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will beft appear by an hiftorical deduction; and if it can be proved, that there have conftantly been fuch witnesses from the feventh century down to the Reformation, during the most florishing period of popery, I presume there can be little doubt about the times preceding or following. As there hath been occafion to obferve before, the feeds of popery were sown even in the apoftles time, but they were not grown up to maturity, the power of the pope as a horn or temporal prince was not established till the eighth century; and from thence therefore it will be proper to begin our deduction, when the beast began to reign, and the witneffes to prophefy in fackcloth.

Great as the power of the Latin church was grown in the eighth century, the Greek church ftill diffented from it, and oppofed it. The emperors (4) Leo Ifauricus and his fon Conftantine Copronymus not only vigorously oppofed the worship of images, but alfo denied the interceffion of faints, and burnt and destroyed their relics. In the year 754 Conftantine Copronymus held a general council at Conftanti

(4) Theoph. Cedren. Zonar. &c. &c. Fred. Spanhemii Hift. Chriftian. Sec. VIII. Cap. 6, 7, &c.

nople

[verba funt Bellarmini Tom. 1. p. 535.] unicam definiverunt effe imaginem ab ipfo Chrifto inflitutam, nimirum panem & vinum in Euchariftia, quæ repræ(5) Aliis explofis imaginibus, sentant Chrifti corpus & fangui

nem.

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nople of 338 bishops, who prohibited unanimously the worship of faints as well as of images; and (5) declared that only one image

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was conftituted by Chrift himself, 'namely the bread and wine in the eucharift, which re

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prefent the body and blood of Chrift:' than which there cannot be a ftronger declaration against the doctrin of tranfubftantiation as well as against the worship of images. It is true that the fecond council of Nice in the year 1787 reftored and established the worship of images, and the pope ratified and confirmed it; but nevertheless great oppofition was made to it by feveral churches in the weft. Charlemain (6) held a council at Francfort in the year 794, confifting of 300 bishops of various nations, who condemned equally the fecond council of Nice and the worship of images. The Carolin books were alfo fet forth under the name and authority of that great monarch; and the doctrins therein contained, of the fufficiency of the fcriptures, of the worship of God alone, of prayers in the vulgar tongue,

t

nem. Ex Concil Conftantinop. Tom. 3. p. 359. Edit. Binnii. Ufferius de Chriftian. Ecclef. fucceffione et ftatu. Cap. 2. Sect. 4. p. 19.

of

(6) Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 6. and 9. Uffer. ibid. p. 20. Allix's Remarks upon the ancient churches of the Albigenfes. Chap. 8,

L 3

(7) Hoveden,

of the eucharift, of juftification, of repentance, of pretended vifions and miracles, and various other points, are fuch as a papift would abhor, and a protestant would fubfcribe. Not to feek for farther inftances, the (7) British churches lamented and execrated the fecond council of Nice; and the famous Albin or Alcuin wrote a letter against it, difproving and refuting it by exprefs authorities of holy fcripture; which letter was tranfmitted to Charles the great in the name of the bishops and other great men of the kingdom. Even in Italy (8) the council of Forojulio prefcribed the use of no other creed but that of the apoftles, fo that they had no conception of the neceffity of fo many additional articles, as have fince been made by pope Pius IV, and received by the church. Some even of the Italian bishops aflifted at the. council of Francfort before mentioned, and particularly Paulinus bishop of Aquileia bore a principal part in it.

Popery prevailed ftill more in the ninth century, but yet not without confiderable oppofition.

(7) Hoveden, Annal. pars prior. p. 232. Simeon Dunelm. Hift. p. 111. Matt. Weftm. Flores Hift. Ann. 793. Uffer. ibid. p. 19. 20. Collier's Ecclef. Hift. B. 2. p. 139.

(8) Tom. 7. Concil. p. 1002.

Not

Allix's Remarks upon the ancient churches of Piedmont. Chap. 8. Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 9, 10.

(9) Fred. Spanhemii Hift. Chriftian. Sæc. IX. Cap. 9. Mif

cell.

Not only (9) the emperors of the east, Nicephorus, Leo Armenius, Michael Balbus, Theophilus, and the emperors of the weft, Charles the great, and Lewis the pious, but alfo feveral prelates and ecclefiaftics, oppofed the abfolute power and fupremacy of the pope, together with the worship of images, and invocation of faints and angels. The capitularies and edicts of Charles the great and Lewis the pious (1) injoined the reading of the canonical feripture as the fole rule of faith, without any regard to buman traditions or apocryphal writings. Private maffes and pilgrimages, and other fuch fuperftitions (2) were forbidden by the fame capitularies. Lewis the pious held a council at Paris in the year 824, which (3) agreed with the council of Francfort in rejecting the fecond council of Nice, and forbidding the worship of images. Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, in his book against pictures and images, maintains, that we ought not to adore any image of God, but only that which is God himself, even his eternal Son; and that there is no other mediator

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cell. Sacræ Antiq. Lib. 6. Hift. Imag. Sect. 7, 8, 9.".

(1) Capit. Aquifgranens. Spanhem. Hift. Chriftian. Sec. IX. Cap. 3. Sect. 2. Cap. 9. Sect. 2.

(2) Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 9.

Sect. 5, 8, &c.

(3) Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 9. Sect. 3. Cap. 12. Se&t. 2. Hi Imag. Sect. 9. Allix's Remarks upon the ancient churches of the Albigenfes. Chap. 9.

L. 4

(4) 'Quidam

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diator between God and men, fave Jefus Chrift God and man: fo that it is no wonder that this book is condemned in the Index Expurgatorius of the church of Rome. It was in this century, that the doctrin of tranfubftantiation was first advanced here in the weft by Pafchafius Radbertus abbat of Corbie in France; but it was ftrenuously opposed by Rabanus Maurus, Bertramus, Johannes Scotus, and many other bishops and learned men of that age. Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, (4) paffes this cenfure upon the novelty of the doctrin ; Some, fays he, of late not rightly conceiving concerning the facrament of the

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body and blood of our Lord, have affirmed that this is the very fame body of our Lord, which was born of the virgin Mary, and in < which our Lord himself fuffered, &c; which error we have oppofed to the utmost of our power, &c.' He thus (5) expreffes his own

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