CHAP.

III.

Feel. His tory, vol. . p. 5.

5. But Henry, for his severe treatment of his young converts, was by them assassinated; and thus procured the honours of saintship and martyrdom, from pope Adrian IV. Can the heathen mythology furnish greater monsters than doctor Mosheim's bloody christianity, his pious, learned, tyrannical doctors, his fierce and savage Christians, and his lordly archbishop-saints and martyrs ?

6. But let us pursue the track of this wild beast a little further, and see what gospel or good news he - spread among the Livonians. Mosheim, in his usual style, says, "The propagation of the gospel among 'the Livonians was attended with much difficulty, and also with horrible scenes of cruelty and bloodshed." 7. "Mainard, a regular canon of St. Augustin, [having attempted the conversion of that savage nation without success,] addressed himself to the Roman pontiff URBAN III. who consecrated him bishop ་ of the Livonians, and, at the same time, declared ' a holy war against that obstinate people."

8. "This war, which was at first carried on C against the province of Esthonia, was continued 'with still greater vigour, and rendered more univer'sal by Berthold, abbot of Lucca, who left his monas'tery to share the labours and laurels of Mainard, whom he, accordingly, succeeded in the see of • Livonia."

9. "The new bishop marched into that province ' at the head of a powerful army which he had raised in Saxony, preached the gospel sword in hand, and proved its truth by blows instead of arguments." Beyond all dispute, he proved, by his unmerciful blows, that his religion and his gospel were a brutal imposition on the reason and rights of man.

10. Albert, canon of Bremen, became the third bishop of Livonia, and followed, with a barbarous ' enthusiasm, the same military methods of conver'sion. He entered Livonia, A. D. 1198, with a fresh 'body of troops, drawn out of Saxony; and encamping at kiga, instituted there, by the direction of the Roman pontiff, INNOCENT III. the military order of 'the knights sword-bearers, who were commissioned 't dragoon the Livonians into the profession of

CHAP

christianity, and to oblige them, by force of arms, IIL to receive the benefits of baptism."

ii. p. 6.

11. "New legions were sent from Germany to se. Eccl. His'cond the efforts, and add efficacy to the mission of tory, vob 'these booted apostles; and they, together with the * knights sword-bearers, so cruelly oppressed, slaugh'tered, and tormented this wretched people, that exhausted, at length, and unable to stand any longer 'firm against the arm of persecution, they abandon'ed the statues of their Pagan deities, and substitu'ted in their place the images of the saints."

12. Mosheim at length closes his account of this wonderful progress of the Catholic gospel among the Livonians, in his usual murky manner. "But while

they received the blessings of the gospel, they were, ' at the same time, deprived of all earthly comforts; for their lands and possessions were taken from them with the most odious circumstances of cruelty and violence, and the knights and bishops divided the spoil."

13. Such curses of Antichrist's dominion, retailed out by Catholic doctors and divines, under the name of gospel-blessings, have driven many men of honest principles to discard the name of christianity, and all its votaries, with the utmost abhorrence; and justly they might discard a religion that claimed the most distant relation to such a bloody, oppressive, and beastly hierarchy.

14. But the votaries of such a religion have nothing to do either with Jesus Christ or any of his followers. The true and genuine gospel of Christ never was preached with sword in hand; but with the inward power and energy of the Holy Ghost, which is a Spirit of peace, long-suffering, meekness, and mercy.

15. And when the gospel was preached by the true messengers of Christ, every creature had full liberty of choice; and if any embraced the truth, it was upon their own inward conviction, and their estimation of its value, without any compulsion from any other quarter.

16. Neither did Christ Jesus, nor any of his followers, ever enact laws to bind those who did not be

CHAP. lieve; nor did they ever persecute or practise war III. and bloodshed to promote their cause, or increase their number; nor compel any one to receive their testimony, by any force, violence or cruelty whatever. These things are true and cannot be denied.

17. But what shall be said, when such booted apostles, and bishops, with their sword-bearers, drunk with ambition and zeal for dominion, are pushing on, in every direction, to extend the limits of their lawless empire, and spreading calamity and distress where ever they go?

18. Can any real friend of either God or man look on with indifference, or try to amuse a distressed world with flowery tales about a divine gospel—a benign religion-and a celestial light? Or must not reason and conscience speak out, and testify that all such gospelizing is the cursed deception of antichristian tyrants? Such awful scenes of merciless tyranny, under the mask of a Christian profession, are the most noted achievements of Catholic emperors, popes, bishops, and monks, through the whole reign of Antichrist.

