OF THF.
AT
PRINCETON, N. J.
SAMUEL AG NEW,
OF PHILiDElPHIi, FA.
Q4t>
BX 1504 .M355 1836
M'Ghee, Robert J. 1789-1872
Truth and error contrasted
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TRUTH AND ERROR CONTRASTED.
Crtitb an& Crror Contrastrii.
AN INQUIRY
INTO THE
NECESSITY OF PROMOTING THE REFORMATION
OP THE
ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND,
PREFACED BY AN ADDRESS TO THEM ;
TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED,
REFLECTIONS ON THE SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE
Btsijopg & CUrgg of tyt fEstablfeJ)** Cfjurci)
IN REFERENCE TO THE CHURCH OF ROME.
z
By the REV. ROBERT J. M'GHEE, A.B
" So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are
at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; for it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." — Rom. i. 15, 16.
LONDON :
ROBERT H. C. TIMS, 21, WIGMORE STREET,
CAVENDISH SQUARE;
SAMUEL BAGSTER, PATERNOSTER ROW;
RICHARD MOORE TIMS, DUBLIN.
1836.
CONTENTS.
Page
ADDRESS to Roman Catholics .. .. .. i
Great Question for Roman Catholics to attend to . . vii
Point on which Controversy chiefly turns . . . . xii
Roman Catholics and Socinians both reject the Gospel— how xvi
Author's apology for plainness and strength of expression xvij
Roman Catholics victims, not authors, of their superstition xix
Difference between liberty of Protestant, and slavery of Roman
Catholic . . . . . . . . . . xxi
False appeal of Roman Catholics to antiquity, and true appeal
of Protestants, proved . • . . . . xxiii
Appeal to the laws of evidence, to disprove the authority of
Fathers .. .. .. .. .. xxviii
Criminal traffic for souls of men in the Church of Rome. . xxxi
Mahomedanism and Roman Catholic Religion, compared with
the Gospel . . . . . . . . . . xxxii
Impossibility of Roman Catholic Priests preaching the Gospel xxxix
Invitation to Church of Rome to produce one who can . . xli
Author prompted by spirit of kindness, not of hostility . . xlii
Roman Catholics virtually interdicted the vise of the Bible xlv
Earnest wishes for their happiness from Author . . xlviii
LETTER I. To Editor of Blackwood's Magazine, containing
prefatory remarks on the Article in that work . . 1
LETTER II. Whether it is imperative on Protestants, to
attempt the reformation of Roman Catholics . . 9
Two propositions, of passage attacked by writer in Blackwood 1 2
Remarks on popular meaning of the word charity . . IT
Genuine Christian Charity — what .. •• 19
Examination of limitation of Charity to Atheists, Deists, and
Socinians .. .. .. .. «. 21
Concessions of writer in Blackwood, applied to Church of Rome 26
Principles of Church of England compared with those he advances 28
LETTER III. Enquiry into the nature of the Roman Catholic
religion .. .. .. .. .. 31
Gospel of Christ— what . . - . . . • . .34
Popular errors respecting God's law .. .. 35
Justification by works, the radical falsehood of Romish and all
false religions . . . . . . . . . . 38
CONTENTS.
Roman Catholic perversion of law, and ignorance of tbe nature
of sin 40
Venial and mortal sins, falsehood, and wickedness of the dis-
tinction • . . . . • • • • ♦ 42
Roman Catholics unable to distinguish between them— false
standards set up which they cannof know — audacity and atro-
city of tbe doctrine of the Church of Rome, sanctioning
theft, lies, and flatly contradicting the Scripture . . 43
Monstrous absurdity and wickedness of her doctrine as to ex-
cuse for sins . . . . . . • . • • 47
LETTER IV. On opposition of doctrine of Penance to gospel.
Dr. Doyle's Catechism— awful ignorance of God's law exhibited
in it .. .. •• .. •• 51
Church of Rome opposed to all the attributes of God . . 53
How divine justice is to be averted from man — false hopes of
man— inflexibility of divine justice. Truth proposed to man
in reference to work of Christ — Righteousness of Christ —
Atonement of Christ— Holiness, Justice, Truth— Mercy of
God in Christ— Salvation through Christ to tbe chief of
sinners. Morality, how enforced ; Only provided for; Only
brought forth from faith in the Gospel . . . . 54, 64
Penance a denial of the Gospel— Dr. Doyle's Catechism 65
Misery of the poor Roman Catholic who rests on it . . 68
Contradictions, inconsistencies, and cruelty of the Church of
Rome .. .. .. -. ... 70
Influence of superstition on a man of talents like Dr. Doyle 73
Gospel as preached by the Apostle Peter . . . . 76
Salvation by Christ denied by the Church of Rome . . 79
Sets up herself instead of Christ as a refuge for sinners . . 81
LETTER V. The Mass opposed to the Gospel of Christ S3
Dr. Doyle's Catechism, inconsistency of . . . . 86
Mass opposed in four particulars : First, denies the Gospel in
being assumed as a sacrifice for sin .. .. ^8
Christ's Offering complete — to make any other offering denies
this . . . . . . . . ..90,92
Secondly, Denies the Gospel in being assumed to be a bloodless
sacrifice.. inconsistency of Dr. Doyie's Catechism on this 93
Thirdly, Denies tbe Gospel in being assumed to be a repeated
sacrifice . _ . . . . . . . . 97
The priests hereby as inefficient as Jewish priests . . 99
Fourthly, The mass denies the Gospel in being assumed to be
Jesus Christ himself .. .. .. .. 100
If Jesus Christ were actually to die again, it would totally
invalidate all the present revelation of the Gospel . . 101
Appeal to common sense of Roman Catholics .. 102, 103
LETTER VI. Purgatory a denial of the Gospel— shows the
insufficiency of nil the offerings of the Church of Rome 104
Dr. Doyle's Cutechism— inconsistency of Catechisms .. 106
Impossible for a Roman Catholic to know whether he is to go
to hell or to purgatory .. .. .. 107
Catalogue of mortal aud venial sins — atrocity of doctrine of
theft .. .. .. .. .. 109
CONTENTS.
Several Roman Catholic servants more upright, than the doc-
trine of the Church . . . . . . . . Ill
Purgatory denies that Christ's blood can purge from sin 114
Purgatory for rich and not for poor — a tax on the affections of
the heart— a mockery of God — a setting up of heaven to
auction .. .. .. ' .. . . 116, 117
LETTER VII. Examination of letter in Blackwood— writer
exhibits a lamentable ignorance of the Bible — sentiments
identical with those of Mr. Maguire — both alike opposed to
the Word of God . . . . . . .. 1 19, 124
Falsehood of the principle that truth is preserved in the Church
of Rome— Churches no depositories of divine truth — Bible
alone the depository .. .. ..125,128
All divine truth extinguished in the Church of Rome — Apostles
Creed no exception— Father and Son denied by that Church
129, 132
Principle of "believing too much," and "believing too little,"
examined .. .. .. .. .. 133,136
Examination of writer's attack on Reformation Society agrees
with Mr. Maguire and Mr. Maddocks. Reformation Society
why hateful to Roman Catholics, Infidels, and nominal Pro-
testants — on account of false principles held by them, espe-
cially the false principle of Justification .. ..138,1-12
Inconsistency of writer in Blackwood charging Reformation
Society with using offensive epithets. Falsehood of his state-
ment as to Reformation meetings. Miserable expedients he
proposes for Reformation — Bible no share in them. Wretched
prospects of Ireland left to such speculators. Concluding
Address to the Editor of Blackwood himself .. 143, 150
REFLECTIONS on Solemn Responsibilities and Duties of
Bishops and Clergy. Present state of the Church as to tem-
poral and spiritual concerns. Guilt as to allowing the
Church of Rome to enslave men without an effort to awaken
them. Danger to be apprehended, not from man, but from
the just displeasure of God .. .. .. 153,156
Great blessings of Church of England, .spiritual and temporal.
Reproof of those who would strip her of temporal posses-
sions — responsibilities which they entail on her . . 156, 1 60
Comparison of Reformers with bishops and ministers of the
present day — our deadness to the increase and tyranny of
Romish superstition. Comparison of energy of churchmen
on emancipation bill, with their apathy and indolence on
spiritual questions of the Church of Rome and Church of
England .. .. .. .. 161,164
Comparison of our privileges with our conduct— open profes-
sion of calling them idolatrous and superstitious, by Com-
mons, Peers Spiritual and Temporal — truth of this profes-
sion— guilt of upbraiding them thus, and doing nothing to re-
form them .. .. .. .. 164,168
Supposition of Church of England in Hindostan neglecting
Hindoos— her guilt in such a case applied to her conduct to
the Church of Rome .. .. .. 168, 173
CONTENTS.
Inconsistency and criminality of Government in supporting
Ma) nooth— agitation of the country a just retribution on ]
them— total negligence of the Church on the subject— not
holding up the Gospel exclusively as the hope of sinners —
cause to fear the displeasure of the Lord. Contemptible
security afforded by human laws — danger of Church . . 174, 178
Cause of Apathy as to Popery— approximation to it in funda-
mental principles as to Justification— neglected in Protes-
tant Church, Doctrine of Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy
ridiculed by multitudes of Protestants. Justification by faith,
importance of — called by various opprobrious names— the
man who does not hold it, no spiritual member of the Church
of England — appeal to such a man — Church of England no
spiritual church without it .. . • -• 179,188
Homilies of the Church invaluable. Attempt to discredit them
as Church standards. Examination of Author's arguments.
Homilies not u unusable" — excellent and faithful. No ser-
mon of same length in print, superior to Homily onSalvation.
Neglect of the principles of the Homilies cause of the neglect
of Popery .. .. .. .. 188,194
Principle of opposition to Reformation Societies, on the ground
of the existence of other Societies, examined— none of them
profess to make proselytes. Individuals opposed to the avowal
of making proselytes — quotation from Dr. Baynes, a Rom-
ish bishop, on this subject— a temporizing policy, unworthy
of Christians. Existing societies proved not sufficient by
fact. Guilt of neutrality in this cause. Objections of men
who affect to be very " judicious ," examined. Quotation
from Mr. Macabe, a Romish priest, calculated to put us to
shame. All importance of religion — it is every thing or
nothing .. .. .. .. .. 194,210
Sentiment of the Lord Bishop of Ferns on duties of Clergy to
Roman Catholics— Author's apology for examining it —
considers it pregnant with evil to the Church— that adher-
ence to it has caused her present calamitous condition. -
shuts out salvation from Roman Catholics — shuts up the
lips of the Clergy .. .. .. 211,215
Great question as to the state of Roman Catholics— Gospel of
Christ, the most powerful controversy against them. The
Lord Bishop's advice opposed to the command of our Lord.
Ministers of the Church of England bound to teach them,
as placed under our care .. .. .. 215,219
Opinion of the Lord Bishop as to Roman Catholics supporting
the Clergy, examined. Vows of Bishops and Ministers
compared with his Lordship's admonition. Solemn com-
mand ol God to the Watchmen. Lofty Watch-tower on
which the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England
are placed : immense talents entrusted to them— awful re-
ipootibilit) before God, Have not warned the wicked from
Ins way. God's controversy with the Church of England.
II the Church had done her duty, the people of Ireland had
been rescued Iron) temporal and everlasting ruin .. 220, 22*
CONTENTS.
Weakness of human laws to support a Church— Church of
England has been resting on them. Church in danger-
Watchmen asleep— Bishops and Clergy called on to consi-
der their deep accountability. Reformers, if they could
revive, would be shocked to see the state of the country,
and. hear such an admonition from a Bishop. Luther.
Apostles acted not on this .. .. .. 228,231
Solemn command of the Lord to Prophets, compared with the
principle of the Bishop of Ferns — that principle refuted by
the proceedings of all the Apostles ; detailed proof of this
from the Acts. Character of St. Paul — whole history of
the Christian faith, .the very existence of Christianity a re-
futation of it . . . . . . 232, 243
Question taken up on the Lord Bishop's own ground. Roman
Catholics have evinced a disposition to listen ; proved by
Reformation meetings at Carlow, Ennis, and several parts
of the country, and the Rotunda in Dublin. Means of
Reformers compared with ours. Guilt of giving over our
country to superstition . . . . . . 243, 253
Conduct of Bishops and Clergy to the Church of Rome, the
cause of provoking the judgments of God on our church.
Question again put as to the awful state of Roman Ca-
tholics ; only hope for them, that they do not believe the
doctrines of their Church. Appeal to Bishops and Minis-
ters of the Church as to solemn pledge ; authority of God
forgotten in that of man . . . . . . 253, 250
Wretched state of the Church ; audacity of the press ; Call on
men to stand forward and defend the Establishment. Po-
litical hostility to Popery, confounded with the spiritual
duty of ministers. False and true zeal for the Protestant
Church, what . . . . . . . . 254, 259
Two Prelates who have stood forth against Romish super-
stition. Our Lord's reproof to the Church of Ephesus —
lesson from it. Supposition that a law were passed to make
us act as we do — outcry against it. Guilt of carrying the
principle into action. Bishop of Ferns' admonition of same
tendency. Grievous and universal neglect of our duty 259, 265
First works of the Church of England, what ? Fidelity of
her Reformers. Solemn Reflections for every Bishop and
Minister. Question, what is to be done ? Plan of Refor-
mation in every Diocese. Mode of instructing Roman
Catholics .. .. .. ... 265,273
Missionaries, how to be supported — what sort of men to be,
in doctrine, capabilities, acquirements, conduct on mission.
Doctrine, fundamental— Justification by Faith. Incompe-
tence of man who does not preach it. Bible, great wea-
pon of controversy. Fathers, Councils— Priests, utterly
unable to wield or grapple with the Word of God . . 273, 2S0
Extemporaneous preaching— attempt to suppress it, impro-
priety of— objection to it examined — difficult to men who
do not preach the truth. Preaching in Irish, glorious field
of usefulness. Prayer. Acquirements. Bible, great point
CONTENTS.
to be adhered to. A flection to souls of Roman Catholics.
This plan, or something to be tried, not to remain dead 280, 293
Plan of Reformation in Dublin and large towns. Prospects
for Ireland — unpopularity of work — Author's feelings on
it. Statements, true or false. No time for compliments.
Extremes of presumptuous insubordination and blind sub-
mission to authority. Right and duty of individual judg-
ment on. fundamental points — evils encompassing every
path— sins attendant on all we do .. .. 293,301
Objection anticipated. Names of contempt borrowed from
God's word. Sad proof of the state of religion. Bibli-
cal, honorable title. Evangelical, how used — how said to
be applied — profanity of abuse of the terms. True evan-
gelical doctrine. Awful state of man in any rank in the
Church who does not preach the Gospel. Saints, guilt of
profaning the term— inconsistency of those who profane it
— openly profaned in a certain assembly — miserable state
of a church where it is a term of reproach — could not have
been so in the apostolical church. Saint, popish use of the
term— true meaning of it— what to be a Saint — whatnot
to be a Saint. Sajnt and monarch compared .. 302,316
Party in Church, charge of supporting it anticipated — duty to
support it in maintaining truth. Dignity of man to stand
alone in defence of truth .. .. .. 316,319
Author does not examine, who is, or who is not evangelical
— charge of neglect of Popery falls heaviest on those who
are so — men not really so, as bad as any Roman Catholics.
Evangelical men peculiarly guilty— conduct unevangelical,
unapostolical. Inconsistency of sending missionaries abroad,
and neglecting heathen superstition at home. Missionaries
only fit to be recalled who act abroad, as those who send
them act at home— case put. Criminal excuses of men,
who decline to exert themselves — superior advantages here.
Party in such a cause most honourable .. 319,327
Great question again slated and answered. Address to evan-
gelical men. Apostrophe to Ireland. Guilt of the Church
in educating Romish priests. Character of Paul. Sin of
Bishops in allowing Maynooth to be maintained. No
wonder the State is oppressed with agitation, and the
Church with threats of subversion .. .. 327,335
Remarks on a certain class of divines in the sister countries,
especially in London. Guilt and folly of their conduct - •
false principles which they set forth — foolish questions and-
divisions which they stir up — neglect of the Gospel — call
on them to attempt to reform Roman Catholics and infidels,
and to leave their carnal contentions. Great principles to
be kept in view — only means of effective exeition. Con-
clusion .. .. .. .. 336,344
PREFACE.
The vast importance of the subject treated of in the
following pages, demands an apology for the time that
has elapsed, between the date, and the publication of the
Letters contained in it. A statement of the circum-
stances which elicited them, and which prevented their
being sooner issued from the press, will, it is hoped, be
considered sufficient.
In the month of July, 1829, a paper appeared in
Blackwood's Magazine, containing a very crude but
acrimonious attack, on the " Society for promoting
the religious principles of the Reformdtion^" which
had been formed in the metropolis of this country,
under the patronage of his Grace the Archbishop of
Dublin. Among other subjects on which the author
of that paper gave vent to his indignation, he particu-
larly fastened on a passage in a speech, which the writer
VI
of these pages had delivered at the formation of this
Society in the Rotunda ; and he attempted to charge
what he called its " bigotry and intolerance," upon the
whole Society. The writer felt he was called on, either
to vindicate the truth of the sentiment which he had
uttered, or to acknowledge its error ; not from any con-
siderations connected with his own character, but for
the sake of truth — for the sake of his Roman Catholic
countrymen, whose eternal interests were involved —
and for the sake of that Society, which he considers
the most important in its object, that Ireland ever
saw. But this article appeared at a time, when he
was ordered to Harrowgate by his medical attendants,
and directed to preserve a total relaxation from
every exertion both of mind and body. It was in
this state, when he was unable to bear the protracted
mental fatigue, and anxiety, of controversial writing,
or controversial thinking, that he endeavoured to hurry
over the letters, written, as they are dated, to the
Editor of Blackwood's Magazine. He had hoped to
compress into one or two letters, matter, which has ex-
panded into seven ; and he sent them over, as soon as
written, to be printed : but a long continuation of ill-
ness, prevented him on his return, from superintending
the correction of the press : and it was not till the
commencement of the present year, that he was able
to desire the printer to proceed. This delay, and the
circumstances of the Reformation Society ; the tota
neglect of the Protestant Church on this most imperative
and important duty, of openly endeavouring to enlighten
their Roman Catholic neighbours; and the increased
Vll
facility of exertion, which the relaxation of the penal
statutes seemed to afford, by removing the objection,
that the Society was a cover for a mere political attack
on Roman Catholics, led the writer to consider, that it
might be useful, that an individual, however insigni-
ficant, should offer some considerations, on the duties
and responsibilities of the Established Church, in refer-
ence to their Roman Catholic brethren. While he
was engaged in this, a sentiment expressed from very
high authority, relative to the duties of the clergy, on
this important subject, seemed, when it appeared, to
call for some plain and honest examination, not only on
account of the high respectability and influence, of the
quarter from whence it proceeded, but from the dan-
gerous effects which it was calculated to produce upon
the church ; administering an opiate, instead of a sti-
mulant, in that protracted torpor of spiritual energy —
that long continued lethargy of criminal indifference,
from which, even an inexperienced practitioner might
judge, that if the church be not awakened, she cannot
long survive. These considerations, added to the neglect
of the spiritual interests of our Roman Catholic friends,
even by those who acknowledged the necessity of ex-
ertion in their behalf, seemed to call for some faithful
appeal to the understandings, the judgments, and the
consciences of those, who felt any interest in the pro-
pagation of the Gospel, in the salvation of Roman Ca-
tholics, or the preservation of the Established Religion
in our land. In making this appeal, the writer humbly
trusts he can lay claim to honesty of intention, and he
does not fear to say, that he knows he has set forth the
Vlll
principles of truth. For the subject itself he offers no
apology, he solicits no indulgence, he deprecates no
severity of reproof from the theologian, or of criticism
from the scholar : the dignity and importance of truth,
lift it up above all such considerations. But for the
numerous defects in composition, he must apologize by
saying, that as the work was written at numerous inter-
vals, during a time of continual bodily weakness, and
much mental depression, he was unable to write as the
importance of the subject deserved ; but he was anxious
to bring it through the press, from a deep sense of that
importance, and the thought that his pen might soon
be silent for ever.
Although intended chiefly for members of the
Established Church, yet as it was written on the con-
troversy with Roman Catholics, and might appear
in some parts likely to wound their feelings, it
seemed incomplete without a prefatory address to them.
To speak the truth without offence, would be, to be
wiser than Him, who spake as "never man spake,"
but the only offence which the writer would not fear
to give, is the " offence of the cross." It is time that
Roman Catholics should be addressed as men, and as
brethren — that the distinction between the truth of the
Protestant religion, and the errors of their doctrines,
should be marked by some other feeling than that of
political hostility and penalties of law ; and if it be ad-
mitted a blessing, that Christianity should be established
as the religion of the nation, it is time that a rational and
intelligent race of men, should learn to recognize in it
IX
something more, than a state provision for the instruc-
tion of one portion of the people, which protests against
the guilt and idolatry of the rest, and which without
an effort to save, leaves them to perish in their ignorance*
The writer is aware, that by a large proportion of
those who are called the enlightened part of the com-
munity, the proper exercise of Christian charity, is
considered to be a perfect toleration, not only of per-
sons, but of principles ; and that the line of conduct
thought most proper for members of the Established
Church, is, to allow all men to think, and speak on the
subject of religion as they please, without presuming,
as it is called, to judge them — he is aware, that any
attempt to limit that religion, which alone can save the
soul, to certain defined principles, to the exclusion of
those men who reject them, is, in their opinion, only the
acme of prejudice, intolerance, and uncharitable bigo-
try; but there is ONE, whose word can never be ac-
commodated to the fluctuations of our modern vocabu-
laries, of which the firm unchanging language, like its
Author, is "the same yesterday, to-day 3 and for ever ;"
from this source, the writer has derived those principles
that militate against the doctrines of this fashionable
liberality — there was a time, when the Christian truth. ?
was exclusively identified with the laws and constitution
of the British empire, and seemed to borrow a stability
from human institutions, which perhaps, in the estima-
tion of many, made it superfluous to vindicate, and
unnecessary to defend it; but that time is past for
ever — the Christian faith is no longer an integral part
of Britain's Constitution — as a nation, she no longer
stands up in that capacity, in which alone the acts of a
nation are to be recognized viz. — in the enactments and
administrations of her laws, to identify herself with the
God of truth, as He is revealed in his Holy Word, to
bear her testimony against the principles that undeify
her Redeemer by their infidelity, or nullify his great
salvation by their superstition — as a nation she has
held up her forehead to receive the mark of the beast,
and when the mark of the beast is branded on her
brow, the God of mercy alone can tell, when the judg-
ments of the beast shall overtake her guilt. The wri-
ter does not mean to raise a cry against the administra-
tion that repealed the acts, whichexcluded infidelity from
offices of trust, and superstition from them, and from the
parliament of England — they acted as politicians under
the pressure of a necessity which they were alike unable
to encounter, or avoid— they saw what any man of com-
mon sense could see, that the penal laws could only
have been continued at the point of the bayonet in
Ireland, and they could not feel, that such an alterna-
tive was eligible, either on the principles of policy or
of humanity. The objections urged against Roman
Catholics in the legislature, were the evil tendencies of
their political principles, but the administration must
have gone to study the obsolete works of our Refor-
mers, to have discovered the evils in their religion : they
felt it the province of legislators to come to a decision
on the policy, as they perceived, that the Church had
long since abandoned the theology of the question.
They laboured under evils that had been long and
progressively accumulated, under the pressure of ne-
cessities, to which every day was bringing aggravated
weight, which they thought it were a less convulsive
struggle, to heave from their shoulders, than to attempt
to carry on, till they should sink under the load.
Perhaps the mind of a soldier does not readily com-
prehend the nice refinements of casuistical distinctions,
under which the penal code could have been continued.
It may have struck a plain straight forward man, that
when a nation had gone on for years, to train up a col-
lege of Priests, to teach the people a certain code of
principles, it were not within the strict limits of justice,
to punish them, and that people for profiting by this edu-
cation. It may have seemed anomalous, that the expres-
sion of principles, should have been continued to be
gravely, and solemnly imposed on men by law, on the
occasion of entering into the legislature, which were
scouted by common consent, out of the ordinary
intercourses of society — and that a people, whose opi-
nions were tolerated to acquiescence, if not to appro-
bation, as being those of Christianity in the common
usages of national intercourse, should be pronounced
"superstitious and idolatrous" on certain state occa-
sions, by those, of whom many stood up the next mo-
ment, even on that very spot, to disclaim the very prin-
ciples they had expressed, and virtually to recant the
asseverations they had uttered.
While torrents of opprobrium are poured out by
Protestants, upon those who have brought in Roman
Catholics to participate in the councils of the nation,
Xll
let us ask what have they done ? Let the man who
counts it the greatest curse, that ever fell upon an infa-
tuated country, as it certainly is, to sever its laws, its
government, and its constitution, by a legislative
enactment from the truth of the living God, and to
take infidelity and idolatry into partnership in her po-
litics, let him ask, what has the administration done ?
Let him ask, to what is their conduct to be traced ?
and what man of common sagacity, and principle, and
knowledge, can beat a loss to answer? They have enacted
into the law of the land, what the criminal neglect of
true religion had long since permitted to be surreptitiously
established in the law of opinion — this transition may
be slow, but it is certain. In a free country, like Bri-
tain, the laws of the land must borrow their complex-
ion from the law of public opinion ; and on a question
which agitates the public mind, or which endangers the
public security of property, or life, it is not possible,
that they can hold for any length of time, an opposite
tone of language. What then, has been the case in
Britain ? the total neglect of the Roman Catholic su-
perstitions, and of the truth of God, as contradis-
tinguished from them, on the part of the Established
Church, had allowed the public mind to stagnate into
such ignorance, and apathy upon the subject, that it was
considered at length uncharitable to suppose, that Ro-
man Catholics were not just as safe and just as good
Christians as Protestants, provided they conducted
themselves as sober and respectable members of society,
notwithstanding they held certain opinions which might
not be very good; it was said iha,Uhe/ormer errorsof their
Xlll
religion were passing away, that the Roman Catholics of
the present day were enlightened and liberal, and had
quite renounced those dogmas which had been maintained
in the darker ages of the Church. One person who was
thought their ablest advocate, introduced a bill into
parliament on one occasion in their behalf, which
they properly termed his " humbug bill J* when he
made an oration, denying that they held the doc-
trine of transubstantiation, and explaining it away
in such terms, that one of them wrote an instant, an
honest, and an indignant answer, spurning the impu-
tation, and him who cast it on them, in unmeasured
language. In short, the universal ignorance, the uni-
versal apathy, the universal blindness as to the
errors of their religion, had so lowered the law of opi-
nion on the subject, that there was scarcely to be
found, shall I say, a man in the Parliament of Eng-
land, who would have ventured, in any company, to
assert, that the terms, which he was constrained of-
ficially to apply to the religion of Roman Catholics, were
to be justified on the authority of reason, and the Holy
Word of God. It was laid down as charity in Pro-
testants, not to cast any imputations on their religion ;
but to counterbalance this, Protestantism was attempted
to be upheld, by proportionably severe reflections upon
their loyalty — Guy Faux was duly carried round in
England — " No Popery" was annually chalked in le-
gible characters upon the walls in her streets — the
"glorious and immortal memory" was drank, with three
times-three in Ireland — and the statue of King Wil-
liam was dressed on the 12th of July, and the 4th of No-
XIV
vember; and if these, and the orations of Brunswick
Clubs, and the parading of Orange lodges, had been
the proper means of upholding the Gospel of Christ,
of subverting the evils of Roman Catholic superstition,
and of counteracting the solid, growing influence of six
millions of men, acquiring rank, and property, and
education, and influence, in every corner of the country
— men, whose religion was the pretext for their exclu-
sion from the state ; but the errors, of whose religion
no man would dare to impeach, and the teachers of
whose religion, the very government of the country
was training up in a college for their profession, the
constitution of England had been Christian to this day.
It is not then the crime of England, when the grow-
ing weight and power of Roman Catholics, and the
laxity and ignorance of Protestants, in not only tole-
rating, but acquiescing in, extenuating, softening
down, and explaining away the errors of their religion,
had so lowered, so debased the standard of public opi-
nion, that the distinction between truth and falsehood,
was almost totally lost sight of in the nation — that her
government did not permit the law of the land to borrow
a sanction from the Established religion for its enactments,
which that religion appeared utterly unwilling or in-
competent to justify — it was not the crime of England,
that when the swords of a divided nation were already
half drawn from their scabbards, the administration had
rather force them back into the sheath, than permit the
people to bury them, each in the bosom of his neighbour
— it was not the crime of England, no longer to permit
the highest official authorities in the nation, to pledge
XV
themselves, as to the superstitions and idolatries, of
a vast body of her subjects within the walls of her
senate house, to which, without those walls, even
her spiritual peers, with one or two exceptions, did
not venture to allude, except with reference to their
political bearing on the interests of the nation —
it was not the crime of England to admit into the
participation of the rights, immunities, and privileges of
all her constitution, a vast, and growing body of her
subjects, whom she had nurtured, cherished, fostered,
and educated with her treasures in the principles of their
religion — whom her monarch and his representatives had
laboured to conciliate— whose title to the name of genuine
Christians, hardly one of all the learned, talented, ex-
alted, and endowed ministers, professors and dignitaries
of her church had ventured to impeach ; and whose
errors seemed so venial, that not one of them attempted
their reform. This was not the crime of England
No — but her crime as a nation — her crime as a Chris-
tian nation — her crime as a nation, with a Church so
excellent in its principles, so honoured, so gifted, so ex-
alted by its God, as never Christian church was honoured
and gifted and exalted upon earth, was this— that the
Church, of that nation, could have so far forgotten its
professions, its duties, its obligations before God and
man, as to allow such a state of principles to arise, to
progress, and to accumulate to such a consummation.
Her crime was this, that thatChurch could have permitted
the principles of superstition, of idolatry, and of true
religion, to be so blended, so confounded, and so melted
down together in the crucible of public opinion, that
XVI
the base alloy, the product of the process, was circu-
lated by moral impostors, under the name of charity
and liberality throughout the nation. It was a con-
venient medium for ignorance to trade with ; it rose in
popularity, till it is at last adopted, and sanctioned by
the law, cast at the mint, stamped with the king's im-
age, and has become the current coin of the country.
Her crime is this — not that the votaries of infidelity,
idolatry, and superstition were admitted to hold offices
of trust in her state, and to legislate for her Church —
but that that Church, could have so forgotten her duties
to her fellow-creatures, and to her God, that with all
her gifts, her powers, her privileges, her dignities — with
all that talent could command, that learning could ac-
quire — that wealth, and rank, and honour could bestow
— with the homage of a nation prostrate at her feet,
and the principles of a people ready to be moulded to
her will — and if we look to her invaluable principles,
with the girdle of truth on her loins, the " helmet of sal-
vation" on her head, the "shield of faith 1 ' on her arm, and
" the sword of the Spirit" in her hand — with all the pri-
vileges of earth, and all the blessings of heaven — that
with all these, she has allowed six millions of her sub-
jects, multiplied by all the generations that have passed
since God showered down these mercies on her head, to
remain sunk in ignorance, idolatry, and superstition,
whom she has not honestly attempted to instruct, to
enlighten, or to reform. The talents that have been
entrusted to her — as far as Roman Catholics have been
concerned — she has buried in a napkin : the light that
has been vouchsafed to her— as far as their interests
XVII
have been involved — she has hid under a bushel. Here
— here is the crime of Britain as a Christian nation ; and
if ever Church and State were identified together, it is
here — not, that she has emancipated Roman Catholics
from political restrictions, but that she has not emanci-
pated them from all the awful tyranny of error that ever
rendered those restrictions necessary for the security of
true religion in the country. Not that she has placed
Roman Catholics to legislate for herself and her religion,
but that there remains in the nineteenth century, one sin-
gle man, so ignorant of the Gospel, as a Roman Catholic,
to be found in her land. What was she to have done
with them ? To have expelled them — persecuted them
— coerced them? God forbid. To persecute a man for
following the dictates of his conscience in the worship
of his God, is a crime abhorrent from the spirit of the
Gospel : to coerce him against his conscience, is, if pos-
sible, an aggravation of that crime ; but to possess, in
the fullest sense, all the means of dealing with him, as
a rational, and intelligent, and reflecting immortal be-
ing — to have the power of displaying towards him,
from the superiority of circumstances, all the anxieties
of Christian benevolence, of exercising the energies of
Christian fidelity, and discharging the offices of Chris-
tian love — to possess all the human means of appealing
to his understanding, of improving his judgment, and of
enlightening his conscience, by supplying it with a pro-
per standard of principle and conduct— and in the midst
of all these advantages, to protest against his errors, to
upbraid him with his ignorances, but to leave him to
grow, and to harden, and to perish in them, without one
XV1U
honest uncompromising effort to enlighten, to instruct,
1 ) rescue, and to save him, appears as criminal a system
of delinquency as ever yet disgraced a people who
i ailed themselves by the name of Christian. How far
this has been followed by us, the members of the Es-
tablished Church, in reference to Roman Catholics, let
facts, and Ireland determine.
To suppose that the nature of the Roman Catholic
1 eligion is altered, is to exhibit an ignorance only com-
mensurate with such conduct. It is to suppose that the
onemy of man's immortal soul, has abandoned the
most perfect system for his enthralment, his incarcera-
tion in mental darkness, his subjugation in a state of
alienation from his God, and his total and eternal ruin,
that he has ever invented since the fall. To suppose
that he will not use every advantage, which temporal
advancement and power can bestow, to subvert and
crush every effort to enlighten and emancipate the peo-
ple of this nation, from the darkness and thraldom in
which he holds them, is to suppose, that his nature is
regenerated, and that he has ceased to be, " the old ser-
pent, the devil." The crisis is drawing near, in what-
ver way men may interpret the predictions of the
Tord of God, when the rightful Monarch of the
,-orld, shall assert his just dominion, and " take unto
limself His kingdom" — when He, who has gone into
the "far country," shall return, and demand of his ser-
vants their account. The signs of the times speak
louder than the trumpets of war, and give no uncertain
sound of His approach. " Upon the earth distress of
XIX
nations with -perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring
— men' s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking
after those things which are coming upon the earth ;"
the ranks are mustering — the line of demarcation is
drawing upon the world, and the question, " Who is
on the Lord's side ? Who ?" is sounding in the ears
of every man's conscience, who is not dead in his tres-
passes and sins. What are Constitutions ? Establish-
ments ? Ancient Institutions ? Thrones ? Vapours, bub-
bles, shadows, clouds ; every country in Europe echoes
round its mountains, hills, and vallies, the breath of the
mob that blows them to the winds. Where is Britain,
and where is her Established Church, to look for her
security ? where, but in fidelity to the cause of her
Redeemer ? where, but in holding up His truth with
boldness ; and, instead of accommodating herself to the
guilt and errors of those, who are apostatized from her
God; in putting on His armour, and going forth in His
strength, to fight His battles in her spiritual conflict
with His foes ? Let all who know the value of the
Gospel in the land, awaken to a sense of their duty to
the Roman Catholic population of this country— let
the minds of the miserable inhabitants, be turned from
the machinations of those who would mislead them
into temporal and eternal ruin ; to the contemplation
of those truths in which their real happiness consists,
and in which alone they can discover, the guilt and mi-
sery of their present state of spiritual bondage, and moral
degradation. But as this subject is treated of at length
in the following pages, it is unnecessary to anticipate it.
Every scene exhibited upon the theatre of Europe since
XX
this work has been in the press— every movement in
this country, which indicates a determination in the
minds, at least of some incendiaries, to get up, if pos-
sible, some tragedy in our native land, evinces, that it is
only in the favour and protection of God, the nation can
be safe, only in His arm, she can be strong. To halt
between two opinions, and neither to follow God nor
Baal, to conciliate falsehood by the abandonment of
truth, to temporize, and to substitute a contemptible
expediency,for boldness, decision, fidelity, and zeal for
the glory of God, and the salvation of men, is only to
draw down deservedly on the head of any Church,
and any nation, contempt, instead of respect from their
fellow-creatures, and to invite an unmingled outpouring
of just indignation from their Creator. A considera-
tion of the varied attacks from every quarter, made in
this day upon our Church, led the writer duly to con-
sider, whether it were a time for one who loved her, to
point out the failure of her members in any branch of
duty : but he is firmly persuaded that her danger, which
he feels and deplores as much as any individual within
her pale, arises from the just judgment of her God, for
her criminal neglect on the subject on w T hich he has
written. That her only security is to be found in re-
pentance, and " in doing her first works;" and that if
no higher motive in reference to the salvation of guilty
and perishing millions, should call forth the energies of
those who love her, for the glory of God ; common pru-
dence, common sense, common policy, should point out
exertion as affording the only human prospect of her
preservation. The open and avowed object of the
XXI
great Roman Catholic demagogue, is to subvert the Es-
tablished Church, and to set up the Popish religion in
its place in this country. If Popery be truth, let him
prosper ; but if not — if it is calculated to bring des-
truction on man's immortal soul — then, in the name of
truth, of charity, and of the God of our salvation, let
the nation be appealed to ; let the truth be proclaimed
boldly and loudly to the people ; let the word of the
Judge of heaven and earth be lifted up as the arbiter
between God and Baal ; and let that God bear witness
for himself to the souls and consciences of men.
The writer feels so strongly the truth of what he
has written, that he considers "great plainness of
s])eec/t'" alone, as suited to the vast solemnity of the
subject, and he cannot apologize for using it — he like-
wise offers no apology for the reiterated statements of
the salvation of the Gospel, which so frequently occur
in this little work ; the errors and superstitions which
he is combating, are fatal to the everlasting salvation
of those who maintain them ; they arise from igno-
rance of the salvation that is in Christ; every mode
of controverting those errors, that does not bring that
salvation into clear, simple, systematic contrast with
them, is nothing but some weak impertinence, however
learned it may be ; it is like a physician coming to a man,
who is dying of inflammation on his lungs, and spend-
ing his time in interrogating about, and prescribing for a
wart on his face. The Roman Catholics of Ireland
need salvation from the wrath to come of the Protes-
tants who are living in neglect of them, multitudes seem
XX11
very little better ; to apologize for reiterating state-
ments of the Gospel in contradistinction to their errors,
is like apologizing to a criminal for bringing him a re-
prieve. May the Almighty and eternal God, bless His
own truth to his own glory, for Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen.
Oct. 30th, 1830. Enniskerry.
ADDRESS, &c.
DEAR ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIENDS, COUNTRYMEN
AND BRETHREN,
Although I am aware, that an appeal to men on
the subject of those principles which we conceive to be
erroneous in their religion, is always a thankless and
ungracious office ; yet impelled, I trust, by a sense of
Christian duty and feeling of Christian kindness, I ven-
ture to address to you some considerations on this sub-
ject — regardless of the consequences to myself, if I
might, through the divine blessing, be instrumental in
conveying any benefit to you. I feel the more im-
pelled to this, because as a minister of that religion
which I consider pure and holy in its principles, which
is established by law in this country ; I think you have
been deeply wronged and injured by our Church in
this respect — that with all the superiority of our prin-
ciples — with all the positive advantages of our political
powers, and our moral capabilities of discharging the
imperative duties of a Church professing Christianity,
we have contented ourselves with protesting against
evils in your religion, of which we have taken no pains
a
11
to convinee your understandings, and with inflicting on
you the penalty of legal disabilities for the political
consequences of that religion, respecting the guilt of
which, in your Creator's sight, we have never been at
the trouble of endeavouring to enlighten your con-
sciences — and have scarcely made an appeal to any
feeling, except the worst passions of your hearts. I
stop not to enquire how far we have followed the dic-
tates of a sound and sober policy ; but I hesitate not to
assert, that we have lived among you in a total con-
tempt of the primary duties and dictates of sound and
genuine Christianity. We have mutually suffered all
the evils of discord and animosity which religious con-
tention could produce, without the counterpoise of con-
veying a single spiritual blessing to your souls, which it
is the province of genuine religion to bestow. We
have paused, my countrymen at length — we have re-
spired from the convulsive strugglings of political agita-
tion — let us take advantage of this breathing-time, to
reflect for a moment on the solemn responsibilities of
rational, of accountable, and of immortal beings. It
must be granted, brethren, by all who agree in the truth
of divine Revelation, that God, in the infinity of his
perfect wisdom, has declared a way of salvation to his
creatures — that He has explained in the Sacred Vo-
lume of his inspired truth, how the soul of man is to
be accepted in His sight. Now, it is enough, brethren,
that our Churches having that Volume within our
reach, are totally at variance with each other as to
what that way of salvation is ; I do not now enquire
which of them is right; but I say this, that the man,
Ill
who is fully and conscientiously persuaded on the
solid authority of that sacred book, that the principles
which alone can save the soul, are those which he
maintains ; and that any of his neighbours maintain
principles which are inconsistent with their salvation,
is bound by every dictate of humanity, by every re-
ligious and moral obligation — by every duty which he
owes to his fellow-creatures and his God, to use every
means which Divine Providence has placed within his
reach, to turn his brethren from the errors of their
way, and to direct them to the path of everlasting life.
What should we think of the humanity, even of a
heathen, who saw some of his neighbours embarking
in a boat which he believed to be so leaky, that it
must founder, without endeavouring to convince them
of their danger ? and is it charity — is it humanity, in a
Christian, to see his fellow-men, his countrymen,
his friends, ignorantly embarking their immortal souls
in a hope, which, he believes, must be engulphed
in the awful abyss of everlasting death, without
making a single effort for their preservation ? Let
us be faithful — let us be honest, brethren ; and let
us mutually admit, that the man who does so, is des-
titute of one of the most essential characteristics of
Christian fidelity and Christian love — this concession
must alike implicate the members, both of your Church
and of ours. We have branded you, brethren, as
*' superstitious and idolatrous ;" — a "poor blind igno-
rant Papist" has been an idea, long familiar to the
Protestant Church in these countries; but when our
conduct is weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and
IV
when it is asked, what have you done for these men ?
the answer must evince, that though we have protested
against your religion, we have not exhibited by our
conduct towards you, a much nearer approach to Chris^
tianity in our own. While on your side, brethren,
* a Protestant dog'' — " a heretic' — " an apostate from
the only true Church, out of which it is impossible
there can be any salvation" has been the idea an-
nexed to every member of our religion. Yet, though
you have claimed Scripture — Tradition — Apostolical
succession — yea, infallibility — what have you done,
brethren, to enlighten — to convert — to reclaim us? We
have rendered you one essential service, brethren — we
have educated a great proportion of your Priesthood;
surely those, to whom we have given the facilities of
instruction in this infallible religion, ought at least to
have made the grateful effort to disabuse the minds of
their benefactors. It may be said, you had no reason
to thank us for this — that we acted on a principle of
selfish policy, and not from any good wish to promote
the interests of your religion. True; but genuine
Christianity does not measure its zeal, by the merits of
those whose errors it would reform. It maybe added,
that your priests have laboured in endeavouring to con-
vert the Protestants, and have been successful too in
their endeavours. I do believe indeed, brethren, that
you have in this respect the advantage of our Church;
I believe your priests have been much more zealous
in their efforts to bring Protestants to their religion?
than we have to bring the members of your Church to
the knowledge of the Gospel ; and I do believe, that
many more Protestants have been turned to the Roman
Catholic religion within the last century, than there
have been Roman Catholics turned to the Protestant
Church. But brethren, the efforts of your priests have
been made among the poor, the ignorant members or
our population ; and we have much cause to complain,
that when some among us have lately given them re-
peated opportunities, of coming forward before the
Roman Catholic or Protestant population, to vindicate
their own religion, and to impugn the doctrines of ours
—when all the learning of your priesthood, and all the
supposed infallibility of your Church, might have been
made to tell on the public mind, both in confirming the
principles of your own Church, and in shaking those
of Protestants ; yet your priests have been almost uni-
versally backward to stand forth ; and although they
may urge, as they frequently do, that they need not
come forward now, to vindicate principles which have
been settled by the Church long ago — as Dr. Doyle
quoting Tertullian, tells us u causa Jinita est" — the
case has been decided — they should remember, that
though it may have been settled in their estimation.
yet, since we deny the principles, and reject the autho-
rity of their Church — since we are living and dying m
a state which they call heresy — since we are willing to
hear all their arguments, and listen to all their expostu-
lations, though they may consider their own Church
secure, it is not reconcileable with the first principles of
Christian fidelity and Christian love, that they should
make no effort to rescue us from eternal death : it ex-
hibits either a want of zeal for the salvation of their
a2
VI
•
fellow-men ; or it seems to argue some suspicion as to
the defensibility of their religion. But I write to you
my countrymen on a higher subject than the charac-
ters or conduct of men — I address you on the very-
foundation of the hope of your immortal souls : it is to
this I wish to direct your attention — to call it off from
those subjects, by which the subtlety of your Church
misleads you from the simple truth ; and to fasten it on
that, and that alone, on which your salvation really de-
pends. Your attention is directed by your Church, bre-
thren, on almost all occasions of controversy, to some of
these points — the evidences of the Scriptures, that is, their
authority and interpretation by the Church — the infalli-
bility of the Church — the apostolical succession, and
the authority of the priesthood — their power of for-
giving sins, traditions, penances, masses, theinvocation of
saints and angels, transubslantiation, prayers for the dead,
purgatory, and such like points ; in which almost the
whole of your religion consists, and the false impres-
sions in which you are educated, as to the dangers and
difficulties of the Bible — the variety of authors — the
difficulty of access to human evidences, and the unsa-
tisfactory and contradicting statements of those whose
authority is adduced, both for and against these various
points, conspire to perplex your minds with the diffi-
culties of investigating them, and seem to place them so
far beyond the reach, not only of the vast body of
mankind, but even of learned men, whose occupations
would not permit them to engage in the investiga-
tion, that the very thought of it, leads you to despair
of acquiring knowledge on the subject, and makes you
Vll
rest content in the arms of that authority, which you
believe must be right, not only from the prejudices of
your education, but from the imaginary impossibility of
discovering if it be wrong. Now, what brethren, is the
the fact connected with these points? it is this — that
they tend to lead your minds from the one great truth
which you are concerned to know, ignorance of which,
leaves you perishing under the wrath of God, pre-
cludes the possibility of your being scripturally right on
any subject; and a knowledge and belief of which,
must bring you to eternal life, and preserve you from
being in any respect fatally in error. It is to this I wish
particularly to call your attention, to lead you to ex-
amine the principles of your Church, on the very foun-
dation of all religion. Let me entreat you, my coun-
trymen, to fix upon this single question ; to abstract, if
you can, your minds from every other consideration, to
fasten them on this alone ; and not to rest till you can
find an answer, that can satisfy your feelings as ra-
tional, responsible, moral, and immortal agents — the
question is this, WHAT SHALL A MAN DO TO
BE SAVED? I will venture confidently to assert,
that there is not a Roman Catholic following the dog-
mas of his Church, who can take pen, ink and paper,
and sit down to write an answer to that question, by
which his own heart can be satisfied, that ho is him-
self in a state of salvation — for if he answers, as they
generally do, that a man must "keep the commands of
God and the Church," the question then recurs, has he
observed these commands ? if not, if he admits that he
is a sinner, then on what foundation does he rest, that
Vlll
as a sinner, he shall stand accepted at the bar of God ?
Is he prepared to die ? or does he know in what con-
sists the preparation for death? Consider, O my
countrymen, what abstract dogmas of theology can
sooth the terrors of a dying sinner's conscience ? what
fond and bigotted attachment to outward parties, forms,
or authorities of our fellow-worms, can open a refuge
for the sinner in that day, when " The heavens shall
depart as a scroll when it is rolled together" when
"every mountain and island shall be moved out of
their places, and the kings of the earth, and the great
men, and the rich men, and the chief oaf tains, and the
mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman,
shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of
the mountains, and say to the mountains and rocks,
fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that
sitteth upon the throne, and from the wroth of the
Lamb!' Rev. vi. 14 — 16. Shall multitude be a mark
of the true Church ? shall human authority, and pomp,
and pageantry, be a mark of the true Church in that
day ? O my countrymen, shall we desire that our
portion may be with those, described in this awful
passage of the Scriptures, then ? if not, let us leave
man to stand in the place which God has assigned him
— let us " cease from man, whose breath is in his nos-
trils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?" — and let
us take the word of God, and ask this question as im-
mortal beings, WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE
SAVED ?
Brethren, let us ask, has God revealed to man in His
IX
holy Word, any solid ground of hope on which we
may rest with peace for the salvation of our souls ? I
answer, that He has revealed it clearly, simply, plainly,
so that he that runs may read ; and I add, that the
difficulty to Roman Catholics, or to any man, is, not that
God has not plainly declared the way of salvation ; but
that they, through the blindness of their understand-
ings, the corruptions of their hearts, will not admit as
true what God has plainly written : to you indeed, my
poor unhappy countrymen, is superadded this addi-
tional difficulty, that your Church has instructed you
to reject the hope of salvation in a manner so insidious,
as to render and keep you blind alike to her artifices
and the truth of Revelation. Like a step-mother, who
with an artful mixture of blandishment and fear, keeps
her children in a state of pupillage, till she has got
them to make over to her the birth-right of their inhe-
ritance, and leaves them to perish when she has plun-
dered them of all their possessions, your Church has
kept your understandings in a state of bondage, not
only incompatible with the privileges of freemen, but
of rational, responsible beings. Let me suppose, my
countrymen, that a father left in his will, his property,
freely and unconditionally to his son, and that he left
his step-mother his guardian, who was to instruct him
in the nature of his inheritance, and to educate him as
the heir and possessor of his property — let me suppose,
that instead of discharging her trust, she refused him
the right of knowing or seeing his father's will, availed
herself of the possession of it, to make him imagine she
had all the authority of that instrument to support her
usurpation, asserted that the property was left to her
— that she had the sole right to dispose of it — and made
the hope of his inheritance to depend on his subjection
to her will — his submission to her caprice — let me sup-
pose, that she gave him an allowance, which she took
care, by practising upon his hopes and fears, should
return into her own coffers; and that finally, when
she had forced him to make a legal surrender as a man
of that property, of which she had traitorously robbed
him as a child, she then left him to perish a victim of
her plunder and her crimes, — this, my countrymen,
were but a poor imperfect sketch of the guilt and
treachery to your immortal souls, of that Church in
whose lap you have been nursed. She has deprived
you of your birth-right — as rational and immortal
beings, she has shut up the will of your heavenly Fa-
ther from your eyes, in which He has bequeathed you
the free, the full, the unconditional, unincumbered in-
heritance of salvation, of everlasting life — she has
dared to usurp it, to claim it as her own, to dispense
to whom she pleases on her own conditions — she has
practised on the hopes and fears of your unhappy
childhood — she has trained you tamely, to give up as
men, the intellectual privileges, of which she has robbed
you from your cradle ; and having fleeced you of your
all, as moral, responsible, immortal ft gents, having
traded with your inheritance, and made merchandize
of your souls in time — she leaves you — O ! melan-
choly consummation of her guilt — she leaves you to
perish in eternity ! What are you to do to be
saved ?
XI
My friends, my countrymen, if there be any among
you, who can so far burst the bonds of spiritual subju-
gation, as to think for yourselves on this most solemn
and important subject, I call upon you to open your
Bibles, and attend to the salvation which God has re-
vealed in that Word to your souls. Never was pro-
perty bequeathed on earth more freely, fully, and un-
conditionally to an heir, than salvation without the
intervention or authority of priest, or Church, or hu-
man power, is bequeathed to sinners in the last will and
testament of our adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. What is the testimony of that will ? it is this,
that " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin-
ners" 1 Tina, i, 15. Now, brethren, pause upon that
single truth, and examine the ideas it conveys : instead
of the perplexing difficulties of the endless disputations
of controversy, I affirm, that the Gospel is simple, that
if you understand this one single passage in its scrip-
tural sense, you shall see the whole fatal error of that
system, in which you have been kept in such spiritual
darkness and bondage, shut up from the hope and con-
solations of salvation, revealed in the Sacred Volume.
I propose three simple questions on this text of Scrip-
ture. First — Do you believe that you are sinners, and
need salvation ? I shall not dwell on this, because I
take it for granted, that you admit it, we must all ad-
mit it — the thought of death and judgment stamps the
confession of it on our cheek — conscience pours it from
our lips, and our hearts re-echo the acknowledgment
— we must admit, we do admit this common principle,
that WE ARE SINNERS. Now then, 2dly— I ask
xu
this question, since it is written, that "Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners,*' Did He do
that which He came to do, or not? I entreat you,
brethren, to sift this question ; the whole controversy,
as it affects the salvation of the soul, turns on this one
question. It is plain, that if a man goes to any place
for a particular purpose, without executing the object
of his journey, he might as well have spared himself
the pains of going; and there must be some great de-
fect arising from human imperfection, to account for his
failure ; either he was not previously aware of the dif-
ficulty before he set out, or some unforeseen contin-
gency arose, against which he could not provide — or
he had overrated his own capability of executing his
proposed object, or some cause unknown or unforeseen,
prevented its accomplishment. Now, again I ask,
" Did the Lord Jesus Christ, when he came into
the world to save sinners, accomplish the work
OF His mission or not ? Here brethren, is the difference
between faith in Christ, and a rejection of Christ. Chris-
tian faith affirms, that He did save sinners, and retss on
his great and glorious salvation. The unbelief that
rejects Christ, denies that He saved sinners, and sets up
some refuge, either without Christ, or in addition to
Christ, to which it flies for hope. It may deny His
divinity — it may deny His humanity — it may deny that
He made any atonement for sinners — or it may admit,
that he made some atonement, and did take some steps
to save sinners ; but that still something else remains
to be done, to accomplish this work, without which, the
sinner cannot depend on Christ alone. Every shade
Xlll
of infidelity or superstition within the pale of nominal
Christianity, is alike reducible to this one simple point
those who profess it, reject Christ — for they deny
the simple truth, that H Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners' — their falsehood is to be de-
tected by this test, that they propose some other ground
of hope for man, than the finished salvation of the
Lord Jesus. For I submit to your consideration,
brethren, thirdly — If a man depends on any other hope
to save his soul, does he depend on Christ ? Consider
it, O my countrymen ; let each of you consider it
with reference to his own soul. I suppose a man on
fois bed of death, feeling as every sinner at some
period of his life must feel, the accusations of that
■conscience — that witness within, which tells him he
has offended against a just and holy God. I sup-
pose him anxiously enquiring for peace, for rest of
•conscience, for one to take away " the sting of death,
which is sin" and fit him to stand without terror
in the presence of that Judge, whom he is about to
meet. It is as clear as day-light, that whatever that
man turns to under these circumstances, as his hope
of peace and salvation, that is the thing to which he
really looks as his Saviour. Now I ask, to what has
God in His holy Word, directed the poor sinner to
look for salvation — is it to Jesus alone ? or is it to
something else alone? or is it partly to Jesus, and
partly to something else ? it must be to one of these
three grounds of trust? and to which of them is it?
I answer, TO JESUS ALONE. " LOOK UNTO
ME AND BE YE SAVED ALL THE ENDS OF
b
XIV
THE EARTH, for I am God, and there is none
else." Isaiah xlv. 22. " God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not 'perish, but have everlasting life."
John iii. 16. " For the wages of sin is death, but the
GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
our Lord." Rom. vi. 23. " The blood of Jesus
Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John
i. 7. " He that believeth on the Son is not con-
demned ; he that believeth not, is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God:' John iii. 18. " He that be-
lieveth not God, hath made him a liar, because he
believeth not the record that God hath given
of his son / and this is the record, that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son — he that hath the Son hath life, and he that
HATH NOT THE SON OF GOD, HATH NOT LIFE." 1 John,
v. 10, 11, 12. " There is therefore now, no condem-
nation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Rom.
viii. 1. "O death, where is thy sting — O grave, where
is thy victory? — the sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law — but thanks be to God
which giveth us the victory, through our Lord
Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56, 57. These, and
all the promises of salvation in Jesus to sinners in the
holy W ord of Life, while they limit the hope of the
soul to Christ, and Christ alone, give full grounds
of assurance to the sinner, that he may rest upon that
hope without doubt, or fear; because God is faithful tc
his holy word— -"faithful is He that promiseth, w/to
XV
also will do it ;" because, " it is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners ;" and the whole testi-
mony of God's Word, evinces that He did accomplish
that work which he came to do ; that He did all that
was necessary to be done, all that' could be done to save
sinners — His own dying words were, " it is finished."
Now, let me entreat you, my Roman Catholic friends,
and brethren, again and again, to fasten your attention
on this simple truth. This one ground of hope I have
asserted to be true — if it be, the other two grounds of
hope, are therefore false,; those who bear a name of
Christianity, and turn to either of them, turn to a lie
— they reject Christ ; aricj except they repent and be-
lieve the Gospel, they must perish. To explain — a
Socinian embraces the first of these falsehoods, instead
of looking for salvation to Jesus alone, he denies en-
tirely the salvation that there is in Jesus— he denies his
Godhead, and he denies his atonement — he looks to
something else for salvation without Christ, his mora-
lity, or some other hope; so he rejects Christ, he " de-
ceives himself, and the truth is not in him" — he denies
altogether, that "Jesus came into the world to save
sinners" — his hope is derived from the father of lies,
and except he repents and turns to Christ, he shall pe-
rish in his iniquity. This perhaps, you admit. The
Roman Catholic who is guided by his Church, believes
the second of these falsehoods, he depends partly on
Christ, and partly on some other hope ; he looks to
something for salvation in addition to C/wist-^-his alms-
deeds, or good works — his masses — his contritions — his
XVI
confessions — his imaginary satisfactions, which he calls
penances — his absolutions — his extreme unctions — his
Church. He admits in so many words, the divinity and
atonement of Christ; but he denies that the atonement
is sufficient for him to rest his soul on ; he will say, he
could not be saved without Christ, but he denies that
he is saved by Christ — he tells Christ, in effect, / cannot
depend on your salvation alone — you will not save me
without such and such acts on my own part, or such
and such works done for me, or offerings made for me
by my Church — I require intercessors to pray to you
for me, or something to recommend, me to you— I can-
not turn to you alone, I cannot rest on you alone, with-
out something else — if I do not do something for my-
self, or if my Church does not do something for me,
I must perish. He rejects Christ in another way — he
admits in words, that he " came into the world to save
sinners— but he denies that he did that which he came
to d&. The Socinian (i makes God a liar' in one way,
and he " makes him a liar'* in another. Mark, bre-
thren, while I bear my feeble testimony, without ex-
ception of the Socinian — the infidel ; I say not the
same universally of Roman Catholics ; I trust and be-
lieve, there are many of you, my countrymen, who
rest 07% Christ alone. I have conversed with some, who,
I think do so, and whosoever doth so shall be saved ;
but they are not Roman Catholics in spirit and truth
— they retain the forms, but they do not, though un-
cousciously, really hold the principles of their religion.
I write on the evils of the system, and not to judge or
condemn individuals ; it is our duty to judge of princi-
xvu
pies, we are not called on to pronounce indiscrimi-
nately on persons. The Roman Catholic who rests
exclusively on the righteousness and. atonement of the
Lord Jesus, shall be saved ; but it is evident, that he
who rests on any thing else, does not rest on Christ,
and therefore, unless he repents he shall perish.
I have endeavoured in the course of the letters which
follow this Address, so to mark the essential points of
opposition between the Gospel, and some of the leading
dogmas of your Church — that it would but anticipate
what I have written, to dwell upon them now; but
as I foresee that objections of too great a severity of
expression shall be urged against some of my argu-
ments ; I would bespeak your kind and patient atten-
tion, while I offer an apology upon this subject. I
think there is but one principle which can justify an
attack on the religion of any men— and that is, a prin-
ciple of love to their immortal souls — a conviction of
their being in error, fatal to their salvation ; and a firm
persuasion, that you are pointing out to them the true
way of salvation. This conviction, that they ar© in
fatal error, which alone can justify an exposition of the
evils of their system, should dictate the fullest, clearest,
strongest, simplest, exposition of it. Brethren, if you
meet expressions that strongly convey a sense of the er-
rors of your Church, impute them, as I trust you just-
ly may, to an ardent desire, to awaken some investiga-
tion of the subject, both among yourselves, and among
those who ought to have your everlasting interests,
warmly at heart. When I believe you are shut out by
the awful principles which your Church inculcates,
' b2
XV111
from that one and only hope, which is proclaimed to
sinners in the Gospel — when I am convinced, that the
glad tidings of the salvation of that Gospel, are never
sounded in your ears ; and that you are dying, leaning
in too many instances on refuges of lies, which shall
all be swept away at last, hefore the coming of the
Lord ; shall I make it a light matter to you, brethren ?
shall I call those superstitions which are fatal to your
salvation, by some gentle names, lest your ears might
be offended ? shall I tap gently at the door, as if ap-
prehensive of awakening you, while the house is on
fire, and ready to bury you in its ruins ? I am not
aware, brethren, that I have penned a single word with
the intention of offending even your prejudices. I
should feel it unworthy of the solemn subject, of the
office of a minister, and of the feelings of a man ; and
if you think I have done so, I ask your forgiveness. But
bear with me, when I assure you, that language would
fail me, were I to attempt to express my sense of your
danger, and of the awful character of that religion, if
it deserves the name, by which you are beguiled and
blinded, as to your own state as sinners, and as to the
hope of salvation which the Gospel proclaims to the
human race.
And here, my countrymen, let me observe, that I
draw a broad and total distinction, between you, and
your religion. If I could .consider that you, or your
Priests or Bishops, were accessary to the construction
of a system, so destructive to the immortal souls of
men, no language of reprobation were strong enough
to paint the criminality of such delinquents : but you
XIX
are not the authors, but the unhappy victims of a sys-
tem, which you must feel it a crime to examine, and
to which, as your only hope, you are necessitated to
adhere. The moment your infant reason is capable of
discerning any thing on the subject of religion, your
ears are filled with the sound of an imaginary being,
a mysterious power, whose name* and authority are
mighty as that of God himself; who holds the fiat of
your eternal destiny in her gigantic grasp, to which
obedience islife, and against which, rebellion is death :
this being is your Church. When your childhood is
instructed what you are to do for salvation, it is " To
keep the commandments of God and the Church*' 1
Who is the only interpreter of God's word for your
souls ? The Church. Where is the power lodged to
forgive your sins ? In the Church. By whose autho-
rity are they to be pardoned in your life? By that of
the Church, By whose ordinances and offerings is
your soul to be saved in death ? By those of the
Church. By whose prayers are you to be delivered
from Purgatory? By the prayers oj the Church.
Who, finally, has the keys of heaven and hell ? The
Church. In short, this wonderful mysterious power,
of which you are the victims, places such an insur-
mountable barrier against freedom of thought, over
every avenue of your understanding, and exercises
such an overwhelming influence over every feeling of
your hearts, binding up so effectually your destinies for
time and eternity, w'ithin her chains, that I know not^
brethren, what power can emancipate, what arm, but
that of God, can deliver you. I know not at what
XX
period of his existence it could be expected, that a
poor Roman Catholic could make a struggle to be free.
