subjects." 
 
 Turrecremata. Card, ad Can. Alius 3. Cans. 15. Quest. 6. and De Eccles. Lib. 
 2. cap. 14, teaches thus : " Papa potest deponere, &c. The pope can depose empe- 
 rors, and kings ; he may lawfully absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance. If 
 the king" (or President) "be manifestly a heretic," that is, a Protestant, — "the 
 church may depose him," that is, from his office as a magistrate. 
 
 Paul IF. the pope, in his Bull, A. D. 1558, thunders forth his anathema thus : — 
 *'All Protestants, be they kings or subjects,''— ihat is, be they Protestants, or Govern- 
 ors, or Mayors, or Aldermen, — ''are all solemnly cursed."" — And this Bull is a part of 
 the canon law : see Lib. 7. Decret. Lib. 5. Tit. 3. De Ilereticis, &c. cap. 9. 
 
 And let magistrates look well to the character which the Romish church says, her 
 prieslhood occupy, in the Republic. They never can, without violating their solemn 
 oath to the pope, take the oath of allegiance to our government; or become citizens. 
 If they do, they are guilty of perjury before the pope! Nay, the Roman Council of 
 the Lateran, under pope Innocent III. Can. 43, thus declares, — " Sacri auctoritate, 
 &c. By the authority of the Holy Council, we declare it unlawful for secular prin- 
 ces to require any oath of fidelity, and allegiance of their clergy; we peremptorily 
 forbid all the priests from taking any such oath, if it be required." See Corpus Jur. 
 Canonici. 
 
 Again, in Corpus Jur. Can. cap. Sicut 27, Extrav. De Jurejurando, it is thus 
 taught, — " Juramentum, &c. No oath against the benefit of the church is binding: 
 all such oaths are perjuries.''' And Spottiswood in his History of Scotland, p. 308, 
 says, — "■ If the pope dispense with voluntary oaths, it is valid." 
 
 Filiucius, in his Moral Quest. Tract 16, cap. 11, sect. 307, 309, teaches that "by 
 the canon law, and the decree of the Lateran Council, under pope Innocent III., all 
 magistrates who interpose against ecclesiastical persons, in any criminal cause, 
 whether it be even for murder, or even high treason, shall be excommunicated." 
 And the Bull of pope Gregory ix. in 1580, declares thus:— "Judex secularis, &c. 
 No secular judge may condemn a priest : and if he do ; he shall be excommuni- 
 
nOllAN CATHOLIC C05TR0VERST. 313 
 
 cated." — Hence it is canonical doctrine of the lluinaa court that iia'pal ecclesiastics 
 are not subject to the civil laws ! 
 
 This is easily carried out, in every priest ridden government. But how Is it managed 
 under a Protestant government ? I answer by facts, — when a priest commits it crime 
 which lays him open to the lash of the law, — the bishop orders him otf in an huur; 
 and before the legal officer is at his house, he is on board of some ve^s jl under a 
 borrowed name. We all know how often this occurs in our cities ! Remember priest 
 Smith ! 
 
 I conclude with a few more extracts, Bellarinine, Controv. Lib. 5, cap. 6, p. 
 H)98 says, — " tlie spiritual powers must rule the {eniporal by all sorts of neaus, and 
 expedients, when necessary." "Cliristiaris,*' — that means papists, — " should not tole- 
 rate a heretic king," (or President.) 
 
 Salmeron, Comment. Evan. Hist. Tom. iv. pars 3: Tract. 4, p. 411, thus teaches : 
 " The pope has supreme power over all the earth ; over all kings, and government- , to 
 command and enforce them &c. And if they resist him, he must puni?h them, as 
 contumacious." 
 
 Lessius, Lib. 2, ca]). 42: Dub. 12: p. 632, teaches: — That ''the pope can annul 
 and cancel every possible obligaHon arising from an oath.'' So completely does the 
 pope set all civil governments, and all courts at defiance. 
 
 And, now, can any citizen, of the least reflection, deny that tliese essential doctrines 
 of popery can never be compatible with the laws and instituti')ns of our Repulhc ? If 
 the Jesuits do teach these doctrines, — as 1 do ariirm before God and man, they do in 
 tlieir seminaries, they are deadly foes of our fiee government. If tjiey d. re deny 
 them, while thsy lie open in their staudird books in our hands, then are luey verily 
 Jesuits, and knaves that will lie! 
 
 I am, Reverend Fathers, you;s, &c. 
 Vv. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND TH*: LORDS BISHOPS OF THi: ROMAT CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THP: UNITED STATES. 
 
 Popery Essentially Despotic ; and Incoivpat.lblc with the Free Institutions of 
 
 our Republic. 
 
 Hoc volo; sic jubeo; sit pro ratioue voluntas! 
 
 Juvenal vi. 210. 
 
 Reverend Fathers: — I beg that it may be distinctly known by you, and my 
 fellow citizens, that all the above doctrines are extracted from the canons, and de- 
 cretals published by Roman doctors, approved by inquisitors ; or enacted by councils., 
 and san'Mioned by popes. Hence they exhibit the immutable faith of the Ror. a.z catholics. 
 
 Now, let us glance at facts to show that, in thisinsfance, popery is, if );3: sible, even 
 more intolerant in deeds than in theory. 1. The Romish church has ncvi r tolerated 
 any church of Christ, where she had tlie power. The Jew, the inHdel,*he Moham- 
 medan, the christian have all been, alike the victims of her unsparing b'^otry I She 
 knows no other sect, — admits of no sister chmch: there is no religion out of her: 
 no salvation outof her: all are doomed to eternal pejdition, not of her communion : 
 
 28 
 
314 ROMAN CATHOLt€ CONTROVERSr* 
 
 This is not all ! she is a lordly tyrant, who permits none to breathe, or live, or enjoy 
 civil privileges, who differ from her,— wherever she has the ascendancy ! Look at 
 Spain, Austria, and Italy! None will she allow to die in peace, or receive even the 
 last honors of sepulture, — or even, — if she can prevent it, — enter the gates of heaven, 
 who differ from her petty tyrants, the priests ! Her government, and all her habits 
 of rule are not only strictly monarchial, but despotic, — absolutely desjjotic, over soul, 
 and body ! Witness the absolute slavery of the lay yjeople, to the imperious priest I 
 In Ireland, the priest exercises his ivhip andjlsts, on his parishioners, as freely, and 
 as cruelly as the slave driver does on his negroes. Then, mark the slavery of the 
 crouching priest, to the bishop. He must, on his knees, kiss the lordly hand of the 
 despot, before he mounts the pulpit, if he happens to be present. And then, the 
 slavish prostration of soul and body, on the part of the bishop, to the "Lord his god 
 the pope," is a disgrace, — a foul blot on God's image, — man! The bishops and 
 priests live, and move, by the breath of the pope's lips! They have no opinion, nor 
 sentiment, nor religion, nor conscience, nor even soul of their own. It is all as the 
 lordly tyrant of Rome breathes it into them, even here, within the free air of our 
 republic ! 
 
 2. The Romish church has always united church and state. This is an essential 
 element of her religion. 
 
 And history reveals how much her selfishness here rivals her impiety. In every 
 instance of similar unhallowed connections, in Protestant lands, there is the union of 
 the church to the state ; by which the latter uniformly makes a tool of the former ; 
 and the church always suffers. But, in lordly Rome, the church unites the state to 
 herself, that in every instance, she may use its perfect subserviency. Hence her 
 unbounded arrogance. She sets up claims of power over all kings, emperors, presi- 
 dents, and governments. Hence the secret of her treatment of civil powers. All gov- 
 ernments not of her religion, are pronounced, in her canons, heretical ; and that 
 means, in her court style, wnZau/u/ ; and they must be put down, at all hazards; 
 and every where, as soon as she reaches the power. Carrying out these maxims, 
 and principles of action, as an absolute despot, she, of course, abhors and nauseates 
 every form of government that favors the liberties of the people. She has an uncon- 
 querable horror of a republic. It is at perfect antipodes with every sentiment, and 
 feeling of Rome. Her people must not think for themselves ; must not read ; they 
 have no right to liberty of conscience : the pre^s is muzzled : with her the liberty of 
 the press is insupportable licentiousness. These maxims pervade the present pope's 
 late encyelical Letter. Hence, no Romish priest can be a repubhcan. He has no 
 taste for it. Like the bear of the north, the Romish piiest is an animal that can 
 tliriveonly in the icy regions of despotism. He cannot be a republican, had he even 
 a taste for it. He is a feudal vassal : he would bring on his soul the mortal sin of 
 perjury, if he became a lover of liberty. The pope has his whole soul, and his great 
 oath : his ivord, and even his civil oath are not to be credited in opposition to his papal 
 interests ! Facts confirm this. 
 
 The one great, and unwavering object of papal ambition, has been power, and 
 universal ascendency in all things, temj)oral and spiritual. History declares that no 
 Roman catholic country has ever been a true republic. The priesthood of Rome 
 have been monarchists of the most absolute character, from the pope down to the 
 cure. 
 
 Hence, we frankly avow, that we oppose your system of priestcraft not on account of 
 
ROMAIf CATHOLIC OOI^TROVERST. 315 
 
 your religion, merely as a religion. We oppose you on this account, that popery is a 
 dtspot'is:n, breathing a deadly malignity against every form of religion, dillering in 
 any iota, from itself; and against all free, and especially, all republican institutions ! 
 I appeal to the history of Roman catholic countries in Europe, South America, and 
 Mexico. The land of the Inquisition, and of priestcraft has ever been the tomb of 
 liberty ! And the Roman catholic church has been the mother and nurse of the 
 Inquisition, and priestcraft. The moral atmosphere of Rome, worse than their own 
 malaria, and worse than the deadly Samiel of the desert, breathes death to all liberty, 
 civil and religious! 
 
 3. Ot all the specifications which might be made, there is one, to which I beg the 
 earnest atte ntion of our citizens. It pourtrays the diabolical spirit of this ghostly 
 despotism, in deepest hues. Eveiy Protestant, and, indeed, every man not a Roman 
 catholic, is denounced by the pope, and his foreign emissaries among us, a? excommu- 
 nicated her-, tics ! And, what is worse, every person in these United States, who is 
 not a Romanist, is annually excommunicated, and pronounced accursed, and doomed 
 to perdition! This unchristian, and horrid ceremony of cursing all the American 
 citizens, and government, is annually pronounced on Thursday, before Good Friday. 
 
 It begins at Rome. On that day, the pope, in his scarlet vestments, the appropriate 
 clothing of the "blood red, scarlet colored Beast of the apocalypse," utters in awful 
 form, this infernal imprecation. And, in his name, in like manner, does every priest, 
 in his own chapel, read this bull In cana Domini, re-echoing the papal curse over 
 the world ! They denounce all our citizens ; all our magistracy ; our mayors ; our 
 aldermen ; our governors ; the president ; and all the branches of our government ! 
 And this curse of their foreign master, includes the sentence of deposition from civil 
 office ; as being heretics, and having, of course, no right to rule ! And there are just 
 two things which screen them from popular indignation. They deny the charge of 
 doing it, even while they are in the act of doing it; and it is done in Latin, which 
 few understand. 
 
 But the priests and their partizans gain their aim notwithstanding: they cherish 
 the secret spirit of hostility to »ur institutions ; and their subserviency to European 
 despots ! 
 
 And in case of a war, or insurrection, the whole army of priests, bishops, monks, 
 and partizans are bound b}' your foreign allegiance, as you know. Fathers, — and by 
 your great oath, to rise in defence of the pope and his allies; and against our govern- 
 ment ! If you do not, the guilt of perjury rests on you; and you, thence, forfeit 
 your offices, and your revenues! No man, acquainted with Romanism, and its des- 
 potic vows, can imagine that a papist will permit his oath of allegiance to any heretical 
 government, to supersede, in one instance, his vows, and oath to the pope. And this 
 oath, be it remembered, binds him as perfectly \n civil, as in spiritual matters. 
 
 It is now understood by us all, that the course adopted by our Jesuits, and the 
 priests in general, in reference to this Bull of annual damnation of heretics, is, — to 
 deny it utterly ; to deny that it is promulged by any of them. Hence the Jesuits 
 have caused it to be published in The Catholic Herald^ that it is never promulged by 
 them; that "they have not even a copy of it;" "that it utters no curses on any 
 one." I refer to the Protestant Vindicator, No. 12. I beg leave, also, to notice a 
 email book, lately jjublished by one of you; I mean bishop England, entitled Ex- 
 planation oj the ceremonies oj" Holy lVeek% &c, ; but which is, merely, a childifh, 
 
3?6 ROMA>' CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 and contemptible apology for the iheatrical mummery of Rome, and its intolefaiit 
 dogmas. 
 
 When Dr. E. comes to the services of Maunday Thursday, he has the hardihood 
 fo deny that these vindictive curses on the human family, "are now gone through on 
 (he Thursday of holy week." It is now laid aside ; and has " not been gone ihrougb 
 since tlie yec^r 1740." See p. 69. 
 
 I do not stop to inquire whether courtesy should compel one to say that a person 
 speaks the truth, when he actually hes! But I cannot conceive it possible that our 
 Jesuits, f^nd also Dr. England did not know that what they say on this matter, is 
 positiveh untrue and false. 
 
 i shall conduct them, and you, Fathers, directly to this very Bull for evidence to 
 sustain m.y strong assertions. "You do not promulge the Bull In coena Domhii;''* 
 you .'-a^j. Hear what your sovereign lord at Rome says : — Sect. 29, — "Ut processus 
 ipsi &c. That the processes themselves, and these present letters may be made more 
 known, in virtue of canonical obedience, we do strictly charge and command all and 
 singi]lar,--that they publish them once annually or oftener, if expedient, when the 
 majf>r part of the people are assembled." 
 
 "You do not possess a copy of it, and therefore, 3'ou cannot publish it," — you say, 
 in 2'/e Catholic Herald. 
 
 Wliar an act of rebellion against the pope, and the highest power in j'our church! 
 Her?? are tlis words of the Bull, Sect. 25. "Episcopi, nee non rectores &c. Bishops, 
 and rectors, and curates, and presbyters of ever}^ order, shall have with them a tran-' 
 script of -this Bull, and shall diligently read and study to understand it.'" 
 
 "It ha* not been gone through since 1740; but is now laid aside;" saj'S Dr. Eng- 
 lan*^'. It is diificult to say whether we should pronounce this to be impudence, or 
 reckless hardihood, or Jesuitism dyed in the wool. That he should have thus dared 
 to uiter his at Rome, and thus beard the lion in his den, — the pope in his very ievee! 
 Yes! and with the very Bull uttering his papal roars in his very ears, — is surpass- 
 ing strange ! The unblushing falsehood ought to be rebuked. I affirm that Dr. 
 England knows perfectly well that this Bull is ordered, by the highest authority of 
 his church, to be annually promulgated. And in the teeth of his denial, I affirm that 
 he knows well that it has been uttered since 1740.^Dr. E. is " a member of the 
 Rom. Pont. Academ}'- of Archaeology." Now there is a volume, printed at Rom.e in 
 A. D. 176'4, entitled,— "Appendix ad Tusc. Synod, held by the Cardinal Duke of 
 York, Bp. of Frescati, in 1763." Is it possible that this member of the Academy 
 has not seen that book, so well known in its library, and in the libraries at Rome? 
 I cannot ])prsuade m3^self that Dr. E. is so absolutely ignorant. He must have seen 
 it. It is well known even in the libraries in Britain. At p. p. 575, 576, of that book, 
 Dr. E. must have ?een the copy of the Bull In coena Domini., as uttered by pope 
 Clement XIII.,, in the year 1764. I copy from the preamble, now before me. The 
 pope, stating that his predecessors on Maunday Thursday'-, did exercise such a spirit- 
 ual sword of church discipline, adds; — "We, therefore, following this ancient, and 
 solemn custom, do Firstly, — Excommunicate, and curse on the part of Almighf}' 
 God, and the apostles, alt heretics, &c." Then follow the designated victims of 
 I>npal intcl^rance : he "curses" them from the eye brows to the toe nails; and their 
 souls;, 'jeh)!; damned byhira,with the devil, he adjudged into eternal fire: damnatum 
 cum diahoio, — in ignem ceternum judicamus.^^ See also Land. Prot. Jour. April, 1834.. 
 p. 2^0. 
 
EOIUN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 317 
 
 Farther — "This Bull In conia Doming — you say, "does not curse Protestants, — 
 does not interfere with Protestant governments." I beg the attention of the American 
 commui Ity to an analysis of this famous Bull, which is annually pronounced against 
 us. It opens thus: — "In the name of the Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, anJ by the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our oavn, — we excom- 
 municate and pronounce accursed, all Hussites, Wiclsliffites, Lutherans, Calvinists, 
 Huguonots, Anajapists, Trinitarians, and all apostates from the faith, and ali who 
 keep, and read knowingly their books, &c. 
 
 In section ^ixth, the pope utters his curse " on all civil powers who impose new 
 taxes without the consent of the Roman court." 
 
 In the 12th section he curses ali who, in any way, hurt or maltreat cardinals, 
 bishops, and priests; or who drive them from their lands, territories, &:c." Now, as 
 the p)ope claim.= all lands, and gives them to his priests, this republic falls under the 
 malediction of the pope, because, it does not establish the popish religion by a law ; 
 and pay the tithea of the fruits of the land, as his just tribute! 
 
 In the J 5th section, he curses all magistrates, who " take away the jurisdiction of 
 all beneiices, and tithes; or other spiritual causes, from the cognizance of the court of 
 Rome." Hence, if any of our courts take up a cause of quarrel between the priests, 
 or laymen, about monies due to " the church,^'' or " any spiritual property'''' instead of 
 referring it t^imply and dutifully to the foreign despot, they come under the papal 
 carse. 
 
 In the 17th section, the sovereign master of all Roman catholics utters his curse 
 on all those who shall hinder priests, and ecclesiastics, from exerting their ghostly 
 jurisdiction ; or vvho shall appeal to a civil court for redress, and "to procure prohibi- 
 tions, and penal mandates against these priestly courts, &c. 
 
 In the 13th section, he curses " all who take away the priests," and church's proper- 
 ty." At the Rerormation, the priests w^ere made to disgorge their ill-gotten "goods and 
 gear," which they had abstracted by fraud and imposture. For, demanding baolw 
 their own, the protestant world has been put under the pope's weightiest ban. And 
 every priest and layman, does really affect to believe, that for this thing alone, — 
 namely, for making these ghostly thieves and robbers refund what they had been, for 
 ages, plundering orF the nations, — every Protestant shall be doomed to hell! Nor, 
 can we, of this republic, escape ! All the earth is the pope's property; and as he is 
 entitled to the tithe of all its proceeds, — our not giving this to his representatives and 
 fireign emisj^aries, and spies, hero among us, to wit, the holy bishops, vicars, and 
 priests, — is a sin which will send us all, — magistrates and people, a packing into infaU 
 lible and inevitable perdition. 
 
 In the 10th section, he curses " those who, without express license, from the Roman 
 pontifT", impose taxes or tribute on Roman prelates, priests, monasteries, or churches, 
 &c." Horo the curse reaches our government, and our legislature, if they shall vcn^ 
 ture to tax priests, or prie.':ts* property, '^without express license of the pope.'' 
 
 In the 20th section ho utters the doom of judges and magistrates, who shall "sit in 
 judgment on a bishop, priest, or ecclesiastic, with express license from the Holy Apos- 
 tolical See !" 
 
 In the 22d, the pope declares this Bull, and these sentences of doom binding forever* 
 unless revoked by the ])0[)c for the time being. In the 24, he utters his curse against 
 bishop or priest, who shall dare to give absolution to any one under these doijms, " ia 
 
 28* 
 
{\IS ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTKOVERST. 
 
 face of these presents ; and he declares that " he will proceed to severer sjnritual, and 
 temporal punishments, as he shall tliink most convenient." 
 
 Lastly :'— This extraordinary document is introduced with these words : *' This. 
 Bull — is always pronounced at Rome, and by all Roman priests, on Thursday be- 
 fore Easter." It has received the sanction, and addition from at least twent}^ popes. 
 See Bullarium Magnum Roinanum. And it is closed with the assurance, that " if any 
 shall infringe on these letters, and this Bull, or oppose them, he shall certainly incur 
 the wrath o{ Almighty God, and of St. Peter and St. Paul. 
 
 4. Additional light is thrown on the nature of the Roman catholic subservi- 
 ency to a foreign despotism, from the oath which chains the papal bishops and 
 priesthood, as feudal vassals, to the foot of the pope's throne, it is recorded in 
 Bulla Pii IV. ; " Omnia a sacris, &c. All things defined by the canons, and general 
 councils, and especially by the Synod of Trent, I undoubtedly receive, and profess : 
 and all things contrary to them I reject, and curse, and from my dependents, and 
 others under my care, as far possible, I will withhold. And the catholic faith I will 
 teachT explain, and enforce upon them." 
 
 This oath binds every priest to hold and enforce all these aforesaid doctrines, which 
 we have recited ; and which are so essentially despotic ; and so utterly incompatible 
 with our republican institutions. 
 
 I subjoin the canonical oath which every prelate must take, at his consecration. 
 It is copied from Pontif. Roman. De constc. elect, in Episcop. p. 57. " Ego P. P. ab 
 hac hora, &c. I fron.i thi:^ hour will be faithful, and obedient to my Lord, the pope, 
 and his successors" (and he is a temporal prince, as we have seen, as well as a spirit- 
 ual:) "the council they entrust to me, I will never discover to any man, to the injury 
 of the pope. I will assist them to retain and defend the popedom, and the royalties 
 of St. Peter, against all men. I will carefully conserve, defend, and promote the 
 rights, honors, privileges and authority of the pope. I will not be in any council, 
 fact, or treaty, in which anything prejudicial to the person, rights, or power of the 
 pope is contrived. And if I shall know any such things, I will hinder them with all 
 mv power, and will speedily make them known to the pope. To the utmost of my 
 j>ow!-r, I will observe the pope's commands" {temporal of course and spiritual) "and 
 I will make others observe them. And i will impugn and persecute all heretics, and 
 all rebels, to my lord the pope." 
 
 Now, is there a man in our Republic, who does not see that such men, as the 
 priests and bishops, who are the vassals of a foreign court,— and are sworn by an 
 oath paramount to all other oaths, to act on such dangerous principles,— can never 
 be true citizens ! To be republicans, is, on their part, absolutely impossible ! They 
 are initiated into despotism : from their earliest habits, they are trained to despotism ; 
 they are the vassals of that foreign, haughty, and turbulent despot, the pope; whose 
 court has kept all Em-ope in confusion : and has involved all nations thereof in con- 
 tinuous scenes of bloodshed, rapine, and desolation, for upwards of twelve hundred 
 years! They are the successors of those men who were the papal tools in doing 
 this : and they come among us to re-enact the same scenes. I hold them up to our 
 fellow citizens, as spies in our camp : as our deadly foes : bound together by a fearful 
 oath, and pledge to a foreign power, to compass the ruin of civil and religious liberty ! 
 
 I implore my fellow citizens to listen to the words of the famous Rucellai, the secre- 
 tary of the government of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. This patriotic man, a Ro- 
 man catholic, was filled with indignation at the proceedings of those scourges of the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVKRSr. 319 
 
 human family, — the Romish priests. And he labored with the Grand Duke, to put 
 down tais insulting and heaven daring Bulla iti Cotna Domini. In the close of his 
 spirited appeal to the Grand Duke, this faithful secretary says : — "The priests ought 
 to be punished as transgressors of national laws. Their obedience to this Bull In 
 Coena, should cease to operate as an excuse for them. That Bull is published every 
 where; its principles are taught in the schools," — yes! and also in every popish 
 seminary in the United States! "It is inculcated on the penitents by their confessors; 
 it is demonstratively unjust: it is subversive of all the rights of sovereignty, of law, 
 of good order, and of public tranquillity !" Nay, exclaims that faithful and distin- 
 guished statesman, in allusion to the priestly oaths ; " That oath, is in fact, a solemn 
 promise not only to be unfaithful to one's lawful government; but even to betray it, 
 as often as the Court of Rome's interests may render it necessary !" See Memoirs of 
 Scipio de Ricci. ch. 3. 
 
