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MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PVBLlt AFFAIR^ OR * The Christian *$ Survey of the Political fP* orld.
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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Monthly Retrospect Of Pvbllt Affair^ Or * The Christian *$ Survey Of The Political Fp* Orld.
MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PVBLlt AFFAIR ^ OR * The Christian * $ Survey of the Political fP * orld .
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Unsearchable are the ways ot Providence [ Who would have imagined at the first propagation of Christianity , that this holy religion could ever have been perverted to rhe basest purposes of human ambition ; and that its teachers should aim and arrive at the highest degree of domination over their brethren ! When mankind had seen the infamous
imposture in its plenitude of power , and the abject condition of ( he Christian world , who could foresee the mode of its fall ! A few teachers separated from the degraded church , but their disciples soon fell into the same maxims ; the same obedience to tradition was
inculcated , whether the infatuated Christian bowed to the popish or the protest ant yoke . Yet a severe blow has been struck on the grand imposture , and since our la c t a document has been given to the public , which shews , that the pope Ss no longer the terror of princes , and hopes may be entertained of his thorough debasement , not through protestants , but by means of papists themselves .
We have already observed , that the court of the pope was on the point of feeing dissolved . Our protestanr newspapers lamented this circumstance . To us it was an object of triumph . The © rder of disbanding has been followed "by an act of humiliation on the part of 1 m pretended holiness , under the threats
of Buonaparte , termed unmanly and brutal by our protestant brethren , which forms a fine contrast with the speech of one of his predecessors to Charles the jRfth , and the kissing of the pope ' s toe by that emperor . The emperor of
France , it seems , had intimated to the pope , that if he did riot act in a certain jnanner , his dominions should be taken from him , and not only his temporal dominions but his spiritual domination over the subjects of ^ France should be abrogated .
To avert these evils , the pretended holy , father brings in the considerations of his duty and his conscience—he talks mi the impropriety of the minister of
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the God df pfcact , placing- mmself in % state of perpetual warfare . He cannot , he says , shake off his power and natural character , and sacrifice , as must be the consequence , the interest of religion . His holine s , according to his own account , is invested with a two-fold
character , that of sovereign pontiff , and that of a temporal prince ; but his most important office is that of head , protector and avenger of the church . He calls heaven to witness the purity of his intentions . He has complied to the
utmost , but the emperor does not practise all those condescensions which he might towards the holy see . However thia pretended holiness can look with confidence to scripture , and receives consolation > , that blessed are those , who arc
persecuted for the sake of righteousness . His pretended holiness asserts the high privileges of his cardinals , whose office abrogates their primitive allegiance . He affects too good an opinion of , the illustrious clergy of France , to doubt of their attachment to the holy see . He mourns between the vestibule
and the altar ; and he declares one truth at least , and a truth we shall rejoice to see confirmed , that his deprivation will not be the work of political genius and illumination , but an awful visitation of God . Swch is t ^ ie language , now held by that false church , which has so long deluded the world . Its head seems to be at his last gaspi overthrown not by reason and conviction of his false pretences to spiritual authority , but by the exercise of similar force and fraud ,
which first raised i £ to such a high preeminence . How ought protestants to rejoice even in the troubles of these days , that an event so much to h& desired , should happen in their time * and that they may look forward for their children to enjoy that liberty » with whieh Christ intended to make them free , unshackled by those unscriptural decrees , which have borne so heavy on their ancestors . In vain has the pope deprecated the
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1808, page 392, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2394/page/40/
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