In childhood, could he burst those bands that every
feeling of parental care had coiled around his infant
heart ? In youth, could he fling off the feelings, and
affections, and impressions of his earlier years, when
instilled into his ears by a venerated man, who, being
the absolver of his sins, is really to be trusted as the
saviour of his soul ? In manhood, can he abandon all
the prejudices of his infaucy, and all the principles
interwoven with all the glowing feelings of his youth ;
and this, when every motive that at first awakened,
still continues to press them on his heart ? And can
age, when tottering on the brink of the grave, abandon
all that it has clung to, during its existence that is past,
and all that it has hung, its hope on, for the eternity
that is to come? O, my poor countrymen ! I know
not at what moment of your life, the spell with which
the enemy of souls has bound the intellectual powers
of your immortal spirits, could be broken. God for-
bid, brethren, that I should address you in the language
of invective, as men who are the authors of a system,
so pregnant with all the elements of death. No, my
countrymen, I cannot contemplate you as the criminal
supporters of a superstition which you have raised up,
but as the hapless victims of a spiritual despotism,
under which you had the misfortune to be born. Just
consider, brethren — here, in the same country — under
the same laws — and now, with all the same privileges--
in the same city — in the same house — perhaps in the
same room — and at the same hour, two immortal beings
XXI
are brought into the world, with the same syrnpathies>
wants and interests of their existence ; but O, in what
different circumstances of their destiny ! There is a
revelation in the land from the God and Author of
their being, by which both are to be judged, and to
receive their final sentence for eternity — a revelation,
which describes their own nature and that of their
God — which developes all the evils of their disposition
— forewarns them of all the judgments impending over
sin — and proclaims to them in all the details of infinite
and everlasting love, a pardon suited to their utmost
need — commensurate with all their wants. One of these
immortals is permitted, nay, he is instructed to read, to
study this volume of his Creator's mercy — the other is
interdicted its perusal. One is enfranchised* with all the
rights and privileges of this charter of his salvation —
from the other it is shut up, and sealed for ever. The
one is invited to bold communion with his God, to hear
the voice of his Redeemer speaking in accents of mer-
cy to his soul. The other is excluded from the converse
of his Creator, shut out from the sound of his sacred
voice, and exiled from the invitations of his mercy and
his love. To the one, salvation is sent freely in messages
of love from his Redeemer — the other never receives
one whisper of that free salvation ; but, instead of
this, a vain delusion is set up to him for sale by his
fellow-sinners. If the one does not enjoy the benefit
of all the blessings to which he is entitled, it is because
like Esau, he sells the glory of his birth-right. If the
other is ever rescued from the abject spiritual condition
in which he is born, it is because the mercy of God
XX11
has brought him, like Joseph, from the prison to the
throne. I mean not to say, that all Protestants exhibit
the influence of their spiritual privileges, nor to say
that all Roman Catholics are sunk in the degrada-
tion of this spiritual bondage ; but I say, that this is
the condition in which, under their Churches, they
are respectively born ; and I ask you, my brethren,
what right has man to make between immortal be-
ings, a distinction such as this ? What right has
man to throw a chain across your cradle, and bind
your immortal faculties, even till you are shrouded in
your grave? Awake, my friends, I will not say to
the privileges of Christians, but fallen as the human
race is, I will say, awake to assert the dignity of man —
awake to assert the birth-right of intellectual, of rational,
of accountable, and of immortal beings. You are imposed
on by an imaginary power — by the apprehension of an
ideal authority, equally impotent to save or to condemn,
and only existing in the affrighted imagination, like
these bugbears of lesser superstition, which a nurse
conjures up in the mind of the weak and credulous
infant, to affright it into compliance, or to subdue it into
silence in the night ; nor is it more the part of a faith-
ful parent, to disabuse the mind of the child from the
superstitious fears of the nursery, and of the dark;
than it is that of reason and revelation, to enlighten
your minds, my countrymen, and save you from the
paralyzing apprehensions of a power, that is only the
greatest bugbear, with which superstition ever dared to
affright the mind of man on earth.
Your Church — alas ! my countrymen, if she took
but half the pains to turn your hopes to your Redeem-
XX111
er, that she takes to hang all your hopes and fears upon
herself, she would come nearer to the claim of the
epithet of Christian, and afford you some solid ground
on which to enter into everlasting life.
Let me briefly call your attention to the nature of
that evidence, on which, while she shuts up from you
the word of your Creator, she presses you to receive
the dogmas which she imposes on you for truth ; and
then, let me ask you to consider, on an authority which
you will not venture to question, the nature of that
awful code of error which she substitutes for the Gos-
pel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The boast of antiquity, is that powerful argument
with which she endeavours to satisfy the consciences,
and silence the inquiries of all whom she holds under
the yoke of her domination ; she taunts the Protestants
with the alleged novelty of their doctrines, and imagines
she can convince mankind of the antiquity of her
own, by the assertion, that she can trace them back
through the Fathers up to the Apostles themselves.
The principle on which she goes is popular and plain —
" the nearer the fountain, the purer the water." Now.
she argues, if we can prove the existence of our doc-
trines in the earliest, ages of the Fathers, we come
nearer to the apostolic age, and therefore, to the pure
fountain of truth. But we can prove the existence of
our doctrines in these times, and therefore our Church
is the true and apostolical. This argument, brethren,
you are all taught to consider conclusive and unan-
swerable ; but though I could easily point out its falla-
cy, yet I rather prefer to let it stand as a true and
XXIV
sound one, and to prove from her own argument the
falsehood of your Church's doctrine. Now, I will
grant, brethren, more than any of your controversialists
have ever ventured to demand, and ten times more than
you know the truth will justify. I will give you any
of the Fathers, say Tertullian — his book on Prescrip-
tions seems a favourite one with Dr. Doyle — and I
will suppose that this work contains as full and com-
plete an expose of the present doctrines of the Church
of Rome, as Dr. Milner's End of Controversy. Now,
Tertullian died in the beginning of the third century;
but if 1 can produce testimony from a Father of the
Church, one century before him— testimony, not only
generally on the doctrines of Christianity, but testimony
of the very doctrines, professed and maintained in the
Christian Church that was at Rome itself, in the Apos-
tles' days, in which, not only not one of the doctrines
of Tertullian is to be found, but which is wholly in-
compatible with their existence in the same system of
religion — if this Father was acknowledged as indisput-
able authority by the then whole Christian Church — if
he were admitted as such by Tertullian himself — if all
the principles which this early Father laid down as
pure Christianity,* were strictly .conformable to those
which I maintain, and as opposite to those of Tertul-
lian as mine are tb those of Dr. Milner ; then, on the
principle of the Roman Catholic Church itself, " the
nearer the fountain, the 'purer the water," it must in-
contestably follow, that the palm of pure antiquity «
must be yielded to me, and the doctrines of Tertullian
must be confessed to be spurious and corrupt : and if,
XXV
ui audition to this, I prove, that though Tertullian could
neither deny the authenticity of the work, nor impeach
the character of the writer; yet from the consciousness
of the discrepancy between that work and his own, he
endeavoured to suppress it, and to hide it from
the people : then, I say, it must be granted, not only
that Tertullian was not a sound divine, but that he was
not an honest man. You will say, brethren, that if I
had such ground to stand on, I should have a strong
defence for my principles. Now, lend me your atten-
tion, and I shall prove to you, that I have a higher
ground still. You will grant me, that a Father, a cen-
tury nearer the Apostles, than Tertullian, would be
better evidence than he is, as to the apostolic doctrines
of the Church at Rome. Now, let me go back to one,
fifty years nearer them still— is not he still better evi-
dence ? u the nearer the fountain, the purer the stream,'*
Now, let me go back, and find a Father who was co-
temporary with the Apostles — does not the evidence rise
higher and clearer in its testimony? well then, I shall
go at once to the very best — I shall add to the fidelity
of the historian, the inspiration of the sacred writer,
I shall take the evidence of the Apostle Paul himself-
I shall take a letter of that inspired author, written to
the very .Church at Rome itself, depicting the pure and
holy religion of that ancient and Apostolic Church, as
it existed in the Apostle's days, concentrating and em-
bracing every truth of Christian doctrine, comprising,
and condensing every precept of Christian morals, that is
to be found in the whole Volume of Revelation, so that
it is of itself, almost a perfect epitome of Christianity. I
* c
XXVI
can produce on this, the purest, the earliest, the most
unquestionable, the most authentic evidence, the whole
system of the Christian faith, as it regards doctrines and
morals, as it was professed at Rome in the Apostle's
days — I can prove, not only that it does not contain
the principles of the religion of that Church at this day,
but that such a system, as that of the Church of Rome
at present, can no more co-exist with it, than midnight
with the blaze of noon. I can appeal to this — 1 can
assert, that it contains the whole of those principles
for which I contend — I can point out those men, who,
though they do not dare to deny its authenticity — its
inspiration, yet endeavour to suppress, to hide it from
the people. Now, let me put it to your own candour,
to your own good sense, my countrymen ; where is pure
and genuine Christianity — where is pure apostolical an-
tiquity to be discovered? Is it in those, who, while
they pretend to lay claim to it, turn to the more mo-
dern and less authentic documents ; or in those, who
appeal directly to the most ancient and most authentic
extant? Where is the most authoritative testimony
to be discovered ? Is it in those who profess to quote
a Father as authority, because indeed, he had conversed
with somebody, who had conversed with some other per-
son, who had conversed with an apostle — or in those, who
go directly to the undisputed testimony of that Apostle
himself? in those who turn to the vague unsatisfactory
errors of their fellow-men — or in those who make their
appeal to the authority of the holy God ? Who is the
man who wishes to present the cup of water, purest
and freshest to the lip — the man who goes to a distance
XXVU
from the spring, where the stream is impregnated with
the oozings of the muddy channel in which it has
flowed — or the man who runs directly to the fountain
to draw the living water from the wells of salvation ?
Why need I speak of purity, and of antiquity — where,
I ask you, my friends and countrymen, is honesty, is
truth, to be discovered. Is it in those, who throw open
wide to the world — who invite — who implore their
fellow-men to examine and investigate the authority to
which they appeal for their principles — or in those who
only use the divine inspiration of that authority, to es-
tablish a power, and influence over the human mind,
and then avail themselves of that power, to promulgate
lucrative errors of their own, and to silence all inves-
tigation — to prevent all appeal to that authority for
their detection. I ask your candour, my countrymen,
if it is the authority of antiquity to which we refer
to establish any doctrine, ought we not at once to
recur to the authority of that antiquity, which is the
most ancient, and the most authentic known ? Shall
antiquity, subsequent to the apostolic age, be appealed
to ; and shall not that which is contemporaneous with
it be preferred ? — shall men pretend to maintain an ap-
peal for purity of Christian truth to sources of authen-
ticity, confessedly contaminated with human errors,
plainly polluted with maxims of heathen philoso-
phy, and contradictory and inconsistent with each
other; and shall we not turn from these in triumph, to
the more pure, and ancient, and uncontaminated sources?
bursting fresh and uncorrupted from the living fountain
of eternal truth ? shall men pretend to give authenticity
XXV111
to opinions, on the testimony of those, who conversed
with others, who had conversed with the Apostles ; and
if the truth is garbled by them, shall we not quash
such evidence with triumph, in recurring to the testi-
mony of the Apostles themselves? Will any man,
who pretends to understand the rules of evidence, or
the principles of common sense, presume to say to me,
that I am to receive the testimony of a man's opinions
from second, third, or fourth persons, when I have the
sentiments of the individual, written with his own hand,
upon the subject to recur to? Will the hearsay of an
evidence be received as legal testimony in a court of
justice? Let me put a simple case, brethren. Let me
suppose it were necessary on any trial in a court
of law, on which any individual among you had a pro-
perty depending, to ascertain the intentions of a man who
had been some timedead — let me supposeyouropponent
brings forward a witness, who pretends to have been inti-
mate with the deceased — or who states, that his father
or grandfather had been intimate with him ; and who,
either from his own knowledge, or from their report,
proceeds to detail what his sentiments, or intentions on
this subject were — let me suppose, that from some in-
consistency in his statements, there is cause to question
his veracity; if it could now be whispered in the ears
of counsel, that he had a letter on the very subject
before the court, in the man's own hand-writing — would
it not instantly appear, that this was the proper evi-
dence? would not the counsel — would not the jury —
would not the judge himself — would not the assembled
court cry out, "where is his .letter?'' " produce his
XXIX
own letter." If he hesitated— if he quibbled— if he tried
to cushion it, would not every honest man instinctively
exclaim that he was a knave? is there a lawyer among
you, my countrymen, who would let his client's cause
for the value of a single shilling, rest on the parole
testimony of such a witness, or of any evidence what-
ever, when he had the written document to refer to?
and will he tell me as a man of sense, and candour, and
truth, that the testimony which he would trample on
in the ease of any earthly property, however insigni-
ficant, is to be admitted, and received, and vindicated,
as sufficient and conclusive, when the question at issue
is the salvation, or the destruction of the immortal soul :
the property at stake, an everlasting inheritance — the
suit lying not before the tribunal of man, but before
the bar and the judgment-seat of the holy, and eternal
God ? How does this apply to your case, my country-
men ? Mark, I beseech you, the application.
The apostle Paul, when he addressed a letter to the
church at Rome, wrote to that church the doctrines of
the religion of the gospel of Christ ; this, even the most
ignorant must admit, unless he is prepared to prove, that
the doctrines of the apostle Paul were not those of the
Gospel. I say that the letter of that Apostle is the
proper evidence of the principles of that Gospel, and
not the opinions said to be derived from those who lived
after the days of the apostles, and whose authority is
appealed to, only to blind the eyes of men, because it
is so voluminous, so inconsistent, so unsatisfactory, and
so inaccessible ; that while it can determine nothing for
c3
XXX
the truth, it affords the interminable mazes of uncer-
tainty to error, by which it can elude detection, and
evade pursuit.
Now, I say, brethren, that I shall prove to you from
authority which you will not dispute, that while there is
contained in the doctrines of the Gospel, as exhibited in
the apostle's letter to the church at Rome, that salvation,
which is revealed in the sacred volume to mankind,
which alone can give hope and peace to the soul of a
sinner; I shall prove from the same authority, that in
that system in which your minds' are so lamentably im-
prisoned, there is not so much as a sound of that sal-
vation. This is the point, my countrymen, to which I
implore your attention. You are prohibited from lis-
tening to, or at least from receiving the evidence of the
apostles, on the salvation whieh those apostles taught —
and a system is imposed on your understandings, as if
it were that salvation, which is as far from that salvation
as the religion of the Turk. I grieve to use such an
expression, brethren, of a church which is called Chris-
tian ; yet, if I do not prove it on the evidence of that
church itself, believe it not : but if I do, I call on you,
I charge you, I adjure you, dear friends and country-
men, fly, while yet you may, from that Babylon on
whose brow is stamped "MYSTERY," and on whose
head the wrath of God is impending — " Come out of
her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her plagues,"
-;>ill) the Lord.
I do not, I repeat it, charge you, my brethren, either
XXXI
priests or people, with the iniquities of the Church of
Rome : you are all, I repeat, the sufferers — the victims
— but not the authors of her crimes. It has been at
varied stages in the history of her apostacy, that inter-
ested powers, whether popes, or bishops, or priests, have
gradually introduced that traffic for the immortal soul,
in which the awful trade of sacrificing priests and me-
diators consists ; w T hen it was pretended that the door of
mercy and of grace which Christ has opened w T ide to
lost and guilty man, was a toll-bar committed to the
priesthood ; when they whose very office was appointed
by the Lord, to go as messengers of salvation to man-
kind, and beseech them to enter in through that open
door, "without money and without price," to the mercy
and the favour of a reconciled God, pretended that the
door was locked, and the key committed to their keep-
ing; and affected to sell for money, that which nothing
but the blood of Jesus could have bought, and nothing
but the mercy of Jehovah could bestow : as if a mes-
senger sent with a reprieve to a convicted criminal, were
to tear his master's document of mercy on the way — to
extort money from the unhappy sufferer, on pretence of
making interest in his favour — and then, when he had
fleeced him of his utmost farthing, were to leave him
to perish by the executioner at last. I say not that
this is the intention of your priesthood, but 1 say it is
the necessary nature of that system which they admi-
nister ; I say the Church of Rome, as far as she can do
so, has " shut the gate of mercy on mankind ;" and in
pretending to deal forth remedies for sin, instead of pro-
claiming the remedy that Christ has wrought, has swept
XXXJl
away man's only hope of mercy from his soul, and left
him nothing in its place but darkness and delusion, and
everlasting woe. Alas, my countrymen, my friends,
compare even what she herself is forced to state, of the
salvation that is in Christ, when she is thrown off her
guard upon the subject, with the wretched system of
worship which she teaches you, and judge for yourselves
what similitude there is between them. It is not, bre-
thren, when a man stands up to protest his innocence,
or to dress himself to advantage, to deceive, that we can
form a proper estimate of his real character ; it is when
he is speaking his own language, giving uncontrolled
vent to his temper and dispositions, that we discover the
true natur^ of the individual ; so, it is not when your
church comes forward on the testimonies of her Bel-
larmines, her Bossuets, her Milners and her Bayness, to
tell us of her "faith, hope and charity," and all her
Christian dignities and graces, that we can believe her
— it is not when she comes to invite us into her pale,
and tells us all that she is, and all that she is not. — No
— what does she say in her own family ? She talks of
being the church of Christ. What does she say of
Christ ? — how does she go to you on your beds of pain
and suffering and death ? — what hope does she hold
out to cheer and comfort the departing sinner ? — what
is her religion now, compared with the religion of the
ancient church — compared with the Gospel of the Lord
our Redeemer ? Read, brethren^ and judge for your-
selves.
xxxm
I have taken out of her own edition of the Bible,
not the words of the sacred volume, but the summary
which she herself has given, or at least has authorita-
tively recognized, of the doctrines of salvation, as held
in the Church of Rome in the days of the apostles —
I have placed them in the centre column of this
sheet. I most earnestly invite your attention to
them. Here, brethren, though it is a poor, and meagre,
and imperfect sketch of the original, I find our com-
mon condition, and common hope as sinners — I see that
" all men are sinners ;" that " none can be justified
by the works of the law, but only by the grace of
Christ" — I see " the grounds we have for hope in
Christ" — that " sin and death came by Adam — grace
and truth by Christ" I see that " ive are released by
Christ from the law, and from the guilt' of sin" — that
" there is no condemnation to them that, being justified
by Christ, walk not after the flesh, but according to
the Spirit'' I see that " the end of the law is faith
in Christ, which the Jews refusing to submit to can-
not be justified." I see " Lessons of Christian virtue,""
" lessons of obedience to superiors ;" I see a warning
from the apostle "to beware of all that should oppose
the doctrine they had learned."
Now this, which is as poor and meagre a summary
of the ancient religion of the Church, as could well be
extracted from the epistle, and is indeed in some points
erroneous ; yet it exhibits, brethren, the guilt of man,
the pardon, the justification of the soul that Christ has
purchased— it exhibits the falsehood of that principle
which expects to obtain pardon from works, as it con-
XXXIV
fosses that none can be justified by them. Now, bre-
thren, let me entreat of you to observe this, meagre as
it is, laid beside the summary of the principles of your
religion, as exhibited in the index, the full and entire
index of a work, said to contain the whole instruction of
a '« Catholic Christian,'' (I quote from a popular modern
work sanctioned by all your bishops) and let me just ask
you this question : Do you think any honest, unpreju-
diced man, who was to see these two expository summa-
ries, and who had no previous knowledge on the subject,
could possibly suppose that they belonged, I will not
say to the same religion, but that there was even the
least similitude between them ? where, let me ask, is
there to be found in this summary of your religion, as
it now is, one shadow of hope for sinners in the grace,
the mercy, the salvation of the Lord Jesus ? where are-
cognition of the guilt and misery of man, and where of the
hope, the joy, the peace, the salvation purchased for
sinners by a crucified Redeemer ? Where again will
you find in the ancient religion of the Christian church
at Rome, one of all the host of superstitions with which
your Church is here exhibited as abounding ? where
are the "masses, the confessions, the penances, the bene-
dictions, the processions, the jubilees, the extreme unc-
tions, the prayers for the dead, the purgatories, the
supremacy of the Pope, the celibacy of the clergy, the
orders, confraternities, devotions to the Virgin Mary,
invocations of saints and angels; use and veneration of
relics, use of pictures and images, exorcisms, benedic-
tions" — where, I ask you, as men, as rational men, as
honest men, as men who shall answer at the bar of the
XXXV
heart-searching and eternal God — as men whose ever-
lasting interests are at stake upon the question — where,
even in your own Church's summary of the ancient
religion of the Christian church at Rome — where is
there a single trace of these awful superstitions to be
found ? and on what authority of antiquity, on what
ground of truth can they be palmed upon you as the
religion of the Lord Jesus ? Mark, brethren, either your
church says that these things are needful to salvation,
or they are not; if not, then where is their place in the
hope of a Christian's soul ? where ought it to be in a
religion professing to be Christian ? if they are, then is
salvation by them, and not by Christ; and the church
who sets them up, is an opposer of Christ, an antichris^
tian church, a subverter of the Gospel — the very apos-
tolic exhortation, to " beware of all who should oppose
the doctrines which they had learned" were a call to
every man that had learned from the Word of God, to
fly from such a code of error, to the hope that is re-
vealed in God's eternal word to sinners.
Look now, my countrymen, to the extracts taken
alphabetically from the Index of the Koran, the reli-
gion of Mahomet, and compare it with those summaries
that are placed beside it. You have in the centre your
Church's own acknowledged summary of the principles
of the religion of the ancient Church of Rome. You
have on one side of it the summary of her present in-
structions for a " Catholic Christian," and you have on
the other side some extracts from the summary of the re-
, ligion of the Turks. I ask you, brethren, I demand it
XXXVI
of you, to compare these three together; and I put the
question to your consciences, as honest men, whether
of these two systems on the right or on the left, appears
more nearly to resemble even that imperfect statement
of the religion of the Gospel ? let a man who never saw
either of them before, be asked which of them bears
the nearer resemblance to it, and do you think he could
determine to which he was to assign the name of Chris-
tianity ?
I shall not compare them, brethren — I leave that to
your own conscience and judgment — " I speak as unto
wise men, judge ye what I say." I s-hail only remark,
that if I see unchristian errors in the code of religion
on the right, I see some solemn truths, for which
I look in vain to that on the left. In the one, I see, for
example, some reverence for the attributes of God — "His
(mini-presence asserted — His omnipotence — His omni-
science asserted — His power and providence conspicu-
ous in his works." I do not see a recognition of the
attributes, nor do I see even the name of God, from the
beginning to the end of the other. In the one, I see a
reference to the Holy Spirit — I do not see His name
alluded to in the other. In the one, Turkish as it is,
I see " a curse denounced on those who believe not on
Jesus." In the other, I see him presented as an ob-
ject of faith only in an ordinance, which is a virtual
rejection of his atonement, and not a mention made of
faith in his salvation. In the one, I see a reference to
the " Laws of God in the punishment oj those who
conceal them" — in the other, I do not see an allusion
xxxvu
to their authority, or even to their existence. In the
one, I see " exhortations to the worship of God, and
to a good life"' — the "reward of the righteous" re-
ferred to. In the other, a miserable substitution of
ceremonies and ordinances, even for the outward forms
of morality and virtue. In the one, I see "Prayer
commanded and enforced, and directions concerning
it" — in the other, I see a reference to prayers; but
they are " Prayers for the dead" or those to be used
" in the canonical hours of the Church?'' In the one,
I see the solemn truth concerning the character of man,
namely, " His presumption in undertaking to fulfil
the laws of God" — in the other, the whole system is
a scheme of salvation by human works, and efforts
to satisfy for sin. In the one, I see " Idolaters
compared to brutes,'* the " heinousness of idolatry,"
and that " the insignificance of idols will appear
against their worshippers." In the other, I see " the
use, and veneration of relics, of pictures and of images-"
and I see a reference to " the real presence of Christ,
and to the worship of Christ in the sacrament" In
the one, I see that " Angels are not objects of worship."
In the other, I see "the invocation of angels and
saints." But it is for you, brethren, to institute the
comparison between them both in reference to each
other, and to the Word of God. I fasten but on one
point, and on that one, I affirm, that both are alike fo-
reign from the Gospel of the Lord Jesus — they both bear
a common mark of a total destitution of the hope of
salvation — they both evince an awful ignorance of the
glorious fact, that salvation has been wrought for sinners
d
XXXVIII
by a crucified Redeemer — they both turn men to
some other refuge for their souls, and therefore to some
refuge of lies ; for " there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,"
Acts iii. 12. This is the point, brethren, in which you
are deeply, everlastingly interested. Ask an Apostle,
t{ What must I do to be saved?" He answers, and his
answer is on record — "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved" Acts xvi. 30, 31. If that
Apostle spoke the truth, it follows, that the man who
sets forth any other hope for the soul, or any thing
more as necessary for salvation, sets forth a false gospel,
and must perish, unless he repent and believe that Gos-
pel, which he has denied. And here, brethren, 1 shall
make one assertion, to which I intreat your atten-
tion ; and as it is of deep and solemn magnitude, I shall
leave it to your understandings to examine, and I shall
put it to your whole Church, if it is in her power to
refute it.
You will recollect, brethren, that our Lord Jesus
Christ gave as his last charge to his Apostles — " Go ye
into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned"
Mark xvi. 15, 16. Now, brethren, here is a commis-
sion, on which the salvation of man's immortal soul is
suspended. Your Priesthood claim the succession to
those who have received it ; and what now, brethren,
is the fact ? 1 assert it in the face of day, my country-
men — I assert it in the face of the nation — I assert it
XXXIX
in the presence of Him who is more than an assembled
World — THAT THERE IS NOT IN ALL YOUR CHURCH, A
Priest, a Professor, or a Bishop, who preaches
or can preach the gospel of christ, to you
who hang your souls on their instructions. o
mark — O hear, my countrymen : I write not against
your Priests as individuals — I write of them as the ad-
ministrators of an awful system, which shuts out the
light and the salvation of the Gospel, from the miserable
souls of men. I shall first explain my assertion, and
then shall put it to the proof: the Gospel is Jehovah's
proclamation of free and full forgiveness to guilty man,
through Him who came as man's Surety, to pay his
debt of obedience to God's holy law, and of satisfac-
tion to His eternal justice. This, brethren, is "good
tidings of great joy." Man can only be addressed as
a debtor — a sinner — a convicted culprit before his God.
That God should send a Surety to undertake his debt,
and to discharge it — to bear his curse — to deliver him
— that He should send messengers to proclaim His
Royal mercy to the criminal— Himself the Pardoner —
His beloved Son the Surety, the Mediator, the Purchaser
and Giver — the Author and Finisher of salvation — is
grace, is bounty, is blessing, is goodness, beyond thought.
Now, brethren, the man who proclaims this Royal
mercy to mankind ; comes to them with the word of
their Redeemer — he carries his credentials in his hand —
he appeals to those credentials— he exhibits them — he
refers to them — he turns his hearers to them, and only
to them, as the one great source of solid satisfaction, of
xl I
joy, of peace, and of salvation to their souls. But the
man who tells mankind, that other means for their sal-
vation are to be adopted— that other hopes and refuges
are to be fled to — other grounds to be rested on, than
the finished work of a Redeemer's obedience unto
death for man — they do not bring, nor do they dare to
refer them, to these credentials ; they do not, and can-
not preach the Gospel of Christ : and whether those
hopes and refuges which they propose, are the ordinan-
ces of a Church, the contritions of the sinner, or the
virtues of the righteous man, the outward forms of a
true religion, or the grossest fictions of that which is
false : they are all alike agreed in this one point of
error, fatal to the salvation of men, and opposed to the
Revelation of the Lord : they do not place man's hope
in Christ, and therefore build it on a lie. The system
of your Church, forbids your Priests to preach salva-
tion to your souls by Jesus ; they hold an office at war
with the everlasting Gospel : a sacrificing Priest, de-
clares by his very name, that he does not preach the
finished sacrifice of Him who died on Calvary ; for, was
Christ's sacrifice sufficient for a sinner to rest on ? then,
any other is a lie. Does he say that sacrifice was in-
sufficient ? then he is not a preacher, but a denier of
the Gospel. Now, brethren, I will put this assertion
to the test, and I trust, that if truth be the object of in-
quiry, there are men to be found within your Church to
meet it. I lay this down as an indisputable fact, that
when the Lord Jesus commissioned his holy Apostles to
preach his sacred Gospel, they executed that commission,
that they did preach that Gospel to the world. Now, I
xii
lay it down as another fact, that that Gospel, whatever
it be, is a certain truth, on the belief of which, the soul
of man shall be saved. I lay it down also as another
fact, that this Gospel is to be discovered in the recorded
sermons or writings of the Apostles. And I add,
moreover, that it is to be so discovered, that those who
believe, can point it out, what, and where it is. Nor
does it matter as to the point in question, whether men
say, they can see it simply in the Bible, without note or
comment, or whether they say, they require their Church
to point it out to them. Those teachers who know and
believe it, can point it out in the Sacred Volume. Now?
brethren, I will not say I challenge you, for that word
has an air of hostility, or of defiance, which I disclaim
in every feeling towards my Roman Catholic brethren ;
but I will say, I invite you to find in all your Church
a Priest, a Professor, or a Bishop, who will venture to
put this charge of mine upon this issue. Let him take
the Apostolical Epistle to the ancient Church at Rome —
let him study it with all the helps, and for any given
time he pleases — let him take it then, and deliver either
a written or an oral exposition of the whole, or of any
parts of that portion of the Sacred Volume— and let
him distinctly mark those passages of sacred truth to
be found in it, of which he is able to say, " This is the
Gospel, the belief of which can save the soul" — he is
at liberty to corroborate his positions, with references to
every portion of the Scripture, but not to introduce
any other authority in his exposition, though he may
avail himself of all the helps which he pleases in his
preparation for it. Now, if there is a man to be found
d 2
xlii
in your Church, at any given time, who can venture to
put it to this test, whether he can preach the Gospel or
not, I shall find a minister of the Church of England
to meet him, to answer extemporaneously the most
scholastic treatise he can produce, and to prove one of
these two truths — either that the principles which he
has set forth as the Gospel of Christ, are not justly
and faithfully extracted from His word, and that they
are not the Gospel; or, that if he has set forth the Gos-
pel, he has totally abandoned the whole system of
doctrine of the modern Church of Rome — and let the
exposition of the Priest, and the answer of the Cler-
gyman, be submitted in print to the judgment of every
honest man in the nation.
I desire, my countrymen, by this appeal to excite a
spirit of enquiry, which nothing but the Gospel can sa-
tisfy. I presume not to address you as one, who would
dare to set himself in the sight of God, above the mean-
est among all your population : I write to you as a fellow-
man, and a fellow-sinner, with all my sympathies of
weaknesses and wants, and sins, awake towards those,
who, like myself, have need of grace and mercy from
their God. You will be told, my countrymen, that I,
or that any man who addresses you on-the errors of your
Church, is actuated by a feeling of hostility towards
you, or a spirit of party ; and that he desires you to
change your religion, merely from a political motive to
induce you to turn Protestants, that he may increase
the security of the Established Church. Brethren, be-
lieve it not — on the contrary, it is a most important
xliii
truth to impress upon the minds of men, that no change
of form in religion — no change from one profession to
another, can bring a sinner nearer, no not by the thou-
sandth part of a hair's breadth, to everlasting life. Bre-
thren, you might renounce every dogma of your Church
one after another — you might cry out as loudly against
its superstitions, as many Protestants do — you might
become as zealous for the profession of our religion, and
against the errors of your own, as thousands and tens
of thousands, and hundreds of thousands that are call-
ed Protestants, and yet be as far from the salvation of
the Gospel, as you could possibly be, under any delu-
sions of superstition, or any depravities of infidelity.
No, brethren, I say not unto you turn Protestants and
be saved — [ say unto you, u believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved," that is, believe the
truth of Him — embrace the hope that the Bible pro-
claims through Him — turn to the salvation of which
the blessed Gospel testifies, through His righteousness
and His blood, as the sinner's Surety — turn to this bre-
thren ; and then — remain firm in your Church as long as
your consciences, and your understandings permit you.
This, brethren, is not the spirit of hostility, or of
party, it is the spirit of Christian honesty, and truth,
and charity ; if we breathe a liberty — if we enjoy a
hope — if we expect a blessing for our own souls, is it
hostility to our brethren, to endeavour to lead them to
be as free, and as happy, and as blessed, as we are our-
selves ? Hear then, brethren, the utmost of my hos-
tility to my Roman Catholic countrymen. Whatever
xliv
blessings I enjoy or expect from the Gospel of the Re-
deemer in time — whatever blessings I hope for, or an-
ticipate from it in eternity, it is my heart's desire and
prayer to God, that my Roman Catholic countrymen
may enjoy them all, as fully and as richly as myself:
this is my utmost hostility against you, brethren.
Since I can advert without wounding you now, to those
statutes under which you felt so long burthened, I
would ask you this, my countrymen : let me suppose,
that in addition to these, it had been enacted, that no Ro-
man Catholic should be permitted even to read the laws
of the realm, of which he was a subject — that if he
were guilty of any offence, and about to be brought
to trial, he should neither be furnished with a copy of
his indictment, nor allowed to know the statute under
which he was to be indicted — let me suppose, that if
he were condemned, and that the king chose to extend
the royal mercy to him, there were a set of knaves in
power, that would not let the sound of pardon reach
his dungeon. What brethren, could you have felt in
bondage such as this ? if you felt impatient and indig-
nant, and all your spirit stirred within you, under the
penal statutes, as they were a little time ago, what
would you have felt, had such an iron code as this, been
superadded to them. You would have felt as men,
that any death were better than the name of a miserable
existence dragged on in chains, and under despotism
such as this ; you would have risen in simultaneous
rebellion as one man — you would have armed your
spirits for the forlorn-hope of freedom, deliberately de-
termined to conquer or to die— and who could blame
you for the struggle? What slave has ever humored
xlv
his chain so closely, as to have bid you tamely bow
beneath a lash and goad of tyranny like this ? Yet,
what is the actual fact, my poor unhappy countrymen,
respecting your spiritual condition, as rational and
immortal beings ? What is the fact ? I testify before
that God, who hast gifted you with reason and im-
mortality, that this is but the actual fact, as to your
state of spiritual bondage at this hour — you are sub-
jects of the King of heaven and earth ; but there is a
despotism hanging over you, that will not allow you
to read the laws for which you are accountable. I
say you are not permitted to read them — do not tell
me, that that man is allowed to read a book, who shall
not dare to exercise his faculties as a rational being
in forming a judgment of what he reads — if you do,
you may tell me of a man who is at large, because he
is in an open field, while he is chained by the leg to a
spot from which he cannot stir. You may tell me of
a man who is allowed the unrestricted exercise, both of
his eyes and ears, while he is immured in a dungeon,
where the light of heaven never dawns upon his eye,
or the sound of human voice can never strike upon his
ear. You are sinners too, brethren— you are guilty,
you are accountable for your transgression of God's
holy law — you are hastening on— yes, even while my
pen is tracing the words, you are hastening on to death
and judgment — but you are not permitted to know the
laws under which you are to be tried — the statutes are
sealed up from you, under which your souls are to be
indicted— you must not, dare not read them 5 but worse,
far worse than all — condemned as you must be, as sinners,
xlvi
brethren, the King of glory in His everlasting word,
proclaims a full, a free, a finished, and an unconditional
forgiveness — Pardon — Pardon— Pardon to the chief of
sinners, who embraces it through the righteousness and
atonement of a crucified Redeemer ; but not a sound
of this reprieve has ever reached your ears — not a sight
of the Royal signature for your salvation, has ever bless-
ed your eyes — you dare not hear — you dare not look
at it — you dare not even believe in its existence ; and
yet you stand up to vindicate that power that holds
your spirits in such bondage. If the meanest earthly
privileges were so denied you, as the richest blessings
and privileges of everlasting life, it would move
tc The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny."
O, my countrymen, I will not ask, are the paltry
privileges of the British constitution — but I will ask, is
the puny sceptre of the British throne, or the little
diadem that glitters for a moment on its monarch's
brow — are these to be put into competition for a mo-
ment as objects of interest, of jealousy, or of ambition,
with the rights, the privileges, unalienable, and intang-
ible as the Throne of Him who gave them, of immor-
tals — of heirs of eternity ? You are not mean — the
least of you is immortal — you ought not to be poor -
had you but the rights and privileges to which you
have a claim, indisputable as those that dare to detain
them from you — the poorest among you might aspire
to "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefined, and that
fadeth not away." Awake ! awake ! my friends, ray
countrymen, awake! and shake the fetters from your
xlvii
necks — awake ! and say, you will think for yourselves.
Who shall appear, when you are summoned to the bar
of God — Who, I say, shall appear, to answer in your
place? O, my Roman Catholic friend, whose eye
may meet this page, retire into your own bosom for a
moment, and ask yourself this single question, who
shall go for you, or who shall pass with you to the bar
of the Judge of quick and dead ? Alas! you must
enter into the valley of the shadow of death, and pass
through it alone. O then, think I pray you, think
why should man presume, why should a fellow-worm
dare, or why, if he does, should you permit the daring
act, to stand between your soul and your Redeemer's
mercy here ? O think, my friend, my fellow-sinner,
think, the moment you have closed this page, perhaps
may be that, in which your eyes shall be closed for ever
on the message of redeeming mercy. T pray sincerely
that your soul, that the souls of you all, my Roman
Catholic countrymen, may be brought to feel, and to
enjoy the richest blessings of salvation. I trust I write
to you with feelings of honest, affectionate anxiety for
your everlasting welfare. I trust I can speak with
sincerity, that 1 could look you all in the face, from
the highest to the lowest, and say from my heart, that
I love you as a countryman — that I love you as a
Christian — and that I love you as a man. If I sim-
ply and honestly endeavour to expose the fatal errors
under which your Church would draw your souls,
1 do not intend in this to wound the feelings of the
poorest individual among you — I trust the princi-
ples which have been laid down upon the subject in
xlviii
these and the following sheets, will bear the investiga-
tion of the word of God ; and, under this conviction,
I care but little, with what severity they shall be scru-
tinized by the criticism of man. If one among you,
brethren, shall be awakened to examine and investigate
the truth, I shall feel it as a rich reward. And now,
my countrymen, 1 bid you farewell. May you be enabled
to enjoy the privileges and blessings of an emancipation^
oreater than the parliament of Britain, or than all the
empires of earth could give. May you enjoy the birth-
right of men, and of Christians, contained in the magna
CHARTA OF SALVATION, the SACRED VOLUME OF ETER-
NAL life ! May no sword be ever drawn against the
principles of your religion upon earth but "the sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" May no
bonds be ever forged by man to lay upon the exercise
of your religion, but those of Christian faithfulness
and love. May you burst every shackle, that spi-
ritual despotism has invented, to fetter the freedom
of your understandings, your consciences, and your
judgments, as rational, accountable, immortal beings !
May the spirit of political rancour against you be
lost in a principle of genuine Christian charity ! and
may no man ever attack the religion you profess, but
one, who can say before his God, that he is actuated by
a desire to promote your temporal and eternal happi-
ness, and who can conscientiously subscribe himself as
I do,
Your sincere, and faithful friend and servant,
R. J. M'GHEE.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXVI
XXVII
XXVI II
The Summary of I
Of the Sign of the Cross.
Of the Sacrament of Baptism.
Of the Ceremonies of Baptism, and of the man-
ner of administering this Sacrament in the Ca-
tholic Church.
Of the Sacrament of Confirmation, and of the
manner of administering it.
Of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
The first proof of the Real Presence from the
words of Christ at the institution of this blessed
Sacrament.
The second proof of the Real Presence from St.
John vi. 51, &c.
Other proofs of the Real Presence of Christ's body
and blood in the blessed Sacrament.
Tr.msi instantiation proved— Objections answered.
Of the Bread and Wine made use of in this
Sacrament.
Of the Manner of administering this Messt-d Sa-
crament— of devotion before and after Commu-
nion— of the obligation of receiving it— and o:
Of the Wowhip of Christ in the Sacrament— also
of Benedictions and Processions.
Of the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Of Hearing Mass— where also of the Orders ant
Ceremonies of the Mass, and the Devotion*
proper for that time.
Of the saying Mass in Latin.
Of the Sacrament of Penance. Of Confession
and the preparation for it. Of Absolution, &c
Of Indulgences and Jubilees.
Of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.
The Order of the Recommendation of a soul just
departing.
Of the Office of the burial of the dead.
Of Prayers for the dead, and of Purgatory.
Of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Of the Superiority of Bishops, and of the Supre-
acy of the Pope.
Of the Celibacy of the Clergy.
Of Religious Orders and Confraternities.
Of the S;icrami nt nt Matrimony, and of the Xup-
Benediction.
Of the Churching of women after childbearing.
Of the Fasts of the Catholic Church.
Of Fasting and Abstinence in general.
Of the Fast of Lent.
Of other days of Fasting and Abstinence in the
Catholic Church.
Of the Church Office, or the canonical hours of
prayers in the Catholic Church.
Of the Festivals of the Catholic Church, where
also of the Holy Weeks, and the ceremonies
thereof.
Of the Invocation of Angels and Saints.
Of the Devotion of Catholics to the Blessed Vir-
gin Mary. Of her perpetual Virginity. Of the
Beads, Angels, and Angelus Domini.
Of the Use and Veneration of Relies in the Catho
tholic Church.
Of the Use of Pictures and Images in the Catho-
lic Church.
)f Exorcisms and Benedictions, or Blessings of
' the Church of Rome
■s in Hie Kiiiiilt? lu the Human'; in the Douu'
i autborilj of the Church herself.
Douay Bible, Stereotype Ed
aith of the Romans, whom he
longs to see, the philosophy of the heathen being
void of faith and humility, betrayed them into
shameful sins.
The Jews are censured, who make their boast of
the law and keep it not. He declares who arc
the true Jews.
The advantages of the Jews. All men are sin-
ners, and none can be justified by the works of
the law, bnt only by the grace of Christ.
Abraham was not justified by works done as of
himself, but by grace and by faith, and that
before he was circumcised. Gentiles by faith
are his children.
The grounds we have for hope in Christ. Sin and
death came by Adam. Grace and life by Christ
The Christian must die to sin and live to God.
We are released by Christ from the law, and from
the guilt of sin, though the inclination to it
There is no condemnation to them that, being
tified by Christ, walk not after the flesh, but
according to the Spirit. Their strong hop)
love of God.
The apostle's concern for the Jews. God's elec-
tion is free, and not confined to their nation.
The end of the law is faith in Christ, which tht
Jews refusing to submit to, cannot be justified.
God hath not cast off all Israel. The Gentiles
must not be proud, but stand in faith and fear.
Lessons of Christian Virtue.
Lessons of Obedience to Superiors.
The strong must bear with the weak. Cautions
against judging, and giving scandal.
He exhorts them all to be of one mind, and pro-
mises to come and see them.
He concludes with salutations, bidding them be-
ware of all that should oppose the doctrine they
had learned.
Fstr;ii i- fi<ini I)..:'
?q heads or purls
ulphubelical
ded — The punishment of not giv-
le next life.
bjects of worship
the souls of men.
described— Their
i appointed t
ingal;
Angels— Their 01
Believers— The
reward— Their
Burthen, every soul to bear Ms own.
Calumny forbidden. Charity recommended.
Clni*titi} commended.
Days appointed to commemorate God.
Dying Persons— What part of the Koran is u
ally read to them.
Eucharist, seems to have occasioned a fable in
to the worship of God— To a good
lite.
Fidelity recommended. Friaukhip with unbe-
lievers forbidden.
God— Proofs of his Existence— His Omnipresence
asserted— His Omnipotence— His Omniscience
asserted— Power and Providence conspicuous in
his Works.
Hell, torments of, described— The portion of unbe*
Holy Spirit— Who is meant thereby.
Idolaters compared to brutes.
Idolatry, the heinousness of.
Idols — Their insignificance— will appear as wit-
nesses against their worshippers.
Compared to Adam— A curse denounced against
thi'Sc who believe not on him — Will descend mi
the e nth before the Resurrection and kill Anti-
\h d-.\ tiie fir i
Man— His wonderful formation— His presump-
tion in undertaking to fulfil the Laws of God.
Mary the Virgin— Her Story— Free from Original
Orphans not to be injured— A curse on thi
defraud them.
Parents to be honoured.
Pride abominable in the sight of God.
Prayer commanded and enforced-Directio
cerning it.
Qmirrrh between true "
Repentance necessary I
one ineffectual.
Righteous-Thw reward.
salvalio
-Wherein it consists.
The Seven Deadly Sins. Supererogation.
Trumpet will sound at the Last Day.
Unbelievers descrihed-Their sentence
Weight to be just. Widows to be prov.ded for.
Works of an Infidel will appear against him at t
Last Day.
Yathreb, the ancient name of Medina.
Zacharias praying for a son is promised John,
TRUTH AND ERROR
CONTRASTED,
&c.
LETTER I.
TO THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
SIR,
When an individual, however insignificant,
steps forward on the public stage, to enter into a con-
troversy on the subject of religion, if he be not prepared
to incur the reproach, the ridicule, or the resentment
of those whose principles he impugns, and whose pre-
judices he offends — or, if he expect to find protection
in the purity of his intentions, the benevolence of his
motives, the anxiety which he feels to promote their
temporal and eternal happiness — he must be totally
ignorant of the character of man. If, therefore, in
conjunction with others, whose zeal, whose talents,
and whose experience, are more calculated to convince
our Roman Catholic countrymen of those errors which
are fatal to their eternal interests, the writer of these
pages should incur a portion of their displeasure, he
if prepared to meet it ; and he trusts, that from all
who are engaged in this important work, the answer
both of their lips and their hearts may be, " being
defamed, we entreat — being reviled, w T e bless;" — so
that, although our Roman Catholic brethren may op-
pose or reproach our principles, they may be eventually
led to do justice to our motives ; and though they
may hold us as heretics in Christian faith, they may
acknowledge that we are only discharging what we
consider to be the duties of Christian charity.
But while we are prepared to expect reproach from
the Romau Catholics — while we are prepared to ex-
pect a difference in judgment among many of our
Protestant brethren, and a deficiency in zeal and co-
operation among some who even profess to approve of
our undertaking — we should scarcely have been pre-
pared to expect from any one who had a true regard
for the Established religion of these countries, the lan-
guage of reproach and severity, with which a writer
in the last number of your Magazine has attacked
us. And although we have cause to be indebted to
him, for choosing a channel of such literary celebrity,
to call the attention of Protestants to our Institution,
we regret that he may so far succeed, by his vain
professions of regard for the Established Church, and
respect for her authorities, and some coarse abuse
of the Roman Catholic Priests, in imposing on the
unwary, as the production of a Protestant, a paper
which, upon close examination, carries some internal
evidence of coming from the pen of a wily Jesuit : and
it is worthy of observation, that in the Newspapers
which maintain the principles of the Roman Catholic
religion, extracts from your article have been in-
serted, — attacking the Reformation Society on the
triumphant authority of Blackwood's Magazine ! This
consideration may be of some importance to you,
Sir, as the Editor of a periodical distinguished for
the talent with which it is conducted, and pro-
fessing a high regard for the Established Church.
But we have considerations of much higher moment
than the names, or characters, or interests, or parties,
or politics of men, or literary productions to discuss,
namely — the salvation of the immortal soul of man
— the rights and privileges of rational and. respon-
sible agents, who are hastening onward to a tribunal,
where they shall account for their use of that reason
which they have abandoned — for their reception of
that revelation which they have slighted — for their
obedience to that God whose authority they have post-
poned to that of their fellow-worms, yielding to the
precepts and traditions of men, that reverence and that
submission which is due alone to the eternal God. —
These, and the immeasurable difference between the
influences of superstition and of true religion on the
intellectual, the moral, the social, the temporal, and
eternal misery or happiness of man, of our countrymen,
of our friends, of our kinsmen — of those to whom we
are bound by all the ties that ought to cement and
identify our mutual affections and interests — these, Sir,
are considerations too vast to be mixed up with the
trifling characters of individuals — to be trampled on by
their wickedness, or to be obscured by their igno-
rance or their folly.
The author of the paper to which these pages refer,
has selected the writer of these letters as the object of
his peculiar animadversion ; and having described his
notions as "uncharitable, extravagant, unscriptural,"
&c. &c. he attempts to identify the Reformation So-
ciety with this individual : he says, * The theology,
rt if it may be so called, of the Rev. Mr. M'Ghee, is
" the leaven with which the whole mass of the Refor-
" mation Society is leavened, and the spirit which
" actuates that gentleman, the same that may be ex-
" pected to characterize all its proceedings."
It certainly exhibited no deficiency of tact in this
writer, to select one of the weakest and least judicious
of all those who have taken a part in the proceedings
of this Society, and one who has probably exposed
himself, from these causes, the most to animadversion,
as the object of his attacks. But while, in the name
of a Society which enrols on the list of its members
some of the most exalted in rank, and office, and cha-
racter, and talent, and Christian faithfulness and bene-
volence, in the land, I must protest against its being
either identified with, or responsible for, the faults,
or errors, or extravagancies of any of its members,
much less of one so insignificant as I ; — While I must
protest against this charge, as being at war with all
that is fair, and just, and reasonable, in estimating the
character or principles of any public institution ; — and
while I must remark on the plain indecorum of such
a subterfuge, as being unworthy of any cause, how^
ever bad — I am far from retreating under the authority
of the Society — of all or of any of its members — in
meeting the charge of this assailant. I owe it to that
valuable and respected body of men, whom I believe,
to the best of my judgment, to be engaged in the
most important work that ever has been undertaken
in Ireland, to acknowledge my fault, if I have been
in error, or to vindicate the principles on which I
advocate the cause in which they are engaged. I
owe it to my Roman Catholic friends and countrymen,
whom I have ventured to address on the subject, to
prove that I have endeavoured to speak to them, not
the language of fanaticism or folly, but " the words of
truth and soberness." I shall not say I owe it to my-
self — for I can assure the writer, that such imputa-
tions as these rebound from the conscience of a man
who desires to discharge his duty, like a marble which
a child would fling against a rock. If the writer be,
as I suspect, a Jesuit in disguise, I regret that he has
had recourse to this unworthy artifice, unworthy even
of his order, in opposing the Reformation Society, in-
stead of coming boldly forward to meet, with the
weapons of reason and revelation, the arguments that
are urged on his understanding and his conscience, to
induce him to fly from the confines of a dark and
dreadful superstition, whose paths lead to death, to
the light and salvation of the everlasting Gospel. If,
on the contrary, I should be mistaken, and that this
b 2
6
writer should be a member, or a Minister, of the
Established Church, as I have heard hinted, I can
unfeignedly assure him, that the most painful feel-
ing I suffer, in vindicating the principles which I have
advanced from the imputations he has cast upon them,
is that of supposing it possible that such an attack
could come from such a quarter, and of being obliged
to engage with such an antagonist, whom, like an
old acquaintance met in hostile ranks, it is a shock to
the feelings to encounter, and a pang to the heart to
overcome.
I can truly say to him, with one of old, " With me
it is a very small thing that t should be judged of you
or of man's judgment;" and in such a cause as this, it
surely is not the part of one who wishes to investi-
gate or to exhibit truth, to divert the attention of men
from principles to persons, to rail instead of to reason,
and to attempt to merge a question which involves the
temporal and eternal interests of a nation, into the con-
temptible consideration of the weakness or folly of an
individual. Of what consequence is it to the Roman
Catholics of Ireland, whether an insignificant member
of the Reformation Society be a fanatic and an enthu-
siast, or a man of sense and spiritual wisdom ? If his
sentiments be false, they are probably of too little weight
in the scale of any contingent influence, to deserve
notice ;— if they be considered, from their plausibility,
to be worthy of remark, let their error be demonstrated,
and let the truth be placed in clear comparison beside
them. If this writer should consider it expedient to
pursue his lucubrations upon this subject, it is to be
hoped he will adopt a plan, not only better adapted
to the discussion of truth, but also infinitely more
worthy of the subject, and of those who conscientiously
engage in it. If he had brought merely a vague and
indefinite charge of " fanatical extravagance" against
me, I should willingly dismiss the unworthy subject
here — or rather, indeed, I should never have thought
it worthy of notice ; but he has quoted from my speech
at the formation of the Society, the passage on which
his invective seems to be founded, and on which he has
stamped the seal of his peculiar displeasure — and here,
indeed, matter of the deepest importance is involved.
fn entering on this subject, we come to the vital points
connected with the great question to which it seems
peculiarly important to call the attention of all who
love truth, whether they be Protestants or Roman
Catholics.
It is my intention to examine whether the Roman
Catholic religion is of such a nature as to make
it a duty imperative on Protestants to attempt the
reformation of that Church. This is the chief point to
be considered. I shall then offer some remarks on the
letter of your Irish correspondent, as it seems to bear
on the subject. And although I am aware that, in the
estimation both of him and of many — alas ! too many —
who think with him, it will corroborate the charge
of u fanatical extravagance" to speak of any spiritual
influence on the human heart, yet do I pray, in much
weakness both of mind and body, as I now am, that
the spirit of the living God will strengthen me, and
8
enable me with all holy boldness, and tidelity, and Chris-
tian love to him who has attacked the truth of God
through me — to my dear Roman Catholic countrymen,
who are wandering in the depths of ignorance and er-
ror, under the guidance of an awful superstition, which
they are taught to venerate as the truth of God — and to
all who differ from me on this vast and important sub-
ject, — to speak the truth as I shall wish to have spoken
it when I come to stand at the tribunal of the high and
holy God.
I am, Sir, &c.
R. M'G.
Harrogate, July 22, 1829.
LETTER II.
SIR,
The first enquiry which I shall propose in vin-
dication of the Reformation Society, is this — " Whe-
ther the religion of the Church of Rome be of such a
nature, as to render it a duty imperative on Protestants
to attempt the reformation of thai Church ?"
In examining this question I wish it to be clearly
understood, that I confine my enquiry to the poiut,
whether the Church of Rome be in error on principles
which affect the salvation of the human soul? If
men, as members of any Church which dissents from
the Established religion, do not maintain 'principles
contrary to the fundamental truths of the Christian
faith, or the plain precepts of Christian morals, however
we may believe them in error on other points, yet this
does not seem to me to justify any attempt to shake
their principles, or to engage them in disputations. Men
differ, and will, probably, continue to differ, on points
in religion which God has not decided, and on some
which they view differently in His holy Word ; but
10
He has decided — He has enjoined — He has enforced,
by every consideration, the principle of Christian unity,
and of Christian love, amongst all who profess u the
faith of Christ crucified ;" and the experience of the
Christian Church has proved, that the tendency of
every controversy on points that are not essential,
is to impair that unity and love which all, who love
the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, should endeavour
to keep — " the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace." As a member and minister of the Established
Church — a Church whose fundamental principles are
those of the Gospel of Christ, I think that all dissent, (I
care not on what principle) is in itself an error and
an evil ; but if the consciences of others feel differently,
and that they do not give up the fundamental 'principles
of faith and morals, it is not mine to judge, but to respect
their conscience, and to endeavour to walk in peace,
and unity, and concord with those here, with whom I
trust to dwell in everlasting love hereafter. But if, on
the contrary, a Church, professing to call itself by the
name of Christ, should teach principles subversive of the
faith, and by a direct and necessary consequence, of the
morals of Christ's religion, are we not then called on, as
we value the souls of men and the truth of God, to
hold a controversy with her? not only to contend, but
to " contend earnestly" against her, V for the faith once
delivered to the saints?" If we do not, we become
partakers of her sins, and if God does not hold His
hand, we shall surely be partakers of her plagues.
The quotation which the writer in your Magazine
11
considers so uncharitable, extravagant, &c, brings us
at once to the very vital point of the question ; it is this
— " It is my full conviction, that the principles and
teachers of their religion do not set forth that salva-
tion as the only refuge of their immortal souls, but 'turn
their minds from that salvation to fictions of human
superstition, and ' refuges of lies,' which shall be swept
off when heaven and earth shall be rolled away, and
leave those who have been so unhappy as to rest on
them, naked, shivering, guilty, and condemned, to
PERISH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THEIR GOD FOR
ever." The last words of this quotation the writer
has distinguished by capital letters, intending, I suppose
to convey to his readers, by all the intensity of typo-
graphical emphasis, the magnitude of that uncharitable
and unchristian extravagance with which he considers
the sentiment to abound. But let me call this writer
to a deliberate examination of this extravagant senti-
ment. It contains either very awful truth, or very
awful falsehood ; and it had been more worthy of the
vast importance of the subject, to have brought it to the
solid test of proof, than to have attempted to drown the
voice of sober investigation in the cry of contempt and
contumely on the person who gave it utterance : and
now, — in the most grave and solemn deliberation of
deep, contemplative reflection, I assert, in the face of
that contempt and contumely, and of all that this writer,
or any other, can cast on the assertion, that every tittle
of that offensive sentence is true — awfully, scripturally
true — true in the tremendous fact that it declares — true
in the scriptural judgment it denounces. It consists of
12
two distinct propositions : One, that the principles and
teachers of the Roman Catholic Church, instead of
setting before their flock the salvation of the Gospel,
that only refuge of man's immortal soul, — turn them
from that salvation to " refuges of lies," and fictions of
human superstition. The truth of this proposition de-
pends on exhibiting the difference between the Gospel
of Christ, and the grounds of salvation held out by the
Church of Rome ; if they are opposed to each other,
yea, if they are not identified, this proposition is
irrefragably true.
The other proposition is — that all fictions of human su-
perstition — all refuges of lies, shall be swept away when
God shall come to judge the quick and dead ; and that
all who have been turning to them for salvation, instead
of to that hope which God reveals in His Gospel to
man, shall fall under the judgment of Jehovah, and
perish from His presence for ever. The truth of this
depends upon the testimony of God's word, whether
there is hope for man's soul in refuges of lies and human
fictions, as well as in the Gospel- whether it be true,
that he that believeth the Gospel shall be saved, and
that he that believeth not shall be damned."
Now, this writer was bo«nd to prove the falsehood
of these propositions. If the first were false, the second,
as applied to the Roman Catholic religion, could not be
true. If the first were true, the man who could
admit its truth, and yet deny the truth of the second
proposition as applied to it, must, himself, be radically
13
ignorant of the very fundamental principles of the
Gospel.
1 regret to be constrained to apply this to the writer
of that article. I regret to be obliged to say, that he
appears as ignorant as that Church for which he vir-
tually contends, of the very foundation of a sinner's
hope. 1 must submit his principles to the test of that
examination which I cannot but wish he had vouch-
safed to mine. He states in the second column, p.
84 : — " Far indeed are we from underrating the mis-
" chiefs which must ever attend on that demoralizing
" system, even as the shadow attends upon the sub-
u stance. It may be briefly described as the eclipse
" of the Gospel wherever it exists. Deeply rooted
" and widely extended are the errors which must pre-
" vail — errors concerning not only the rule of faith, but
" the foundation of government in civil society." I
shall not stop to remark on the commencement of this
sentence, in which he anticipates a charge that too deep-
ly lies against his production ; and I must beg to correct
the conclusion of it, in which he condenses the errors
of " a demoralizing system," and " an eclipse of the
Gospel," into " errors concerning not only the rule of
faith, but the foundation of government in civil soci-
ety." As to errors on the rule of faith — although the
Roman Catholic Church is in great error on this sub-
ject, still it is by no means to be considered as her
greatest error ; errors on the rule of faith, and errors
on the thing believed are perfectly distinct from each
c
14
other. A man may have a clear and adequate per-
ception of the rule of faith, and yet be grossly ignorant
of, and refuse to believe, the fundamental principles
which that rule reveals. On the other hand — a man
may have a genuine belief of the truths revealed in the
rule, and a very imperfect or erroneous view of what the
true rule is, by which his faith is to be regulated.
There are many men who could clearly contend for the
Word of God as the sole and genuine rule of faith,
who yet reject the most important truths which that
Word reveals. There are many who believe the Gos-
pel, and whose life evinces the truth of their profes-
sion, who would place the articles and liturgy of their
Church upon a par, or nearly so, with the Bible, as
their rule of faith. If, therefore, the writer mean this
as an explanation of his expressions " demoralizing
system" and " eclipse of the Gospel," as applied to the
Roman Catholic religion, it is a mistake; if not, I
ask his pardon for the correction. As to their errors on
''the foundation of government in civil society;" —
however these may result from their religious principles,
it has nothing whatever to do with the subjects in de-
bate. I must, therefore, (consistently w r ith an excel-
lent rule of the Reformation Society, which disclaims
all interference in political concerns) decline following
this writer into any expressions on this topic, which he
has unmeaningly crowded into his article ; we must
adhere closely to the point at issue. I would keep him
to that, if he does not there mean to explain away his
expressions, I will take his statement of the Roman
15
Catholic religion in his own terms, as to Christian faith
and Christian morals. As to morals, it is " a demora-
'* Using system." As to the Christian faith, I thankfully
adopt this writer's expressive image — " It may be briefly
(i described as the eclipse of the Gospel." The faith
of that Church is not only not the Gospel, but it is as
different from the light of truth, as the opaque and inter-
posing planet, from that luminary whose beams it in-
tercepts from earth.
Now, the assertion, that the principles and teach-
ers of the Church of Rome do not set forth the sal-
vation of the Gospel as the refuge of man's immortal
soul, but substitute for that, fictions of human su-
perstitions, and refuges of lies ; and the assertion, that
their religion, so far from being that of the Gospel,
is the eclipse of the Gospel, seem to mean so precisely
the same thing, that I take it for granted, the writer
does not mean to charge the first proposition in this
offensive passage, with extravagance or want of charity.
I, therefore, conclude, that the force of all his charges
is directed against the second proposition — namely, that
all such fictions and refuges shall be swept away at last
by the judgment of God, and that all who have been
so unhappy as to rest on them, shall perish from
THE PRESENCE OF THEIR GOD FOR EVER; and this
conclusion is warranted both by his having emphatically
distinguished this latter clause in capitals, and also from
his remarks on the passage which are these : —
" We thought it was confined to the Church of
16
Rome, thus to deal damnation upon all who differ from
her; but Mr. M'Ghee is one of those who furnish a
proof that extremes are nearest, and it is rather un-
fortunate for himself that, that gentleman, when he
turned his back upon Popery, should have pursued a
course by which he has been carried out of Christen-
dom, and landed upon a terra firma of bigotry, as
gloomy and inexorable as any that he could have re-
linquished."