 These are the atrocious princi])les of the men who are pouring in their legions of 
 Jesuit priests on our shores ! These are the outrageous principles, and politics of the 
 men, who are rearing seminaries, and offering to teach Protestant children the true 
 religion; and American republicans, sound politics!! These are the revolutionizing 
 principles of men, who are looked upon with so much indifference, by some of our 
 statesmen, and carressed as sound and worthy patriots, by others. 
 
 I lift my pleading voice; and with deep solemnity warn every christian ; every 
 politician; every magistrate; and every statesman in the land, against these foreign 
 emissaries, of a foreign despot! By your love of country ; — by the memory of your 
 fathers who gallantly braved all dangers, and broke a foreign tyrant's cruel yoke ; — 
 by the souls of your children, and those yet unborn, — I implore you, throw the shield 
 of your mighty influence, over our free institutions, and liberties; and ward off the 
 fatal blow, aimed in a novel assault by the despotic powers of Europe! Study the 
 history o( Jesuitism ; popish supremacy, and itslloody deeds in Europe, — and tremble 
 for your country's liberties! This, I implore you to remember, is no sectional ([ues- 
 tion ! It is no question of sectarianism: it is no question of even religion. It con- 
 cerns every lover of liberty, and of his country, whatever be his creed, or politics. 
 The broad question is this, — shall we sit quietly still, and see our country converted 
 into an arena of Jesuitism, despotism, and blood-shed, like another Europe which 
 has been the bloody arena of an atrocious tyranny! Or shaJl we, by ever}' fair and 
 honorable means — even by the weapons of light and truth, drive by one harmonious 
 et!brt, the enemy from our schools, from our sanctuary, from our firesides, and 
 from our hap{)y shores! 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, yours. &:c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
g^(J EOSIAN CATBIOLIC CONTROVfRsT. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOilC* 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the Six Grand Attributes of Popery,— Impurity, Impiety, Arrogance, Treachery, 
 
 Intolerance, and Cruelty. 
 
 "No great slau2;hter, and no notorious calamity hath ever happened, either to church, or 
 state, r,f which the bishops of Rome have not been the authors !" JE. Sylvius, afterwards 
 pope Pius li. in his Historia Austria). 
 
 Reverend Fathers : — On the pages of the scriptares the rise and reign of a sin- 
 gular Power are graphically delineated. It is manifestly distinguished, by Daniel- 
 in ch. vii. from the Jirst beast, the Babylonian empire : and from the secimd, ths 
 Median and Persian: and from the third, the Grecian : and from the fourth, the Ro- 
 man pagan empire. The singular power I allude to, is "the Little Horn," which 
 sprang up among the ten horns." " It had eyes hke the eyes of man, and a mouth 
 speaking great things." 
 
 The apostle John also distinguishes it from the Beast rising up out ol the sea ; 
 namely, the Roman empire pagan, rising amid the turbulent waves of the nations. 
 Rev. xiii. L This pagan power preceded the Beast I allude to. Rome pagan was, 
 in the words of St. Paul, the power which " now," — in his time, " letteth and will 
 let, until he be taken out of the way." 2 Thes. ii. 7. And this "letting" power 
 was "taken out of the way," under the opening of the sixth seal, in the days of Con- 
 stantine, when paganism was overwhelmed, and utterly destroyed ; as a persecuting 
 power. 
 
 It was upon this fall of the Beast, that John, in Rev. xiii. 11. saw " another Beast 
 coming up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb ; but speaking as a 
 dragon." This, by Paul, is called "The Man of Sin;" and by John. "Babylon the 
 Great," — even a greater persecutor than the first Babylon. Now, these predictions- 
 cannot be referred to any pagan power. 
 
 The power foretold so minutely by Paul, arises out of " the falling rmw'?/,"--that 
 is, in the original Greek, — the apostacy, from that which Paul taught : that is, ih^ 
 apostacy from the christian faith. Hence it cannot be referred to any Pagan, or 
 Mohammedan power. These never were within the pale of the church ; they can,, 
 in no sense, therefore, be the apostacy from the christian faith. 
 
 Now, where, within the name and limit of the chrisli an world, shall we find a 
 power answering to the names and designation here presented to us, by Paul? I said, 
 it is a power ; for it is evidently not applicable to one inan, or a few ivicked men ; nor 
 to a mere moral, and theological society, such as that of Socinians, Arians, or Deists. 
 It is a power clothed with civil power. It is a great power, which the Roman impe- 
 rial government, as it existed in Paul's da3^s, "did let," and "would let," until 
 *' removed out of the v/ay." This fact determines it to be some extensive civil 
 tyranny, as well as spiritual tyranny, or " apostacy'' springing up, within the limits of 
 tlie christian world. Now, there is not a power that has ever existed, or does now 
 exist, in which this description can, with the least consistency be applied, but one. 
 And that is, — the Roman catholic hierarchy : the attributes of which are these. 
 
 jTtrsf: Impurity. Ug is ''the Man of Sin.'' The pope, his cardinals, and court 
 
ROMAN CA1H0LIC C05TB0VERST, 321 
 
 are to £. proverb, notoriously profligate. Such writers as Baronvus, Dupin, and 
 Bower set this niiter in the clearest light. Guicciardini, the historian, and secretary 
 10 Pope Leo X, when spealdng of the popes of the 15th and 16th centnHes, frankly 
 avers that, " he was esteemed a good pope, who did not exceed in wickedness, the 
 worst of men !" One pope (John xxiii.) was, by a council, convicted, says Labbeus, 
 of forty crimes! From the fountain head was spread like a mighty lorrer.r, universal 
 pollution and crime, over all Roman catliolic countries. In fine, in ad.lition to all 
 that I have already exhibited, I refer to the statements of Cardinal Ambror- : u.s of Ca- 
 nadoli, who, in visiting his diocese " could not find even the traces of common 
 decency in the various convents." And those who wish to contemplate an hones* 
 portrait of the holy priests' morals, especially since celibacy, thenraster device of the 
 devil, and pope Gregory vii., was imposed on them, can consult Edgar's Variations- 
 of Pooery, chap. 15. "^ By chastity, the priests never mean what honest and pure 
 christians mean. With priests it means no more than - the virtue of abjuring mar- 
 riage ;" while every nameless enormity and shocking crime, which destroyed bodom-, 
 is perpetrated, and even gloried in by those chaste fathers! European and South 
 American catholic countries groan under the licentiousness of these cleri -al profli- 
 gates! I speik soberiy when I atBrm that church history sets them forth, in ge.jeral; 
 and those of Italy and Spain, in particular, as many degrees worse than the priestsof 
 pagan lands, in ancient or modern times ! And, as if personal pollution did nf>t redeem 
 their title given them by the Spirit of God,— namely, '• the Man of Sin,"— they actu- 
 ally traffic in sin ! Hence, their indulgences to commit sin, and absolutio7is from old 
 crimes, for money !— Hence, " the Tax Book of the Holy Apostolical chancery'' for- 
 merly quo'fd by us,— in which is set down a regular papal tariff of the different 
 crimes, absolved for money ; the greater crimes being always the most piofiuible to 
 the tren.-<u-y of the pope and his ravenous priesthood : and therefore,— though with a 
 frown.— -il ways the most gladly listened to at the confessional ! 
 
 And it is not of Romish morals in the dark ages, that v/e speak. We point to the 
 vicious morals of the present day, in Spain, Austria, France, and most especially in 
 Italy. For the nearer we come to the head quarters of his '^Holiness," we perceive 
 their atrocity increased in a frightful ratio. Eustace in his Classical Tbur, vol. iii. 
 131, speaking of the notoriously depraved morals of Italy, says,— "may they not be 
 ascribod to the corruptions of the natiojwl religion ; to tlie faeilhy of «iso/^/^/on ,• and 
 to the ea>y purchase orindulgences?" "We saw a man at Tivoli," says a niodern 
 iravclh^r, "who had stabbed his brother, wlio died in an hour, in agonie?. The 
 murderer went to Rome, purchased his pardon from the church, and received a written 
 protection from a cardinal; in consequence of which he was walking about, imeon- 
 oernedlv, a second Cain, whose life was sacred." Graham's Three Month's Resi- 
 dence Sec. p. 34. " Those who have interest with the pope, may obtain an alsolution 
 in full, from his Holiness, for all the sins they have ever committed, or jnmf choose to 
 commit.'' "I h've seen one of these edifying documents," continues the traveller, 
 " is5ue<l by the present pope, to a friend of mine." Rome in the 19th century, vol. ii. 
 p. 271. 
 
 Hence we are warranted in saying that the voice of sober history has distinctly- 
 pronounced that to no pagan, and to no other apostate religion, under the heavens, can 
 the extraordinary title of " Man of Sin," be honestly and truly appHed, than to the 
 Romish church. It would be a positive breach of charity in a christian, to apply it 
 to a pagan, or any apostate religion, except the Roman hierarchy. 
 
»322 ROMAN CATHOLIC COif TROVERST. 
 
 The 'second, and tJiird attributes of this power are Impiety, and Arrogance, which I 
 shall examine in connection. "He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is 
 called God; or that is worshipped." 
 
 This divides itself into a twofold count. First, " He opposeth all that is called 
 God, and exalteth himself above all that is called God." Now let the Bible explain 
 itself : magistrates are, on its sacred pages, called gods. " I said ye are gods." Now 
 I revert to my first principle: this can refer to no Pagan, Jew, or Mohammedan 
 power. These grew out of no " apostacy" from Christianity. To a power within 
 the limits of the christian world alone, is it applicable. But has the Roman hierar- 
 chy done this thing that is here laid in the count ? She has, and she is the only power 
 within the christian world who has done so. What Pope Gregory VH, at the head 
 of a Council decreed, has been the audacious practice of these lordly priests; — "The 
 Pope ought to be called Universal Bishop; he alone ought to wear the tokens of Im- 
 pei'iai dignity; all princes ought to kiss his feet: he has power to depose emperors 
 and kings, and is to be judged by none." 
 
 The Glossa ui)on Can. 2, Cap. 15, says — " the Pope can give dispensations against 
 -the gospel, the apostles, and the law of nature." Glossa, Cap. 4. Extrav. Johan- 
 nis XXIL " Whosoever shall presumptuously venture to maintain, that our lord 
 god the Pope, cannot thus decree, let him be holden as a heretic;" and Boniface in 
 his bull, says — " God has set us up over kings and kingdoms, to root up and destroy ; 
 whoso thinketh otherwise, we hold him as a heretic." 
 
 Pope Boniface VIH. concludes his famous Bull '• Unam sanctain,^' with the follow- 
 ing words; — "We, therefore, declare, say, define, and pronounce it to be necessari/ to 
 salvation, that every huraao creature should be obedient to the Roman Pontiff." 
 Sext. Decret. extrav. lib. 1. 
 
 The church of Roms has never ceased to assert her temporal jurisdiction oTer 
 princes and magistrate?. I refer yon, Fathers, to the words of the council of Con- 
 stance, fifteenth session: — "If any person shall presume to violate the statutes, and 
 ordinances of ^he holy council, — he shall be deprived of all dignities, estates, honors^ 
 ■offices, andbentfces, ecclesiastical or secular, whether he be emperor, king, cardinal, 
 /)r pope." So also do the council of Trent, Sess. 25. In the Bull of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's "damnation, and excommunication," pope Pius V. declares that "Almighty 
 God has appointed him, the pope, prince over all nations, and all kingdoms, that he 
 may pluck up, destroy, scatter, ruin, plant, and build." See Camden'b Hist. A. D. 
 1570. 
 
 I shall give a few extracts from " the Pope's Book of ceremonies." This singular 
 book is in the library of Dublin college : it was shown to Mr. Finch, by Dr. Saddler, 
 librarian. It is entitled, — Sacrarum Ceremon. Rom. Eccles. Libri Tres." Cologn. 
 Edit. 1571.— "1. The emperor shall hold the pope's stirrup. 2. The emperor shall 
 lead the pope's horse. 3. He must bear the pope's chair on his shoulder. — 7. He 
 shall carry the pope's first dish. 8. He shall carry the pope's first cup." See Finch, 
 Rom. Controv. p. 3!2. 
 
 And these laws of the ghostly usurper ore fully confirmed by history, which reveals 
 how com})leiely " the ten powers" of all Europe surrendered their power to " the 
 Beast:" and how every class of the magistracy has, by the pope, been insulted, 
 maltreated, and degraded ! I cannot help noticing two classes of facts, which set this 
 in the clearest light, First, — Popes have deposed kings and emperors ; and even 
 get their feet on their prostrate uecks. Need I refer to king John of Engla^d, anU 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONT»OV£RST. 323 
 
 Henry IV. emperor of Germany ? Second, — Popes have audaciously suspended the 
 laws of nations; have absolved subjects from their oath of aUegiance to their lawful 
 rulers; nay, the wretched priest, residing at Rome, has, for ages exacted tribute from 
 kings, and their people, as his subjects. This was exacted under the canting name 
 of Peter's pence, in Britain, Ireland, Spain, France, and the northern nations of 
 Europe. 
 
 There was one item more, to fill up the features of " the j>ian of Sin," as delineated 
 hy the hand of unerring inspiration. The pope has claimed supreme power over 
 "these gods below," — the magistrates: but angels are "the gods above," — the rulers 
 in heavenly places. The pope has filled up the full mea;>ure of the perfect likeness 
 of "the Man of Sin ;" he claims supreme power also over the angels of heaven. For 
 instance, pope Clement VI. in hit; bull for a jubilee, after having promised pardon of 
 sins past, present, and to come, adds, (p. 2.) " Et mandamus angelis ut animam e 
 purgatorio, penilus absolutam, in Paradisi gloriam introducaxit. We command the an- 
 gels to take his soul out of purgatory, wholly clear and absolved, and introduce it 
 into the glory of Paradise." But, there is a second count in the indictment: — "The 
 Man of Sin — exalteth himself above all that is worship|)ed." We admit that the 
 pagan emperor Avas styled Divus, and even " dominus deus, the lord god^ I 
 revert to the principle laid down. The power, is an Apostate power from Chris- 
 tianity. And we need only to open the pages of approved Roman writers to discover 
 an overpowering evidence that the Romish church is here intended. " Our Lord 
 god, the pope," is a common appellation of each pope. " Papa non est humo," the 
 pope is not a man." " The pope holds the place of the true God." See Piihou 29 
 Canon law, Decret i. Tit. 7. cap. 3. Bellarmiue in the famous passage, so often re- 
 verted to, teaches the pope's absolute infallibility in laying down articles of faith ; 
 and precepts of morals: and adds that "if the pope could err, by enjoining vices, or 
 prohibiting virtues, the church would be bound to believe that vices were virtues, and 
 virtues, vices, unless she chose to sin against her conscience." Be Pcntif. Lib. IV. 
 cap. 5. Among the first acts after a pope's election, is that called, the adoration of the 
 pope. We have an account of it by an eye witness, in Finch, p. 322. He is carried 
 in by men, and placed on the great altar, in St. Peter's, where the host, their god, 
 usuallv is laid ; and there as in Thibet this man god is adored, even as their host is 
 adored ! — Every man admitted to the pope at Rome must knp-^l down, and kiss his 
 foot, as he salutes him with, — '■'Dominus noster deus, papa ! — The Lord our god the 
 pope! And this godship is tliiis claimed by pope Clement VII., nnd his cardinals, in 
 their letter to Charles VI,, of France: — " As there is only one God in the heavens, so 
 there cannot, and there ought not to be but one God on earth," — meaning himself! 
 See Troissard, Tom. iii. 147, folio. 
 
 But the arrogant claims of" the Son of perdition," are not confined to an array of 
 divine titles. As a legislator does the arrogant blasphemer scjit himself in God's 
 throne: He has abrogated, as we have seen in a former letter, all Gcd's ten com- 
 mandments: to the one only object of divine worship, has he added a host of false 
 gods; he has perverted both sacraments, and added five novelties to them: he puts 
 the mass in the place of Christs' atonement; and holy water, and outward rites of 
 cleansing, in the stead of the Holy Ghost. Thus, has he cli. nged the laws and ordi- 
 nances of the Most High, as far as his power can do it. And, as if venturing the 
 utmost daring, the unmatched blasphemer has set up his claims of right to the keys of 
 hell, and of heaven. He saves; he damns, when he will! I appeal to his Bulls of 
 
324 ROBLAIf CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 excommunication, in proof of this. I open the book at random : I fall on the Bull of 
 Pius v., against the Queen of England. In this, I have the proof of both points. 
 He decl.Lies that his catholics alone are saved : he opens the gates of heaven to non« 
 but those of Holy Mother, — "extra quam nulla salus est: out of her, there is no sal- 
 vation.'' Hence he condemns the soul, as well as body; hence the titla of the Bull of 
 Pius v., against the Queen of England, — " the damnation of Queen Ehzabeth." 
 There was only one step more that he could go, — and that he has gone too. He 
 has actually set up his claim in a physical, as well as a moral sense, above '' all that 
 is wor.bhipjicd." I allude to what I have again and again brought before ihe public. 
 In every mass-house, the pope and his delegates, the priests, by nnitteriug the con- 
 secration words ^^ hoc est corpus mcum,'' convert a wafer into "the body aud blood 
 soul and divinity of Christ!" He and his lieutenants thus do cnate iheir Creator, 
 ten thousand times ! And having ten thousand times eaten, "their Creator," they 
 again create him, ten thousand times more ! 
 
 May I be permitted here to advert briefly to the graphic delineation of this power 
 by St. Paul, in 3 Tim. iv. 1 — 4., in order to throw an additional illustration on these 
 papal attributes, fnmi that striking text ? — It is a power which " has departed from tht 
 faith,'' "that is, the christian faiih. Hence it cannot be lefened to any pagan, or 
 Jewish, or Mohammedan, or atheistic power. It is an apostate christian society^ 
 Now mirk the full length, and perfect portrait, of popery! First, it gives "heed to 
 the doctrines of devils;" in Greek, demons. By demons is understood, according 
 to the ideas of the ancients, that class of beings between the immortal God, ann mortal 
 men, that, is, deified spirits of men; that is, canonized saints; elevated to the rank of 
 inferior v.orship. 
 
 Now, let any candid man, Roman catholic, or protestant, name a power, within 
 the limi.s of the christian world, which has set up canonized sain*-, and also angels, 
 for worship, besides the Romish church. Who is it that iias its altars reared to them, 
 its shrines, its images, and temples? The Romish church. Who has its enshrined 
 relics for adoration ? The Romish church. Who burns its incense before an innu- 
 merable host of gods and goddesses, surnamed saints? The Romish cJiurch. 
 
 Seconal : It is said of this apostacy from the faith, that it shall forbid to marry." 
 Among ilie fanatical pagan priests, ancient and modern, in the Eastern world, the 
 state of ct'iibacy has been bepraised to the skies, Justin proj)oriionto their lewdness; 
 jand marriage has been, of course, forbidden. But this passage of Fai.l refers only to 
 those who ''had departed from the christian fa ith.'^ To no pagans, tiierefore, can it 
 be applied. Now what pou'er is it, within the christian woid, that fcjrbids marriage? 
 Do you Rev. Fathers, and your chaste priests answer, by an extract from your vow 
 oichastitj. Why do you not raarr^s like other honest men? Why, — the answer is 
 written om ^ our forehead, and in "your morals, — because you obey that diabolical 
 APOSTACY, wlrc'i *' forbids to marry." 
 
 Third: This apostate power commands "to abstain from certain meats, which 
 God hath creased." Now, determining the meaning of this by the pvinciple already- 
 laid down, what power witliin the whole range of Christendom, commands "to 
 abstain from meats ;" and makes this abstaining from meats, a portif>n of its religion ? 
 Let our learned priests answer the question, who would pronounce their terrific 
 anathema on their followers, and doom even to hell fire all those who would dare to 
 tat meat in Lent, and on Fridays, and until lately, on Saturdays. To the Roman 
 hierarchy is this descriptive prophesy wholly applicable ; ziid to it alone. Henee 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 325 
 
 the Roman church is that impious Man of Sin., and arrogant Son of perdition, 
 spoken of by Paul. 
 
 Thus far have we treated of the first three attributes of popery. 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
 VY. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the Six Grand Attributes of Popery, — Impurity, Impiety, Arrogance, Treachery, 
 
 Intolerance, and Cruelty. 
 
 *' Art thou that traitor angel, art thcj he, 
 
 Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then 
 
 Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
 
 Drew after him t!ie third part of Heaven's sons 
 
 Conjured against the Highest?" Miltox. 
 
 Reverend Fathers : — The fourth grand attribute of popery, is Treachery ; to 
 this I beg your usual indulgent attention. Jesuitism was revived by Pope Pius vii. 
 in 1814 -, and Jesuitism in its primitive virulence, is poured forth in a wide inunda- 
 tion, over our land, by the spiritual despots of Italy, France, and Austria. And every 
 one knows that Jesuitism is now a regular classical English word for Treachery. 
 
 1st. I shall quote a few specimens of their avowed moral tenets, in addition to what 
 has been formerly quoted by us. 
 
 " They do not falsify, who to replace a lost title of heirship, forge another." Sa, 
 Aphor. p. 1.50. — "If any one promised, or contracted, without intention to promise; 
 and is called, upon oath, to answer, he may simply answer. No. And he may 
 swear to this denial, by secretly understanding that he did sincerely promise ; or that 
 he did promise without any intention to acknowledge it." Suarez Ju. Precept Lib. 
 3. cap. 9. p. 473. " A person may take an oath that he has not done such a thing, 
 though he has, in fact, done it, by saying to himself, it was not done on a certain 
 day; or, before he was born, &:c." — Sanchez, Oper. Moral precept. Decal. pars 2 ; 
 Lib. 3. cap. G. No. 13— " He who is not bound to tell the truth before swearing, is 
 not bound by his oath; provided he makes the infernal restriction that excludes the 
 present case." Charli, Prop. G. p. 8. "A priest is not bound to declare the truth 
 before a lawful judge ; for a priest cannot be forced to testify before a secular judge.'' 
 Tabtrna, vol. ii. p. 288. " The rebellion of a ])riest is not treason, for Catholic 
 priests are not subject to civil government.'' Em. Sa. Aphor. p. 41. And here is the 
 sentiment of Bellarmine, which every priest in the United States is solemnly sworn 
 on the cross, to believe, and to carry into practice, whenever it is practicable, "on 
 pain of damnation," — "The spiritual power must rule the temporal by all sorts of 
 means, and expedients that may seem necessary." " The pope — potest mutare reg- 
 na Sec. can change kingdoms; can take away power from one prince, and give it to 
 another, in his character as chief spiritual Prince." "The pope cannot, as pope, 
 enact and annul laws, ordinarily, as if he were a political prince: he can enact civil 
 laws and confirm them, or abolish them, if such be necessary to the salvation of souls, 
 
 29 
 
326 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 and kings be unwilling to enact them." " The civil power is subject to the spiritual ; 
 poiestas civilis subjecta est potesiati spirituali ; therefore, the spiritual prince, the pope 
 ean rule over temporal princes, and magistrates. In every case, must the spiritual, 
 which is the superior, bear rule over the temporal, which is inferior." See Bell. J)e 
 Pontif. Lib. v. cap. 6, 7. p. p. 1094, 1095., of my copy. I beg to give a few more 
 sj>eciraens. 
 
 "The pope can annul, and cancel every possible obligation arising from an oath." 
 Lessius, Lib. ii. cap. 42. p. 632. " A man condemntd by the pope,'*— (such as a 
 Jew, a Protestant, a deist,) may be killed wherever he is found." Lg Croix, vol. i. 
 p. 294% " A child may steal from his father, as much as the father would have 
 given to a stranger, for compensation." Escobar, Theol. Moral, vol. iv. p. 348. 
 '* Servants may steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor worth, 
 more than the wages they receive." Cardenas, Cris. Theol. Diss. 23. cap. 2. p. 474. 
 And Lud. Molina, vol. ii. p. 1150. (My copy is the Mentz Edit, of 1614.) "It is 
 lawful to kill an accuser, whose testimony may jeopard your life or honor." Esco- 
 bar, Theol. Moral* vol. iv. p. 274. "Licet procurare abortum, ne puella gravida 
 infametur," &c. Marin. Theol. vol. iii. p. 428. This I must not translate. "If a 
 man become a nuisance to society, the son mat/ lawfully kill his father.''' Dicastillo, 
 Lib. ii. p. 290. Such is a mere gleaningof their atrocious tenets. And in the redu- 
 cing of them to practice they are mo^i faith ful in every element of their treachery! 
 The history of all the governments of Europe, who have all in their turns, expelled 
 them, testify to this ! And the faithful historian o^ future America, if ever, by the 
 wrath of Gjd, they gain the ascendancy here, will bear an appalling testimony to the 
 same melan'jholy truths ; in the tears, and assassinations, and massacres of our chil- 
 dren's children ! 
 
