The Little Horn by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1875

The Little Horn.

By John Norton Loughborough

We read in the prophecy of Daniel concerning the little horn, "He shall speak great words against the Most High." Dan. 7:25. In the testimony of John in Revelation, under the symbol of the beast with seven heads and ten horns with the "body like a leopard," which received the "seat and authority" of the pagan dragon, we have a clear symbol of the same power as Daniel's little horn. Of this beast we read, "He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven." Chap. 13:6. Paul, in speaking of the same power under the character of the man of sin, says: "He exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped." 2 Thess. 2:4.

When the Jews charged Christ with blasphemy, he did not repel the charge by telling them they did not know what blasphemy was. Their idea of it is illustrated in the following words: "For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.* John 10:33. A few quotations will suffice to show how the pope, and even priests, have spoken great words against the Most High, and even blasphemed, in that, being mere men, they have claimed the power, works, and names of Jehovah, and even power greater than God.

Cardinal Bellarmine, on the authority of the papal councils, says: "All the names which are given in the Scriptures to Christ, even these same names are given the pope; whence it appears he is superior to the church."---*Book ii., chap. 17.

In Gratian's Decretals, page 1, Dissertation 96, Pope Nicholas to Michael, chap. 7, says: "The pope is God and therefore men cannot judge him."

Bellarmine De Pontiff, liturgy 4, chap. 3, says: "The pope cannot possibly err in decrees as to faith. . . . No council is valid unless called and approved by him.

Said Cardillus to the Trentine fathers: "The pontiff holds, as a mortal God, the place of Christ on earth, and cannot be judged by a general council." The gloss of the canon law says: "The pope is not a man." Gerson as quoted by Carson and Ginonne says: "These esteem the pope a God who has all power in Heaven and earth.

The pontiff, say Jacobatius and Durand, possesses a plenitude of power, and none dare say to him, any more than to God, Lord, What doest thou? He can change the nature

of things, and make nothing out of something, and something out of nothing." Lainez, at the council of Trent, said: "The pope has the power of dispensing with all laws, and the same authority as the Lord."

The canon law says of the pope, "He can dispense with right." Stephen, Archbishop of Petraca, declared in the council of the Lateran, that Pope Leo possessed "power above all power, both in Heaven and earth."---*Decretals of Gregory III.

Pope Innocent III., who reigned from A. D. 1198 to A. D. 1218, said: "As God has placed two great luminaries in the firmament, the one to rule the day, and the other to give light by night, so has he established two great powers, the pontifical and the royal, and as the moon receives her light from the sun, so does royalty borrow its splendor from the papal authority."---Koch., p. 41.

Pope Martin V., who reigned from A. D. 1417 to A. D. 1431, said of himself, in his dispatches which he furnished his ambassadors to Constantinople: "The most holy and most happy, who is the arbiter of Heaven and the Lord of the earth, the successor of St. Peter, the anointed of the Lord, the Master of the Universe, the father of kings, the light of the world."---Rome as It Is, p. 181.

The author of the above work says; "Go to Rome, you will read on the gate of the city, Paulus iii. Pontifex Opt. Maxim. in terris deus---Paul iii., High Priest, the best, the greatest, and God on earth."

Pope Nicholas in his dissertation, says: "What power or potentate in the world is comparable to me, who have authority to bind and loose both in heaven and on earth. . . . . . to whom emperors and kings are inferior as lead is to gold."---*Dis. 22.

In a work entitled, "Conformity of Popery and Paganism," by C. C. Middleton, we read: "At the coronation of a pope, the cardinal deacon puts the triple crown on the pope's head, and addresses to him the following: 'Receive this tiara embellished with three crowns, and never forget that you are the father of princes and kings, the supreme judge of the universe, and on the earth, vicar of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.'"

The following is from a work by M. Gaume, approved by nine bishops and archbishops, and also by Pope Gregory XVI., who reigned from A. D. 1831 to A. D. 1846, who as a token of the appreciation of the said work, sent to Gaume the cross of the order of St. Sylvester. He says: "What human tongue can describe the dignity of the priesthood, and the greatness of the priest! The kings of the earth are mighty, who command armies, and shake the world by the sound of their names. But behold! There is a man still greater---there is a man who daily, when it pleases him, opens the gates of Heaven, addresses himself to the Son of the Eternal, to the monarch of the worlds, and says, 'Come down from your throne, come.' Obedient to the voice of this man, the Word of God, by whom all things were made, leaves instantly the abode of glory, incarnates himself in the hands of this man, more mighty than kings, than angels, than the august Mary; and this man says to him, 'You are my son; this day have I begotten you; you are my victim,' and he allows this man to immolate him, to place him wherever he wishes, and he gives him to whomsoever he chooses. This man is the priest!

"The priest is not only ALMIGHTY in Heaven, and over the God-man, but he is also almighty upon earth and over the mystical body of Jesus Christ. Behold! a man has fallen into the hands of the devil; what power will be able to deliver him? Call to the assistance of this unhappy man the angels and archangels, holy Michael* himself, chief of the heavenly host, conqueror of Satan and his revolted legions, they will never be able to sever the chains of the sinner who has placed his confidence in the wicked one. The priest can do it.

"Much more. Suppose that the Redeemer visibly descends in person to his church, and stations himself in the confessional to administer the sacrament of penance, while the priest occupies another. The Son of God says, I absolve you, and the priest says also, I absolve you; and the penitent finds himself absolved just as much by one as by the other.

"Thus, the priest, MIGHTY LIKE GOD, can instantly snatch the sinner from hell, render him worthy of pardon, and a slave of the devil be made a son of Abraham. And God himself is obliged to submit to the judgment of the priest, to grant or refuse his pardon according as the priest may grant or refuse absolution. The sentence of the priest precedes. God submits to it[!] Can any one conceive of a greater power?"

It was claimed by the Council of Trent, that in the mass, the priest not only had power to change the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ, but that "in the act of offering the sacrifice of the mass the priest becomes, at that time, the very person of Christ."

The above quotations are abundant to show that the papal power has fulfilled the work of the little horn, in that it has spoken "great words against the Most High."

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.