It is scarcely worth while, Sir, in writing on this im-
portant subject, to make a personal observation, but I
must assure this writer that I have never been a Roman
Catholic, or belonged to any Church, but that of which
I desire to be a faithful, though I feel 1 am an un-
worthy minister. Before 1 enter on an examination
of this "gloomy," " inexorable," and " bigotted" pro-
position, I must make a few preliminary remarks,
which are called for by the nature of this writer's sen-
timents—sentiments unhappily, not less popular and
generally received, than unsound and unscriptural in
their nature and ordinary application.
The judgments of God denounced against the sins
of men are so awful, that the mind recoils from con-
templating the execution of their tremendous sentence,
against any number or any individual of our fellow-
men ; and it is unquestionably a true and genuine prin-
ciple of Christian charity, a principle without which,
no man could possess a title to the name of Christian,
to wish from our hearts, and to use our endeavours as
1
far as we can, that all our fellow-sinners should escape
the terrors of " the wrath to come." But that which
it is an acknowledged principle of Christian charity, to
wish for every individual, has become (by a transition
from truth to error, too easy to the human mind) es-
tablished among the sentiments of the multitude that
bear the Christian name, as a sort of courteous charity
to hope for them ; and, accordingly, the term charity
has been modernized into an application, not only dif-
ferent from the true and scriptural meaning of the
word, but which transfers it from the pure and holy
page of revelation, to the profligate vocabulary of la-
titudinarianism and infidelity. Now, it is uncharitable
to say that any man can be lost — now it is only Chris-
tian charity to hope that every man will be saved. —
Let every man go his own road to Heaven — let us not
be so uncharitable as to think evil of each other's
religion — do you go your way and we will go ours —
let us not presume to
" Deal damnation round the land,
On each we judge his foe."
Let us all go on quietly and peaceably like good
Christians together — let us live and act well, and it
is not much concern what we believe. This is modern
charity, and if your correspondent wish to finish the
picture as poetically as he has drawn mine, he may
take the popular couplet : —
" For modes of faith, let graceless bigots fight —
His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right."
He will recollect, it is from the same poet who bag
c 2
18
already furnished him with his quotation, of which I
shall but remark, that I have enough of Christian cha-
rity, sincerely to wish that the principles of the person
who quotes the passage, are not infected with the
source from which it is derived. A composition which its
profane author has called by desecration, a "-prayer"
of which the first stanza is an attempt to identify the
obscene idol worshipped by the Heathen, under the
name of Jupiter, with the true and living God, the
Jehovah of the sacred Scriptures. But what, Sir, is
this charity — this popular charity of our day? It is
an infidel abandonment of the principles of divine
revelation ; it is an infidel attempt to accommodate
the truth of God, to all the falsehoods and the fic-
tions of the fallen human heart; it is an insult to
the majesty of that Divine Being, who has re-
vealed his holy will to his ignorant rebellious crea-
res; it is a contempt of his law — a rejection of his
Gospel — a mockery of his authority — a scoffing at his
mercy — a braving of his judgments. Let us plainly
examine it, and what is it but to say — it is of no con-
sequence w T hat God has revealed for the instruction of
Ins creatures; men may embrace or reject whatever
parts of it they please, and it is Christian charity to
hope that they shall all be saved, whether their prin-
ciples be those to which God's word annexes salvation
or not. If, Sir, to reject such chanty as this, be
gloomy, inexorable bigotry — then, Sir, I trust, I shall
ever justly fall under the imputation. Such charity as
this, may be called by the name of Christian, but can
never be professed, except by him who is ignorant of
19
that faith, and destitute of that hope, which alone ear*
scripturally entitle him to the appellation.
That charity which the Bible recognizes alone as-
true, is founded on a belief of the truth of God's holy
word. It is that love to him, and love to our fellow-
creatures, which springs from the faith of his great and
rich salvation. It is the agent of faith, the spring of
action in the believer's life — for " faith worketh by
love." It " believeth all things," but nothing contrary
to that which God commands it to believe. It " hopeth
all things," but nothing which God has forbidden it to
hope. It cannot believe, it cannot hope that those who
reject the Gospel can be saved, unless they repent and
believe it — for this were to believe, and hope, that God
would be untrue. It cannot believe, and hope, that
those who, though they profess to believe it, are living
in practical ungodliness, can be in a state of salvation,
for this were to believe, and hope, that God would be
untrue likewise; and while it earnestly desires, and
would gladly labour to promote the salvation of all
mankind, it cannot ignorantly, and weakly, and sinfully
indulge a hope for any fellow-creature, at the expense
of the truth and authority of the Creator. It evinces
the genuine principle of its existence, not in flattering
men in their errors, but in endeavouring to convince
them of them; not in soothing them in their ignorance,
but in endeavouring to enlighten and instruct them ;
not in lulling them to sleep in their " refuges of lies,"
saying with the false teachers, " peace peace, when
there is no peace," but in awakening and calling on
20
them to fly to the strong holds of truth and of salva-
tion, crying to them with the Apostle, u awake thou
that steepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light." This is genuine charity, and I trust
our Roman Catholic countrymen shall see and feel
that, they who in a spirit of honest, affectionate fide-
lity, call on them to turn to Him who is the only hope
and refuge of apostate man, feel more of genuine cha-
rity for them, and take a deeper interest in their hap-
piness both here and hereafter, than those w T ho raise
the cry of fanaticism, and " uncharitable," and " in-
exorable bigotry," &c. against men that tell them that
if they do not turn to Christ, they must perish in their
iniquity. Perish (yes, let it be written in capitals)
FROM THE PRESENCE OF THEIR GOD FOR EVER. —
But while there are some good charitable people, who
are so full of Christian amiability, that they will say,
all men are to be saved, whatever be their creed, and
who think God too compassionate, to be holy — too mer-
ciful, to be just — too relenting, to be true. There is
another class among whom, it is most probable, your
correspondent is to be reckoned — who are like him,
ready to cry out against the uncharitable bigotry of
those, who would impugn a certain description of errors,
perhaps lho,se to which they feel particularly inclined
to verge, but who are not quite arrived at the full la-
titudinarian extent of this infidel charity that I have
described, who profess themselves highly orthodox. —
This class of men forget that after all, their own libe-
rality is but of a comparative latitude; for there are
classes, and it is to be feared the major class, in many
21
parts of this same Christendom too, beyond the boun-
daries of which my intolerance has so hurried me, who
would place your correspondent but a few steps above
such a bigot, as even the peculiar object of his reproach;
Let me ask him, Sir, whether there is no standard of
truth in his estimation, the falling short of which, sub-
jects a man " to perish from the presence of his God
forever?" Let me ask him, whether he thinks that
those who assert with citizen Dupont, that " there
is no' God" — shall read their sentence at His dread
tribunal if they die in their iniquity ?-— If he answer
yes ; what a terrible bigot must he appear to all the
disciples of the national convention ! — Let me bring in
another class before him — what does he say of those
who imagine they have made an advance to true reli-
gion from Atheism — who admit that there is a Divine
Being, that " the Heavens declare his glory, and that
the firmament showeth his handy work/' but yet, who
consider that the only revelation of his existence is in
the works of nature, and that the book which we call the
sacred volume is only a cunningly-devised fable ; does
his charity extend so far as to illustrate in capitals the
bigotry which asserts that those who trample on the
words of eternal life as a fiction, " shall "perish from the
presence of their God for ever?" If not — if he will
pass sentence on such a class as this — it is well that he
has not lived in days of yore, when the classic pen of
Voltaire, of Gibbon, or of Hume, would have immor-
talized his bigotry, as he has endeavoured to give
celebrity to mine. But does he give up the Deists too ?
— Well ! let him prepare himself now, if he is not very
liberal, for a charge of bigotry, which shall be vollied
on his head from thousands in this very favored land,
when I shall summon before him another band of
meek, demure, most moral, pious gentlemen, enshrined
" In all the great divinity of virtue,"
who look with horror, like himself, on those who deny
a God, or who do not reverence his sacred word —
gentlemen, who prize the Bible as much as he himself,
who acknowledge with him that it " contains a system
of divine philosophy, which may afford its highest
exercise to the sagacity and intelligence of the deepest
and most enlightened thinker' — who place the sacred
code of Christian morals, as far beyond those of
" Epictetus, Plato, Tully," as their pious and enlight-
ened Founder was superior to the sages both of Greece
and Rome. But then — O, can there be an excep-
tion against such grave divinity as this ? These wise,
these meek, these moral, pious men, can call that
founder — but a sage ! Those antiquated creeds, those
stubborn, bigotted, and stupid formularies that are
after all but fit to be said or sung in churches — how
illiberal, how unenlightened are their dogmas, that
Jesus Christ is " over all, God blessed for ever !" —
How irrational, would they say, is their doctrine of
atonement ! How inconsistent with all that " divine
philosophy," conceives of a merciful and holy Being,
that Jesus should " die, the just for the unjust, that
He might bring us to God !" Now what, Sir, does
your correspondent think of these ? will he stand up
in the centre of enlightened Christendom, in this the
middle of the nineteenth century, and repeat without a
23
blush that revolting antiquated dogma, u this is the
Catholic faith, which except a man believe faith-
fully, he cannot he saved ; * * * which except a man
do keep, whole and nndeflled, icithout doubt, he shall
perish everlastingly ?" — If he can do so, there are
some good doctors, even in little Ireland, who will
exclaim, u we thought it was confined to the Church
of Rome thus to 'deal damnation' upon all who
differ from her ;" but your anonymous correspon-
dent is one of those who furnish a proof that ex-
tremes are nearest ; and it is rather unfortunate for
himself, that that gentleman, when he turned his back
upon Popery, has pursued a course by which he has
been carried out of Christendom, and landed upon a
terra firma of bigotry and intolerance as gloomy and
inexorable as any that he could have relinquished.
Does your correspondent fear to encounter this im-
putation ? — if not, then let me call on him to recollect,
that the charge of bigotry and intolerance is frequently
the outcry of ignorance, and still more frequently of
guilt and wickedness, by which it seeks to drown the
voice of honest reproof, and silence an investigation
which it is incompetent to meet ; — let him remember,
that virulence is not a test of truth; that to bestow un-
christian appellations is hardly calculated to convert or
to convince the very individuals who are so unfortunate
as to deserve them — let him remark, that every man
who seeks to draw the line of demarcation between
truth and falsehood must incur the charge of bigotry
and intolerance, from those who arrogate to themselves
the wisdom of taking a stand above him; and that,
therefore, the only proper plan for one w^ho professes
24
to write on such a solemn subject, as that which he has
undertaken, is to determine, and clearly lay down the
abstract principles of eternal truth, and to exercise, not
a spurious, but a genuine Christian charity, and a sound,
well-regulated judgment in their application — an appli-
cation which, when it is made to any body of men, can
alone be justified by an honest and sincere desire for
their eternal welfare, a clear conviction of their error
on essential points, and an earnest and affectionate
anxiety to correct it. Will this writer take his stand
on the existence of a God ? — he must be content to be
branded as a' bigot by the Atheist. Will he take his
stand on the Divine authenticity and inspiration of the
sacred volume — will he maintain the sanctioning of eter-
nal judgment against the scoffers of Jehovah's truth? —
then must he receive a similar stamp of bigotry from
the Deist. Will he assert the doctrine of the ever- blessed
Trinity — will he hold up the Godhead and atone-
ment of the adorable Immanuel? — then shall he be
sentenced by
" Recumbent virtue's downy Doctors,"
who have turned from the Fountain of Life to the
broken cisterns of Socinus. Does he flatter himself,
that in opposing these, he stands upon the solid ground
of orthodoxy ? I tell him then, with as much confi-
dence as he would speak to them, that while some may
pride themselves on their intellectual superiority, in hav-
ing learned to explain away the facts, or to trample on
the evidences of revelation, or to deny the existence of
a God ; and others may pride themselves on a more
orthodox creed, in adhering to a church whose princi-
ples are in accordance with the Sacred Volume, and
25
alike abhorrent from infidelity and superstition ; and
others again may seek to shroud their ignorance in the
authority of their fellow men, and their sins, in gloomy
dens of human superstition — I tell him, that the simple
abstract truth, in reference to them all, is the same —
"HE THAT BEL1EVETU THE GOSPEL SHALL BE SAVED,
AND HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT SHALL BE DAMNED."
Infidelity, whether Socinianism, Deism, or Atheism,
affords no refuge for the human soul — superstition al-
lures and lulls it asleep in refuges of lies. A genuine
Christian Church points out in her principles the real
refuge for the soul, but can afford no security to those
who do not fly to it in spirit and truth, all shall alike
" appear before the judgment seat of Christ," — when
the presumptuous audacity of infidelity, the lying re-
fuges of superstition, the Laodicean guilt of merely
nominal orthodoxy, which imagined itself " rich and
increased with goods," and knew not that it was
" poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and
naked," shall all be swept away from before the Holy
God, and their votaries shall perish from His presence
for ever and ever.
So far from shrinking then, from the charges of your
correspondent, he may perceive I enlarge the borders of
my bigotry ; but I tell him in deep and solemn truth,
that this to my view is the imperative duty, yea, and a
distinctive mark of genuine Christian charity — to warn
men of their danger — to tell them of the remedy,
seems to me not the characteristic of unkindness but of
regard— he may call it the " terra firma of bigotry," —
D
26
but I entreat him to examine whether it be not the
" terra Jirma" of truth — I fearlessly affirm that it is.
I trust that the finger of the living God may not mark
it as a " terra incognita" in tracing the course of his
pilgrimage in the map of life— I trust that he and all
who are tossing, as we must fear all the apologists of
error are, upon a troubled sea of ignorance and sin
that cannot rest, may be brought to land upon the
Rock of Ages — may feel with joy its firm support be-
neath their feet — may look upon the waves of sin, and
time, and death, as they play with impotence around
its base, unable any longer to destroy, but only to dash
them a little with their spray, until they reach the terra
Jirma of everlasting rest and glory. If this be want of
charity I am a terrible delinquent, and I will acknow-
ledge, that in this the Reformation Society must share
the blame with me — for we feel, we confess, this want of
Christian charity even for every Roman Catholic in Ire-
land. But this is a digression, Sir, T must go back to the
toil of a strict and sober controversy, and I most willingly
confess, that controversy is a toil and trial to my spirit.
Is then, the religion of the Church of Rome of such
a nature, as to render it a duty imperative on Pro-
testants, to attempt the reformation of its members ?
Who shall answer the question ? Let us hear the op-
ponent of the Reformation Society — what saith he ?
" Misohiefs attend on that demoralizing syste?n
even as the shadow attends upon the substance — it
may be briefly described as the eclipse of the Gospel."
27
True — what are the consequences ? Is a demoralizing
system of religion Christianity — is that from which
demoralization is as inseparable as the shadow from the
substance— is that Christianity ? Is a religion which is
not only not the Gospel, but as different from the Gos-
pel as the opacity of the planet from the lustre of the
sun, as darkness from light — is this Christianity? If
not, can those who teach, and who live in a demoraliz-
ing system — a system which is not Christianity — a sys-
tem from which, by every effort, they endeavour to
shut out the light of truth — a system which seems
concocted, as an illustration of that divine testimony,
" he that doeth evil hateth the light, neither comet h
to the light lest his deeds should be reproved." — Can
men teach and live in this, and yet be in the way of
salvation ? If salvation come to man but through the
Gospel of Christ, can men live in a system confessedly
as different from the Gospel as darkness is from light,
and yet receive that salvation which the Gospel alone
can give ? x\re the words that fell from those divine
lips false ? — f? This is the condemnation that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their doeds were evil" — may they
then be in darkness, and love darkness, and yet this be no
condemnation? — Must we read in our Bibles — "he that
believeth the Gospel shall be saved" — but it is no matter
whether he believe or not, for he that believeth what is
as contrary to the Gospel, as darkness to light, shall be
saved too. If it be extravagant, fanatical, uncharitable
bigotry, to say that such men must perish from the pre-
sence of their God, then it is just, and sober, and cha-
28
ritable liberality, to hold out to them in their ignorance
and guilt, the hope of everlasting life. What, am I to
reply to a writer who maintains this ? shall I say that
such principles are only calculated to confound all
right and wrong, all vice and virtue, all good and evil,
all truth and falsehood, all the revelation of Jehovah,
and all the superstition and infidelities, and follies, and
fanaticisms of man, in one heterogeneous and undis-
tinguishable mass of error?— shall I say that such prin-
ciples are alike at war with all the testimonies of divine
revelation, and all the legitimate deductions of sober
and enlightened reason ? shall I urge against him the
authority of a Church for which he pretends a reve-
rence, but with whose principles he appears so totally
unacquainted ; — a Church, which not only faithfully de-
clares the judgments of God against the professors of
falsehood, but with an intolerance and bigotry, even
greater than ray sentiment contained, denounces as a
scriptural sentence an anathema on their apologists. —
" They also are to be had accursed, that presume to
rt say, that every man shall be saved by the law or sect
" which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his
" life according to that law and the light of nature, for
" holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of
" Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved." — Art. 18.
Shall I urge these as a refutation of the charge of bi-
gotry and intolerance, &c. &c. against the Reformation
Society ? No — but I will entreat that writer, for his
own sake, to consider the solemn denunciations of one,
who treats of sentiments like his — denunciations of an
authority far higher than that of a fellow-worm, an au-
29
thority far greater than the Articles of the Church —
" Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that
put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter," Isaiah v. 20. — I
would entreat him for his own sake, to consider how
the eternal God marks efforts similar to that which he
has made, as the crown and consummation of Jewish
iniquity — " They 'please not God, and are contrary to
all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that
they might be saved, to Jill up their sins alway,"
1 Thess. ii. 15, [0. I would remind him of an admoni-
tion which, though not inspired, is preserved in the
pages of inspiration for our learning, as given to those
who were engaged like him in attempting to oppose the
dissemination of the Gospel among men who were in
darkness and the shadow of death. — " And now I say
unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone,
for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come
to nought ; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it,
lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." —
Acts v. 38, 39. I submit these to his own considera-
tion, as a fellow-sinner, and I hope I may truly add
as a friend to himself, though an enemy to his errors —
but if I must answer him as a controversialist, I will
say, that he must achieve what is beyond the ability
of man ; — he must reconcile not my charges but his own
concessions, as to the Roman Catholic religion, with the
word of God, as holding out some hope of eternal life
to those who fly to its false unchristian refuges, before
such flippant, puerile, and inconsistent argument^, as
he has ventured to advance, can weigh a feather in the
d 2
30
mind of any man that is entitled to the name of Chris-
tian, against the Reformation Society — and I would
say to the members of that Society, who have the sal-
vation of their Roman Catholic countrymen at heart,
that so far from being daunted by the attacks of such a
writer, who though he professes to dip his pen in oil,
mixes not a little of the " succits nigrce loliginis"
along with it, they should rather the more boldly,
" set their faces like a flint" to their work ; for what
must the evils of that awful superstition be, when
viewed in the light of God's eternal word? — what must
it be in the estimation of any man, who can weigh
truth and falsehood in the balances of the sanctuary? —
and what should be their zeal, and firmness, and fide-
lity, in endeavouring to enlighten our poor countrymen
who are labouring under its yoke, when even an ad-
versary like this, who (if not one of themselves, is
but a few degrees removed from them) is obliged to
confess that it is a demoralizing system with mis-
chiefs attendant on it, as the shadow attends the sub-
stance, and that is as different from the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, as the dark eclipsing planet from
the sun ?
I find, Sir, this part of the subject must be continued
in another letter.
I am, Sir, &c.
R. M'G.
Ifarrowgntr, July 2t, 1820-
LETTER III.
SIR,
Having shown, I trust, the glaring inconsist-
ency of a writer making such a concession, respecting
the religion of Roman Catholics, as that it was a demo-
ralizing system and an eclipse of the Gospel, and yet
accusing a Society of intolerance, and bigotry, and un-
charitableness, &c. &c. which has been embodied for
the sole professed object of their instruction, I proceed
with my inquiry as to the nature of that religion.
And here, if these pages should meet the eye of any
of my Roman Catholic countrymen, I would request of
them to bear in mind, that I speak not of men but of
principles. I presume not to judge of their individual
condition before God — that is the prerogative of the
Searcher of hearts alone — but I speak of the principles
of their Church as expressed in her standard works,
of which it is alike the privilege and the duty of
their fellow-men to judge: and I must correct here,
what I will presume was an unintentional sophism, in
the very first remark which your correspondent makes
32
on the offensive passage in my speech. " We thought,"
ho says, " it was confined to the Church of Rome thus
to ' deal damnation' upon all who differ from her" —
implying that I had done so ! — 1 stated that all persons
who were so unhappy as to rest on the fictions of hu-
man superstition and refuges of lies, to which the prin-
ciples and teachers of the Church of Rome turn the
human mind, shall perish — therefore, this writer con-
cludes, I deal damnation upon all who differ from me!
I know not on what principle of logic he has drawn
this conclusion — it is neither true in matter of reason-
ing, nor in matter of fact; there are many who differ
from me on various points connected with religion —
many Dissenters, for example, both from among the
living and the dead, whose characters and memories
I honour as faithful holy servants of God. — Equally
inconclusive and untrue, is the assumption that [ deal
damnation upon all the individual members of the Church
of Rome. I trust and I believe that both among those
that are living and dead of that Church, though sunk
in the darkness of superstition in her principles, God
hath reserved to Himself many * who have not bowed
the knee to the image of Baal," yet still is my position
irrefragably true — for I believe there are many, who,
amidst all the superstitions which their system presents
to them, do really not rest their souls on them, nor
turn to them as their refuge, but hang their hopes of
everlasting life on Jesus Christ, and on Him alone, and
such, whoever they be, shall be saved. It is not for
man to dive into the bosom of his fellow-creatures — we
know full well that the outward forms of Churches
33
can afford no test by which to judge the real principles
of their respective adherents, in the midst of a blaze of
surrounding light which is reflected upon the counte-
nance and exterior of the sinner ; the eye of God may
see that not abeam has reached the inner man, and in
the rnklst of superstitious gloom and darkness, in which
prejudice and education may chain the person of the
sinner, the God of love can shoot a beam to cheer and
to illuminate the heart. I have conversed with some
Roman Catholics, who I had reason to hope were really
resting on the Redeemer alone. Our little sight is all-
incompetent to place our rule or compasses upon the in-
tersection of light and darkness on this earth — this can
but be seen and judged of by that eye that looks upon
that darkness and that light from heaven ; but though
we cannot do so with respect to men, we are called on
to do so with respect to principles. While I therefore
do not presume to pass a sentence on the body of
Roman Catholics, because they belong outwardly to
that Church, however superstitious— nor to pronounce
on the state of any individual of that body, unless on
hearing him deny the Gospel, I should be called to
bear a testimony to the truth — yet I do, without hesi-
tation, pronounce on the fictions of superstition and
refuges of lies which the principles of their Church
hold out to the human soul, and as certainly pro-
nounce, that any man or men who live and die really
placing their confidence in them, and consequently not
on Christ, must perish from the presence of their God
for ever. And I earnestly, and solemnly, and afTec-
34
tionately entreat the attention of any of my Roman
Catholic countrymen whose eye may meet this page,
to a patient examination of this all-important subject.
O let them consider how contemptible and insignificant
is the opinion of our kindred dust — how little it shall
profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul. I trust I can conscientiously say I do not write
a line on the subject with the intention of giving them
offence ; and if I should unintentionally offend them, I
can only say, " am I therefore become your enemy,
because I tell you the truth?" It is not my object
to enter at length into any doctrines of the Church of
Rome, much less to urge all the objections which lie
against them, but merely to consider some of their
leading principles with reference to this one simple
point, namely — That the means of salvation which that
Church sets forth are inconsistent and at war with the
Gospel of Christ.
The Gospel of Christ is that Glorious Royal Procla-
mation from the King of kings, of full, free, finished,
unconditional mercy, pardon, and salvation to lost and
guilty sinners — which infinite wisdom planned, and
everlasting faithfulness and love, effected through the
righteousness and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our crucified Redeemer — which displays at once the
whole perfections of the moral government of Jehovah,
and the harmonious exercise and adjustment of his
moral attributes — exhibiting the purity of His divine
law — the tremendous and uncompromising nature of its,
35
sanctions — His spotless holiness — His inflexible justice
— His infinite grace and mercy — and His eternal faith-
fulness and truth.
Now, against every one of these the superstitions of
the Church of Rome are systematically set in opposi-
tion.
The Gospel I have stated displays the purity of
the divine law. The Lord Jesus Christ, as man
presents to us, neither more nor less than a living
pattern of that character which Jehovah's law requires
in His creatures — to say that it is beyond the power
of man to fulfil that holy law as the Redeemer did, is
only to say what the Scripture testifies, that man is a
fallen being ; but the law of God is not degenerated
with man's fall — it has not lowered its requirements to
accommodate itself to man's guilt. This popular but
ignorant and absurd doctrine, which men lay as "a
flattering unction to their souls," that " God never de-
mands from us more than we can "perform" is but to
say, in other words, that God's law has become less
strict in proportion to our depravity ; yea, as the pecu-
liar temperament, habits, education, &c. of different
individuals prompts them peculiarly to the commission
of different iniquities — the law dilates and contracts in
proportion to their respective depravities — each indivi-
dual construes the mercy, as he calls it, and the for-
bearance of God in the way most favorable to his own
besetting sin, and hopes that God will mercifully mo-
derate the requisitions of his law in the way most
36
accommodating to him. One individual imagines that
God will not be so strict as to mark one crime, and
another expects that He will make particular allow-
ance for another, until the law of God is frittered away
into a mere indefinite rule, of which the requirements
are as uncertain, and the sanctions as vague and inde-
terminate as the law itself; and although the uncom-
promising holiness of that law, which is as immutable
as its Author, is at this moment as perfect as when
Adam was created competent to fulfil its requirements
in Paradise ; and although its sanctions are as terrible
as when the curse was pronounced upon the fallen
race — as when the deluge overwhelmed a guilty and
apostate world — as when (what is infinitely more) He
who became at once the surety for its fulfilment and its
penalty, drank the cup of wrath and justice to the very
dregs — bowed His sacred head and yielded up the
ghost — when the rending rocks, the quaking earth, the
darkened sun, the convulsed and mourning frame of
nature, bore a testimony to the unmitigated nature of
its pure and holy requisitions, and of the tremendous
terror with which Eternal Justice enforced the rigorous
infliction of its sentence : and although the inspired
preachers of the everlasting Gospel found their procla-
mations of mercy to a guilty world on the unchanged
condition of their guilt under that law, il what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the
law, that every mouth might be stopped, and all the
world become guilty before God," Rom. iii. 19 : and
although they testify the utter impossibility of men
justifying themselves by any of their vain attempts at
37
its observance — " Therefore by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified, for by the law is the know-
ledge of sin," Rom. iii. 20 : and although they repeat,
with terrible emphasis of denunciation the sentence
upon those who blindly and proudly imagine that they
can, at least in some degree, bring an offering of the
" filthy rags of their righteousness " to God, " as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse ;
for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth
not in all things that are written in the book of the
law to do them," Gal. iii. JO : and although they level
all the vain distinctions of comparative merit before
God, which many men proudly build on — their " not
being as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican" — bringing them all alike as
criminals before the tribunal of the Eternal Judge,
" whosoever shall keep the whole law,'' (a higher degree
of purity than ever any Pharisee affected,) "and yet
offend in one point," (a less degree of delinquency than
ever Pharisee could pretend to claim,) " he is guilty of
all," James ii. 10 : and although they declare that any
system setting up the moral righteousness of man as
constituting any ground of hope is a direct subversion
of the Gospel, a direct denial of salvation by a Re-
deemer — " If righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain," Gal. ii. 21 — a direct forfeiture
of every hope in Him — u Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye
are fallen from grace" Gal. v. 4. — Notwithstanding
all this, yet such is the miserable condition of the
Church of Rome, that she has reduced and embodied
E
38
into a system all the corrupt and ignorant misconstruc-
tions and perversions of God's holy law that ever the
human heart devised upon the subject — she adopts, in
opposition to the testimony of revealed truth, that prin-
ciple which is the prolific root of every error in her
whole religion — that principle which is a complete sub-
version of Jehovah's law — that principle which is a
total rejection of His Gospel— that principle which
she holds in common with every Pagan superstition,
and with every form of infidelity that professes to
admit the existence of a God, whether Socinianism or
Deism, and with every corrupt system of Christianity,
by whatever name it may be called, and with every
corrupt member of the purest system, and with every
Jew and every Turk — namely, Justification in
WHOLE OR IN PART BY MAN'S OWN MERITS OR EF-
FORTS before God. This is the Pope's foundation of
sand ; and to every member of that Church, a man
who knows the truth of the Gospel, and who values
the salvation of their immortal souls, will feel called on
to testify that if in this instance they rest on the prin-
ciples which their Church sets before them, they must
be as ignorant of the real nature of God's holy law, as
ignorant of the extent and purity of its demands, as
ignorant of the extent and guilt of their own violations
of it, as ignorant of, and as indifferent to, the terror
of its sanctions, the sentence of awful judgment that
overhangs them, and consequently as heedless of the one
and only, but all-sufficient remedy which God has pro-
posed, and as easily satisfied with the vain, absurd, and
39
hopeless refuges from sin, which their Church has substi-
tuted, as if they were in the midst of heathen darkness,
as if there were no Bible, and as if there were no God.
Let me give one or two specimens of the system of
their Church. Jn the first place, she mutilates the copies
of the law of God which she distributes in her Cate-
chisms among the millions of the Irish population, by
expunging altogether from the decalogue that one com-
mandment, in which God expressly prohibits man from
making those very objects which she makes and sets up
before them in every place of her worship ; and by omit-
ting that clause of another commandment, in which.
God enjoins men to labour those six days, on so many of
which she, on the contrary, commands them to abstain
from labour, and to consecrate them in sloth and idleness
to Saints. Who can estimate the guilt or the audacity
of man, the worm man daring to blot out one letter of
that law, which the great and living God revealed —
nay not only revealed, but expressly gave, and not
only expressly gave, but wrote, engraven with his
own Almighty hand on tables of stone, as that laww T hich
was to be the standard of His moral government over
His intelligent and responsible creatures? Nor can we
reprobate too strongly the manifest injustice towards
men of hiding from them that law, for obedience to
w T hich they are accountable, and by which they are to
be judged — nor the impiety, the presumption of im-
peaching the wisdom of the Eternal Lawgiver, as if He
had engraven with His Almighty hand, what it was su-
perfluous and unnecessary for his creatures to know.
But, omitting any further consideration of these mo-
40
mentous charges, I will here show, that even of that
mutilated part of the code that she has left, she has
perverted and explained away the whole of its spiritual
meaning, so that not a single man who takes her as the
standard by which to regulate his conscience, can know
any thing of his own character or danger as a sinner
before God. And here, lest I should be considered to
misrepresent her doctrine, I will give an extract from
one of her own enlarged and most popular catechisms —
it is entitled,
" The Real Principles of Catholics : or a Catechism,
by way of general instruction, explaining the principal
points of the doctrine and ceremonies of the Catholic
Church." By the Right Rev. Dr. Hornihold, fourth
edition — Dublin, R. Coyne, 1821, and which bears the
following imprimatur of the highest ecclesiastical au-
thority. u We approve highly of Dr. Hornihold' s
book, entitled the Real Principles of Catholics, and
we recommend it for perusal to the Roman Catholics
of this Archdiocese.
"►£ Thomas Troy, D.D.
" ►J* Daniel Murray, D.D.
" M. H. Hamill, D.D."
Now in this work there is a chapter on u sin in ge-
neral," which is more like the casuistry of a Heathen
writer, not very far advanced in notions of morality,
than like the testimony of a Christian Church, respect-
ing the scriptural doctrine of the violation of the laws
of God. The following questions and answers are
41
to be found in it. It commences with the question
p. 297 :—
"Q. What is sin?
"A. It is defined by St. Augustine to be any thought,
word, or deed, against the law of God — which includes
all sins of omission, which are interpreted in an affir-
mative sense. It also includes all human laws, civil
and ecclesiastical, which are God's laws radically, for as
St. Paul says, he who resisteth the power, resisteth the
ordinance of God." The latter clause of this answer
is untrue, and a misapplication of the Apostle's words ;
there might be many laws, both civil and ecclesiastical,
as there are in the Court and Church of Rome, which
it would be treason against God to submit to, or obey.
The first clause is scriptural— it is the apostolic defini-
tion of sin, 1 John 3, 4— and therefore, let the Roman
Catholic remark, that both in the word of God, and in his
own acknowledged principles, " sin is the transgression
of the law of God." — Now let us go on to p. 299.
" Q. How many kinds of actual sins are there ?
" A. Two ; mortal and venial.
" Q. What is a mortal sin ?
" A. It is a sin whereby we lose the grace and love
of God, and make ourselves liable to eternal damnation.
" Q. Why is it called mortal sin ?
" A. Because it kills the soul." — Again p. 300.
" Q. What is venial sin ?
" A. It is a much less offence, whereby the grace of
God is not lost, but it lessens his love in our hearts."
Now I pause on this, and invite every Roman Ca-
R 9
42
tholic to examine this principle, of the distinction
between mortal and venial sin. It is admitted that
all sin is a violation of God's law — His holy word de-
nounces a sentence of death against all transgression —
" Cursed is every one that coniinueth not in all things,
which are written in the book of the law to do them."
Gal. iii. 10. u Whosoever shall keep the whole law,
and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" James
ii. 10. Yet what saith this principle ? That the laws
of God may be transgressed either in kind or degree,
not only without fear of God's justice overtaking us for
the transgression, but even without any apprehension
of losing His favour — that there are transgressions of it,
which are only venial, whereby the grace of God is not
lost. — What is this but a direct contradiction to the
testimony of His sacred word? — what is it but an insult
to the whole system of His moral government? — the
laws which it is a venial offence to transgress, must be
but of little consequence in their enactment; the laws
which may be transgressed with impunity must be so
insignificant, or so much too severe, as to be abandoned
in their execution, and just allowed to lie a dead letter on
the statute books. What is this but to deceive and blind
the sinner, both as to the nature and consequences of
his iniquity ? and instead of teaching him the truth of
his Creator, to join the enemy of souls in repeating the
delusion that
" Brought death into the world, and all our woe V*
"Ye shall not surely die," saith the Devil, for only
eating of a tree — ye shall not surely die for your venial
offences, saith the Church of Rome — what wonder
43
that such a Church should make her erasures from
the decalogue ! what wonder she should shut up the
Bible from the soul of man ! But not only is she guilty
of an insult to the truth and authority of the Lawgiver
not only is she guilty of deluding and blinding the sub-
ject as to his state, his character, his accountability to
the law, and his prospects before the tribunal of his
Holy Judge — but she confounds all the principles, and
relaxes all the bonds of the moral obligations of that
law." Hear her farther, p. 300.
" Q. What rules can you give, that we may know
mortal sins from venial ?
" A. The principal rules are these : — First, mortal sins
are- marked in the Scriptures by the word woe, the
threats of deserving death, eternal pain, excluding from
heaven, — &c. Secondly, the opinion of the Fathers and
Divines when they all agree ; and when they differ, to
follow the safer part. The third general rule is reason,
viz. : when the dishonour done to God, and the injury
to our neighbour, is notoriously against the love of God
and charity."
Now, mark the standards to which the poor Roman
Catholic is referred.
1st, He is referred to the Bible-— but this alas ! is a
mockery — the Bible is shut up from him.
2dly, He is referred to the opinions of all the Fathers
and Divines when they all agree, and when they differ,
to follow the safer part — a standard which, not only
has no existence on the earth, but which no man on
earth ever could pretend that he knew. — And
44
3dly, The poor Roman Catholic is thrown from the
standard of divine revelation, on the troubled and fa-
thomless abyss of human opinion and conjecture, and
thence on the miserable guidance of his reason — and
all this to determine what those offences are, which sub-
ject him to the wrath of God ; and what those are
which he may commit without forfeiting the favour of
his Maker. O miserable condition of uncertainty, and
guilt, and error! — while one word from the standard —
the only standard of truth to which his Church refers, lays
the axe to the root of her corrupt perversion of the law.
u Mortal sins are marked in the Scriptures by the
" word woe, the threats of deserving death, eternal
" pain, excluding from heaven," &c. — then take a sin-
gle text, " Cursed is every one that continueth not in
all things that are written in the book of the law to
do them;" and if her own standard of determining
mortal sin from the Bible be true, then on her own
showing, her system, root and branch, is levelled to the
dust ; she but " deceives herself and the truth is not in
her." But mark her farther.
" Q. Can a sin that is mortal in its nature, be only
venial by accident ?
" A. Yes, in three cases chiefly, viz. : to steal a trifle;
secondly, for want of deliberation; thirdly, for want
of sufficient use of reason, as in children, and persons
half asleep."
Now, mark the transition from mortal to venial sin —
mark the point of escape from the crime that calls down
45
the sentence of eternal justice, to the peccadillo, that
does not forfeit the favour of the Righteous Judge. To
steal a trifle!! Thou shalt not steal, saith the God
of holiness, of justice, and of truth. A trifle wont
forfeit your favour! saith this infallible Church. —
O blasphemous insult to the Judge of heaven and earth !
Take this audacious trifler with her God, and ask
her where — with her Bible > her Fathers, and her
reason — where does she fix the boundary at which
her poor deluded votary is to be taught, that he passes
from a venial to a mortal sin ? — how far may he go till
he shall begin to fear the sentence of eternal justice,
and within what confines of sin may he triumph with
impunity? — yea, without fearing to forfeit the favour
of his God? — to steal a penny — what is that? — A
trifle — a venial sin. To steal a thousand pounds —
what is that? — It is a crime — a mortal sin. Let this
Church now, which lives upon calculating the price of
penalties for sin — let her subtract by a penny at a time
from the greater, and add it to the lesser sum, and tell
us at what point the justice of the living God is to be
bribed to arrest its sword, in smiting the thief who is
descending, and provoked to turn on him who is ven-
turously ascending in the scale of crime. Where is the
price that bribes Jehovah to assert and execute His
law? — and where is that which is too small to rouse his
slumbering attributes into exertion ? — but she does not
stop at one poor trifling law, she takes a far wider
range. — p. 301.
" Q. Which are the most common venial sins ?
46
<c A. These following, viz. : idle works — small ex-
cesses in eating and drinking — too much pleasure in di-
versions— -jocose lies, or lies out of excuse — coming late
to prayers — neglecting alms — harsh words and flatter-
ing speeches — small thefts — distractions in prayer, not
fully resisted, &c."
Might not a Church who holds such principles, ad-
dress those whose sentiments are in direct opposition to
them thus — "Away ye false and gloomy teachers who
forbid us to *' let our heart cheer us in the day of our
youth, and to walk in the ways of our heart, and in
the sight of our eyes" and who frighten us with the
apprehension, " that for all these things God will
bring us into judgment" Eccles. xi. 9 — that He
" shall bring every work into judgment, and every
secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil"
Eccles. xii. 14.
Away ye false Apostles, who alarm us with the vain
idea, that God " will bring to light the hidden things
of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of
the hearts," 1 Cor. iv. 5. — Ye over-righteous moralists,
who bid us " lie not one to another," Col. iii. 9. — Who
terrify us with the hard uncharitable sentence, that
" all liars shall have their part in the lake that bur net h
with fire and brimstone," Rev. xxi. 8. — That " neitlier
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God" \ Cor.
vi. 10. — Who forbid us to " go beyond or defraud our
brother in any matter, for that God is the avenger of
all such; and tell us that u he that despiseth, despiseth
47
not man but God," 1 Thess. iv. 6, 8. — And Thou! " Let
us alone ; what have we to do with Thee ? we know
Thee,ivho Thou art" Luke iv. 34. — Thou who wouldest
pass on us the horrible sentence, that H whosoever shall
say unto his brother, thou fool, shall be in danger of
hell fire" Matt. v. 22. — Who wouldest persuade us that
" every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment" Matt. xii. 36.
That " whatsoever we have spoken in darkness shall be
heard in the light, and that which we have spoken
in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the house
tops" Luke xii. 3. — " Art Thou come hither to tor-
ment us ?" we will not believe you — no, nor will we
let our people read or hear your false uncharitable
threatening — no, " God hath forgotten, he hideth away
his face, and he will never see it," Psal. 10, II. — No!
excess in these offences, we confess, is wrong — mortal
sins, indeed, we hate — but we may idle a little, and
drink a little, and game and riot a little, and lie a
little, and rail a little, and flatter a little, and steal a
little. These are but venial offences, and " do not
make us forfeit the grace of God P' here is a system
of Christianity! here are doctrines of a Christian
Church ! But this is all too little, turn on another
page. — p. 302.
" Q. What is passion, and when does it excuse or
aggravate sin ?"— to which is added this note : —
" N. B By passion, we mean any strong or vehement
emotion of the soul, as inclination, desire, &c." Now,
what is the answer ?
u A. A sin of passion is called a sin of infirmity —
48
it is grounded in self-love. Passion does not excuse
from sin — yet strong passion diminishes it, because it
renders sin less voluntary — if passion is so violent as to
kinder reason entirely, it excuses from sin. But pas-
sion consequent, or which comes after sin, aggravates it,
but antecedent, or going before, diminishes it."
Now, if a Roman Catholic shall ever read this page,
I entreat, I conjure, I implore him, as he has a soul
to be saved, and as he is hastening on to the tribunal
of a holy God, to pause, to think, and to examine this
single passage — to mark the inconsistency, the folly of
a system, which he is taught to believe infallible — the
awful guilt and wickedness of a Church, which he is
taught to consider holy — let him remember the question
is no less than the ground of excuse or aggravation of
that sin for which his soul is to be judged.
Those " vehement emotions, inclinations, desire's,
passions" of his soul, which hurry him into all the guilt
w T hich his conscience and his Creator's word alike con-
demn — these are softened down by his Church into "sins
of infirmity" — to be sure, it is declared that these do
not excuse from sin — but the next word is, that if
they are strong enough, that is, if they instigate him
still more to sin, they diminish that sin to which they
more intensely prompt him — but if they be stronger
still, if they be so violent as to overwhelm his reason,
and reduce him from the rank of man to the level of
the impetuous ungovernable beast, then they altogether
excuse from the enormities in which they plunge him.
49
On this atrocious system of morals, every iniquity that
man can commit, is to be palliated up to perfect ex-
cusability, in direct proportion to the ardour with which
it is undertaken, and the pleasure with which it is per-
petrated — the intenseness of every criminal propensity
rises up to plead the apology for the crime — the act as-
cends in the scale of innocence, in proportion to the
atrocity of the agent — the most wicked is the most ex-
cusable, and if this principle were only pushed to its
source, the Devil himself, if not a moral being, must be
the least culpable of all the violators of the laws of
God. O horrible impiety, to cloak beneath the name
and authority of Christianity, a system that is alike at
war with all the principles of Christian truth, and all
the purity of Christian morals ! Omit the garbled copies
of the laws of God put forth by the Church of Rome
— omit her casuistical sophistry of reasoning — omit her
apologetic palliatives to vindicate iniquity. Let it but be
shown that she applies the term venial to that which she
confesses to be transgressive of her Maker's law, and by
this alone she subverts the sanctions of all moral account-
ability and obligation — she tears down the divine stand-
ard of moral good and evil — she explains away the re-
quirements of the Creator upon the understandings, wills,
and affections of His creatures — she deceives, deludes,
and blinds those who are so unhappy as to follow her
guidance, with respect to their duties, their characters,
and their conditions in their Maker's sight. If it be not
the duty of Christian charity and benevolence, to use
every means for their instruction, every effort to rescue
them from such an unhallowed yoke of bondage and
F
50
superstition, tbat talent can devise, that zeal can pro-
secute and that uncompromising Christian fidelity,
ardent affection, and unwearied exertion can effect
— then, Sir, Christianity would be but a fable, and
we could too soon renounce he profession of it for
ourselves, when we have come to the conclusion, that
it is such a matter of indifference for our fellow-crea-
tures and our fellow-countrymen.
I am, Sir, &c.
R. M'G.
Harrowgate, July 27, 1829.
LETTER IV.
SIR,
I have proved that the Roman Catholic re-
ligion is opposed to the purity, the holiness, the sanc-
tions of the Divine law — it is but necessary to show
the practical influence of this fundamental error, in the
gross delusion practised in the ordinary documents of
instruction on the minds of our misguided countrymen.
Dr. Doyle in his Catechism, Dublin, printed by
Coyne, 1827, directs certain prayers to be said previous
to teaching the Catechism ; among these are four acts,
as he calls them, of Contrition, Faith, Hope, and
Charity — now in this last, "an act of Charity," the
sinner is taught to come before his God with this profes-
sion in his mouth.
" O my God, / love Thee above all things, icith my
whole heart, and my whole strength, and my ivhole
mind, because Thou art infinitely good and 'perfect
and most worthy of all my love, and for Thy sake I
love my neighbour as myself" p. 5 — and again in the
52
admonitions which he gives for the " Christian's Daily
Exercise," p. ]0, in speaking of nightly self-examina-
tion, he says, " If you do not find that you committed
any sin during the day, give thanks to God with great
humility, and beg of him the grace of perseverance.''
Now, in the first of these, a sinner is represented as"
coming into his Creator's presence with His holy law
in his hand, and professing to Him that he fulfils it,
that is, that he is not a sinner; — in the second, the
sinner is represented as examining his conscience before
his Creator in the silence of the night, and acquitting
himself of having violated his law during the day past.
Now, I affirm without a shadow of hesitation, taking
the word of God as the standard of truth — that if any
Roman Catholic is so blind as to assert this of himself,
believing that it is his true state before God — he is as
utterly ignorant of the spiritual nature of the law of
God — as utterly ignorant of his own character as a
sinner against that law, the condemnation of which he
deserves — and as ignorant of the hope which the Gospel
reveals, as any Heathen that is to be found upon the
surface of the Globe. I can best corroborate my assertion
with the testimony of Jehovah's word — u If we say that
we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us — if we say that we have not sinned we make
him a liar, and his word is not in us," 1 John i.8 — 10.
Nor can any Heathen more require to be converted and
brought to know the truth than such a person as this;
and I entreat any Roman Catholic who may see this
53
statement, to examine whether he thinks so of himself,
and to consider how differently that God judges of his
heart who declares that, " The carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be," Rom. viii. 7 — that "The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,
Jer. xvii. 9 — and the worst possible deceit which it can
practice on us, is that which is the most common, namely,
to persuade us that its thoughts, affections, and desires,
are good in the sight of our Creator.
The opposition of the principles of the Roman
Catholic Church to the purity and sanctions of the
Divine law, is connected with their opposition to all
the revealed moral attributes of God — his holiness,
his truth, his justice, and his mercy ; — while she im-
peaches his holiness with the supposition, that her
venial sins — her small excesses — her small lies — her
small rev ellings — her small railings — her small flat -
terries, and her small thefts, &c, will not forfeit his
grace, as she calls it — she equally impeaches his truth,
by discrediting the universal judgments which he has
declared, the wrath which he has " revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men" Rom. i. 18 — and by disregarding alike his testi-
monies, his threatenings and his promises — so she con-
founds, and virtually denies the divine attributes of
justice and mercy, in every hope which she holds out
to man, evincing this awful fact, viz. : that she rejects
that hope — that only hope which God reveals to the soul,
setting forth to the unhappy sinner's conscience false
f 2
54
hopes of averting bis justice — and equally false hope*
of obtaining bis mercy — teaching them to hope for his
mercy, on conditions that are totally incompatible with
his justice; and on the other hand, teaching them to
apprehend his justice, in direct opposition to the great
and glorious proclamation in the Gospel of his mercy —
" turning," [ repeat it, " the soul of man from the great
" salvation of the Gospel to fictions of human supersti-
" tion and refuges of lies ;" and I repeat in the face of
every outcry of uncharitableness, fanaticism, and ex-
travagance, that can be raised against the sentiment,
with the hope that some of my Roman Catholic friends
and countrymen, may profit by the spirit of anxiety for
their eternal happiness which dictates it, that "all such
" refuges of lies shall be swept off when heaven and
" earth shall be rolled away, and leave those who have
" been so unhappy as to rest on them, naked, guilty,
" shivering, and condemned to perish from the presence
" of their God for ever."
How, Sir, is God's justice to be averted? — how
does the Scripture reveal that mercy is to be extended
to man ? — surely if there be any subject worthy the
inquiry of a rational immortal being, it is this — all
others sink into insignificance before the question,
how is my sin to be forgiven ? how is my soul to be
saved? Tbe awful threats and judgments denounced
in the Bible against sin, and the exceedingly gracious
promises given to sinners, appear to him who does not
see and understand the Gospel of Christ, irreconcileable
contradictions — if such judgments are denounced against
sin, on what conditions can he, who feels himself a sin-
66
ner, have any consolatory hope ? — If promises of grace
and pardon are held out so largely to the sinner, why
should he, although a sinner, fear? — in one passage he
reads a threat against the very sin which his conscience
tells him he commits, and he fears lest it be executed
on him— in the next passage he reads of pardon and
salvation, and he hopes it will not be executed. Will
God be so severe, so strict, so terrible, as He threatens?
or will God be so good, so gracious, so merciful, as he
promises? — he does not know what to fear or what to
hope, after all the good that he has done, or thinks he
has done, or laboured, or resolved to do —still in the
prospect of death, these threatenings force him to fear;
but if he resolves, and really is able to execute his re-
solutions in future, still these promises encourage him
to hope ; — but still the man who is ignorant of the real
nature of the Gospel, whatever Church he may belong
to, whatever information upon other subjects he may
have acquired, whatever learning, whatever talent or
intellectual powers he may possess, that man can look
into eternity with no better hope than that which the
poet puts into the Heathen's lips —
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me ;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it.
The Church of Rome rejecting the Gospel of Christ,
has merely reduced to system some of the ordinances
of the Bible, which she has perverted from their scrip-
tural meaning, u e, and application; — some code of
morals, which she has sanctioned with the name of
Christian, but which, with those ordinances, is alike
foreign from the Bible- some rites, and principles, and
56
ceremonies, which she has borrowed from the Pagans,
and some, which, for the sake of gain, she has invented
from the redundant stores of artifice, presumption, and
iniquity, with which the human heart abounds, to calm
the alarms or stifle the convictions of the soul, to soothe
its fears in the consciousness of guilt, and cheer it with
false hopes in the apprehension of punishment. The
Gospel solves the difficulty — reconciles the contradic-
tions — meets all the wants, silences all the fears —
answers all the demands, relieves all the doubts — and
better still than all, it banishes all the sorrows of the
anxious sinner's soul — the greatest difficulty in fact
which it presents to the mind is this, that it is too good,
too gracious, too plain, too simple to be true.
Man owes to his Creator a double debt — a debt, as
his rational accountable creature, of obedience to his
law — a law which recognizes nothing of man's fall,
which demands inflexible, and proclaims reward for
perfect obedience — and which denounces as inflexibly
eternal death for even one violation of it — a law pure,
perfect, immutable as its Author, of which to call a
transgression venial, is to speak as rationally and as scrip-
tu rally as to talk of God, as a God of little truth,
and little holiness, and little justice, with a little
law, with a little heaven, and a little hell, for venial
sinners to reward or punish them.
Man — fallen man is declared in God's word, as ren-
dered by his fall, incompetent to fulfil that law, and now
another debt hangs over him — a debt of penalty for
57
sin — infinite eternal justice has passed the sentence of
eternal death — Jehovah has denounced that the soul of
guilty man shall die — all attempts to escape, to flee
from the wrath to come, to any efforts of his own,
evince only the more his guilt, his ignorance and folly :
The same perversion of a blinded understanding, that
led his fallen forefather to make the vain attempt of
hiding from his Maker's presence, leads the hearts of
his posterity to hope that they can build for their souls,
a refuge from the justice of an offended God. The sighs
and groans of penitential tears, the wretched ofTset of
some deeds that we have fondly hoped were good in
days gone past, or the miserable resource of vows and
resolutions formed for the time to come, when fled to
as a hope of pardon, or pleaded as a palliative for the sin
committed against the holy law — only prove that man
adds ignorance and pride to iniquity, and folly and pre-
sumption to apostacy. The vilest wretch that ever in-
curred the sentence of a human tribunal, for the most
atrocious crime that ever debased the human form,
might as well stand up and offer sighs and promises to
arrest the hand of justice, when tried, convicted, and
condemned, as man— rebellious guilty man, bring forth
any offering of his sorrows, penitences, resolutions, acts
or virtues, to stop or mitigate the sentence of the just
and holy God. Every threat denounced on sin from
Genesis to Revelations, must be executed as inflexibly
as God is just and true. This is the law — who then
can be saved ? None on these terms — u By the deeds
of the law shall no Jlesh be justified" — where is the
sinner's hope or refuge — is there none ? — Yes, a glo-
«v8
rious refuge — God hath provided out of the depths of
his wisdom and his love, a means of full reconciliation
and forgiveness — He hath sent his beloved Son to be a
surety for aposfate man — to be a man — to be a creature
upon earth, " made of a woman — made under the law,"
to pay the double debt of obedience to its requirements,
and of penally for its violation. The truth proposed
to man in the word of eternal life is this — that Im-
manuel in our nature undertook our debt of obedience,
and that his obedience, his pure, his spotless perfect
righteousness, is placed to the account of every sinner
who trusts on him, as if it were his own — so that the sum
which a man pays as a surety for his friend, is not more
set down to the account of the man for whom it is
paid to restore him to freedom and his home, if he be
a debtor or a captive, than the obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ is put down in all its fulness and perfec-
tion to the sinner's account, to give him a title to ever-
lasting life. So that a man, if there were such, who
was as righteous as Jesus Christ, and of whom God
could say, " He was well pleased in him," would not
be more entitled to the reward promised to obedience,
than the sinner who is brought to trust in Christ is en-
titled to that reward, through the righteousness of his
Redeemer. — Thus, in the Old Testament we read,
* This is his name whereby He shall be called, the
Loud our Righteousness," Jer. xxiii. 6; " I will
u greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyjul in
" my God, J or He hath clothed me with the garments
" of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of
u KuinTEonsNESS, as a bridegroom decketh himself
59
" with ornaments, and as a bride adometh herself with
il her jeivels," Isaiah lxi. 10 — In like manner in the
New Testament— "Even as David describeth the bless-
" edness of the man unto whom Godimpnteth righteous-
" ness without works, saying, blessed are they whose
" iniquities are for given, and whose sins are covered —
" blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
" sin" Rom. iv. 6 — 8— again " Christ is the end of
" the law for Righteousness to every one that be-
" lieveth," Rom. x. 4—" If righteousness come by the
" law, then Christ is dead in vain,'' Gal. ii. 21. —
But " He who knew ?io sin was made sin for us, that
il we might be made the Righteousness of God in
" Him," 2 Cor. v. 21. So, if He is indeed our trust,
He is the Lord our righteousness — He covers us with
his righteousness — God imputeth it to us — Christ is the
end, the full accomplishment of all the law demands
of righteousness for us, and he makes us not only-
righteous, but the righteousness of God in himself.
This is one part of his office as a surety, but there is
another ; — the creature for whom this obedience was
paid was a criminal, a convicted sentenced criminal ;
the sword of justice, of eternal justice was drawn
against him ; obedience paid in his place, would not
pay the penalty demanded ; holiness might acknowledge
that this obedience satisfied the requirements of the
law, but justice could not admit that this obedience sa-
tisfied for its violation. This Surety, this Redeemer,
this adorable Immanuel, undertakes this office too ; He
undertakes to be made, as if He were a sinner, a curse
by justice for the broken law — he demands the penalty
60
of sin to be exacted from him, and all that sin has
ever brought of evil upon earth for man, and all
that God inflicts on this side eternity. He calls to meet
upon His sacred head, till sunk beneath the weight
of contumely, reproach, false accusation, insult,
mockery, offended majesty, (O what majesty ! O how
offended \) stripes and buffettings, the scoffs of enemies,
and desertion of friends, thorns, and vinegar and gall ;
and O mysterious more than all! desertion of His
Father, such as, perhaps, the victim who shall suffer
that dread vengeance of the living God, shall feel
when outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth
shall yawn upon his view. — He bowed that sacred
head and gave up the ghost. — It was finished. — The
ransom was paid. — Justice exacted the penalty to the
last — the thunderbolts ready to be hurled on .the guilt
of created beings, were quenched in the blood of the
Creator. — Here upon that Cross, become the Throne
of Justice, where she sat displayed in vengeance more
terrible than when she opened the floodgates of divine
wrath, and poured a deluge, on a guilty world — more
terrible than when she rolled the rebellious angels into
an abyss of flame, or than if she were to hurl the race
of all rebellious creatures after them — here upon this
throne of satiated justice, mercy takes her stand — and
on the infinite worth of that complete and full atone-
ment, proclaims salvation to the very chief of sinners,
who looks to this adorable Redeemer as his salvation.
Here man no longer interested in deceiving himself as
to his own depraved and guilty nature — no longer in-
terested in ^striving to eke out a robe from his own
" filthy rags" of righteousness to cover his nakedness
61
in his Creator's sight — boldly stands up and looks into
the Bible, fears not to see himself stripped of all that
false and meretricious drapery of fancied virtue with
which his Pharisaic pride had clothed him, he dares
to know and call himself what he is — a sinner. The
threatenings of divine justice he seeks not to explain
away — he sees, he knows, he feels he has deserved
them all — but he sees, he knows, he feels that the sword
has fallen — there is a heart of everlasting love that has
interposed, and bared its bosom to the blow — Jesus
HAS DIED, THAT HE MIGHT LIVE FOR EVER.
The exceeding great and precious promises rt of grace,
and peace, and pardon, and adoption, he fears not now
to rest on, since he no longer thinks that they are to be
purchased at the price of an obedience, which even in the
scale of a partial extenuating conscience, was " weighed
in the balances and found wanting;" the very sense of his
sin that placed them farther from his hope before, now
drives his soul to them as his only joy and refuge — for
they are all, "yea and amen, in Christ Jesus." To be lost
is the ground on which he looks to Him who came to
" seek and to save" — to be " weary and heavy laden,"
is his title to the invitation of that Lord that promises
to give him rest — to be a poor and outcast prodigal, is
the very cause why he arises and comes in all his rags,
and want, and wretchedness, to a Father who, " when
he is yet a great way off, sees and has compassion on
him, and runs and falls upon his neck and kisses him" —
to be hungry, is his claim to the " Bread of life" — to be
thirsty, is the cause of his approach to the " Fountain of
62
living waters" — to be "tied and bound with the chain
of his sins," is the very reason why he hails the foot-
step of eternal mercy that comes " to proclaim deliver-
ance to the captive, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound." In one short sentence, to see
and know the depths of all his wants, and guilt, and
misery, and condemnation as a sinner, is the very cause
of his delighted joy to hear the freeness, the fulness,
the unsearchable riches of mercy, pardon, and salvation,
that are treasured up in Christ, who of God is made
unto him his "wisdom, his righteousness, his sanctifica-
tion, and his redemption."
Here all the attributes of God converge into the Sun
of Righteousness, and life, and love. The law un-
changed, and unchangeable in its demands, is fulfilled
even to the fulness of Jehovah's will. The holiness of
God here finds perfection in man, even as the Father
which is in heaven is perfect, for He is " the man that
is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts."
Here truth fulfils its threats, man dies for guilt— a
man whose vast infinitude of worth, far outweighs all
created beings, as far as God is greater than the creature.
Here truth fulfils its promises of grace and mercy too,
for pardon reaches to the chief of sinners. Here justice
sits enthroned in all her mighty plenitude of power —
her sword struck deeper here than if it had smitten all
rebellious creatures into everlasting death — it was buried
in the bosom of a victim who undertook to bear its
63
stroke, against whose value all creatures had weighed
but as the small dust of the balance.
Here mercy triumphs over all iniquity, she stands
upon Mount Calvary, and spreads out her arms to a
guilty world, and calls all sinners on this side eternity to
come and be washed in that unfathomable fountain, and
spring up cleansed and regenerated in the well-spring
of salvation, upon the wings of faith, and hope, and
love, even to the realms of eternal day. Here pure
morality is built upon the basis of the everlasting Gos-
pel — no more an unwilling exaction, wrung from the
rebellious and reluctant slave ; but the willing tribute of
a dutiful and loving son. Obedience here is yielded on
account of love bestowed — claimed from the sinner
as the requital of that love, but never claimed as ?/.*
condition — the very means of man's salvation becomes
the main spring of his moral conduct, and by a
contrivance, worthy of Jehovah's wisdom ; the very
pardon of his guilt, becomes the source of his obe-
dience ; the very law under which he stands con-
demned, is distilled into his heart by the pardon granted
for its violation. Love is the demand of the law—love
from man to his offended judge — a law impossible to a
trembling guilty rebel. The Gospel proclaims that " God
is love," and bringing to the sinner pardon for the
broken law — the light of hope and joy breaks in
upon his soul — the fear, the guilty fear drops off the
rebel with his shattered chain, and gratitude, and love,
flow into the melted heart of the pardoned, the ran-
somed, the reconciled, and the adopted son. " Do we
64
then make void the law by faith ? God forbid, yea, we
establish the law," Rom. iii. 31. Here is the morality
of the Christian faith —
" They talk of morals-- O thou bleeding Lamb !
The grand morality is love to thee.''
The very thought of founding salvation upon human
merit, or building morality on the condition of obtaining
heaven, proves that the light of truth has never dawned
upon the mind, and that the only real hope of eternal
life has never yet arisen on the soul.
These are the means of man's salvation, propounded
in the everlasting Gospel — Christ is the Alpha, and
Christ the Omega of the sinner's hope. Whatever else
by a church or an individual teacher, is set before the
sinner as his salvation, in whole or in part, it is "another
Gospel" than that which the Apostle's preached — the
wrath of God is denounced against that church or
teacher, if he were " an angel from heaven," Gal. i. 8, 9 ;
and those who follow or believe that church or that
teacher, shall perish in their iniquity, except they re-
pent and believe the Gospel, while their blood shall
be required at the hands of their blind and ignorant
leaders.
Now, what are the means of salvation which the
Roman Catholic Church proposes? Does she set forth
the truth of the everlasting Gospel? Alas! every prin-
ciple, every doctrine, every ordinance of that unhappy
Church — awful it is to state it, but as true as it is awful,
is founded on the dreadful assumption, that the Gospel
6b
is not true. If it be true, she must be false, and vice
versa, for she is opposed to it as darkness to light. —
Let us patiently examine some of her leading prin-
ciples. We have seen her ignorance of the law of
God, and of the nature of sin — we shall now see her
awful ignorance of God's appointed means of pardon
and salvation, and the absurd superstitions which she
substitutes in their place. Of these, I shall select but
three — Penances, Masses, and Purgatory, every one of
these in the act and institution, denies the Gospel of
the Redeemer, and destroys the only hope of man's
immortal soul.