 From these avowed tenets, it is easy to see that a Roman catholic can take any 
 oath, be it befjre a civil court, or the oath of allegianc'% and yet never design, in sober 
 truth, to consider himself Lound by it! Yes, m\' fellow citizens; and he is quite con- 
 sistent on his principles; for he has tioo ways of escaping as the deluded man 
 believes, without peijury resting, in its damning guilt, on his^oul. First ; by mental 
 reservation. Second, by the priest's power to absolve him from ii. There is another 
 and a practical way to evade their oath. A friend of mine was present one day, 
 when a Roman catholic, in New York, boasted that he had voted at th rce different poles : 
 and took the oath three times, that he was a citizen, and had resided the retiuisite time 
 in each of the three wards, at once: "I caught them," said the Jesuit, "thus : I put 
 my thumb across the holy sign of the cross, on the book ; and kissed my thumb! And 
 that you know, is no oath at all, — at all !" This, as observers see, is no uncommon 
 thing with our Romans, in our civil, and criminal courts! 
 
 2d. ''Keep no faith with heretics,'' is a regular dogma, and a solemn doctrine of the 
 Roman catholic church. ;, 
 
 The denial of this has, lately, been repeated by a venerable citizen in Philadel- 
 phia. Will sober readers of history believe it that such a man as Mr. C. gravely 
 denies it ? No man can question Mr. C's. honor or sincerity. It is purely his want of 
 knowledge of the Roman catholic standard doctrines that has led him to the rash as- 
 sertion. 
 
 He has appealed, it is true, to the answers of the famous foreign Universities, to the 
 questions proposed by the late Mr. Pitt. These grave societies, combining all the 
 learning, and honor of the Romish world, really affect to start wiih horror at the bare 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 327 
 
 suspicion of their Holy Mother ever having held, or taught that " no faith must be kept 
 with heretics!" They all flatly and solemnly deny that their church ever held it, or 
 ever taught it. And they even lay these denials before the British government! 
 
 Here, again, Mr. C. betrays his painful ignorance of the manners and besetting sin 
 of all Roman ecclesiastics : I do not say lay gentlemen, but of priests, under ^vhose 
 Jesuitism those Universities are sordidly enchained. No shrewd politician, nor chris- 
 tian is deceived by these answers, for one moment. Every body read in history, and 
 in popish Bulls, canons, and theology, as the professors of these same Universities 
 are, know in the most perfect manner, that there is no truth whatever in their re 
 plies to Mr. Pitt. These were uttered merely for effect, and did any one yet ever 
 hear the criminals at the bar reply otherwise than not guilty, to the usual question 
 put to them. Mr. Pitt as a well read man, could expect no other answer; and he got 
 no other, than what these ghostly criminals chose to give, " we plead not guilty. '' 
 
 Now I shall go directly to the decretals and the pope's bureau, and to historical 
 documents. Will you follow me, Fathers, while I try your pleas of not guilty 
 of ev^er holding the dogma " That no faith is to be kept with heretics.'" 
 
 Gregory VII. in a council at Rome, declares, " We, following the statutes of our 
 predecessors, do, by our apostolic authority, absolve all those from their oath of 
 fidelity, who are bound to excommunicated persons, either by duty or oath; and w« 
 unloose them from every tie of obedience, till the excommunicated persons have 
 made proper satisfaction," Decret. 2 part. caus. 15. quest. 6. 
 
 Urban H. teaches the same doctrine. " You are to discharge the soldiers," says 
 he, " who have sworn jidelity to Count Hugo, from paying any obedience while he 
 is excommunicated : for they are not obliged to keep that fidelity inviolate, which 
 they have sivorn to a christian prince, who opposes Cod, and his saints, and despise* 
 their precepts." — Ibid. 
 
 Gregory IX. has laid down the general principle with the utmost care and pre- 
 cision. "Be it known to all who are under the dominion of heretics, that they are 
 set free from every tie of fidelity and duty to them; all oaths or solemn agreement to 
 the contrary notwithstanding.'" Decret. Greg. lib. 5. tit. 7. 
 
 Clement XI. being enraged at the treaty of Alt-Rhastat, says in his Brief to the 
 emperor Charles VI., " We denounce to you, and, by the authority given us, by the 
 Most Almighty God, do declare the covenants of that treaty, &c. &c. to be, de jure, 
 null and void, invalid, unjust, reprobated, &c. ; that no person is bound to the observ- 
 ation of them, or any of them, although the same have been repeatedly ratified, or 
 secured by an oath ; and they neither could nor ought to have been, nor can nor 
 ought to be, observed by any person whatsoever," &.c. 
 
 Here are a few more gleanings from the papal decretals.— Martin V. in his epistle 
 to the Duke of Lithuania says,— " Be assured thou sinnest mortally, if thou keep 
 thy faith with heretics." St. Thomas Arjuinas is of the same opinion, " that a 
 catholic might deliver over an untractable heretic to tlie judges, although he had 
 solemnly pledged his faith to him ; and even confirmed it by the solemnity of an 
 oath." Bruce's Free Thoughts, &c. p. 119. 
 
 Bonacino says, — ''Contracts made against the canon law, are invalid, even though 
 confirmed by an oath ; and a man is not bound to stand by his promise, even though 
 he had sworn it." Pope Pius V. taught the emj)eror, and exhorted him,— "Nee fidem, 
 &c. That no faith, nor oaths were to be kept with an infidel." Pope Innocent 
 VIII. in his edict against the Waldenses, in A. D. 1487, declared, as the vicar of 
 
328 ROMAN CATHCLIC CONTRO VERST. 
 
 God, that — " all those persons who had been bound by any contract whatever, to 
 grant, or pay any thing to them, should not be under any manner of obligation, to 
 do so, for the time to come." 
 
 And, Fathers, what pope, and general council openly avouched that no faith must 
 be kept with heretics? Innocent IV., and the council of Lyons, when they deposed 
 the emperor Frederick II., and absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance to 
 their lawful prince ! Who avouched that no faith must be kept with heretics ? That 
 pope who absolved the subjects of king John from their lawful oath of allegiance ! 
 Who avowed that no faith must be kept with heretics? Pope Pius V. who doomed 
 EHzabeih, and set her subjects free from their oath to their lawful sovereign ! Who 
 was guilty of thal^octrine of devils that no faith is to be kept with Jews, Turks, or 
 heretics? That ghostly villain, pope Clement VII., who disjjensed with the corona- 
 tion oath of the king of 'Spain, the emperor Charles V., in the year 1524; and com- 
 pelled that prince in the face of the world, to break his faith pledged by oath, to protect 
 the Moors; and thence to turn that whole race, in Spain, over to the infernal Inqui- 
 sition! See the Spanish Hist, of this period : and Geddes' Works on popery, vol. i. 
 p. 36. 39. 
 
 And to suit the orthodoxy of those who judge a council superior to the pope, 1 beg 
 leave to say that this dogma has been settled by the decree, and by the practice, of a 
 general council of your church. The council of Constance, in 1414, did solemnly 
 decree that "no faith shall be kept with heretics." Here are their words: — "The 
 person who has given them the safe conduct to come thither, shall not, in this case, 
 be obliged to keep his promise, by whatever tie he may have been engaged, ivhen he has 
 done all that has been in his power to do.''^ Bruce, Free Thoughts, p. 120. 
 
 Nor was this a bold theory in the brains of licentious priests. It was, with that 
 savage ferociousness, the usual characteristic of Romish priests, reduced into practice, 
 in a horrible tragedy in Europe. The immortal John Hnsshad come to this council 
 under the solemn pledge, and safeguard of the emperor Sigismund. These ghostly 
 judges, amid their revellings, and debauchery, found a brief space of relaxation, to 
 condemn the holy man as a heretic. Thej^ doomed him to the flames ! The emperor 
 interposed : pleaded his safeguard that had been pledged to Huss, on his royal honor. 
 Of all beings that walk the face of God's earth, the priests of a false religion, are the 
 most destitute of honor, common decency, and the bowels of pity. Charles V., at a 
 later day, had the resolution to reject with a noble firmness, the pleas of the inhuman 
 assassins, who sought Luther's blood, with an appetite as keen as that of a New 
 Zealand cannibal! When pleading with him, and urging with indecent zeal, that 
 no faith should be kept with heretics, he nobly replied to the savage teachers of Jesuit 
 morals, "What! when good faith is banished from the earth, — ought it not to be 
 found with an emperor !" 
 
 But, alas i for John Huss, — Sigismund had not this honor nor firmness. He yielded 
 to the spiritual assassins of the council of Constance, and Huss was consigned alive 
 to the flames! And shortly after him, also, Jerome of Pragvt ! The council of 
 Trent formally recognized the decrees of Constance. Hence this doctrine "of keep- 
 ing no faith with heretics," is as much a regular dogma of the Komish church, as is 
 the mass, or purgatory, or the pope's supremacy. 
 
 I conclude the specimens of Treachery with the following extracts from " The oath 
 of secrecy devised by the Roman clergy, as it remains on record in Paris, among the 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 329 
 
 society of Jesuits." It is copied from a collection of papers by Archbishop Usher. 
 It exhibits to American citizens, the stcrtt oath, by which all Jesuits are bound to the 
 pope, and their foreign superiors. I beg the attention of every christian, and patriot 
 in the land, to this document. 
 
 Secret Oath.—'' In the presence of Almighty God, and of all the saints, to you, 
 my ghostly father, I do declare that his holiness, pope , is Christ's vicar- 
 general, and the only head of the universal church throughout the earth : and that 
 by virtue of the keys given him by my Savior, Jesus Christ, he hath jpoicer to depose 
 heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths, and governments ; all being illegal^ 
 without his sacred confirmation ; and that they may safely be destroyed. Therefore I, 
 to the utmost of my power, shall and ivill defend this doctrine, and his holiness' rights 
 and custojns against all usurpers," &ic. 
 
 ''I do renounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince, 
 state, named Protestants, or obedience to any of their inferior magistrates, or officers.'' 
 
 '* 1 do further promise and declare that notwithstanding / am dispensed with, to as- 
 sume any religion heretical, for the propagation of the Mother church's interest,— to 
 keep secret and private all her agent's counsels," &c. 
 
 ''AH which I, A. B. do swear by the blessed Trinity, and the blessed sacrament, 
 which I am, now, to receive. And I call all the heavenly and glorious hosts above, 
 to witness these my real inten'ions, to keep this my oath. In testimony hereof, I 
 take this most blessed sacrament of the eucharist, and set to my hand, and seal." 
 Such is the secret oath of our Jesuits, so long in use, and never revoked to this day, 
 by their superior, or the pope Such is the infernal oath by which the Jesuits, and 
 other household troops of the Roman catholic powers of Europe, now pouring in upon 
 us, are banded together in their present conspiracy against our republic, and our holy 
 religion ! 
 
 May the God of our fathers, in his compassion, awake our fellow citizens to a sense 
 of their real, and appalling danger, and turn into confusion the counsels of the leaders 
 of this hellish plot against our country. And to this none can refuse their hearty 
 Amen, but spiritual tyrants, and conscious traitors. 
 
 I am, my Lords Bishops, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B, 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the Six Grand Attributes of Popery,— Impurity, Impiety, Arrogance, Treachery, 
 
 Intolerance, and Cruelty. 
 
 "No illusion is more dangerous than to make toleration of religious sects, a mark of the 
 true church!" — Bossuct, Oeuvres, Tom. Hi. 411, 
 
 Reverend Fathers: — I am quite aware that your good sense approves my direct 
 appeals to documents, instead of assertions, and declamation : let us then go on. The 
 Fifth attribute of your church is Intolerance. This and Cruelty, has ever been your 
 eminently characteristic marks. And this struck the eye of the holy John in vision, 
 
 20* 
 
330 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEKSr. 
 
 He saw *'tlie scarlet colored Beast,'' bearing along in stialely procession, the woman 
 of Babylon in fiery scarlet colors, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the 
 martyrs of Jesus." Now, this is not fulfilled, ultimately, in the scarlet robed pope, 
 and his scarlet chair, his scarlet robed priesthood on Maunday Thursdays; and the 
 scarlet robed cardinals, with their scarlet hats, their scarlet chariots, and scarlet horse 
 trappings! This we enumerate among the striking coincidents of the case. It looks 
 to a deeper, a more atrocious, and damning attribute of popery, which we are now to 
 consider. 
 
 Boniface VII., in Extravagantes, declares the principle on which all papists be- 
 lieve and act; namely, — "Omnes Christi fideles, &c. It is necessarjMo salvation 
 that all christians should be subject to the pope." " Papa est, &c. The pope is 
 monarch of all christians; he is supreme over all mortals." Bzovius, De Pontif. 
 Roman Col. Agrip. cap. 1, 3, J 6, 32, and 45. 
 
 The present pope keeps alive this intolerant dogma, in our day. "On the holy 
 See," says Gregory XVI., "do the churches depend for support, and vigor!" (En- 
 cyc. Letter.) In this Bull, he denounces freedom of ophiion, as "a senseless free- 
 dom.'-' "He, alone, has the dispensation of the canons: he, alone, decides on the 
 rules of the saijction of the fathers." Hence neither priest, nor layman, neither 
 sovereign, nor council, can dictate to him, in temporals, or spirituals ! He pronounces 
 "liberty of conscience an absurd and erroneous opinion, a delirious conceit!" He 
 holds up the freedom of the press, every where, to catholic indignation, " a never- 
 to-be-sufficiently execrated liberty of booksellers!" He is "horror-btiicken," at the 
 spread of knowledge: it is his deadliest foe. And, thus, in the nineteenth century, 
 the pojjcre news the sentiment preached three centuries ago, by the vicar of Croy- 
 don, — namely, " TFe must root out printing, or printing will root us out /" He ap- 
 plauds the salutary Index Expurgatorius, by which all our theological works, and 
 almost all our classical English authors, are prohibited! 
 
 Your council of Trent, Sess. 4, prohibited "the free and promiscuous reading of 
 the holy scriptures, — as causing more tvil than good.'' Hence, the liomish church 
 places the holy Bible in the Index, — not merely Protestant translations, but their own 
 Douay, and all other versions in any vernacular, as proliibited books, not to be read by 
 any man, without a written license from a bishop." 
 
 Your po]ie Pius VII., issued his Bull against pible societies in J816; and pro- 
 nounced them "a shocking and most crafty device, to sap the ver}' foundations of 
 rehgion." See a copy of this Bull, in Glasg. Prot. Anier. Edit. vol. i. cli. 33. 
 
 In short, cast your eyes over Roman catholic lands. There your pope prohibits, 
 under pam of death, all Protes^tants to teach their religion, wherever he has control. 
 Your pope, and the priest-ridden despots of Europe, prohibit every man from uttering 
 under the penalty of the dungeon, even an opinion against your church, or the govern- 
 ment ! 
 
 Romish lands arc the lands of lohite slaves.' The very soul is in chains. Your 
 church, and her sons, the civil despots, have a system of passports, by which you 
 know the movements of every man in the land ; they have their espionage, and 
 their armed police, at tlie appoach of which, liberty sickens and dies. These 
 minions rush into any man's house; seize his papers, and letters, and drag the sus- 
 p3cted to dungeons ! The hihsas corpus law, — which is dear to every freeman's soul, 
 i;ias no name, nor place in poj)ish lands. They have their secret inquisitions to cure 
 koTQ^y, and stop the progress of light, and science. True, The Grand Inquisition is 
 
ROMA!f CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 331 
 
 no more. But every Romish bishop is the inquisitor in his own diocese, in our lancU 
 and in Europe! 
 
 In a word, no man in your communion is allowed to read, or even to think, for 
 himself on religion. " I think it is so," said a young medical student, a Romao 
 catholic, at the confessional, — "You think," exclaimed the confessor, in a voice 
 choked with fury, "what right have you to think? Let me never catch you think- 
 ing again !" He is now a 7nan, and a Protestant ; and was lately, if he is not still, ia 
 this city. 
 
 In short, no slave in all the Indies, — no galley slave chained to his oar, no wretched 
 victim chained in the inijuisitor's cell, is more chained down, in body, than is the 
 genuine papist chained down in soul, conscience, and thought, by an outrageous and 
 villainous priest, to the pope's galley oar! We pity and deplore his case from our 
 souls. And no tyrant's or usurper's fall, do we pray for, and toil, more, to accomplish, 
 than the prostration, and anniliilation of pn"e5/cra/V .' Oh! Lord J>.sus, how- 
 long! Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! 
 
 Such, Fathers, as you know, is the uncompromising spirit of popery ; iinmingled, 
 and strong in its elements of malignity ; without any one counteracting, or neutrali- 
 zing principle of clemency to the species ! And it breathes this ferocious spirit into 
 the most devoted of its victims. And as the lower order in every community, are the 
 most abjectly priest-ridden, this spirit shows itself in them, just in proportion as 
 the light and influence of Protestantism, science, and piety, have shed none of their 
 transforming elficacy upon them. 
 
 Hence, the melancholy and deplorable condition of the middling, and especially, 
 the lower order, in three, out of the four provinces in Ireland, in Italy, Spain, and 
 the Roman Catholic cantons of the Swiss! The native genius of these people is 
 equal lo that of any people under heaven. There is not a nobler, kinder, more 
 generous, or more gifted soul than that of an Irishman, or the descendant of the GauU 
 of the Swiss, or the ancient and immortal Roman! But, alas! behold the accursed, 
 the deadly influence of popery on them ! It chains them hand and foot, and throws 
 them back into the darkest days of the darkest ages! 
 
 It is an axiom of truth, established by the luminous evidence of history, and experience, 
 that no class of our si)ecies, bears a nearer likeness to the Author of all false religions, 
 than the fritsts of false religions. And, as popery, if we receive the testimony of St. 
 Paul, is "in its coming," in a pre-eminent manner, "after the working of Satan, and 
 with all deceivableness of unrighteousness,'' of course, its jnieslhood, and its priestcraft 
 bear, in all points, a superior resemblance to its su])crnatural fabricator ! Unrelent- 
 ing malignity has ever been their prominent, and, I fear, their boasted, and cherish- 
 ed attribute ! Hence the Inquisitionl Hence persecution, terrific, refined in cruelty, 
 lavish in its horrid devices, and imj)lements, persevering, and diabolical, on the 
 part of those who, in their illiberal, and exclusive views, call themselves Catholics! 
 And all this has been to an extent, unknown, in number, as well as degree of viru- 
 lence, even in pagan persecutions! Did the pagans ever conceive an imiuisition? 
 Did the pagans create the monster, called an iiiqnisitor ? Did the pagans ever 
 conceive the idea of the hell and tortures of a S])anish inijuisition ? No, never! 
 They are guiltless of all these ! 
 
 It was in the prophetic vision of this bloody attribute of ])oj)ery, that Joha " won- 
 dered with great admiration !" He saw mystic Babylon "drunk with the blood of the 
 saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Had it been Rome pagan that 
 
332 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 was presented to view, John woulJ not have wondered, with any great admiration! 
 It was nothing more than what was expected from the haired of such pagan empe- 
 rors', and pagan soldiers. But there were two reasons why the apostle was over- 
 whelmed with amazement. Here, before his eye, was a society, in name ehristian, 
 *^ church of Christ:'' — by its own avowal, "the only church of Christ," ''drunk 
 with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus !" And then, a 
 gect, christian by its own avowal, yet more cruel, more unrelenting, more perse- 
 vering in persecution, than the most relentless of the pagan powers ! " A church, call- 
 ing itself the church of Christ," murdering its te7is of thousands for their religion, for 
 every hundred, murdered in the pagan persecution ! 
 
 This leads me to the Inquisition, and Persecution by the Romish church. 
 
 I am, my Lords Bishops, yours &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery. 
 
 " Go to your bloody rites again — bring back 
 
 The hall of horrors, and tlie assessor's pen 
 
 Recording answers shrieked upon the rack; 
 
 Smile o'er the gaspings of spine-broken men; 
 
 Preach — perpetrate damnation in your den ; 
 
 Then let your altars, ye blasphemers! peal 
 
 With thanks to heaven, that let you loose again 
 
 To practice deeds with torturing fire and steel 
 
 No eye may seaich, — no tongue may challenge, or reveal." 
 
 Thomas Campbell, On the Inquisition. 
 
 Reverend Fathers : — I am indebted for your patient attention to these investi- 
 gations. But I am not indebted to you. Had I been in the land of Romish catho- 
 licity, such as your Spain, or Italy, I should likely, have had your company in the 
 deepest dungeon of the inquisition ; and there have been pursuing my discussions on 
 '* the Beast," by the glare of the familiar's lurid torch : and by the judicious help of 
 the torturer by fire and water, and the rack! Blessings on our cherished country! 
 Blessings on our beloved republic! Tyranny, ghostly, or civil, cannot live, nor 
 move, nor breathe here ! May it be so for ever I And let the frost of death paralyze 
 the tongue of the guilty traitor, who refuses to say, — Amen I 
 
 The sixth attribute of popery, is cruelty. This divides itself into two counts. 
 It shows this infernal attribute by the Inquisition ; and by Persecution. 
 
 Part First, — The Inquisition. — The Papacy, you know. Fathers, is a system 
 which has ever had, for its object, unbounded power, amid the potentates of the 
 earth. This has been its one great aim. The christian religion had the misfortune 
 to be laid hold upon by it, merely as a pretext to gain power. Every man, — every 
 tyrant has used one means, or another, to gain wealth and power. One man trades 
 in gold and diamonds; another in baubles, and jugglery. The all absorbing aim of 
 unprincipled men is one ; — namely, wealth and influence. One tyrant employs 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 333 
 
 arms ; and boasts with Alexander, and the Romans, that he gives nations liberty and 
 peace, after he has plundered,/ and desolated the land. Mohammed set up a new 
 religion, simply to gain power. If he could have bent to his purpose, the christian 
 system, as successfully as the papacy, the Arabian impostor would have spared the 
 infliction of the alkoran on the world. And he would have marched through seas of 
 blood with the Bible, in the one hand, instead of the alkoran; and his scymetar, in 
 (he other. But the genius of his voluptuous Arabs, prevented this. The late empe- 
 ror of France was a Jew with the Jews, a Protestant with the Protestants ; a Roman 
 catholic when he compelled the infallible father, Pius VII, to crown him ; and a 
 Mohammedan in Egypt! The truth is this, these men were atheists. And not one 
 soul of them cared f(^r the ivare in which he trafficed, if he only gained his ambitious 
 object. Alexander, and the Romans, cared no more for "the liberty, or peace" of 
 nations; or Napoleon for "islamism;" or the juggler for his baubles and tricks, or 
 Mohammed for his alkoran, than the papacy, for the christian religion! Each 
 tyrant has a design upon the species; each tyrant climbs lo a crown by his own 
 ladder: and his object gained, he is the first to kick it aside, as a thing never cared for 
 of itself. 
 
 The papacy gained its ascendency by chaining down the human intellect and con- 
 science. To accomplish this, our ghostly tyrants seized upon the form of the christ- 
 ian religion, the purest, and most holy, and only religion, vouchsafed to us from 
 heaven ; and that which has the mightiest influence on the conscience, from its exhi- 
 bitions of eternity, its reward, and its punishments. The pope usurps the throne of 
 the Deiiy ; and sitting in the temple of God, he deals out- glory, and damnation, as he 
 is in the humor. He erects a purgatory to make an easy way to heaven for evil men 
 and knaves, and to create a revenue of money, wrung from the ignorant, guilty, and 
 trembling wretch ! He deals out its " fires," " waters," its " steam-baths" to each 
 culprit, in a charitable manner, and a charitable measure, just as he is able lo pay. 
 He takes heaven into his own hand; turns the Holy One away; places his Virgin 
 Mary on the throne, and opens heaven, and sells glory, to the highest bidder, and the 
 richest knaves ! 
 
 All this enormity, which throws Satan's inventions in the dark pagan world, en- 
 tirely into the shade, has poured in enormous revenues. All Europe, all ranks from 
 the king to the beggar, were his tributaries. And the priests, monks, and friars, and 
 nuns were his tools and paunders; his miijitia; and his tax gatherers! And by his 
 ghostly ware, and traffic in religion, he has gained more riches, and more power, 
 than Mohammed did by his alkoran ; or Alexander by his Greeks ; or Caesar by his 
 Ronmns! 
 
