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In this Bull mention is made of 'the cradle of Christ!' The Bull closes in the usual strain :

'Be it therefore utterly unlawful for any man to infringe, or by any rash attempt to gainsay, this page of our ordinance, promulgation, grant, exhortation, demand, and will. But if any one shall presume to attempt it, let him know that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of his blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.

'Given at Rome at St. Peter's, in the year of our Lord's incarnation, 1824, on the 24th May, in the first of our Pontificate.'

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In what part of the Word of God will the Pope find any text to sanction the use of Indulgences? This monstrous invention professes to release the purchasers' from all their sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever;' and establishes as a system, that that which is pre-eminently and exclusively the gift of God might be purchased with money.' Every Roman Catholic believes in their efficacy. I affirm that the power of Indulgences was left by Christ to his church, and that the use of them is very helpful to all Christian people.' (Creed of Pius IV. Art. 10.) Where have Peter and Paul said any thing in favour of Indulgences? and yet the Pope issues them in their name and by their pretended authority. The following translation of the form of Indulgences sold by Tetzel, whose profligate conduct as an agent employed for that purpose was the immediate occasion which roused the indignation of Luther, is copied from the Rev. T. H. Horne's Protestant

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Memorial,' p. 79. May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by authority of his Apostles Peter and Paul, and of the most holy Pope, granted and committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee-first, from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they have been incurred; and then, from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may be, even from such as are reserved for the cognizance of the Holy See: and as far as the keys of the holy church extend, I remit to thee all punishment which thou deservest in purgatory on their account: and I restore thee to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which thou didst possess at baptism; so that, when thou diest, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened. And if thou shalt not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force when thou art at the point of death. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.'

Is not this to blaspheme the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul? Is not this to blaspheme Christ and his Apostles ? Is it not to blaspheme the Church of Christ, which is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone? The "tabernacle of God" is blasphemed, when its corner-stone and foundation are blasphemed. Dishonour done to Christ and His

Apostles is dishonour done to the Church itself. The Church of Christ is indeed blasphemed by being identified with the Church of Rome, whereas, "if the Gates of Hell could have prevailed against the Church" of Christ, "it would have been by the agency" of the Church of Rome; "and if by means of crusades, inquisitions, leagues, massacres, conspiracies, assassinations, and armadas, they had prevailed, and the Reformation had been suppressed; England would now have been (what Spain and Italy are) divided between superstition and atheism, in a state of moral leprosy and intellectual darkness." (Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, p. 398.) So that the two Churches-that of Christ, and that of Rome-are no more identical than light and darkness, Christ and Belial.

But the Church of Christ is yet more blasphemed by the Pope identifying himself with Christ, so that he is Vicar of Christ, i. e. a Vice-Christ, and his commands, how contrary soever to the commands of Christ, are to be received pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia, as if they proceeded from Christ Himself. The Pope, as Vicar of Christ, sits in the place of Christ, i. e. in the place of God. "Who as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." And yet, though Vice-Christ, he opposes Christ, and proves himself Antichrist.

For, as Luther has observed, When the Pope makes that a sin which Christ will not have to be a sin, and that a righteousness, which Christ will not have to be a righteousness; when he binds consciences, where Christ has liberated them, and puts

sin in the place of grace, and the law in the place of faith; can you any longer doubt that he is the very ANTICHRIST, and that "abomination standing where he ought not"? For are not Christ and he directly opposed to each other? Christ says, 'This is no

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Christ says,

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sin:' the Pope says, 'yea, but it is sin.' "This is no righteousness: the Pope says, yea, but it is righteousness.' Whereas, if he did but leave these things to each one's choice, he would not be Antichrist but now, as he commands these things entirely in the name of Christ, and makes them destroying sins, he lays waste the Church, corrupts the faith, establishes sin and murders consciences.''Hence also those things which are no sins are made to be sins by the will and caprice of this "man of sin." And by these things he binds consciences and torments them by foolish laws: so that men are cast down with fear, and puffed up with confidence, by no one thing more than by their obedience or disobedience to the Pope and his commanded fastings. For to commit murder or adultery, or to defraud, is considered an unspeakably less crime than to eat eggs, or butter, or milk, or flesh, on fast-days.' (The Pope Confounded and his Kingdom Exposed, p. 141, 142,)

The Pope therefore identifying himself with Christ, and at the same time opposing Christ "opens his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle" or Church.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE POPE'S BLASPHEMIES. THE POPE OPENS HIS MOUTH IN BLASPHEMY AGAINST GOD TO BLASPHEME THEM THAT DWELL IN HEAVEN.

AND HE OPENED

HIS MOUTH IN

BLASPHEMY

AGAINST GOD ΤΟ BLASPHEME HIS NAME, AND

HIS TABERNACLE, AND THEM THAT
HEAVEN."-Verse 6.

DWELL IN

By "those who dwell in heaven" we are to understand, first, those who have departed this life in the faith and fear of God, and have entered into rest : secondly, the people of God who are still militant here on earth; for believers are described by St. Paul as being "raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. ii. 6.) These the Pope blasphemes in various ways.

I. First. He blasphemes some of them by worshipping them as Mahuzzim. This was expressly "In his estate shall

foretold by the prophet Daniel.

he honour Mahuzzim." (xi. 38.)

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The Hebrew word

Mahuzzim," which is the plural of" Mahoz," de

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