PENANCE IS A DENIAL OF THE GOSPEL.
I take Dr. Doyle's Catechism, because the popularity
and acknowledged talents of the writer, and the weight
of his authority with Roman Catholics, may draw the
more attention to the opposition of his principles to the
Gospel of Christ. In the edition published in 1827, by
Coyne, we find the following questions and answers,
p. 47 :—
Q. What should a person do if he be in mortal sin
before Communion ? Now T entreat the attention of
any Roman Catholic who reads this, to the directions
given to him if he be in mortal sin, which, as his Church
by this same instructor declares, p. 23, is "a grievous
offence against the law of God," and " brings everlast-
ing death and damnation on the soul." What is a poor
creature in this state to do ?
1. A. He must obtain pardon in the sacrament of
Penance.
Q. What is Penance ?
g 2
66
2. A. A sacrament, by which the sins are forgiven,
which are committed after Baptism.
Q. What must we do to obtain pardon of our sins
in the sacrament of Penance?
3. A We must make a good Confession.
Then, p. 48—
Q. What must we do at Confession ?
4. A. We must beg the Priest's blessing — say the
confiteor, accuse ourselves of our sins — listen attentively
to his instructions, and renew our sorrow when he gives
absolution !
Q. What should we do after Confession ?
5. A. We should return God thanks, and diligently
'perform the Penance enjoined by the Confessor.
Q, What do you mean by the Penance enjoined by
the Confessor ?
6. A. The prayers and other good ivorks which he
enjoins on penitents in satisfaction for their sins.
Q. Will the Penance enjoined in Confession always
satisfy for our sins ?
7. A. No ; but whatever else is wanting may be
supplied by indulgences, and our own penitential
endeavours.
Q. What does the Church teach concerning in-
dulgences?
8. A. That Christ gave power to his Church togrant
indulgences, and that they are most useful to Christian
people.
Q. What is the use of an indulgence ?
9. A. It releases from Canonical Penances enjoined
by the Church on penitents for certain sins.
67
Q. To whom does the Church grant indulgences ?
] 0. A. To such only as are in a state of grace, and are
sincerely desirous to amend their lives, and to satisfy
God's justice by penitential works.
Q. Is an indulgence a pardon for sins to come, or a
license to commit sin ?
1 1 . A No ; nor can it remit past sins ; for sin must be
remitted by penance before an indulgence can be gained,
and to grant pardon for sins to come, or to grant a li-
cense to commit sin would be impossible, and to attempt
it would be a most heinous crime.
Q. Why does the Church grant indulgences ?
12. A. To assist our weaknesses, and to supply our
insufficiency in satisfying the Divine justice for our
transgressions.
Q. When the Church grants indulgences, what dues
it offer to God to supply our weaknesses and insuffi-
ciency, in satisfying for our sins?
13. A. The merits of Christ which are infinite and su-
perabundant, together with the virtues and good works
of his Virgin Mother, and of all his Saints.
Now, let any man of common sense and common
honesty, examine the principles laid down here as the
hope of the Christian religion for a sinner's soul. I
have extracted thirteen questions and answers out of
two chapters, and numbered them for the convenience
of reference. Here is a man brought before us in a
state of mortal sin, that is as Dr. Doyle states, p. 23,
"with the sentence of everlasting death and damnation
on his soul."
68
This man to obtain pardon of his sin is directed to
" the sacrament of Penance" (No. 1.) by which sins
which are committed after Baptism are forgiven ;
(No. 2.) to obtain pardon in this sacrament, his Church
informs him, that "he must make a good Confession"
(No. 3.) "beg the Priest's blessing, say the confiteor,
accuse himself of his sins, listen diligently to the
Priest's instructions, renew his sorrow when he gives
absolution — return God thanks, and then diligently
'perform the 'penance, that is, the prayers and other
good works, which he enjoins on penitents in satisfac-
tion for their sins." (Nos. 4, 5, 6.) Mark — these are
the directions given by the Church for obtaining pardon
of his mortal sin.
Now, let us suppose he has completed all this, he
has opened all his heart to his Priest, as his Church
directs him ; he has performed every penance which
that Priest enjoined, as the Church directs him, to ob-
tain pardon ; and now he comes and asks his Church,
may this cheer his conscience, with the hope of that
pardon which she has led him to expect, " will the
penance enjoined in confession always satisfy for his
sins ?"— -What is her answer—" No." (No. 7.)
She directs him in one page to the performance of
certain duties to satisfy God for his sins— and after he has
fulfilled them, then she tells him in the next page it will
not do ! — What is a poor wretch to think?— what is he
to believe ?— is this infallibility ?— is this consistency? —
is it truth? — Alas ! what is an unhappy man to do,
69
when his o-uide confesses in one moment, the utter in-
sufficiency of the very means of salvation, which she
had herself prescribed the moment before. But she
adds — " Whatever else is wanting may be supplied by
indulgences, and our own penitential endeavours."
(No. 7.)
Well — suppose him again to make these penitential
endeavours, as she tells him she only grants indulgences
to persons " desirous to amend their lives, and to satisfy
God's justice by penitential works;" (No. JO.) and still
his conscience is uneasy, as to whether this justice is
satisfied by these endeavours — he comes again to solicit
these promised " indulgences," to supply the " whatever
else is wanting" — but when he comes, trembling be-
tween hope, and fear, to get this grand desideratum —
what must oe the poor wretch's horror, disappoint-
ment, and dismay, when his Church informs him, that
" sin must be remitted by penance, before an indulgence
can be gained ! ! !" (No. 11.) Now, I conjure Roman
Catholics to mark this — let us bring this poor man who
is under the guilt of mortal sin to his Church, to deliver
his conscience from guilt, and his soul from condemna-
tion — let us suppose him faithfully fulfilling all her in-
junctions, and mark how she betrays him at the last —
she imposes by her Priest, whom she teaches him to
believe infallible, a penance to deliver his soul from
eternal death — she tells him this penance then will not
do— but buoys him up with another hope, that " what-
ever else is wanting will be supplied by indulgences and
70
more penance ;" and that if "he is sincerely desirous
to satisfy God's justice for his sins," she will grant
these indulgences, and then at the last she tells him,
that after all, she cannot help him, for that his sin must
be remitted by penance, before she can grant the indul-
gences she promised. She cheered him with the hope
that she would grant them to supply the wants, the
anxieties, the very salvation of his soul, when strug-
gling under the terror of mortal sin ; and then when he
comes to cast his hopes, his soul, upon her promise, she
throws him back upon himself, and tells him he must
save himself before she can grant them. What is this,
but to encourage the drowning wretch to struggle to the
life boat and that you will take him in ; and then when
he has spent his strength in grasping up to catch the
rope you fling to him, to dash him back again into the
billows, and tell him you will help him when he gets to
the shore. If this is not cruelty — if these are not lies-
refuges of lies, then let Satan be set up for the God of
mercy and of truth. I do not enter on the Scripture —
I do not compare them with the word of God — I do
not insult the intellect of any man that ever opened his
Bible, by asking him, is this the Gospel of Christ? is
this the salvation that God proclaims to a lost and
ruined world — but I stand in the midst of these super-
stitions, as a rational being, and on comparing them with
themselves, one with the other, I affirm, that there never
was collected on any subject of ordinary interest to
man, a greater tissue of errors, inconsistencies, and con-
tradictions, than the means here propounded, to deliver
71
the soul of man from condemnation ; but this is all too
little, compared with what follows. What is the very-
next question — No. 12 —
Why does the Church grant indulgences ?
To assist our weaknesses and to supply our insuffi-
ciency in satisfying the Divine justice for our sins !
This is really too great a refinement upon cruelty — this
is too horrible a mockery of human misery and guilt.
She had told him expressly the last words she uttered,
that she could not grant him an indulgence until after
sin was remitted by the penance ; and now she tells him
in the next words, that she grants the indulgence first,
to assist in the satisfaction to be made by the penance.
She grants the indulgence to aid in that, which must be
completed before she can grant it ! ! ! What wonder that
this Church will not allow her helpless votaries to use
their reason ? — this is her " balm of gilead" for the sin-
ner's soul, as if an empiric should puff his medicine thus.
Here's an infallible heal — all for wounds, but the
wounds must be healed before I apply it. Here's a
specific to cure the dumb, and as soon as they tell me
they want it, I'll give it. Here's a nostrum to raise the
dead, and the moment they come for it, it will bring
them to life. Not less absurd, as applied to man's immortal
soul, are the expectations of pardon which this Church
holds out to sinners, in the thing she calls a sacrament —
three times here does she invite the sinner to cling to
these indulgences, and three times does she mock the
anxious efforts of his soul. O miserable hope of mercy
for a helpless sinner to attempt to grasp, to satisfy
72
his conscience, or appease an offended God — a hope
like the shadowy unsubstantial image of the vision —
" Ter conatusibi circumdare bracbia collo
Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago.''
But this is merely reasoning on the principles laid
down by the Church herself on her own ground, we
have not yet come to a comparison of her doctrines
with Scripture.
Let us suppose all these contradictions reconciled —
let us suppose that she gave the aid she led the poor
sinner to expect, and that she gave him these " indul-
gences," and what does she give ? let it be asked —
Q. 13. When the Church grants indulgences what
does it offer to God to supply our weaknesses and in-
sufficiency in satisfying for our sins?
A. The merits of Christ which are infinite and su-
perabundant, together with the virtues and good works
©f his Virgin Mother and of all his Saints.
This is an indulgence ! ! — Now, this indulgence con-
sists in the Church making an offering to God, and
what does she offer ? Let us analyze her offering — let
us get over the difficulty of the Church offering the
merits of Christ — suppose she can do so — now these
she tells us are " infinite and superabundant" for the
purpose required — but still they are not enough, she
must add to them ! !
They are not only abundant but superabundant ;
nor only superabundant but infinite — but she must mul-
73
tiply this superabundance — she must increase infinity!
O marvellous super-omnipotent Church ! — shall I pause
to reason on such inconceivable absurdity — am I copying
from a catechism published on the solemn subject of
religion, by a scholar— by a man of talents — by a man
holding the office of a Bishop in that which he calls
a Church of Christ ? I do not attach any peculiar
blame to him, this is not composed by Dr. Doyle;
it was alas ! the very catechism from which he was
taught himself; he has added but a little to it here
and there, to prop what he thought were points that
had been weakened by the reiterated attacks of adver-
saries against his Church. But if I were to exhibit the
influence of this awful superstition, in paralysing and
prostrating all the powers of the human mind, I should
not look at the millions of poor creatures in Ireland,
who hang the salvation of their immortal souls on such
instructions, but I should look at such a man of na-
turally high and powerful intellectual capacity, sitting
down soberly in the retirement of calm deliberate me-
ditation, to copy, to enlarge, to publish, and to recom-
mend them. How is it to be accounted for ? 1 will
give the most strenuous opponents of this learned and
able man, the whole range of his publications, and
I challenge them to produce from among them all, a
specimen of what is alike foreign from all reason and
revelation, such as that which is exhibited in this cate-
chism, which he gives as a compendium of religious in-
struction to his flock, begs of them in his dedication to
" accept it from the hand of their Bishop, who watches
as to give to God an account of their souls," and "as
H
74
the best gift he can offer to them." How is it to be
accounted for ? It is because he dares not question it
or examine it, or reason on it for himself — he has been
born under the fangs of a superstition that watches
over the infant faculties of the immortal soul, seizes
them in the very cradle, and binds them in chains
of darkness for herself — forbids them ever to " peep,
or mutter, or flutter the wing," beyond the limits of
their prison-house. Take some point in which his
Church has not dogmatized even on a religious subject,
and could this learned man give an answer so pregnant
with absurdity ? Suppose a poor man to ask how long
his soul was to live in heaven? Could he reply, "as
long as Jesus Christ lives, which is for eternity, and as
long as his Virgin Mother, and all his saints live besides."
Surely he knows that the ideas of infinity and eternity
are alike incapable of increase, and that to talk of
adding to the infinity of the Redeemer's merits is about
as rational, as to talk of eternity and half an hour. —
But put reasoning out of the question, and bring this to
the test of the word of God. Let me implore a Ro-
man Catholic to open the Bible, and compare this ca-
techism with the Apostolic doctrine. Let us take men
in mortal sin as they call it — they will acknowledge
murder to be mortal sin — and let us take some speci-
mens of the most atrocious murderers, namely, men
whose hands were stained with the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the 2d chapter of Acts, we see in
the 23d verse, the Apostle Peter testifying against those
" who with wicked hands had crucified and slain" Him.
Alarmed at the charge, and convinced of the atrocity
75
of their crime, they cry out to Peter and the rest of
the Apostles, v. 37— " Men and brethren, what shall
we do ?" — What is Peter's reply ? — " Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ,
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost." The Douay translation for re-
pent, is "do penance" — but grant this correct, here the
Church of Rome and St. Peter are at issue. She ex-
plains penance as " a sacrament, whereby sins are re-
mitted after baptis??i" — " be baptized and do penance,"
saith she. No, " do penance and be baptized" saith
St. Peter, as she translates it. Can Dr. Doyle de-
cide which is right? — But here we see St. Peter
brings them at once in their mortal sin to "repent
and be baptized in the name of Jesus, for the remission
of sins," and it is clear as daylight, that to " do
penance" from the very facts of the history is an ab-
surd translation, for it could not be that they went to
do penance — because at the very same hour they were
" baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remis-
sion of sins;" but according to this translation they
were to do penance before they were baptized, v. 41. —
*' Then" (at that vert/ hour) "they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day there were
added unto them about three thousand souls" — so that
this passage proves the translation, W do penance" false.
Now, let a Roman Catholic mark, did St. Peter call
them to confession? then did he send them to "prayers
and other good works," to make satisfaction for their
dreadful sin ? then did he send them back, and tell
them it was not enough, but hold them out a hope of
76
supplying the deficiency by more penances and induf>
gences ? then did these poor wretches come back again
after these penances, to seek for those promised indul-
gences ? then did the Apostle drive them to despair, by
telling them they must make satisfaction for their sins,
and have them remitted by penances before he could
grant them the indulgences ? then did he mock them,
by telling them that the reason why he granted indul-
gences, was to enable them to do those penances which,
nevertheless, they must perform before he granted them,
and then finally, did he inform them that those indul-
gences consisted in that he and his brother Apostles,were
to offer to God "the merits of Jesus Christ, which were
infinite and superabundant, together with the virtues
and good works of his Virgin Mother, and of all his
saints," which however, were not to be qffered for them
till after their sins had been remitted by penance. —
Was this the glorious Gospel of salvation which the
Apostles proclaimed? — O treason! treason! treason!
against the God of love and mercy, to call it by such
a name. The mercy of the Bible had been but a mes-
sage of darkness and despair, had it been such as this —
the host of angels that professed to proclaim "good
tidings of great joy" to lost and guilty sinners, must
have come from the lowest pit and not from the realms
of light, and love, and joy, if this had been their message.
Let us hear the real nature of the Apostolic Gospel,
as preached by the Apostle Peter on that day. —
The Lord Jesus had commanded that " repentance and
remission of sins should be preached among all nations
77
in His name, beginning at Jerusalem," Luke xxiv. 47
The Apostles, being invested with power from on high,
stand up on the day of Pentecost, for the first time, to
execute the divine commission. They begin at Jeru-
salem, and with the vilest sinners in Jerusalem, those
who had crucified the Lord of Glory. But to them —
to them who were patterns of iniquity, such as the
world never saw before or since — the message of the
Gospel is " remission of sins" through Jesus Christ.
God had over-ruled the depths of human crime for his
own glory ; yea, and for a means of mercy to a rebel-
lious race, even to those who had been most deeply
plunged in it — the blood that stained their guilty hands
were drops from that " Fountain" that had been " opened
for sin and uncleanness ;" and though that blood upon
their hands, like that on those of the first murderer,
rose up to cry to heaven for vengeance on their heads,
that blood, as the blood of atonement for iniquity,
" that speaketh better things than that of Abel," rose
up to plead for pardon for their souls : they heard the
glad tidings of remission of sins — they repented, that is,
their hearts were changed — they saw the misery of
their state of sin — the vanity of every other refuge—
the glory of the one proclaimed to them in the Gospel
— they believed, they rejoiced — from thenceforth they
loved and served their Lord. " They continued sted-
fastly in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in
breaking'of bread, and in prayers; and they (even those
who had been the murderers of the Redeemer), con-
tinuing daily with one accord in the temple, and break-
ing of bread from house to house, did eat their meat
h 2
78
with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God,
and having favour with all the people," Acts ii. 42, 46,
4$. O ! for a tongue of fire like that which lighted on
the Apostles' heads, to tell the Roman Catholics of
Ireland, the grace, and love, and mercy of their God, as
opposed to the gloom, and guilt, and misery, and super-
stition that is taught them, for the Gospel of Jesus.
The whole testimony of the Apostolic Gospel is
REMISSION OF SINS THROUGH THE ATONEMENT OF
Christ. Here St. Peter proclaims remission of sins
through Him. In the 10th chapter, too, he testifies
thus to Cornelius — " To Him give all the Prophets
witness, that through His name whosoever believeih on
Him shall receive remission of sins," Acts x. 43 :
so St. Paul, chap. xiii. 38, 39, " Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and hrethren, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by
Him, all that believe are justified from all things,
from which ye could not be justified by the law of
Moses." So, when another poor sinner comes tremb-
ling, and asks, " What must he do to be saved!" he is
directed at once to Christ for his salvation — " Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt de
saved," Acts xvi. 30, 31. The Apostle tells him what
Christ had done for sinners — he believes, and he re-
joices " that same hour of the night." So, in the
Epistle to the Romans, God "hath set Him forth to
be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past," Rom. iii. 25. "In whom we have redemption
79
through his blood, even (he forgiveness of sins" Epb. f.
7. Again, the same text, Col. i. 14, Remission of sins by
the blood of Jesus is the whole foundation of the
HOPE OF MAN'S SALVATION WHICH CHRISTIANITY SUP-
PLIES. Take it away, and the sun drops from the sys-
tem, and all is outer darkness, desolation, despair, and
death. Thusitis in the unhappy Church of Rome— salva-
tion by Christ is gone from her, and thick darkness, guilt,
and death broods over every cavern of her superstition —
she assumes it as a fact, that the Lord Jesus Christ
has not made atonement for sin. This dark and deep
denial of the salvation proclaimed by God to man is
that on which her every ordinance is built. In every
single question and answer which I have quoted from
her catechism, she either expressly or by implication
denies the atonement of Immanuel.
When the sinner wants to know to what he is to
turn for remission of that sin, by which death and
destruction is brought upon his soul, she directs him to
penance, and not to Christ — so salvation is by penance,
and not by Christ. It is not through Christ, but
through penance, she preaches to him the remission of
sins.
Again, when the sinner who has fled to this refuge
of lies, turns to her to ask her if it can shelter his soul,
if it is sufficient ! she denies again salvation by Christ ;
for when she tells him that the very penance to which she
herself has directed him is not sufficient, she implies that
it goes some way in obtaining remission — but ''what-
80
ever else is wanting" may be supplied by indulgences and
more penitential works. Here, again, she preaches sal-
vation to him, not through Christ, but through works —
she directs him partly to her own abominable indul-
gences, and partly to himself and his own efforts — and
indeed between both, according to the proverb, she
lakes care the poor sinner shall fall to the ground.
Again, whatever sophistry she might use in pretend-
ing that she includes the atonement of Christ in her
doctrine of indulgences, she shuts even this sophistical
pretext out in her next declaration — for when the poor
wretched sinner comes to her, out of the miseries of
these penances, to ask for her indulgences, she declares
that remission of sins must be gained by •penance be/ore
she can grant them — so that she expressly excludes Christ
from the whole or any part of the sinner's hope* — he
must gain remission by his own penance, before she
will indulge him with a hope in Christ. O what a
mother of abominations to the soul of guilty man ! O
what an instructor in the religion of Christ — to shut
out salvation by Christ, until the sinner does not want
it, viz. when by penance he shall have atoned for sin,
and thus shall have saved himself !
Again, she denies the Gospel, if possible, in a way
more derogatory to God, when she does make mention
of the merits of the Lord — for instead of pointing the
sinner to that blessed Saviour, when she does indulge
him with the mention of a Saviour's name, " who,
through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot
81
to God," she directs the sinner to herself— she is to
make the offering — whereby she denies that Christ has
made it once for all — and then what does she offer ?
She offers the merits of Christ, which she calls " infinite
and superabundant;" but then proves her ignorance and
unbelief of their sufficiency, by adding "the virtues and
good works of his Virgin Mother and all the saints" —
she tells the sinner, she gives him an ocean which is
fathomless, without bottom, and without shore, to
cleanse him, (after he has cleansed himself,) but it is
not deep enough for him to wash in, till she pumps a
can of water out of the well at Rome to throw into it.
O miserable hope ! O wretched foundation of sand for
a sinner's soul to build on ! Let a poor weak mortal
bring truth, and reason, and Scripture to bear upon it,
they batter its superstitions down to the very dust. O
let me conjure my countrymen to think how shall such
a system stand, when the God of truth, and the God of
Scripture, comes "to lay judgment to the line and righ-
teousness to the plummet" — when the floods and storms
of eternity shall shatter it to its foundations, and
plunge those who have fled to it into the dark abyss of
everlasting death. If this religion be not such, as to
make it a duty to endeavour to enlighten our country-
men, then there is no difference between truth and false-
hood — righteousness and unrighteousness — Christianity
and superstition — the Word of God and the fictions of
men — to be found on earth ; and if it be of such a nature
as to make it a duty, an imperative duty of men, of
brethren, and of Christians, to labour for the instruction
of those who are misguided by it, I can only say, that
82
however awful the guilt and ignorance attendant on
the system may be, it seems a lesser evil to support it
from a conviction of its truth, than to pretend to see the
evil, and endeavour at the same time to weaken the
hands and misrepresent the motives, and attempt to
impede the efforts of those who would conscientiously
and faithfully endeavour to apply the remedy.
I am, Sir, &c.
R. M'G.
Harrowgate, July 30., 1829.
LETTER V.
SIR,
I am to prove that the sacrament of the Mass
is opposed to the Gospel of Christ, and when the
Gospel is known and believed, it requires but a glance
to discover this — a careful perusal of the preceding letter
will render any laboured proof superfluous. If the
Gospel of Christ be the proclamation of sin forgiven,
through the righteousness and atonement of a crucified
Redeemer, to every sinner that believeth, then it fol-
lows, as clearly as the light of day, that any effort
made by man to obtain forgiveness of sins for himself,
is a testimony that he does not believe that Gospel, and
whatever means he sets up to obtain forgiveness of his
sins, these are the instruments which he uses to oppose
it. — On this ground we have seen that penance was a
denial of the Gospel, and on the same ground is the
sacrifice of the Mass, with this difference, that penance
professes to procure remission of sins, by some satis-
faction which the sinner is to make to God's justice for
himself — but he is to procure this remission in the Mass
not through himself but through his Priest. But before
84
I consider the immediate opposition between the Mass
and the Gospel, it is worth while to remark the glaring
inconsistency and folly of this superstition, as com-
pared with the one preceding, and how they contradict
each other in their own Catechisms.
Hear Dr. Doyle again. In his chapter on the
Eucharist, p. 45, we have the following questions and
answers : —
Q. 1. What are the ends for which Mass is said?
A. To give God honour and glory, to thank him
for his benefits, to obtain remission of our sins, and
all other graces and blessings through Jesus Christ.
Q. 2. For what other end is Mass offered ?
A. To continue and represent the sacrifice of Christ
on the Cross. This do says Christ in remembrance
of me.
Again —
Q. 3. Which is the best method of hearing Mass ?
A. To offer it to God with the Priest, for the same
purpose for which it is said, to meditate on Christ's suf-
ferings, and to go to Communion.
Q. 4. How must we be prepared for Communion ?
A. W T e must be in a state of grace, and penetrated
with a lively faith, animated with a firm hope, and in-
flamed with an ardent charity.
Q. 5. What means to be in a state of grace?
A. To be free at least from mortal sin.
Q. 6. Is it a great sin to receive unworthily ?
A Yes whosoever receives unworthily shall be
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and eats
85
judgment, that is damnation to himself, not discerning
the body of the Lord.
Q. 7. What do you mean by receiving unworthily ?
A. To receive the blessed Eucharist in the state of
mortal sin.
Now from these we perceive, that one great benefit to
be obtained by the Mass, is the remission of sins ; No. 1 .
That the best method of hearing Mass is to offer it
with the Priest, for the same purpose that he offers it,
and to go to the Communion ; No. 3. That to go to
the Communion, you must be free from mortal sin ;
No. 5. And that it is a mortal sin to go to it if you
are not so. And lastly, as hearing Mass is the first of
the six. precepts of the Church, it is asked, p. 37 —
Q. Is it a mortal sin not to hear Mass on a Sunday
or kept holyday ? And she answers
A. It is ; if we be absent from it through our own
fault.
If a Roman Catholic should ever read this, who feels
any concern about the one grand point: the pardon of
his sins and the salvation of his soul ; let him seriously
consider and compare these directions of his Church.
If he is asked, " when does he most feel his want of
pardon and mercy from his Creator?" I suppose he will
reply, " when his conscience charges him with what
he calls mortal fin."
Now his Church tells him, that her Mass is offered for
the remission of sins — he is glad to hear it. She tells
i
86
him too, it is a mortal sin not to go to hear Mass — very-
well — he is ready to go, and anxious to go, for he wants
the Mass to take away his mortal sin ; and he is anxious
to go in the best manner he can too — but his Church
tells him the best manner is to go to Communion — very
well — he is willing to go, for he longs to get remission
of his mortal sin. Yes, but that will not do ; for his
Church says if he is in mortal sin, it is a mortal sin for
him to go to the Communion — though this is the best
way of going to the Mass, to get remission of his mortal
sin — so that it is a mortal sin not to go to the Mass —
but when he is in mortal sin, it would be a mortal
sin to go in the best manner to the Mass — that is, it is
one mortal sin to go in the best way to the ordinance,
that his Church appoints, as a sacrifice for the re-
mission of another mortal sin ! ! Then what is he to do ?
he is on the horns of a dilemma, and he does not know
how the Pope himself can get him off.
Q. " What then is a man to do if he be in mortal sin
before Communion ?" (p. 47) This brings us back to
the point whence we set out in the last letter — then the
Church relieves him at once.
A. " He must obtain pardon in the sacrament of Pe-
nance" — that is, he must go off to the Priest, the con-
fessions, penances, indulgences, &c. &c. which we have
already disposed of. So that in fact to fit him to take
advantage of the Mass to take away his mortal sin, he
must prepare for the Communion to go in the best
manner to the Mass ; and then to prepare for the Com-
munion, to go in the best manner to the Mass, he must
87
go to the Penance to take away his mortal sin, to pre-
pare him to go to the Communion. But then when
the Penance has taken away his mortal sin, to prepare
him to go to the Communion, to prepare him to go to
the Mass— the Penance has done for him what he
wanted the Mass to do — ergo, since whenever he is
in mortal sin, the Mass must always drive him back to
the Penance — the Penance having remitted his sin, saves
him the necessity of going back again to the Mass —
therefore, the best and safest remission of sins in the
Church of Rome, is always to be found in the Penance
and not to be found in the Mass — only it is a mortal
sin not to go to it — and if a man be in mortal sin, it is
another mortal sin to go in the best way to it ! ! ! O
mystery! — mystery ! ! written indeed upon her brow.
It is quite impossible to reduce her own principles upon
her own showing, I will not say to the standard of
God's holy word, but to that of plain, simple reason
and common sense, so that the inconsistency and folly
does not wear the appearance of the ridiculous — but
the subject is too deeply, too solemnly awful. I be-
seech every Roman Catholic to think it over, to
examine it, to see how far in its application to his own
soul and wants as a sinner, it has ever given him
peace — if it has, it is impossible he can know his state
before God — if it has not — he may rest satisfied it is
because it is foreign from the Gospel.
The Mass is opposed to the Gospel in four different
particulars : —
1st, In assuming to be a sacrifice for sin.
88
2d, In assuming to take away sin a9 a bloodless sa-
crifice.
3dly, In assuming to take it away as a repeated sa-
crifice.
4thly, In assuming what is most awful and which
adds idolatry to the rest, that it is Jesus Christ himself.
In every one of these particulars it denies and op-
poses the Gospel, and turns the poor sinner from the
only hope that God has provided, to a "fiction of su-
perstition," and a " refuge of lies."
1st, It denies the Gospel in assuming to be a sacrifice
for sin.
The glory of the Gospel is, that when a sinner
anxiously inquires how his guilt is to be removed —
his debt paid ? It immediately answers, u it is finished.*'
It points his eye to Calvary, to see that rich unutterable
ransom, hanging for him on the Cross, and pouring out
his soul unto death — it tells him " He was wounded
for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with
His stripes we are healed" Is. liii. 5. It tells him,
that this is that Promised Saviour to whom " All the
Prophets give witness, that through His name whoso-
ever believeth on Him, shall receive remission of sins."
Acts x. 43. It tells him of Him, that " God hath set
him forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins
that are past, through the forbearance of God," Rom.
iii. 25. That it is " a faithful saying, and worthy of all
89
acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners," 1 Tim. i. 15. If the sinner believes that
truth, that glorious truth, it necessarily brings with it
rest and refreshment to his soul — " We which have be-
lieved do enter into rest,'" Heb. iv. 3 — if he believeth
not, it is foolishness and profitless to his soul, as with
those in the preceding verse " unto us was the Gospel
preached as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it," Heb. iv. 2.
Now, if the sinner believes that in Christ he has full
and free remission of sin— however guilty — however
vile — however alienated from God before ; it necessarily
changes his rebellion into love, to see sin such as his
forgiven — so great a debt cancelled — at such a price —
such an inestimable ransom — that he may come to the
Redeemer as a sinner — as a Mary Magdalen, as a Ma-
nasseh,as a Philippian gaoler — as the prodigal — as a Saul
— as the thief — as his murderers, and find like them — a
►Saviour — pardon — remission of all his sins — it melts his
heart, it subdues his spirit, he asks, is this the God against
whom I have been rebelling ? Is this the Saviour whose
name I have been slighting ? Is this the salvation from
which I have been turning to other hopes and other
refuges? O my Redeemer — my Saviour — my Refuge —
ray God ! — I sit at the feet of thy Cross for evermore
Thou hast paid my debt — thou hast bought me — 1 am
thine. All he requires is to read more of that word
of life, to understand more of that Redeemer's cha-
racter, to rest more on that Redeemer's promises, to
i 2
90
rejoice more in the " strength of his salvation," and to
live more to his praise, his honour, and his glory. He
never once thinks of making any effort, or doing any
thing to take away his iniquity, for the whole ground
of all his hope, and peace, and joy, is this, that Jesus
Christ has done it already.
Now w T hen, on the other hand, a sinner does not be-
lieve this Gospel, he finds no relief, no rest, no consola-
tion in the Bible for his soul — he may be glad to hear
that Jesus died on the Cross, as he would be glad to hear
of any thing that he imagines would help his guilty con-
science to get rid of its burden, and this, he thinks,
makes God more easily appeased, by his own en-
deavours, than he would have been without it, but
still his own endeavours, and his own offerings are the
main hope of his soul — and thus, however numerous
they be, however earnest, zealous, or sincere, he never
finds rest and never can — he is blind as to his own
state, his utter incapacity to serve or please his God —
and he cannot by any denial of the Redeemer's Godhead
or his existence, more fully and effectually reject his
salvation, than by looking to Him, not as God sets him
forth, a full salvation for the chief of sinners, but by
looking to him through his own ignorance, and pride,
and unbelief, as one who will help him to save himself,
and do some part ^ on condition that he does the remain-
der — hence, any offering, whatever, made by man to
appease God for sin, any service of religion, or any act
of morality performed with tbat aim and intention, so
far from being acceptable to God, is an insult to His
I)i\iue Majesty; it is a plain declaration in words, or
91
actions, or thoughts, that the sacrifice of Jesus is
not complete, and cannot be depended on ; therefore,
any ordinance of religion which professes to be a sa-
crifice to God to obtain remission of sins, is a denial of
his truth, a rejection of his whole scheme of salvation
for man, and the utmost reverence for Him, which the
word of God ascribes to it is this, that " it makes God
a liar." — " He that believeth not God hath made him
a liar." — mark the point in which he makes him so —
" because he believeth not the record that God hath
given of His Son — and this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life — and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life, 1 John v. 10, 11, 12.
Now mark, Sir, it is not he that believeth the historical
facts concerning Christ in the New Testament, that shall
be saved ; these, Roman Catholics believe as well as Pro-
testants, concerning his birth, conversations, miracles,
life, death, resurrection, and ascension — yes, and the
declarations of his future coming to judgment. These,
as well as his divinity and humanity, multitudes be-
lieve, and would contend for them against the infidel, with
great zeal, and energy, and truth; but still are just as
far from the salvation of that Redeemer, as He against
whom they contend ; for they believe these facts as
matters of historic truth, or divine revelation if you
please ; but the great object and end of them all they
utterly deny, namely, that Jesus Christ came to save
sinners, and completed that work which He came to
do — so that every sinner who depends on his salvation,
is partaker of his salvation. They make God a liar —
92
for they believe something — many things about Christ,
but not what God declares, not " the record that God
hath given of his Son, for this is the record — not
merely the facts recorded in the birth and life and
death of the Redeemer, but the great object of his
being born, and living, and dying — namely, to give sal-
vation, eternal life to sinners — that " God hath given us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son;" therefore, " He
that hath the Son, hath life — and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life.^
Now the Roman Catholic offering of the Mass as a
sacrifice to obtain remission of sins, is a standing tes-
timony of that Church, that she rejects the truth, that
Christ hath made that offering which is all-sufficient
for the sinner's soul to rest on ; it is a standing witness
against her that she believeth not the record that God
hath given of his Son ; every time she offers it, the
Bible witnesseth that she maketh God a liar ; every
Priest who offers it, stands up in the very fact before
Jehovah's throne, to say that God is a liar; every soul
that really depends on it for the remission of his sins
makes God a liar ; and so far from being the religion of
Christ, it is an utter denial of the religion of Christ for
salvation by Christ alone, to the utter exclusion of every
other hope, is the foundation and the only foundation
of the religion of the Lord Jesus. I have said, Sir,
every soul that really depends on it. I repeat again, I
presume not to sit in judgment on the persons of indi-
viduals of the Roman Catholic Church. I trust there
may be many of them who do not really depend on it,
and who in all the clouds of ignorance and superstitions,
93
feeling their own guilt and helplessness, look alone
to the blood that was shed on Mount Calvary for sin,
and go to Mass rather as a thing which they have been
accustomed to do, and which is a sort of commemoration
of Him on whom they depend, than a ground of de-
pendence itself. He that believeth on Jesus shall be
saved, and the Lord alone knoweth them that are his —
but I speak of the principle, the ordinance, the service,
as an offering made to God by a guilty sinner to obtain
remission of his sins, and as such, it is, I repeat, an
awful testimony that that Church denies the salvation
of the Redeemer, and makes a liar of the God whom
she vrof esses to worship.
Again, the Mass denies the Gospel, because, 2d, it
proposes to be a bloodless sacrifice to take away sin.
Dr. Doyle, p. 45, asks —
Q. Is the Mass a different sacrifice from that of the
Cross ? The answer is,
A. No ; because the same Christ who once offered
Himself a bleeding victim to his Heavenly Father on the
Cross, continues to offer himself in an unbloody manner
by the hands of his Priests on our altars.
I shall not stop here to examine the want of common
sense in this answer, which asserts, that the sacrifice is
not different, though it declares in the same breath that
one was a bloody and the other an unbloody sacrifice.
I am considering it as opposed to the Gospel. The
whole of the ceremonial law pointed out in its typical
offerings for sin, that the blood, the outpouring of the
94
life of the victim, was that, which justice demanded for
sin. The life of the body being typical of that of the
soul — the substitution of innocent animals for the in-
dividuals who had been stained with moral guilt or
ceremonial uncleanness, was the great means by which
the Lord pointed the attention of those to whom the
revelation of His divine will was given ; to the Lamb of
God who was to take away the sins of the world — who
was to pour out his life blood as a Fountain open for
sin and uncleanness. It is quite unnecessary to enter
into the Old Testament, for we have an inspired com-
mentary upon the whole ceremonial law in one passage,
which settles the question in the estimation of every
man who reverences the word of his Creator. The
Apostle having commented on the typical nature of the
ceremonial law, contrasts its offerings with that of the
Redeemer in the 9th of Heb. — " But Christ being
come an high Priest of good things to co?ne, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with
hands — that is to say, not of this building, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls
and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God," Heb. ix. 11, 12, 13, 14. Here, it is de-
clared that by his blood he hath obtained eternal redemp-
tion ; here it is declared that it is his blood that cleanseth
95
the conscience, and then it is stated that the blood poured
out in the Old Testament, was all for the purpose of
figuring this. — " For ivhen Moses had spoken every
precept to all the people according to the law, he took
the blood of calves and of goats with water, and
scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book
and all the people* saying, this is the blood of the Tes-
tament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover,
he sprinkled likewise with blood, both the tabernacle
and the vessels of the ministry, and almost all things
are by the law purged with blood, and to ithout shedding
of blood is no remission," Heb. ix. 19, 20,21, 22.
Now, in opposition to the whole tenour of the sacred
oracles of God, not only to the tenour of its doctrines,
but the testimony of its facts ; to the whole facts of
that dispensation which constituted the theocracy of the
Jewish people, and typified the salvation of the Gos-
pel, and in opposition to the whole testimony of the
Apostles, who place the entire salvation of the human
race upon the fact of Immanuel having poured out his
blood upon the Cross for remission of sins ; the Roman
Catholic Church points her unhappy followers to a
thing for remission of their sins, which she calls an un-
bloody sacrifice. Either the God who alone can pardon
sin declares what is not the truth, that "without shed-
ing of blood is no remission," or the Koman Catholic
Church calls sinners to obtain remission in a thing,
which that God declares could never have procured it.
The blood of Jesus is that to which the people of
96
God are directed as their whole dependance in his word.
Are they thirsty ? He " that drinketh that blood hath
eternal life" John vi. 54 — Are they purchased ? They
are " the Church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood," Acts xx. 28. — Are they re-
deemed ? " In him they have redemption through his
blood, even the forgiveness of sins," Eph. i. 7,
Col. i. 14. — " They are not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood
of Christ" 1 Pet. i. J 8, 19— Are they cleansed? It
is " the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth them
from all sin" I John i. 7. — Are they sanctified ? It
was " that he might sanctify the people with his own
blood, he suffered without the gate" Heb. xiii. 12. —
Do they overcome Satan ? " They overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb," Rev. xii. 11. — Are they ad-
mitted into the realms of glory ? " they have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb" Rev. iii. 14. Do they sing a new song? It is
" Thou wait slain, and hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood," Rev. v. 9. Well then may it be said, this
Church has committed two great evils — V she hath for-
saken Him, the Fountain of living waters, and hewn
out to herself cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no
water," Jer. ii. ]'3 — for it must be granted, that what-
ever takes away sins, can alone bring a sinner to eternal
life. Now, if refreshment, redemption, purification,
sanctification, victory, and eternal glory, are by the
blood of Christ, and if the song of the Redeemed ce-
lebrates that blood that brought them, as a part of its
eternal theme of praise, there is no hope that those
persons shall participate in these who look for remission
of sin to an unbloody sacrifice.
Again, 3dly, the Mass is opposed to the Gospel in
assuming to be a repeated sacrifice. If the two former
statements be according to the word of God — this must
necessarily follow, for if it be a denial of the Gospel
that it should be offered once, it is but a reiterated
denial, the more frequently it is repeated. The Apostle
marks as a proof of the inefficacy of the sacrifices of
the ceremonial law in satisfying for sin, that they were
frequently repeated ; therefore, he argues, they could
never make those who came to them perfect, for if they
could, if they could bring an offering sufficient to satisfy
divine justice, by which sins were cancelled for ever,
then they would have ceased to be offered, Heb. x.
1, 2. But each succeeding sacrifice is an acknowledg-
ment that the last was insufficient, and therefore, he
contrasts the full, final, finished, perfect sacrifice of
Christ with them all, as supplying to the sinner that
mighty want of his soul, a refuge ever present and ever
perfect, to which he might flee from the vengeance of
pursuing justice, a refuge in which justice sat enthroned
and satisfied for ever. So u when Christ cometh into
the world, he saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body hast thou prepared me; in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure ; then
said I, lo I come, in the volume of the book it is writ-
ten of me to do thy will, O God." Heb. x. 5, 0, 7. On
which the Apostle reasons, that the Redeemer takes
away the first sacrifices, showing their insufficiency
K
98
and inability to justify the soul ; to establish the com-
pleteness and perfection of his own— " T come to do thy
will, by the which will" adds the apostle, " we are sanc-
tified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ,
once for all" Heb. x. 18 ; therefore, as there is re-
mission of sins in the sacrifice of the Redeemer the
Apostle concludes ; Now, where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin, v. 18 — then the fold-
ing doors of everlasting life being thrown open to guilty
men He invites them — " having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living ivay which he hath consecrated
for us through the vail, that is to say his Jlesh, and
having an High Priest over the house of God ; let
?/s draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith," Heb. x. 19, 20,21. Here the poor helpless
sinner is invited to rest and peace — the greatness and
completeness of the offering — the full perfection of the
atonement made by it — the impossibility of offering
any more, and finally, He who offered it being en-
throned as the High Priest who hath gone in with the
accepted offering to the presence of his Father for us,
and the declaration of God that He hath accepted the
sacrifice— all these conspire to give the sinner courage
and confidence to come, and to come boldly to the
throne of grace in full assurance of pardon and accep-
tance. Now T , here is rest for the soul— ratified by the
word of God — the sinner when he comes in spirit and
truth to examine it, finds at once the hope that the
Gospel gives, and says with joy like Andrew, " we have
found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the
99
Christ" — but what is the condition of a poor Roman
Catholic — blinded with the names of God and Christ,
and the Holy Ghost, and other sounds, for they are,
alas ! but sounds in the system of his Church ; when
his conscience is burdened with sin, he thinks that
Penances, Absolutions, Masses, &c.can procure remission
for his soul — he may, perhaps, have his conscience
lulled for a season, but then sin again makes him un-
easy, and again he turns to these miserable remedies,
and because he knows not the hope that there is in the
Redeemer, he flies to his Masses and his Priest to make
atonement. But when it pleases God to teach him that
what he wants is to be found in Christ, and that " where
remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sin," he
soon sees that it must necessarily follow, that his Masses
are a human fiction — for where there always must bo
still more offering for sin, it is plain there cannot be
remission of sins; he sees the same contrast between
his own Priests and Christ, that the Apostle marks be-
tween the Priests of the ceremonial law and the Re-
deemer. — "Every Priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins ; but this man after He had of-
fered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down at the
right hand of God," Heb. x. 11, 12. His work of
salvation was finished, he sat down as a Prince and a
Saviour for lost and guilty sinners to flee to, and to
rejoice in for ever and ever.
The last iniquity of the Mass which I shall remark
as opposing the Gospel of Christ is, that the Romish
100
Church assumes that it is Jesus Christ himself. This
was the last point of impiety to which she could bring
it ; and her doctrine, when once she left the Gospel of
Christ, had a natural tendency to run into this idolatry.
When man flies to some false refuge for the hope of his
immortal soul, the more he can exalt the refuge, the
more fancied security he feels in it ; when the Church
of Rome once began to attribute an unscriptural effi-
cacy to her sacraments, it followed as a necessary con-
quence, that she ascribed an unscriptural magnitude
to their elements ; when she attributed to the shadow
the efficacy of the substance, it was no wonder, that
misled by her error, she mistook the one for the other,
and lost the substance in catching at the shadow;
this was in fact the real origin of her transubstantiation.
It would be an easy matter to call it by hard names,
and no less easy to prove that it deserved them, but it
is not my object to enter into that question at large, but
simply to show that in even calling it Jesus Christ, it
is as much in opposition to the Gospel, as in calling it a
wafer — to say that Jesus Christ is to make a sacrifice
for sins — to say he is to make an unbloody sacrifice for
sins — to say he is to make a repeated sacrifice for sins,
is to deny the whole of his Gospel. I will go farther,
I will (rive a Roman Catholic more than he asks — I
will suppose it possible for him, under a heavy appre-
hension of eternal death, to be able to pray that Jesus
Christ might actually in person appear, that he might
actually bo seen again on earth, that he might actually
suffer a death, I will not say an unbloody one, but
even die upon the cross again for sin. The answer to
101
that prayer, if it could bo answered, would blight the
whole hope of salvation that the Gospel reveals ; it
would show that Calvary were not sufficient; that the
blood poured out there was not enough ; that justice
was not satisfied ; that the souls of sinners were not
redeemed. It would show that his whole salvation was
incomplete ; that though he had come " to save sinners"
he had not finished his work, but that he was obliged to
come again to make up the deficiency — yea, what
hope, what confidence could man have, that it were
sufficient now, when the necessity of its repetition had
proved its insufficiency before? All that the Apostles
spoke of pardon — all that they had proclaimed of for-
giveness — all the Gospel which they had preached to man
had been falsified by the very act, if Christ were to
come again to make another offering for sin ; and if
such would be the case, if he were to come undeniably
to the eye of human sense — what a dreadful supersti-
tion is it to call a wafer Jesus Christ, and say that it is
an offering for sin. The very fact of saying so, putting
the idolatrous worship out of the question, proves that
the man who says so, can know nothing whatever of
the salvation that is revealed in the Gospel — he has a
plan of salvation for himself, but it is not the plan of
salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ.
In reflecting on this tenet of the Romish Church, I
can hardly persuade myself that a Roman Catholic ever
really thinks with sober reflection on the subject. I
take a piece of flour and water and make paste of it,
I suppose a Roman Catholic himself to supply me with
k 2
102
it, he has sown the wheat, he has reaped it, he ha?
made the flour and he has made the paste, he can
prove, if necessary, on his oath, with a clear con-
science, that it grew last harvest in such a field, and
that it is now a plain honest piece of wheaten flour and
water. The Priest pronounces a few words over it —
will any Roman Catholic take the same thing that he
proved one minute ago to be a bit of flour and water,
and apply in the presence of the Being that has en-
dowed him reason and senses, the word of his creed to
that — is that thing now the only Son of God? — was
that thing which he can swear grew in a corner of his
own field, actually born of the Virgin Mary ? — did
that thing walk about nearly 1800 years ago in Judea?
perform miracles? — is that the thing that spoke all
the words he reads in the Testament, if he ever does
read them ? — was that thing transfigured on the Mount?
is that thing, He, whose mighty voice silenced the
winds and waves ? — did that thing heal all the sick ? — ■
did that thing speak the almighty word that raised the
dead, " Lazarus come forth ?" — did that thing stand in
Pilate's judgment hall ? — was that thing crowned with
thorns, scourged, buffetted, crucified ? — is that thing,
He, whose garments they parted among them, and on
whose vesture they did cast lots ? — is that thing, the
mighty God, at whose crucifixion the sun was darkened,
and the earth quaked, and the rocks rent, and many
bodies of the saints which slept arose? — is that
thing, He, who was sealed up in the tomb, and who
burst the gates of death, and rose triumphant from the
grave?— is that He who conversed with His dis-
103
ciples going to Emmaus ? — is it He who appeared to them
and said, " peace bo unto you," and " showed them his
hands, and his feet." Finally, is that He w T ho ascended
into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God,
from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the
dead ? and is that thing the Creator of the heavens and
the earth ? You believe now, O Roman Catholic, before
God, that this is the identical thing that has done all
this, and five minutes ago you would have taken your
solemn oath it grew in your field last harvest ! — O what
is reason — w 7 hat is revelation — when man can so trifle
with, can so abuse them both ? — O that we could
feel for our countrymen like men that feel for them-
selves. We may talk, Sir, of religion and revile Roman
Catholics as we please, but let me see a man who
comes forward to oppose any scriptural effort that could
be made to reform the religion of the Roman Catho-
lics, and there is not a Roman Catholic in Ireland, who
requires a reformation in his religion, more than such
an individual requires reformation in his own.
I am, Sir, &c.
R. M'G.
Harrowgate, August 1, 1829.
LETTER VI.
SIR,
Purgatory is the last lying refuge which the super-
stition of the Church of Rome holds out to her deluded
followers ; and it sets forth at least this one melancholy
truth to the Roman Catholic: that all the means of
salvation which his Church has proposed are ineffectual;
that penance cannot atone for sins ; that all her Masses
cannot atone for sins ; that all her indulgences, with
her offerings of the " infinite and superabundant merits
of Christ, together with all the virtues and good works
of his Virgin Mother and of all his saints," cannot sup-
ply the "whatever else is wanting" to atone for sins ;
but that after all she must confess that the poor misera-
ble soul must suffer fire, from which she cannot save,
punishment from which she is unable to redeem, and
as all her "fictions and vain refuges," cannot satisfy the
wants, and silence the terrors of a guilty conscience,
she consigns the sinner to a place of suffering which she
has invented in the next world, to pay that quota of
penalty, which she never could make him feel secure,
that sho with all her offerings was able to pay for him
105
in this. But before I show that this invention is in
itself a direct denial of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, I shall point out some of the inconsistencies
which are to be found in the doctrines of the Roman
Catholic Church concerning it.
Dr. Doyle in his Catechism, pp. 24, 25, has these
questions and answers : —
Q. 1. Where shall they go who die in mortal sin ?
A. To Hell for all eternity.
Q. 2. Where do they go who die in venial sin ?
A. To Purgatory.
Q. 3. What is Purgatory ?
A. A place or state of punishment in the other life,
where some souls suffer for a time before they can go
to Heaven, where nothing defiled can enter.
Q. 4. Do any others go to Purgatory besides those
who die in venial sin ?
A. Yes, all who die indebted to God's justice on
account of mortal sin.
Q. 5. When God forgives mortal sin as to the guilt
of it, and the eternal punishment it deserved, does he
require temporary punishment to be suffered for it ?
A. Yes, very often, and even in this life for our cor-
rection, to deter us from relapsing into sin, and that we
should make some atonement to his offended justice
and goodness.
Now, it might be important to ascertain here in the
first place, the distinction which the Church of Rome
makes between venial and mortal sins, with respect to
106
Hell and Purgatory : for a Roman Catholic must surely
be concerned to know whether he be guilty of that for
which his Church sentences him "to Hell for all
eternity," or only to Purgatory, to stop and suffer a
while on his way to Heaven, from which she will be
kind, enough to deliver him — provided she be properly
remunerated for her trouble. Now, the Church her-
self, notwithstanding her boasted unity, is not quite
certain as to the sins that send to Hell and those that
send to Purgatory. I have now before me six of her
Catechisms — Dr. Hornihold's, Dr. Doyle's, Dr. Butler's,
Dr. Plunket's Dr. Reilly's, and the first Catechism for
the use of Roman Catholic Sunday Schools. — London,
stereotyped by Cuddon.
Dr. Doyle, Dr. Butler, Dr. Reilly, and the London
Catechism, give us the following, as the seven deadly
sins : —
" Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy,
Sloth."
Dr. Hornihold and Dr. Plunkot, make a change in
the list — this is their catalogue : —
" Pride, Covetousness, Luxury, Anger, Gluttony,
Envy, and Sloth."
Now these Divines are all agreed on the one solemn
fact, that they who die in mortal sin shall go to Hell
for all eternity ; but it is evident, there is a difference in
all propriety of language in the nature of one of the
sins, which they place on their list. Dr. Hornihold, I
know, identifies them in his explanation, but this is
107
evidently an abuse of terms ; however, this is a matter
of small importance, compared with the evils which a
closer examination of the subject exhibits. Let us
compare the list of mortal sins which they say cast
the soul into Hell for all eternity ; with that of venial
sins, which do not lose the grace of God, which only
cast into Purgatory, yea, which may be forgiven on
much easier terms, viz. by sacraments, holy water,
signing with the sign of the Cross, alms, fasting, &c.
Dr. Hornihold, p. 301.
"Mortal Sins. — Pride, Covetousness, Luxury, Envy,
Gluttony, Anger and Sloth." — Dr. Hornihold, p. 395.
Most Common Venial Sins. — "Idle works — small
excesses in eating and drinking — too much pleasure in
diversions — jocose lies — or lies out of excuse — coming
late to prayers — neglecting alms — harsh words and
flattering speeches — small thefts — distractions in the
time of prayer not fully resisted," &c. — p. 301.
Now, I would entreat a Roman Catholic to consider
that the question is, whether his soul is " to be cast into
Hell for all eternity or not" — that is, whether he be
guilty of mortal or venial sin, and if he believes his
Church infallible in the adjudication of the punishment,
to examine how far his conscience can be satisfied, as
to her infallibility in the decision on the crime.
The existence of evil propensities and passions in the
human mind, is hardly questioned by members of the
108
Roman Catholic or Protestant Churches, although they
may be ignorant of the nature, or extent, or conse-
quences of them. But it is generally allowed, even by
the most ignorant, that whatever degree of culpability
may attach to their existence in the mind, that culpa-
bility is increased by their being reduced into practice ;
in fact, in a truly Scriptural sense, the difference be-
tween the man who is a servant of God and him who
is not, does not consist in this, that the same corruptions
do not exist in both ; they may and often do exist
more strongly in the man who is the servant of God
than in the other ; he may be naturally of a more
proud, a more covetous, a more irascible disposition,
than the man who is living without God in the world ;
but it is the subjection of evil in his life and conduct,
and the motives and principles of that subjection that
indicate his real character. Now, let any man of plain
common sense, who has any serious concern for his sal-
vation, compare those sins which the Church of Rome
colls mortal, and which cast the soul into Hell with
those which she calls venial, which are of compa-
rative insignificance, and which only cast it into Pur-
gatory, Pride, Covetousness, Luxury, Envy, Anger,
Gluttony, Slotb, which are evil passions and disposi-
tions, existing in the human mind in the opinion of the
Church of Rome, are mortal sins.
But when we examine her catalogue of venial sins,.
we find that these sins, which in their existence in the
heart, she states to be mortal; in their practical exercise,
are turned into venial!
109
We shall subjoin her list of crimes and punish-
ments: —
Crime. Punishment.
•« Pride," .. .. .. Mortal.. Hell.
" Self-excusing, " which results from this,
and lying, .. .. Venial— Purgatory.
"Luxury," .. .. Mortal— Hell.
• *' Too much pleasures in diversions,'' Venial— Purgatory.
"Gluttony, .. .. Mortal— Hell.
" Small excesses in eating and drinking," Venial — Purgatory.
" Anger and Envy," .. .. Mortal— Hell.
" Harsh words," giving way to them, Venial— Purgatory.
" Sloth," .. .. .. Mortal— Hell.
** Idle works," or " coming late to
Prayers," .. .. Venial — Purgatory.
45 Covetousness," .. .. Mortal— Hell.
*■' Smalt Thefts," .. . „ Venial— Purgatory.
I put it to the conscience of any Roman Catholic of
integrity and of principle, how far it is possible for any
human being to ascertain whether he is in mortal sin
or venial sin — whether Hell or Heaven is to be his
portion, if he gives any consideration to these casuis-
tries of his Church — are not some of these sins which
she sets down as venial, the results of those, yea, the
actings of those that she calls mortal. If pride which
is mortal, leads us to justify and excuse our faults, and
add lying to it, then it is venial. — Tf luxury which is
mortal, leads us into "too much pleasure in diversion,"
it becomes venial. — So if gluttony, which is mortal,
makes us exceed, provided we do not go too far, it is
venial ! — But how far is this to be ? is it to be decided
by the capacity of our stomachs, the depth of our
purses, or the strength of our heads? What number
or nature of idle works — what number or nature of de-
L
110
lays in attending on the worship of God, will bring the
slothful man out of Hell into Purgatory ? What de-
grees of theft confer comparative innocence on covetous-
ness, and turn it from a mortal to a venial sin ? — I have
kept theft for the last, because the criminality of the
principles which this Church maintains on this is un-
paralleled, except in the morals of the Spartan legisla-
tor, and even in his case, there is an exception in his
favour ; thathehad an object in view in the encourage-
ment of theft, while the Church of Rome has nothing
to excuse her sin on the subject. Imagine a Chris-
tian Church laying down this exposition of the law,
" Thou shalt not steal." Dr. Hornihold on the 7th
commandment, p. 168. — " Theft in general, is a taking
away or detaining what belongs to another"— he men-
tions the different kinds of theft; rapine, sacrilege, pecu-
lations, and abegeations. Then adds — " and it is to be
observed, that the sin is so much the greater or less,
as the prejudice which is done is greater or less, and
so it is a mortal sin when the thing that is taken is of a
considerable value in itself, or when it is considerable
in respect of the person from whom it is taken, as a
penny is a considerable loss to a beggar, and twelve
pence to an ordinary man !" — Therefore, if a servant
lives with a gentleman of moderate fortune, and steals
twenty guineas from him, it is a mortal sin— but if this
honest thief should be able to get a place in the family
of some wealthy Peer, and be so happy as to have an
opportunity of compassing a similar booty — it is a
venial sin, because the matter would be a mere baga-
telle to his Lordship, being f* inconsiderable in respect
Ill
to the person from whom it was taken !" — " He that
is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much," saith the
Lord Jesus. What saith this Church, which is called
by His holy name. — Dr. Hornihold, p. 169.
Q. " When may persons be excused from sin though
they take or detain what belongs to others ?
A. " A person in extreme necessity may take bread
or other food when he finds it. — A 'presumptive leave
of the master may excuse a servant disposing of some
small matters, in other cases where the thing is only
trifling it is but a venial sin."
Now, when we couple this with the former passage,
and recollect that the thing is more or less trifling, in
proportion to the fortune of the owner, as Dr. Horni-
hold lays down. — The system of petty plunder that the
Church of Rome sanctions, may serve well to account
for its practical effect upon the lower classes of the
Irish poor. What could be expected from them, when
their religion thus presumes to explain away and neu-
tralize the laws of God? — I can only say, that I know-
there are some poor Roman Catholic servants who
would have too much integrity to justify, much less
commit the crime of theft upon the principle which
their Church lays down for them, in her commenting on
this commandment; and when we see her so aw-
fully and openly endeavour to fritter away the law
of the Eternal God ; when we behold her thus at-
tempt to classify its violations, to nullify its holiness
and its perfections, and to appropriate and dispense its
judgments, or rather judgments which she herself ha*
112
invented ; we perceive even in her commonest princi-
ples of catechetical instruction, not only all deficiency
of scriptural knowledge, and holiness, and truth, but
all the most lamentable characteristic marks of igno-
rance, inconsistency, and error.
But I must not allow myself to be diverted from
the point which I intended to prove, viz. : — that Pur-
gatory is a direct denial of the Gospel. It is more pal-
pably opposed to it, if possible, than Penances and
Masses, for it comprehends' more distinctly marked, the
perversions both of the law and of the gospel, with
which the doctrines of this Church abound — as it is
pretended to be a place of punishment to satisfy divine
justice for venial offences ; it annuls the law in the
offences which it professes to receive, and the Gospel
in professing to atone for those offences — besides it is.
as it were the last link in that chain of darkness with
which Satan binds the minds and consciences of men,,
and holds them at a distance from the hope of salva-
tion — the conscience unsatisfied with all the vain re-
peated offerings which the Church professes to make,
and to impose as atonements for sin, might, humanly
speaking, if left to sink in its own uncertainty, and
guilt, extend the hand of faith, to grasp the merits of
the Lord, and turn to him like the dying thief for par-
don and salvation— but Purgatory comes to hold out to
it a false hope beyond the grave, to enhance every evil of
superstition in this world, by transferring it into the
confines of that which is to come. In proving it to be
a denial of the Gospel, nothing more is necessary than
113
to mention its name — Purgatory ! that is, a place of
purgation. The glad tidings of the Gospel, 1 repeat again
and again, is the testimony of sin pardoned, cancelled,
purged, blotted out by the atoning sacrifice of a cruci-
fied Redeemer. Knowing the ignorance and opposition
of the human mind to the glorious testimony of salva-
tion, "without money and without price" by ''the Lamb
of God who taketh away the sin of the world;" — 1 tear
not any accusation of repetition, in again and again
turning the attention of my fellow-sinners, to that
hope to which my own poor needy soul must turn
every moment for all her pardon and peace. What
saith the word of eternal life concerning the salvation of
Christ, " who being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person, and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by him-
self pur ged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high," Heb. i. 3. There is no use in
multiplying texts from the Scripture, when the meaning
of a text is clear and plain and undeniable — the man
that will not admit one as true, will refuse to admit five
hundred. Now, I put it to a Roman Catholic to take
this one text into the silence of his Chamber, ask him-
self does he believe it to be the testimony of Jehovah
or not — if so — is it true ? Is it a matter of fact, that
the Lord Jesus Christ has by himself purged the sins
of sinners or not. Is the offering of himself a suffi-
cient atonement to purge man's guilt — or not. If he
says no ! then let him settle the matter with his con-
science, he is at issue w T ith his God not on this passage
alone, but on the whole testimony of salvation by
l 2
114
Christ — then let him go to his Penances, and Masses,
and Priests, and Purgatory, to try and purge his soul,
and make him fit to appear before his God in judg-
ment. But if it is a plain matter of fact to be believed
on the truth, the promise, yea, the oath of the Eternal
God, that Jesus has " by himself -purged our sins" — then
why look for another means of purging them ? A
nobleman comes, and he tells a poor man who is in
debt, and who fears being put in prison, " my friend,
1 have paid your debt for you this morning freely —
here is a receipt in full from your creditor'— \$ the
poor man believes his word — if he believes that the re-
ceipt which he presents to him is genuine — will his
mind be harassed in turning to other sources to borrow
money to pay his debt for himself ? — No — his mind
will be set at ease — at liberty — he will rejoice and
be exceeding glad, bless his deliverer, and glory in his
deliverance. If he were to listen to him, however,
with indifference, if he were to turn away his head
from him, and go his way to try and borrow the sum
from other quarters, it would evince at once his incre-
dulity and his ingratitude. The Purgatory of Roman
Catholics, though a fiction of superstition, is however,
in one sense an awful reality — it is a standing testimony
of the melancholy state of ignorance and unbelief, the
deliberate systematic denial of Christ in this benighted
Church. The Lord of life and glory tells her that He
came to pay the mighty debt of sin, that by Himself
he purged our sins — she turns from Him, makes a liar
of the God of truth, and goes to vain and unprofitable
refuges to seek salvation, where it is not to be found —
115
she calls one of them a Purgatory, to show that she
denies she can be purged by Him. What gospel — what
good tidings of great joy to a poor perishing wretch,
that he must be cast into flames to expiate his. guilt !