 Now, toconsolidate this system, the pope knew that it was essential to check every 
 thing like liberty of thought, and the rights of conscience. To get, and to keep pos- 
 session of his revenues, he knew that he must keej) the souls of all Euroi)e, in chains. 
 
 This he has labored to ettectby two prominent and truly satannic means. By the 
 Index Et pur gatoriuSy he keeps the Bible, and every valuable book from the subjects 
 of his kingdom of darkness, and despotism. In other words, he employs ignorance, 
 palpable as the darkness of Egypt, to chain man down. In this darkness lie keeps 
 men "from rising from their seats;" and the gloom of their cells. The other wea- 
 pon r)f hell is the iNquisirioN ! "It is essential to salvation," — that means, in other 
 words, — " It is essential to his fleecing men of their liberty and property, that all 
 men be under the pope's power." — And the Inquisition may be defined, — That tri- 
 
334 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 bunal, the joint invention of the devil, and the pope, whereby men are punished, in 
 an exemplary, and, to the pope, a very lucrative manner; for the deadly sin of obey- 
 ing their Maker, by exercising the faculties of their own souls; and thinking differ- 
 ently from the Roman catholic religion ! 
 
 The Inquisition has three degrees in its rise, and progress. In the council of 
 Verona, in 3184, Pope Lucius constituted each bishop Me Inquisitor, or "The heresy 
 hunter," in his own diocess. 
 
 But when those, whom the despot was pleased to call heretics, and who, in fact, 
 were true and enlightened christians, rejecting with indignation the idolatrous system 
 of popery, had increased in an incredible degree, the popes, in the beginning of the 
 13th century, in order to check them, sent deles;ates into these parts where his power 
 was so unceremoniously trampled down. These sanguinary miscreants, such as 
 Castelnau, and Dominic, preached down heresy. And their wretched sophisms utterly 
 failing to make men of sense apostatise from Christianity, to popery, — ^they look on 
 them, without the leave of bishop, or magistrate, to inflict capital punishments upon 
 their victims ! 
 
 But the Inquisition was perfected in its terrific power, when the emperor Frederic 
 ii, and Louis ix, sirnamed Saint Louis, king of France, lent their authority to esta- 
 blish this tribunal ; and when the magistracy was converted into a tool of the priests 
 to enact legalized murders, on men, simply for their opinions in religion. Then 
 Europe exhibited the novel and outrageous spectacle, — to use the words of Dr. Jortin, 
 " of the priest being the judge, and kings the hangmen !" 
 
 Such has, in fact, been the true relation of the crowned heads of Europe, and in- 
 deed, of the magistracy, to the pope of Rome, and his sanguinary army of priests. 
 The pope having usurped unlimited power over every crowned head ; and these 
 ignorant and effeminate animals, called kings, and emperors, having in their treach- 
 ery to God, and their subjects, "yielded up their power to the Beast," and tamely 
 put their necks under his heel, they became the pope's spies and hangmen! Nay! 
 the whole magistracy for several generations, became "the hangmen," of the Inqui- 
 sition; and the royal armies, the hired executioners of whole provinces, and cities, 
 in vast, and wide-spread massacres! All this was done at the nod of an upstart, 
 and wretched priest, who succeeded in deceiving the world into a persuasion that he 
 was a christian; and God's vicar general, in St. Peter's chair! Hence, we know how 
 to reply to the papal sophistry, on the lips of priests, within Protestant lands, — " Our 
 church inflicts no civil pains, the civil magistrate, alone, puts these criminals to 
 death :" and " their blood is no more the blood of the saints, and martyrs, than the 
 blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors: for the shedding of which, by 
 order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer." Rhemish Annot. Revel, xvii. 6. 
 
 At the bidding of the pope, four edicts were issued by the emperor Frederick II. 
 In the first he asserts, the divine right of kings " to wield the material sword, given to 
 them separately from the priesthood, against the enemies of the faith, for the extirpa- 
 ting of heretical pravity." "We shall not suffer," says he, — "the wretches to 
 live, who infect the world with their doctrines," He then fixes the horrible punish- 
 ment for heretics ; namely, — death in the most appalling forms, by rack, and fire, 
 and sword : and their goods to be confiscated, their children to be disinherited, and 
 their memory, and their children, to be held infamous forever !" No heretic, that is a 
 dissenter from popery, could make a will; nor receive any property, by succession, 
 or inheritance. Pope Innocent VIIL, in his edict of 1487, enacted that *'caiholici 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 335 
 
 might seize upon, and possess the goods of heretics : that if bound to them by contract-, 
 it must not be fulfilled ; if indebted to them, they must not pay debts." William the 
 Conqueror, in his devotion to Rome, enacted that "no man should buy, or sell, who 
 refused allegiance to the apostolic see." And pope Alexander III. issued his bull 
 that, — "No man should traffic with the Waldenses." And the council of Constance 
 uttered their anathema "on all who should dare to enter into contracts, or engage in 
 commerce with heretics." And tht Inquisitors were the ministers of vengeance, charg- 
 ed with the execution of these sanguinary laws. 
 
 So> completely did these enemies of God, and his church, fulfil, unconsciously, even 
 to the letter, the prediction respecting antichrist, in Rev. xiii. 15, 16. "The image of 
 the Jjieast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image 
 of the Beasi, should be killed. And that no man might buy, or sell, save he that had 
 the mark, or the name of the Beast !" 
 
 Such were the origin and the laws of this infernal tribunal, which had, under 
 Satan, pope Innocent III. for its founder, and one of the saints of the calendar, 
 St. Dominic, for its earliest inquisitor. It was fully in operation in Italy, in 1251. 
 It was gradually extended into other countries, and the executioners and tormentors in 
 " The Holy Otfice," were always Dominican friars^ a class of men destitute of the 
 bowels of humanity ! 
 
 In some countries, they never were able to establish this court, by all their efforts ; 
 for instance, in England, Scotland, and Ireland. In France, it was forced on the 
 people: but soon were the miscreants and their tribunal banished with indignation. 
 In Germany, the exasperated people drove these minions of popery from their towns; 
 and, mr)re rigorous than the French in their law of retaliation, the first inquisitor, 
 Conrad of Marpurg, was cut to i)ieces by the ungovernable populace. In Spain, and 
 Portugal, "this scourge, and disgrace to humanity has, for centuries, glared like a 
 monster, with its frightful aspect." At Rome it was generally most tolerant ! For 
 Rome acts on Jwf/ictoM5 principles. Gold and power are its only deity. And she 
 knows that a rigid Inquisition would dry up the fountains of wealth poured in by 
 strangers and travellers. In Europe, while each bishop's Inquisition is in full ope- 
 ration, the Grand Inquisition is suspended in its operations. But it has never been 
 condemned, not even disapproved of; and its crimes of murder and butchery have 
 never been atoned for, never even deplored, by the papal church, in Europe, or the 
 United States ! Hence, it is manifest that on each priest's head, who walks our 
 streets, rest the atrocious guilt, and blood of the Inquisition, until he repents, and 
 makes reparation to outraged human nature. But Holy Mother, and her priests, 
 never can repent of her deeds, as a church ; for in that ca?e, she would admit thatsh« 
 has been in error; and they would lose the caste of infallibility ! 
 
 The Inquisitorial law look its rise out of the ignorance and brutality of the Domini- 
 can monks. "They were entirely ignorant," as Mosheim justly remarks, "of all 
 judicial proceedings, and sound law. They knew only the tribunal of penance ; 
 where men testify against, and for themselves. On this they modelled the laws of 
 the Inquisition." Hence these laws are " in many respects, contrary to the common 
 feelings of humanity ; and the plainest dictates of e(]uiiy and justice." 
 
 "The Inquisitor," exhibits the specimen of a human being, made in God's image, 
 destitute of the least feelings of humanity: and a consummate knave. He smiles on 
 the most horrible torments of a fellov/ being: the groans of bleeding, lacerated, and 
 dying mortals, are the music of his dark cave; in which, far below the surface of the 
 
336 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 earth, in close dangeons, where the ear of man cannot hear him, he practices his 
 horrid vocation ; after the manner of his Lord and Master, in the dark regions 
 below ! 
 
 In Spain, where this tribunal triumphed in the reign of terror, over religion, morals, 
 and bleeding humanity, there were eighteen different Inquisitorial courts; with 
 their apostoUcal Inquisitors. And besides the legions of officers in these hells, there 
 were 20,000 familiars^ dispersed over the land. These, with the cunning and malig- 
 nity of the devil, mingled as spies, and informers, in all companies; invaded the 
 sanctity of families, and dragged all suspected persons to the cells of the Inquisition. 
 They would come upon families, in noon day, and at the midnight hour. They car- 
 ried off the wife, and mother from the bosom of husband, and children. They singled 
 out the blooming maid ; and the young man, the stay of his widowed mother; and 
 the bride from the very circle of her gay friends ! The greatest virtues, and respect- 
 ability in s-ociety, were no shield against these infernal invaders. Mere suspicion, or 
 personal quarrel^ or the glance of a voluptuous Inquisitor's eye on youth and inno- 
 cence, were sure to send the horrid prison carriage at the dead hour of night, to the 
 person's house, to carry the victim to this slaughter house of virtue, and tomb of the 
 living. Such was the terror inspired by these incarnate devils, that the parent, and 
 the brother would hurry, with trembling steps to the door. And whenever the appal- 
 ling words were heard, — "Open to the holy Inquisition ;'' — " Deliver up your wife, — 
 deliver up your daughter, — deliver up your son, to the holy Inquisition ;" — that in- 
 stant would the terror-stricken relative, without daring to ask one question, or breathe 
 one murmur, or even implore pity, lead the trembling victims out, and deliver them 
 to these fiends I The bereaved father, or husband would, next day, go into mourning; 
 and speak of the dear lost one, — as no more ! Gloom and melancholy were spread 
 through the family ; aud the remains of hope were swallowed up in the bitterest 
 despair. Even their tears, and their sorrows had they to conceal, lest they should 
 be the next victims of ghostly suspicion. 
 
 And with such prcfound secrecy did these familiars conduct their movements, 
 that the members of the same family, would, in numerous instances, know nothing 
 of one another's apprehension. Dr. Geddes states that a father, and three sons, ar^d 
 three daughters, living all in the same house, were carried prisoners to the Inquisi- 
 tion^ without knowing of one another's being there; until set;e?i years afterwards, 
 when those of them who had survived the horrid tortures, met at an Auto da Fe! 
 There, after seven years of weeping and despair, their eyes fell on each other, about 
 to be consumed in the fire of the papists' grand human sacrifice ! See Dr. M. Geddes' 
 Works on 'popery, vol. i. ]). 392. 
 
 As for the victims seized by the familiars, they were hurried into the dungeon cells, 
 and loaded with chains. If females, they were placed in the harems of the sacerdotal 
 monsters, who revel on the honor, the peace, and happiness of families; and subject 
 them to disgraces worse than death, to the pure and virtuous! 
 
 The prisoners were never confronted with the accusers, or informers. No witnesses 
 were produced, and the basest of mankind are admitted as spies, and accusers. Even 
 the crime alleged against them was not made known to them. They must make it out 
 the best way they can, and confess their own crime. If ihey did not, they were put 
 to the rack, and a confession extorted from them. "This procedure," says the his- 
 torian Voltaire, "unheard of, till the Inquisition, makes all Spain tremble; suspicion 
 reigns in all bosoms; friendship, and quietness are at an end : brother dreads brother; 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVKRKT. 337 
 
 and father, his owa soa. Hence (.he taciturnity of a nation, endued with all the 
 vivacitv natural to a glowing and fruitful clime." Univ. Hist. vol. ii. ch. 118. Jones' 
 Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 99. 
 
 Let me conduct my reader into the interior of the Inciuisition. I shall follow the 
 guidance of the most api)roved authors, in their investigations of the "Infernal 
 Tribunal." The exterior of the building is sufficient tf» strike terror into the bosom 
 of even the bravest man, who has always trodden the soil of freedom. The entran- 
 ces are through long, dark, and winding passages; through ponderous doors : ojjened 
 by massy keys, and clanking chains. The walls are black and fikhy ; the flash of 
 gleaming torches reveals the sullen and taciturn officers, and familiars, whose coun- 
 tenances retaining Httle of "the human face divine," frown an eternal scowl of ven- 
 geance on all who have the misery of coming near them; while their eyes flash with 
 the glare of the hidden fire, perpetually burning wiihin their guilty, and horror- 
 stricken souls! The stoutest hearted cannot view them without honor! The tor- 
 turing dungeons are so deep ; and the massy doors so close, that the groans, and the 
 horrid shrieks of the tortured victims, cannot reach the air: or if perchance there 
 ever came, — 
 
 " So loud a shriek 
 
 As reached the upper air, 
 The hearers blessed themselves, and said, 
 The spirits of the sinful dead 
 
 Bemoaned their tonnenls there!" 
 
 Sir W. Scott. 
 
 But if my reader can follow me, let me be more minute in detail. I shall describe, to 
 the public, the torments which were of every day's occurrence. 
 
 1st. The torture by water. The victim is laid on a table ; and tied down so lightly 
 by cords, that they cut through the flesh into the bone, of his arms, thighs, and legs. 
 
 The nostrils of the wretch are stuffed with a thick paste. A narrow filter is insert- 
 ed in his mouth, through which quantities of water are yjoured. At every breath he 
 is forced to swallow a mouthful of water, till at last his swollen stomach, and hea- 
 ving breast, showed the extent of the torture he endures. He struggles fearfully to 
 escape from his bondage, but his struggles are of no avail, except to increase the 
 pangs he suffers. Nature, at length, is soon exhausted, and then these diabolical 
 operations are suspended for a moment, and the sufferer is asked if he will confesss his 
 crime. He cannot speak, but, with what little strength he has remaining, shakes his 
 head. The torture is again put in force. Flask after flask of water is ])oured down 
 the sufferer's throat, to force him to confess a crime, of which he is entirely innocent. 
 This is often continued until the victim expires under his murderer's hands. 
 
 There is another form of torture by ivater. The victims nostrils being closed with 
 paste, a thin muslin cloth is put over his mouth ; and water poured in a current on 
 it, until the cloth is actually carried down into his stomach! This is dragged up by 
 his inhuman tormentors, with inexpressible pain, besides his continued dancer of suf- 
 focation. The victim often expires sooner, by this process, than by the other, just 
 mentioned. 
 
 2d. Torture by Fire. The victim is placed on the floor, with his feet toward a 
 blazing fire, his soles are fixed near the red coals ; the fire is placed along the whole 
 length'of his hmbs. He is chained down by the neck and hands, to the floor. One 
 of the familiars is continually employed in basting the poor christian's feet and legs 
 
 30 
 
338 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 
 
 •with lard and oil ; while another tormentor is stirring up the fire into the intensest 
 blaze .' The torment is beyond conception ! His feet and limbs are literally roasted! 
 
 Sometimes the fire has been applied in " the dry heat.'" The victim is put into a 
 large vessel of iron or copper ; and the fire put beneath it ; and he is left beneath the 
 lid, to the bm-ning and suffocating air, — until he expire ; and his body is reduced to 
 ashes. 
 
 3d. Torture by the St. Mary. When the Inquisition was thrown open by the 
 troopsof Napoleon, and king Joseph, in Spain, an image of the Virgin was found 
 standing in a damp corner of a cell. On inspection, it vvas discovered by the French 
 officer, to be a torturing engine ; as she had a metal breastplate, beneath her robes, 
 stuck full of needles, spikes, and lancets ! The familiar was ordered "• to maimuvrt 
 it.*' He did so ; it raised its arms as if to embrace ; a knapsack was thrown into her 
 arms; she gradually closed and crushed the knapsack, and pierced it in a hundred 
 placrs, with deep cuts, each of which would have been a death's wound to the living 
 victim ! 
 
 4th. Torture of the Rack. By one form of this torment the victim is fixed to a post, 
 and his arms are drawn back by great force until the shoulder joints are, each, dis- 
 located. By another form, the rope is fixed, first above his elbows, then above his 
 wrists, and he is hoisted suddenly to the lofty ceiling; then dropped with a sudden 
 jerk near to the floor, until all the upper joints of his body, are dislocated ! If the poor 
 christian refuses to confess, what he knows not, or refuses to become an apostate, then 
 the ropes are fixed to his lower limbs, and he is hoisted up with his head downward; 
 and let fall repeatedW, with excessive violence, until his ankle joints, and knee, and 
 loin joints are all dislocated. And oh horrible! the whole weight of his body 
 hangs, as it were, dangling upon the loose flesh, and sinews! When the wretched 
 man faints, he is hurried into his cell, and thrown on the cold damp floor I And if he 
 recovers under the surgeon's care, the same horrid tortures are enacted on him, from 
 week to week, until he confess, — or expire in their hands! These are only a portion 
 of the. tortures which have reached the pubHc ear. There have been such " as eye 
 hath not seen, and ear never heard." There has been no recorder of them. Besides 
 who can register the tears, and groans, and agony of broken hearted human nature ! 
 But, Lord God ! Thou art just; Thou art on thy judgment seat! And there is a doom 
 to overwhelm the oppressor, and the inhuman butcher of thy innocent, and bleeding 
 martyrs, O Lord Jesus ! 
 
 5th. The Auto da Fe. This closes periodically, the tragedy of "the Infernal 
 Tribunal." This sacrifice of Bloloch, has always taken place on a Sabbath day. 
 The prisoners are brought into a great Hall, where they are dressed for the proces- 
 sion. The Dominicans^ the master spirits of this pandemonium, march first, bearing 
 the flag with the appropriate motto, — (for they characteristically unite mockery of 
 human nature, to their savage barbarity.) ''Justice and mercy P^ The penitents who 
 escape, are dressed in black coats, without sleeves; and they are marched barefooted. 
 Next came those who have narrovvly escaped, — dressed in black coats decked oflT 
 with red figures of flames, top downwards. Next came the negative and relapsed, 
 with red figures of flames curling upwards, on their dresses. These are to be strangled 
 and burned. And, lastly, came our brethren, the dear devout Protestants and chris- 
 tians, who abjured ''the sectarian heresy of Popery,'' and died for the gospel of Jesus. 
 These had not only red figures of flames, but figures of open-mouthed dogs, serpents, 
 and devils, covering their vestments! 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 339 
 
 In their rnarch to execution, our poor suflering fellow beings, and fellow christians 
 are not even permitted to speak, or give utterance to their sorrows. A victim who 
 had opposed the idolatry of the mass, and the worship of the wafer, and idol gods, 
 exclaimed in an ecstacy, as he came out of his dungeon, and reached the open air, 
 and saw the sun sliining in all his glory, — a sight he had not seen in many years:^ 
 '■'■How is it possible for people that behold that glorious body^ to ivorship any being 
 but Him who created it!'' " Here," says Dr. Geddes," I saw him stopjjcd short in his 
 pious exclamations; and immediately gagged, so that he could not speak a word 
 morel" See Dr. M. Geddes' Tracts on Popery, vol. i. p. 406. 
 
 Arrived at the horrid Golgotha, and field of Moloch, a wretched- declamation, 
 called a sermon, is uttered by some hypocritical Jesuit, or a half willed but savage 
 Dominican, in praise of the " Holy Inquisition," and the devout servants of God, " tht 
 Inquisitor'' and all ''these skilful tormentors" of our fellow beings. This being done, 
 sentence is passed on each class; and the two classes appointed to be burned, are de- 
 livered over formally to the civil magistrate ; while the reckless hypocrites, — the 
 Inquisitor and his minions, " beg, and implore the magistrates not to take their lives ; 
 not to kill them; not to burn them: but to spare them ! !" This mockery of God and 
 human nature, being enacted, the penitents are dismissed ; — the relap>ed who die in 
 Romanism, are first strangled, and then burned. This is all their privilege, — they 
 are first strangled .' But the faithful christians who persevere in Christ's cause, are 
 chained on a high stake, many feet above the piles of faggots. Here two Jesuits again 
 inflict on each martyr a long and whining exhortation, to repent, — and die in the Ro- 
 man faith, and receive the tender mercy of Holy Mother: — namely the benefit of 
 being strangled, and then burned. This mockery enacted by these inhuman priests, 
 the loud scream is uttered — at the nod of the Inquisitor, — " Let the dog's beards be 
 made!" Instantly blazing torches and furze on long poles, are dashed on the faces of 
 the agonizing martyrs; and this is continued until their faces are burned to a cinder ! 
 Then the flames are applied below, and the roaring flames ascend, and slowly con- 
 sume the sufferers to ashes ! And to crovvn the whole, — at the bidding of the Inquisitor, 
 and the example of all the priests, this horrid tragedy is enacted amid the peals of 
 laughter, and shouts of exultation, and merriment, from ten thousand beings actually 
 calling themselves men, — and women — and christians! ! And yet, no people in Eu- 
 rope, perhaps show more kindly feelings, or deeper sympathy with the sufferings of 
 common criminals, dying for any crime against the civil laws ! Such is the savag-e 
 and ferocious influence of popery and priestcraft, in these countries. It actually ren- 
 ders man not only insensible to the feelings of hqmanity, but absolutely inhuman 
 toward his brother man. No scene in the worship of Moloch; none, in the horrid 
 rites of Juggernaut; none, among our savage Indians around a captive warrior's 
 murderous fire, when he is put to death by their ingenious tortures, has ever equalled 
 the scenes of torture in the the interior of the Inrpiisition, and the closing tragedies of 
 the Auto da Fe ! And yet, — O most outrageous mockery ! All this has been enacted 
 from age to age, under the name of the holy and benignant religion of Jesus Christ. 
 Even that religion which breathes nothing but love to man: which prohibits all vio- 
 lence, and even compulsion in religion: which declares that even "the man who 
 hates his brother is a -murderer!" By the voice of this holy and peaceful religion 
 what must the Roman catholic priests be, who sing psalms, chaunt the mass, and 
 butcher mankind by hundred- of thousands in cold blood! 
 
 The number of the victims of the Inquisition will never be known, until the day of 
 
340 ROxMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 final retributioQ. Various have been the numbers set down. " Authors of undoubt- 
 ed credit," says Jones, — " have affirmed, and without any exaggeration, that mill- 
 ions of persons have been ruined by his horrible court. Moors were banished from 
 Spain, a 'mi7//on at a time! From six to eight hundred thousand Jews were driven 
 away from it, at once ; and all their property seized." Jones' Ch. Hist. ii. p. 98. 
 
 In Spain, alone, the numbers who suffered in the extreme, are thus set down by 
 Lorente in his late history of the Spanish Inquisition ; Vans Edit. 1818. Tom. iv. 
 p. 271. 
 
 "It is the Inquisition which has ruled in Spain," says he, "from the year 1481, to 
 the present day, of vvhich I undertake to write the history." Tom. i. p. 140. 
 Recapitulation of all the victims condemned and burnt .... 33,912 
 
 Burned in effigy, ] 5,695 
 
 Placed in a state of penance with rigorous punishments, , . . 291,450 
 
 Total 341,057 
 
 This number fixed on by this unusually accurate historian, is far below the truth. 
 It is generally admitted that under the first Inquisitor of Spain alone, namely Tor- 
 queniada, no less than 100,000 human beings suffered : under the above three 
 classes, that is, they were burned ; or they perisjhed on the rack, or by it ; or in exile; 
 and perpetual confinement! 
 
 This, Re-v. Fathers, is enough at one time, in all conscience, for your, or any man's 
 digestion ; you will, therefore, accord me the boon of pausing a while. 
 
 I am, my Lords Bishops, yours &c. 
 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXX VII. 
 
 TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery . 
 " Thus Beelzebub 
 
 Pleaded his devilish counsel, tirst devised 
 By Satan, and in part ])rn|iosed : for whence 
 Butfroiri the author of all ill, could spriiig 
 So deep a malice." Miltox. 
 
