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Roman Church
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the light which would reveal their sins. God’s law, the standard of
righteousness, having been removed, they exercised power without
limit, and practiced vice without restraint. Fraud, avarice, and profli-
gacy prevailed. Men shrank from no crime by which they could gain
wealth or position. The palaces of popes and prelates were scenes
of the vilest debauchery. Some of the reigning pontiffs were guilty
of crimes so revolting that secular rulers endeavored to depose these
dignitaries of the church as monsters too vile to be tolerated upon
the throne. For centuries there was no progress in learning, arts,
or civilization. A moral and intellectual paralysis had fallen upon
Christendom.
In the condition of the world under the Romish power was pre-
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sented a fearful and striking fulfillment of the words of the prophet
Hosea: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because
thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee.” “Seeing thou
hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
“There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing
adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” [
Hosea 4:6, 1,
2
.] Such were the results of banishing the word of God.
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