What blessing — what hope for an immortal spirit
to be
" confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in bis days of nature,
Are burnt and purged away."
What shall we say for such a hope as this — Is it ", O
death where is thy sting ? — O grave where is thy vic-
tory?" No — let not the word of truth be named with
such a system, but let us rather borrow farther from the
tragic fiction, and say, " Alas ! poor ghost /"
O that my countrymen would hear the voice of
great salvation that the Gospel testifies. Its sound
would be to them, as it is reported to have been
to the poor heathen, who, walking in his shoes
of torture to expiate his sins, heard a missionary
preach upon the words, "the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth (purgeth, the original is the same) us from
all sin." — He heard the testimony of the atoning sa-
crifice, the finished nature of the mighty work of par-
don, the rest for the guilty conscience, the refuge for
the guilty soul — he is reported to have flung ofT his
shoes of superstitious expiation, exclaiming, "that is
the very thing I want." So it is the common want of
every sinner — not more is food for the support, water
for the refreshment, air for the respiration of the human
frame, a common necessity of our nature, than pardon
for the guilty soul of sinful and apostate man ; and
116
poison substituted for food, could not more certainly
destroy the life of the body, than Purgatory put for
the Lord Jesus Christ, is fatal to the soul that trusts to
such a refuge.
I cannot dismiss the subject, Sir, without advert-
ing to another evil attendant on this superstition, for
while the other fictions of the Church of Rome prey
upon the hopes and fears of their unhappy victim
while he is alive, Purgatory like the vampyre, comes to
feed upon his grave — and in this, not less than in all her
other dogmas, dees she set up this superstition against
the Gospel, that whereas, the Gospel i3 " preached to
the poor" — Purgatory is to be preached more parti-
cularly to the rich. It is a lucrative settlement in the
regions of darkness, from which she levies contributions
to support her usurpation over the fears and feelings of
the human heart. The ministers of this miserable
fiction, claim from the affections of surviving friends
money for Masses, to redeem the souls of the dead —
offerings proportioned to the means of the living and
given in proportion to their love for the departed. The
more money paid, the more Masses can be said — the
more Masses said, the sooner is the suffering ended,
and the soul set free from Purgatory — and though it
were an insult not to be endured by man, that any of
the hirelings of a judge, could stay for money the sen-
tence of judicial retribution, or shorten its duration, or
mitigate its severity ; the judgments of the God of
heaven and earth are to be mitigated or shortened, for
money paid to those who call themselves his servants..
117
and entrance into the realms of eternal glory, set up to
auction upon earth ! — the Gospel ! — Is this the Gospel
of Jesus Christ? Is this Christianity? — Well, indeed,
may the Word of God be shut up from those unhappy
persons who are taught to call it so.
I need not dwell upon the subject farther, Sir, but
if that Sacred Volume, which we call a revelation
from the God of truth, be in reality what we profess to
call it — if it is that alone which reveals to man the
character of his Creator, his Preserver, his Benefactor,
his Lawgiver, his Redeemer, and his Judge — if it is
that alone which reveals to him the principles of truth,
in which he requires to be instructed as a rational, an
accountable, and an immortal being — if it is there
alone he can learn the laws by which he is governed
— the sins with which he is charged, the justice by
which he is condemned, and the mercy by which
he can be forgiven — if it is there alone he can learn
whatever can conduce to his moral conduct, his social
interests and duties, and his everlasting happiness ;
and if this Sacred Volume, and all that it reveals is a
blessing t"> man — if he may not despise and trample on
it with impunity — if it is not intended to be given up
to the covetousness and ambition of a few individuals,
by which they may set up an iniquitous traffic for the
temporal and eternal interests of the rest of their
species — if it is not intended to lend merely the weight
of a nominal divine authority, to sanction an awful
system of spiritual tyranny over the minds, the con-
sciences, and the immortal souls of men, and then to
118
be locked by those who have abused it, that they may
escape all scrutiny and detection— if they are not
permitted under the cloak of religion to trample upon
the laws, to insult the attributes, and to usurp the go-
vernment of God, to set up fictions of man's invention
for truths of divine revelation, to pretend for money to
arrest the mandates, and mitigate the ordinances of
eternal justice — to reverse the sentence of immutable
truth, and to poison and pervert the springs of everlast-
ing mercy — if, in short, the Christian religion is in-
tended to instruct, enlighten, direct, regenerate, and
save the human race, and not to blind, to mislead, to
enslave, to demoralize, and to destroy the immortal
soul — then, Sir, I say, that the nature of the Roman
Catholic religion j as shutting up the word, as nullifying
the law, perverting and opposing the Gospel of the
living and eternal God, and as enslaving, misleading,
and destroying the immortal souls of men, is such as
to call on every man who knows and values the word,
the law, and the Gospel of his God, and who has any
anxiety for the temporal and eternal happiness of his
fellow-creatures, to labour with zeal, with honesty,
with fidelity, and with earnest affectionate solicitude,
for the total and fundamental reformation of the Roman
Catholic religion.
I am, Sir, &c.
Harrowgatc, August 4, 1829.
R. M'G.
LETTER VII.
SIR,
The names, characters, and writings of men,
are of very little importance to the world, except
as they may tend to produce some influence of a good
or evil tendency on the well-being of their fellow-
creatures. This is a reason of sufficient cogency why
a detailed reply to your Irish Correspondent is unne-
cessary. It may, however, he useful as a warning to
persons who call themselves friends and members of the
Established Church, but who are ignorant of the genu-
ine principles of our religion, to see that men who op-
pose a faithful effort, to bring the doctrines of Roman
Catholics to the test, are themselves, though perhaps
unconsciously, really infected with the errors of that
Church ; and although they may sincerely, perhaps
protest against some of her dogmas, and the absurdity
of some of her forms, they virtually labour under the
infection, of her worst and most dangerous principles.
Ignorance of the Word of God is the prolific parent of
these ; and of this your correspondent has exhibited a
lamentable example, not only in impugning that plain
120
.Scriptural truth, which has been vindicated in the pre-
ceding letters, but in exhibiting the opinions which he
avowedly expresses of the Sacred Volume.
He says, "The Roman Catholics are called upon to
do little more than abandon the guidance of their
Priests, and become for themselves interpreters of the
Holy Scriptures — self direction is proposed to be sub-
stituted for misdirection. They are encouraged to
embark on the perilous ocean of controversy , without
chart or compass ; and to undertake a voyage of dis-
covery in quest of truth, without even the rudiments
of that knowledge which would enable them to proceed
on their course with safety. To our minds this is ex-
tremely dangerous — it must beget a presumptuous self-
confdence, equally to be deprecated with the most ab-
ject credulity, and ensure the perpetuation of religious
discord."
In sitting down to comment on the total and radical
ignorance of the Bible, which such sentiments exhibit,
1 thought that the images of " abandoning guides' —
e< embarking on an o&ean" — " want of chart and com-
pass" &c. had recently met my eye, and I just hap-
pened to recollect Mr. Pope's controversy with Mr.
Maguire ; and in the fifth speech of the latter gentle-
man on the first day's discussion, I found the passage
which had struck me — " It is evident that the ignorant,
the unlearned, and the weak-minded, who form the
great majority of mankind, can only proceed safely
when conducted by a living guide — if they be allowed
121
to frame a rule of faith for themselves, embark without
chart or compass upon the wide ocean of opinion, if
they are allowed to think upon matters of faith as
they please — the result will be, they will give way to
prejudice and passion, and substitute their own judg-
ments for the Revelation of Jesus Christ." It is no
wonder, Sir, that your correspondent should oppose
any attempt, to bring the doctrines of the Roman Ca-
tholic Church to the test of the Scriptures, when his
opinions on one main point of that Church's errors are
identified with those of this Roman Catholic Priest —
it may be pleaded, that this is a point in which Mr.
Maguire is not so ignorant. But when its Divine
Author represents the Sacred Volume under a variety
of images, which convey the ideas of illumination,
direction, guidance, instruction, wisdom, salvation —
as " a lantern to the feet and a light to the paths" —
that its " entrance giveth light — giveth light and un-
derstanding to the simple" as a "sure word of pro-
phecy, whereunto they do well to take heed, as unto a
LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE," as " all given
by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
RIGHTEOUSNESS'' — "ABLE TO MAKE US WISE UNTO SAL-
VATION through faith, which is in Christ Jesus." —
When, therefore, He commands men, " hear this all
ye people, give ear all ye inhabitants of the world, both
low and high, rich and poor together" — When He
commands them to li search the Scriptures" to " let
the word of Christ dwell in them richly in all wisdom"
&e., and when on the other hand such persons as these
M
122
represent the Scripture under the image of a dark tern-
pestuous ocean, when the voyage is perilous, and
compare the study of the Bible to embarking on such
a voyage without chart or compass — that it is after all,
but an uncertain " voyage of discovery;" as if the
principles of eternal truth lay in remote and unknown
regions of revelation, like distant islands in the trackless
deep ; it is of little consequence to prove how far they
may agree in their errors with each other, when it is
evident they are at issue with the great and holy God.
There is another passage of similar import in your
correspondent's letter, which evinces the inconsistency
of a man really agreeing in this point with the Roman
Catholic Church, and attempting to give a tone of Pro-
testantism to his errors. He tells us " the Scriptures are
a volume which contains all truth necessary to salva-
tion — to have access to them is the undoubted privilege
of all Christians — in them truths are revealed and pre-
cepts given, which the humblest and least instructed
will find as guides to their eyes and lanterns to their
feet ; — but they also contain a system of divine philo-
sophy, which may afford its highest exercise to the
sagacity and intelligence of the deepest and most en-
lightened thinkers. They have been truly described as
containing "fords where the lamb may wade, and depths
where the elephant must swim," and surely when rude
and undisciplined minds are encouraged to roam at
large over a commonage such as this, without pastoral
care or guidance — it is not to be expected, that they
wid confine themselves to the consumption of just so
123
much as is good for them, and it would, indeed, be
greatly to be admired, if they did not trend down and dis-
Jigure more than they can appropriate with advantage."
The only answer which a passage so replete with incon-
sistency and error deserves, is to request the reader to
attempt to reduce it, if possible, into common sense.
We have first the Scriptures described as a Revela-
tion of inestimable value, " containing all truths neces-
sary to salvation." — We have it admitted, that " to have
access to them, and to read them, is the undoubted pri-
vilege of all Christians." — We have it asserted, that in
them "truths are revealed, and precepts given, which
the humblest and least instructed will find as guides to
their eyes, and lanterns to their feet." — Then arises a
sort of exception to these concessions — " hut they also
contain a system of divine philosophy, which may
afford its highest exercise to the sagacity and intelli-
gence of the deepest and most enlightened thinkers —
they have been truly described as containing fords
where the lamb may wade, and depths where the ele-
phant must swim." Now, what can this writer mean
in this passage ? — what is this " system of divine phi-
losophy," which is contradistinguished from the " truths
and precepts" of the Bible? Is that book all true? If
so, where are we to find its philosophical, and where
its unphilosophical truths ? Where is this wondrous
system suited to * the sagacity of these deepest and
most enlightened thinkers" — and where these harmless
truths for the humblest and least instructed ? If instead
of embarking on a perilous voyage without chart or
124
compass, on this ocean ; we are to wade, and swim near
its shore — surely w T here the elephant is out of his
depth, the lamb can swim as well as he — but whatever
he means by his philosophy, he means that it is to ex-
clude the poor from reading the Bible — for that book is
suddenly changed from a system of divine philosophy,
or a sea with these deeps and shallows, into good dry
land, in the shape of an immense large commonage ;
and then, notwithstanding all these truths and precepts,
and the undoubted privileges thereunto belonging —
still, " surely when the rude and undisciplined minds"
(or " unlearned and weak-minded," as Mr. Maguire calls
them) " are encouraged to roam at large over a com-
monage such as this, without pastoral care or guidance,
it is not to be expected that they will aonjine them-
selves to the consumption of just so much as is good
for the?n." So we perceive that this u commonage"
namely, the Bible, contains some dangerous lierbage
for the common herd of men to feed on — they require
pastors!!! to prevent them from eating more than " is
good for them* — an overdose of the Bible is a dan-
gerous excess ! and certainly for such pastors as this
writer (if he be one) and Mr. Maguire, the less their
flocks can be allowed to feed in these pastures the bet-
ter for their guides. The Bible is then turned from
this extensive commonage into a sort of enclosed
pleasure-ground, where the system of philosophy is
railed off, I suppose, for the deep thinkers, and the
truths and precepts for the common herd to feed in at
the discretion of their guides — and in such a nice en-
closure as this, " it would, indeed, be greatly to be ad-
125
mired, if they did not tread down and disfigure more
than they can appropriate with advantage! 1 It were
easy to remark with severity on such a passage — but to
point the attention of those who have any true religion
to its meaning, precludes the necessity either of com-
ment or reproof.
But it is not surprising that your correspondent
should have fallen into these errors, and with an incon-
sistent profession of Protestantism, adopted principles
identical with those of the Church of Rome, since he
evinces a total ignorance of the nature of that religion :
in one place professing to affix to it epithets of severe
reproach, and in another, attributing to it as much as its
own Priests would venture to assume. What man,
with any clear consistent view of divine truth, could
call in one passage in the same letter, Popery " the
eclipse of the Gospel/' and then take the very text
which the Romish teachers quote, to prove the infal-
libility of their Church, and assert not only that it is
applicable to their Church, but that it is perfectly ful-
filled in it ? I must quote his sentiments at length, for
they contain principles which, in the present state of
religion in Ireland, it is of deep importance to examine.
"There is nothing," he says, "in which the providence
of God has been more strikingly exemplified, and
the parting promise* of Christ mom perfectly fulfilled,
• I cannot conceive to what promise this writer here alludes,
except it be to that one, " Lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world ;" and this, it is well known, is the great
foundation on which the Romish Church builds the doctrine of
M 2
126
than the manner in which amidst all the corruption?
which disfigured the Church, vital and essential truths
were preserved unextinguished, whilst the true doc-
trine was suffered to be disguised, it was not permitted
to be destroyed by the errors with which it was en-
crusted ; and, therefore, when the light of reason shone
again upon the world, and the holy Scriptures recovered
their proper ascendancy over the minds of true be-
lievers, little more was necessary than to pare off the
excrescences which had accrued in ages of darkness
and ignorance, in order to restore true religion to the
express form and lineaments by which it was recognized
in the Apostolic times. Far different would the case
have been, had the errors been those of curtailment
and not of redundancy — had they consisted in believing
too little instead of believing too much — it was a much
easier, as well as a more natural process to throw off
the envelopments within which the Christian verities
lay, as it were, secured beyond the reach of accident,
than to engraft them anew upon the barren stock of a
defective and mutilated faith." Which being put into
plain English, amounts simply to this : —
The Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled his parting
promise, in preserving the vital and essential truths of
his religion unextinguished in the Roman Catholic
Church, until the time of the Reformation. The true
doctrines were only disguised, not destroyed in this
Church — she preserved within her the Christian
infallibility— all her writers quote it. Dr. Milner in his End of
Controversy— Mr. Maguire in his Discussion —repeatedly appeal to
it, and so does every controvert hlist of that persuasion.
127
verities secured beyond the reach of accident. We at
the Reformation pared off her encrustations, excres-
cences, and envelopments , and retained these unextin-
guished lights and undestroyed doctrines, and carefully
preserved verities which we thus derived from her. —
Now, in the first place, as a consistent Protestant, I
must protest against the interpretation of this promise
of our Lord, as conveying to any outward or visible
Church that either then existed, or was to exist, the
assurance of His presence and protection, as the depo-
sitory of his truth. I contend that it was limited to the
Apostles as His inspired messengers, and to their word ;
or that if extended, it can be but to His spiritual
Church. But even conceding the interpretation to
convey a promise to some Church, I deny the fact with
respect to the Church of Rome. It is an affront to the
majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, to represent Him as
being with a Church, on the brow of which He hath
stamped the name of " Babylon, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth" — nor is a man to be
deterred from saying so, by the exquisite sensibility of
your correspondent, Sir, who writes "the of
Babylon," that he may avoid the Apostolic indelicacy
of the Sacred Volume, in branding her with the broad
stamp of this appellation, from which it is not to be
wondered that her friends should shrink. I must
also protest against the unscriptural and unfounded as-
sumption, that any outward Church, whether in the
Apostles days or since their days, was, or is to be con-
sidered by mankind as the accredited depositories, or
preservers of the " true doctrines," or " the vital an,d
128
essential truths of Christ's religion," or of the " Christian
verities." I readily concede, that these doctrines or
verities did exist in the Apostolic Churches, and that
they do exist in any Church that now is entitled truly
to the name of Christian, and I consider that they exist
in the best and most unexceptionable manner in the
Established Church of these countries — but I deny that
any man or men, any Church or Churches, or any
human documents on earth, are the accredited deposi-
tories and preservers of these. I maintain, that the
only depository to which man is to be referred for
them as of divine authority, is the Holy Word of his
Creator — all documents, all creeds, all confessions of
faith, however excellent or scriptural they may be, are
but as cups or vessels that may serve to carry a draught
of the waters of life, to refresh the traveller's lip — but
it is at the Word of the eternal God alone, that the pil-
grim can sit down beside "the wells of salvation," and
quench his thirst at this " Fountain of living waters."
But with respect to the Church of Rome, I fearlessly
encounter all the charges of uncharitableness, fana-
ticism, &c. &c. which your correspondent may please
to bestow on me, when I assert that so far from pre-
serving the vital and essential truths of Christ's religion
unextinguished, this Church has extinguished by her
errors, every article of genuine Christian truth within
her pale; call on any of my Roman Catholic country-
men, who may read, and be displeased at such a charge
against their Church, to grant a little calm and patient
investigation to a subject in which their eternal interests
are involved.
129
A Roman Catholic will justly and consistently deny
this — but when a writer calling himself a Protestant,
tells us that Popery is "an eclipse of the Gospel" and
yet " preserves unextinguished the vital and essential
truths of Christ's religion ;" it is about as sound in
theology as it would be in science, to tell us that our
satellite eclipsed the sun, but preserved that sun shut up
safely in ber centre. If he were asked, what he means
by "Christian verities," I suppose he would place foremost
on the list the Apostles' creed — we shall take this then,
and he will confidently ask, do I not allow this to be a
summary of Christian verities ? This is my answer —
The Apostles' creed contains real verities of the Chris-
tian faith, exactly so far as the words of that symbol are
scripturally understood, and the ideas annexed to those
words, derived from the fountain of eternal truth — if the
ideas annexed to those w r ords, are unscriptural and
false, the creed itself in the mouth of him who uses it,
is a mere form of superstitious jargon, and is no more
to be called a Christian verity, than the phrase " I believe
there is one God, and Mahomet is his Prophet" — for
example — if a man says, " I believe in God, the Father
Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth," and if it be
asked does not that man acknowledge a Christian verity?
I must answer he certainly does — but if that man says
to me, "Come into my room, and let us hide from God,
let us shut the window and he cannot see us" — then I
say, that that article repeated by that man is false— -
the thing that he calls God is a mere idol of his imagi-
nation, it is not the omniscient omnipresent God of the
Bible, and it is of no consequence whether the thing
130
which he calls God, is a being whom he acknowledges
to be invisible and to dwell in the heavens, or a bit of
wood in the shape of a man, which he sets up to wor-
ship on his chimney-piece. I presume that this will
scarcely be denied by any man who admits, that the only
true God, is the God whose character is revealed in the
Bible, and that as to any thing else which we call God,
whether we divest him of his character of omniscience,
omnipotence, and omnipresence, or call an idol of stone
by his name, we are equally far from the truth of his
sacred word, or from using words of " Christian verity,"
when we say we believe in him.
Now, I shall go one step farther and say, that when
the idea of the divine character is divested of its moral
attributes of holiness, and justice, and truth ; the true
God is as much denied, as if a man says he can hide
from him in a dark closet or under a table. When a
man professes to say, " I believe in God, the Father
Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth," but declares
that it is a venial offence to transgress one of his laws —
that he can satisfy the divine justice, by punishing his
body for his sins, or confessing to his Priest, and that he
himself or that Priest can atone to God for his offences.
I affirm that the assertion " I believe in God," is no
more a " Christian verity" in the lips of such a man,
than if he lifts up a stone and informs us that this is the
God in whom he believes. Nay, when this man is in-
formed of the real scriptural character of Jehovah —
when he hears it read out of his Sacred Oracles,
that " whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
131
offend in one point, he is guilty of all" — that " by
the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified"' — when
he hears that God "hath set forth Jesus to be a pro-
pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins" — that " without
shedding of blood is no remission," and that "the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin" — when he
reads the scriptural character of that God in the only
revealed mode of exercising his divine attributes in the
salvation of a sinner, and when he evinces both in his
language, and in the very ordinances of his religion, that
he denies that God, then 1 say, that the Apostles' creed
in the lips of such a man, or in the mouth of a Church,
which has systematized a denial of God's revealed cha-
racter and attributes, is no more a "Christian verity,"
than "Barbara Celarent Darn Ferio," or any other un-
meaning sounds you may please to put together.
x\gain, Sir, when a man says, " I believe in Jesus
Christ, his only Son our Lord," &c. — take the remain-
der of that creed referring to our blessed Redeemer —
if I am asked does not this man acknowledge a num-
ber of Christian verities ? I must answer — yes. But
let me suppose that this man asks me, if I have ever
seen Jesus Christ? and I reply — no. He then takes
me and shows me a little Indian idol, made of rice
paste, of which many have been brought to this coun-
try, and he tells me that this little god is the Jesus
Christ of whom he believes these things, and that this
is the very person who "was conceived of the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary," &c, I think I shall
132
be justified in asserting, that the Apostles' creed is no
more a Christian verity in the mouth of that man, than
it would be in that of the Hindoo.
Let me now come to the point — let me turn this
rice paste into wheaten paste— let me flatten this little
Indian idol into a wafer, and when a man declares, that
this is the Jesus Christ, of whom he believes all the
articles of the creed ; that this wafer is, in fact, not a
wafer, but that it is the "whole body, blood, soul and
divinity," of Jesus Christ; that this is that Christ who
" was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate," &c. — who, but a
man blinded by the same superstition, will pretend to
say, that the creed is a Christian verity in his lips ?
If articles of faith bear a scriptural meaning, in the
sense of that system into which they are incorporated ;
then those articles in that sense, and in connexion with
that system, are scriptural and true. But if the terms
in those articles of faith, are used in a sense which that
system has rendered unscriptural and false, then those
articles are no longer Christian verities in connexion
with that system, but unscriptural and false in their
use and application ; and this is so, even if they be the
very words of the Holy Scriptures themselves, as they
were when cited against their Divine Author in the
lips of the father of lies. When, therefore, Sir, your
correspondent speaks of "the Christian verities" being
preserved in the Church of Rome, and of the Lord
Jesus Christ fulfilling his promise to that Church, he
133
evinces not only an ignorance of the Roman Catholie
leligion, but what is much worse, of the pure and im-
mutable nature of the Gospel itself — for just as when
arsenic is mixed with flour, however pure, to be made
into bread, that composition can no longer be denomi-
nated food, but poison ; so when false unscriptural
ideas of the real nature, and attributes, and govern-
ment, and word of God, and of his Christ, are annexed
to terms in articles of faith, those articles of faith can
no longer be denominated Christian verities, but un-
scriptural errors, in the system with which they are in-
corporated : blinding and beguiling the mind, by giving
to those errors the semblance and authority of truth,
and only serving to give weight and perpetuity to su-
perstitions, by cloaking them under the shelter and
sanction of divine revelation. In like manner, when he
talks of the advantages derived from " believing too
much instead of believing too little" — it can only be
said of men who speak in such a strain, that whatever
they may believe, they neither believe nor understand
the Gospel of Christ. It is of deep importance to
examine this principle. The holy and eternal God, in
the depths of that wisdom, and the riches of that grace,
which are beyond the reach of human thought to
fathom, or human imagination to conceive, hath sent
salvation to a guilty w T orld — salvation full, free, and
finished, through the righteousness and atonement of
his ever blessed, co-equal, and co-eternal Son. The in-
fidel, whether Atheist, Deist, Arian, Socinian, or of any
other shade of infidelity, denies, perhaps, the existence
of a God — the authenticity and inspiration of the
N
134
Scriptures, or the divinity or atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ. — He "believes too little" — his own fancied
moral virtues are the foundation of his hope before God.
The Roman Catholic professes to acknowledge these
all in the abstract, but he denies them in detail ; he pro-
fesses to admit the atonement, but denies its all-suffi-
ciency to cleanse from sin, and his doctrines of Masses,
Penances, Purgatory, &c. &c. conspire to testify his re-
jection of that salvation, which the Gospel proclaims
through the Lord Jesus to sinners — he "believes too
much."
The votary of infidelity detracts from the revelation
of Jehovah — the votary of superstition adds to it —
what difference does it make in irreverence and con-
tempt for the word of the holy God, what the nature
of that falsehood is by which men evince that they dis-
believe it? That sacred word declareth, "he that
believeth not God hath, made him a liar, because he
believeth not the record that God hath given of his
Son." And when such writers as your correspondent
sit down to panegyrize the advantages of believing too
much, rather than too little; they would do well to
favour the world with a treatise, on the most advan-
tageous method in which a sinner can give the lie to his
Creator, before they venture to attack, as uncharitable
and unchristian, those who feel called on by every
motive and principle of Christian charity, to expose
those errors, which evince a rejection of the Gospel,
and therefore the awful condemnation of those who
really maintain them.
135
Let me suppose, Sir, that two men were to profess to
embrace the Newtonian system of astronomy — that
they were to profess to believe in the law of gravitation,
and to receive all the demonstrations of that great
philosopher, respecting the revolutions of the planets
in their orbits — but that they were each to make one
exception, though of an opposite description. One
asserts, that the planets perform their revolutions in one
month more, and the other, that they perform them in
one month less, than the period assigned to them in the
calculations of that astronomer. What should we
think of a man who should stand up to institute a com-
parison between these in favour of the former, and tell
us that it was uncharitable to refuse him a station in the
ranks of science, because he believed only a little more,
rather than a little less than Newton ? We should be
inclined, I think, to place the advocate in the same class
of literary attainment with his client; convinced that
the same radical ignorance of the principles of science,
which could lead one man to commit the blunder, alone
could lead another to defend it. And, Sir, let me ask
are the truths which involve the moral attributes and
character, and government of the holy God — truths
on which depend the everlasting interests of immortal
beings, more to be trifled with, than those which man
has himself deduced from his own observations on the
laws of matter ? Are the sacred records of God of less
comparative importance, than the reasonings and de-
ductions of natural philosophy ? or where shall we find
a stronger illustration of the scriptural testimony con-
cerning the blindness, and apostacy, and guilt of man
136
than this — that while an error in science, such as I have
described, would affix an indelible blot upon the literary
character of any individual — men may assume a pre-
scriptive right of publishing with impunity, every spe-
cies of folly and absurdity on the all important subject
of eternal truth. But while the systems of supersti-
tion and infidelity in every shape and shade, alike evince
their enmity against the truth of Jehovah, by adding to
or detracting from the glory of the Gospel of Christ ;
and while writers, such as your correspondent, in pro-
portion as they verge to these extremes, attempt to vin-
dicate, or make light of those errors, to which they them-
selves approximate ; O ! that they would learn to
weigh their principles in the balances of the sanctuary
before it be too late ; and to estimate the tendency of
their respective systems according to that awful and irre-
fragable judgment which Jehovah hath equally denounc-
ed upon them both — " I testify unto every man that
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto
him the plagues that are written in this book ; and if
any man shall take away from the words of the book
of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of
the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from
the things which are written in this book." Rev. xxii.
18, 19. O that men who "believe too much" and
they who " believe too little*' and those who, under a
profession of believing aright, evince the hollowness of
their profession by advocating the cause of either;
would turn from their several errors, and fly from the
condemnation to which they are running, to that bless-
137
ed hope which is set before them in the salvation of a
crucified Redeemer !
Men whose views of religion are of a shallow and
superficial nature may easily crowd together a mass of
subjects, and hop over them with a levity, inversely
proportioned to their depth and importance ; your
correspondent has not discussed one single point
or principle of truth, but has touched on a variety
which either ought not to be introduced, or, if adverted
to, ought to be dwelt on with that gravity which the
subject required ; he must not suppose that the
errors of his opinions are undetected or uncensured, if
they are not sifted and exposed. He concludes a la-
boured panegyric on the Established Church, by inform-
ing us how very closely it is allied to the Church
of Rome ; speaking of the doctrines of the real pre-
sence and absolution, he tells us in direct opposition to
the acknowledged fact, that " the more liberal and
better informed of the Roman Catholic clergy have
slidden into a more lajr and Protestant mode of speak-
ing concerning them* — he-informs us that the doctrine
of absolution " is now defended by the ablest Popish
writers, as being the same in substance with that of the
Church of England ; and he adds, " the Government is
the same, the orders the same, many of the doctrines
the same, and the Roman Catholics themselves an.rious
to represent others as very little aijferent." The Go-
vernment the same ! What ! is the Pope the head of
the Church of England ? " The orders the same" /
Have we got the cardinals among us too ? sacrificing
n 2
138
priests and bishops also ? " Many of the doctrines the
same'' ! — does he mean the articles of the creed ? the
very names of God and of Jesus Christ in the Church
of England, are names of Beings as different from those
in the Church of Rome, as Jehovah from a wafer !
Does the writer mean to assert these things as if they
were to be admitted by our church ? I affirm in con-
tradiction, that pole and pole, earth and heaven, light
and darkness, truth and falsehood, are not farther asun-
der, than the principles of the articles, homilies, and
liturgy of the Church of England are, from the prin-
ciples, the decrees, and the canons of the councils of
the Church of Rome : and that on the very founda-
tions of the Christian faith. But if, indeed, the writer
makes these assertions respecting the approximation oi
some who are called Protestants to the Church of Rome,
1 shall not dispute the justice of his statements.
He is scarcely more felicitous in his remarks on the
Reformation Society, than in the principles which he
exhibits respecting the Roman Catholic religion : this
is, however, a secondary consideration ; but 1 shall just
glance at some of his inconsistent and unfounded asser-
tions. He speaks of the confusion that is to be expected
from the circumstance, that Protestant ministers of dif-
ferent denominations unite in endeavouring to awaken
their Roman Catholic countrymen to a sense of their
errors ; and having compounded the two formidable epi-
thets of " this medley of creeds' — " this concrete of con-
tradictories in religion" he asks the question, whether
this is calculated to promote u the unity of the Spirit
139
iu the bond of peace r" and then says, " we unhesi-
tatingly answer, no." An ordinary logician would be
inclined to hesitate a little, before he asserted, that a
conclusion of future discord, was to be deduced from
the circumstances of present union ; but he leaps over
the common barriers of reasoning, and lays it down as a
certainty, that " as soon as the strong holds of Popery
shall have fallen before them, this bond of brotherhood
will be dissolved — they will no longer know each other
as friends, but as enemies — the Baptist, the Moravian,
the Independent, the Calvinist, will each contend for the
maintenance and establishment of the systems to which
they are respectively attached," &c. This writer ap-
pears to be totally ignorant of the difference between
the forms of church government, the administration of
ordinances, and the fundamental doctrines of the Chris-
tian faith ; he is ignorant that the churches which he
here enumerates, whatever be their differences from the
Church of England, and from each other, have no dif-
ference as to the truths necessary for salvation : and in
this respect, the conversion of Roman Catholics to
any one of these forms — however, as members of the
Established Church, we should deprecate their union
with any dissenting body — would be a blessing which
every man who knows the Gospel would hail. And
certainly, to urge the activity of dissenters as a motive
forsupineness on the members of the Establishment, i9 a
singular species of argument for a person who pro-
fesses such a high veneration for our church. But
there is a most unhappy sympathy between this writer
in his apprehensions for the Established Church, and
140
the Roman Catholic Priests ; their object is the same,
viz. to endeavour by any means to put down this
Reformation Society. Mr. Maguire and he are in
perfect harmony on this subject : in that gentleman's
third speech on the last day of his discussion with Mr.
Pope, be says, " according to his principles" (i. e. re-
ferring men to the Scriptures) " that book, which is
inspired of God, will be made to dictate one hundred
and fifty different religions — the spirit of truth will be
changed into the spirit of error — every wild fanatic will
appeal to private interpretation, and internal illumina-
tion — the book of God will be produced to support the
most abominable blasphemies, and real religion will be
utterly destroyed. It was this devastating principle
w T hich superinduced the ruin of the Protestant religion
in the Protestant Churches of Germany and France.
It was by such a principle that the episcopal Church
of Scotland was pulled down ; and the same principle
will effect shortly similar results in Ireland, in regard to
the Established Church, if it meet with the encour-
agement it has hitherto received. / call uponth e Bi-
shops of the Established Church to step into the breach,
and to save their church from utter destruction." The
sympathy between these gentlemen, indicates a won-
derful coincidence of principle. The alarm which
your correspondent expresses too, as to the objections
of " thinking Roman Catholics" feeling great anxiety
as to what doctrines they are to embrace, whether
they are to agree with the " Calvin is t, or anti-Calvinist,
Independent, or Episcopalian," has been most sympa-
thetically anticipated by another Priest on the other
141
side the channel. It is the very chief objection urged
by Mr. Maddocks, the Priest at Bradford, against a dis-
cussion — from which he most prudently retreated — " Is
it your desire, gentlemen," said he, " that we should
become Churchmen, or Methodists, or Ranters, or
Quakers, or Shakers, or Calvinists, or Moravians, or
Independents, or Baptists, particular or general, or Lu-
therans, or Swedenborgians, or Zuinglians; or rather
would you have us rank ourselves among the followers
of John Knox or Socinus ; or perhaps what is still
better, among the admirers of Lady Joanna Southcote ?'
Your correspondent is only inferior to the Priests in
the point and spirit of his objections to the Reformation
Society. It is a matter of little consequence to prove
either of this writer, or of any other opponent,
that his principles are identical with those of
the Priests of Rome : but it is of importance to all
men who love the truth of the Gospel, to remark, in
reference to the Reformation Society, the effect which
it produces on the minds of such men. The Roman
Catholics cry out against it— the hollow nominal Pro-
testants, like your correspondent, (if he be one) endea-
vour to put it down. Why? Because, of all the So-
cieties in existence, this alone professes to drag forward
into day, the errors, and falsehoods, and superstitions
of the human mind, to make them subjects of public
discussion, and to bring thorn to the test of the word of
eternal truth — to maintain the principles of the Christian
faith — the authenticity and inspiration of the sacred
volume — its sufficiency to make man wise unto salva-
tion — the truths which it contains — the Trinity in
142
unity of the adorable Jehovah — the incarnation, mira-
cles, resurrection and ascension of the blessed Jesus —
the influences and operations of the Holy Spirit — the
guilt, apostacy, and condemnation of fallen man — and
still more than all, the great foundation of the sinner's
hope justification before God, by the finished righteous-
ness and atonement of a crucified Saviour, in opposition
to all the efforts, in every shape or form, of human
merits and inventions, and the necessity of moral
righteousness and holiness of life, not as the condition
of man's acceptance, but as the test of his character,
that he really depends for acceptance on his Redeemer.
These doctrines, alike more or less hateful to men who
are ignorant of the salvation of Christ, are necessarily
brought into discussion in exposing the errors of the
Church of Rome, especially that error on which all the
rest are built — that error, which is as fatal as all of
them besides to man's salvation — that error from which,
if a man is not converted, he rejects the Gospel, and
except he repents, must perish — namely, justification
IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY HUMAN MERIT. All men
naturally, of every denomination, and of every religion,
and of every sect, and of every superstition, hold this
fundamental error ; they are ready to unite against a
Society, which, if it be faithful to its principle of en-
deavouring to enlighten Roman Catholics, must trace
continually all their errors to this fountain, from which
they spring : hence the hostility to the Reformation
Society, " hinc illce lochrymce :" and when I see such
objections as your correspondent has made to it, it is
only throwing another Priest into the scale to give
1^3
weight to the reasons for its uncompromising exertions
and diligence in the prosecution of its objects. He
charges us with using language of an offensive nature
at our meetings, with calling men " idolaters" their
Priests " deceivers" and their church "the of
Babylon" — delicately reproving the Word of inspiration
for the impropriety of its expressions. But while epi-
thets merely calculated to offend, are confessedly to be
avoided, the admonition to the Reformation Society,
and the reproof of the inspired Apostle, hardly come
with decorum from a writer who compliments the whole
body of Roman Catholic Priests with a delicate quota-
tion from Horace, in which he compares them indivi-
dually to Priapus ! calls them " demagogues in canon-
icals" 1 — " uniting (he intemperance of the agitator with
the bitterest polemical bigotry" 1 — " well qualified to be
firebrands" — and by their" clumsy brutality, co-operat-
ing with the reformers!' I merely point this out as a
literary inconsistency. I can assure him, the Priests
are too well acquainted with their interest, to confound
the over-acted hostility of a friend with the rancour or
malevolence of an enemy. He attacks the meetings of
the Reformation Society thus — " As far as we have
had an opportunity of observing, these meetings are
alw T ays more calculated to exasperate the feelings than
to win the affections or inform the judgments of those,
for whose edification they are especially got up. and
who, when they do attend them, attend them more from
an idle curiosity, than any real anxiety on the subject
of their salvation."
144
This, fortunately, is a simple matter of fact accusa-
tion ; and I affirm in contradiction of it, that as far as
I have observed, it is perfectly unfounded. I have at-
tended three meetings at the Rotunda, at night, and in
the time of deepest political agitation, and 1 never saw-
in any congregation in a church, more deep attention
generally, than in the body of those persons who atten-
ded : and if, on any occasion, any person did attempt
to cause interruption, there appeared on the part of the
meeting a determination to put him immediately down.
But who has erected this writer into a judge of the
motives with which men attend these meetings? who
has made him competent to pronounce upon the princi-
ples which actuate Roman Catholics to come to them ?
even of the Athenians, whom idle curiosity drew to
hear the apostle, the Lord w T as pleased to enlighten
many ; and as to the truths which are calculated to " in-
form the judgments'' of men, the letter which he has
written on the subject, is a melancholy standard of his
competence to decide on them. I shall only now, Sir,
notice the propositions for an attempt to reform the Ro-
man Catholic religion which your correspondent makes.
He tells us that " until the fields are more white for
the harvest, truly enlightened Protestants will be con-
tent with converting Roman Catholics, according as it
pleases Providence to prepare them for conversion by
exciting within them yearnings after a more pure and
perfect way of righteousness, when they will be led to
adopt the genuine doctrines of the Gospel as something
corresponding to the newly awakened religious appetite
145
which they experience, and by which they will be
drawn, as it were instinctively, to the spiritual food most
healthful for their souls." This is, in plain language
that we are to sit down without an effort to enlighten
our Roman Catholic countrymen, till God is pleased to
excite them by his Spirit to seek instruction. It is true,
indeed, that all means are inadequate to awaken men
without the influence of Divine grace to give them
power : but it is as true, that it is only in the Scriptural
use of means, that the Divine blessing is to be expected.
And since to neglect God's appointed means of instruc-
tion, and say we should wait till He was pleased to
"excite yearnings" in us by His Spirit, w r ouid be a
criminal neglect of duty, and a fanatical tempting of
the Lord for ourselves : it is yet to be shown, how it is
not chargeable with the same guilt and folly, when we
propose to adopt such a system for our fellow sinners.
Your correspondent, himself, admits that this scheme
is untenable, by proposing that there should be stated
sermons preached in our churches : but every man ac-
quainted with the state of the country, is aware that
this experiment, except in some few instances, is hope-
less, because the very act of going into a church is in
itself a crime in the estimation of Roman Catholics.
He acknowledges that " many would feel a reluctance
to be seen at our places of worship; 1 ' and for the be-
nefit of these, he proposes the establishment of a stand-
ing committee in every diocese, of learned and skilful
men, who might resolve any questions that Roman Ca-
tholics chose to propose to them. He says, " let it be
publicly known that such a body exists for such a pur-
o
146
pose, and we stake our credit upon it, numerous appli-
cations would be made :" and he adds, " we cannot
contemplate such a process going on for a series of
years, without the most gratifying anticipations."
If this be a scriptural and apostolie mode of pro-
ceeding in enlightening our fellow sinners ; or if the
history of the Christian Church, supplies a proof that it
was ever attempted, and attended with the blessing of
God, let us adopt it • but one must imagine the apos-
tles presenting their compliments to the Heathens
around them, or to the churches who had fallen into
errors or apostacy, that they had formed themselves into
a committee, and were ready " to give appropriate an-
swers to all such questions as might be proposed to
them by serious inquirers !" before we can consider
such a proposition as any thing else, but a thoughtless
mode of trifling with God's appointed means for the
conversion of sinners. If the college of Jesuits wish-
ed to propose some scheme to lull us into a false secu-
rity, and blind us with the delusive idea that we were
doing something, when in fact we should be doing
worse than nothing, they could hardly hit on a more
proper expedient. Your correspondent tells us indeed,
" 7/ would be slow, but sure — it ivouldbe Jishing with
a line, rather than a net." By his own admission then,
his system savours little indeed of that " kingdom of
heaven," which its Divine Sovereign compares to " a
net cast into the sea :" it is not such fishermen as
these we want in Ireland ; such sporting with eternal
truth, is ill suited indeed to the circumstances of this
147
unfortunate country ; nor can we wonder it continues
to this day depressed under such a yoke of superstition,
when a professed regard for that church, which is the
" pillar and the ground of truth" in our land, can be
unblushingly identified with such futile and abortive
schemes for its deliverance. But in truth, Sir, it too
plainly appears, that a knowledge either of the nature
or necessity of true religion, does not give birth to such
plans which are utterly incompatible with a sense of its
importance; and your correspondent evinces, throughout
the whole of his letter, both a total ignorance of the
nature of the Roman Catholic religion as destructive of
man's salvation ; and of the value of the word of God
in conflicting with the powers of darkness ; he seems
to consider that religion but a sort of temporal evil,
which is not to be indebted to the word of God, but to
an improved system of civil and political economy for
its amelioration; he says, " We do not so much rely on
improving their condition by banishing Popery, as on
banishing Popery by improving their condition ; and
this in the first instance by increased vigour in the ex-
ecution of the laws, and then by such measures, as may
tend gradually to put the relation between landlord and
tenant, on the same footing that subsists in England?
giving the latter an interest in the improvement of the
ground, and the former an interest in the improvement
of the people. The wretched drudge, who is assailed,
by the cries of a starving family, and only too happy,
when by working from sunrise to sunset, he can earn
for them and for himself a scanty meal of potatoes, has
no leisure for abstract considerations ; let him, hove-
148
ever, be set somewhat at his ease, and surrounded by
the humble comforts to which every subject of the Bri-
tish government should feel himself entitled by honest
industry to aspire, and some traits of rational refec-
tion may be expected." Here we perceive the means
on which this writer really w relies" for banishing Po-
pery. Attention to the word of God — inquiry into the
will and truth of God — the salvation of their own im-
mortal souls are " abstract considerations," for which
the poor have " no leisure ;" but the execution of the
laws, and a specific improvement in their temporal con-
dition, these are to lead to those " traits of rational
reflection" in which we are taught to suppose the
banishment of Popery consists.
It is painful to see the very excuses which the most
ignorant, the most bigoted, or the most wicked of
the lower orders of Irish would make for refusing to
profit by instruction, namely — that they have not time
on account of their poverty — gravely put forth in a
literary production of considerable respectability, with
the hope of impeding every effort to enlighten them ;
the writer forgets, that, in the midst of all their poverty
and distress, they have leisure to aggravate these, by
devoting many of their days of labour, in idleness, to
their saints ; leisure to go to confessions — leisure to go
on pilgrimages — leisure to go to masses — leisure for
penances, and that they appropriate part of their mis-
erable earnings to their priests, as a means of making
atonement for their sins, and purchasing aids to their
salvation : and any man who looks upon the wretched
149
state of Ireland may well calculate the value placed
upon religion, by a writer who would defer instructing
its population in the Gospel of Christ, till they were
11 somewhat at their ease, and surrounded by the hum-
ble comforts to which every subject of the British go-
vernment should feel himself entitled by honest industry
to aspire" Alas, poor unhappy Ireland ! were she
consigned to such speculators as these, her prospects
were alike gloomy in time and in eternity.
I have done with my remarks on the letter of your
correspondent, I shall only observe on this and all si-
milar productions, that before their authors send them
forth to obstruct the labours of their fellow men, it
were well if they would consider how they shall an-
swer for them at the tribunal of their God— for you>
Mr. Editor, if I have gained your own attention to the
important subjects discussed in these letters, I trust the
effect may be exhibited in the future tenor of your
publication, as far as you treat of theological subjects ;
and that before you send forth another lucubration
against the Reformation Society, which, like this one,
as you tell us, has been narrowly rescued from the
flames, you will at least be more competent to decide,
whether or not it has been worthy of preservation.
Let me recommend you to study the word of your Crea-
tor. You profess to be a strenuous supporter of the Es-
tablished Religion — let meadvise you to examine the prin-
ciples of the religion you profess to support — that you
may not put forth as you have now done, the doctrines
of the Roman Catholic controversialists of the day, even
150
on the very Word of God, as principles of the Protes-
tant Church. But there is a higher and a more import-
ant consideration for you to attend to — your own im-
mortal soul. Your " nodes ambrosiansc^ shall soon
come to a close — " the tongue that has set the table in a
roar''' shall soon be silent in its grave —a morning shall
dawn upon those "nights," when you shall stand before
the judgment-seat of Christ — that tongue shall then
be called to an account for every idle w T ord that it has
spoken. Where shall be the fame, the talent, the
profits of all your literary labour, if your soul shall
stand before that bar, unwashed in the atoning
blood, and unclothed in the righteousness of the Lord,
the Saviour of sinners ? I trust, you may be led to give
to this important subject, all that attention which you
shall wish to have bestowed on it in that day, and that
you and your correspondent may know the value
of that sacred truth, the progress of which, as author
and editor, you have attempted to impede-
As an unworthy minister of this truth, 1 desire to
subscribe myself, your faithful friend and servant,
R. M'G.
August 28M, 1829.
REFLECTIONS
SOLEMN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
IN REFERENCE TO THE
CHURCH OF ROME.
Jampridem equidem nos vera rerum vocabula araisimus.
Sallust.
JOHN HATCHARD& SON, PICCADILLY, LONDON;
RICHARD MOORE TIMS, DUBLIN ; MESSRS.
WAUGH cfe INNES, EDINBURGH.
M.DCCC.XXX.
REFLECTIONS, &c.
Perhaps there never was a time when it was more
difficult to write on any point, in which either the tem-
poral or spiritual interests of the Established Church
are involved, than the present. A great and growing
body in the empire, growing in numbers, and increasing
in presumption, ranged under the banners of supersti-
tion, of infidelity, and of a combined religious and po-
litical dissent, hostile to its principles, jealous of its pos-
sessions, and enemies to its existence, labour incessantly
and now with a more open avowal of their intention,
for its complete subversion; a vast multitude who no-
minally belong to it, and who profess an earnest anxiety
for its preservation, but who have contributed to demo-
lish those barriers of British law by which it was insu-
lated and protected, have facilitated those attacks which
they are totally incompetent to repel, and evinced in
too many instances, that, except as a mere engine of
the State, they are incapable of appreciating or under-
standing its real value ; some persons, and not few in
number, with more religious zeal than common sense,
imagine that they exhibit but a proper fervour and
154
purity of principle, in endeavouring to detect and ex-
pose every real or imaginary evil in the Church, thereby
affording a handle to its enemies, and weakening the
hands of its friends ; forgetting that purity and perfec-
tion in any human institution is more a creature of the
imagination, of Utopian folly, than a reality that in the
present condition of man, either has been, or can be,
exhibited upon earth, — this is the state of things more
immediately referring to the temporal concerns of the
Church. And with regard to its spiritual interests, there
are too many within its pale, and who consider them-
selves too its zealous defenders, because they are op-
posed in a temporal, and, in some degree, in a religious
sense, to the evils which I have mentioned, who are so
ignorant of the very fundamental principles of our reli-
gion, that they consider the assertion of them as tanta-
mount to dissenting from the Church, because it is
dissenting from their own opinions. To this class be-
long all persons who hold that unchristian root of all
Romish superstition, and of all infidel apostacy from
God, Justification before God in whole or in part by
the merit of marts works, (of which I shall have occa-
sion to say more hereafter,) while the spiritual igno-
rance, and indolence, and apathy, necessarily connected
with this fundamental error, that prevails, and has so
long prevailed, among us, has permitted superstition and
infidelity to increase to such gigantic stature,, and power,
and influence, in our land, that we stand aghast at the
strides which they are making to attack, and the men-
acing aspect with which they threaten to overwhelm
us. In such a state of things, it is impossibie to write
155
with truth and plainness without offending many whom
it is painful to offend ; and in venturing to offer some
reflections on the cause of these evils, which arc neither
to be found in unions of parishes, nor disproportion of
clerical incomes, poverty of curates, or riches of bishops ;
I can only say, I desire to write with a single eye to
the salvation of men, and the glory of God, in the main-
tenance of that Church which I consider the greatest
blessing which the British nation has to boast of; and,
while I neither desire to please or to offend, I trust I
care not, in the assertion of important and eternal truth,
who is pleased, or who is offended. I shall feel happy
if even, though unable to produce an impression royself y
I should call forth some more competent to arouse the
members of the Established Church to a sense of their
duty, and guilt, and danger, as it respects their conduct
to the Church of Rome : their guilt in permitting a su-
perstition so derogatory to the character, the attributes,
and the revelation of Jehovah — so pregnant with per-
dition to the souls of men — so destructive of all the
moral principles, and social blessings, and everlasting
hopes and consolations of true religion — to grow and
strengthen in the land, without an effort to enlighten,
to reform, and to save those millions who are bound
beneath its iron yoke; and their danger, not from the
threats or power of man, for " if God were for us, who
could be against us ?" but from the just displeasure of
an offended and neglected God, who, when the bles-
sings and privileges which He has bestowed on us, and
the powers with which He has invested us, are neither
used for his divine glory and honour, nor for the tern-
156
poral and eternal happiness of our fellow-creatures,
will, it is justly to be feared, return our wickedness
upon our own head, and cause, by the very righteous
operation of a holy and retributive justice, that the very
beings to whom, with such spiritual advantages and
temporal privileges, we have so criminally neglected to
impart the blessings of our religion, should be the in-
struments with which our spiritual guilt and apathy
should be chastised, and the temporal privileges of that
religion rent from us, and trodden under foot for ever.
What are the spiritual advantages and temporal privi-
leges of the Established Church of this empire? Is
it nothing to have the pure and holy principles of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ embodied summarily
into Articles of faith, which her ministers are bound, by
the most solemn obligations, to profess and teach ; into
Homilies, according to which they are equally bound
to instruct ; into a holy form of spiritual devotion, in
which the nation is invited to unite — in which all the
necessities of man are brought to the footstool of the
grace and mercy of the Lord — in which prayer, and
praise, and instruction from the pure and only fountain
of eternal truth, are blended in beautiful proportion,
and harmony, and order ? Is it nothing to have tem-
ples erected, though alas ! too few, through our country,
where this established form of truth is every Sabbath
day set forth — where the warning bell addresses and
invites the dying sons of earth, around the hills and
vallies of the land, to "Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy," and to come and listen to the word of
15
eternal life — to hear that while they are guilty and mi-
serable sinners before God, there is a hope by which
they may " rejoice in the strength of their salvation" —
that " When Jesus had overcome the sharpness of
death, he opened the kingdom of heaven to all be-
lievers' — that while they have cause to bless the Lord
"for their creation, preservation, and all the blessings
of this life, yet, above all, for his inestimable love in
the redemption of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ
for the means of grace and for the hope of glory?" —
Is it nothing, that, while by all the means which human
wisdom could devise, to supply the nation with instruc-
tors, who should " guide their feet into the way of
peace" — affording a field for the zeal, and the doctrines,
and the labours of an apostle, if he were a minister or
a bishop within her pale ; the Church of England has
provided, and placed beyond the power of the worst
and most ignorant pastor, who could climb into her fold,
a system of public ordinances and instruction from the
pages of eternal truth, and opened a channel to pre-
serve the waters of life in the land, which even the
hireling shepherd could not poison nor shut up from the
flock ? Is it nothing that the Church holds up the Bible
as the only basis of her faith, and invites all her follow-
ers, and all the world, to prove, that she is " built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself bein^ the chief corner stone?" Is it nothing
that the laws of a nation — and that the greatest nation
in the civilized world — should have identified with their
existence, and incorporated into the essence of their
constitution, the pure and undefiled religion of the Lord
p
158
Jesus Christ in an Established Church, which, amidst
all the sins, and ignorances, and vices of men, maintains,
unchanged and uncorrupted, the doctrines of the Word
of God for her principles, and the precepts of that Word
for her morals ; and which stands like the Word itself
on which, she is founded, a solemn and portentous wit-
ness against those, whether Ministers or people, who
belong to her, and who live in ignorance or contempt 0£
the doctrines, or in violation of the morals which they
profess? If these are blessings, great and incalculable
as the interests of eternity for ourselves; is it nothing in
addition, most especially for the bishops and ministers
of our Church, to be so secured, so enriched, so honoured,
so dignified in the enjoyment of them, that whatever
the influence of all these outward circumstances can
afford to man, in blessing him with the capability of
communicating the truths of the everlasting Gospel, to
those who are in darkness and the shadow of death, is
bestowed and accumulated on them beyond all that
ever has been enjoyed by men upon this earth? The
records of Ecclesiastical History present no trace of any
Church in any nation, which united at the same time
such scriptural truth and purity in the doctrines, morals,
and ordinances of her principles, her precepts, her
liturgy, and the whole theory of her government, with
such legitimate stability, such literary celebrity, such
aggrandized property, and such influential authoritative
dignity as the Established Church of England. Nor
are those to be listened to for a moment, who presume
to call these outward privileges, and riches, and immu-
nities, and honours, unsuitable to the character of a
159
Christian Church. Shall all that man can command,
and all that he can attain, of intellect, and influence,
and authority, and wealth, and power, be squandered
in the service of the perishing trifles of an hour ? Shall
all the outward means by which he can express his re-
verence for what is good — his respect for what is great
— his love for what is holy — and his desire to diffuse,
and to communicate to others, the feelings and in-
fluences with which he is himself impressed, for all that
is to be revered, respected, and beloved — shall these
be all absorbed in support of those earthly institutions,
which, however important and excellent, are still com-
paratively contemptible and insignificant; while the mi-
nisters, the ordinances, the services, and the worship of
the holy and eternal God, are to be stripped and de-
nuded of them all, to please the taste of those, who
pretend to tell us of the poverty and humility, that is
suitable to the spirit of the Christian Church ? It is
not from a respect for the purity of religion that such
principles originate, but from a contempt and enmity
against it. It is not from a wish to dignify and purify
the services of Jehovah, but from a sacrilegious desire to
plunder the temple of the Lord and to dedicate the
spoil to the service of the Devil — to desecrate the ves-
sels of the house of God by appropriating them to the
revellings of profanity and guilt. And if there are in-
dividuals who abuse the privileges with which they are
entrusted ; and if that abuse were more general, more
universal than the greatest enemy of the established
religion could venture to assert — nay, if all the property
of the Church at this moment, were squandered in pro-
160
.fligacy and vice, — whatever field for animadversion this
would open, as to the persons w T ho were guilty of the
crime, it would not touch the principle — that it is the
duty, the privilege, the dignity of a nation, of a govern-
ment, that professes to be called Christian,, to provide
for the maintenance, the honour, the influence, the ag-
grandizement of her religion — that all the facilities and
powers with which it can he endowed and invested by
every human means, may be superadded for the security
of its establishment, for the preservation of that reve-
rence which is due to it— for the dissemination of its-
principles, the proclamation of its doctrines, and the in-
culcation of its morals — and that whatever blessings of
prosperity, it may please the God of providence to pour
upon the nation ; she should evince her sense of grati-
tude to the hand from which she receives them, by a
liberal appropriation for the services of that religion ;
which is to disseminate the word, to proclaim the gos-
pel, to assert the laws and ordinances, and to promote
the glory of her heavenly benefactor. These spiritual
privileges, these temporal advantages, and more than I
could enumerate, are bestowed by God upon the Church
of England— and now the question presents itself: —
Has God granted us these blessings, these inestimable
blessings, for our ease or for his own glory ? If it is for
our ease, then let us take it, and " eat, and drink, and be
merry ;" and let us say to our souls, we have " goods
laid up for many years." But if God has granted us
these great national blessings for his glory, let any man
who calls himself a Christian, ask, is the glory of God
161
promoted in this land ? and whether is it more promo-
ted among that vast majority whom we denounce as
superstitious and idolatrous ; or among those, who, with
a religion founded on the truth of God, are content to
let them quietly remain so, without a single effort to
enlighten, to improve, to reform them ?
We are ready enough to extol our Church ; and
when we look to the principles of that Church, they
cannot be too highly extolled ; but every word we
utter in the praise of our religion, falls back upon the
heads of those who profess it. Where had been the
religion of the Church of England, if the Reformers had
been like those who are their degenerate successors ? —
They opposed the errors of that awful superstition
when our kings, when our queens, when all that were
high in office professed it — when all the existing autho-
rities in Church and State, were armed with all the
powers of persecution, with which the law could invest
them ; and they opposed it, not with carnal weapons,
but with weapons drawn from the armoury of God,
and mighty to the pulling down of the strong holds of
Satan in our land — they opposed it even to the death.
We, with every existing authority, and every power
in Church and State, and all that government and law,
and every increased and superadded capability of dif-
fusing knowledge, and communicating instruction can
afford us ; have allowed it to grow and strengthen and
increase around us : it is building its temples, it is in-
creasing its votaries, it is vindicating its superstitions, it
is paraliaing all the powers of instruction and education
162
in our country ; it is openly telling us in the face of law,
and truth, and reason, and liberty of conscience, and all
that men have hitherto held sacred and inviolable as the-
chartered rights of British subjects, and of British
Christians;, that our population shall not be instructed
in the laws of <God — that His word shall be shut out
from the mind of our country — that his salvation shall
not be made known to our benighted countrymen; but
that they shall live and die in the superstitions, which
oppress, impoverish, degrade, and destroy them in time-
and eternity; and we indeed sit still, telling the world
of the excellence of our religion, and tamely permitting
all this to pass, not only unopposed, but scarcely
noticed around us. When it is proposed to awaken
us from our lethargy, to bring before the people the
wrongs they are enduring, the spiritual oppressions they
undergo, to call their teachers to a bold, and faithful*
and open discussion of their errors in the presence of
the people ; to avail ourselves of the privileges, the op-
portunities, the blessings which the protection of our
laws, the genius of our Constitution, the spirit of public
discussion, the freedom of the Press afford us — indeed,
" it is neither prudent nor proper" — nay, it is very "fa-
natical and enthusiastic," to attempt the Reformation
of Roman Catholics ! When our temporal concerns are
endangered — when our political existence as a national
Church is threatened — when Roman Catholics are to.
get power that may trench on our security — when there
is no fear of irritating or provoking Roman Catholics :
then we start up, then we arc all life, and energy, and
vigour— then the Church is all excellence, and Popery
163
is all iniquity — we can assemble, we can debate, we
can discuss, we can denounce, we can subscribe, we can
petition, we can demand, we can do any thing. But
when the glory, the honour, the pure and spiritual
worship of the God of all our blessings and our mercies,
is the point in question ; and when the salvation of the
immortal souls of the vast majority of these our poor
unhappy countrymen, whom we will proclaim as
idolaters to all Europe, is at stake ; then there is not a
man to appear, there is not a meeting to be held, there
is not a point to be discussed — then the Roman Catho-
lics are not to be offended — then we are not to be un-
charitable — there is not a guinea to be given — then
every man who moves, is a zealot and a fanatic, and a
promoter of tumults, and a disturber of the peace and
quiet of the country!! Are tumults, and dangers, and
deaths, to be braved, when the political interests of re-
ligion are at stake ; and all exertion to be deprecated
when the salvation of man, when the spiritual charac-
ter of our Church, when all that can make her worthy
of the national pre-eminence which her God has con-
ferred on her is the matter at issue ? What is it, in the
just and spiritual view of the question, which ought to
make any religion worthy to be set up by a Christian
government as the established religion of the nation I
Is it not that her doctrines, her principles, her confes-
sions, should be purely scriptural and holy — her forms
of worship, her government, her discipline, modelled, as
far as human wisdom can effect, according to the word
and will of her Creator? When it is asked, is this the
case of the Established religion of this country ? w«
164
answer — we believe it to be more so, than of any that
ever has appeared as a national religion on the face of
the earth. If then this is the case — if the laws demand
that it should be supported and maintained by the nation ;
and that, for the national benefit, for the national hap-
piness, for the temporal and eternal welfare of men, and
for the glory of God — is it fit that the vast majority of
those, at least in this part of the empire, who profess
a system of superstition the most awful in the world,
should be left by us in blind and total ignorance of any
blessings, any advantages, that the national religion
which they are called on by the laws to support, pos-
sesses over that superstition in which they are edu-
cated by their priests ? They tell the poor deluded
people, that the religion of the Established Church is
heresy and falsehood. What efforts have been made
to disabuse the minds of that people, and to prove to
them the heresy and falsehood of their own ? What is
the plain and simple state of the case ? After various
national miseries, disasters, convulsions, and revolu-
tions ; a religion has been given to us, through the
great and infinite mercy of God, as the established
religion of this land, which derives its very name
from solemnly protesting against the awful apostacy
and superstition of the Church of Rome — a reli-
gion, which secures to us the possession of all that
is to be valued by us as men, as freemen, and as.
Christians. To give to it stability, it is founded on the-
holy Word of the Eternal God — to afford it security,,
it is incorporated with the laws and constitution of the
country— to invest it with authority, it is endowed
165
with honour, and dignity, and wealth — and to give it
opportunities of usefulness, the whole kingdom is par-
celled out under the superintendence of its Dignitaries,
and under the instruction of its Ministers, and each
individual is made tributary to their support, that they,
in return, may be instrumental to ir's temporal and
everlasting happiness.
Now, what has been the conduct of us Protestants?
We have not only been accustomed to denounce the
Antichristian errors of the Church of Rome in various
formularies and articles of our religion — not only have
all our Bishops and Ministers solemnly vowed to " be
ready with all fuithful diligence to banish and drive
away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to
God's Word ;" but as we considered the awful prin-
ciples of Rome, not only subversive of man's ever-
lasting happiness, but utterly incompatible with the
preservation of those political, moral, and social privi-
leges and blessings, which our own religion secured to
us ; we have been accustomed in the most solemn
manner as a nation, by our legislators, by our lords
spiritual and temporal, by all the persons who represent-
ed the people of the land, by all those whom we have
been taught to consider great, and venerable, and sacred,
in rank, in character, and office — before they could bo
individually qualified to enact one law, or perform one
legislative or judicial act in our realm, we have been
accustomed to denounce, in the face of all Europe, the
Roman Catholic religion as idolatrous and superstitious.
