which profess a belief in the Blessed Trinity, and the Incarnation of the Consubstantial Son of the Eternal Father. Now it is notorious, that every Catholic throughout the world, holds these the fundamental articles of Christianity as firmly now as St. Athanasius himself did 1,500 years ago: but what says his Lordship with his disciples and numberless other Protestants of this country, on these heads? Let the Preface to his Collection be consulted; (1) in which, if he does not openly deny the Trinity, he excuses the Unitarians, who deny it, on the ground that they are afraid of becoming idolaters by worshipping Jesus Christ. (2) Let his Charges be examined: in one of which he says to his clergy, that he does not think it safe to tell them what the Christian doctrines are;' (3) no not so much as the Unity and Trinity of God. In another address, however, the Bishop assumes more courage, and informs his clergy, that Protestantism consists in believing what each one 'pleases, and in professing what he believes.' How much should I rejoice to have this question of Apostasy, between the Bishop of Landaff and me, decided by Luther, Calvin, Beza, Cranmer, Ridley, and James I. were it not for the proofs which history affords me, that, not content with excluding him from the class of Christians, they would as surely burn him at the stake as a downright apostate.-The second character of Antichrist, set down by St. Paul, is, that he opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself as if he were God, 2 Thess. ii. 4. This character Mr. Benson and Bishop Watson think applicable to the Pope, who, they say, claims the attributes and homage due to the Deity. I leave you, Rev. Sir, and your friends, to judge of the truth of this character, when I in(1) Vol. i. Pref. p. 15, &c.

(3) Bp. Watson's Charge, 1795.

(2) P. 17.

form you, that the Pope has his Confessor, like other Catholics, to whom he confesses his sins in private; and that every day, in saying Mass, he bows before the altar, and in the presence of the people confesses, that he has sinned in thought, word, and deed,' begging them to pray to God for him: and that afterwards, in the most solemn part of it, he professes his hopes of forgiveness, not through his own merits, but through the 'bounty and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.' (1) The third mark of Antichrist is, that his coming is according to the working of Satan in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, 2 Thess. ii. 9. From this passage of Holy Writ, it appears that Antichrist, whenever he does come, will work false, illusive prodigies, as the magicians of Pharaoh did. But, from the divine promises, it is evident that the disciples of Christ will continue to work true miracles, such as he himself wrought; and, from the testimony of the Holy Fathers and all ecclesiastical writers, it is incontestable, that certain servants of God have been enabled by him to work them, from time to time, ever since this his promise. This I have elsewhere demonstrated; as likewise, that this fact is denied by Protestants, not for want of evidence, as to its truth, but be cause this is necessary for the defence of their system.' (2) Still it is false that the Catholic Church ever claimed a discretional power of working miracles in the order of nature, as her opponents pretend. All that we say is, that God is pleased, from time to time, to illustrate the true Church with real miracles, and thereby to show that she belongs to him.

The latest dealer in prophecies, one who boasts that his books have been revised by the Bishop of Lincoln, (3) by way of showing the conformity between Antichristian Popery, and the beast that

(1) Canon of the Mass.

(2) Part ii. Letter xxiil. (3) Interpret. of Prophecy, by H. Kett, LL. B. Pref.

did great signs, so that he made fire to come down from heaven unto the earth, in the sight of men, Rev. xiii. 13, says of the Catholic Church, 6 even 'fire is pretended to come down from heaven, as in the case of St. Antony's fire.' (1) I am almost ashamed to notice so illiterate a cavil. True it is, that the Hospital monks of St. Antony were heretofore famous for curing the Erysipelas with a peculiar ointment, on which account that disease acquired the name of St. Antony's fire; (2) but neither these monks, nor any Catholics, were used to invoke that inflammation, or any other burning whatsoever from heaven or elsewhere.I beg that you and your friends will suspend your opinion of the fourth alleged resemblance between Antichrist and the Pope, that of persecuting the Saints, till I have leisure to treat that subject in greater detail than I can at present.I shall take no notice at all of this writer's chronological calculations, nor of the anagrams and chronograms, by which many Protestant expositors have endeavoured to extract the mysterious number 666 from the name or title of certain Popes, farther than to observe, that ingenious Catholics have extracted the same number from the name Martinus Lutherus, and even from that of David Chrytheus, who was the most celebrated inventor of those riddles.

Such are the grounds on which certain refractory children, in modern ages, have ventured to call their true Mother a Prostitute, and the common Father of Christians, the author of their own conversion from Paganism, The Man of Sin, and the very Antichrist. But they do not really believe what they declare; this their parent's object being only to inflame the ignorant multitude. I have sufficient reason to affirm this, when I hear a Luther threatening to unsay all that he has (1) Kett, vol. ii. p. 22.

(2) Paquotius, in Molanum De Saor, Imag.

said against the Pope, a Melancthon lamenting that Protestants had renounced him, a Beza negotiating to return to him, and a late Warburtonlecturer lamenting, on his death-bed, that he could not do the same.

I am, &c.,

J. M.

LETTER XLVI.

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A,
ON THE POPE'S SUPREMACY.

REV. SIR,

THIS acknowledges the honour of three different letters from you, which I have not till now been able to notice. The objections contained in the two former are either answered, or will, with the help of God, be answered by me. The chief purport of your last is to assure me, that the absurd and impious tenet of the Pope being Antichrist never was a part of your faith, nor even of your opinion; but that having read over Dr. Barrow's Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy, as well as what Bishop Porteus has published upon it, you cannot but be of Archbishop Tillotson's mind, who published the above-named treatise; namely, that The Pope's Supremacy is not only an indefensible, but also an impudent cause; 'that there is not one tolerable argument for it, and that there are a thousand invincible reasons 'against it.' (1)-Your liberality, Rev. Sir, on the former point, justifies the idea I had formed of you: with respect to the second, whether the Pope's claim of Supremacy, or Tillotson's position against it, is impudent, I shall leave you to deter

(1) Tillotson's Preface to Barrow's Treatise.

mine, when you shall have read over the present letter. But as this, like other subjects of our controversy, has been enveloped in a cloud of misrepresentation, I must begin with dissipating that cloud, and with clearly stating what the faith of the Catholic Church is, concerning the matter in question.

It is not, then, the faith of this Church, that the Pope has any civil or temporal Supremacy, by virtue of which he can depose Princes, or give or take away the property of other persons, out of his own domain: for even the Incarnate Son of God, from whom he derives the Supremacy he possesses, did not claim, here upon earth, any right of the above-mentioned kind: on the contrary, he positively declared, that his Kingdom is not of this world! Hence, the Catholics of both our Islands, have, without impeachment even from Rome, denied, upon oath, that the Pope 'has any civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this realm.' (1) But, as it is undeniable, that different Popes, in former ages, have pronounced sentence of deposition against certain contemporary Princes, and, as great numbers of Theologians have held (though not as a matter of faith) that they had a right to do so; it seems proper, by way of mitigating the odium which Dr. Porteus and other Protestants raise against them, on this head, to state the grounds on which the Pontiffs acted, and the Divines reasoned, in this business. Heretofore, the Kingdoms, Principalities and States, composing the Latin Church, when they were all of the same religion, formed, as it were, one Christian Republic, of which the Pope was the accredited head. Now, as mankind have been sensible at all times, that the duty of civil allegiance and submission cannot extend beyond a

(1) 81 Geo. III. c. 82,