19. Many volumes could not contain a full account of all the arts of deception, the pious frauds, the bloody wars and horrid massacres, the secret wickedness and open crimes, which have been practised in this beastly kingdom under the sacred names of God and Christ, and under a cloak of pious motives and holy ends; but happily, such monsters of iniquity are to be clearly known by their fruits, their own historians being witnesses.

20. To say no more, their holy war with the infidel Saracens, as they called them, was sufficient to demonstrate to all ages, that it was not the gospel, nor the spirit of Christ that they possessed, but a spirit and gospel directly contrary.

21. By the influence of pope, and emperor, of bishops, dukes, monks and all the ecclesiastical powers, an army was raised in the eleventh century to force their gospel into Palestine. Eight hundred thousand men, each with a consecrated cross on his Be. Hist. right shoulder, set out for Constantinople in the year 429, &c. 1096. "This army (says Mosheim,) was the greatest,

vol, ü. p.

II.

and in outward appearance the most formidable, CHAP. 'that had been known in the memory of man." This was but the beginning of this Catholic army, which is characterized as follows.

22.This army was a motley assemblage of monks, 'prostitutes, artists, labourers, lazy tradesinen, merchants, boys, girls, slaves, malefactors, and profligate debauchees who were animated solely by the prospect of spoil and plunder, and hoped to make their fortunes by this holy campaign."

23. Dr. Maclaine, from the best authority, states Excl. Hig that," the first divisions of this prodigious army 107431. tory, vol. 'committed the most abominable enormities in the Note[] 'countries through which they passed, and that there

was no kind of insolence, injustice, impurity, bar'barity, and violence, of which they were not guilty."

24. "Nothing perhaps in the annals of history can " equal the flagitious deeds of this infernal rabble." So says Maclaine. And truly, if this rabble was infernal, it was but a part of the infernal kingdom of Antichrist, which was governed by an infernal priesthood; and what could such infernals ever communicate to their successors, even to the latest ages, but the same infernal spirit of deception and fraud, under the name of a gospel?

25. "We pass in silence, (says Mosheim,) the various enormities that were occasioned by these cru'sades, the murders, rapes, and robberies of the 'most infernal nature, that were every where com'mitted with impunity, by these holy soldiers of God and of Christ, as they were impiously called."

ibid. p. 430

26. And in this infernal manner, did this last horn of the monstrous beast wax exceeding great; so that at the sight of his army and horsemen, which were like the sand upon the sea shore for multitude, it might justly have been said, Who is like unto the Rev. x. beast? Who is able to make war with him?

27. The habitable and most populous parts of the globe were the principal objects of his ravaging power; and all whose habitation was upon the earth, or who contended for its honours, pleasures and preferments, were obliged to worship him, whose iniqui

4.

CHAP. tous names and characteristics never were written in the book of the innocent life of the Lamb.

Hist. vol.

28. They worshipped this beast, not only by enriching him with their substance, but by conferring upon him such names and titles of blasphemy as, See EccL Our Lord God the Pope-another God upon earthii. p. 339, King of kings and Lord of lords-The same is the doHist. Re- minion of God and the Pope-Lord of the universe, ardemp biter of the fate of kingdoms and empires, and suNote [k.] preme ruler over the kings and princes of the earth.

460.

P 432.

Proph.

vol. ii p.

71, 72.

29. Agreeable to these blasphemous titles, his vo Diss, on taries maintain that, " The power of the Pope is greater than all created power, and extends itself to things celestial, terrestrial and infernal:" that he is not only bishop of Rome, but of the whole world, and is constituted judge in the place of God, which he fills as the vicegerent of the most high; that he "doeth whatsoever he listeth, even things unlawful! and is more than God."

tory, vol.

30. "Such blasphemies are not only allowed, but are even approved, encouraged, rewarded in the 6 writers of the church of Rome; and they are not 'only the extravagances of private writers, but are 'the language even of public decretals and acts of ' councils." So says Newton.

31. Thus, he was not only blasphemously worshipped, but he magnified himself against the prince of Zeel. His princes, saying, that neither princes, nor bishops, . p. 398, civil governors nor ecclesiastical rulers, have any 481. vol: lawful power in church or state, but what they derive from him that both the kingdoms and souls of kings were under his dominion, and that he had power to bind them, both in heaven and upon earth.

ii. p. 161,

304.

32. Such was that combination of mutual blasphemy and wickedness that centred in the head of this last beastly kingdom; and such was that power that was given him, not of God, but of all the ranks and orders of men that existed upon the face of the whole earth. They gave their power to the beast, to estab lish the dignity, honour, power, greatness and glory of fallen man, both in a temporal and spiritual view; in all which they expected to have a share.

33. It is no marvel then that such a hypocritical,