} do not touch on the politics of this question : I speak
166
of it in a moral and religious point of view ; and 1
simply ask, have all these venerable characters in the
nation — has the British nation, by these, its highest,
most venerable, most dignified, most sacred authorities
— been thus, in the face of Europe, proclaiming a truth,
or proclaiming a falsehood ? They, and the nation have
done one or the other; and that, in all the "pomp and
circumstance" in which the first and greatest nation in
the world could perform the most solemn act of quali-
fying its legislators for the enactment of its laws. If
they have been proclaiming a falsehood in the face of
Europe— if they have been falsely charging so many
millions of British subjects, with the guilt of idolatry
and superstition — then, what a shame, w T hat a blot,
what a brand of moral and political turpitude, has such
conduct stamped upon the laws of Britain ! The late
repeal of those laws, instead of being wrung by a po-
pular wrestle from the reluctant grasp of the majority
of the nation, ought to have been carried by England,
with her Monarch at her head, and laid, with tears of
repentance and contrition, at the feet of the Pope of
Rome. But if, on the contrary, the laws of England
have enacted what was just and true — if these the
highest officers and the most august authorities, the
most sacred functionaries within her realm, have been
proclaiming a truth — a truth which is ratified by every
formulary of her Church — a truth which is established
by the holy Word of her Creator — when they have
denounced the millions of her subjects as idolatrous and
superstitious— then, when we ask, what has England
done for these victims of idolatry, what has England
167
done for these votaries of superstition ? and when the
facts cry out from every corner of the land, nothing —
when all the guilt and misery of Ireland echoes from
every rock around her shore the answer, nothing;
then, I say, if the falsehood of such a denunciation
were a hlot upon her laws, the truth of it stamps a
tenfold blot on her religion : not, indeed, on the prin-
ciples of our Church, for they are pure, and just, and
holy ; but on the degeneracy of those who call them-
selves by her name. We have solemnly proclaimed
them idolaters — we have done more : we have visited
on them the penalties of their idolatry ; but we have
done nothing to reform them from that idolatry. We
have been peremptory in the infliction of the penalty,
but we have been utterly regardless of the conse-
quences attendant on the crime — we have been cla-
morous in calling for the continuation of that penalty,
because we felt that its removal would endanger our
own temporal interests, but we have tacitly acquiesced
in the continuance, the prevalence, the increase, the
accumulation of that guilt, which has been fatal alike
to the everlasting interests of our fellow- creatures, and
derogatory, nay, insulting to the honour, the majesty,
the glory of our God.
We have not thought it a necessary part of our law
to denounce the idolatries and superstitions of the wor-
shippers of Juggernaut; but we have sent over a
Bishop, and appointed an Episcopal Church at Hin-
dostan, who feel missionary labours to be a part of
their duty. We have not considered it necessary to de-
168
nou nee the various idolatries and superstitions which
the atrocity of the slave trade has imported from the
ill-fated shores of Africa; yet we have established a
Society for Missions to our Western possessions. We
have denounced the superstitions and idolatries of more
than six millions of our fellow-subjects, our countrymen,
our neighbours — we have a religion established by
law, the best, the purest, the holiest in its theory, that
ever blessed a nation — with all the security that the
laws and that the power of Britain could afford it —
with all the influence and all the weight that rank and
wealth, and talent, and learning could invest it — with
all the opportunities that could be afforded to our
Ministers from collision with those very idolaters, from
the labours of whose hands and the sweat of whose
brows they have derived the very necessaries of their
existence; but one faithful, honest effort of Christian
fidelity, and Christian zeal, and Christian love, we have
never made to awaken, to enlighten, or to save them.
The law of the land has obliged them to contribute to
the support of our religion; but neither the laws of
man, (and our Church is not deficient in her care upon
that subject.) nor the laws of God, have been able to
stir us up to one honest, faithful effort of Christian
charity, and Christian truth, to shed one ray of light
upon the darkness and the superstition which has en-
veloped and degraded them.
Let mo put a case to the conscience of every man
who professes to call himself a member of the Church
of England, and who desires to refer her welfare and
169
her prosperity to the only source to which a real Chris-
tian can refer it, viz. the favor, the mercy, and the
protection of her God. Let me suppose the Church
of England transplanted, exactly as she is constituted at
this moment, to the shores of Hindostan — that a tract
of country around Calcutta, equal to the kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, was allotted for the sphere
of her labours — and that her revenues were drawn from
that country, exactly as they arc from this. Let me
suppose that the votaries of Hindoo superstition, and
the dwellings of both people and Brahmins, were mixed
among the members of our church, exactly in the same
proportion, as to number and abodes, that the Roman
Catholics and their priests are mingled with the Protes-
tants of Ireland. Now let me imagine that this had
been the case for centuries ; that we had been enjoying
all the blessings and privileges, with which we have
been surrounded in these favoured islands; and that we
had maintained the privilege of legislating entirely for
ourselves, bearing a public testimony as we have done,
in the senate, and the Church of England, against the
awful superstitions and idolatries of those by whom we
were surrounded.
Now, let me suppose that all this time, while we
were triumphing in the conscious superiority of our
Christianity, we were permitting our poor fellow-
creatures to live and die around us in all the guilt and
wretchedness of their superstitions — that we listened
with indifference to the plash of the victim in the
Ganges — that we viewed with unconcern the smoke
Q
170
of the Suttee — that we visited as a curiosity the temple
of the Hindoo Idol, and saw the devotee expire be-
neath the wheels of his car — that we passed, as a
trifling occurrence, the relics of the departed pilgrim,
and saw, without a sigh, the vulture feeding on his
corpse — if, at the end of centuries, the question had
been asked, " What efforts the Church had made to
awaken, to enlighten, to reform these poor idolaters — to
arrest the progress of their superstitions — what effort to
instruct them in the genuine religion and morality of
the Divine revelation ?" and that the only answer which
the fact supplied was — none. Nay, if the same un-
doubted testimony, the stubborn fact, evinced that the
number of these idolaters was increasing around us in
a direct ratio of the increase of their population — that
their temples were erecting side by side of our own —
that many of our greatest men were contributing to
their erection ; and not only so, but that, for some state
policy, we had actually, as a Christian Government,
provided and maintained a college for the education of
their Brahmins, and thus become accessaries and par-
takers in the guilt of their superstitions— that these
superstitions were not only professed, but vindicated,
and maintained in our public Journals, dividing the
press of the empire with ourselves. And now, if the
increase of numbers, wealth, and influence, and talent,
had raised these idolaters so much in the scale of im-
portance in the nation, that it was considered neces-
sary to its security, that they should be admitted to
participate in the administration of its political con-
cerns, and of those of our own very Church ; with
171
what face could we object on the score of the superi-
ority of our religion — with what face express any
very anxious apprehensions for its security, or any
very ardent aspirations for its preservation ? Why
start up at this juncture, in all the fervor of religious
zeal and political trepidation, to pour contempt on
their religion, and to exhaust all language in eulogiz-
ing our own ? If theirs had been so monstrous, why
no attempt for its extermination ? If our own so
excellent, who no attempt for its diffusion ? Why use
such strength of language, such energy of passion, in
deprecating superstitions and idolatries, which we had
not only, not endeavoured to enlighten and dispel, but
which we had encouraged and diffused, by affording
the means and facilities for the education of their
Brahmins, and the propagation of their principles ?
Could we vindicate our consistency at the tribunal of
human judgment, or could we venture to expect the
care and the protection of our God ? I ask, in such
circumstances, is there one man in the nation who
would have the presumption to say that the members
of such a Church, who had acted so criminally, who
had so apostatized from all the obligations of a body
professing the pure and holy religion of the Lord Jesus
Christ, could lift up their head and look for or expect
the protection of that God, whose truth, whose Word,
whose glory, and whose kingdom we had surrendered,
without an effort, to the dominion of the Prince of
Darkness !
I turn from the shores of Hindostan, and cast my
172
eyes on the superstitions of the Church of Rome in
this unhappy country— I turn to the members of the
Established Church, who are content to let them o-o on,
and who have been content to do so, without one effort
to enlighten and reform them — I turn to that Pro-
testant Government, which, from a policy unworthy
the name of a nation, whose Government was incorpo-
rated with a Church like ours, has been patronizing,
fostering, and educating the Priests of that supersti-
tion ; and I say to them all —
" Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur."
We have not seen, indeed, the life of man sacrificed
in idolatry ; but we have seen the truth and worship
of Jehovah, as much dishonoured, and the human in-
tellect as much debased, as in any system of supersti-
tion, upon earth. We have not seen a number of
wretched heathens going to worship on the banks of
the Ganges, but we have seen millions of men, of our
countrymen, going to worship at welts and lakes, with
absurdities equally unchristian, and only suited to Pagan
superstitions. We have denounced them as supersti-
tious and idolatrous, but we have made no effort to
reform them. We have not seen the public procession,
of millions bowing down before the shrine of an idol
of w T ood ; but we have seen a man, a worm of the
dust, pretend that he could make — not an idol of wood,
but that he could embody in a bit of paste the "whole
body, blood, soul, and divinity," of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of the Creator of the heavens and earth — that God whom
we profess to adore as our Redeemer and our Judge —
173
that he could shut Him up — and hold Him in his hand
in a box — lift Him up — and proclaim Him to be Jesus
Christ, before the millions of our nation, who bow and
fall prostrate on the earth before this idol. We have
seen this in our country — we have seen it in places of
worship erected, and erecting more and more, in pomp
and magnificence around us — We have seen it in the
public ways — in the streets of our towns — in the very
face of day we have seen this — We have denounced
the people as idolatrous and superstitious — we have
inflicted on them the penalty of that idolatry and su-
perstition, but we have done nothing to reform them !
Nay, we have done what we could to establish and
confirm them — we have enacted laws — we have con-
tributed money, to pay for the education of those, who
were to train up the people in this very idolatry and
superstition ; and if those who pay for the education
of men in sciences, and arts, and letters, are justly to
be admired as the patrons and protectors of that litera-
ture which they promote ; it remains for sophistry to
prove, that the members of the Church of England, in-
stead of being the enlighteners and reformers, are not
the patrons and promoters of idolatry and superstition.
Let this fact be just submitted to the wisdom, the
judgment, the common sense of any man who desires
to weigh the conduct of the members of the Protes-
tant Church, even in the highest department of the na-
tion, in the sober balance of religious principle, or even
of ordinary consistency. For many years we have
seen the gravest, wisest, and most exalted of the Bri-
q3
174
tish islands — the whole aristocracy of England, and
Ireland, and Scotland, and all the representatives of the
people in the British senate, standing forth before the
nation, to qualify themselves for the enactment of the
laws of England, by the most solemn denunciations
against the superstitions and idolatries of the Church
or Rome; yet, the very use which they have made of
this legislative authority, acquired by the denunciation
of these superstitions, is to enact laws, and to tax the
country, for the education and instruction of men, to
teach and propagate the superstitions which they de-
nounce! ! ! I challenge the history of Europe to produce
such a specimen of inconsistency in religion, and ano-
maly in legislation, as that which the Protestant religion
and the penal laws, contrasted with the establishment
of the College of Maynooth, present to the eye of the
statesman and the Christian. The laws enact, that the
Established Religion be supported by the property con-
ferred upon the Church ; and the laws enact, that men
shall be educated, who instil into the majority of the
people of Ireland, that that religion is a heresy, and
that all who belong to it, ipso facto, are accursed !
The laws impose taxes on the nation to promote the
education of the people; and the laws impose taxes
on the nation, to train up men who will not permit the
people to be educated ! ! The laws ordain, that the
nation should support a religion, whose object is to
diffuse the word of God among the people ; and the
laws ordain that the nation should educate a body of
men for the purpose of denying the word of God, and
preventing its diffusion ! ! ! I enter not into any view of
175
the question, except as it stands connected with the re-
ligion of the country. But " the Priests indeed should
be educated somewhere, and it was better to educate
them at home than aliroad ;" as if a man should argue
that rebels would certainly import their arms, or find
them somewhere ; and it were better at once to supply
them from the Tower. Surely, if ever the hand of a
retributive Providence were exhibited in the visitation
of their crime upon a country, it has been exhibited
against those who, with the pretext of protecting the
Protestant Church from the influence of Popery, have
multiplied the number, and patronised the education of
Priests, and thereby have aggravated, without one
counteracting effort to relieve, the religious, moral, and
political degradation of the Irish poor. Who are the
men that have by their determination, their religion*
zeal, worthy indeed of a better cause, constrained the
British Protestant government to renounce their pub-
lic denunciation of the superstition and idolatry of the
Roman Catholic religion, and to permit the Roman
Catholics to legislate for the Protestant Church ?
Who are they? The poor forty-shilling freeholders —
the Roman Catholics, whom that Protestant Church
has so criminally neglected ? Who are the men that
have instigated, impelled, and marshalled them in their
determination and their zeal ? The Roman Catholic
Priests, whom that Protestant government has so crimi-
nally educated. When we talk of the Protestant Church
being in danger, let us learn to examine, where the
cause of the danger lies — let us probe the wound — let u»
trace it to the bottom. If we have been dealing faith-
176
fully with the God of our mercies — if we have used
any of these innumerable blessings which He has
showered upon us for the promotion of his glory, and
the salvation of millions of our poor benighted coun-
trymen — If we have held up the truth of his ever-
lasting Gospel, as it is professed and embodied in the
principles of our religion, as the one and only beacon-
light of the immortal soul — if we have endeavoured to
set up that beacon, amidst the darkness of supersti-
tion and of infidelity in our nation— then let us not
fear, God will maintain our cause, and u if God be
for us, who can be against us?" But, if on the con-
trary, the innumerable blessings which we have receiv-
ed from God, have been used for our own security and
ease — If the spiritual glory of Jehovah in our church
has been forgotten, in the vain imagination of her tem-
poral greatness and stability— if the salvation of mil-
lions of our countrymen has been not only totally ne-
glected by us — but if, for our own ideal temporal pre-
servation, we have absolutely trained up men to destroy
their immortal souls, in that which we acknowledged
and proclaimed to be superstition and idolatry — men,
who not only brought them up in utter darkness, but
who availed themselves of all the power and influence
of that education which we have afforded them, to shut
all light and truth completely out from the mind of
our country — If, so far from having held up the truth
of the everlasting Gospel, that Gospel is a by- word
and a taunt among vast multitudes of those who pro-
fess to call themselves members of our Church ; and if
they are absolutely as ignorant upon the very founda-
177
tions of the hope of man's immortal soul, as those
whom they denounce as victims of superstition ; and if
superstition and infidelity * stalk abroad in the land,
pouring out their poison into all the channels of pub-
licity, unchecked by our laws, and unstopped by our
religion — if there has arisen such a total indifference to
truth and falsehood, that every superstition, and every
blasphemy is to be tolerated by the law of opinion under
the specious pretext of an infidel liberality : and if the
votaries both of superstition and infidelity can now
walk in without a bar, and give their counsel and de-
cision, on every point of legislation connected with the
religion which God has granted to us, as established in
the land — And if this has all accrued through our
guilty disregard of the principles and duties of that re-
ligion, in neglecting to proclaim, assert, maintain, and
vindicate the one exclusive only hope and refuge of the
everlasting Gospel — in opposition to all the refuges of
superstition, and all the audacious presumptions of infi-
delity — then, I say, that the effects and influence of
secondary causes, are all too contemptible as objects of
our apprehension for the established religion. It is not
the hosts of dissenters or infidels in England, nor the
millions of Roman Catholics in Ireland, whom we have
to fear ; no, nor any synod of laymen, who may take
upon themselves to sit in judgment on the Church ; no,
* At this very moment, Carlile is selling openly in his shop in
London, the very identical publications for which a few years ago
he was imprisoned ; and when I was in England last summer, he
and Taylor were holding public lectures by advertisement on infide-
lity, in Manchester, in Liverpool, and in other populous towns, with-
out one law to restrain, or one champion of Christianity lo oppose
them ! ! !
178
nor any parliamentary enquiries; it is the God of
judgment, and holiness, and faithfulness, and truth, the
living God, we have to fear. Let us beware, let us
fear, lest his address be gone forth against us, especially
against us, ministers, to whom the responsibility pe-
culiarly and awfully pertains. " And now, O ye
Priests, this commandment is for you : If ye will
not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give
glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will
even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your
blessings; yea, 1 have cursed them already, because ye
do not lay it to heart." Mai. ii. 2. We talk of Bri-
tain, and the British constitution, as security for our
established religion ! We talk of a bubble — the breath
of a few fellow-worms could demolish that venerable
fabric in a nighty if God were pleased to withdraw the
protection of his mercy from us. I think and feel as her
minister for the Established Church, and as one who
yields to none within her pale, in a cordial and faithful
attachment to her principles, her forms, her government,
and all the pure and scriptural basis on which I know
she is founded; and as far as human observation can go,
whether we look at the spreading of infidelity, the in-
creasing influence of Popery, the paralysing power of
liberality, which verges in varied degrees to either of
these extremes ; and, worse than all, at the awful igno-
rance, and contempt, and opposition, to the truth of the
Gospel, in vast multitudes of those who profess to be-
long to our Church ; she seems indeed in danger, not
perhaps for a few short years, but in proportion as the
system of general undermining, which now is rapidly
179
going on, advances to the point when defence will be
impracticable, and the ruin will burst even under our
very feet. It seems to me, therefore, of great import-
ance, to call the attention of any who take an interest
in the welfare of our established religion, to consider
what chiefly tends to this lamentable apathy on the
subject of Popery in this country, and to the progres-
sive ruin of our venerable Established Church ; and I
do not fear to assert, that it arises from an awful ne-
glect of the very vital principles of the Christian faith ;
from an ignorance of the fundamental falsehood of
that superstition, and from an ignorance of the funda-
mental truth by which our own religion is distinguished
from that of Rome. The truth is, that with the name
of Protestants, we have lapsed into an accordance with
the fundamental principle of Popery ; a vast body of
those who call themselves members of our Church,
are in principle, though not in form, agreed with the
members of the Church of Rome. This is a point, on
which it is of deep importance to be distinct and expli-
cit, and it is my earnest desire to be so.
I believe it will be granted that if a man is so igno-
rant of divine truth, as to be unable to answer this
question, " Hoiv does the Bible teach that the soul of
man is to be saved?" he must be in a state of lament-
able ignorance indeed, on the very foundations of re-
ligion ; so that it matters little by what name he is
called. Now [ assert, without fear of refutation, that
the vast body of Protestants are just as ignorant as
Roman Catholics upon that subject, and just as incom-
180
potent to give a Scriptural answer to that question :
and if any man who denies the fact, shall give his own
answer to the question, he will abundantly confirm it
in the ignorance which he exhibits. Ask a Protestant
(would to God it were confined to the ignorant and
unlettered alone, perhaps the majority of exceptions
might be found among them) how his soul is to be
saved ? he will tell you, that " if lie strives to do
his duty, he hopes that God will accept his endeavours
and that he will be saved through Jesus Christ" I
give one of the most favourable answers which any
man who enquires and listens will hear. Ask a Roman
Catholic the same question, the answer is precisely of
the same tendency. If you enter into a detail of
what this duty is, which they are to do ; and what those
endeavours are which God will accept, a difference as to
the authorities, ordinances, and worship of their respec-
tive religions will appear : they differ as to the nature
of the works to be performed; but it is in the perfor-
mance of works they hope for their salvation ; allow-
ing, however, that these works can be accepted only
through the merits of Jesus Christ. Here is the funda-
mental falsehood of that religion which they call the
religion of Christ — they consider that man is to be
saved in ichole or in part by his ivorks, his duties, mo-
ralities, alms, religious observances, or something in
short which he is to do for himself ; that his sins are
to be taken away, and that he is to be recommended
to the favour of God, by his contrition, his tears, his
fastings, his prayers, some evidences which he gives of
his goodness or intentions to amend his life, or some
181
practical amendment of his character : they consider
that the Lord Jesus Christ has introduced a sort of mild,
and mitigated dispensation ; in which the endeavours of
a sinner to save his soul, are, as they call it, mercifully
to be accepted through Jesus Christ; thus totally over-
turning the very foundations of the gospel of Christ;
which are laid in the guilt, the condemnation, the
sentence pronounced, and hanging over the head of
the sinner, and his utter inability by any effort, or
series of efforts, to save, to help to save, or to justify
his soul ; and that the unsearchable riches, and grace,
and mercy of his God, proclaim to him in this lost
condition, pardon as a guilty rebel, through the right-
eousness and atonement of his Surety— his Redeemer.
Thus the great fundamental question of the justification
of the soul of man before his God, is become a point of
almost as general ignorance among too many of us, as
among the members of the Church of Rome : we have
adopted a sort of morality, which though it be bor-
rowed from the letter of the Bible, is destitute of the
only spirit, and motive, and principle which the Bible
acknowledges ; and we have mixed enough of some-
thing about the merits, and atonement of Christ with it,
to give it the name and semblance of Christianity : but
the great distinctive principles of God's eternal truth are
too generally derided and despised. The lost condition of
the sinner, which is the very foundation of the scheme
of redemption ; and the full, free, and finished pardon
of sin proclaimed freely " without money and without
price," to sinners, through Jesus Christ, in whom who-
soever believeth, shall be saved, washed in the blood,
R
182
and covered with the righteousness of the Redeemer,
which is imputed to the believer as his own — are
truths, derided by thousands, and tens of thousands
amongst us ; the mercy which, by pardoning iniquity,
fully and freely gives, in that very pardon the motive
and principle of moral action to the soul : this, is scoffed
at; and the righteousness of man is almost universally
believed to be the cause, instead of being, as it can only
be, the effect and consequence of his being justified by
the righteousness and atonement of his Redeemer,
through faith before his God. Salvation by grace, and
salvation by works, are mixed up among many members
of our church in various shades and degrees — from the
superstitions of the Church of Rome, to the infidelity
of the Socinian : the piety of many among us sinks
into superstition, and the liberal and enlightened re-
ligion of others approximates to infidelity : the honest
faithful principles of our reformation, the fundamental
principles of our venerable Established Church, as ex-
pressed in her Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy, are a
standing jest, among some of the enlightened members
of our religion ; the fashion is, that since on all hands
it is agreed that morality is to be the end of true reli-
gion, it is of little consequence what the way is by
which we go, provided we come to the end : faith in
speculative points, has nothing to do with morals ; let
us leave speculation to the saints and evangelicals, and
biblicals, and let us give our attention to the practical
points of religion. Here the awful ignorance of Pro-
testants is lamentably exhibited, as if the solemn facts
which Jehovah reveals were mere theories, because we
183
do not actually see them — as if it were of no importance
to our everlasting happiness whether or not we give the
lie to that revelation — as if it were not a. fact of dread-
ful certainty, that " the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men" — that the actual sentence of his curse hangs
pronounced over their heads, as certainly, and far more
so, than the sentence of the earthly judge hangs over
the convicted murderer — and that " except a man be
converted/' and " flee from the wrath to come," he
must perish. As if the proclamation of atonement
made, and pardon given, through the Lord Jesus Christ
to every sinner that depends on him, was a speculation,
and that men might scoff at their Creator's mercy, and
yet be in a state of salvation through what they call
their own good works, which Jehovah testifies again,
and again, and again, can never justify the soul; for "if
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in
vain." Justification "by faith, without the deeds of the
law," Luther called the '*. Articulus stantis aut cadentis
ecclesiae." It is more — it is the only hope of salvation
revealed in the Bible to man : the sinner who looks not
to that, has no more ground for hope in the word of
God, whatever else he may believe, or think he believes,
than the infidel who denies it ; every particle of his re-
ligion is impregnated with some fatal error : the whole
Messiahship of Christ — the whole character and moral
attributes, and moral government of God — the genuine
morality of the Christian faith, on which, perhaps,
he particularly prides himself, he is fundamentally
ignorant of : the doctrines of the apostles are a riddle
184
to him, and it is no wonder that the Bible seems to him
an unfit book for the poor, for the greater part of it is
unintelligible to himself ; no wonder he fears to trust
without a preacher to explain them, those apostolic
truths, which he is forced to explain away to make
them comprehensible to himself: to him, indeed, the
Bible is " an ocean without chart or compass;" 1 he goes
forth to eternity, alas ! upon " a voyage of discovery" his
own opinions and errors are foundered in the first epistle
of St. Paul that he opens ; and he will cry out against
that book, as dangerous to the principles of religion,
which he is utterly at a loss to reconcile with the prin-
ciples of his own mind. But justification " by faith,
without the deeds of the law," not only independent
of, but in diametric opposition to man's own righteous-
ness, as the condition of his acceptance, as distinct
from it, as the obedience of the Lord Jesus unto death,
is distinct from the attempt which any sinner can make
to fulfil the law of his Creator, is the very life, and soul,
and essence of all true religion ; it is the Thermopylae
of Christian truth, the pass, in which, if all the world
were in arms against it, the Christian will stand with
better than Spartan armour, and more than Spartan
spirit, to maintain his post, or fall in its defence : and
while it is the fashion among an awful majority of those
who call themselves members of the Church of Eng-
land, to cry out against it as Calvinistical — Method-
istical— Puritanical — Evangelical, &c. I fear not to
assert, not only that it is the foundation on which the
Established Church is built, that it is the doctrine of
her Articles, and the doctrine of her Homilies, but I
185
add further, it is so inseparably interwoven into every
part of her spiritual liturgy, that the man who does
not hold it for his own soul, when he comes to Church
to join in the services of our public worship, is using
language with his lips, which must be foreign from his
heart, and cannot be drawing near to worship his
Creator, as he must be worshipped, namely, " in spirit
and in truth.'' If this should ever meet the eye of a
man who is unhappily offended at it — to him I par-
ticularly address myself, and call on him dispassionately
to consider the solemn subject — the most solemn which
a man can contemplate ; I beseech him to consider it
not in reference to the opinion of his poor fellow worms,
but to the judgment of his God. He does not believe,
I assume, that the obedience of the Lord Jesus to the
moral law, as a surety for sinners, is imputed to the
sinner that believes, and accounted to him as his own,
so as to give him the merit of full obedience in the
sight of God. He does not believe that the blood of
Jesus is a full atonement for the sinner's guilt, so that
he that depends on it, stands absolved and acquitted
from all his iniquity ; in other words, that a sinner is
" accounted righteous before God, only for the merits
of our Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and not for his own
works or dtservings ;" but he thinks that his own
works must co-operate, in some degree or other, with
what he calls his faith, before he can entertain a well
grounded hope that he will be saved. I suppose he will
grant that his works, to be really good, must be in conform-
ity to God's holy law, unless he denies that law to be the
standard of good and evil : and now let us place this
186
roan on his knees, to call his Creator to attend to his
confessions and petitions. He calls him, frequently to
witness, that he is- a " miserable sinner," one who has
" erred and strayed from God's ways like a lost sheep,
who has followed too much the devices and desires of
his own heart; who has offended against his holy
laws; who has left undone those things which he
ought to have done ; and who has done those things
that he ought not to have done ; and that there is no
health in him." i believe he will hardly venture to
say, that if he sincerely confesses this, in spirit and in
truth, — which is indeed the actual condition of every
man who utters it, — he will have much consolation from
a view of his own goodness. Now in a few seconds
after, when the minister proclaims the glad tidings of
great joy, that God " pardoneth and absolved) all them
that truly repent, and unfeignediy believe bis holy
gospel,'' he says, " O come let us sing unto the Lord,
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation!'
Now, I put it to the conscience of any man on earth,
how he can sincerely call the " Searcher of hearts" to
witness that he is a "miserable sinner" — that is, a
miserable transgressor of God's law — and yet call Him
to witness, too, that he not only expects salvation, but
XhdXhe rejoices in the strength of that salvation, which
he is to derive in some degree or another from his
obedience to that law !!! In proportion as he is sincere
in the humiliating confession of his guilt and misery,
so in proportion must he be insincere in saying, " He
* rejoices heartily in the strength of his salvation ;" for
187
in truth, he must greatly fear that he could not obtain
it; while on the contrary, in proportion as he feels this
confidence and joy which he expresses in the strength
of his salvation, so must he be insincere in express-
ing such a humiliating sense of his condition as a sin-
ner, which on his own principles, must preclude him
from the attainment of that salvation. Yet the Liturgy
of our Church puts this into the lips of every one of
her members, brings the holiest man that ever adorned
her bench down upon his knees, in company with the
vilest criminal that ever crawled into her aisle, and al-
lows him no character in his Maker's sight, no con-
science of any character, but that of a " miserable sin-
ner," whilestill she makes him "rejoice in the strength of
his salvation'' — a paradox inexplicable in the mouth of
him who is ignorant of the salvation that is in Christ;
but the genuine heartfelt language, of every man who
believes the Gospel of his Redeemer, and who, while
he cries, " enter not into judgment with thy servant,
O Lord ! for in thy sight shall no man living be jus-
tified" yet can "heartily rejoice in the strength of his
salvation'' in the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 do not profess to write a scholastic treatise on the
subject, but I leave it to the conscience of any man
who cavils at the statement I have made, and I entreat
him not to think how he may find out some arguments
to answer a fellow-worm, but how he can kneel down
with his Bible in his hand, and reconcile hfs prayers
with his principles before the Judge of quick and dead.
Indeed, if the Church of England did not maintain
188
this fundamental truth, that " we are accounted right-
eous before God, only for ike merits of our Lord Jesus
Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deserv-
ings' — she would have no pretensions to the title of a
Church of Christ — she would be an apostate Church,
and every man who knew and loved the salvation of
his Redeemer, would protest against her as firmly as
against the Church of Rome. But it is the very vital
article of her spiritual existence; and it is the ignorance
of this, and the neglect of this great, essential truth of
Christianity by her members, that has left us to this day
so criminally negligent of that awful superstition, whose
every error is to be referred to her apostacy from this
great truth of God ; and her substitution of refuges of
lies, for that Refuge, that only Refuge of guilty man,
a crucified, and risen, and ascended Saviour. I know
there are multitudes who profess, or who affect to deny
that this is the religion of the Church of England ; but
the Articles, the Homilies, and the Liturgy, those
venerable and sacred depositories of her principles must
be written over again, before any sophistry can dis-
prove it; and the Bible on which they are founded
must be banished out of the land, before such proof
can be admitted by those who truly love her. I am
aware, that it has been attempted by some, to throw
discredit upon our venerable Homilies, and dissever
them from our Articles and Liturgy, as authoritative
standards of our Church doctrines : and I am utterly
astonished to see that this has been attempted, where it
ought least to be expected. I am not surprised at some
similar attempts from other quarters, but I might ex-
189
press my wonder, that any man, especially one who
has subscribed, and who ought to be among the first to
support our Articles, one of which declares, that the
Books of Homilies "contain a godly and wholesome doc-
trine," (Art.3.5) and another (Art.ll) — on this very doc-
trine of justification by faith, refers to the Homily for
an explanation of that fundamental principle ; I might
express my surprise that such an one, should make this
attempt, and gravely quote the words of the 35th Article,
" necessary for these times," to found on them this in-
genious argument (if it is to be called so). " Why
talk of these times as involving a necessity, if other
times were not contemplated when the necessity might
cease ! !!" — That writer informs us, that this necessity
arose from the scarcity of licensed preachers — he says,
" hence the necessity, as during the sixth and ninth
centuries, of appointing Homilies to be read in the
Churches, by those who could not preach, or who might
have preached injuriously" I might answer this, by
stating that, that same Article which we subscribe in
the nineteenth century, and from which he quotes,
states, " ice judge them to be read in Churches by the
ministers, diligently and distinctly" — would to God,
the admonition were universally attended to ! — But
grant the whole weight due to the assertion, and
much more — that these Homilies were written at that
time to supply the incompetence of preachers — does
it, therefore, follow that they did not contain that
godly and " wholesome doctrine" which they were said
to do ? or, that because they were written by our ve-
nerable Reformers, when the times made it necessary
190
that they should compose sermons for incompetent and
ignorant preachers ; that they did not, therefore, set
forth the truth of God's word in those sermons to the
people, which no time can ever change ? Does the
writer mean to tell us, that the Reformers embodied
one set of truths in our Articles and Liturgy, and set
forth something different from these truths in our Ho-
milies—referring from an Article to a Homily for a
doctrine, and not setting forth that doctrine in that
Homily ? Common sense — the internal evidence of the
documents themselves does not admit such an argument
to stand for a moment.
But when the writer seems to shift this argument,
and to apply the term time not to the preachers but to
the doctrine — when he says, "the Homilies were re-
garded but as plain discourses, well suited at the time
when they were set forth, for the instruction of the
people" — the question immediately occurs, what dif-
ference does lapse of time make in the truth of God ?
Is it meant to be conveyed, that what was true and
suitable, as applied to the souls of men in the reigns of
Edward and Elizabeth, is false and unsuitable in that of
George the Fourth? Is our Church a sort of Acker-
mann's repository for theology, in which our divinity is
to change with the fashion of the day? — oris the truth of
the living God set forth or not, in the documents of our
venerable religion ? — that truth, which like its Author,
is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Where
is the Established Church to turn for support — where
is she to look for protection, as far, at least, as human
191
authority can afford it, when one, from whom she ought
to expect, whatever tho weight of talent, and learning,
and station, could contribute, informs us, that a con-
gregation " would sometimes be 'perplexed to retain its
gravity, during the most guarded recitation, provided
it were a faithful one of any of our Homilies, taken
at a venture' — and that " they are not merely unap-
plied, but inapplicable to their original purpose — not
only disused, but unusable, as a system of pulpit in-
struction." To this I answer, as a minister of the Es-
tablished Church, and I trust there are multitudes who
can assert the same, / have used, I have preached her
Homilies on salvation, on faith, and on good works —
before large and crowded congregations; I have preached
them fully, and literally, and faithfully, and that not to
the entertainment, but to the edification of my hearers;
to the edification of those who were anxious to inquire
into the truths of their religion, and of the word of
God; to the confusion of those, of whom there are,
alas ! but too many, who presume to call the doctrines
of the salvation of Christ novelties, or sectarian, or
some other appellation, which unbelief applies to them ;
and who would fritter away the holy principles of our
Church into a something, little better than a system
of Heathen ethics, with just enough of Christ in it to
make it pass for Christianity. I add, as a minister of
the Established Church, I should boldly and confi-
dently preach those Homilies again, if I were called to
do so before the first congregation in the United Empire;
and though I grant, that their language wants the clas-
sic polish of the nineteenth century, yet, if I saw any
192
man in that congregation, presume to sneer at the so-
lemn truths which they contain, if there were weight
or gravity in the sacred office of a minister, and in the
holy responsibility of hira who stands up as an ambas-
sador for God, I would make that scoffer feel, that in
presuming to laugh at the truths in the Homilies of our
Church, he would be laughing at some equally solemn
truth contained in the word of his Creator. I will
add, moreover, that so far from these Homilies being
of this " unusable " description, I could point out, I
lament to say, sermons, admired in this, our liberal and
enlightened age for classic taste and polish ; the best of
which is to be no more compared with the least valuable
of those Homilies which I have mentioned, as in-
structing men either in the doctrines or the precepts of
the Gospel of Christ, than the Offices of Marcus Tul-
lius Cicero, are to be compared with the Epistles of St.
Paul. I will add farther still, that I give any man the
range of ancient and modern theology, and I defy hira
to produce in any age of the Church, from that of the
Apostles to the present hour, a sermon, I care not by
whom composed, in which the doctrine of man's jus-
tification before God is more fully, clearly, explicitly,
and scripturally, set forth in the same compass of words,
than in the " Homily on Salvation," of the Church
of England.
If our Homilies, and the principles of our Homilies
were held up as they ought to be, it would not be a
question among us, whether we were to leave the Ro-
man Catholics perishing in their ignorance, and guilt,
193
and superstitions around us ; it is nothing but the truth
of God, that can teach the heart the value of that truth
for the immortal souls of men; and it is no wonder that
we are careless or blind, as to the falsehood of tho
religion of others, when we are so awfully regardless
of the great and solemn truths of our own. If a man
w T ere to make an appeal to the members of our Church
to dissent from her — if he wanted to bring her into
open contempt, I know not how he could more effec-
tually reason in support of his object, than to tell them
that the means of instruction which she appoints are
ludicrous, nay, " unusable." I am not aware, that any
Dissenter has ever presumed to make such a statement
as to the Homilies as this — if I do not more directly
refer to the quarter from whence it has come, and that
my notice of it should seem deficient in respect, I can
only answer, that while I feel called on by the subject
on which I treat, to refer to those venerable standards
of our Church's faith, and to notice with reluctance,
such an unwarrantable attempt, to undermine their de-
served authority and weight, I consider it the most re-
spectful course to decline any direct reference to the au-
thor of a publication, of which it can only be said, that
the sincere regret that it had ever issued from the press,
must be accompanied by a hope as sincere, that it may
be consigned to its merited oblivion for ever.
The Homilies of the Church maintain in clear and
explicit language, the fundamental principle of man's
salvation by the redemption of Christ. This funda-
s
194
mental principle, the Church of Rome effectually de-
nies — every ordinance of that Church is founded on a
denial of this salvation — -she is, therefore, Antichristian ;
and the man who is regardless of the religion of that
Church, is regardless of the very foundation of salva-
tion for his fellow-sinners.
But, there are many members of our Church who
profess to be quite aware of the evils of the Church
of Rome, and who employ their time, and talents,
and means, and energies, in active and zealous efforts
in the cause of religion, who are, nevertheless, opposed
on principle to a direct and open exposition of the
errors of the Roman Catholic Church; and while they
deserve every credit for the purity of their intentions,
it is important to examine the soundness of their
principles, and the grounds on which they endeavour to
justify their opposition to the Reformation Society.
"Are there not," say they, "numerous engines — a
vast machinery at work in the country, for the demoli-
tion of the Church of Rome? — have we not the As-
sociation for Discountenancing Vice — the Bible So-
ciety — the Sunday School Society — the Kildare-street
Society — the London Hibernian Society — the Irish
Society — the Tract Society, and others ? — every one
of these is undermining the Church of Rome —
every Bible that is circulated — every tract that is dis-
seminated — every school that is established — every
child that is taught to read, is making a progress in the
mine that is sapping her foundations — why then, not
195
proceed in this quiet secret way, so likely to ensure suc-
cess — why provoke open discussion and controversy,
which is not likely to be productive of good?"
There is a seeming plausibility in this argument, but
in truth, it is but seeming at best — let us examine it a
little : — There is not one of these Societies that holds
out to Roman Catholics that principle which neverthe-
less is secretly entertained in the breasts of the men who
use this argument — and their conduct in this respect is
calculated to keep them in ignorance of the awful state
in which they are before God, for it deals very un-
faithfully with their immortal souls. Not one of these
Societies proceeds avowedly on this principle, that its
object is to make proselytes. The Association chiefly
confines its labours to members of the Church of Eng-
land. The Bible Society says, " We attack no man's
church, we interfere with no man's religion, but as you
all profess to call yourselves Christians, and that your
religion is the best, and most consonant to this book,
we ask you to join in circulating a volume, in which
you will give a currency to all the principles of your
religion which it contains." This is a fair and an in-
valuable principle, for it puts it home to the consciences
of men to ask, whether or not their religion is that of
the Bible ? But, except so far as it may bring the Bi-
ble within reach of Roman Catholics, it does not awaken
them to the errors of their religion — and as they con-
sider our version, which the Society circulates, a mis-
translation ; except where controversy has awakened
a thirst of inquiry, I believe the impression which it has
196
produced has amounted to nothing worth notice, certain-
ly nothing tangible, on the Roman Catholic population.
Not one of the Education Societies professes, that
they wish to make proselytes — many individuals who
belong to them openly disclaim the intention — and under
this neutral flag, they allure the Roman Catholic children
to their schools — they prohibit catechisms or other books
of a Protestant character, with the exception of the
►Scriptures — but it is their secret wish and opinion, that
these scriptural instructions will ultimately convert the
Roman Catholics ; and they calculate with such cer-
tainty on this, that they urge the sure prospect of suc-
cess, as a reason why they oppose the principle of
the Reformation Society. That these Societies have
all been productive of infinite good, and have received a
divine blessing, I fully believe, and I trust an increased
blessing may rest on the labours of them all. But while
they have contributed in many instances to awaken a
spirit of investigation, and open a field for the cultivation
of the infant mind of our country, the facts demonstrate,
that they have produced, during all their years of labour,
no decisive effect on the Roman Catholic superstition
in Ireland. The principle on which they proceed, as
far as it is calculated to draw children to their schools
and keep them there, may operate well — but when put
forward as a motive to prevent the open exposition of
Roman Catholic error, as it regards the population of
the country, it is totally contrary to all principles of
justice, and truth, and charity— for the question is sim-
ply resolvable into this — are the Roman Catholics in
197
fatal error on the foundation of man's salvation or not?
The men who say they are not, are utterly ignorant
either of their religion, or of the Bible, or ot both —
the men who admit that they are, and proceed on the
principle of holding out to Roman Catholics as an in-
ducement to send their children to the schools, that
they do not mean to proselytise them — what do they
do ? — They tacitly tell these poor people, that they may
continue in their superstitions with impunity ! and thus,
provided the children are sent to the schools, the poor
parents may be dying in their blindness and ignorance
at home : and while the Scriptures are put into the
hands of the child to teach him, that salvation is to be
found only in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ ;
the poor parents, and all the other members of the
family, are left to turn to the refuges of guilt and su-
perstition, which their Church sets before them, and to
spend, perhaps, their last shilling in purchasing, as the
last hope of their immortal souls, a pretended remedy —
a fiction of Satan from their fellow-worm ; instead of
being told to turn from these vanities to the salvation
that is revealed to them, in the Word of their Creator.
I will not ask is this Christian fidelity ? — I will not ask
is it Christian charity ? — but I will ask, is it common
honesty? — If the Word of that God whom we profess
to serve, tells us, "If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his
ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him
again," Exod. xxiii. 4, — what does that Word pro-
nounce on those who can willingly permit the immortal
soul of their neighbour to perish, without an effort to
rescue him — nay, who can tell him plainly and openly
s2
198
they do not wish to make the effort — they do not wish
to proselytise him? — what fallacy is it intended by this
to impose on the Roman Catholics ? — is it that they are
so safe in their religion, that there is no occasion to
convert them? — or is it, that though you think they are
not safe, yet you do not desire to promote their salva-
tion ? But, perhaps, it may be said, there is no inten-
tion to deceive them ;T believe it: but though I do not
impute such an intention to any of those who proceed
upon this system, yet I do say, that however unin-
tentional, such is, and must be the effect of it. The
Priest tells the people you are enemies to their religion;
the people answer on their own authority, that you
" have no wish to proselytise them." They know, indeed,
that you consider them in some degree wrong, because
you are not of their Church— but they must conclude,
you do not think them fatally in error, because you say
you do not wish to convert them. But what argument
is it for a man who calls himself a Christian to use,
that he does not intend to deceive his blind and super-
stitious neighbour, into a supposition that he is not
wrong — why does he not use all honest, and faithful,
and earnest, and anxious means, to undeceive him, and
to convince him that he is gone astray, and to convert
him from his error? If a man sees his fellow-man,
walking blindfolded to the edge of a precipice, does he
discharge the office of humanity, if he refuses to warn
him of his danger?— But if, so far from warning him,
he tells the poor victim, " I do not wish to turn you
from the path you are walking in," 1 believe it will be
granted, that he is not only devoid of the humanity
199
which would preserve his life, but guilty in the judg-
ment both of God and man, of being accessary to his
death. It remains for those who hold out to Roman
Catholics, that they do not wish to proselytise them,
to show how their principle is not chargeable with a
criminality as great as this, but aggravated in proportion
as the immortal soul is of greater value than the body,
and the abyss of everlasting death more terrible than
the Tarpeian rock. The result proves, that no bless-
ing is to be expected on such weak, and worthless, and
temporizing policy. The Priests through every part of
the country, either prevent the Roman Catholic children
from going to the schools, or sweep them away some-
times in fifties, and hundreds at a time. The fear of
these men, who pretend to hold the eternal destines of
these poor creatures in their hands, operates to prevent
them from acting in opposition to their will — and you
tell the people you do not wish to rescue them from
this domination ! If you are afraid to tell them that
their Priests are leading them to eternal ruin — how is it
to be supposed the poor people will discover it ? when
you are afraid to let them see you think so — how can
they be led to think so ? when you tell them you do
not want to deliver them — where are they to look for
deliverance, or how to discover their need of being de-
livered ? — are you to wait for the tardy operation of a
system, which the whole energy of Priestcraft is com-
bined to obstruct, and thai, when even the system you
propose, is totally inapplicable to the adult population
of the country ? — and are you by such a weak,
timid, unfaithful, and unchristian policy, to let the
200
very impression rest on the minds of the people which
gives strength to that energy^ and facility to those pow-
ers of obstruction ? While so many members of our
Societies hold out that they are not desirous to prose-
lytise — how different is the language of Roman Catho-
lic Priests themselves ! and shall they openly and avow-
edly act upon a principle of endeavouring to make
proselytes to the awful errors of their superstition; while
we who derive the name of our very religion, from^rtf-
testing against those errors, as openly tell the Roman
Catholics, that we do not want to make them proselytes
to the truth of God? Let the following just and able
argument, from a Roman Catholic Priest, put such men
to the blush for adopting a crooked policy, which gives
all the weakness of fallacy to truth, and rejecting that
plain, honest, direct, straight-forward course, which gives
even the strength and semblance of veracity to error.
In a sermon preached by Dr. Baynes, a Roman Ca-
tholic Bishop, at Bradford, in Yorkshire, 1825, entitled
" Faith, Hope, and Charity" we meet the following
clear, and unanswerable argument :— " And here, my
Christian Brethren, I cannot refrain from offering a
few remarks on what is usually called proselytism —
this word is hecome odious, and all men seem eager to
disclaim its import, as if it were a crime— yet, ichat
is meant by proselytism? If it means converting
others to the true religion — what were the Apostles
themselves but makers of proselytes ? What did. Jesus
Christ give them in charge to do, when he bade them
go and teach alt nations, but every where to make pro-
201
selytes ? For what were the Apostles persecuted— put
to death> and crowned with the glory of martyrdom,
but for making proselytes — what Christian could lay
claim to the rewards of charity, who, convinced of the
truth of his religion, and of the i?iestimable blessings
it imparts, refused, or neglected to make others par-
takers of it — concealed his treasures from the objects
of distress, and covered under a bushel the light which
teas wanted to guide the steps of his benighted fellow-
traveller ?"
Let those who are the advocates of this temporizing
system, read and answer these arguments, and ask
themselves whether they are to concede the reasoning
and assumption of apostolical precedent and principle,
to propagate the errors of superstition, which it is their
duty to follow and adopt, in disseminating the blessings
of salvation ? Do I then mean to say, that the Asso-
ciation for Discountenancing Vice, should abandon its
catechetical instruction of the Protestant population,
and become a Controversial Society — that the Bible
Society should abandon its principle of neutrality, hold-
ing up the Word of God without note or comment, as
the only standard of genuine Christian truth, and to be
circulated by all who call themselves Christians — that
the Sunday School Society should introduce contro-
versial tracts and books among the children, and that
the Kildare Place Society, and that the London Hi-
bernian Society should follow its example ? — No
— on no account — let all these Societies pursue
their course, and continue their plan of operation;
202
it is wise, it is consistent with the soundest and best
principles, to "keep the noiseless tenor of their way ;"
and I trust a divine guidance and blessing may direct
and accompany the labours of them all. They hold a
place, a most important post of incalculable benefit to
the country — let them still continue to state, and to act
on the statement, that their object is to promote a scrip-
tural education, and that they will instruct the children
in the Word of their God — but this I say, let them not
tell us that this is sufficient for the wants of our coun-
try—let them not tell us, that because in their respective
spheres of operation, these Societies are proceeding as
far as the Priests will permit them, in sowing that seed
in some waste spots of the mind of Ireland, which we
trust will yet spring up, and bring forth fruit, that
therefore, w r hen "the fields are white unto the harvest,"
instead of praying the Lord of the harvest to send forth
labourers," they should with a timid and unfaithful
policy, endeavour to weaken the hands of those who
are ready to go — let me ask, w T hen they teach these
children to read the Word of God in a system, which
confessedly does not bring in any explicit manner before
their minds, the awful errors of their religion — is it not
desirable, that some efforts should be made to convince
them of those errors, that these children, of whom
thousands are now adults, and their numbers daily in-
creasing, who have grown up and left those schools, and
still through the want of some means of information,
are continuing under the dominion of that superstition in
which they have been educated— is it not desirable, that
their minds should be awakened to consider the actual
203
meaning of the words which they have heard, or read,
or have committed to memory, in contradistinction to
the dogmas of their superstitions ? is it not necessary
that the parents of these poor children who have
neither enjoyed the advantages of a Bible, or a school,
should have opportunities of hearing the great prin-
ciples of salvation discussed, and of availing themselves
of the education which their children have received, in
hearing these truths read to them from the Word of
God ? If the mere learning Scripture by rote in
schools, is to convert Roman Catholics — why, I would
ask, are thousands who have been so taught in scrip-
tural schools for ten, or fifteen years that are past,
why are they still in the communion of that supersti-
tious and apostate Church ? Let us take one indivi-
dual who has gone to any of these schools, and
who has read and learned portions of Scripture, and
who has now left these institutions, and remained in the
bosom of the Church of Rome — why, I would ask,
does this individual continue under the dominion of his
Priest? — if merely reading portions of the Sacred
Volume will convert him — why is he not converted ?
Because, while careful and anxious pains have been
taken to instil into his mind the superstitions of his
Church, and while he has been confirmed in these by
a false show of scriptural authority on the part of his
Priest — no pains have been taken to bring before his
mind the great and fundamental falsehoods of his
Church, in open faithful contrast to the Word of God.
He has been told, "that Protestants do not wish to
make a proselyte of him," and even if the poor crea-
204
ture should discover from the light of God's truth, the
superstitions of his Church, he has no rallying point to
fly to — there are none to shelter him — no body of men
to whom he can turn for support — none, under whose
honest, and fearless, and uncompromising advocacy of
truth, he can derive countenance and confidence in the
opinions he may have formed, or be assisted in the
difficulties in which he is involved — he dare not with-
out the loss certainly of his character, most probably of
his means of subsistence, perhaps of his life, avow his
doubts, his anxieties, his convictions, or his resolutions.
Is this right? Granting to these schools more than all
the efficacy which the experience of so many years has
proved, we can fairly attribute to them, let us ask, is it
just or equitable, to give to the youth of our country
enough of light to let them see they are going astray,
without holding up a beacon to guide them in the way
that they ought to go ? to give them enough of know-
ledge to awaken doubts, and fears, and anxieties, re-
specting their religion, while, with all the counteracting
influences of early prejudices, and feelings, and pre-
possessions; and all the superadded terrors and appre-
hensions of priestly and ecclesiastical authority — they
see none come boldly forward, to denounce the super-
stitious dangers that they apprehend — to summon their
Priests and their dogmas to the test of truth, and to
convince them that all the imaginary powers of their
Priesthood and their Church, when brought into the light
of God's eternal Word, may become as much a subject
of their contempt, as the figure that frightened the
baby in the dark, becomes an object of its laughter
205
when it sees it in the light of day. Let us not call
ourselves judicious — let us not call ourselves apos-
tolical — let us not call ourselves faithful men — when
we act this weak, unscriptural, disingenuous, un-
christian part. Is every man then to become a contro-
versialist ? all may not feel disposed or competent, to
enter into that arduous, but necessary field of labour —
but let them not therefore depreciate the scriptural
standard of our duty ; let them not deny that it is the
clear, decisive path of a Christian ministry, to call their
erring neighbours to the consideration of those truths,
on which their everlasting happiness depends. We cannot
open our Bibles and see the injunctions delivered to Pro-
phets and Apostles, and the scriptural detail of the at-
tention paid to those injunctions, by men who were in-
spired by the Holy Ghost, both in the doctrines which
they taught, and in every step which they took for the
propagation of those doctrines; without seeing it the
clear, the well-defined, the Scriptural, the imperative
duty, of all who profess to labour in the Gospel of
Christ, to hold forth the word of Life to those that are
in darkness, to reach forth the bread and waters of Life,
to those who are ready to perish, and to strain their
every nerve to burst those chains of ignorance, and
guilt, and superstition, with which Satan binds the un-
derstandings, and the consciences, not only of their
fellow-creatures, but of their countrymen, their neigh-
bours, their acquaintances, their friends. Surely if it
is too much to ask, that every man who knows the
value of eternal truth will assist, it is not too much to
demand that no man who knows its value will venture
T
206
to oppose — and if men cannot aid with their talents,
they can perhaps with their purses, for the sending out
of readers, for the publication of tracts, for the ex-
penses of discussions — they can with their endeavours,
to circulate tracts — to give facilities to those who are
engaged in any way, in the service of their God in
various departments— they can aid, with their coun-
tenance and support — they can assist, if they will, with
their prayers — they can, in short, show by some indi-
cations, whether they chuse in this great important
cause, to stand on the Lord's side, or to take the alter-
native which He leaves to our consciences and souls —
" he that is not with me, is against me."
There is one favourite objection of some, who af-
fect to be peculiarly judicious, in their opposition to
the Reformation Society, which it is important to
notice — " We do not think it prudent, say they, to
irritate or provoke Roman Catholics, by openly telling
them of their errors ; we would rather try gently, and
silently, to steal instruction on them, than plainly, and
avowedly to alarm them in this way — it savours too
much of enthusiasm, and overheated zeal." It will be a
discovery in morals, at least, not inferior to that of steam
in mechanics, when the human mind shall be revolu-
tionized, in such happy imperceptible degrees, as to be
brought to renounce the most inveterate prejudices, with-
out feeling the transition from its errors, and to embrace
at once all that is right, without ever suffering alarm
at the apprehension of having been wrong. As to en-
thusiasm and zeal — we have a happy Laodicean tem-
perature amongst us, which saves us from the danger of
207
any overheated exertions, at least, in this field of apos-
tolic labour. We seem to have tempered our Chris-
tianity, if not with the morality, at least, with the mo-
deration of Stoical philosophy —
" Iasani sapiens nomen ferat, aequus iniqui,
Ultra quam satis est — virtutem si petat ipsam,"
And as to standard of that "satis*— let the state of
Popery in Ireland determine it. But let us come to
fact— what impression does this yentle, moderate, unob-
trusive. Christian forbearance produce on the minds of
Roman Catholics ? — the very impression that it ought
to produce — it inspires them with a thorough contempt
for our conduct, and our religion — it supplies them with
unanswerable arguments against the best indirect efforts
we could use, and teaches them to believe, that they
can discover in the worthlessness of our principles alone,
the cause of our apathy in not making any effort for
their propagation.
I would call the attention of those who take an in-
terest in this subject, to a speech which is said to have
been delivered by a Mr. Macabe, a Roman Catholic
Priest, at a Bible Meeting in England, in 1829, from
which I make the following extract : — " It is nearly
three hundred years, since the beauty of the Protestant
religion beamed on England— pray has no attempt been
ever made to impart to Ireland the blessings of
this sublime religion, and to banish the erroneous su-
perstitions, immoral, and idolatrous mass of Popery
from the island ? Has no attempt been ever made to
penetrate the clouds of darkness and ignorance that
208
overshadow the land, or to dissipate the mist of error
that envelopes the people ? O yes, Ladies and Gentle-
men. — IV hat would you think of the following plan ?
Suppose four Archbishops, eighteen Bishops, and from
two to three thousand Clergymen, all well educated
gentlemen, brought up in the pure Biblical principles
of Protestantism — suppose these men to declare in
the presence of heaven, on the day of their ordination,
that they felt themselves called by the Holy Ghost, to
labour in the vineyard of the Lord, to preach the pure
principles of Protestantism— suppose every man of
these to have taken an oath on the day of his ordina-
tion to establish, or to contribute to establish, a school
in his parish, and that the sum he should contribute
was specified in the oath — suppose one or two of these
men thus prepared, placed upon every five miles square
of Ireland, would not this be a good plan to begin
with ? Yes, you say, but they should have something
to support them, otherwise the time that should be em-
ployed in eradicating Popery, might be devoted to
provide sustenance for themselves and families. —
True — What would you think of giving these holy
men one-sixth of all the land in the kingdom, and the
tenth of the produce of the remaining five parts?
IVould not that be a decent maintenance? Now,
Ladies, this has been done in Ireland two hundred and
fifty years ago, and a regular succession of these men
and means, has been continued to this day ! And
what is the fact? — That the number of Catholics
has increased, and the number of Protestants dimi-
nished. I have not told you all. During nearly two
209
centuries of this period, the laws came powerfully to
second the exertions of these Apostolic men. Govern-
ment declared to them, ' in order that you meet with
no opposition, and may have an open clear Jield for
your operations — we will not allow a Popish Priest,
nor even a Popish schoolmaster, to appear, to dispute
an inch of territory with you — if one or the other
should show himself on hill, or valley, we will pursue
him, catch him, and ship him off on a voyage of dis-
covery! Yet strange to say, Popery has gained
ground, and Protestantism is sadly straitened. This
formidable array of rank, wealth, talent, and apostolic
zeal, is still in the land, and yet if any credit be due
to Parliamentary returns, they are now a staff with-
out a regiment, shepherds without flocks — you have
the unanimous authority of the gentlemen who address
you this day, that clouds and darkness overshadow the
land, and a mist of ignorance the people — they have
not told you what these men hava done to cure all this;
nor can I ; except that they have built steeples, to pene-
trate the clouds, and blown hunting horns, to dissipate
the mists. Now, Mr. , / identify myself for a
moment, with this benevolent assembly, and 1 ask you
ivith what face one of these Irish parsons can come
here, and ask an English audience to give them money,
in order 'that by the means of Navy officers, raving
Missionaries, and a few bad Catholics, bribed from
among the poor —the work may be done for which your
brethren are so well paid, and ought to be well cal-
culated to perform. Go, Sir, first exert your zeal in
another quarter, sound the trumpet of the Lord among
t 2
210
your careless brethren — awaken those sleeping shep-
herds — rouse those dumb dogs that never bark before
you apply to us." >
Now, making every allowance for all the acrimony,
and the misrepresentation of this statement, I ask, is
there not enough of truth in it, to make all men who
love the cause of the Redeemer, and the interests
of the Established Church, ashamed, that a Roman
Catholic Priest could have it in his power, to stand up
and taunt us with such a total apathy, such a criminal
indifference, both to the errors of the Romish religion,
and the value of our own, that with every advantage
that talent, and learning, and station, and wealth, and
influence, and law, and opportunity could give us, we
have so entirely neglected to propagate the one, and to
reform the other? Is there not enough to show to
those who advocate the weak, and disingenuous, and
unchristian policy, of holding out to Roman Catholics
that "they are not anxious to proselytise their children,"
or to alarm or reform themselves ; that their system is
only calculated, to draw down contempt on a cause,
which they are afraid, or ashamed to vindicate, or to
avow ? Let them remember, that religion is either
everything, or nothing — a cunningly devised fable, or a
truth of infinite and everlasting value. An ignorance of
its importance to our own souls, alone, can account for
an indifference in communicating it to others, and a
full, clear, scriptural conviction of the truth of the
apostolic doctrines of eternal life, must ever be accom-
panied with an apostolic courage in their defence, and an
apostolic fidelity and zeal in their diffusive propagation
211
Since 1 have written most of the foregoing re-
marks, a sentiment which bears directly against all that
I have set forth, as to the duties and responsibilities of
the Established Church, has issued from the press; and
obtained no ordinary degree of circulation and cele-
brity, as coming from the high authority of the Lord
Bishop of Ferns. To affect an ignorance of this senti-
ment in writing on this subject, would be a want of
candour and truth; to pass it without notice, would
seem to make light of that weight, which it must carry
from his Lordship's pen ; and, to accede to it, w T ould be
to abandon all the conclusions, at which my judgment
and conscience, can arrive on the subject. If I could
feel that it were right to do so in such a solemn cause,
I trust I should most gladly renounce them, and recal
every sentiment I have expressed ; yet, feeling as I do,
the deep and eternal importance of the subject, not
only to the immortal souls of Roman Catholics, but to
that venerable Church of this realm, whose temporal
interests the Lord Bishop of Ferns has so zealously
stood forw T ard to defend, I am constrained, though w 7 ith
great hesitation and deep reluctance, to examine the
principle which his Lordship has set forth. Aware of
the reproach to which a minister of the Established
Church exposes himself, in venturing to oppose the
sentiment of a superior — and that there are many who
will be ready to speak of him, as contumacious, and op-
posed to Episcopal authority, with many other expres-
sions of equal severity, I think it right to anticipate and
answer them. And, first, with respect to the correspon-
dence in which his Lordship has expressed the senti-
212
ment to which I allude, I trust I shall not be considered
as identifying myself either in judgment, or feeling, or
in any respect, with the persons against whom his
Lordship's letters were directed. I must say, I think
there never was a time when such an attack on the
Established Church was less called for ; and giving to
the persons who commenced, and the noble Earl who
conducted, it, all the credit which they claim for at-
tachment to our religion, 1 think, that zeal was never
exhibited as less under the direction of sound judgment,
or discretion, as it referred to the general question, or
of the feeling which ought to have been preserved, to
the individuals, whose names, and circumstances, were
brought before the public. I therefore disclaim every-
thing connected with this correspondence, in referring
to an insulated passage in the Lord Bishop's letter : and
with respect to Episcopal authority, I can truly say,
there breathes not a man who venerates more deeply
that sacred office. If I were asked, what I consider the
highest, noblest, holiest, and most august authority with
which a man can be entrusted on this earth, I should
say — the office of a bishop of the Church of England;
and I trust there is not an individual within her pale,
who would bow to all the " godly admonitions" of a
bishop, I will not say merely with more sincere canon-
ical obedience, but with a more cordial, and genuine
deference of all the feelings of the heart ; but there are
points of conscience and of duty, in which there is a
higher tribunal than that of human authority to be re-
ferred to — where principle feels it must be at issue with
tho word of our Creator, or with that of an earthly su-
213
perior — in such a case as this, obedience were a crime,
remonstrance is a duty, and I humbly trust that I shall
be excused, even by the Lord Bishop of Ferns himself,
of an unwarrantable intention to offend against the re-
spect, which is due to his Lordship's high and holy
office, or to himself; when I say, that, on considering
with the most anxious attention which I can bestow
on any subject, the state of the Established Church in
England and Ireland, it is my full and decided convic-
tion, that a practical, and (I must say what I feel) a
criminal adherence on the part of our Church, to the
principle which his Lordship has laid down, is the cause
of all those calamities, which, at this day, threaten the
very existence of the Establishment in this country ;
aud that I consider the principle, so directly opposed to
the solemn vow and obligation of a minister — so op-
posed to our duty to God, and our duty to our neigh-
bour, that if I were placed as a minister in any parish,
I should feel it my duty to my church, to my Roman
Catholic parishioners, and to Him, whose tribunal I
must ever hold superior to any power on earth, to act in
a line directly opposite to that which his Lordship points
out. His Lordship's sentiment is this, in speaking of
" the duty of the clergy towards their Roman Catholic
parishioners :" — " They ought to watch for any indica-
tions of a disposition in them, to listen to their instruc-
tions, bid they should abstain from obtruding on them
controversial topics, when they appeared disinclined to
listen to them, as being a mode of proceeding which
never will be successful in making converts."' — Bishop
of Ferns' Fourth Letter to Lord Mountcashel. What-
214
ever of good sense, kind feeling, sound judgment, and
discretion, in conducting controversy, his Lordship
might intend to recommend by this ; so far as they are
consistent with an honest, faithful zeal, for the salvation
of the immortal souls of men, I cordially desire to re-
spect and approve ; but the principle which his Lord-
ship lays down, puts Christian fidelity to the souls of
Roman Catholics, entirely out of the question. What
is one of the most prominent evils of their system ? It
is this : — that it shuts up, habitually, the human mind,
in such a dungeon of dark submission, to a supposed in-
fallible authority, that a single ray of light let in, is
painful to the sensibility of its superstitious fears— like
him who shivered when the sun shone on him, it shrinks
from the least impingement of the light of truth.