 Reverend Fathers : — The tribunal of the Inquisition, bloody as it was, never- 
 theless was too slow, in its exterminating process for the sanguinary zeal of the papal 
 priests. Besides the arm of civil power was found to be necessaiy in some countries, 
 where neither Moloch, nor Satan, nor even the pope himself could establish ''The 
 Infernal Tribunal P"" Hence the summary process of crusades, and massacres. This 
 conducts me to, — 
 
 Part II. — Persecution. 1. Of the Crusades we may reckon two kinds. The- 
 one maybe termed mora/: and besides violence and outrage, it included the resort 
 to every species of treachery, deception, and cunning, which power and Jesuitisrr* 
 could employ, to bring men over to Romanism, from the christian religion. As spe-* 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 341 
 
 cimens of this, I reckon that violence, and tliose diabolical artifices employed to 
 undermine the ancient apostolical churches of Britain, Spain, and Ireland ; and 
 spread the horrid impostures of popery over them, — which to this day, enchain the 
 greater part of the latter two : and that ferocious system of moral and civil persecu- 
 tion which wasted Hungary, and crushed three millions of Protestants, for three 
 hundred years ; and closed, in a measure, only with the life, and reign of Maria 
 Theresa. 
 
 The other species of Crusade was wholly of a sanguinary nature. The papal 
 bearers o( the cruss, their insignia, went forth to butcher, in cold blood, man, woman, 
 infant, — who were not Romans; and cover whole kingdoms with blood, and fire, and 
 havoc! Of this kind, were the crusades against the Moors and Jews in Spain; the 
 Waldenses and Albigenses; and the infidels in the Holy Land. These specimens 
 of wild and infernal mania, were exhibited solely by the ambhion and blood-thirsty 
 cruelty of the popes. The last, in the Holy Land, commenced in the year 1096, and 
 it raged, with fury, for two centuries ; causing, according to Mons. Voltaire, the death 
 of two millions of men, in the flower of their youth: and ill prepared, we fear, to 
 meet their Judge. For the blood, and for the souls of these millions of human be- 
 ings, has the Romish church, one day, to give an account to Almighty God. 
 
 2. That the Roman catholic church has been avowedly a ferocious, persecuting 
 sect, is frankly admitted by her standard writers. And that persecutions have been 
 carried on, over entire nations, by wholesale, is triumphantly avouched also ; and 
 even gloried in, as exhibiting a notable mark of "the holy and only church." And 
 just in proportion as her temporal power, was united, in adulterous connection, with 
 the spiritual, have the friends of blood and havoc been born and nursed by popery, 
 and turned loose in their unmuzzled ferocity, on the bleeding nations of the earth ! 
 
 We conceal not that Protestants have persecuted, even unto death. We deplore the 
 existence of that civil law by which the magistrates of Geneva, with Calvin consent- 
 ing, did doom the unhappy Servetus to death. We deplore the scenes enacted in 
 Protestant Britain; and the cruelty to some members of the society of Friends, in the 
 early days of New England. 
 
 But, we beg all men, Jew, infidel, and christian, to render justice to the Protestant 
 world; and mark the radical difference in this matter. There is no doctrine, — no, 
 not one idea in the Holy Bible, — nor in the Protestant creeds, and canons, that teach- 
 es, or invites, or even insinuates a wish to persecute. It is an affecting truth that 
 "evil communications corrupt good morals!" Our first Protestant Fathers were 
 nursed, and brought up in Popery. It is mortifying to reflect that they drank in the 
 persecuting spirit, from the breasts of "Holy Mother." That savage lioness taught 
 men to hunt the prey; and revel in human blood! And, when they escaped from 
 her den, and her devilish training, it took many a long age to eradicate from their 
 bones, and marrow, this king's evil,— this jiopish mania! Moreover, the civil laws 
 of each kingdom were corrupted, and poisoned by popery. Intolerance and persecu- 
 tion were enacted in the statute books of all the kingdoms of Europe. The magis- 
 trates of Geneva and John Calvin did not enact that bloody law, under which Serve- 
 tus suffered. The Romish laymen and priests enacted it! The Protestants did not 
 enact the intolerant laws of England: the Romish church enjoined the priest-ridden 
 kings of that realm to enact them. Nay, so far did Rome carry her persecuting 
 power, even in defiance of the crown of England, that by a law passed under Henry 
 IV., a bishop could convict the subjects of heresy; and, "unless the convict abjured, 
 
 30* 
 
342 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 his opinions, or if, after abjuration, he relapsed, the sheriff was bound, ex officio^ if 
 required by the bishop, to commit the man lo the flames, iviihout waiting for the con- 
 sent of Ihe crown!'" See Blackstone's Com. vol. iv., Book 4, c. 4, Sect. 2. 
 
 No wonder, therefore, that it took years, and incredible labors lo purify the fou.nt- 
 aius, and streams from the pope's universal corrosive poison ! 
 
 When, therefore, a Protestant ^pervsecutes, he acts against the pnre precepts of the 
 Bible, and against all the solemn articles and canons of his holy religion. And, 
 now, no Protestant church persecutes; and the longer, and the farther removed we 
 are from the popish sect, the more completely is the demon of persecution expelled 
 from every church, and every family, and every soul, and heart! But ferstcution 
 is taught as a dogma, and a regular canon, by the pope and all his priests! No bloody 
 edict has been revoked : they are suspended in the pope'sold paralytic, and withered 
 hand: but never have they been revoked. And never has a breath of disavowal, 
 or even disapprobation gone forth against the persecutions enacted by her. The 
 Roman catholic church persecutes by canon and rule ! She cannot even repent of 
 her persecutions. She would inflict a death wound in her own heart, did she disa- 
 vow bloody persecution ! For, to retrace her steps, and repent, is to abandon her 
 jprominent attribute of infallibility ! 
 
 In proof of our assertion, I ^h all, jfirsf, give your standard authorities, that the 
 Romish church makes persecution an essential, unrepealed dogma of her religion: — 
 and, second, illustrate this dogma by her uniform practice. In other words, I shall 
 show that she makes it a principle of cotiscinnce to persecute by the sword of her 
 viouth ; and by the secular sword. And this, I beg leave to remind 3'qu, Fathers, is 
 according to the letter of the prediction of St. John, relative to this "bloody Beast." 
 Revelation xiii. 5, &c. "And there was given unio the Beast, a ?nou//i speaking 
 great things, and blasphemies ; and power was given unto him to continue forty and 
 two months: and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God; to blaspheme his 
 name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him 
 
 to make war with the saints; and to overcome them .." 
 
 First: — She persecutes by the sivord of the mouth. This divides itself into tivo 
 forms of ferocious assault. 1st. Byher brutal mode of cursingand excommunicating. 
 In addition to the specimen already given, I shall subjoin a form of what is more 
 common in her discipline. The model is that which was uttered by the pope against 
 his Alum maker, for his eloping from his Alwn works ; and carrying the chemical 
 secret to England. Icopy.it from Ledger Book of Rochester church: and Henry 
 Spelman's Glossary, p. 206. And from Prof. Bruce's Free Thoughts; Dr. 
 M'Culloch's Popery condemned : and Glasg. Prot. vol. i. ch. 5. I abridge it thus : — 
 "May God the Father curse him! May God the Son curse him! May the 
 Holy Ghost curse him ! May the holy Cross curse him ! May the holy and eternal 
 Virgin Mary curse him ! May St. Michael curse him ! May John the Baptist 
 curse hira ! May St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. Andrew, and all the Apostles, 
 and disciples, curse him ! May all the martyrs and confessors curse him ! May all 
 the saints, from the beginning of time, to everlasting, curse hira ! Ma}' he be cursed 
 in the house, and in the fields ! May he be cursed while living, and while dying ! May 
 he be cursed in sitting, in standing, in lying, in walking, in working, in eating, in 
 
 drinking, in mingendo, in .'. May he be cursed in all the powers of his body; 
 
 within, and without. May he be cursed in the hair of his head, in his temples, eye- 
 brows, his forehead, his checks, and his jaw-bones, his nostrils, bis teeth, his lips, his 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 343 
 
 throat, his shoulders, his arms, his wrists, his hands, his breast, his stomach, his 
 reins, * * * * his legs, his feet, his joints, his nails ! May he be cursed from the 
 crown of his head, to the sole of his feet! May heaven, and all the powers therein, 
 rise against him to damn him ; unless he repent, and make satisfaction ! Amen." 
 
 2. Her doctors conspire against the human race, by strenuously advocating the 
 principles of persecution. 
 
 Bellarmine, De Laicis, Lib. iii. cap. 21., is your church's sovereign mouth-piece. 
 He gives a labored defence of the princij)le of persecution ; or the putting of heretics 
 to death, merely for differing from "Holy Mother," in their religious creed! Here 
 are his words : — "Posse hereticos, &:c. That heretics condemned by the church, 
 may be punished with temporal penalties, and even with death. We w ill briefly 
 show that the church has the power, and it is her duty, to cast off incorrigible here- 
 tics, especially those who have relapsed, and that the secular power ought to inflict 
 on such, temporal punishments, and even death itself." 
 
 Then follows a long list of painful arguments in defence of these ferocious dogmas; 
 which a christian cannot read without shuddering ! He argues from the holy Bible 
 of the God of mercy: from civil laiv ; canon law; the Fathers; and from reason! 
 This last argument is curious: it is this, — It is a benejit to the heretic, to be sent out of 
 the ivorld, as soon as possible. For the longer he lives, the worse ht becomes ; and if 
 he is soon sent off, his hell will be so much lighter ! 
 
 Thus the cardinal "deals damnation round the land" on all who differ from you : 
 and with a singular species of popish compassion, he is for hurrying all heretics 
 speedily to death; and into hell, in order to make it a little less intolerable ! 
 
 In chap. 22, Bellarmine answers objections. Luther had taught " that the church 
 of God had never, from the beginning, to his time, burned a heretic : that it was not 
 the mind of the Holy Spirit, that they should be burned." Here is the reply of this 
 cardinal in the name of all popery, — 
 
 " I reply, this argument admirably proves not the sentiment, but the ignorance, or 
 impudence of Luther: for as almost an ii^fnite number were either burned; or other- 
 wise put to death, Luther either did not know it, and was therefore ignorant ; or, if he 
 knew it, he is convicted of impudence and falsehood ! For that heretics were often 
 burned by the church, may be proved by adducing a few from many examples." 
 
 "Argument second. Experience shows that terror is not useful in such cases. "I 
 reply," says Bellarmine, "that experience proves the contrary — for the Donatists, 
 Manicheans, and Albigenses were routed, and annihilated by arms.^^ 
 
 Such, also, is the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, ii. IL iii. p. 58. " Haeretici 
 possenf, &c. Heretics may not only be excommunicated, but justly Jcilled.'^ 
 
 And all this is not the doctrine of such intolerant cardinals, and blood thirsty saints 
 only. Even Bossuet, all politeness, and all accommodation as he affected to be, in 
 his bigotry, advocated intolerance, and persecution. Speaking of the power of the 
 sword in matters of religion, he says, — " Itcannot be called in (piestion, without weak- 
 ening, or maiming the public authority, or power. No illusion can be more dange- 
 rous than making toleration a mark of the true church." "No," adds he, — "the 
 church's holy severity, and her holy delicacy, forbad her such indulgence, or rather 
 softness!" Boss. Oeuvres, Tom. iii. p. 41L Paris, 1747. 
 
 But we ascend to higher authority. No pope since the beginning of the 8th cen- 
 tury can be named, who condemned, or even disapproved of persecution! Popes 
 Urban, Innocent III., and VIII. , Clement, Honorius, and Martin, carried out their 
 
344 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 avowed dogmas; and were ferocious patrons of extermination! Urban 11. sirnamed 
 The Turbulent, in A. D. 1090., declared in his Bull, — "Tliat no one is to be deemed 
 a murderer, who, burning with zeal for the interests of Mother church, shall Mil 
 excommunicated persons." See Pithou, cori)US Jur. canon, p. 324, Paris Edit. 
 1687. It is true, Bruys, speaking of him, calls his morals "diabolical and infernal." 
 Hist. Des. Papes, Tom. ii. p. 508. But then, he was no worse than his successors, 
 who faithfully copied his maxims against heretics. 
 
 We have the decisions of National Councils enjoining the extermination of heretics, 
 8uch as that of Toleda, Tours, Oxford, Narbona, and Tolosa. See Edgar's Varia- 
 tions, p. 244. That of Tolosa was pre-eminent in its fury; and what is striking, it 
 waged war against the Holy Bible also. "No layman was permitted on the penalty 
 of heresy, to have the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in his vernacular 
 idiom." This was exacted in 1229 : and has never to this hour been repealed. See 
 Labbeus, vol. xiii. p. 1239. Alexand. His. Eccles. vol. xx. p. 668. 
 
 And what is more, we have the decisions, and the recorded practice of the General 
 Councils, namely, Third of the Lateran, and the Fourth of the Lateran, in 1215. 
 In canon iii. De hereticis, it enacted, — "Let secular powers, — if necessary, be com- 
 pelled by church censures, — to endeavor, in all good faith, according to their power, 
 to destroy all heretics (Protestants,) marked by the church, out of the lands of their 
 Jurisdiction/^ It then proceeds to enact that if princes refuse to cut off, and destroy 
 heretics, "they shall be accursed, and their subjects absolved from their allegiance." 
 I refer to Labb. Tom. xiii. 934: Bruy's Hist. Pap. Tom. iii. p. 148. 
 
 The council of Constance was fully a match to this, in Satanic severity, and 
 blood-thirstiness. It was convoked in 1414. The pope, Martin V., presided in this 
 assembly. They not only condemned, and burned alive, the holy martyrs Huss, 
 and Jerome of Prague; but issued thair terrific anathema against the millions of 
 heretics over all Europe ; and commanded all emperors, kings, and princes dutifully 
 to proceed, forthwith, in their extermination, by fire and sword. And the decrees of 
 this council were applauded, and confirmed by the last council of your church, — the 
 council of Trent, which lent it all the authority which it gave to any dogma of your 
 church. 
 
 So late as 1825, the late pope Leo XII. exhibited the sentiments of Rome in our 
 day. In his Bull of a jubilee, he makes two conditions of the faithful "receiving a 
 plenary indulgence, and pardon of all sins;" namely, — "the exaltation of the holy 
 Mother church, and the extirpation of heresy.''^ 
 
 So avowedly is this a dogma of the Romish church, that it is introduced into the 
 class book of the college of Maynooth, in Ireland : and every candidate for the priest- 
 hood is painfully taught it. Here is the sentiment I allude to : — " the church retains 
 its power over all heretics, &c. ; although they may no longer belong to its body ; as 
 a general has a right to inflict -punishment on a deserter.'^ That is, as we all know, 
 capital punishment. See Delahogue's Tract. Theolog. cap. 8. De Membris : p. 404., 
 Dublin Edit. 1795. 
 
 "In fine, I have only to lay before the American public, one extract from the oath 
 which every Romish bishop must swear before he is consecrated. I beg my reader's 
 attention to it. " I swear, — that heretics and schismatics, and rebels to our Lord, the 
 Lord pope, or his successors, I will to the extent of my power, persecute and beat 
 down: pro posse persequar et impugnabo. — So help me God, and the holy gospels of 
 God." See Pontif. Rom. De consec. Elec. Episcop. p. 57. Hence, every Romish 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 345 
 
 bishop must, by solemn oath, be a persecutor. He has no other choice. If he is 
 liberal and gracious lo heretics, and does not persecute them as far as he can, then is 
 he a deHberately perjured man! ! 
 
 Nothing, therefore, is more obvious than this, — that the principle of tolerance and 
 liberaUty, is not at the choice of any Romish priest, or subject of the Roman court. 
 Intolerance and persecution are as essential, necessary, and integral a dogma of 
 popish faith, and practice, as is the mass, or the papal supremacy! ! 
 
 And I call on every patriot, and every christian in the United States, and beg their 
 attention to this fact, — that every one of the po[)ish clergy in Europe, and in our 
 Republic, profess, upon their great and solemn oath on the cross, and holy sccravienty 
 to receive, obey, and practice, this principle of persecution, that has thus received the 
 sanction of the whole Romish church ; and has been marked, as Edgar says, with 
 the sign manual of infallibility ! And this principle they will reduce to practice, 
 under pains of perjury, as soon as they can gain the ascendancy, in our Republic! 
 Then will return the days of the reign of the bloody Queen Mary. Then will be 
 the new reign of Terror, by the fire and the faggot, and the horrid Inquisition, in our 
 once free and happy land ! It is for this that the sons of St. Dominic long and pray! 
 It is for this the Jesuits are toiling over our country ! It is for this object the Roman 
 catholic powers of Europe are expending such large sums annually, and pouring in, 
 upon us, myriads of the pope's household troops! 
 
 I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
 W. C. B. 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 TO THE LORD AT^CHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE nOMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Ferocious Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery. 
 
 "I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored Beast: she was arrayed in purple and scarlet: 
 and I saw her drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
 Jesus." — St. 5ohn. 
 
 Reverend Fathers: — The patience with which you have been pleased to listen 
 to my exhibitions, shows at least, tliis much, that you feel deeply on the subject. I 
 now invite your attention to it for the last lime. 
 
 Second, and last: — These princi{)le5 of persecution, which are peculiar, and essen- 
 tial to tlie Roman catholic rehgion, have been, with scrupuloi.s lideliiy, le luced to 
 practice, in innumerable terrific instances. 
 
 The persecutions of the Waldenses, and Albigenses, — the genuine successors of the 
 ancient apostolic Italick church, after the church of Rome began her fatal apostacy, 
 have been regular, and protracted from generation to generation. Pope Innocent III. 
 succeeded in cnlling into the field 500,000 warriors against them ! France alone 
 brought 200,000 men as her share. The carnage on both sides, was appflHing, for 
 the Waldenses defended themselves. The leader of the persecutors was Earl Mont- 
 ford; aad his name will pass down with deeper, and deeper infamy, as truth ^jrevails' 
 and history wields her impartial pen. 
 
 When the city of Beaicrs was taken by the crusaders, in 1209, the Albigenses werd 
 
346 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 SO mixed with the papists, in the rnele of battle, that the warriors did not know their 
 own. ''Kill all,'' cried the papal missionary Arnauld, ''and God will knoiv his 
 own."' Seven hundred christians were slain by the papists in one church: 60,000 
 perished, in all! This last is the number set down by Mezerey and Velly : Edjrar p. 
 252. When the city Lavaur was taken, the governor and his lady were cruelly 
 murdered : 80 gentlemen were slaughtered in cold blood; 400 christians were burned 
 alive; and all the rest of the citizens indiscriminately put to the sword! Velly» 
 vol. iii. 441. 454. 
 
 When Languedoc was invaded by these monsters, o;?e hundred thousand Albigenses 
 fell in one day! See Bruys, vol. iii. 139. Houses were burned, females violated, 
 towns, and cities laid in smouldering ruins. Gallantly did the brave christians defend 
 themselves: and some idea of their havoc may be conceived, before they were exter- 
 minated, from the fact, that 300,000 crusaders fell dead on the plains of Languedoc ! 
 And for the blood of each one of these is the Roman catholic church accountable to 
 God ; as well as for that of the christians ! For she brought the war. 
 
 But who can travel in minute detail, over the lands visited by the demon of popish 
 intolerance and persecution? Who can follow him in his butcheries of Moors, Jews» 
 and Christians in Spain and Portugal, in the times of Charles V., and his son Phihp I 
 What must have been the carnage of the commons, when this king witnessed an Auto 
 da Fe, in which 23 Spanish nobles, were burned at the stake, before him, all at one 
 time! 
 
 What man has yet conceived the agonies, and bloodshed of the christians who fell in 
 Spain, Portugal, and Italy, before the demon of popery succeeded in extinguishing 
 the Reformation, in the sixteenth century ? 
 
 Who can follow the demon of popish intolerance and persecution, over the plains, 
 and mountains of Bohemia ? What tongue can tell the horrors of popish persecution 
 inflicted on three millions of chiibiiau Huu^aiicjixs, during no less than three 
 centuries? 
 
 Who can conceive the horrors of the French massacre at Merindol, at Grange! 
 Who can conceive the infinite horrors of the St. Bartholomew massacre, at Paris! 
 "The streets," says a popish historian, — '*were paved with dead bodies, and the 
 mortally wounded; the gateways were literally choked up with them. • There were 
 'heaps of them in the squares; the small streams were filled with human blood, which 
 flowed in great torrents to the river. Six hundred houses were repeatedly pillaged.'* 
 See Mezerai, Hist. De France, Tom. ii. p. 1098. Paris Edit. 1646. 
 
 Similar massacres were continuously enacted, at the same time, at Meaux ; at 
 Troyes; at Orleans; atNevers; at La Charite; at Toulouse; at Bourdeaux ; at 
 Lyons! France was drenched in the blood of Huguonot christians, in the reign of 
 Charles IX. ! 
 
 What pen has ever, yet, done justice to the sufferings, and barbarous slaughter of 
 the French christians, under Louis XIV., when that odd compound of religious 
 bigotry, and savage ferocity, revoked the edict of Nantz; and drove a nation of Pro- 
 testants to the gibbet, the dungeon, and perpetual exile ! 
 
 What hand has yet delineated the horrid scenes of war, and massacre, by the 
 Duke of Alva, on the jdains of Holland ! What history has yet recorded all the 
 sufferings of British christians; the sorrows, and deaths of the Wickliffites, and Lol- 
 lard^;, andCuldees, and Protestants ! 
 
 Wbat tongue has ever yet tQl4 the tale of the christian church's sufferings, in Ire* 
 
ROMAN CATHOT.ir rONTROVF.RST. 
 
 347 
 
 land, previous to her being over-run by popery, in the close of the twelfth century: 
 and of her Protestant children of later days, by assai^sinaiions, and the most revolting 
 Irish massacres! Her sighs, her groans, and tears, and blood have never been re- 
 cordeii on earth. They are known only to the Most High: they are recorded in the 
 book of divine remembrance alone ! 
 
 Now, nothing is more evident on the page of history, than this fact, that all thes8 
 persecutions, and massacres were done at the instigation, and by the command of the 
 popes. They never concealed it: they actually gloried in it. To use the disgusting 
 cant of papal hyjjocrisy, — ''It was all in the way of purifying the nations from 
 heresy ; and of extending the Catholic religion!" The Letter of Pius V., is yet ex- 
 tant, in which he stirred up Charles to the Parisian massacre. See Ftncb's Rom. 
 Controv. p. 140. And several historians, Roman catholics, record the rejoicings at 
 Rome, by pope Gregory XIII. This mournful, and atrocious, and national murder 
 of Protestants, was celebrated at Rome with extreme pomp. The pope led the way 
 in savage exuhation ; and solemnly offered thanks to God for the massacre of the 
 Huguonots! A medal was struck to commemorate this victory over humanity, and 
 the christians of France; an engraved, London fac-simile of which is in my posses- 
 sion. The literary Roman catholic can see a perfect description of it in Bonanni'* 
 Nunviiisinata Pontiff. Rom. Tom. i. p. 3o6; Rome, 1699. 
 
 Besides this, every one who has seen the paintings in the Vatican, must have seen 
 three pictures, got up, and exhibited for centuries to commemorate this massacre. The 
 iirst exhibits the admiral Coligoy mortally stabbed : \he aecnnd, the admiral butchered 
 in his bouse, with all his family : the third exhibhs king Charles IX., approving 
 the massacre I 
 
 In order to enable you to form some faint idea of Roman catholic persecutions, I 
 shall set down the following estimate of the numbers that have fallen vic'ims to the 
 intolerance, and sanguinary religion of Rome. And I beg leave here to introduce it 
 with the remark, that had the pope, or a council, or the Romish church ever seen fit 
 to disavow, and lament over these wholesale, and national murders, and massacres, — 
 those in that communion should never have heard one reproachful word :--never 
 have met one charge of persecution and murder, from us. But Rome has never dis- 
 avowed the principle; never condemned, nor protested against the blood-guiltiness of 
 these massacres, by their pope ; and their forefathers. Hence that church, like every 
 other incorporate body, is chargeable with tht debt of that bloodshed ; as really as if 
 they had been aiders, and abettors, and the most manifest accomplices ! If vou. Fa- 
 thers, or any one in your communion, have ever disavowed this dogma of your 
 church ; or condemned herforpier persecutions, by any act, or dechration whatever, 
 show us the bull, or the edict. I here challenge all your literary men to produce 
 any disavowal, or one solitary confession authorized by the pope, or church of Rome, 
 in opposition to the principle, or practice of persecution. 
 
 Here, then, before God and nian, I do most solemnly charge on you. Fathers, and 
 all those in open communion with your persecuting church, this blood guiltmess 
 which has ever rested on her! 
 
