and, consequently, not given to GOD, or, at the leastwise, not so rightly given, we repine not thereat; that which hath gone by means secret and indirect, through corrupt compositions or compacts, we cannot help; what the hardness of men's hearts doth make them loth to have exacted, though being due by law, even thereof the want we do also bear. All that we have to sustain our miserable life with, is but a remnant of God's own treasure, so far already diminished and clipt, that if there were any sense of common humanity left in this hard-hearted world, the impoverished estate of the clergy of GOD would, at the length of very commiseration, be spared." Ecclesiastical Polity, p. 389. And Bishop Jewel, in a sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth, thus boldly complained of these abuses: "In other countries the receiv ing of the GOSPEL hath always been the cause that learning was more set by; and learning hath ever been the furtherance of the GOSPEL. In England, I know not how it cometh otherwise to pass, for since the GOSPEL hath been received, the maintenance of learning hath been decayed; and the lack of learning will be the decay of the Gospel." Then addressing himself to her rapacious courtiers, "You," said he, "enriched them which mocked, and blinded, and devoured you! Spoil not them now that feed, and instruct, and comfort you!"

At the union of the two crowns of England and Scotland, under James I. this learned prince con

cluded a long speech to his parliament, explaining the policy of government toward the Papists, nearly in the language of Henry VIII.: "As long as they are disconformable in religion from us, they cannot be but half my subjects, to do but half service; and I, to want the best half of them, which is their souls."

And his parliament thus sagaciously described the genuine spirit and effects of popery :

"And from these causes, as 'bitter roots,' we humbly offer to your Majesty, that we foresee and fear very dangerous effects both to the Church and State; for, 1. The Popish religion is incompatible with ours in respect of their positions: 2. It draweth with it an unavoidable dependency on foreign princes: 3. It openeth too wide a gap for popularity to any one that shall draw too great a party : 4. It hath a restless spirit, and will strive by these gradations: if it once get but a connivance, it will press for a toleration; if that should be obtained, they must have an equality; from thence they will aspire to superiority, and will never rest till they get a subversion of the true religion." And by these gradations, indeed, the "restless spirit of Popery hath striven," ever since its introduction at , the Norman Conquest, down to the present day! It was not, however, without the most violent struggles, that the Church and See of Rome were deprived of their usurped supremacy.

When Henry VIII. had cast off the papal su

premacy, and laid the axe to the root of the tree, by suppressing the monastic orders in England, the life-guards of the papacy, Pope Paul issued a bull of excommunication against him, A. D. 1598; which only served to confirm the king in his opposition.

Soon after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, Pope Pius IV., in 1560, wrote her a flattering letter, to "Our dearest daughter in Christ," — invit. ing her to return to the bosom of the Church, and promising "to receive her as the prodigal son:" but the Queen, steady to her motto, semper eadem, rejected his flatteries, and persisted in promoting the Reformation; whereupon Pope Pius V. fulminated his famous bull, March 28, 1569, " against Elizabeth, the pretended queen of England, and the heretics, her adherents;" absolving all her subjects from their oath of allegiance, and from any other duty they owe to her; and threatening all who shall henceforth obey her, with an anathema, or excommunication. By these means several conspiracies were formed by Popish priests and Jesuits to destroy her; but they were detected, and the conspirators punished according to their de

serts.

Gregory XIII., in 1578, stirred up the king of Spain to invade England, depose Elizabeth, and hold the kingdom as a fief from him; and he was followed by Pope Sextus V., who urged the Spanish invasion in 1558, renewed the bulls of

T

Pius V. and Gregory XIII. excommunicated the queen, absolved her subjects from all allegiance, published a Crusade against her as against Turks and Infidels, and granted plenary indulgences to all that contributed their help and assistance to depose her.

And near the end of her reign Pope Clement VIII. sent two briefs to England in A. D. 1591; one to the popish clergy, the other to the people, not to admit king James as her successor, unless he swore to tolerate the Romish religion. These briefs, however, were not published, but communicated privately to very few; and laid the ground work of the Gunpowder Plot, in 1605, the third year after his accession to the throne of England. But this being providentially discovered on the eve of its execution, and Garnet the Jesuit and his accomplices executed, and venerated as martyrs for the Catholic faith; Pope Paul V.* issued two briefs

*This was the arrogant Pontiff to whom, in the year 1608, Maria Carafa, a friar, in his Theses for Disputation, at Rome and Naples, (of which this was one, Solus Petrus, et successores, in totam Ecclesiam illimitatam jurisdictionem habent,) addressed the following blasphemous inscription to the Pope : PAULO V. VICE DEO, Christianæ Reipublicæ Monarchæ invietissimo, et Pontificæ omnipotentiæ conservatori acerrimo.

This was published at Venice, while Dr. Bedel, afterwards Bishop of Kilmore, in Ireland, was there, who, probably, in the title, discovered the mystical number 666, the name of the Beast, or Antichrist:

in 1606 and 1607, absolving the English Catholics from their allegiance to James, and reprobating the oath itself as null and void: a detestable doctrine, uniformly inculcated by the legates, nuncios, and emissaries of the Papal See, down to the present day.

The machinations of the court of Rome were also fatally and successfully employed against the unfortunate Charles; to which he fell a victim in 1648. The war between him and his puritanical parliament was principally fomented thereby. The following information, given in a confidential letter from Dr. Bramhall, bishop of Derry, to Primate Usher during his exile, and the 223d Letter in Usher's Life, p. 611, deserves to be recorded, from that scarce publication:

"Most Reverend,

-

I thank God I do take my pilgrimage patiently, yet I cannot but condole the change of the Church and State of England; and more in my pilgrimage than ever, because I dare not witness and declare to that straying flock of our brethren in England, who have misled them, and who they

This title was afterwards enlarged by another; Benedictus, a Benedictine friar, in his dedication to the Pope, disclaiming the imputation of Antichrist :- PAULO QUINTO, Pontifici Universalis Ecclesiæ Oecumenico, summo totius orbis Episcopo atque Monarchæ, et SUPREMO VICE-DEO; in reward for which he was shortly after made Bishop of Caorti by the Pope. - See Bishop Burnett's Life of Bedel, pp. 306, 307.