If his Lordship means, then, that we are to watch
till Roman Catholics evince a disposition to come to our
houses, or our Churches for instruction, to seek volun-
tarily for the truths of our religion, as if their own
were in error, he means to preclude every effort to
bring salvation to the Roman Catholics of Ireland— to
evince, in this way, a disposition to receive the instruc-
tions of a heretic, were, in the very act, a crime — it
were an implication, or rather, a confession, that their
Church might err — it were to hesitate — it were to doubt
— it were to investigate ; where hesitation is guilt —
where doubt is infidelity — where investigation is apos-
tacy— and, if unrenounced, isdeath. What "indications"
like these, of "a disposition to listen to our instructions"
are we to watch for in such a case? Such indications
were a proof that the evil were, of itself, in progress of
215
correction; and to watch for these, would be like a
physician at the death bed of his patient, waiting with
his medicine, till he saw him convalescent. If the.
clergy of the Established Church wait with the Gospel
of Christ in their hands in silence, till such indications
in Roman Catholics appear, truly we can only say —
" Rusticus expectat dum defluit amnis;"
such advice, or such official instruction, is to seal up
our lips in everlasting silence on the subject.
When, I would humbly ask, in the centuries that
have gone by, have such indications been exhibited ? —
have they, indeed, appeared, and have not our bishops
and clergy taken the advantage of them ? I have ne-
ver heard that such a charge could be made against us.
Criminally negligent on the subject as we have been, I
have never heard of a minister of the Established
Church who would refuse to give instructions, to the
best of his ability, to any Roman Catholic who mi^ht
have " indicated a disposition" to profit by them, so that
his Lordship's principle leaves us just where we have
been ; but herein has our criminal neglect of duty to
Roman Catholics been exhibited — that we have been
exactly doing as his Lordship advises us; we have been
waiting in this neglect of their immortal souls, repeat-
edly pledging ourselves, in the most solemn manner
that we believed them superstitious and idolatrous, and
protesting, with all due ecclesiastical regularity, against
that superstition and idolatry, but waiting for some
" indications of a disposition in them to listen to our
instructions, and abstaining from obtruding i/pon them
controversial topics, when they appeared disinclined to
216
listen to them!* This expression, " controversial to-
pics,'' is so very indefinite, that it may comprehend
many topics, in which his Lordship's advice might be
extremely judicious; but it likewise comprehends others
on which that advice is pregnant with ruin to the im-
mortal souls of Roman Catholics, and in my view (I
must speak faithfully according to my conscience) with
a total abandonment of our duty. There are unques-
tionably topics of controversy, which it is unnecessary
to obtrude upon Roman Catholics, because they may
not fundamentally affect their salvation ; but let us
omit these, and strip the subject of all extrinsic useless
matter, and come at once directly to the pith and mar-
row of the case. Let me ask this simple question —
a question which is the first to be determined on the
point — a question which requires to be stirred up as
much among Protestants as among Roman Catholics. —
Can Roman Catholics really depend for their salvation
upon those refuges which their Church sets before the?n,
and be in a state of salvation before God ? — I speak not
of individuals, or of what they actually depend on, I pre-
sume not to judge them — I hope, and trust, that many
of them may really depend on Christ alone, instead of
those refuges of lies. But the man who is a Protestant,
and who affirms that they can depend on the hopes of
salvation propounded by their Church, and yet be in a
state of salvation before God, I say that man, I care
not who he be, is either totally ignorant of their reli-
gion, or if not, he is ignorant of his own religion— and
ignorant of himself, and ignorant of his Bible, and ig-
norant of his God— and, I am, therefore, the more
217
surprised, that the Lord Bishop of Ferns, who so per-
fectly knows this solemn and awful fact, as to the spi-
ritual condition of the Roman Catholic religion, should
lay down such a principle for the clergy of the Es-
tablished Church. It is an express prohibition to obtrude
the Gospel of Christ on Roman Catholics — for what is
the fact? The Gospel of Christ is a direct controversy
against almost every principle of the Church of Rome —
if the Gospel is to be preached to Roman Catholics,
there is hardly a point of their superstition that does
not imply a direct denial of it. Take these texts —
" This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta-
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin-
ners," 1 Tim. i. 15 — " Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins : and by him, all that
believe are justified from all things, from which they
could not be justified by the law of Moses," Acts xiii.
38, 39 — " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us ; as it is written,
cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," Gal. iii. 13.
Each of those texts, and every similar text, which con-
tains within itself expressly, or by implication, the es-
sence of the Gospel, stands in flat eternal controversy
against the Church of Rome — for if the Lord Jesus
" came to save sinners" — if through Him "is pro-
claimed forgiveness of sins'' — if " by Him all who be-
lieve are justified from all things, from which they could
not be justified by the law of Moses" — if He "hath
redeemed sinners from the curse of the law" — then all
the means of salvation which that Church proposes —
u
218
her masses — her penances — her purgatories — her in-
tercession of Saints — nay, the very best morality which
she can inculcate — the very mutilated commandments
that she borrows from the Bible, when used as a plea
of merit before God, are all in direct hostility to the
Gospel — for they are all built on this one funda-
mental falsehood, that man by his priest, or his church,
or saints and angels, or himself, is to perform some
work or works, for the purpose of procuring that
salvation, which it is the whole burthen of the Gospel,
to proclaim as the free, full, and perfect gift of God,
through Jesus Christ to man, not as he is a righteous,
or meritorious creature ; but as a condemned, a ruined,
and a helpless sinner.
Now, if his Lordship intends to exclude the Gospel
from his meaning, in the term " controversial topics,"
his Lordship's advice evidently implies a contradiction,
since the Gospel of Christ, which on this supposition
he permits us to obtrude on them, is the most u con-
troversial topic" that can possibly be obtruded on the
Church of Rome, and, indeed, the only one worth ob-
truding on her. But if his Lordship means to include
the Gospel of Christ in the meaning of this term, and
that we may deduce as a particular from this universal
admonition, that we ought to " abstain from obtruding"
the Gospel of Christ "upon Roman Catholics, when
they appeared disinclined to listen to it," I trust I
may be permitted to say, without offence, which I
should much regret to give, that when we read the
divine commission from our Lord to his Apostles, "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
219
creature ; he that believeth, and is baptised, shall be
saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned ;" we
must either forget the sacred authority from which this
commission was issued ; and we must forget the awful
consequences for man's immortal soul, which that au-
thority declares, are suspended on the execution of it;
or, we must renounce all pretensions to derive our
sacred office under the sanctions of that authority;
before we can reconcile it to our duty, to abstain from
the faithful discharge of that commission, towards
those, whom the laws both of God and man have com-
mitted to our care. I say the laws both of God and
man — the only difference between the commission to
the Apostles, and to us, is, that instead of being sent as
Missionaries with the Gospel to the world, our sphere
like our powers is circumscribed in narrower limits.
The Roman Catholic is placed within a narrow compass,
under the immediate superintendance of the minister of
the Church of England — the laws of our land — and
wise and excellent they are, have parcelled out the
cottages of those poor immortal beings, into divisions, or
parishes, in the midst of which, they have appropriated
to him a residence ; they have made them to bring of
the offerings of their ground, and the produce of their
toil to his support, and they have reminded him, in
every blessing which he enjoys, in time; that he is in-
debted to those who have furnished it, in some remu-
neration of blessings connected with eternity.
I must here lament, that I differ also widely from the
Lord Bishop of Ferns, when his Lordship says, that
220
" the Roman Catholics undoubtedly do not contribute
to the support of our clergy." His Lordship is most
certainly right in the principle, that the sum that is ap-
propriated to tithe, would, if unappropriated to that
purpose, be added to the rent of the land — but what of
that ? does it prove that money is not given to a certain
purpose, to say, that if it were not, it would be given
to another ? — It is a matter of fact that it is set apart
for tithe, and that the Roman Catholic does pay it to
the clergyman ; and if it were not a matter of fact, it
is a matter of feeling ; the people consider that it is so ;
and even if they did not, are the responsibilities of re-
ligion to be measured by a computation of political
economy ? Shall the rents of lands tithe free, form an
item in the great account at the tribunal of our God ?
and if not, who shall dare to place it in the per-contra
side of his spiritual ledger, to balance the neglect of
setting forth that Gospel to his fellow-creatures, which
it is his office, his duty, his most solemn obligation to
proclaim; and which in proportion to the sanctity of
that office, the importance of that duty, and the
solemnity of that obligation, it is criminal, it is un-
pardonable in him to neglect. It is difficult to pronounce
which are more imperative on the Bishops and Clergy of
the Established Church — the vows on this subject under
which they stand engaged ; or the commands of that
God on which those vows are modelled. They stand in-
dividually and collectively, most solemnly bound to God
and to our Church, to "be ready with all faithful di-
ligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and
stmnge doctrines, contrary to God's word" — and our
221
Bishops are bound in addition, "loth "privately and
openly to call upon and encourage others so to do" —
we have every one declared, " / will do so, the Lord
being my helper'* I would humbly ask, is it to (t be
ready with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive
away" error, to wait until error indicates a disposition to
be driven away ? Is it faithful diligence in the ministry
to abstain from preaching the Gospel, to those who are
perishing in ignorance and superstition, until they ma-
nifest some inclination to listen to us, when their disin-
clination, arises from that very same erroneous doctrine,
which we have sworn to use all diligence to banish and
drive away ? I do not presume to press any further
questions on this solemn obligation ; nor to institute any
comparison, between the pledge to encourage others to
the discharge of it, and the principle which the Lord
Bishop has laid down. But if we can forget the solemn
responsibilities to which we have voluntarily pledged
ourselves — shall we not remember those, which are laid
on us before the tribunal of that God, at which there
can be no evasion, and from which there is no appeal.
What saith the word of Jehovah ? — " Son of man I
have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel:
therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them
warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, thou
shalt surely die ; and thou givest him not warning,
andspeakest not to warn the wicked from his wicked
way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in
his iniquity : but his blood will I require at thine hand,"
Ezek. iik 17, 18. This solemn, this tremendous ad-
u2
222
monition, was given 595 years before the birth of our
Redeemer, that is, 2425 years ago.
I give the history of the Church in the Old and New
Testament, for the period of time which they compre-
hend — I give all the records of ecclesiastical history
to this hour, and I challenge any man to lay his finger
on a ministry, through all that lapse of years, to which
that solemn warning more forcibly applies, than to the
Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England in these
countries. If ever there was a watchman set upon a
tower, to receive the word at the Lord's mouth, and
to give to sinners warning from Him — if ever that
watchman was set upon a tower, in a citadel of pro-
vidential security, and on an eminence of lofty, and
commanding exaltation, that watchman is a minister,
and still more, a Bishop of the Church of England.
If a Church founded on the immutable word of the
eternal God — if purity of doctrine, according to the
word of our Creator, in the Established Formularies of
that Church, to which it is our inestimable privilege to
belong — if truth in those Articles of religion, to which
we have subscribed, and soundness of doctrine in those
Homilies, according to which, (however sophistry may
evade it) we are pledged to teach — if scriptural and
holy principles, embodied in a form of worship, in
which it is our high vocation to administer the ordi-
nances of God — if the most solemn exhortations that
men can give, and the most solemn vows that men can
make, and the most solemn pledges that men can offer,
not to their fellow-creatures, but to their God — if these
223
can constitute the responsibility of a spiritual watchman,
then, where can a man be found to whom such deep
responsibility attaches, as to a Minister, and still more
to a Bishop of the Church of England? If our Church
has been identified with the Constitution of the greatest
nation in the world, protected with all the security,
which the laws of that nation could confer on that
Church — if an equitable portion of her wealth has
been appropriated to the support of our ministry, and
a portion as equitable to maintain the high and holy
office, and dignity, of our Bishops — if the crozier has
been placed next to the sceptre in her kingdom, that the
pastor of the sheep might stand nearest in his train to
" the Father of his people'' — if our religion has been
justly exalted, to " rear her mitred front in senates" — if
by the incorporation of the spiritual, into the legislative
authority of the country, she has been placed at the
very fountain, as the guardian angel of the land — that
the springs of Christian truth, and Christian principle,
and Christian morals, mingling their hallowed influence
with all her laws, and all her institutions, might be
propelled from the heart to the head, and circulate
through all the members, in every vein and fibre of the
constitution — if all these manifold blessings, and pri-
vileges, and immunities, and dignities, and honours pro-
claim, that God has erected a lofty tower — beautiful in
its architecture — commanding in its elevation, and
mighty in its strength, on which to place His spiritual
watchmen in our land — who was ever placed on such
a station as a Minister — who on such a majestic emi-
nence as a Bishop of the Church of England ? If the
224
Lord were to demand of the assembled world — " who
are they that I have placed as my watchmen upon
earth, to whom I have entrusted the most talents for
my service?" though we had asked the rocks and moun-
tains to fall on us, they must yawn above our heads,
and throw up on their mighty elevations before men
and angels, the Bishops and the clergy of the Church
of England.
Now, let us ask, what use we have made of these
talents in reference to the Roman Catholics of this
country ? — I speak not of our own flocks — I shall sup-
pose we had fed them as the most faithful shepherds —
let us turn to the case of our fellow-creatures, our
countrymen, our neighbours. I will ask, where on the
surface of the globe, are there to be found a people, in
a more miserable spiritual condition, than the Roman
Cathdlics of Ireland ? — If the Bible be the revelation
of Jehovah's will to man — where, let me ask, is the
conformity between the sacred volume and the religion
of Roman Catholics ? What has it to boast, but the
name of Christianity — but I enter not here into the
guilt and ignorance and superstition of the system ; I
take it on our own showing — we assume the very name
of our religion, from solemnly protesting against the
errors of this Church — there is not a man in our mi-
nistry, from the lowest to the highest, that has not in
the most solemn manner, denounced the superstition, and
idolatry of the Church of Rome; and our responsibility
to God, shall be demonstrated out of the lips of every
one of us : to every one of us might He say, " out of
225
thine own mouth will I judge thee." Now, what have
we done in their behalf ? have we taken " the word
of the Lord at his mouth, and given them warning
from Him ?" If we are not ourselves, to be found liars
before God, in charging them with crimes, of which
they never have been guilty, and if idolatry and super-
stition are crimes before Jehovah, when " He saith
unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die ; and we give
him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from
his way, and when that same wicked man dies in his
iniquity," shall not God "require his blood at our
hands ?" I write it not in a spirit of controversy —
still less do I presume to write it in a spirit of reproach,
but 1 desire to write it, with a feeling of deep, and
solemn humiliation, as one who has need of contrite
repentance on the subject, as much as any of those, who
can be implicated in the awful charge ; but, I believe,
if ever God required the blood of a neglected people,
from the guilty hands of those, who have left them to
perish in their sins, that God will require the blood of
the Roman Catholics of Ireland, at the hands of the
Bishops and Clergy of the Established Church — and I
believe, if ever God had a controversy with a people,
he has it at this day with our Church, for this our
guilty neglect, our abandonment of that part with which
He has entrusted us in this land. I fear not with daunt-
less confidence to assert, that if we, the ministers of the
Church of England, had done our duty in this country,
according to the invaluable principles of our religion —
if we had maintained the truths, that God entrusted to
us, for the salvation of this people, we should not only
226
have escaped the calamities, which we have too much
cause to apprehend, but those that have darkened and
desolated our country, for the years that have gone by.
If we, the ministers of the Church of England, had stood
forward, not in the attitude, (as we certainly seem to
them to have done, however unintentionally) of op-
pressors, but in that of benefactors of the Roman Ca-
tholic population — if, instead of resting the security of
our Church, of which we have been justly taught the
guilt, and folly, upon the laws of man ; we had rested it,
as we ought, in faith, upon the word, and power
of our God — if we had boldly, and faithfully, and
firmly, but kindly, and temperately, and anxiously, as-
serted, and vindicated, the high and holy principles of
our faith, as the only hope for the immortal souls of
men— if we had used the means, the influence, the
talents, the opportunities we possessed, to bring before
the people the testimony of their Creator's word, in
direct and systematic contrast with the awful supersti-
tions in which they are taught to rest both their moral
principles, and their hopes of everlasting life — if by
education, by the visits of pastoral superintendance, and
instruction — by tracts — by the word of God — and above
all, by open, candid, faithful exhortation and discussion,
calling on those teachers who are " blind leaders of
the blind" to bring their doctrines into the light of
God's eternal truth, we had endeavoured to give to
Roman Catholics the Gospel ; not imagining we dis-
charged our duty, by preaching a few sermons, where
they could never hear them ; but going both to preach
and to exhort them where they could hear — still less,
227
supposing that we discharged that duty, by railing at a
religion, which, if our reprehensions were founded in
truth, it was our most bounden duty to reform. But
without pretending to point out all the varied means af-
forded us — if, in short, we had kept our most solemn
vow — if we had "used all faithful diligence" — nay,
if we had even made an effort to keep it — if we had
used any "faithful diligence, to drive away all erroneous
and strange doctrines contrary to God's word," and if our
Bishops had "both privately and openly called upon, and
encouraged others so to do," I fearlessly maintain that, as
certainly as we have a right to believe that the Lord is
faithful to his holy truth and promise — as certainly as his
" word shall not return to him void" — as certainly as we
may expect, that his blessing shall rest on the faithful
use of his appointed means — as certainly as he has blest
exertions under circumstances less promising, and less
auspicious, to which England is herself indebted for
her Church ; and the world, for the propagation of
Christianity — so certainly should Ireland have been
rescued, from all the miseries she has endured, through
the awful effects of this superstition, which has degraded
her into a state of internal agitation, and misery, and
convulsive, and religious, and moral, and social, and po-
litical debasement, and crime, unparalleled in the his-
tory of any nation, which has ever pretended to civi-
lization, not to say, to Christianity.
Those laws which have been a source of aggravated
evils to this land, had long since been abolished, not by
a convulsive enactment of the legislature, but by the
228
o-radual triumph of the Eternal Word — and instead of
having a superstition to legislate for our Church, our
Church had long since triumphed over that superstition,
not by the laws or sword of man, but by " the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The arro-
gance of priestcraft, instead of having been strengthened
by the authority of man, would have fled before the
presence of the Lord of Hosts — the chains of penal
enactments and of Papal darkness, had melted together
in one common mass, within the blaze of everlasting
truth, and our poor enslaved countrymen, had long since
burst their temporal and spiritual bondage, and breathed
the air of genuine freedom, in the twofold emancipation,
of the full enjoyment of the British Constitution, and
the "glorious liberty of the children of God." Human
laws may afford, as they have often done, a temporary
security to the religion of Christ, but they never were
intended as the instrument of its propagation ; we have
abandoned ourselves criminally, to the fancied protection
of those laws, and we have forgotten the cause of Him,
to whose mercy we were indebted, for a religion so
worthy of protection — we have rested on an arm of
flesh, and if we awake not from our lethargy, we shall
experience the fate of him " who maketh the arm of
flesh his trust." We cry out u . the Church is in danger."
Why is she in danger? Because her watchmen have
been asleep. As far as Popery is concerned, we have been
" dumb dogs lying down, loving to slumber," lolling in
our watch-towers, instead of " lifting up our voice like
a trumpet." If the ministers of the Church of Eng-
land have not maintained the high and holy principles
229
of their religion — if they have let four fifths of tho po*-
pulation of their country live, and die, in what they have
called their God to witness, they believed to be a su-
perstition, without one effort to reform them — can we
blame our statesmen, and our senators, for adopting in
their politics, the example we have set in our religion ;
and for not giving much credit to the expression, of our
fears, and apprehensions of a danger, in the midst of
w T hich w r e have been slumbering so profoundly, that we
have never even dreamt of the application of a remedy?
With what face are we now to stand up, and reprove that
infidel liberality, which places all religions, and no re-
ligion on a level, when we have given such a practical
proof, that we did not consider the worst, worth the
trouble of endeavouring to reform, nor the best, worth
the labour of endeavouring to diffuse ? Oh ! if there
be a time, when the servants of the Lord of life and
death, shall give an account of their stewardship — and
if the talents, with which He has entrusted them, were
not given to be put up in a napkin — nor the light which
he had bestowed on them, given to be put under a
bushel — if He will call the watchmen whom He has
set upon the towers, to a fearful reckoning, for neglect-
ing the duties of their watch ; it were w T eli before it be
too late, that w T e consider, what shall be the fate of
the Bishops, and Clergy of the Church of England, who
are leaving their neighbours to perish, in guilt and ig-
norance around them — to consider, whether greater
criminality attaches to the ignorant votaries of a su-
perstition, or to those, who, professing to see their guilt
and danger, have left them, if not without a sigh, at
x
230
least without an effort of mercy, to their fate. What
blessing of God can we expect on our Church, when
we are content by our criminal indolence, to let it seem
a matter of indifference, whether the majority of our
nation, are called on to embrace the blessings of eternal
truth, or left to perish in the most awful superstition?
We can whine, and we can complain, and we can pour
petitions to our Legislature, to prevent Roman Catho-
lics from obtaining that share of political power, which
we say, will affect the temporal security of our religion ;
but in the very midst of millions of those Roman Ca-
tholics, we can sit down, utterly careless and indifferent,
whether or not they embrace the sacred truths of the
Gospel embodied in that religion, and which alone can
render it worthy of protection and preservation. —
Yet we can complain, " the Church is in danger;" what
wonder that she is in danger, when we have neglected
the only means of her security ? even a Heathen might
instruct us, what we -may expect under such circum-
stances — " Non votis neque supplier's muliebribus
auxilin deoritm par ant ur — vigilando, agendo, bene
consutendo, prospere omnia cedunt, ubi socordice tete
atque ignavia? tradideris, nequicquam Deos implores
iratiinfestique sun? '— the strength, indeed, of a Christian
is in prayer, but to pretend to pray and despise the ap-
pointed means of receiving an answer, is nothing but a
mockery of God. What wonder, that infidel liberality
has stood up in our land, to confound all principles of
truth and falsehood, in one indistinguishable mass — to
confound that toleration of persons, which it is the
spirit of the Gospel to inculcate, with that toleration of
principle, which it is a renunciation of the Gospel to
231
endure? What wonder, that, that liberality should be
deified in our land, when there have been found among
us those, who have dared to minister at her apotheosis,
to stand up in the face of a Christian nation, and frit-
ter away, the very meaning of the terms, idolatry and
superstition ? What wonder that the statesmen of
England should confess, that the Roman Catholics of
Ireland, had driven them to the wall with their politics,
when the Bishops and Clergy of the Church, pro-
claim by their conduct, that they have reduced them
to the same dilemma with their religion ? What would
Cranmer, or Latimer, or Ridley, or Jewell, or Elall —
or what would Tillotson, or Stillingfleet, or Seeker
say, if they could arise from their graves, and see four-
fifths of our country, overspread with the superstitions
of Rome, and hear it given out ex-cathedra, that we
* should abstain from obtruding" the Gospel of Christ,
on the wretched population that are bowed beneath
the domination of that anti-Christian yoke — " when
they appeared disinclined to listen to us ?" — Where, I
would humbly ask, had the Church of England been —
where had the Reformation of Europe been — if our
Reformers, or if Luther, had adopted such a principle
as this ? Where had the religion of Christ been, if
such had been the principle of the Apostles of our Re-
deemer ? Those martyred messengers of the everlast-
ing Gospel, whose bones have whitened on the plains
of Europe, the ashes of our Reformers scattered to the
winds of heaven, bear an answer to the question through
all the quarters of the world. We are worthy truly,
to bring up the rear of " the noble army of martyrs !"
232
But it matters little what these men would say to such
* principle — they were but our fellow-worms — but
what saith the word of the Eternal God, in that very
chapter where he assigns the post, and details the duty
of the spiritual watchmen ? Ezek. iii. 4 — 7, " Son of
man go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak
with my words unto them. For thou art not sent to a
people of a strange speech, and of an hard language,
but to the house of Israel : not to many people of a
strange speech , and of an hard language, whose words
thou canst not understand : surely, had I sent thee to
them, they would have hearkened unto thee. But the
house of Israel ivill not hearken unto thee ; for they
will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel
are impudent and hard- hearted."
Now, here we have a case directly in point — a mi-
nister of God, sent to the people of his own country—
a people in rebellion against God — a people too,
"as disinclined to listen to him," as any Roman
Catholic Priest, can be, to listen to the Gospel. The
Lord sends him on a home mission; and does the Lord
lay down such a principle as this for his servant — that
" he is to abstain from obtruding controversial topics
on them, when they are disinclined to listen to him ?'
Mark what a contradiction to it is His word — " Behold,
I have made thy face strong against their faces, and
thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an
adamant, harder than flint, have I made thy forehead:
fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks,
though they be a rebellious house. And go, get thee
233
to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy peo-
ple, and speak unto them, and tell them, thus saith the
Lord God, whether they will hear, or whether they will
forbear.'*— Ezek. iii. 8—11,
He then addresses the Prophet in the character of a
watchman, as I have quoted before, and that we may
know the more clearly, not only how widely different
is such a principle from the sacred word; but how awful
are the consequences of its adoption, the Lord addresses
another of his servants thus — *■ I will utter my judg-
ments against them, touching all their wickedness,
who have forsaken me, and have burnt incense unto
other gods, and worshipped the works of their own
hands. (What an exact description of the Church of
Rom«.) Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise,
and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not
dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee befot e
them 1 — Jer. i. 16, 17. Here the Lord anticipates not
only "disinclination to listen," but opposition to the
Prophet, and not only opposition, but indignation —
threats — all that could cause dismay — yet, lest his
servant should turn from his Master's work, He warns
him, " be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound
thee before them" — to turn aside, and to be dismayed
before man, is to fall in with a more terrible enemy,
it is to encounter confusion from our God — and truly,
if the Church of England be, as it most certainly is, the
site of the Lord's watch towers in this land, it behove*
the men who stand upon them, to hear the word of
Him who has placed them there. If we forget tb«
x 2
234
" respice Jinem" of the great accountabilities attached
to our positions— if we presume to climb without the
Gospel trumpet in our hands — if we do not blow the
warning as our God commands us from our watch tower,
though a man were to stand aloft in the most exalted
station in the Church, it were to be feared that he
should find, when it was all too late to find it —
*' Numerosa parabat
Dccelsae tnrris tabulata, unde altior esset
Casu?, et impulsae praeceps immaue ruins."
But the Lord Bishop of Ferns founds his principle
on this, that to "obtrude controversial topics on Roman
Catholics, when they appear disinclined to listen to
them," is " a mode of proceeding which never will be
successful in making converts" — it were to be desired
that his Lordship had proposed some better * mode of
proceeding," which would not have left us either this, or
the alternative, of leaving the Roman Catholics of Ire-
land, to perish in their ignorance and superstition, and
to overwhelm all truth in our land, as they seem to
threaten. But his Lordship will excuse me for saying,
that the Apostles of the living God, or to speak, in
other words, the Holy Ghost, has left us on record a far
different opinion ; and I say it with, deep regret, but
with a full confidence that I only assert the fact— that
the whole history of the establishment of the Christian
faith, is a standing refutation of his Lordship's prin-
ciple. Without again recurring to the passages quoted,
of the Lord's address to the Prophets, I would humbly
ask, do not all the Acts of the Apostles, furnish us not
235
only with their authority but their example, for this
very "mode of proceeding" which his Lordship con-
demns ? Was not tliis the " mode of proceeding* of
the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, Acts ii. when
the Apostle Peter stood up, in the face of those who
had embrued their hands in his Master's blood, and
charged them boldly with the tremendous fact, that they
" hadtaken, and by wicked hands had crucified and slain
Him." This surely was a " controversial topic" and
as unpalatable too, as could be " obtruded" upon man —
yet the Lord had inspired, and the Lord blessed this
obtrusion of it, on that very day, to the conversion of
three thousand souls ! Was it not the same, which that
Apostle, in conjunction with his colleague John,
adopted at Solomon's porch, as recorded in the next
chapter of the Acts, iii. ? when he thus testified against
the assembled Jews; "ye denied the Holy One and the
Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you,
and killed the Prince of Life whom God hath raised
from the dead" &c. &c. — when in the midst of this
faithful testimony, " the Priests and the Captain of
the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them," and
" laid hands on them, and put them in hold until the
next day" Acts iv. This surely indicated no small
disinclination on the part of the Jewish Church to have
these topics obtruded on them, and conveyed a stronger
expression of disinclination too, than the Roman Car
tholics could exhibit in this country ; but what was
the result? " howbeit many of them which heard t/t*
word believed." Here again, we see converts were>
made by this " mode of proceeding.'* >
236
Let us follow the Apostles now in their next step, v. 5.
*' On the morrow their rulers and elders and scribes,
and Annas, the High Priest, and Caiaphas, and John,
and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of
the High Priest, were gathered together at Jerusa-
lem." Now this was, at least, as formidable an array,
as Dr. Doyle and all his Deans, Priests, and Professors
of the College of Carlow — yet what did the Apostles —
did they " abstain from obtruding controversial topics'*
upon this assembly, " when they appeared disinclined
to listen to them ?" No. They boldly testified of the
Lord Jesus, and against their wickedness — *' This is the
stone which was set at nought of you builders, which
is become the head of the corner, neither is there sal-
tation in any other, for there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."
And when those authorities threatened, and commanded
them not to teach in the name of Jesus — they gave
them that answer, which every servant of God should
give to a similar command from any authority, " whe-
ther it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto
you more than unto God, judge ye;" and when the
Apostles all assembled together, and conferred on this
matter, having applied to the opposition whicn the doc-
trine of the cross encountered, the prophecy contained
in the second Psalm, they prayed, " And now, Lord,
behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants
that with all boldness they may speak thy word — and
when they had prayed, the place was shaken where
they were assembled together, and they were all filled
•ciththe Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God
237
with boldness!' Here we see inspired men praying,
not for grace to "watch for any indication of a dis-
position" in the enemies of Christ, "to listen to their
instructions," and that they should " abstain from ob-
truding upon them the Gospel where they appeared
disinclined to listen to them," which, if this principle
was scriptural, must have been the subject of their
prayer — but they prayed for more boldness io proclaim
salvation in spite of all opposition; and the same Spirit
that dictated that prayer, answered it accordingly, with
a greater measure of holy boldness, and undaunted zeal
in their Master's cause. Is it necessary to pursue the
argument further, to show that the mind of the Eternal
God is unchangeable in the ordinance of preaching
His holy word? Let us follow these Apostles into the
next chapter, which proves, that the blessing of the
Lord rested upon a firm and faithful adherence to his
word, and shows that, " Believers were the more added
to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,"
Acts v. 14. — That when " the High Priest rose up,
and all they that were with him, which is the sect of
the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation, and
laid hands on the Apostles, and put them into the com-
mon prison — the Angel of the Lord by night opened
the prison doors," and gave them another charge, in
opposition to such a principle, " go, stand, and speak
in the temple to the people all the words of this life;"
and when the Apostles obeyed the command, and went
to preach in the temple, and when the captain and
officers brought them before the council, so far from
abstaining from obtruding the Gospel on them, they
238
again confronted the authority of God with theirs —
" We ought to obey God rather than men" Again,
they charged them with the murder of the Lord Jesus,
and proclaimed, " repentance and remission of sins"*
to them in his name. And they were so enraged at the
faithful testimony of the Apostles, that " they were cut
to the heart, and took counsel to slay them' — but when
the advice of Gamaliel diverted them from their pur-
pose, then "when they had called the Apostles and
beaten them, they commanded that they should not
speak in the name of the Lord Jesus." But here again,
that charge was disregarded, for "daily in the temple
and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus Christ/' in direct opposition both to the inclina-
tion and commands of all the persons of weight and
authority in the land.
Now, what was the effect of this "mode of pro-
ceeding?" which I presume is as fair a specimen, of that
which his Lordship condemns as can be found in the page
of Sacred or Church History — we see in the very next
chapter, Acts vi. 7—" The word of God increased, and
the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem
greatly;" but this was not all — for even of those Priest9
who were not only the most "disinclined to listen"
but the most violent in their opposition, it is added,
" and a great company of the Priests were obedient
to the faith." Let us trace the proceedings of some
others of our Lord's inspired teachers — did Stephen
" watch for any indications of a disposition to listen
iv his instructions" when his bold and fearless
239
testimony drew on him that indignation, that could only
be quenched in his blood? Ants vii. Did Paul do so, when
after his conversion he 'preached Christ in the syna-
gogues, and " increased the more in strength, and con-
founded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus," when "the
Jews took counsel to kill him" and t( watched the gates
day and night to hill htm," and when 1 ' the disciples took
him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket"
to save his life ? Acts ix. Did that holy Apostle watch
for these " indications," when he stood up to preach in
the synagogues at Salamis, when he boldly withstood the
sorcerer at Paphos, " Oh ! full of all subtlety and all
mischief, thou child of the Devil, thou enemy of all
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right
way of the Lord?" Did he abstain from obtruding
controversial topics in the synagogue of Antioch in
Pisidia, when he proclaimed the glad tidings of salva-
tion as opposite to the religion of the Jew, as to that
of the Roman Catholic, or of any man who rests as
they do on his Church, or his Priest, or his own right-
eousness for his salvation? " Be it known unto you men
and brethren, that through this man is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins, and by him, all that believe
are justified from all things, from which ye could not
be justified by the law of Moses" and when he gave
them the solemn warning, " Beware lest that come
upon you, which teas spoken of in the Prophets,
bjholdye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work
a work in your days — a work which ye shall in no wise
believe, though a man declare it unto you' — and did
not the Lord bless this " mode of proceeding" in making
240
converts, when " the Gentiles besought that these words
might be preached to them the neat Sabbath," although
"when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled
with envy, and spake against those things which were
spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming]' and
they u stirred up the devout and honourable women,
and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution
against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of
their coasts,*' Acts xiii. Did the Apostle adopt this
policy in his visit to Iconium, where he went from
thence, Acts xiv. " and so spake, that a great multi-
tude both of the Jews, and also of the Greeks believed.
But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and
made their minds evil affected against the brethren,"
Did the Apostle therefore, retreat, when he saw they
"were disinclined to listen to his instructions?" — far
from it ; on the contrary, " long time there/ore abode
they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony
unto the word of his grace." In short, throughout the
whole history, we see the inspired Apostles adopting the
very mode of proceeding, which the Bishop of Ferns for-
bid?, and the Lord bore testimony to the propriety of
tkat proceeding.
Now, let us ask, is the Gospel changed in its impor-
tance, or its necessity for man — or is man changed in
his character, and his need of salvation as a sinner — or
is Jehovah changed in his truth, and his faithfulness,
and his power — or is the Bible to be the standard, and
the holy Apostles the models for a Christian ministry
and a Christian Churdh? It is unnecessary to go
241
further; I need not follow the Apostle to Lycaonia, where
he was stoned, Acts xiv. — to Philippi, where he was
beaten and imprisoned, Acts xvi. — to Athens, where he
" disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and with
the devout persons, and in the market daily with them
that met with him." I am afraid that Paul, if he could
come among us, would be called a sad intemperate,
irregular, injudicious fellow in Ireland. — Oh, for a lit-
tle of the spirit that rested on him ! — Oh, for a little of
his holy uncompromising zeal, fidelity and boldness! —
Oh, for his mantle to drop on some of us, till the ears
of indolence, and apathy, and infidelity, and ignorance,
and superstition, might tingle through the land ! We
need not go with him to the Areopagus, where be was
mocked, Acts xvii. to Corinth, where " he reasoned in
the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews
and the Greeks," though " they opposed themselves and
blasphemed" — Acts xviii. "indicating a disinclination
to listen to him" — to Ephesus, where he "spake boldly
in the synagogue for the space of three months, dis-
puting and persuading the things concerning the king'
dom of God," and where he "disputed daily in the
school of one Tyrannus, by the space of two years" —
nor do I find him blamed in the page of inspiration,
though Demetrius stood up to complain, that, "this
Paul had turned away much people, saying, that they
be no gods which are made with hands" whether
silver, or paste, or wood — though the whole city was
moved into a tumult, and though the mass of its inha-
bitants cried out for about two hours, " great is Diana
of the Ephesians" — and neither in the midst of the tu-
Y
242
mults which his faithful testimony excited at Jerusalem,
when they "bound themselves with an oath, that they
would neither eat nor drink till they had slain km" —
nor in his bold and fearless address to the trembling Fe-
lix nor in his unshrinking appeal at the tribunal of Fes-
tus — nor in his powerful defence before that monarch,
whom he u almost persuaded to be a Christian"— nor
in one of all his " tumults, his labours, his watchings,
fastings;" his "perils by his own countrymen y his
perils by the Heathen, his perils among false brethren'''
—nor in the whole picture of his stupendous Apostolic
labours, and his splendid and magnificent Apostolic cha-
racter — is there one trait to be discovered, which does
not stand out, in high and prominent relief, to bear a
testimony against the principle, that it is the duty of a
man, who calls himself a minister of God, to stand in
the midst of a guilty, and ignorant, and superstitious
people, or rather indeed to lie down among them, and
t( watch for any indications of a disposition in them
to listen to his instructions," and " abstain from ob-
truding on them controversial topics," or in other words,
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, on which their
salvation depends, "when they appear disinclined to
listen to him ;" which seems to me much the same, (if,
indeed, the judgments and the mercies of Jehovah, are
to be counted realities among us, in this liberal and en-
lightened age,) as if we saw a house on fire in the night,
and should be desired, to watch for any indications of
the family awakening, and to abstain from alarming
them, until they seemed inclined to be getting up ! And
as to the conclusion, that this " mode of proceeding will
243
never be successful in making converts;" I must again
affirm, with great reluctance, when I consider the au-
thority from whence the principle comes, but with the
most decisive confidence in the truth of my assertion ;
that the whole history of the Acts of the Apostles, as
given in the word of God — the whole history of
Christianity throughout the world, from the Churches
of the Apostles, to that, to which it is our high privilege
to belong — the very existence of the religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ, is an overwhelming refutation of
such a principle ; which, if it be adopted in Ireland, as
we have pursued it hitherto, leaves no prospect but a
continuation of the wretchedness and misery of this
land in time ; and the broad road, crowded with those
who are neglected, and those who neglect the salvation
of the Lord, the unawakened sinner, and the careless
watchman, issuing in the yawning gulph of ruin for
eternity.
As I sensibly feel, that nothing but a deep conviction,
that a man was standing firmly on the word of the
high and holy God, coula 1 justify any imputation on a
principle, laid down by a superior in the Church ; so I
shall not leave that impregnable and lofty ground, to
enter into any discussion, which might naturally arise,
from an abstract consideration of his Lordship's senti-
ment — I shall not stop to examine, how it could be ra-
tionally expected, that " indications of a disposition to
listen to instructions," could be discovered; except in
the practical, and experimental application of those in-
structions — nor how far, as long as men * ( abstain from
244
obtruding controversial topics" on others, they can ever
measure their inclination or disinclination to listen to
them — nor shall I inquire, even though the strongest and
most general "disinclination to listen," were expressed
on the part of the Roman Catholics— how it could
still be justifiable in men, who have most solemnly
pledged themselves to the use of "all faithful diligence
to drive away error," to abandon that diligence to which
they stand pledged — nor how it could be justifiable, in
those who stand as solemnly pledged to "call upon and
encourage others" to this work, in defiance of that pledge,
to discourage and dissuade them — in those who are bound
as ministers of God,under the most solemn responsibilities,
to make light of those responsibilities, which they must
carry with them to the bar of their Creator — nor how
far it would be irreconcileable to a principle of Christian
charity, because there was a general disinclination on
the part of Roman Catholics, still to abstain from the
use of means, which might be blessed to the salvation
of multitudes of that body, who might form an excep-
tion, and be anxious to hear — nor shall I inquire, how
far that very disinclination, ought to be a stimulus to
increased exertion, as the most inveterate disease re-
quires the most active treatment.
I shall leave these points unexamined, and come to
the practical application of his Lordship's principle, on
the very ground which his Lordship lays down, and I
do not hesitate to assert, that if every other argument
were null and void, and that the Bishops and Clergy of
the Church of England, were to act even on the ad-
245
mission, which, if I do not overstrain his Lordship's
words, seems implied in them — namely, that if there
were 8ny " indications of this disposition to listen to
our instructions," for which we ought to " watch," that in
that case, we ought to give the people those instructions:
then I say, if this be the standard of clerical duty,
low, and unapostolical as it is, yet even here, we stand
utterly inexcusable both before God and man, for a
total failure in our duty towards the Roman Catholics.
For I am confident in affirming, as 1 am borne out by
the fact in my affirmation ; that no body of men could
evince, under the circumstances, a more anxious desire
to listen, than the Roman Catholics of Ireland, to in-
structions given to them in that manner, and on those
occasions, in which alone, we have any rational ground
to claim or expect their attention. And here let me
ask, what " indications of a disposition to listen," are
we to expect from Roman Catholics — are we to suppose
that they will come into our churches and cathedrals,
whenever we chuse to give it out, that it is our good
pleasure to expose the errors of their religion ? Such
an expectation is unreasonable and unjust, for several
reasons : — First, because there is a natural prejudice in
the minds of Roman Catholics, against coming into a
Protestant place of worship. Secondly, because if any
might wish to go, it exposes them to the objection, of
preparing to turn Protestants, among their more bigotted
neighbours. Thirdly, because it exposes them to the
indignation of their Priests — and fourthly, because they
naturally think and say, that it is very easy for us to
stand up and attack their religion, when no one dares to
t2
246
answer us, or to defend it — but that, if one of their
Priests had a power and privilege of answering us,
he would soon show us, how contemptible our reason-
ing was, and vindicate their Church from our aspersions.
These and other causes, make it absurd for us to sup-
pose, that we could produce an effect on the Roman
Catholic mind of Ireland, by preaching against Popery
in our churches — besides preaching, as in a spirit of
hostility, against Popery, ought not to be the ground
of our appeals to our Roman Catholic countrymen. It
ought to be preaching in a spirit of anxiety for their
immortal souls — calling upon them in every way, and
by every means, most likely to awaken their attention,
and to engage their regard, to investigate, to examine by
the test of reason, and Scripture, the awful errors of
that fatal superstition, in which they have been so un-
happily brought up; and as it is to their reason, to their
understanding, to their feelings and affections, and to
the word of truth we ought to appeal — it is clear, that,
that appeal, ought not to be confined to the slow process
of printed controversy, which few of them will take
the trouble of reading, even if it could be brought
within their reach — nor to sermons in churches, which
fewer still will hear — but that we should make it a
point of ministerial duty, personally to visit and speak-
to our Roman Catholic parishioners, and to read the
Scriptures, and preach to them in every place where
they can be induced to come and hear — and still more,
to hold regular stated discussions with them and their
Priests, or to give stated invitations to them, if they wish
to discuss, and that, in a spirit not of hostility, but of
247
bold, honest, faithful, and at the same time, kind,
gentle, affectionate, and patient investigation of the
subject.
Now, let us ask, has this been in any respect tried
in Ireland — and have the Roman Catholics shown these
" indications of a disposition to listen," for which the
Lord Bishop of Ferns desires us to " watch?" — I fear
not to affirm, that wherever it has been tried, they have
evinced a disposition to listen, beyond all, on which the
most sanguine anticipation could have ventured to cal-
culate. What, I would ask, has been the disposition
exhibited in Carlow — what was the anxiety several
years ago, when there were discussions with the Priests,
as to the distribution of the Bible, when Roman Ca-
tholics in crowds came to hear that important question,
of the right of conscience brought to the test of truth
and reason ? What, on a more recent occasion, when
these two gentlemen arrived as a deputation from the
British Reformation Society — laymen too, who have
come here to Ireland, I am ashamed to say, to set us
an example of our duty — to teach us both what we
ought to do, and what we might expect from exertion,
Mr. Gordon and Mr. Finch ? What was the in-
dication of a disposition to listen, on the part of Ro-
man Catholics, when they went to Carlow — when they
went plainly, and honestly, and openly, and avowedly,
by public advertisement, to bring the doctrines of the
Church of Rome to the test of the word of God ; and
when it was open to Dr. Doyle, and all the members of
Carlow College, and all the Priests, and any layman of
248
respectability, to come forward and reply to their
charges ? What disposition did the Roman Catholics
evince at this public meeting — at night too — in successive
evenings — when if they wished to exhibit any indica-
tions either of resentment or displeasure, they had time,
numbers, opportunity to do so ? What did they do ?
they came in crowds, till there was no room to admit
those who wished to come and attend — they listened
with propriety, with decency, with civility, with atten-
tion, with gratitude. What Priest came forward to op-
pose? Not one. Now if we only wait for "indica-
tions of a disposition to listen," what more can we ex-
pect than this ? — yet, what advantage has been taken of
it — what has been done, or what is doing in Carlow,
that emporium of Romish superstition ? Nothing.
Dr. Doyle may sit and reign there, " ilia sejaciet in
aula' — he may tell the poor people of that country,
that the truths they are to receive, have been settled for
them by the Church, " causa finita est"— he may praise
thorn for taking the Bible in a pair of tongs, and putting
it into the tire. The Pope may blasphemously call it
" the Gospel of the Devil." But while the poor are
ready to listen, there are none of us to come, and tell
them of the salvation of that Bible — none to seek to
give them that light of truth, that liberty of conscience,
which our ancestors have purchased for us, with their
labours and their lives. Their College may flourish,
and their Professors parade in their vestments, and train
up successors to enslave the mind of Ireland, and im-
pede the dissemination of God's eternal truth, and
249
there are none to call them before the people to the test
of that truth — none rt ready with any faithful diligence
to drive away these errors," or disturb the deep tran-
quillity of their dark dominion, and yet we complain
that our Church is in danger ! What wonder that
it is? — It would be impregnable, if we contributed but
half as much to its security by our exertions, as we do
by our neglect, to the security of the Church of Rome.
But it is not at Carlow alone, these indications have
been exhibited on the part of the Roman Catholics to
listen — they have been exhibited through all Ireland
at times, and in places, and under circumstances, that
are calculated to astonish any man, who knows the
power of their Priests, and the infatuating power of the
principles of their religion. Mr. Gordon and Mr.
Finch, and some who have faithfully assisted them,
have put it totally out of the power of any person,
who wishes to be guided by fact, rather than by theory,
to say, that the Roman Catholics of Ireland are dis-
inclined to listen — they went to places, which we should
call some of the most hopeless stations of Roman Ca-
tholic bigotry — they went at a time, when we should
suppose, that a state of political agitation would have
rendered experiment not only fruitless, but dangerous —
when some of the warmest advocates for exertion in
the cause, considered it not only injudicious, but peri-
lous to attempt it. They went to Ennis, when the
tumult of Mr. O'Connell's election had not yet sub-
sided — when the print of that gentleman's public pros-
tration before the Bishop, was yet fresh in the dust —
when their Bill had not been introduced into Parlia-
250
ment — when the political excitement of the Association
and the Brunswick Clubs was at the zenith; yet at
that time, they went plainly, honestly, openly, by pub-
lic advertisement, to bring the doctrines of the Roman
Catholic Church to the test of the word of God, and
not only so, but at night too, when not only if the
people had not been inclined to listen, but if they had
been inclined to attack, and to insult, or to injure them,
they had abundant opportunity to do so. — Yet, what
did they do? they listened with attention and with
respect, and there was not a Priest to stand up to ven-
ture on a vindication of their principles. They went
to Limerick, to Tralee, to Nenagh, to Waterford, to
Mountrath, to several parts of Ireland, both in the north
and south — to every place, where it was the most un-
likely that they should be received, yet whether op-
posed or not, in argument, as they were in some few
instances — they were universally listened to by Roman
Catholics, even when some individuals, as at Mountrath,
endeavoured to excite a tumult against them, and the
only opposition they encountered to frustrate the for-
mation of a branch of their Society, I write it with re-
gret and shame, was from a Dean of the Church of
England, in the City of Londonderry ! ! !
1 appeal to the clergymen who accompanied them, or
assisted at those meetings, to men whose testimony, whose
judgment and whose character would carry weight to all
who know them — I appeal to the laity — I appeal to all
the gentlemen from whom they derived assistance, and
I ask, if it be our duty " to watch for an indication on
251
the part of Roman Catholics, of a disposition to listen
to our instructions," whether they could possibly have
anticipated such a disposition, as exists in every quarter
of the country, when faithful honest exertion calls it
forth. What was it in the metropolis in the months of
November and December, 1828, January and February,
1829, when the very highest state of public excite-
ment stimulated every passion in the human breast —
when their ears were ringing with the harangues of the
Association on one side, and of the Brunswick Clubs on
the other — when those who addressed them, absolutely
trembled, (I speak from experience) lest some inad-
vertent word might receive a political construction from
the auditory — yet even then — at night — in the midst of
the Rotunda — crowded with an assembly, of whom, at
least, the half were Roman Catholics— no preacher in
a congregation was ever listened to, with more solemn
and attentive silence, than were those who addressed
them, plainly, simply, faithfully, but kindly, on the
errors of their religion. The interruptions that an in-
dividual might occasion, only served to exhibit the de-
termination of the body, not to let their attention be
diverted from the momentous topic before them — and if
this was the case, when every feeling in the minds of
Roman Catholics was excited in political hostility
against Protestants — what is to be expected from
exertion now ? Let us look back to the aera of the
Reformation, and let us ask, if when the advantages
of printing were hardly universally felt — when there
was scarcely a Bible to be found — when books were
inaccessible — when the capability of reading was almost
252
unknown in the humbler classes of life, and scarce even
in the higher — when the channels of appeal to the
public were comparatively few — when the avenues to
their notice were all guarded by the Priests — when the
whole civil and ecclesiastical power and authority, en-
forced by the most tyrannical and tremendous sanc-
tions, were all devoted to the cause of Rome — if, even
under these circumstances, the boldness and fidelity of
a few poor Monks could produce, under God, such an
influence, as to effect a reformation in a great part of
Europe, from the awful superstitions of that Church —
shall we, with the word of God in our hands — with
books at our command — with all the powers of the
press at our service — with a people educating, or thirst-
ing for education — with capabilities of anpealing
through a thousand avenues, and pouring instruction
through a thousand channels into the ear of our coun-
try — with all that wealth, and talent, and learning, and
opportunity, and influence, can command, and all the
facilities, and the protection, that an enlightened, liberal
Government, and a free Constitution, and an Established
Church can afford — shall we, with all these means, and
advantages, and blessings, sit down, and surrender the
population of our country, over to the domination of
a superstition in one sense the most deplorable that
ever enslaved the mind of man ? A superstition that
involves, and has involved our countrymen in reference
to their eternal interests, in the most awful and
systematic rejection of their Creator's word — mutilation
of his law, abandonment of his Gospel, and denounce-
ment of his revelation — and a superstition which, in
253
reference to the interests of time, has plunged our
country to this hour, in all the miseries of ignorance,
and poverty, and want, and discord ; which has marked
her progress with misery and desolation, and written
her history, in characters of tears and blood.
If the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of Eng-
land, persist in the line of conduct they have hitherto
adopted, with respect to the Church of Rome ; if the
Church is in danger, it is neither, I repeat it, to Dis-
senters, or to the Church of Rome, we are to trace it,
but to that criminal neglect which our God shall
justly return upon our own heads. If the outward
privileges, and gifts, and blessings, with which he has
been graciously pleased, in his providence, to endow
the Church, which in its principles is " the pillar and
ground of His truth," should be withdrawn ; it shall be
but a just retributive return upon the heads of those
who grasped the outward privileges with avidity, but
did not consider the truth worthy of fidelity in its de-
fence, or zeal in its propagation. What then is to be
done? It were a task too difficult, for an insignificant
individual to presume to say — a child can point out a
leak in a vessel, which threatens her destruction, but it
may require all the strength and experience of the
whole ship's crew to stop it, and to save her. It is a
question that is to be applied to the understanding, and
to the conscience, and to the heart of every Bishop,
and of every Minister within the pale of our Church —
what, but individual principle, can feel the weight of
individual responsibility — and what, but united energy
254
and wisdom, guided and governed by Divine word and
power, can make the efforts that are necessary for the
salvation of our countrymen, and for the preservation
of those blessings aud privileges, which we derive from
such a religion, and so established in our land ?
Let us calmly and dispassionately consider the state
of the Roman Catholic religion, and the state of the
Established Church — let us again recur to that ques-
tion — let it be printed in capital letters, and placed on
the covers of our Bibles, to be answered individually
by us, as we shall answer at the bar of our God —
"CAN ROMAN CATHOLICS DEPEND FOR
THEIR SALVATION UPON THOSE REFUGES
WHICH THEIR CHURCH SETS BEFORE
THEM, AND BE IN A STATE OF SALVA-
TION?" I take it for granted, there is not a Pro-
testant divine in the Church, so totally ignorant of that
religion, and so awfully ignorant of his Bible, as to
answer that question in the affirmative ; for nothing
but a radical ignorance of one or both, could possibly
dictate it. Let every individual for himself, then con-
sider on his knees, the miserable condition of these
poor people, when the only scriptural hope of their
salvation is, that they really do ?wt rest on the prin-
ciples of their Church — and as the fact of Jesus
Christ having been crucified for sinners, is admitted,
and expressed in their services, it is only in the charita-
ble trust, that God in the riches of his mercy, may have
preserved the minds of any of them from the poisonous
neutralizing superstitions that are mixed with this in their
255
religion, and may have enabled them to rest their souls
on their Redeemer, in opposition to the refuges of lies
which their Church sets before them — that we can en-
tertain on solid scriptural grounds, the slightest hope
of their salvation. It is only as the solemn sense of
personal duty, and personal accountability to God for
our neglect of them, shall be awakened in the breast
of every Bishop, and every Minister, that any thing
like a united effort can be made in their behalf. Let us
remember, that we wear the robes of our ministry, whe-
ther the gown of the Minister, or the lawn of the Pre-
late, on the solemn pledge of labouring to drive away
the fatal superstitions that overwhelm our wretched
countrymen. If, when we were asked that solemn
question, " Are you ready with all faithful diligence
to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange
doctrines, contrary to God's tvord, and doth privately
and openly to call upon, and encourage others to the
same?"* If any Minister, or if any Bishop had re-
fused to make the solemn pledge, " / am ready, the
Lord being my helper" — that Minister had never been
invested with the sacred gown, nor that Bishop with
the pure and holy lawn of the Church of England —
and shall we give such solemn pledges to gain the high
authority of our office, and then abandon them, when
we have attained the object ? — Have these words no
meaning — or have we no respect to it ? Oh ! we have
forgotten our solemn duties and responsibilities — we
• I use the question put to the Bishops, as including the obli-
gations of all orders in the Churcht
256
have been deceived by the names of things — we have
mistaken the law of public opinion, which branded
Popery as a superstition, and in which we acquiesced,
for that law of God, of Christian fidelity, of Christian
responsibility, of Christian duty, and of Christian love,
which bound us by every obligation, human and divine,
to promote the instruction and reformation of our
countrymen, but which we have totally neglected. —
We imagined our Church secure in that contemptible,
and transitory political ascendancy, (how contemptible,
and how transitory, the annihilation of it has evinced!)
which, as it was based on human laws, has sunk with
the quicksand foundation on which it stood; and we
forgot in this, that high and holy ascendancy of our
Church, which the truth of the eternal God alone can
give to a religion, and which human laws and human
power, can neither give nor take away. We have
merged the mighty majesty and the authority of God,
in the mimic majesty and authority of man, and let
us beware, lest our God shall teach us in the desertion
of the one, the dreadful sacrifice we have made in the
abandonment of the other. What is the actual state
of our Church — are not the protections which the laws
have hitherto extended over the Church of England,
gradually withdrawing or withdrawn — is not the law
of public opinion keeping pace with the law of the
land : so that dissenting from our religion is considered
of as little importance, as changing the place where
you purchase your commodities? Where is that high
and dignified spirit of respect and homage, for all that
is august, and venerable, and sacred, in our Established
257
religion, which, but a few years ago, would as soon
have contemplated the dissolution of the British Con-
stitution, the annihilation of the British Empire, as the
separation of the Established Church, from being an
integral part and parcel of its existence ? What pub-
lic paper does not now hold forth, as a matter of pre-
sumptuous speculation, the dismemberment of our
Church, and the spoliation of our ecclesiastical pro-
perty ? Is not the standard of public principle, if we
can call it by that name, sinking into that bathos of
nominal liberality, but of real infidelity, that one sort
of religion is little better than another — and are we so
weak and blind, as not to see the facility of impercep-
tible, but inevitable transition from this principle to the
next, which must obtain alike in Popery as in Dissent,
that the property of the majority should never be
given to support the religion of the minority in a coun-
try. I appeal not to that feeling, which is too base to
be entertained for a moment, that we are called on to
exert ourselves, for the defence of the property of the
Church. But I say to every man, who is sensible of
the invaluable blessing of such a " pillar and ground of
truth," as the Established Church is in this Empire, that
we are called on, if there be any thing responsive in
our breasts, to exert ourselves to maintain, to assert, to
vindicate, and to advance the great and holy principles
of our religion. We are called on to advance them, as
the cause of our God — we are called on to advance
them, as those with which He has entrusted us for his
own glory, and for the salvation of our fellow- men —
we are called on to advance them, for the everlasting
258
interests of those, who are bowed beneath the domina-
tion of a superstition, which debases the intellect, cor-
rupts the morals, and destroys the immortal souls of
our countrymen, our neighbours, our companions, our
friends, perhaps our relations — we are called on, by ail
the responsibilities that man can incur, by all the claims
on our feelings of humanity, and Christian love, which
our fellow-men can possess — by all the solemn pledges
which man can make to his religion, and by all the
warnings, and denunciations, and commands, which he
can receive from his God. We are called on by all
these, to stand forward, if we have a claim to the name
of Christians, I might say of men, and to marshal the
principles of eternal truth against those of superstition,
and of infidelity in our country — it is not in the hostility
of the Dissenter, nor in the superstition of the Roman
Catholic, nor in the latitudinarianism of the Infidel, but
it is in th<^ neglect and apathy of the man, who pro-
fessing a regard for our religion, is deaf to these calls to
exertion in his sphere, whatever it be, it is in him we
must recognize the worst and most dangerous enemy to
the Established religion in this country.
Let us cease to take the law of public opinion for our
guide on the subject, instead of the law of our God, or
the pure and holy principles of our religion. The mi-
serable state of this wretched, distracted country, has
set up a sort of political standard of zeal for our Church.
A political hostility to Popery has been mistaken for
the distinctive mark of the Protestant religion ; it has
suoerinduced among us, what never ought to have ex-
259
isted in a Christian Church — a political hostility to Ro-
man Catholics ; and it has superseded what never ought
to have been forgotten for a moment — a determined, un-
compromising, unflinching opposition to their supersti-
tions — founded, not on antipathy, but on a principle of
love to the people — not on a contemptible consideration
of the temporal concerns of our own religion, but on a
deep and solemn anxiety for the eternal interests of our
fellow men. Accordingly, a pamphlet, or a speech, or
a sermon, or some sort of generally expressed or under-
stood opinion, hostile to the political advancement of
the Roman Catholic claims, has been sufficient to stamp
a man as a zealous defender of the Protestant religion
— it has advanced more than one to wealth and dignity
in our Church — while the same individual, who would
labour with all the powers of his mind to prevent Ro-
man Catholics from going into the British senate,
would let them go on in multitudes around him, pro-
fessing a superstition, calculated to hurry them into per-
dition, without a sigh for their fate, or an effort to pre-
vent it. Yes : had w T e been but half so zealous to
prevent our Roman Catholic countrymen from going
in their guilt into eternal death, as we have been to
prevent their admission into the Parliament of England,
our Church and our country had presented a different
spectacle this day. But while we have time given us
to repent, let us awake to a sense of our guilt, our dan-
ger, and our duty ; let us remember that the principles
of a religion cannot be worth defending, if they are not
worth diffusing; and if we profess a genuine regard fer
the interests of our Church, let us remember that it is
260
more than suspicious in its origin and in its tendency, if
it is not expressed in zeal for the temporal and eternal in-
terests of our fellow-creatures, and for the advancement
of the glory and the kingdom of our God. There is
one, indeed, in our land, who, in the face of contempt,
and scorn, and insult, from Roman Catholics, and of
no small reproach, too, for want of judgment, and dis-
cretion, and charity, among those who ought to have
known the truth of his principles, and followed his ex-
ample, had the courage, the integrity, the fidelity, to
announce to the Church of Rome the tremendous fact,
that their Church was a " Church withgut a relf-
gion." He spoke a truth as certainly as the Bible i >
the revelation of Jehovah ; and he has acted, in the
lofty station which he fills in our Church, with a con-
sistency commensurate with the solemn tenour of his
assertion. He has privately and publicly encouraged
and supported those who have been anxious to main-
tain the truths of their religion in opposition to the aw-
ful errors under which our poor countrymen are groan-
in"*. He has granted every facility which his influence
and his power could command, to maintain the doctrines
of the Established Church, not only within his own dio-
cese, but he permits his clergy to labour in a mission-
ary sphere, under proper provisional restriction for the
care of their own parochial duties, through all this blind
and benighted country. Another, worthy indeed, of
the exalted rank which he holds, has made his diocese
a sort of missionary station for the use of the Roman
Catholics within it ; and he has desired all his clergy to
be ready to labour, and to assist each other in that
261
sacred call of Christian duty ; and, knowing the imper-
ative necessity of using the language which the people
understand, he has recently determined, that, after a
given period, sufficient for the acquirement of the Irish
language, he will not ordain any man for his diocese
who cannot preach in their native tongue to the Ro-
man Catholics ; and he has been honoured with the
reproach of a Bishop of that Church, who informs his
Grace of the " disinclination" of the people to listen to
the instructions of his clergy — these exertions and these
encouragements to labour against the superstitions of
Rome, are considered among some of us, as quite unne-
cessary — as uncharitable too; there is no need of offend-
ing our Roman Catholic brethren — they only "believe
a little more than we do" as others only " believe a
little less:" such injudicious zeal is only calculated to
disturb Christian peace : nay — but it is calculated to
disturb unchristian apathy, to awaken unchristian indo-
lence, to set a bright example to unchristian negligence.