 There perished under pope Julian 200,000 christians: and by the French massacre, 
 on a moderate calculation, in 3 months, 100,000. Of the Waldenses there iierished 
 150,000 ; of the Albigenses 150,000. There perished by the Jesuits in 30 years only, 
 900,000. The Duke of Alva destroyed by the common hangman alone, o6,CC0 per- 
 sons; the amount murdered by him is set down, by Grotius, at 100,000! There per- 
 
348 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 ished by the fire, and tortures of the Inquisition in Spain, Italy, and France, 150,000. 
 This does not include the exiled, those confined for life : and those who died in conse- 
 quence of hard usage, after they had escaped. In the Irish massacres, in -whicli were 
 displayed all the horrid arts, and tortures of the Spanish Incpiisition, there perished 
 350,000 Protestants! Besidesthose who were burned in bloody Queen Mary's time, 
 or who died on the scaffold, — 22,000 were driven into exile, after losing their all. 
 
 To sum up the whole, the Roman catholic church has caused the ruin, and destruc- 
 tion of a million and a half of Moors in Spain; nearly two millions of Jews, in Europe! 
 In Mexico, and South America, including the islands of Cuba and St. Domingo, 
 fifteen millions of Indians, in 40 years, fell victims to popery. And in Europe, and 
 the East Indies, and in America, 50 millions of Protestants, at least, have been mur- 
 dered by it ! 
 
 Thus the church of Rome stands forward before the world, "the woman in scarlet, 
 on the scarlet colored Beast!" A church claiming to be cftns^jan, drenched in the 
 blood of sixty-eight millions, and five hundred thousand human beings! And, horrible 
 as this is, what is all this guilt, and overwhelming damnation, compared to the infinite 
 guilt of her seducing, and sacrificing, if grace prevented it not, — the souls of hundreds 
 of millions of her victims, on the altar of Moloch, and of dooming them, so far as 
 her fatal iufluence can go, to the pains of the second, and never-ending death ! 
 
 Can any christian, in the sober exercise of reason, conceive this sanguinary power, 
 to be a branch of Christ's pure and holy church ! 
 
 Can any politician believe that such principles can make their votaries good and 
 orderly citizens ! 
 
 Does not outraged humanity utter its execrations of these tenets, in the deepest 
 tone of irrepressible indignation; and pronounce the Roman catholic church the pre- 
 destinated son of perdition : and the loorst enemy, on earth, of the human race! — 
 Rev. Fathers, you can answer this, if you will permit your consciences to utter their 
 unrestrained response. But, whether you will answer it, or not, here, — you must 
 answer it at the bar of eternal justice, soon. And there is no concealment, no eva- 
 sion there ! 
 
 And, now, I have done. I appeal from you, in your present delusion, and mortal 
 error, to you, as you shall see, and feel, — w^hen at the bar of God's eternal justice! 
 There I shall meet you; and you will meet me, before m^/ judge, and your judge J 
 And thereupon, I appeal you, and your predecessors in office, of 3'our guilty deeds 
 against God's holy cause, and saints, to answer for them, before God's judgment 
 seat! 
 
 It will be known there, at the bar of Christ, in the light of eternity, whether your 
 cause, or our cause, was the cause of God, and of our country ! And whether, or 
 not, our ancestors, massacred by the Roman catholic church, were the saints and 
 mart^'^rs of God ! 
 
 To my Divine Master 1 humbly dedicate these Letters : imploring his pardon for 
 any thing that is wrong in them; and his blessing on whatever is proper, and useful, 
 in them, to vindicate His gospel, and His royal honor, and prerogatives against the 
 grand rebel, and usurper! 
 
 Farewell, Rev. Fathers, I have spoken plainly, because I am on a perfect footing 
 of equality with you, — occupying as high a rank of office in the Protestant Reformed 
 church, as you do in the Roman cathoUc church ! I have spoken boldly, — because I 
 am a free man, and no Romish slave ! I have spoken often indignantly, — yet I trust 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 349 
 
 in charity, — because I have been rebuking an intruding foreign power; au audacious 
 conspirator against the liberties of our republic • — a cold-blooded ttsurper ; who has 
 taken the crown from Me head of Hirrir "on whose head are many crowns:" and 
 who has trampled the gospel, audits ordinances under his feet: and who has out- 
 raged the feelings of humanity: and who has taught high treason, and sown discord 
 in every nation in Europe, in South America, and Mexico: and who has excited 
 almost every war in all these lands, from time immemorial; and v/ho has deluged 
 the earth with the blood of the martyrs of Christ ; and the martyrs of patriotism, for 
 their country's cause ! 
 
 Reverend F'athers, farewell forever! We part, to meet no more again, until we 
 meet, front to front, at the judgment seat of x\lmighty God ! One of your number has 
 gone to his account, since I first wrote these Letters. I do humbly pray that the rich 
 grace of God may be given to each of you who survive ; to rest on you ; to guide 
 you into all truth ; and, finally, conduct you into the mansions of glory ! Amen. 
 
 I am, Reverend Fathers, yours, &c. 
 W. €. B. 
 
 A CARD. TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 I now retire from the field of the Roman catholic controversy : because it is proper 
 to stop, when one is done. I have kept possession of the field, undisputed, by any 
 priest, for the last six months. But, I retire with an assurance, in the words of Mc- 
 Gavin, — that I am ready to return to the discussion, at an hour's notice, if any moral, 
 regular, and respectable popish priest shall choose to renew the contest. 
 
 I tender my affectionate regards to Mr. Vandewater, and Mr. S. E. Morse, and to 
 all those editors who have published the first edition of these Letters : and to all 
 those distinguished christians, and politicians, who kindly sustained me, and cheered 
 me on, in this arduous controversy. — May God bless all the churches of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ; and prosper our government, and our beloved country. And in his 
 most benignant goodness, may He avert from us, and our children, popery, the most 
 pestilential of all evils in church, and in state! Amen. 
 
 W. C Bkownlke. 
 
 New- York, Nov. 25, 18.34. 
 
 31 
 
NOTICE, 
 
 The reader will find some quotations, and statements repeated in a few instances. This 
 was deemed necessary to elucidate our argument. In p. p. 256, 257, a quotation from a 
 Greek father (usually bound up with Justin Martyr,) has been, by mistake, repeated, and 
 ascribed to the martvr. We have studied to be accurate, yet there are some Errata. In 
 three instances, only, is the sense injured by them : viz. In p. 132, 1. 8 from the foot, for 
 foUoioinfr, r, foregoing; in p. 317. 1. 5, from the foot, for with, r. without: in p. 325, 1. 19, 
 from tbe foot, befoi-e sincerely insert the word not. In the other instances, the errors are in 
 Utters. The following is a list. In p. p. 5, 6, read Auguslinians : in p. 34, 1. 26, r. lose : p. 
 46 1. 28, r. Gre'Jfory VII. : p. 68, 1. 9, from the foot, ]•. Acts II. i p. 75, 1. 20, r. sumrnam : p. 80, 
 1. 16 r.you, and then your, in the same line : p. 83, 1. 20, r. belongs*, p. 97, 1. 13, strike out the 
 repetition: p. 100, 1. 9 from the foot, r. confessor: p. 155,1.12, r. antediluvian: p. 190,1. 
 27, r. say: p. 205, 1. 25, r. throw: p. 264, 1. 6 from tiie foot, for was r. is : p. 323, 1. 22. for 
 hiimo r. homo : p. 330, 1. 24, r. the pope renew*.— 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. ON THE COMPARATIVE NUMBER OF ROMAN CATHOLICS. 
 
 First. In arriving at our conclusion on " the minoritif" of the Romi>h church, 
 "we should deduct from its numbers those who avoivtd infidtlity ; and treated Popery 
 with ridicule. Here is one great deduction; say one-fourth? 
 
 Second. Deduct the Christians, of various names, who held the doctrines of the 
 Waldenses, and were nominallij papists. This class was immensely numerous. 
 
 *' These Waldenses," says Rainerus, — '-were in nearly every country." "They 
 are multiplied through all lands," says Sanderus. "They have infested a thousand 
 cities," says Cfesarius. " They spread their contagion through almost the whole Latin 
 u'orld,'^ says Ciaconius. "Scarcely any region remained free and untainted from 
 this pestilence," says Gretzen. And Popliuar says "they have spread not only 
 through France, but nearly all the Ji^uropean coasts: and appeared in Gaul, Si)aiii, 
 England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Saxony, Poland, and Lithuania." 
 "Their numbers in those [)laces," says Benedict, "were prodigious," " invahieruat, 
 they prevailed," or exceeded in numbers. Says Newburgh, — "they became like the 
 sand of the sea; without number; mulriplicati esse, super numerum areuae videan- 
 tur." See Labbeus; vol. xiii. p. 28.5, Newburgh, ii. p. 13, Edgar, p. 54. "Their 
 number was ])rodigious in Sarmaiia, Conslaniinople, Philadelphia, and Bulgaria." 
 See iMathew Paris", 306. 
 
 And many of these were no mean men. Those who favored the Waldenses, were 
 found in all ranks of society, from kings to peasants. Hence the singular nircum- 
 stance which or.r.ured at the baide of Murpf, so fatal to the pious Albigenses. Among 
 the slain was found, after the battle, a knight in black armor. On examination it 
 was found to be Peter, the king of Arragon, — that very monarch who had negotiated 
 between the pope's legate, and Beziers. Near hiin lay one of his royal sons, with 
 manv nobles, and gentry, and vassals, — "■ivho ivhile ostensibly supjiorting the Romish 
 church, had, in disguise, been assisting the Albigenses !'' Jones' Hist. vol. ii. p. 133. 
 
 During these ages, may we not deduct from the Roman catholic ranks one-half 
 more in Europe ? The above surely vv'ould authorise sometliing like this. 
 
 Third. We deduct the Albigcnses and Waldenses; the B»)hemian brethren, Lol- 
 lards, aud all classes of primitive christians in the churches of England, Wales, 
 Scotland, Spain, and Ireland, who were in a pure, and flourishing state before the 
 emissaries of Rome overran them. What vast numbers of pure cliristian churches 
 flourished in Scotland, Spain, and Ireland, before the Romans introduced popery 
 among them ! 
 
 Besides, the number of the Waldenses who lived in a body, was prodigious, in 
 addition to those, who were scattered over the bosom of the popish churches. The 
 diocese of Passau alone contained 80,01)0 of them. And Daniel, vol. iii. p. 510, 
 says that they "had covered with their errors, all Languedoc, both nobles, and popu- 
 lace!" "There," says Bernard, Epist. 40. — "the Roman temj)les were left with- 
 out people, the people without [)astors, and the pastors without respect." And we 
 may form some idea of the number of these people in the Valiies, from their sending 
 an army to defend themselves, of 100,000 young men ! And also from the French 
 
352 APPENDIX. 
 
 sending 300,000 men against them. The Pope sent Crusades against them, as he did 
 at^ainst the Saracens of ihe East. And lor nearly 200 years these christians defend- 
 ed themselves, and set the violence of their enemies at defiance. "They injured 
 the church in the West," says a Romish author, — "as much as the infidels in the 
 East." And "at one time, they had nearly overwhelmed the holy warriors of the 
 cross, and had hoped to establish heresy on the ruins of Romanism !" From this 
 we may form some idea of their immense nun)bers! 
 
 I wish we had accurate data to show the proportions existing between them, and 
 the Romanists. How erroneous must be our conception of the numbers //tenopposed 
 to the Roman catholics, from ihe modern staiisiics of JMalte Brun ! 
 
 Fourth. Next deduct the whole Greek church which oi)posed the Romish church. 
 These christians covered the modern Russ-ian dcjminions in Europe and Asia : they 
 covered European and Asiatic Turkey, — which is now Mohammedan! They look 
 in Greece ]')roper, and all her thousand isles. They extended over Syria, Mesopo- 
 tamia, Asia Minor, Palestine, Georgia, and Mingrelia. From one fact stated in one 
 of my letters, we may form some idea of the number of christians in this church. 
 The Patriarch of Constantinople governed, in the eleventh century, 65 metropolitans, 
 and upwards of 600 bishops. And these bishops must have had many hundreds, if 
 not thousands of officiating priests under them. Some bishops of Europe have 
 had 11,000 priests under their ghostly care. 
 
 Fifth. The Neslorians were another immense class of christians. These extend- 
 ded their dense population over Asiatic Turkey, Arabia, Persia, Tartary, India, 
 China. Cosmas, as quoted by Montfaucon and Edgar, says, that " in the sixth cen- 
 tury their churches and people were infinite, — unnumbered." The writer Viiricius 
 Tom. i. p. 76, states that there was " a numerical superiority of the Neslorians and 
 the Jacobins (named from St. James the Apostle) over the Greek and Latin churches !" 
 Canisius quotes for his authorii}', an old writer, stating the same calculation. Polo, 
 who had spent seventeen years in Tartary, and was in the einploy of the Cham 
 speaks of their iuimense numbers, scattered over Tartary, China, and the empire of 
 the Moguls. M. Paris, Godeau, and Thomassin attest "their difiusion through 
 India, Persia, and Tartary," and add that " their multiplication in the North, and 
 East, was nearly to infinity:" — "lis s'y multiplierent presque a I'infini, &c." 
 
 Sixth. The class of christians called Monophysians were " sjjread over more 
 than forty kingdoms.''' Then the Abyssinian Christians " boasted a Christian 
 empire and estahlishment.''' The myriads of these have never been estimated. An- 
 cient writers speak of christians there as innumerable. Seventh, there are the 
 n^yriads of the Armenian churches of the Enst. Fecidps the country which gives 
 them their name, the}' were spread over Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, Persia, the isles 
 of the Mediterranean, India, Turkey, Poland, Transylvania, Russia, Hungary. At 
 Julfa alone, near Is])ahan, there were 30,000 of these Christians; 20,000 of their 
 families, or about 120,000 persons, resided in the province of Guilam. These facts 
 are stated by Chardin, in his Travels. Forty thousand families, or 240,000 indi- 
 viduals of them, reside in India, engagpd in the inland \Ya(]e: and 200,000at Constan- 
 tinople, and on the Bosphorus. Cliardin, vol. ii. 97. The Arnenian Patriarch at 
 Antioch, has under him 14 metropolitans, and a thousand bishops! 
 
 Eighth. The Syrian churches have counted immense numbrrs. They had 
 occupied western India, Vvith their prodigious host of members, f()r more than 12C0 
 years before they had ever heard of the name of the pope, or the Knmish church. 
 With the visit of Vasco di Gama, "the infernal spirit of popery and persecution 
 invaded that apostolical church." Godeau reckons their j)opulation in Comorin, 
 Coutan, Malabar, at 70,000 persons. But, the hi-torian adds, " their numbers 
 toward the West and North, and Cochin, are much greater." 
 
 Then, there were the Egyptians, whose See was at Alexandria. Who has ever 
 numbered the christians there; and all alf)ng the Soiuhern shores of the Mediterra- 
 nean, even the prodigious numbers of African christians whi^-h flourished from 
 the infancy of popery; and boasted of such men as St. Augustine, and St. 
 Cyprian ! 
 
 I repeat the words of Edgar, whose testimony I prefer to Malte Brun, or any 
 
APPENDIX. 353 
 
 modern papist, who has not entered inio the estimates ofthe comparative numbers in 
 ancient times; nor examined the statements of these fathers, and travellers, now 
 quoted by us: *' The Eurfjpean, the Asian, and African denominaiionsthat dissented 
 from popery were ybwr times more numerousthan the partizans of Romanism, when, 
 prior to the Reformation, the papacy shone in all its glory. Popery, instead of 
 nniversality, which is its vain boast, was never embraced by more than a ffth part 
 of Christendom." Variations of Popery, p. Q7, Dublin edition. 
 
 II. TAXJE CANCELLARI^ APOSTOLIC^; ET TAX^ SACR^ PENITENTIARI5:, 
 THE pope's bank; or chancery TAX BOOK. 
 
 I have before me, these TAXiE in two different editions: First, Taxa, from the 
 archives of the " Roman Chancery," in the British Museum, Nos. 1650, 1651, 1652. 
 The money is marked in Grossi ; it is in the original Latin. 
 
 Second: — An edition in the original Latin, with a French translation; having the 
 the text as copied and corrected by Antoine Du Pinet, Lord of Noroy, in Franche- 
 comte. Rivet drew the exact copy of his edition from the Paris edition of the Chan- 
 cery Book, of A. D. 1520. Voetius also exhibits the ancient editions: and Bayle, in 
 his Diet. Article Banck. Claud D'Espence, a popish doctor mentions "■ Les Taxes 
 De In chancellarie apostolique ;" as a book well known in his day; and holds it up 
 to odium; see his Digr. ii. ad Epist. ad Titum. cap. 1. There were three editions 
 of the T(U^ at Paris; one is dated 1523; iivo, at Cologn, one, dated in 1532- 
 tioo at Venice ; one at VViriembergh, dated 1538. The copy from which I take my 
 extracts, is printed from that of Pinet, of 1564. It bears date of 1744. Several 
 editions were published by Protestant doctors in the 17th century : they were care- 
 fully printed from the early Roman catholic editions. No literary man now denies 
 the authority of this genuine Romish work. I refer to the edition now before me, 
 and the statements of Dr. Drelincourt, and Mons. Bayle, in defence of its authen- 
 ticity. The following 1 offer as a specimen, in addition to what I have given; the 
 pages marked, are of the edition of Pinet, which 1 use. 
 
 " Absolutio, &c. Absolution, in form, for a dying person, the tax is, 14 carlins." 
 See p. 73. "Absolution for a confraternity, or a Societas, .50 carl." — p. 74. Abso- 
 lution of a priest for celebrating a clandestine marriage, 7 carl." — p. 88. " Absolution 
 of a priest for keeping a concubine, and a dispensation for his irregularitits, &c., 7 
 carlins." — p. 89. "Absolution of a layman for keeping a concubine, 8 carlins." 
 p. 89. [It is one carlin more wicked in him, than in a " holy priest !"] 
 
 " Absolutio pro eo qui matrem, sorrorcm, aut aliam consanguinem, aut corama- 
 trem, carnaliter cognovit, taxatur ad 5 carlinos." p. 89. " Absolutio pro eo qui vir- 
 ginem dejloravit, 6 carl." p. 89. " For forging apostolical dispensations, 17 carlins." 
 p. 94. "For simony, 6 carl." p. 90. "A layman killing any ecclesiastic less than 
 a bishop, provided he present himself at the apostolical seat, is taxed at 7, or 8, or 
 carlins." p. 94. " For a layman killing a layman, 5 carl." p. 96. 
 
 From Titulo XX. I copy the following. ''Absolution for him who has killed his 
 father, his mother, his brother, sister, wife, or other relative, tax is 5 carlins; provid- 
 ed he be a layman: if any of them be of clerical rank, he must, besides that fine, 
 visit the apostolical seat." p. 97, 98. In Titulo XXI., entitled Additions of absolu- 
 tions, thiscrime is taxed at "1 ducat, 5 carlins." p. 102. "For striking one's wife, 
 and causing a miscarriage, 8 carlins." p. 98. " For a woman to use poisons to cause 
 abortion, tax, 5 carlins." p. 99. In Titulo XXL, p. 103, the female doing this, "is 
 taxed 1 ducat, 6 carlins." "For pushing oneself into holy orders without the bishop's 
 license, tax, 2 ducats." p. 102. "For a priest who strikes another priest after mass, 
 3 ducats." p. 103. "But if he beat him before he celebrated the mass, the tax is 
 2 ducats." p. 103. [In ihejirst case, iheivafer god is in him; in the last it is not .'] 
 
 "Absolution and permission to bury a suicide in holy ground, 1 ducat, 9 carlins." 
 p. 104. " For a priest entering holy orders by simony, 4 ducats, 4 carlins." p. 105. 
 
 " For an abbot or bishop killing a man, his tax is .50 tournois, 12 ducats, 6 carlins." 
 p. 123. " For killing a bishop, or abbot, or any superior jirelate, the tax is 36 tour- 
 nois, 9 ducats." p. 136. These are amon/ "the additional taxes." 
 
 81* 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 In Titulo XXXII. and XXXIII. I find the following: "Absolution for a mao 
 killing a wife, the same as killing a father, or mother, 4 tournois, 1 ducat, 8 carlins." 
 p. 139. "Dispensation to the man who has killed his wife, to marry another wife, 
 rlie tax is 8 turnois, 2 ducats, i) carlins." p. J 39. " P'or killing an infant, 4 tour. 1 
 due. 9 carl." p. 139. 
 
 " Absolution for theft, sacrilege, burning houses, rapine, perjury, 36 tour. 9 due." 
 p. 145. "Absolution of a priest for the most licentious deeds, 36 tour., 3 ducats." 
 p. 154. "Absolution and disi)ensation for a priest keeping a concubine, 21 tour. 5 
 due, 6 carlins." " Absolution of a Nun for fornication, 36 touin., 5 ducats." p. 155. 
 " Absolution of an adulterer, 4 tourn." "Absolution of a layman for any act of un- 
 c/€ff7mess, 6 tourn. 2ducats." p. 156. 
 
 " Absolution for incest with a sister, a mother, or any near relative, 4 tourn." p. 156. 
 " Absolution for one guilty of adultery, and incest, 6 tourn." p. 157. "- Absolutio 
 De Bestialitatey et Sodomia, 90 tourn. 12 ducats, 6 carlins." p. 158. 
 
 This is a specimen of the Pope's Chancery Book, which was ordered by papal 
 authority, to be denied, and held up by all priests, ''as a tcicked forgery of the Pro- 
 testants.'' But editions still exist, in Europe, that were printed in 1520. Of course 
 it could not have been invented by them. Besides, as we have hinted already, Ro- 
 mish doctors of more pure morals^, have declaimed against it, as a regular, author- 
 ized book. And it is an historical fact that this denial was not given out, until it was 
 discovered by the papists, that the book had fallen into the Protestants' hands ! But, 
 why deny the Book of tarift", when every one who goes to confession does yay : and 
 every friend of souls in purgatory must 'pay for masses to bring them out! 
 
 I beg leave to add one curious quotation. At the end of the chapter of " Absolu- 
 tions to marry within a certain degree," and "in case of divorces," it is added, — 
 '' Note well: graces and dispensations of this kind, are not conceded to the poor ; be- 
 cause they have no means ; therefore they cannot he comforted."' See folio XXIII., 
 Edit. 1520: and p. 208. Edit, of 1625: also Folio 130, Edit, of 1545: and p. 19 of 
 the Edit, which I use. 
 
 In reference to the money set down here, I shall copy these exjdanations. A 
 Towr??o?s weighed 2Deniers,V grains: there were 58 in a marc. A Ducat, a gold 
 coin, valued, it is supposed, at cent dix sols. A Carlin is the same as the Cros. It in 
 asmall silver coin, valued at 7 sols, in France. 
 
 In fine it appears, that in each country, the priests adapted the tax to the current 
 money of the realm; and to the poorer, or richer circumstances of the knaves who 
 applied for relief, and a good bargain in this popish "traffic of human souls." — See 
 ilcvel. xviii. 13» 
 
 III. GROSS IMPURITY ENJOINED BY POPES AND COUNCILS. 
 
 In the Decretals of Grat'an. Dist. 39, we have the fallowing canon from the coun- 
 cil of Toledo: — "Quinon habet uxorem, loco illius concubinam habere debet. He 
 who has not a wife owg-/jf in the place of one, to have a concubine." 
 
 In thel7thcanon of that council it was enacted, — "Christiano habere licitum est 
 unam tantum aut uxorem, aut certe loco nxoi is concubinam. It is lawful for a chris- 
 tian to have only one wife ; or certainly in the place of a wife, a concubine." Pi- 
 thou Corpus Jur. canon, p. 47, Paris Edit. 1687. Binius, Concil. Tom. i. p. 737, 
 739, 740, states the same; and adds that the canons of this council were confirmed 
 by Pope Leo. Edgar's Var. of Popery, p. 503. This permission says Gianon, ex- 
 tends to the clergy and laity; Hist, of Naples, XI. 7. 
 
 IV. INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. 
 
 The beat definition of the use of the Index, is given by a Spanish Roman catho- 
 lic in the Lond. Cath. Magaz.ofl832, p. 50. Says Mr. Fejada,-— " The Indexes Ex- 
 pur^atory are employed in those kingdoms altogether catholic; and in which there 
 is no liberty in worship, or of printing permitted." Heshould have added, — where 
 noman is allowed the use of his own soul, but as Romish priests condescend to per- 
 mit him 1 Its sole design is to arrest the progress of knowledge. 
 
