Page:One Link in the Chain of Apostolic Succesion; or, The Crimes of Alexander Borgia (1854).djvu/18

Rh what it has, nor be content without grasping for more; and this feeling will prepare the way for a feud between two great parties, which will lead to the subjugation of one or the other. The disciples of the church of Rome, or the descendants of the revolutionary patriots, must eventually rule the United States; and the time has come when it is a question for serious consideration whether it shall be ruled by us or them.

I am not one who has a penchant for prophesying evil, nor for creating an alarm when there is not any danger. I have drawn my conclusions on this subject from a critical analyzation of the motives and principles that have been the life of the Romish church since the days of the Borgias. Wherever it has acquired even a moderate degree of power, it has left a track of blood. Wherever its supremacy has been such as to warrant the experiment, it has been a harbinger of destruction, death and desolation, to all who have ventured to oppose it by word or deed. And such it will ever be,—such it will finally be in America, should its strength ever be so overwhelming as to make this end one easy of accomplishment, which God forbid!

It is believed that Americans are not sufficiently aware of the nature of the church of Rome to treat its modern developments with a proper seriousness; and hence this work is written. It is believed that its claim to be considered the church, and the only legitimate church of the Messiah, has not been considered in a manner that does justice to its pretensions. It is believed that the mysteries and iniquities of its secret tribunals have not been explained as elaborately as is desirable for the advancement of humanity and Protestantism. It is also believed that the character of the men who have filled the Papal chair, and are now worshipped as saints, and as the successors of St. Peter in the legitimate order of apostolic succession, has never been revealed to the world in a style as distinct and highly-colored as the subject is worthy of; and