APPENDIX. 355 
 
 To give an idea of the Index, I shall quote a specimen of the manner, in which 
 Rome treats her sainted fathers. I copy out of Solo Major's Spanish Index Expur- 
 gatonus, of A. D. 16G7. Tlie Inquisiiors direct, in p. .52, an expurgation of St. Atha- 
 nasius, by stril^ing out the following doctrines of tliat father. " God alone is to be 
 adored. Angels are not to be adored. Christ alone is to be adored. The body of 
 Christ is not corporeal food, but spriritual. No creature is to be adored: for that is 
 to follow the Arians, and the heathens. The sacred scriptures are in themselves 
 sufficient for the discoveries of truth." Let these be stricken out. 
 
 In p. p. 5Gand 57, we find St. Augustine put into the crucible to be expurgated of 
 certain doctrines, offensive to Rome. And hence, the scandalous deception of our 
 priests, who affect to be amazed that we should cpiote these doctrines out of this father 
 after he had, by these doctors, been purged of them. The following are some of 
 them. — " Why angels, or just men refuse to be adored. We do not raise temples to 
 them. The superstitious abstinence from Jlesh. \Vhat Christ said about eating his 
 ffesh is spiritually understood. In Augustine's time, no one set himself up for bishop 
 of bishops. Two sacraments flowed from the side of Christ. Works necessarily 
 follow faith. Before God we are justijied by faith. The use of images is prohibited. 
 The book of Maccabees is apocryphal. See p. 58. The saints are to be loved, and 
 imitated, not worshipped. It is a sin to place the image of God in churches." p. 59. 
 These precious doctrines are ordered by the pope to be expunged. And thi* being 
 declared by their master, the priests have, thence, the audacity to affirm that St. Au- 
 gustine never taught them ! ! 
 
 Under the head of St. Chrysostom, the following words, of this father, namely, — 
 " Priests are subjected Jo princts,'' are made to suffer papal expulsion. Seep. 703. — 
 To this I add the Inquisitor's damnatory sentence on Lewis Vives, who had taught 
 that the king's power and majesty is inferior only to God on earth. This in p. 65, is 
 ordered to be " exj)urgated." — As the best book on the subject, 1 refer to Mendham's 
 Literary policy of the church of Rome, exhibited in an account of the damnatory cata- 
 logues, or Indices, both Prohibitory, and Expurgatory. Lond. 1320. And to the 
 Lo7id. Prut. Journ. for 3832, p. p. 781, 782. 
 
 V. Confession. 
 
 Tlie form of a Roman catholic's confession at the feet of the priest. "I confess to 
 Almighty God; to the blessed Mary, ever Virgin : to blessed Michael the archangel; 
 to blessed John Baptist: to St. Peter, and St. Paul; to all the Saints, and to you r 
 father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, in word, in deed, &c. &c, See 
 Ordinary of the Mass. — Thus, we see, the victim of this imposture, is made to con- 
 fess to the "dead men, and dead women," called saints, and to the priest, just as he 
 does to Almighty God I 
 
 VL Absolution. — See Letter xii. p. 220, 
 
 It is usually said by many Protestants, and by all Roman catholics, that the 
 priests do not pretend to pardon sin in granting absolution r but that they simply 
 declare sin to be remitted to the penitent, by God. I shall quote a document, and 
 leave the reader to decide how far ignorance and in)j.>osture have propagated thit> 
 sentiment. Here are the words of the decree of the Council of Trent, which, as 
 every priest knows, is of more authority in Rome, than the Bible. '■'Si quis dixerit, 
 ^c. If any one shall say that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a judi- 
 cial act, but a naked ministry of pronouncing and declaring that sins are remitted to 
 the person confessing, provided only that he believes, &c. let him be accursed." 
 Hence it is not simply a declaratory, hut formal arid judicial act of the priest, sitting 
 as judge; and in Christ's stead, uttering the sentence of pardon to the victims of his 
 
INDEX 
 
 Absolution, — God only pardons sin, 92; refn- 
 tation of, 2] P. 
 
 Allix's defence of flie Waldonses, 27. 
 
 Ambrose, defendrd .i^ainst Dr. Varela, 80; is 
 no idolater, 80. 81; on the succession, 210; 
 on images, 113; on prayers in unknown 
 tonjriies, 216: against absolution, 222: — 
 against the popish rule, 225 ; and transub- 
 stantiation, 237; and purgatory. 257. 
 
 Anecdotes, — of a horse and the host, 115; of 
 bees and the host, 143; of the souls in form 
 of Crabs in velvet, 143; of a popish maniac 
 exorcised, 144: of St. Peter's chair, 144; 
 of a»i ignorant priest, 14S; of a priest and a 
 Dutch Dominie, 180; of a candid cardinal 
 and his chaplain, 243; of the Jesuit who 
 could not even with the help of the devil. 
 find a text to support purgatorv, 249; of 
 a priest and a noMeman. 251 ; of prie 
 Thoni, and a poor widow, 252 ; of the chief 
 of the house of Gordon. 277; of the vicar 
 of Croydon preaching against printing, 330 ; 
 of a young medical student at the confes- 
 sional, 331. 
 
 Anthony St. miracle of, 107. 
 
 Antiquity, whether a mark of the truth of the 
 Romish church, 150. 
 
 Apocrypha, not belonging to the sacred canon, 
 38; refutation of its claims, 229. 
 
 Aquinas, St. Thomas, on prayers in unknown 
 tongues, 216. 
 
 Archbishop, anecdote of an Italian, 84. 
 
 Arian cobler, 63; origin and exposure of this 
 popish sophism. 76. 
 
 Aristotle's absurdities employed by papists on 
 transn!)stnnfiation, 235. 
 
 Ass, feast of the song sung to it by the 
 priests, 140, 141. 
 
 Athanasius, on the rule of faith 74,225; on 
 images 113; on saint and angel worship. 
 214; on the npocryi>ha, 230 on transub- 
 staritiation, 237; on purgatory 258. 
 
 Attributes of |>o|)erv. — impurity, 321 ; impiety 
 and arro(Tince, 322; treachery, 325; intole- 
 rance, 321; cruelty, 332. 
 
 Auction for souls, at Irish funerals, what, 252. 
 
 Augustine, a-zainst tho po!>is!i rule of faith, 
 72, 22^; defended from Dr. Varela's quota- 
 tions, 81; on papal supremacy, 94; saint 
 
 worship, 96, 214 ; against retaining the 
 scriptures in a dead tongue, 99; on "the 
 Rock," 206; on images, 213: on prayers in 
 an unknown tongue, 216; on the worship 
 of the Virgin Mary, 218; on the pardon and 
 absolution ofsins, by the priests, 222 ; on the 
 apocrypha not being canonical. 230; against 
 transubstantiation, 239; and the mass, 245; 
 and purgatory, 258, 
 
 Auricular confession, originated by fanaticism, 
 113 ; a novelty, 152. 
 
 Authority of the church of Rome, not the 
 cause of the Bible's aut'iority. 30. 
 
 Auto da Fe, description of a Spanish, 338. 
 
 B 
 
 Baptism, not established by tradition only, 68. 
 
 Barnabas' epistle, 62. 
 
 Baronius, on the wickedness of the popes, 37, 
 33. 
 
 Basil, against absolution, 223; and the popish 
 rule of faith, 226; and purgatory, 257. 
 
 Becket, Tliomas a. more ho?ior paid to this 
 saint, than to Christ. 123, 279. 
 
 Bellarrnine, on papal supremacy. 43, 44, 75, 
 83,89: on the rule <if faith, 75; on the suc- 
 cession, 111; he taught the supremacy of 
 spiritual power over civil governments in 
 /cm/7or<// things, 313 ; his atn)cious defence 
 of perserutioti, and extermination by fire 
 and sword. 343. 
 
 Bells, popish baptism of, 136. 
 
 Bernard, St. against transubstantiation, 239 ; 
 and the mass, 245. 
 
 Bible, see Scriptures. 
 
 Bislmp. every Roman prelate is bound by hia 
 oath to prrscrute, 344. 
 
 Blasphemies of popery, specimens of, 44, 46, 
 79. 
 
 Bolsec, the priests quote this infamous man 
 against the Reformers, 15.26. 
 
 Bonavpufure, St. a singular blaspheming fa- 
 natic. 97. 
 
 Brunswick, the old Duke of. his curious bar 
 gain with the Roini-^h priest"*, for the lift 
 insurance of his soul, 9, 14. 139. 
 
 Bullinjer. quotation frotn, vindicated. 24. 
 
 Butler's Lives of the Saints, monstrous inira> 
 cles in, 142. 
 
358 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Call to the ministry, Roman priests know not 
 even the meaning of it, 47. 
 
 Calvin, vindication of, from popish slanders, 
 25; case of Servetus, papists enacted the 
 laws, under which he suft'ered, 341. 
 
 Canon, council of Cartilage on tlie, 38; de- 
 claring the apocrypha not of the canon, 38; 
 no canonical book lost, 61 ; priests absurd- 
 ly insist that the Bible should do that by in- 
 ternal evidence, which can be done only by 
 external evidence, in reference to its canoni- 
 city, 78; the Greek chvn-ch cudgelled the 
 church of Rome into orthodoxy, respecting 
 the canon, 119. , 
 
 Canonizing, power of, 106. 
 
 Card well refutes Curtis on his charge of er- 
 rors in the English version, 79, 89, 90. 
 
 Catholic church of Christ very different from 
 the Roman catholic church of the pope, 24. 
 
 Cat)iolicity, on the claims of the popish church 
 to this attribute, 153. 
 
 Celibacy of priests and nuns, a novelty, 98; 
 it originates infinite licentiousness in the 
 Romish church, 186. 
 
 Chancery book of the pope, tariff prices of 
 sin, 45; Appendix II. 
 
 Chair of St. Peter, ludicrous anecdote of the, 
 144. 
 
 Charles V. the emperor a tool of Clement 
 VII, 328; his noble answer in the case of 
 Luther, 328. 
 
 Chastity; its meaning among popish 
 321. 
 
 Chillingworth on the rule of faith, 
 19, 38. 
 
 Christians, number of, compared to 
 papists, 201, 202 ; and Appendix I. 
 
 Chrysostom St.. on "prophetic i-emains," 61 ; 
 on the rule of faith, 74, 227 ; against the in- 
 vocation of saints, 96; on the text of " the 
 Rock," 209; against absolution by priests, 
 222 ; and transubstantiation 239 ; and the 
 mass, 245 ; and purgatory, 258. 
 
 Church of God, never cutoff, 42; not always 
 visible, — not visible in Israel in Ahab'stinie, 
 42; doctrinal marks of, 91 ; separate from 
 the state always when in her purest condi- 
 tion, 92. 
 
 Circle, the vicious, the priests resort to this 
 form of false logic, 58, 64. 
 
 Civil power, over magistrates, and temporal 
 things, claimed by popes. 44. 
 
 Clemens Alex, condemns absolution by priests, 
 223; against transubstantiation, 238; and 
 the mass, 246. 
 
 Conclave of cardinals choose two popes at the 
 same time, 165. 
 
 Confessional, immoral influence of, on the 
 minds of priests, 129; and on servants, 
 129,130. 
 
 Conscience, liberty of, 9; papists deny this 
 liberty, 9, 30, 43, 76; their disingenuous 
 quanner of replying to this charge ; they 
 
 call it " our interior spirit," "private spirit," 
 15; their system necessarily opposed to this 
 liberty, 43 ; God the only Lord of the con- 
 science, 92 ; papal usurpations <m it, 122. 
 
 Conversion of three Romish priests, 241. 
 
 Conversion, papal, what it is, 81 ; evangelical 
 conversion, not admitted on popish princi- 
 ples, 81. 
 
 Corpus Christi, festival of, originated by gross 
 fanaticism, 114. 
 
 Councils', and popes' power, 19, 20: two 
 councils quoted against purgatory, 259. 
 
 Crabs in velvet, souls coming out of purgatory 
 in the form of, 143, 144. 
 
 Creed of Protestants, priests' opinion of, 78 ; 
 in scripture texts, 146. 
 
 Cross, the wood of, worshipped by papists, 
 139; farther proof and specimens, 282. 
 
 Croydon, vicar of, his saying about printing, 
 330. 
 
 Crusades, two kinds of, 340; specimens of, 
 341. 
 
 Cup, or wine, abstraction of, in the eucharist, 
 a popish novelty, 99. 
 
 Curse, specimens of the papal, 342. 
 
 Curtis' collection of errors in the English 
 Bible, 79, 89; Cardwell in reply, 89, 90. 
 
 Cyprian against the apocrypha, 230; and 
 transubstantiation, 237 ; and purgatory, 256. 
 
 Cyril, — against absolution. 223; against the 
 popish rule of faith, 226; and the apocrypha, 
 230; and transubstantiation, 238; and pur- 
 gatory, 257, 258. 
 
 priests 
 quoted 
 that of 
 
 Damasus, against the mass, 245. 
 Damnation, power of, claimed by popes, 323, 
 
 324. 
 David, St. of Scotland, popish miracle by, 
 
 109. 
 Deism of N. Y. priests proved, 10, 12, 34, 54, 
 
 59, 60, 76. 
 Deists, — necessary tendency of popery to pro- 
 
 duce^agoid increase them, 90, 225. 
 Demons, doctrine of, in the Romish church, 
 
 324. 
 Despotism essential to the genius of popery, 
 
 17, 306. 320, 322. 
 Devil, — Luther a pupil of the, refuted, 25. 
 Divisions of Protestants, one real cause of 
 
 their apparently greater number, 5; the 
 
 divisions of papists, excessive, 5, 15. 
 Doctrinal contradictions of popery. 285, 
 Doctrinal marks of the true church of Christ, 
 
 91,-93. 
 Doctrines and rites of popery, originated by 
 
 fanaticism, 110 ; popery at open war with 
 
 Bible doctrines ; 285, 2S6, 293. 
 Douay translation, its glaring errors, 71; not 
 
 authorised by the pope, or "church," 88; 
 
 122; the priests' lame and Jesuitical defence 
 
 ofit. 133, 134. 
 Duke of Brunswick's curious bargain with 
 
 the priests about the insurance of his soul's 
 
 life, 9, 14, 139. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 359 
 
 Grace, doctrines of, in the Romish church, 
 82; Trent fathers on them, 82, 83. 
 
 Gregory, tlie saint, and pope, against papal 
 su|)reniacy, 95; on succession, 110; con- 
 demns penance and absolution 223; and 
 the mass, 245. 
 
 Gregory, po})e, "the hell brand,'^ an ultra on 
 supremacy, 82. 
 
 Gregory IS'azianzen, against purgatory, 257. 
 
 Gregory Nysscn, against saint invocation, 96; 
 against purgatory, 257. 
 
 Gregory XVI. the present pope, an idolatrous 
 worshipper of Mary, 97. 
 
 H 
 
 Hampton conference, speeches there against 
 " translations of the Bible," 79, exposure of 
 tliis, 89. 
 Hebrew and Greek of I'le Holy Ghost, always 
 ridiculed by the priests, 28, 48, 50, 51, 
 77, reason of it, 84, 100. 
 Hebrews not witliout the written rule for 14 
 generations. 59. 
 Faith, new articles of, power of the pope to'Hebrew text, reply to the priests' injurious re- 
 enact, 83, twelve new articles added, 83, 85.1 flections on ilie, 72. 
 Faith of Roman catholics what? 33, 34, Herbert, Lord, a fanatical deist, 104. 
 
 contradicted by express texts, 148, carbona- Heretic, definition of, at the priests call, 16. 
 rian faith, 182. 
 Faith of God, no foundation for it in popery, 
 
 Dutch christians of Holland, RufTerings and 
 massacres of, 346, 347 
 
 F>ng1and, Dr., notice of his late book on po- 
 pish ceremonies; his Jesuitism and false- 
 hood exposed, 315, 316; he contradicts in 
 his book the words of a ])apal Bull, 316. 
 
 Englisli version of the Bible, the papists have 
 no authorised one, 72. 
 
 Epiphanius against saint invocation, 96, — 
 against the worship of Mary, 218, against 
 purgatory, 259. 
 
 Eusebius, against transubstantiation, 238. 
 
 Excommunication of vermin, 142 ; annual ex- 
 comnuiiiication and cursing of Protestants 
 by papists, 315, 342. 
 
 Exorcism of a demoniac pretended, an anec- 
 dote, 144. 
 
 Fair sex of Spain, and Romish priests, aneC' 
 dote of, 189. 
 
 284 i the popish doctrine of Intention re 
 ders faith, and hope, and salvation utterly 
 uncertain to thetn, 297, 301. 
 
 Fanaticism of the Romish church, 15, 105, 
 106.108,113. 
 
 Fathers uiia:iimous consent of, not in exis- 
 tence, 11, proof of this, 72, 73. 
 
 Field, Dr., Vindication of, from popish quota- 
 tions. 24. 
 
 Francis, St. miracles ascribed to him, 108. 
 
 French christians, sufferinjrs and massacres of 
 them, 346. 
 
 G 
 
 Heretics, no faith to be kept with, a regular 
 popish dogma, proof, 326 ; specimens, 327, 
 329. 
 
 Hilary, on the succession and "The Rock," 
 110; condemns absolution, 2'23; against 
 the popish rule of faitli, 226; against tran- 
 subst.'uitiation, 237; against purgatory, 256. 
 
 Holiness, succession of Rome cut oft" by the 
 loss of. 161, — But ]io|)ish holiness is con- 
 veyed by the most atrocious of men, 164, — 
 their ideas of it, 184. 
 
 Holy ]\Iother church, — the priests cannot even 
 agree in telling us what it is, 11, 'i'.^. 
 
 Holy Water, origin of, 137; in popery it 
 takes the place of the Holy Spirit. 323. 
 
 Hooker, vindication of him from popish quo- 
 tations, 24, 38. 
 
 Horse, devoutly irorships the mass, a popish 
 miracle, 115. 
 
 Hnss, a martyr of Christ, by the popish dog- 
 ma, " keep no faith with heretics," 166, 328. 
 
 Galileo's sentence of condemnation, unre- 
 pealed by the pope, to this day, 301 ; say- 
 ing of one of his companions, respecting 
 his judges, 302. 
 
 Gelasiuri, the pope, against transubstantiation 
 237. 
 
 Geiifrntions, the 14, textual difficulty of, ii 
 Matth. i., s(dved, 66. 
 
 God's singular family group, according t( 
 popory, 106. 
 
 Gordon, anecdote of the chief of the house of, 
 277. 
 
 GovrM-nmenls. civil, convulsed by popery, 287, 
 2S'J; hostility of popery to liberty, 306. 
 dangr-r to our free institutions from its pre- 
 sent conspiracy against our re|)ublic, 306. | , ^ , 
 
 307,30^; Bellarmine and other writers on ImnH)rality of popery, 45; the mother of 
 the snhjertiou of civil powers to the spiritn- deism aiid vice, 286, 267; full exposure of 
 al, 313: farther shown from the bishops', this, 288, 321. 
 and priests' oath to the pope, 318, 322. llmpostures of popery, 105, 142. 
 
 Iddo, hook of, noticed, 61. 
 Idolatry of popery, 106. see images. 
 Ignatius against transubstantiation, 237. 
 Images condemned by councils, 81, 82; 
 use a novelty in the christian world 
 
 heir 
 98; 
 212. 
 
 condemned by scrlpt)n-e and the father; 
 213, 274, 277, 283; three factions in Rome 
 respecting images, 278. 
 f popery 
 
360 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 In ccp.na Domini, analysis of this bull, 317 
 
 Index Expurgatorius, one of the mighty wea- 
 pons of papal power, 333. 
 
 Indulgences, sources of wealth to the Romish 
 priesthood, 222. 
 
 Infallibility, — the papists cannot agree in de- 
 ciding where it lies, 39, 32, 75, b9 ; it has 
 not settled any divisions in the R. C. church, 
 11, 21, 46; ludicrous error of our priests on 
 
 Jesuits, — maxims and practices of, 85, 87, 12&^ 
 130. 197; character of, 131; a solemn ap' 
 peal and warning against their present con' 
 spiracy, 319; then- secret oath by which 
 they are banded together, copy of it, 329. 
 
 Joan, the pope, 62. 
 
 John the apostle ; the popish doctrine of suc' 
 cession and supremacy, load him with con- 
 tempt and inso,ence, 93. 
 
 this; they assert, rejieatedly, that the use of Jones' delence of the character and doctrines 
 
 their infallible rule of faith, makes those in- of the Waldenses, 27. 
 
 fallible who use it, 14,60, d4, 103; their Judas, — a part of the rope with which he 
 
 leading maxim is, that the promise of infal- hanged himself, among ^' the holy relics" at 
 
 libility is made by Christ, to oral teaching,! Rome, 107. 
 
 not icrilten inspiration, 34; infallibility, and Judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost, speak- 
 
 their dogma ot' intention irreconcilable, 48; 
 their vicious circle on this, 121 ; Bellarinine 
 doctrine on this, 323. 
 
 Inquisition, 332 ; this grows out of the very 
 nature and aim of popery, which tlirives 
 only by despotism, 333; definition of 333, 
 334; liistory of its rise and progress, 334; 
 some countries never submitled to it, 335; 
 Inquisitorial law, curious origin of it, 335 
 Inquisitor, definition of an, 335; picture of 
 — 336; the interior, 337; various tortures, 
 337, 340 ; number of those who perished by 
 it in Spain, 340. 
 
 Intention, papal doctrine of, fatal to their 
 priests, and their rites, 48; it bids defiance 
 to their infallibility, 48; striking t^pecimen 
 of Jesuitism in defending, and covering it, 
 50. 76; an examination of its fatal eiiects 
 on the whole system of popery, 297, 301. 
 
 Internal evidence of the Bible confounded by 
 priests, icith external, 78: and passim. 
 
 Intol( 
 
 popery, 329 
 
 Irenssus against transubstantiation, 237. 
 
 Italic, old, version of, older than Jerome's, or 
 the Vulgate, 69. 
 
 Irish catholics, an earnest appeal to them, on the 
 novelty of jiopery, and in behalf of the an- 
 cient and primitive religion of their original 
 ancestors in Ireland, 232. 
 
 James, Df. his Bellum Papain, 87. 
 
 Januarius, St. the annual miracle of melting 
 his blood, at Naples, 143. 
 
 Jasher, the book of, noticed, 61. 
 
 Jerome, — 'his Latin version of the Scriptures 
 altered in the Vulgate, 69, 70; Jerome quo 
 ted on the popish rule of faith, 73 228; on 
 the Latin Version, 88; against papal supre- 
 macy, 94; on the text of "the Rock," and 
 succession, 207, 209 ; he condemns penance, 
 and absolution, 222; against tlie apocrypha, 
 230; and transubstantiation, 239; and the 
 mass, 244 ; and purgatory, 2-58. 
 
 Jerome of Prague, a n)artyr of Christ, by po- 
 pish treachery, 116, 328. 
 
 Jesuitism, instances of in N. Y. priests, 50, 59, 
 85, 87 ; its spirit, 169, 197. 
 
 ing in the Word, 3 ; passim in the Letters ii. 
 
 iii. iv. v. 
 Judgment, rights of each person's private, 
 
 ridiculed by priestly intolerance as "■ the in- 
 
 terior spirit," 15, 43. 
 Justin Martyr, against transubstantiation, 238 j 
 
 and the mass, 245 ; and purgator^^ 256, 257. 
 
 K 
 
 Kettle, anecdote of the copper, and Patrick 
 
 O. B., 32. 
 Kings of Europe, have, for generations, been 
 
 'the pope's hangmen," 334. 
 Knox, John, ludicrous slander of, by the pa- 
 
 pists. 26, 
 
 Lactantius, on images, 213 ; against the mass, 
 246; against purgatory, 256. 
 
 one of the grand attributes of Laity, treated by the Romish priests with in- 
 
 solence and contempt, 57. 
 
 Laodicean council afrainst the apocrypha^ 
 231 ; vindication of die, 231. 
 
 Latin prayers condemned by scripture and the 
 f ithers, 214, 215 ; and by Cajetan, 216. 
 
 Learning, hoitilify to it, an essential element 
 of poperv, 301 ; specimens of its retaining 
 the sentiments of the Dark Ages, on common 
 se-ience, 301 ; its ludicrous condemnation of 
 Bi%hf)p Virgil f(»r believing in antipodes; 
 and Galileo, for believing in our doctrine of 
 the aolar system, 301, 302, 
 
 Leo X., the pope, claimed power to enact new 
 articles of faith, S3. 
 
 Levins, Mr , his peculiar taste for the low, dis- 
 gusting, and ribaldrous, specimens, 28, 30, 
 31,86; his cowardly insolence in insulting 
 ladies, 86, 87. &c. ; specimen of his blas- 
 phemy, 79, 90; calls Dr. B. his opponent 
 Ai.iAR, 147; his appropriate prototype, an 
 officer of the court of the king of Assyria, 
 171 ; the epitaph, 172. 
 
 Liberality, and toleration of sentiment never 
 known in the Romish church, 313; not al- 
 lowed on Roman catholic principles, proof, 
 344, 345. 
 
 Liberty, the genius of popery is in deadly 
 hostility to, 47, 77; pure Christianity th* 
 
ryoEA'- 
 
 piircnt and luiise of true liberty, 9;^ ; an ap- 
 peal to Roman catholic laymen on this, 
 178,193.^ 
 
 Liturgies of the Oriental churches oppoaed to 
 transubstantiation, 240. 
 
 Logic, — curious specimens of Romish logic, 
 34, 85; N. Y. ])ric.sts emi)loy as an arj^^ument 
 against the divine rule of faith, the abuse of 
 it by evil men, 76 ; specimen of their logic 
 on their church's antiquity, 150; in their 
 claims to catholicity, 154. 
 
 Lutlier's character vindicated from the slang 
 of our priests, 24, 25, 119; anecdote of him 
 and an ignorant priest, 148. 
 
 i\r 
 
 Magistrates, pa])i3t contempt of, 322. In Eu- 
 rope they were, for centuries, the pope's 
 '• spies and hangmen," 334. 
 
 ■Man of Sin, a peculiar title of the Romish hie- 
 rarchy, 321, 323, 325. 
 
 Marcellinus, the pope, an idolater, 75. 
 
 Marks of their church claimed by papists, a7i- 
 tiquity, 150. See Catholicity, 8fc. 
 
 Marry, forbidding to, peculiar attribute of the 
 popish apo Stacy, 324. 
 
 Mary. See Virgin. 
 
 Mary St. a torturing machine of papists, 333. 
 
 Mass, a substitute for our Lord's atonement. 
 81 ; a mere novelty, 98 ; it was originated 
 by fanaticism, 114; worshipped by a horse, 
 a popish miracle, 115; superstition of it, 
 136; bees worshipping it, 143; full exa- 
 mination of it, refutation, — by reason, 242; 
 by Scripture, 243 ; by the fathers, 244 ; rea- 
 sons why popish priests cling to this grand 
 invention, as their last hope, 246 ; various 
 convenient masses, 247 ; picture of a high 
 mass inpontijicalihus, 2G8. 
 
 Matrimony, thrown into confusion among pa- 
 pists bv the priests' doctrine of Intention, 
 300. 
 
 Maxim, a useful one in controversy, 13. 
 
 Meats in lent, 138 ; allowed lately to be eaten 
 on Saturdays, 224; forbidden by popery, 
 324. 
 
 Middleton quoted on the pagan origin of po- 
 pish rites, 264, 268. 
 
 Miracles, popisli, 106, 107, 108, 109. 115. 
 
 Misquotations and textual perversittiis by pa- 
 pists, instances of, 14, in reference to 2 
 Pet. i. 20; and our rule of faitli. 54. 58, — 
 in reference to 2 Peter iii. Id, '' hard to be 
 understood," 57, glaring instance of, 95. i 
 
 Misrepresentations, 75. 76, of Dr. Curtis andl 
 priests, 79, specimen of, 102. 
 
 Molina's works noticed, code of Jesuitism. 
 183, and 263. 
 
 Monkish orders, seven of them, founded l)y 
 fanatics, 111, — they cause distractions, 204. 
 
 Moralij, Popish, 129, infamous maxims on, 
 130. 194— 199,— quotations, 263. 
 
 Mortmain law of England, cause and origin 
 of. 24G. 
 
 MoratR OF God, a natnc of blasphemy, 96, 
 97. 103 ; this involves the Eutychian heresy, 
 105. Epiphanius and Augustine on this, 218. 
 
 N 
 
 Nathan, book of, noticed, 61. 
 Nuzarene, Christ called a, 67. 
 ISicholas, Dr. Melchior, his vindication of 
 Luther, noticed, 2.5. 
 
 O 
 
 Oath of Jesuits, and papists, not to be relied 
 on, 326; their ow)i secret oalh, 329. 
 
 Oath taken by Roman catholic priests, and 
 bishops, 318. 
 
 Objections and misstatements of priests, ex- 
 amined, see Letter VI. part i. 55. 
 
 Odor of sanctity, popish meaning of, 107. 
 
 Oral instruction not to be separated, as the 
 priests insist, from the use of the Scriptures, 
 68. 
 
 Ordination, and episcopal consecration, no 
 Romish priest can prove his, 47, 48. 
 
 Origen, quoted, 209 ; on prayers in an un- 
 known tongue, 216; against the Roman 
 catholic rule of faith, 227 ; and the apocry- 
 pha, 230; and transubstantiation p. 239. 
 
 Pagan origin of popish rites, 106, 137. 264 — 
 268 ; pagans outdone by papists 331. 
 
 Parents, appeal to, on Jesuit seminaries, 192. 
 
 Patrick, St. miracles of, 108, 109, defence of 
 him from popish legends, 7iote, 139, 232. 
 
 Paul, F. his saying of the Trentine fathers, 
 85. 
 
 Penance, superstition of, 133, impiety and 
 deism of it, 221 ; source of wealth, 222. 
 
 Persecution, essential to popery, 127 ; difter- 
 ent kinds, 340; it is a dogma of popery to 
 persecute, — it is enacted by its councils, 
 and advocated by its doctors, 342 — proofs, 
 343, 344 ; each bishop is sicorn in to per- 
 secute, 344 ; specimens of massacres 
 and persecutions, 345, 348; numbers killed, 
 347. 
 
 PKTK.n, 2. Epist. of, ch. 1. 20; perversion of 
 by Romanists, 14. 
 
 Peter, whether at Rome, no pope, 160; para- 
 ble of him, 173, spirit of anticlirist shown, 
 174, 178. 
 
 Pius ii. the pope, ^f^neas Sylvius, quoted, 
 75, 159. 
 
 Pix, or box containing ^A« xoafcr god, curious 
 pagan origin of, 266. 
 
 Pollution an essential element in popery, 289. 
 
 Pontifical and priestly arrogance, wielding 
 the power " to damn," 17. 
 
 Pontifical high mass, curious picture of this 
 theatrical show, 268. 
 
 Pope, the pontifex maximus ; the lord god in 
 the Roman church, 19, 41; his tempora) 
 
INDF.X. 
 
 power aftected to be disowned by AmericanI 
 Roman catholics. 20 ; he 7nust be in fact,i 
 a ffod, if he do what the Roman catholic; 
 rule of faith requires him to do. 22; papal! 
 succession cut otf, 36; wicked popes, 36. i 
 37, 45; the pope appoints new articles ofj 
 faith, 43, 63 ; the names of our Lord arro-l 
 gantly given to him, 43, 44; he calls him-| 
 self " God," 44, 323: specimens of the. 
 character of popes, 45, 46; "a god upon' 
 earth." he pardons sins ; niakep new gods, 
 or saints ; and thus adds to the niunber of 
 the objects of worship, 56,-57; pope Joan, 
 62; the pope made by papists "^ pater fa- 
 viiliasy in the place of Christ, 83, 89: spe-j 
 cimen of atrocious popes, and yet vicars of 
 God, 162, 163; frightful scenes at Rome, by 
 the conduct of popes, 163; three antipopes 
 uniting to make a barter of the church, 165 ; 
 worse than any civil tyrant in any land, 
 167 ; a pope's idolatrous prayer at the co7i- 
 >?ecration of images, 280; they bring alii 
 things, for sale, into market, for money, j 
 290; the adoration of the pope at his eiec-! 
 tion, 323; a pope's public rejoicings on ac-| 
 count of the French massacres of the| 
 Huguenots, 347. 
 Popery, it labours to conceal, in our land 
 its real tenets, 40 ; its genius strictly mo 
 narchical, and despotic, 41 ; its hostility to 
 the freedom of the people, and to republics, 
 41, 195 ; its spirit and doctrines the same, 
 now, unchanged, as in the Dark Ages, 41, 
 126; its nature, and atheism, 44, 123, 127; 
 its revolting immoralitv, 45, 188, 189 ; the no- 
 velty of its essential doctrines and rites, 91 ; 
 it is a system of forgeries and novel inven- 
 tions; proof. Letter viii. part i., 87, 93, 187, 
 232 ; its dogmas, and rites originated in fa- 
 naticism, 105. 115; family gronp of its gods, 
 106 ; it peoples the world with saint-idols, 
 even as tlie pagans did it, with hero-idols. 
 106; ottices of its idols, 106 ; it has lost the 
 spirit of Christianity, 126 ; it claims the pow- 
 er of " damning" its enemies, 128; the 
 vices and ignorance of its votaries, 128; 
 the marks and notes of its church, 149 ; its 
 passport given, for the usual consideration, 
 to any dying man, to heaven, 149, 150; its 
 images, 152 ; a three headed monster in it, 
 ■which cut off its succession, 164 ; it never 
 reforms, never improves, on its own avowal 
 191; it is a very broken, divided, and dis-} 
 tracted sect, 202, 203, 205; its claims to! 
 pardon sin, and absolve, refuted, 218; it i?| 
 a system of pious frauds to plunder nations' 
 successfully; proof, Spain, 252, 253; it?i 
 deplorable moral condition in popish lands : 
 its tenets cause the evil to wax worse and 
 worse, 262; it is shown to be perpetuated 
 paganism, 254; proof; contrast of it, and 
 paganism, 2G5; its frightful idolatry, 274,! 
 283; tn'mptoms and— efements of its ruin,j 
 2B4 ; its pollution. 289 ,• it is at war with 
 the gospel of Christ, o)) es.sential particu-! 
 
 lars, proof, 293; every doctrine, rite, and 
 " efficacy of grace" in it, rendered utterly 
 uncertain ; and its whole system abortive, 
 by its extraordinary doctrine of Lntentiok, 
 297, 300; its essential attribute of despot- 
 ism, 306 ; its six ^ran</ attributes discussed, 
 320, &c. ; the number of those who have 
 been murdered b}' it, 347, 348. 
 
 Popish authors quoted relative to the popes, 
 37 ; blunders of, about ordinances, 83. 
 
 Power, Dr. solemnly appealed to God that he, 
 and the priests encouraged the reading of 
 the Bible in the vernacular tongue, — yet no 
 authori.-ed version in English, 88, 122 ; his 
 lame defence of it, 133; specimen of the 
 saints to whom he prays, 163. 
 
 Precepts, the ten precepts of God repealed, 
 practically, by popery, 288, 289. 
 
 Predictions, Romish priests fill up these, as 
 recorded in Scripture, 194. 
 
 Priest of a false religion, character of, 331. 
 
 Priest, an office as used among the papists, 
 unknown in the New Testament, 47, 48. 
 
 Priesthood, a ghostly aristocracy and nobility 
 in popery, 57 ; impure by their very office, 
 129, 188, 189 ; its legal existence rendered 
 uncertain bv their own doctrine of Inten- 
 tion, 297, 300. 
 
 Priests, of New-York, — boast against our rule, 
 the Bible, as Paine did, 78, 116; their un- 
 fairness, 84,85,115, 118; the attributes of 
 their logic, 87; specimens of it, 101; their 
 spirit indicative of popery, 104, 116, 119 i 
 they borrow all the little they say, out of 
 old Mumford, and JMilner, 105, ct passim; 
 their violence against the holy Bible, 116,. 
 117, 133; their unguarded admission against 
 their own saints' legends, 119; they charge 
 false miracles on Protestants, 119 ; two sin- 
 gular admissions drawn from them, 122 ; 
 they aim at personal violence, 131 ; Dr. B.'a 
 card on this, 132; their acerbity of style, 
 133, 147; they call Dr. B. "a'/wr," 147; 
 their aim utterly defeated, 148 ; their maniac 
 logic, 150, 15l'; their final Letter, and re-^ 
 treat, 167. 
 
 Primitive Christianity of Ireland and Spain 
 before popery overran them, 91, 93, 225. 
 
 Protestant, and papist, contrast of, on an es- 
 sential point, 84; Protestant divisions, reply 
 to charge of, 84 ; Protestants' harmony in 
 doctrine. 153; contrast of the Protestant 
 and popish claims to have the true faith, 
 156; Protestant parents appealed to on Je.^juit 
 seminaries, 192; Protestants have persecut- 
 ed, instances, 341; radical difterence be- 
 tween the principle prompting them, and 
 that of the papists, 341. 
 
 Purgatory, a novel invention, 98, 1.52,250; 
 it was originated by fanatics, 113 ; the moot- 
 ed question if priests know who are in it, 
 142; miracle of visibly letting out souls, in 
 form of mice, 142; as crabs in velvet, 144; 
 anecdote of a priest who had purgatory in 
 his hou.se, ISO ; it is the temple ofraannn.5n, 
 
INDEX- 
 
 248; curious remark of a cardinal about it. S 
 
 248; history ol' it, — a pagan tiction import-l 
 
 ed; neither the Jesuit Cotton, nor the devil, jSabbath, chance of, not determined by tradi- 
 could find a text for it, 249; the eight dun-{ tiono«/^68. 
 
 geons in purgatory for rieht Crt.s.'cs of hope- Saints, invocation of, a noveltv, 95; origin 
 lul sinners, 2.50; the real use of it, 251; of, 9G ; opposed by the fathers, 9G ; thelj 
 Bpecinicn of popish extortion by this, in ' " 
 refutation of purpatorv 
 
 Spain, 252; refutation of purpatory, — from 
 reason, and Scripture, 253; the monstrous 
 absurdities of it, 255 ; it sets out the priests 
 before the public, as inhuman monsters, 
 2,56; conilemned by the best of the fathers, 
 256; by councils, 259; has not the unani- 
 mous consent, and therefore, wants even po- 
 pish evidence, 259. 
 
 Quotation.', unfair ones, valuable maxim en, 16. 
 
 R 
 
 Rack, tortures of the, .338. 
 
 Reformation needt^ul in Rome, 200 : quota- 
 tions of her writers urging it. 261. 
 
 Reformers vindicated, 24, 20. 
 
 Relics, origin of, a tnere novelty, 99 ; rare spe- 
 cimen of them, 107, 281, &c.; worship of 
 them, 282 ; farther specimens, very curious, 
 303; the ridiculous fully of these will work 
 the final ruin of popery, 302, 305. 
 
 Religion, contrast between the true and the 
 false, 292. 
 
 Republicanism. — poperv's essential doctrines 
 in deadly hostility to it, 195, 196. 308, 313, 
 '.522 ; proof from the oatii of priest.s, and 
 
 borious services imposed on each by pa- 
 pists, 106; reported miracleg of, 109; spe- 
 cimen of wicked men made saints, 162; 
 saint wor.=hip condemned by scripture and 
 the fathers, 213, 214; specimen of extraor- 
 dinary saint worship 279, 283 ; farther no- 
 tice of the labours and services of these 
 saints, 280. 
 
 Sanctity of Romanism, reviewed, 184. 
 
 Scarlet colored Beast &c. notices of, 330. 
 
 Schisms in the Romish church, view of the, 
 162. 
 
 Scriptures, no obscurity in them, 9, 13; their 
 authenticity and genuineness, 9, 10, 52. 53. 
 their inspiration, proofs of it, 8, 9, 12, 18, 51, 
 to 55 ; confession of this wrung from the 
 priests, 17; evidence of this, ertfrnal and in- 
 ternal, 51; historical evidence, tradition, 52; 
 no inspired books lost, 53 ; our English ver- 
 sion the priests call " most abominably cor- 
 rupt. " 79; Dr. Curtis' collection of errors, 
 Dr. Cardwell's exposure, 79 and 89,90; 
 Walton's judgment of our version 89 ; 
 Selden's 89 ; Geddes', 89 ; keeping them 
 in a dead language, a popish novelty, 99; 
 fathers quoted, 99, 100; priest's renewed 
 attack on them, 101, 102; their sophistry 
 exposed, 103 ; Scriptures prohibited by the 
 Roman catholic church, 135; anecdote of 
 a papist, and a Bible, 181. 
 
 bishops, 318; its present conspiracy againstjSelden, his judgment of our version of the BI- 
 our republic, 306, 308. "' | ble, 89. 
 
 Rcuchlin's saying of the Latin version, com- Servants, priests' in^structions to, at the con- 
 pared with the original Hebrew and Greek, 
 
 88. 
 
 fanaticism, 
 
 Rites of Romanism, founded 
 113. 
 
 Rock, text of the ; criticism on it ; the senti- 
 ments of the fathers on it, 205, 207. 
 
 Roman catholics, earnest appeals to them, 
 178, 182, 232, 241. 
 
 Roman church, in the 4th century, rejected 
 the epistle to the Hebrews, 119. 
 
 Roinisii system, or popery, is the perpetuation 
 of paganism, 204, 26^. 
 
 Roscoe, and the laconic senate, 16. 
 
 Rucellai's jiidgmont on the political tendency 
 of the bull In cima Domini, 318, 319. 
 
 Rule of faith. 7, 8. 9, 12, 16; our sentiments 
 
 fessional, 129, 147. 
 Society, and marriage among papists thrown 
 into conl'usion by the popish doctrine of In- 
 tention, 300. 
 Spirit of God, speaking in the Bible, the only 
 judge of controversies in doctrines, 3, 7. 8 ; 
 the priests" perversion on this, "the interior 
 spirit, " ' • our private spirit,'^ 15, 23, 30 ; they 
 ahva3's misquote our definitions, 54, 58. 
 Spirits, evil, successfully battled by Romish 
 
 saints, 109. 
 State always in union, with the chnrch. iii 
 
 Roman catholic lands, 314. 
 St. Sacrament a Romish idol, 136; farther spe- 
 cimens of its idolatrous worship, 283. 
 Statues and images work miracles, 110. 
 on this, ahvavs misquoted by papists, 23, [Succession, apostolical, of the papists totally 
 54; the church of God had always the] cut ofT, 35, 33 ; review of it, 159. 
 same rule of faith. 50; no books' of thej Supererogation, base superstition of"", 140. 
 sacred canon lost, 61. Superstition of popery, 135, incense; holy 
 
 Rule of faith, among papists, 7, 17, 21, 31;! water, charms, 137; condemned by reason 
 their rule is </jc chnrch, 149; their errors in and Scripture 274, 283. 
 thic? matter, 9. 10,11; their avowed rule alSupremacv. papal, four sects of faith in th 
 cumbrous load. 21, 120; thc'iv infallible rule \ Romish "church on this point, 19,20,124 
 made up of fallible materials, 7. 11 ; the real 
 origin of this papal dogma, 19; refutation of 
 the papal rule in tni arguments. IP, S2, 34. 
 3H. fll . 
 
 Bellarmine's ultra views of it, 75, 83; ori- 
 gin of it, 93 i&c. resisted by councils and 
 the fathers. P3, 95: jarring elements and 
 fartions m Romft on it.. 2'P4. '297^ 
 
INOKX. 
 
 Tax Book of popery, tarilVpiiccs of sin, 191 ; 
 and Appendix ii. 
 
 Temporal power of the pope, 124, 125, anec- 
 dote to illustrate it, 125, 126 ; proof of this 
 claim by the popes, 308, 312, 322; far- 
 ther proof, 326. 
 
 Tertullian, on the rule of faith, 74, 223 ; 
 against papal supremacy, 94; on succession, 
 110; on images, 213; transubstantiation, 
 238; the mass, 246; and purgatory, 257. 
 
 Testament, the new, not written, say the 
 priests, by Christ's command, 34. j 
 
 Textual difficulties solved, 65; Mattlu i. Luke 
 iii., Matth. xxvii., and cliap. ii.23— 66, 67. 
 
 Theodoret, against papal supremacy, 94; 
 against saint worshi]), 96; on the succes- 
 sion, 210 ; against transubstantiation, 238. 
 
 Tortures of the Inquisition, 337, 340. 
 
 Tradition, historical, an evidence of the inspi- 
 ration of the Bible, 18 ; the priests reject all 
 liistorical traditions, except simply those of 
 their own sect, 31, 
 
 Traditions, papal, their fanaticism, extrava- 
 gance, and impiety, 55, 56 ; apostolical tra- 
 ditions, 68, 69 ; the priests' vicious circle on 
 them, 120. 
 
 Traffic with heretics forbidden by the Man of 
 Sin, 335. 
 
 Translations, the priests' ludicrous assaults 
 on them, 14. 
 
 Transubstantiation, a novel invention, 98; 
 refutation from Scripture and the fathers, 
 233 ; the papists sustain their doctrine by 
 one of the absurdities of Aristotle, 235; it 
 brutalizes a man; it compels its believers 
 to disbelieve the evidence of their senses, 
 235 ; a believer in it can never he a witness 
 in any case, 235 ; condemned by eighteen 
 of the fathers, and the eastern lituriiics, i 
 237, 241. ^ I 
 
 Treachery, a grand attribute of popery, 325.1 
 
 Trinity, representation of, in the popish idol-l 
 atrv. 106. | 
 
 U 
 
 Unanimous consent of the fathers, the popish 
 system destitute of the, 72, 75, 209, 216, 217. 
 
 Union of church and state, characteristic of 
 popery, 314. 
 
 Unitarians at one witli. papists on an essential 
 point, 235. 
 
 Unity claimed by Roman catliolics, no such 
 thing among the iipi, 5, 6; cause of their ap- 
 parent unity, 5 ; the only kind of union 
 among them, 6; review of their afTected 
 ^ unity, 200, 220. 
 
 Usher, a goodcadvice of his to popish priests, 
 relative to pargatory. 260. 
 
 Varela, Dr. retreats, yet, Parlhian-Iike, keeps 
 up a retreating fire, 12 ; his daring attack 
 on the only rule of faith, the Scriptures, 12, 
 16 ; reply to his Letters, 80 ; specimen of 
 his misquotations, 82 ; ludicrous blunder of 
 his about " ordinances,"' 83. 
 
 Vicars of God, three perjured ones, in Holy 
 ?.Iother, at once, 166. 
 
 Vicious circle, — this false logic employed by 
 papists, 58, 120, 121 ; they deny it, yet use 
 it, at the same time, 64 ; they employ it on 
 traditions, 120 ; and on their infallibilitv, 
 121. 
 
 Virgin Mary, specimen of her worship, ren- 
 dered by papists, 96, 97 ; this idolatry con- 
 demned by Scripture, and the fathers, 217, 
 218 ; she is the great goddess, the Diana of 
 the Romans, — farther specimens of pi-oof. 
 281. 
 
 Virgin Magdalen, popish miracle by her, 107. 
 
 Vulgate, one of the worst translations of the 
 Bible, 14 ; N. Y. priests' defence of it, 65; 
 exposure of it, 69; Clementine and Sextine 
 editions of it, 70, 71, 88 ; Jerome's saying 
 of the Latin version, 88 ; there is no antlwr- 
 ised version of the Bible in English, by the 
 Roman church, 88. 
 
 V/ 
 
 Waldenses vindicated from the atrocious slan- 
 der of N. Y. priests, 26, 27 ; testimony in 
 their favor, by two inquisitors, and a pope, 
 27,28; their terrible sufferings and massa- 
 cres by papists, 345, 346. 
 
 Walton, quoted by the priests as favoring 
 their Vulgate, 65 ; this is not correct, 89. 
 
 Wars in Europe for ages, caused, mainly, by 
 popery, 166, 204. 
 
 Wax candles, lamps, — origin of, among pa- 
 pists, 138. 
 
 Wenefride, St., three popisli miracles in her 
 life, 108. 
 
 Weslev, John, vindicated from the wanton 
 charges of N. Y. priests, 23, &c. 
 
 White slaves, Roman catholic lands, the coun- 
 try of, 330. 
 
 Xavier, St., popish miracles in his life, 109. 
 
 Y 
 
 York, the cardinal duke of, referred to ; the 
 book containing an account of a synod held 
 by him, gives the lie to bishop England's 
 statement. De Bulla, In cmna Domini, 316. 
 

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