The principles of such men will be appreciated— their
characters will be respected — their memory will be re-
vered ; when the diffusion of God's eternal word shall
have raised the law of opinion to its proper standard,
and when it shall have stamped the timid, the tem-
porizing, the unchristian policy, that has guided so
many of us, with the just and awful brand of a guilty
neglect of the salvation of our fellow-men, and an
abandonment of the truth and glory of our God.
Let us ask, if in a church of which the Lord could
testify, " I know thy works, and thy labour, and* thy
262
patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are
evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apos-
tles, and are ?wt, and hast found them liars, and hast
dome, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast
laboured, and hast not fainted!' If in such a church, the
Lord could say, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against
thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember,
therefore, whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the
first works, or else I will come to thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou re-
pent" Rev. ii, 2-5— if the Lord could make this charge,
and issue this denunciation against such a church as this,
What, let us ask, have we to learn from it for ourselves ?
— what works, what labour, in a nation, four-fifths of
which are apostatized from God, has the Lord seen in
us ? Have we " tried them which say they are apostles,
and are not," and proved them to be liars ? No ; but
we have let them go on deceiving the nation with their
lies — would to God that were all ! We have instructed
them in the lying system which they were to teach — we
have supplied funds to educate them in these lies, and
sent them among the people to proclaim them — and if
a church in which the Lord vouchsafed to notice the re-
verse of all this, was threatened with the removal of her
candlestick, because she had left her first love, is it to
be wondered at if the light of ours is now twinkling
in the socket ? I will venture to put this case to the
judgment and consciences of all the divines of the
Church of England — Suppose in these days, when infi-
del charity is so much the fashion, that some advocate
of liberality were to bring into parliament a bill, to
2G3
alter that single question in our services of the ordina-
tion of priests and the consecration of bishops, and to
have it put thus — "Are you reach/ iciih all faithful
diligence to banish and drive away at I erroneous and
strange doctrines contrary to God's word, among
WHICH YOU ARE NOT UNCHARITABLY TO RECKON THE
PRINCIPLES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION."
What should we say to this ? should we not all cry
out that the Church was about to be subverted — that
all distinctions between Protestantism and Popery were
about to be done away — that there was in fact a prac-
tical abandonment of all the distinctive character of our
religion — would not all the Protestant feeling in the
British nation, rise up like one man, against this gross
renunciation of the principles of the Church of Eng-
land? But let us ask if it be so dangerous and so dis-
graceful to admit such a principle in theory, what is it
not only to admit, but to adhere to it in practice ? If
we acknowledge the justice of the sentiment, " quod
facta foe dum est, idem est et dictu turpe" how much
more must we confess the irresistible conclusion, that,
if it were a shame and a reproach, and an abandon-
ment of our religion to admit it even in expression, it
is more and worse than this to reduce it to wilful, deli-
berate, and inveterate practice in our Church — nay, to
justify, to vindicate, to recommend it, in other terms,
perhaps, and softer phrases, but with equal renunciation
of the principle that ought to actuate, to influence, and
to inspire us.
264
What difference there is between telling us ive ought
to except the errors of the Roman Catholic Church,
from those which we pledge ourselves at our ordination,
to u use faithful diligence to drive away" and telling
us after our ordination, that we are " to abstain from
obtruding controversial topics on Roman Catholics,
when they appeared disinclined to listen to them" I
confess I am not enough of a casuist to comprehend.
But though I have taken this sentiment from the Lord
Bishop of Ferns, and have ventured, 1 trust not in any
manner derogatory to the dignity of his Lordship's
high and holy office, or to the vast solemnity of the
subject, to impugn that sentiment as coming from a
bishop of the Established Church ; yet I by no means
intend to impute to his Lordship any peculiar neglect
or apathy on the subject : on the contrary, he has had
a few sermons preached in his diocese on the errors of
the Roman Catholic Church, and has written something
against them ; but what is this in such a cause? and
when, with all this, his Lordship can lower the stand-
ard of our duty to the level ot such a principle as this,
what must be the state of our Church in general, in
reference to the errors of our countrymen ? It must be
confessed with grief and shame, and would to God that
facts could warrant an overwhelming refutation of the
statement; that whether we consider the awful errors of
the Roman Catholic religion, their direct opposition to
the revealed truth of the eternal God, and the deadly
and destructive ruin which they entail on the immortal
souls of men — or whether we consider the infinite
value of that religion which the providence of Jehovah
265
has established in this country — a religion founded on
[lis own immutable and glorious Gospel — or the vast
weight of those obligations, with which we are bound
to maintain that religion — or the solemnity of those
pledges which we have given, to " use all faithful dili-
gence in driving away all erroneous and strange doc-
trines" while we know that those of the Romish
Church were principally intended — or whether we con-
sider the extraordinary privileges and blessings with
which we have been favoured, and the opportunities,
and facilities which we have enjoyed, of discharging
every duty, and fulfilling every responsibility, and re-
deeming every pledge; in short, in whatever point of
view we consider the subject, with reference to their
religion, or our own, — their wants, or our duties, — man,
or God, — time, or eternity — it must be stated, I say,
with feelings of shame and sorrow, that in regard to
the Roman Catholic religion, we have been living, if
not wilfully, determinately, or obstinately — to say the
least, ignorantly, carelessly, and sinfully, in the prac-
tical neglect of the most solemn branches of our duty
to our religion, to our country, to our fellow- creatures,
and to our God. What are we to do then ? " He that
hath an ear, let him hear ivhat the Spirit saith unto the
churches" Rev. ii. 7. Let us hear what the Spirit
saith to that church at Ephesus— " Remember, there-
fore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do
the first icorks," Rev. ii. 5. What were the "first
icorfes" of the church of England ? — what were her
"first works" in the days when she bore from every
pulpit, her faithful testimony against the sunersUtions
A a
266
of the Church of Rome ? when her Cranmers, and
Latimers, and Ridleys, and Hoopers, and Jewells, and
Halls, blew the trumpet from the watch-towers in the
land? when that fidelity in endeavouring to promote a
reformation, was acknowledged as the primary duty of
a Christian Church, which the ignorance and infidelity
of some in the nineteenth century, can now denominate
"a crusade?' What were the "first works' of the
Church of England, when that spiritual form of wor-
ship was composed, which is now but tolerated by some
among us— one of the creeds of which, can be un-
blushingly impugned, where it ought to be chiefly ve-
nerated and maintained ; and suffered to be attacked
with impunity, by those who ought to lay down their
very lives in its defence? What were her "first works"
when those very Articles of religion were composed —
the faithful fundamental principles of which, on the very
ground of the salvation of the human soul, are now a
by-word and a scoff, among many of those who are
nominally members of her communion ? What were
the "first works" of the Church of England, when
those excellent and venerable Homilies were composed,
which are now forsooth, " not onh/ disused but un-
usable" in this enlightened age"; in which, one of our
nolished classic congregations " would sometimes bo
perplexed to retain its gravity, during the most guarded
recitation, provided it were a faithful one, of any of
them, taken at a venture" — what were her "first
works?" They were labours of apostolical truth —
they were works of apostolical fidelity, and boldness,
and scriptural purity, and wisdom — they converted,
267
under the blessing of God, a nation — and they estab-
lished, under I J is blessing, a religion which has made
that nation the first and greatest in the world— a reli-
gion, which, by the sacred influence of its principles,
and the holy standard of its morals, preserved that
nation, as a nation, uncorrupted and unshaken, amidst
the prostitutions and convulsions of all the rest in
Europe — which preserved her venerated Monarch, un-
moved in principle and in power upon his throne —
which kept the vestal fire of pure eternal truth, still
safe and unextinguished on her altars, when every altar
and every throne beside, was trampled beneath the feet
of infidelity, and anarchy, and despotism. What were
the il Jirst works' of the Church of England? They
were the works of those, who considered an apathy as
to the religion of their fellow-men, a virtual abandon-
ment of their own ; who felt that a disregard of the
progress of superstition, was a contempt for the truth,
and the injunctions of divine revelation ; that it was a
criminal neglect of the eternal interests of their fellow-
creatures, and a compromise of the honour and glory
of their God — they were the works of men who en-
deavoured to provide, in our Church, for a perpetuity
of that principle which actuated themselves in its en-
largement, and which was sealed with the divine bless-
ing in its establishment in the country — with what suc-
cess they made the effort, the past and present state of
Ireland proclaims — they left us in their revered writings,
public documents of their principles, which some who
ought to be the last to do so, have endeavoured to bring,
at least, into disuse, if not into contempt among us —
268
they left us in their conduct, a lofty standard of exam-
ple, which some who ought to be the last to do so,
have attempted to level, even lower than that, which
superstition itself recognizes and confesses, as the duty
of a Christian Church — they left us sacred pledges, to
be given by all who should succeed them in the mi-
nistry, of faithful zeal in the advancement of our own
religion, and in the reformation of those, who were in
darkness and ignorance around us — pledges which we
all have solemnly given, and which, the Roman Catholic
religion of Ireland exhibits a melancholy proof, that we
have as universally disregarded. Oh ! that He, who is
gracious and full of compassion, long suffering, and of
great goodness, may speak to every one of our hearts
His solemn admonition, " He that hath an ear, let hint
hear what the Spirit sailh unto the Churches" Oh !
that He may speak to the heart and conscience of the
Church of England — " Remember, therefore, from
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first
works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent." What then is to be done? Let every man
who considers the solemnity of the vows which he has
made, when he lays his head upon his pillow, in his
Glebe, or in his Palace, reflect thus with himself —
" these temporal blessings — this property — this house —
these spiritual mercies — this station — this high and holy
office, and dignity, I have received from the Church
of my country, under my solemn pledge, to diffuse the
truths she maintains, and to reform the errors against
which she protests. What have I done this day in
269
the discharge of this? I have pledged myself l to me
all faithful diligence to fulfil it, and * to call on
and encourage others so to do.' Have I used any such
diligence this day, or is it my intention to use any to-
morrow? — J am set as a watchman on this tower by
the Lord — have 1 ' lifted up my voice like a trumpet' —
have I spoken to ' warn the wicked from his way,'
or do I intend to do so — do I care whether or not h e
perishes in his iniquity — or shall I not hear and fear,
when the Lord saith, that if he does so perish, ■ his
blood he will require at my hands ?' "
Let me suppose the minds of all in our sacred office,
impressed with such reflections as these, and if they
be not just, our religion is only u a cunningly devised
fable' — then, let me ask, what is to he done — what
steps are to be taken — what are the members of our
Church to do, if it be granted that it is our duty, indi-
vidually and collectively, to labour for the spiritual in-
Btruction and reformation of our Roman Catholic coun-
trymen ? It is not possible to lay down general rules,
which must vary according to the age, the capabilities,
the talents, the situation, the present avocations and
employments, of every Minister in the Church; of whom
many, who feci deeply interested on the subject of the
Roman Catholic errors, do not see clearly how they
should commence ; and others are so entirely engaged
in the duties of their own parochial charge, that they
could only contribute a portion of assistance in a well
regulated system of reformation ; but there are efforti
which might be made — which ought to be made —
Aa2
270
unless some more simple and effective be devised,
which would tell in a little time in every diocese, and
in every parish in Ireland. I should humbly venture
to say, that the following could, under a divine bless-
ing, be easily and effectively adopted.
Let every Bishop in Ireland, either ordain or select
from the clergy in his diocese, two men, who shall
give themselves exclusively to this work ; and since the
labours of the Parochial Clergy among their Protestant
Parishioners, preclude in several instances, even when
they arc most anxious, the necessary exertions, let
these two men in every diocese be set apart exclusively,
as Missionaries to the Roman Catholics — let them go
on a continual mission through their diocese, with full
authority to preach, not only in every pulpit, but in
every barn, and every house, and every place, where
the Lord shall open a door for them — nor let the idea
of irregularity operate in such a case ; if Bishops give
the necessary license, no place will be irregular — let us
remember that, that Apostle, of whom the best among
us is not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes,
went about teaching, not only publicly, but from house
to house, and that he disputed daily in the market-
place—let us remember, it is far more irregular, that
we should leave our fellow-creatures perishing in igno-
rance and superstition, than that we should preach to
them the glad tidings of salvation in any place, where
their prejudices will permit them to hear us ; and let
us recollect, that the application of a rule, which may
be of much importance in the discipline of a regularly
271
Established Church, to the circumstances of this mi-
serable and neglected country, is only an abuse of it,
and a violation of principles infinitely higher than a
point of discipline, even of the first and most impera-
tive duties of Ministers of the Christian religion. Let
these Missionaries go in regular rotation through every
parish in the diocese, and let their stay in each, be re-
gulated by the number of Roman Catholic inhabitants,
the work to be done, and the opportunities which tho
Lord affords them for their labour. Let them have
general notices printed, which they can carry with
them every where, leaving merely blanks for time and
place, that they will either preach or open a discussion,
as it may be, on some given doctrine of the Roman
Catholic Church, on such a day, and at such a place,
inviting the Roman Catholics to hear, if it be a sermon,
and the Priest of .the parish to come and discuss, if he
wishes, if it be a discussion, or allowing any respectable
layman the same privilege. Let them carry with them
short tracts on the different points, which they intend
to bring before the notice of the people, and which, if
properly and systematically arranged, may serve at all
times for universal diffusion — let these tracts consist of
quotations, not from far-fetched subjects, and learned
authors, that the poor know nothing of, but from their
own catechisms, which they, and their children have
been taught ; and let these extracts be brought iuto
plain, clear, and simple contrast with the truths of the
Sacred .Scriptures— and let each tract be so arranged,
as to serve for a little text- book for their sermons, or
their discussions and after their sermon or discussion 1*
272
over, let these tracts be distributed among the people,
who will thereby both have their minds furnished with
truths to reflect on, aud their memories refreshed with
those which they have heard, and their attention called
to their own catechisms, and to a comparison of them
with the word of God. Let these Missionaries take
their stand upon the holy word of God — let them not
permit the subtlety of Priests, or the snare of their
own learning, to withdraw them in discussion to the
names and authorities of men — let them hear no au-
thority, and rely on no authority, but " thus saith the
Lord," * to the law and to the testimony' — let this be
their rock, and this their sole foundation. Let them
arrange with the Parochial Ministers of three or four
adjacent parishes, as to the exact time of their discus-
sions, and let these Ministers attend, to aid the Mis-
sionaries, and to aid each other at these seasons.
Let the Priests have due notice of each day of dis-
cussion, and let the people see that there is every op-
portunity afforded them to defend the errors of their
Church, if they shall feel that they are competent to do
so. Let them keep up a correspondence with their
Bishop, informing him of their routes and destinations
every week, that he may know where to communicate
with them, and that they may have the benefit of his
direction and advice, if necessary — let them be con-
fined to their respective dioceses, as thus, they will be
better acquainted with the peculiar local circumstances
of each parish ; and if it should seem advisable to ex-
change for some time tbe sphere of their labours, let
this be regulated at the discretion of the Bishops, who
273
could grant their licenses as they might consider right.
If the lahours of any individuals seemed peculiarly
acceptable or peculiarly blest to the conversion of Ro-
man Catholics, it might be very important to enlarge
the sphere of their usefulness.
How are these Missionaries to be supported ? Clearly
by the Bishops and Clergy of their respective dioceses.
Is it much that a Bishop and his Clergy should con-
tribute jointly £300. per annum, £150. to each of
these men who were labouring in their Master's ser-
vice, and helping them in their respective spheres. Let
their expenses too, be borne by the hospitality of those
Clergymen who could accommodate them, and by the
Bishop himself, in his turn — if u use hospitality one
to another without grudging,'' is a general Christian
precept, how much more should it be applied to a
Christian ministry towards each other ; and if a
Bishop should be " a lover of hospitality, a lover of
good men" generally, how much more of those who
so labour, and in such a cause? But this is a point in
which the Bishops and Clergy of our Church would be
more forward to act, than any writer could be to sug-
gest — if the principle were once admitted, that the
Missionaries be employed, the contribution for their
support would be easily arranged.
What sort of teachers ought these Missionaries to
be? What in doctrine, and what in life? What in
their capabilities, acquirements, and conduct on their
mission ? Most important questions. What sort of
274
teachers in their doctrine? There was a time when it
were unnecessary to have asked the question. There
was a time when it were enough to have answered
such a question with, tC what doctrine should they
preach but the Gospel of Christ? which is a synony-
mous term for the doctrines of the Church of England."
But now, in these " latter days," when the Homilies are
become " in some respects obsolete" and " unusable"
in our Church, it is necessary to enter a little into ex-
planation, and to go back a little to first principles. I
shall not attempt to enlarge on every topic of Divine
truth, which should be comprehended within the scope
of such Missionary instructions; but I shall confine
myself to one single point, on which the main founda-
tion of all Popish error rests, as I have elsewhere more
fully stated, and on which the main hinge of all the
controversy turns — I mean, the fundamental Article of
man's Justification before God ; and on this point, I
fear not to say, that unless a man maintains in plain
and Scriptural truth, the fundamental principle of the
salvation of the human soul, that " man is justified by
faith, ivithout the deeds of the law" — in the words of
Scripture, Romans iii. 28. that " we are accounted
righteous before God, only for the merits of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by faith, not for our doings or deserv-
ings" — in the words of our 11th Article. " That no
man can, by his own acts, works, and deeds, (seem they
never so good) be justified, and made righteous before
God; but that every man of necessity is constrained
to seek for another righteousness or justification to be
received at God's own hands ; that is to say, the
275
forgiveness of his sins and trespasses, in such
things as he has offended ; and this justification or
righteousness, which we receive of God's mercy and
Christ's merits, embraced by faith, is taken, accepted,
and allowed of God for our perfect and full justifica-
tion." — " So that Christ is now the righteousness of all
them that do truly believe in him. lie for them paid
their ransom by his death. He for them fulfilled the
law in his life ; so that now, in him, and by him, every
true Christian man may be called a fulfiller of the
laiv" — in the words of one of these same " unusable
and obsolete'' Homilies, 1st Part, Horn, on Salvation.
I say, if a man does not fully, clearly, and Scripturally,
hold and maintain this truth, which is the essence of
the Gospel of Christ, in opposition to the Popish doc-
trine of salvation, by man's works, whether moral,
ceremonial, or religious, that man is totally unfit, and
incompetent to preach to Roman Catholics, or to en-
lighten or convert them. If he could succeed by his
arguments, and his eloquence, and his learning, in con-
vincing them of the falsehood of some of their grosser
superstitions, nay, if he could bring them to hold
every principle that he maintains himself — to leave the
Roman Catholic Church, and to become zealous profes-
sors of the Protestant religion ; still they remain un-
enlightened — still ignorant — still unconverted, in the
genuine sense of the word : they have left one form of
religion for another — a form of superstition, if you
please, for a form of sound words: but it is but a
form — thoy have not fled for refuge to lay hold on that
hope which the Bible sets before them — that one, that
276
only hope, salvation through the righteousness and
atonement of a crucified and risen Saviour. A Pro-
testant, who holds not this hope for his own immortal
soul, differs in nothing but in name from a Roman Ca-
tholic. Nay, Popery has many consolations (if re-
fuges of lies can be called such) for her conscience,
that such Protestantism as this does not possess. Po-
pery is nothing but the conglomeration of those vain
hopes and refuges, which avarice and superstition have
invented, and ignorance and guilt embraced, gradually
accumulating through successive ages, to supply that
mighty want of an immortal sinner, peace of conscience
towards an offended God, and of which her apostacy
from the Gospel of the Redeemer, had left the Romish
Church stripped, and destitute, and naked ; and these
vain hopes and refuges, are the rags in which the
mother of harlots clothes herself; she boasts herself of
these — she buys, she sells, she rejoices, and she perishes
in the midst of them. The Protestant faith has cast
these off, and turns back the sinner for salvation to his
Bible and his Redeemer, to that Gospel which reveals
Him as the <c lord our righteousness" — His pre-
cious blood as the fountain for our sins — His exceeding
great and precious promises, as the consolation of our
consciences, and the refuge of our souls. The Pro-
testant that rests not his justification upon Him, has
but " the form of godliness, but he denies the power
thereof:" he has the name of Protestantism, without
the enjoyment of its blessings, and the corrupt princi-
ple of Popery, without the delusive consolation of its
superstitions; and to send out such a man to preach to
277
the Roman Catholics of Ireland, would be sending a
man to enlighten others, who needed to be enlightened
himself — would be like sending a man who bowed in
the temple of the " unknown God" at Athens, to re-
form the worshippers of u Diana of the Ephesians."
I know how very unpopular this statement must be —
I fear that there are too many who will feel a deep
offence at it — but it is the offence of the Cross of
Christ — and oh, may but my soul have grace and
strength, never to be ashamed of it in life or death ! — I
say then as to doctrine, that Missionaries to the Roman
Catholics of Ireland, must preach in all its truth and ful-
ness, the Gospel of the blessed Jesus — or they but go forth
to " sow the wind and reap the whirlwind among them."
What sort of men should they be in their lives ? —
Men who should " not count those lives dear, so
that they might finish their course with joy, and
the ministry they have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the Gospel of the grace of God," Acts xx.
94 — they should " be strong in the Lord, and in the
power of His might," Eph. vi. 10 — they should " be
wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," Matt. x. 16 —
they should " neither be afraid of mens ivords, nor
dismayed at their looks," Ezek. ii. 6— they should
"speak the Word of God with boldness," Acts iv. 31 —
they should u endure hardness as good soldiers of
Jesus Christ" 2 Tim. ii. 3— they should " contend
earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the
saints," Jude 3 — while at the same time, they should
be " gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meek-
Bb
278
ness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God
per adventure will give them repentance to the ac-
knowledging of the truth," 2 Tim. ii. 25 — they should
"follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, pa-
Hence, meekness" — they should "fight the good fight
of faith,"' 1 Tim. vi. 1 1, 12 — "watch in all things, endure
afflictions, do the ivork of an evangelist," (even though
the name of evangelical is a reproach among us) —
" make full proof of their ministry" 2 Tim. iv. 5.
Such men as these, alone are fitted to go forth on a mis-
sion like this, and " who is sufficient for these things ?"
What sort of men should they be in their ca-
pabilities, acquirements, and conduct on their mis-
sion ? They should be men, competent to address
their auditory with plainness, simplicity, and power
—men, who following the great apostolical exem-
plar, should go among the people, "not with excel-
lency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto them the
testimony of God, but determined not to know any
thing among them, save Jesus Christ, and Him cru-
cified," 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2 — they should be competent both
to speak with readiness, simplicity, and precision in dis-
cussion, and still more, to lecture with facility on the
Word of God — for this is not only necessary in ad-
dressing the people on their mission, but if discussions
are conducted as they ought to be, exposition of the
Scripture will constitute the most important part of
them. It is here that the utter incompetence of the
Roman Catholic Priests, will be most clearly and effec-
tively demonstrated to the people — they will endeavour
279
to involve the questions at issue, in the subtleties of dis-
tinctions or logical quibbles, and to lead their oppo-
nents into the endless and perplexing labyrinths of
decrees of Councils and opinions of Fathers, and into
the useless and varied contradictions of human autho-
rities, &c. &c. and in the use of these weapons, with
which alone their Church can be defended, several of
the Roman Catholic Priests, men of learning, and
genius, and ability, are perfectly competent to meet
any of the most able opponents, who could be arrayed
in discussion against them ; and when we permit them
to lead us into such absurd and hopeless questions, we
may have learned in some discussions, which have been
held already, what worthless fruits we shall reap from
our labour. But when they are called on to take the
Word of the living God and expound it, and reconcile
it to their system — when they are held firmly with an
unclenching grasp, to that only test of eternal truth —
when they are summoned to wield the " sword of the
Spirit" it is then their weakness is exhibited — it is the
sword of a giant, in the hand of a baby — it can but
hurt or wound itself, but is unable to inflict even a scar
upon another. I do not say this to undervalue the
learning, the talents, the industry, the zeal, of any of
the Roman Catholic priesthood — it is their system,
that miserable system in which their minds have been
enthralled and trammelled, which renders the effort im-
practicable to the capacities of man, and places it
beyond his power to reconcile it to the Word of God ;
and it is by bringing the Bible to bear upon the su-
perstitions of their Church — by a clear exposition of its
280
eternal truth, in close comparison with their common
and acknowledged doctrines, handing over the Bible to
the Priests in turn, to reconcile those doctrines to the
Word of God — it is thus, and only thus, that full, ef-
fective operation can be given to the system of public
discussion, on the errors of their religion. I say these
Missionaries should be fully competent to lecture with
readiness on the Word of God, and they should be both
aware of, and prepared to answer the passages which
the Church of Rome adduces to maintain her errors—
they should, of course, be able to preach extempora-
neously, as the nature of their mission makes it indispen-
sable ; and should be able to avail themselves of every
opportunity which may present itself, of appeal, of ar-
gument, of illustration, of application, "by manifesta-
tion of the truth to commend themselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God" — indeed, if our mi-
nisters do not generally cultivate a talent of extem-
poraneous exposition of the Scriptures, I know not
how they can be qualified to engage in the Roman
Catholic controversy.
1 understand that there are some persons in our
Church, who affect to make light of this, nay, who
are very much opposed to it. I have heard, that there
have been some attempts made in one quarter, to pre-
vent ministers from expounding the Scriptures in their
parishes to their flocks, unless from a written exposi-
tion, and that a pledge has been demanded to this effect,
that they would never speak extemporaneously on the
Word of God ! ! Far be it from me to depreciate the
281
exertion of talents, so often and beneficially exhibited
in the service of God, as in the composition of written
sermons— far be it from me to undervalue, either the
opinions of those, who prefer this mode of preaching
for themselves, or the labours of those, who, from
either want of early habit of cultivation, or perhaps
from diffidence of their own capability, perhaps from
constitutional defect, do not feel competent to speak,
except from a written sermon — far be it from me to re-
flect on some, who have been the brightest ornaments of
the Church, and of the nation ; but, I cannot hesitate to
assert, that the absence of the exercise of the talent of
extemporaneous exposition, or preaching, necessarily
limits the usefulness, and circumscribes the labours of
a minister ; and, if he should possess a talent, so highly
important in his sacred vocation among his own flock,
so indispensable in labouring among the Roman Catho-
lics of Ireland, an attempt to suppress its exertion,
is an attempt to extinguish one of the most important
beacons that could lighten the night of ignorance and su-
perstition that broods over this unfortunate country. Is
it a time, when all the varied energies, and talents, and
gifts, and acquirements, which the Church of England
can call into action, should be summoned forth ; when
every man that loves his country, or his Church, or his
fellow- creature, or his God, should u stir up the gift
of God, which is in him." 2 Tim. i. 6 ; and manifest
a desire to " shew himself approved unto God, a ivork-
vian that needeth not to be ashamed]' 2 Tim. ii. 15;
when not only the Establishment of our Church itself,
but the moral and religious principles of the nation are
Bb2
282
enthralled by superstition and infidelity, and by a laxity
of public principle, that verges to each, and vacillates
between both — is this a time, to attempt to silence the
ministers of our Church, in whatever line of exertion
within the sphere of their duty, their talents, and ac-
quirements, enable them to labour? and when wolves,
in this long dark night of superstition have been preying
on our flocks in Ireland, and we have been i{ dumb
dogs" in our folds, in the midst of their depredations, is
this a time to muzzle us, if we at length awaken, to
stand up and bark ? I know not to what pass our
Church is to come, if every Methodist preacher on his
circuit, whom we are ready enough to despise, for want
of an academical education, is to hold a vantage ground
over the ministers of our Church, in which we are not
to be allowed to cope with him in exposition of the
Sacred Scriptures. Writing sermons, generally is pro-
fitable — sometimes necessary — notes for sermons and
lectures are always important, and to many, indispensa-
ble ; but it is utterly impossible, that a minister could
write lectures and sermons at full length, as he ought
to expound and preach in his parish. A minister in
good health and strength, ought to preach at least, twice
on the Sabbath day, and to lecture and catechise in
his schools, or in his Church as necessity and conve-
nience may require, at least three or four times every
week, besides reading and expounding in the cottages
among his poor ; and it is not too much to say, that
no man of any nerve or constitution, could survive
long, in writing out and delivering sermons, and lectures
in such a ratio. I have known it tried on a smaller
283
scale by a man of more than ordinary constitution, in
the midst of youth and strength and vigour, who was
forced from failure, both of health and time, to adopt
a system of preaching and lecturing from notes, as being
the only one practicable in such a case.
We hear persons affect to say, that it is indecorous
to speak without deliberate composition, on such solemn
and difficult subjects, as those of eternity. What ! are
men to be competent to all the range of public business
in forensic advocacy and legislative debate — are they
to be ready from such vast and varied fields of laws
and statute books, and cases, and precedents, and his-
tories — from all the calculations of political economy,
and all the resources of the commercial, the financial,
the foreign and domestic relations and dependencies of
Britain — of the states of Europe — of the Eastern and
Western hemispheres — are they to be prepared, not
only to express their own opinions on all these, but to
encounter all, that industry and talent, equal to their
own, can urge against them — are they to be prepared
to do so in a moment, without time to deliberate or to
reflect —would incompetence for this unfit them for
their station — have we to admire some of the finest
efforts of the human mind, in the unpremeditated bursts
of eloquence and genius on such occasions, in the se-
nate, and at the bar — from such men as our Burkes,
our Grattans, our Currans, our Bushes, and our Norths ?
And shall the ministers of the high and holy God,
holding in their right hands, the charter of eternal life,
be unable to acquire a capability of standing up to pro-
284
claim their Master's message to his creatures, those
great and glorious truths which are supposed to en-
gross the whole attention of their minds, and to influ-
ence the whole details of their life and conversation ?
and this too, when the concerns of all the kings and
statesmen on the earth, in comparison, are only less
contemptible in their nature, than they are inferior in
their clearness, and simplicity, and power of inflaen-
cing the mind, and the eternal interests of man — what
are all the businesses of all the little nations, compared
with the occupations of an ambassador of Christ, but
something infinitely less than the bustle of an ant-hill,
compared with all the theory and arrangement of the
British constitution? — what are all their clearness, their
simplicity and power, in carrying an influence into
the mind and destinies of man ; but the fire and the
smoke, and the complex machinery of the little steam-
boat, that labours through the bosom of the ocean, com-
pared with the beam of noon-day sun, that plays upon its
wave, the light and buoyant cloud that sweeps along its
surface, or the mighty wind of heaven that heaves it up
from its foundation ?
If a man is either enabled from natural talent, or if
he can be rendered competent by education, to speak
on any subject, how is it possible that he is to be un-
fitted to expatiate in such a field as this ? Indeed, if
he is ignorant of the fundamental principles of the
everlasting Gospel — if he is attempting to reduce the
great and glorious system of rich unmerited salvation,
which it proclaims to sinners freely, through a crucified
285
Redeemer, to a miserable barter of merit with his God —
if he is attempting to reduce the great and glorious
system of Christian morals, which the Gospel gives
with its principle and with its motive, of faith, and love
towards a gracious and reconciled God, to the wretched
level of a system, little better than that of Epictetus, or
of Plato — if he is turning the joy of the pardoned and
liberated captive, into the apprehensions of the impri-
soned culprit, trembling under the consciousness of his
guilt, and the approaching horrors of his trial, and his
condemnation— if he is turning the willing obedience
of the grateful, happy prodigal, restored to his father's
house, into the reluctant, grudging toil of the cap-
tured and the wretched slave ; I wonder not that such a
man as this, should find it difficult to preach extempo-
raneously : it is a mighty work of thought, of labour,
of talent, of learning, and of time, with all the re-
sources that education can bestow, to borrow enough
of perverted Scripture from the word of God, to give
to the productions of such a system, the outward ap-
pearance and garb of Christianity. But he who knows,
and who rejoices in the hope of the everlasting Gospel,
for his own immortal soul, however invaluable he may
feel (for indeed they are invaluable) the various re-
sources for the work of his ministry, which education,
and talent, and study, and labour, can supply ; while on
many, many subjects of his vocation, he feels he has
occasion for them all; yet, when he takes his Bible in
his hand to tell of salvation to his sinful fellow-men,
he can speak with the unstudied simplicity and feeling
of a man who comes express with a reprieve ; he carries
286
in his right hand a pardon from the King of kings ; he
knows the danger of the culprit, and the glory of the
deliverance ; his heart is big with the blessing of his
message, it will burst, and flow with freedom from his
lips — a stream of ideas and of language spring spon-
taneously from the fountain of eternal truth, and pour
a flood of consolation through a thousand channels
such as these — " This is a faithful sayings and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners." 1 Tim. i. 15. " Come unto me
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest." Mat. xi. 28. H Ho, every one that thirti-
eth, co?ne ye to the waters" Isaiah lv. 1, " If any
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." John
vii. 37. " Him that cofneth to me, I will in no wise
cast out." John vi. 37. These are the messages of
mercy with which to speak to our Roman Catholic
countrymen — the light and breeze of heaven is to be
poured into a dark and pestilential dungeon, the waters
of salvation are to be turned into a waste, and parch-
ed, and thirsty desert. We want the free, the bold,
the ready, mighty simplicity, of plain, clear, faithful
Gospel truth for our country : and to bring the subtle,
tine-spun, laboured distinctions of theology, to enlighten
it, is like holding up a farthing taper to the blast, for a
beacon on a lee shore, in a night of storm.
I cannot feel it a digression from my subject, to
dwell upon extemporaneous preaching, as an indispen-
sable qualification for Missionaries to the Church of
Rome, and for all men who would engage effectively
287
in the controversy. To say that they should be able
to preach in the native language, in those parts of Ire-
land where it is spoken, is superfluous ; except to those
who deny that religion is to be addressed to the under-
standings, to the consciences, and to the hearts of men.
If I were desired to point out the field in which
were laid the noblest path of philanthropic patriotism,
of Christian love and apostolic zeal, that ever was
trodden by the foot of uninspired man — the field in
which was to be reaped the richest golden harvest of
blessing, in the prosperity of our country, in the tem-
poral and eternal happiness of our fellow-creatures,
and in the service, and glory, of our religion and our
God ; I would say to my young friends, who have either
entered, or who are about to enter the sacred office of
the ministry, " Go, learn that language, the meaning of
which alone is sense, and the very sound of which is
music to the ears of three millions of your poor en-
slaved, benighted countrymen — go, ' put on the whole
armour of God/ and ' set your faces like a flint' —
go forth in the simplicity of the Gospel, and in the
strength of the Lord Jesus, and preach the truth of the
eternal word against the superstitions of Rome, till the
sound of the salvation that is in Christ the Lord, shall
echo from every rock around the shores of Ireland."
But the talent of preaching, and the preaching of the
truth, however important, is, after all, but of secondary
consideration, as it regards the capabilities of a Mis-
sionary in this sacred cause. He must be a man of
grayer. If he had the eloquence of an Apollos, and
the zeal and talents of a Paul, and if he could speak
288
the language of the country with a gift like a cloven
tongue of fire, still it is written, " not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." And
though (as all the great doctrines of eternal truth gene-
rally rise and fall together) the influences and opera-
tions of the Holy Spirit are considered as enthusiastic,
and are as much despised amongst us, as the doctrine of
justification, " by faith , without the deeds of the law ;"
yet, it is irrefragably true, that unless the Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon the labours of his servants, they
might as well preach to the rocks upon the shore, as
to those that dwell within the island — a we will give
ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of
the Word/ 9 said the Apostles, Acts vi. 4. Prayer has
the precedence here — a Missionary must not only be
a faithful preacher of the Apostolic Gospel, but he
must be a man of prayer, if he is to be a herald of
salvation to his fellow-men.
As to the acquirements necessary for this office— per-
haps they are by many overrated — a critical acquaint-
ance with some of the best writers on both sides is to
be desired — but as far as my weak judgment can see,
if I were to name the first book to be studied for it, I
should say the Bible — and the second — the Bible — and
the third — the Bible. Let the Missionary bring all the
doctrines, and all the cavils, and all the pretences of
the Church of Rome to the Word of God, let him
think out, and find out the answers to them from that
Word himself, or those that have been most ably given
from it by others. The answers he prepares from that
289
volume in his study and on his knees, are weapons
which, like David, he shall have proved, and which,
like David, he shall he able to use — they may be sim-
ple, but they must be powerful. As to the aids to be
derived from history, and from the fathers, in the con-
troversy, on which some appear to place so much re-
liance; they seem, to me, impertinent digressions from
the mighty point at issue — namely, whether the hopes
of salvation which the men living around us profess,
are, or are not conformable to the Word of God. They
may open a wide field for the display of learning and
research — they may raise a mighty dust about the
question, and it is for this purpose the Church of Rome
universally resorts to them; but they preclude the possi-
bility of conclusive conviction in argument, and they
are not the scriptural and apostolic weapons for bring-
ing any sinner to the knowledge of the Gospel of
Christ. It is "the preaching of the Cross," which
alone is " the power of God, and the wisdom of God ;".
it is "the Gospel of Christ" alone, which is " the power
of God unto salvation to evert/ one that believeth"
As to points of controversy that are either unessential to
salvation, or that are not in the Word of God, we should
never permit Roman Catholics to draw us into them;
and as to those doctrines of eternal life, which that
Sacred Volume can determine, it is superfluous to point
out the weakness of going to the authority of men, to
draw from it that truth, which they themselves could
only derive from the word and authority of their
Creator — it is like a man sending horses, and cars, and
vessels, five, ten, and fifteen miles, to ask for muddy
c c
290
water from his distant neighbours, while he lives close
to the fountain from which they have been obliged to
draw it for themselves — I can see nothing more of
sense, of utility, of reason, or of religion, in the one
than in the other.
Let me not be understood to depreciate either learn-
ing, or learned men — let me not be understood to make
light of ecclesiastical history, or of the writings of the
fathers — they are invaluable in their place; first, as
supplying that conclusive chain of external evidence
for the authenticity of the canonical Scriptures, which
can never be broken, by all the assaults of infidelity or
superstition — secondly, as affording proper evidence for
other points, on which it may be needful to refer to
them — but those points, are not the doctrines of sal-
vation; and the Scriptures being admitted as the re-
velation of Jehovah — it is utterly unscriptural, un-
apostolical, unworthy of a minister of God, and un-
worthy of a man who is capable of bringing forward,
and maintaining the cause of eternal truth on the au-
thority of his Creator, to turn from that authority to
the assertions of any man or men, that live, or ever lived
on earth. Jt is then, and only then, that a man stands
forward as the sound, and judicious, and invincible ad-
vocate for truth — when having determined with clear-
ness and precision, the difference between points es-
sential, and not essential to the salvation of the human
soul — he maintains the latter with obedience and re-
verence to the authorities constituted in his own Church,
and with a becoming forbearance, and a Christian re-
291
gard to the consciences, and feelings of those who be-
long to other Churches; but when he asserts and vin-
dicates the former with bold, decisive, uncompromising
fidelity, in defiance, if necessary, of every human opi-
nion, and every human power, and rests alone for the
confirmation of the truth he teaches, on the sole au-
thority and the sole foundation of the revelation of the
eternal God ; and if this principle is not adopted and
adhered to, in controversy with the Church of Rome,
instead of enlightening the minds of men by the word
and power of their Creator, I see no end to be attained
by it, but that of perplexing and confounding them
with the endless contradictions, inconsistencies, and
errors of their fellow-creatures. Let the Mission-
ary go forward to his work, in a spirit of prayer,
with his Bible in his right hand, and if it be to dis-
cussion, with the catechisms learned by the men
whom he is addressing, in his left ; and if he but wield
the sword of the Spirit as he ought, he will serve them
as the Prophet served the king of the Amalekites — he
will hew them in pieces before God, in every corner of
the country.
What, in the last place, ought to be his conduct
on his mission? He should go among the Roman
Catholics in the character of their advocate and
their friend, and if he does not go sincerely in that
character, he is not fit to go on such a mission —
their advocate, to plead the cause of their temporal and
eternal happiness, against the tyranny of a cruel spiri-
tual despotism, that is at war with both — their friend,
292
to convince them by his manner and his address, that
his opposition to their superstitions, springs solely from
an anxiety for the interests of their immortal souls.
Ridicule is always inadmissible in religious contro-
versy — it may wound and irritate — it never can con-
vince — while he should abstain from all unnecessary
severity of expression, in speaking of their doctrines
and their Church — he must at the same time avoid the
more fatal extreme, of refining away by a false unscrip-
tural delicacy, the awful fact of the guilt and con-
demnation of those who are living in superstitions, that
imply a rejection of that Gospel, in which alone there
is hope or salvation for the human soul — he should at-
tack errors, not individuals — principles, not persons.
Let our Missionaries go forth then, in a spirit of
prayer, w T ith " the fulness of the blessing of the Gos-
pel of Christ,'' for their doctrine — with the weapons of
their warfare, chosen from the armoury of God, with
learning enough, to know how to select those that are
most effective ; and to use them with address, and power,
when selected — with simplicity of heart, and singleness
of eye, to the salvation of their fellow-men, and the
glory of their Redeemer. Let them go among the
people in a spirit of Christian fidelity, and Christian
zeal, and Christian love — and if such means were univer-
sally adopted, as either these, or something better, which
might be adopted by our Bishops ; I firmly believe,
that in fifteen years, there would scarcely bo a trace of
Roman Catholic superstition to be found in Ireland.
If this were an exertion too much to expect, if it
293
were too much to hope, that out of each diocese where
all were pledged to this work, two might be set apart to
redeem the pledge, let there be two, in two dioceses —
nay, let there be for a beginning two or four selected,
as fitted for their office, and let them receive general
licenses from the bishops, or a royal license for the
whole country, and let the bishops and clergy co-ope-
rate w T ith them in their turns, as they go on their mis-
sionary visits. Let something be done, let some stir be
made, some signs, some symptoms, of spiritual life and
energy be shown, that we may not seem wholly dead
to all the duties, which we owe to our fellow-creatures,
our country, and our God.
While a proper system, would produce a powerful
effect in the country parts of the nation, it were easy to
adopt one as simple, and effective in the metropolis,
which might be followed in proportion to their size, in
the different cities and towns of Ireland. Let a meeting
be held in all the parish churches in Dublin, in regular
succession, once every week, or every fortnight ; let a
public advertisement announce to the Roman Catholics,
the doctrines which shall be brought to the test of the
Scriptures ; let these meetings exhibit the form of a
simple scriptural exposition of their errors, but affording
an opportunity of making it a discussion if they please;
let the catechisms in use in the metropolis, be compared
with the Word of God ; at the same time, inviting the
Roman Catholic priests of the parish, and the professors
from Maynooth, to whom the advertisement should be
regularly sent, by the Secretary of the Reformation
cc 2
294
Society, to come in a spirit of Christian kindness and
fidelity, to reconcile, if it be in their power, their doc-
trines to that Word; and permitting any respectable Ro-
man Catholic layman to speak, under the restriction of
previously giving in his name to the Committee : on
these conditions the Roman Catholics will crowd to
the churches. If all the parochial clergymen do not
feel enabled, from various causes, to enter into the con-
troversy themselves, they may, at least, by other means
evince an inclination to discharge their solemn ordination
vow. Let them give their churches, and their exertions,
to awaken an interest among their Roman Catholic
parishioners, for whose immortal souls, they shall surely
render an awful account before the bar of God. We
trust that some may be found, who will devote them-
selves exclusively to this important cause, and that
others shall be found, who will give stated and regular
assistance; then, instead of weak and desultory efforts
in one little corner of the metropolis, we shall have
a universal, a regular, a stated, a systematic, assertion
and vindication of the doctrines of the Word of God — a
steady light, and beacon burning, to guide our fellow-
sinners, our countrymen, and our neighbours, into the
path of everlasting life — the Roman Catholics shall
see we are really in earnest on the subject; they shall
enjoy the privilege of hearing the truths of salvation
freely set before them ; they shall see the errors of
their religion fully exhibited, either in the incompetence
of their priests to defend them ; or, what must be as
conclusively satisfactory to their minds, in the unwil-
lingness of their priests to attempt the defence. We
295
ourselves shall at last evince some proof that we are
about to attend to the solemn vows of our vocation —
that we have at length awakened to some sense of the
vast responsibilities not only which we have voluntarily
undertaken, but which God has laid on us, * whether
we hear, or whether we forbear," with reference to the
salvation of our countrymen, and our Roman Catholic
parishioners, among whom we have been living, as if we
had no Gospel and they had no souls. The fearful
judgments that hang over the heads of those who are
asleep in their watch-towers, may, perhaps, be yet
averted — the judgments that seem to threaten the ex-
istence of our Church, may be removed — our God may
yet be gracious to our land, and spare her, and make
her the sanctuary of his truth and his salvation, for our
country.
Let these plans, or something more effective still
than these, be adopted in unhappy Ireland, and the
Lord may make her a bright example of the power
and energy of faithful zeal, and apostolic truth, in
redeeming and regenerating a nation ; as he has left
her to this day, a miserable and disgraceful spectacle
of that state of religious and moral, of social and
political degradation, to which a country that boasts
the name of Christianity — a country with every bless-
ing of Providence, of nature, and of grace within its
reach, may be reduced, by the power of a guilty super-
stition on the one part, and on the other by an apathy
and indolence, proportionably more criminal, in those
who, having received greater gifts for the service of
296
their Lord, have incurred a higher responsibility in the
charge, and a deeper criminality in the neglect of the
talents, with which they have been entrusted.
In undertaking to write with so much plainness and
simplicity on this momentous subject, I feel, that, not
only with reference to the members of the Church of
Rome, but what is much more painful, with reference
to too many in our own, I have undertaken the most
unpopular — the most ungracious — the most thankless —
the most invidious office, that perhaps any man in Ire-
land could voluntarily undertake at this day ; and I
state the melancholy fact, to show, that I have not sat
down rashly, and inconsiderately, to the task — I have
counted the cost. I can truly say, that these reflec-
tions come from one, brought down to deep and solemn
consideration, through many a day and night, of bodily
and mental suffering. It has sometimes given an inter-
est to hours of pain and sorrow, to hope, that I might
be permitted to offer those reflections, as perhaps my
last tribute to a cause, which had deeply lain upon my
conscience, and interested all the feelings of my heart.
I offer them to the consciences, the judgment, the feel-
ings of my fellow-men, and especially to the members
of that Established Church, which I love from every
motive that ought (o influence the mind of a minister,
though one of the most unworthy that bears her sacred
garb. I ofler them with respect and deference, to the
consideration of all the constituted authorities in the
Church, and to that of all my brethren in the ministry,
assuring them that I have desired to write them in the
297
spirit of one, who feels that he must soon stand before
the judgment-seat of Christ; and beseeching them to
lend their attention to them, under the same impres-
sion, for themselves. The examples, opinions, and au-
thorities of men, so far as they have been in any respect
at variance with our duties, and with the authority of
God, can only be duly appreciated by viewing them as
we shall view them in that day, when the Judge of hea-
ven and earth shall be seated on " his great white
throne." If 1 have ventured to write anything contrary
to his holy will, I trust I shall be convinced of the error,
and be most anxious to retract, what I should not dare
intentionally to have written. But as far as the opi-
nions of men are opposed to the plain principles of
God's eternal truth, I desire to value thorn no more
than the wind that soon shall whistle through the grass
on my grave. It is a small matter for a poor dying
sinner, to be judged of man's judgment; it may seem
however, necessary for the truth's sake, to answer some
objections, which a moderate knowledge of the state
of religious feeling in this country, must anticipate to a
work like this.
There are a vast body of men who will condemn at
once, without even a hearing, without exercising either
their judgment, their understanding, or their conscience
on its contents, any work which throws, what they call,
a slur on the Bishops and Clergy, and who would con-
sider the writer an enemy to the Church, if he had
only even ventured to hint, that there was a possibility
of their having failed in any point of their duty, and
298
still more, when he states, that they have so totally
failed, in a point of such vital importance to their coun-
try, and to their religion — there are many who will
consider him little better than a heretic, for presuming
to question a principle which a Bishop has laid down.
With respect to the general charge against the Bishops
and Clergy, the question is simply resolvable into this —
whether is it true or false? If false, there is an accusa-
tion much heavier than that of presumption, to be
brought against the writer — if true, the enemy to the
Church, is not the man who speaks, but the man who
refuses to listen to the truth. We are called on by
every warning, which a merciful and gracious Provi-
dence can send, to hear " what the Spirit saith unto the
Churches;" and it is not by mutual compliments, on
our supposed or actual improvement, in the discharge of
the duties of our sacred vocation — it is by an honest
and faithful investigation of fact, a solemn examina-
tion of what that Achan is in our camp, which draws
down the displeasure of the Lord upon it, that we can
alone expect to avert those evils, which seem to impend
over our Established religion.
If it is supposed, that the writer presumes to stand up
as an accuser of any of his brethren, or his superiors,
as if he were exempted from the accusation, he dis-
claims the imputation. It pleased God to grant him
five years of health and strength, to discharge the duties
of the ministry, and he has only cause of grief and
shame in acknowledging, that with a conviction of the
evils of the superstitions of Roman Catholics, almost as
299
strong as at this moment — he lived among them totally
careless, and negligent of their immortal souls — he does
not, therefore, dare to throw a stone at any individual
in the Church — he asserts the lamentable existence of
an universal evil, in which he has participated, and in
pointing out the mote in the eye of any brother, he
confesses and laments the beam that has been in his
own. In reference to his having ventured, to examine
the principles laid down by the Right Rev. Prelate,
he trusts, it is a pledge of a desire to be honest, in the
discharge of the duty he has undertaken. For if the
principle which the Lord Bishop has laid down, be de-
fensible, there is none by whom it can be more ably,
and more readily defended — if not, he trusts he shall
be more than pardoned by his Lordship, for submitting
a sentiment to the test of scriptural examination, which,
on a more mature consideration of the solemn duties
and responsibilities, that devolve on the Bishops, and
Clergy, on this momentous subject, his Lordship will
feel, is not to be defended on the ground of the Sacred
Scriptures, nor consequently on that of the principles
of the Church of England.
There are two extremes, which are equally dan-
gerous to the spiritual well-being of the Church — the
one, a presumptuous insubordination to authority — the
other, a blind submission to it : the former tends to
break the unity of the Spirit, and to disturb the peace,
and derange the decency and order of the Church ;
the latter tends to lull men into a blind and fatal security,
even as to the very foundation of their soul's salvation,
300
and to plunge them into everlasting ruin. The Church
of Rome exhibits a melancholy picture of the one, and
there are sects of separatists from the Church of Eng-
land, who afford a sad example of the other. There
are points, on which the poorest man in the commu-
nity ought to be, in some sense, as well-informed as the
most learned Prelate, namely, those, on which his ever-
lasting happiness depends — he ought to be as " wise
unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ
Jesus." On those principles, for which man must
answer at the tribunal of his Creator, he should learn
to think and reason for himself, and that, without in-
fringing on the respect due to those, who are placed in
authority above him, or detracting from that reverence
with which he ought to receive their opinions and ad-
vice, on those points, in which it is his duty, his pri-
vilege to attend to ihem. If Sir Isaac Newton were
alive, and to condescend to give me his opinion on the
delicate refrangibilities of the prismatic spectrum, I
should sit at his feet, and listen like a child — but if he
were to attempt to make me believe that black was
white, or that it was midnight in the blaze of noon —
I should stand up, and look that great philosopher in
the face, and tell him, I had eyes to see as well as he,
and that on such points as these, he must permit me to
prefer their evidence to his authority— where duty,
where conscience, where Scripture, where the great
abstract principles of truth, carry with them all their
weight of clear conviction to the judgment, on points
essential to our own salvation, or to that of our fellow-
creatures, the authority of one, or of all the men on
301
earth, should weigh in our estimation but "the small
dust in the balance" — in that case the question is not
between our equals, or our superiors, and ourselves ;
but the question at issue is between our fellow-men,
and our God. 1 trust a sense of this, has not led me
to overstep in any sentiment or expression, the bounds
of that strict propriety, which should limit the most
grave discussion of this most momentous subject — if it
has, I must lament it as arising from an error in judgment,
and not from a deliberate intention. I feel, alas ! how
compassed with evil is all, even the best that I could
aim to do ; the snares of our hearts entangle, and their
corruptions pollute our every effort in the service of
our fellow-creatures and our Creator — we tread a nar-
row path between the opposite extremes of evil, too
happy, if we are kept, through mercy, from falling into
either. If the u fear of man bringeth a snare," the
pride of not fearing him, may bring perhaps, a greater;
and if there is criminality in the indolence that would
neglect our duty, there is an arrogance and insolence of
heart, in the zeal that would awaken and reprove it.
While I desire then to submit these reflections to the
consciences of my brethren in the ministry, I can but say,
I pray they may be cleansed in M the fountain open for
sin and for uncleanness" — beseeching the God of grace
and mercy, if they be in the main, agreeable to the
tenor of his sacred truth, to accompany them by his
Spirit, to the hearts of those to whom they apply;
to pardon and overrule the many evils which belong to
them, as coming from the writer, and to cast them into
that precious atoning blood, which alone can wash
Dd
302
away the stains with which they are all defiled, and
unworthy as an offering, to the cause of his eternal
truth.
There is one general objection, which I anticipate,
and which I wish to answer, less for my own sake,
than for that of those who make it. It will be as-
serted, that this has been written merely to support
a party in the Church, and to oppose those who do
not belong to it. When I consider the great principle
of divine truth, which, in all that I have written, has
been set up against the superstitions of Rome — I am
aware that there are many, who will call it by an ap-
pellation, which they intend to be opprobrious, namely,
evangelical — I shall make a few observations on this
term, and then on that of "party in the Church."
And, first, I must bear my feeble but decided testimony
against that awful state, of irreverent, and little less
than infidel contempt for God's eternal Word, which
induces many members of the Protestant Church, to
borrow the very words of Scripture, and use them as
terms of contempt and scorn. That names of men, or
of parties, be applied to those, who may please to adopt
the opinions of individuals as their standard of truth,
may be extremely fair — but that the very scriptural
duties of ministers — that the very scriptural names of
those who shall alone be saved, should be held up, as
epithets of ridicule and contempt, in a nation, and in a
Church professing Christianity, is a most melancholy
fact — it is not, in truth, insulting man, but it is an insult
and mockery of God.
303
If a man is anxious for the dissemination of the
Bible, ho is called by way of contempt, a " Biblica" —
if he asserts and maintains salvation by grace, through
faith in Christ, he is denominated an "Evangelical" —
if he professes to make the Gospel the guide of his
public principles, whether he be a clergyman or a lay-
man, he is styled as an epithet of singular contempt, a
" Sawt." What wonder can it be, to any man who
reverences the Word of his God, to see the strides of
superstition and infidelity, and the gradual but pro-
gressive prostration of the Established Church, in a
land where the law of public opinion, among those who
call themselves Christians, is sunk into such a bathos of
ignorance and irreligion. That THE BIBLE — the
VERY BIBLE ITSELF, should be desecrated as a
term of reproach — that that Sacred Volume, which is
the light, the guide, the hope, the consolation, the sal-
vation of the human soul — which it is man's greatest
mercy to receive — his highest privilege to know — his
most imperative duty, as well as his everlasting hap-
piness, to believe and to obey, that that Sacred Volume
should be desecrated as affording its name for a term of
scorn and contempt, is such a brand of guilt and tur-
pitude on the forehead of a land professing Christianity,
that it were of itself, without another feature of the
character of an individual, or of a Church, enough to
stamp it as apostatized, or apostatizing to superstition
or to infidelity. If to maintain, that the Sacred Volume
of eternal truth is " able to make men wise unto sal-
vation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus" — that it
contains all instruction necessary for everlasting life,
304
and for every moral, and social, and religious obliga-
tion — that it is the privilege of all God's rational and
accountable creatures, to search those sacred records,
and to bring to them as the test of truth, the instruc-
tions of all those who profess to be their teachers — if
to maintain that that Holy Volume ought to be uni-
versally diffused — that all men who can do so, should
be exhorted to read, and to study it — that it is the
privilege, and the duty of genuine Christians, to lend
their aid for its universal diffusion — if this be to de-
serve a name of contempt, and if that name be bor-
rowed by ignorance and impiety from the Sacred
Volume, then let the name of " Biblical," be branded
on my brow, and if there be any man in the empire
who points at it with a sneer, I look him stedfastly in
the face ; the more exalted he is, the more firmly do I
fix my eye upon him, as he is the more deserving both
of compassion and of reproof ; and I tell that man, that
if he himself in this sense, does not deserve that
honourable appellation^ it is because he is radically ig-
norant of the value of that Bible for his own immortal
soul, he is ignorant of the hope that it reveals, of the
salvation that it proclaims-; for as there would be an
instinctive impulse, in a man who had been rescued in
the life boat from a wreck, to save his drowning ship-
mates from the deep ; so, never did there exist a man,
who knew the blessings of that salvation, which the Bible
teaches, for his own immortal soul, who would not re-
joice to communicate those blessings to his fellow-
creatures ; and if this be to deserve reproach, then I
repeat, let that title of honour be placed upon my
305
brow, and I ask no other epitaph to be inscribed upon
my tomb ; for I hold it not less honourable to him
who receives it, than disgraceful to him who applies it
as a reproach. Nor is the term Evangelical less cri-
minal in its desecration, when applied as a term of
contempt, in a land professing Christianity. What is
the fact ? The EvayyeXiov — the Evangelium — the Gos-
pel — that is, good news — that salvation, which God
proclaims in his revelation to man, through the right-
eousness and atonement of a crucified Redeemer, on
the reception or rejection of which, his everlasting
happiness or misery depends. "Go ye into all the
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, he that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that
believeth not shall be damned, '' Mark xvi. 15, 16.
Now this Gospel — the preaching of which is the
very office, the very dignity, the glory of an Apostle —
which, if a man professing to be a minister of Chris-
tianity, does not preach, he is a " wolf in sheep's
clothing" — a " blind leader of the blind'' — this Gospel,
which the very host of Heaven descended to an-
nounce to guilty man, celebrating their angelic message
with the chorus of " Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will towards men' — this Gospe!>
which is the one only hope, and refuge of the sinner's
souf — this Gospel, which, all men who call themselves
by the name of Christian, profess to venerate as the
sum and substance of religion — this very Gospel is used
as a term of contempt. A " Gospel preacher' — an
a Evangelical preacher," in the vocabulary of some,
d d2
306
not among the Roman Catholics, but among those who
call themselves Protestants, is synonymous with an
enthusiast — a fanatic — a fool, and perhaps an enemy
to the Church. Of such I will not ask, where are the
genuine principles of their religion — where is the reality
of Christian truth, but where is the common decency
even of the profession of the name of Christian, fled ?
Is it into such a shameless abuse of principles, or of
language we have fallen, that that, which true religion
takes from her Redeemer's wounded hand, as the only
refuge of her soul — that, which genuine Christianity
embraces as her richest blessing in time, and anticipates
as her everlasting theme of joy and praise throughout
eternity — that that should be taken, by a sort of verbal
sacrilege, from the very page of inspiration, and ap-
plied as a term of reproach and scorn ! If it were a
crime to profane the vessels of the temple, what is it
to make the salvation of Him, of whom the temple
and all its furniture was but a shadow, a subject of con-
tempt and ridicule among us ? But I shall be told,
that the word " Evangelical," is not used as a term of
reproach, to men who really preach the Gospel, but
merely to men who presume to arrogate the claim of
preaching the Gospel to themselves, in contradistinction
to others, and that it is their presumption, and not the
Gospel of Christ, which is intended to be stigmatised
by the appellation. Granting that this is true, is it
just — is it right — is it consistent with Christian pro-
priety — with any ordinary regard — any common rever-
ence for the Word of our Redeemer — that the Gospel
of his grace should be so desecrated in its application ?
307
If indeed it be applied to falsehood, shall truth and
falsehood be so confounded among us, that falsehood is
to be honoured with the appellation of truth ? And if
it be applied to truth, shall the name, the principles of
truth, be identified, in scorn and contempt, with false-
hood? To apply it to falsehood, is, to say the least, a
dangerous, or rather a profane, abuse of words. To ap-
ply it as a term of reproach to truth, is a fatal aban-
donment of the very foundations of religion. If the
name of Evangelical be falsely assumed by any, let
the false assumption be exposed, but let not the Gospel
of Christ be insulted through them.
I enter not into an investigation of this subject; I
examine not how, or by whom the language of Scrip-
ture is so grossly abused— it is before the tribunal of
God, and not at the bar of their fellow-worms, that
men are to " give account for every idle word" as
well as for " the deeds done in their body ;" but as it
is important always to ascertain principles, and to dis-
entangle the simplicity of truth from the sophistries of
error ; and as each man who professes to write upon
the subject, ought to be clear, distinct, and explicit, in
his statement of the Gospel — I say, that if to preach
salvation, full, and free, and finished on Mount Cal-
vary, for lost and guilty man — to testify, that eternal life
is not, and cannot be, in whole, or in part, the pur-
chase of human merits — that it is not attainable or ac-
cessible—no, not the breadth of a single hair — by
any works or efforts made by man — but that it has been
purchased by the price of the Redeemer's atoning
308
blood, and that it is freely given, u without money and
without price," to "whosoever believeth on him;"
that u by grace man is saved, through faith, and that
not of himself it is the gift of God, not of ivorks,
lest any man should boast."' If to proclaim salvation
by grace to man through faith in a crucified Redeem-
er, in direct and total contradistinction, and opposition
to that root of all popish superstition, salvation by hu-
man merits, works, efforts, &c. if this be to deserve in
the estimation of some, as it is to be feared it is, the
name of " Evangelical' as a term of reproach — if that
epithet be affixed to this doctrine by way of contempt,
then I can only say, that if a man does not deserve the
appellation, though he had all the other learning, that
ever adorned the Bench of the Church of England,
condensed into the single store of his capacious mind —
though he had all the talent and skill to use it, that ever
graced the intellect of man— though he could express
it in every language ever spoken on the earth, with the
inspired intuition of a tongue of fire — though his out-
ward deportment in the eyes of man, were such as to
acquire for him the reputation of something more than
mortal — though all the wealth of England were con-
centrated in a single mitre, and that mitre placed upon
his brow— " it were better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck, and that he were cast
into the depths of the sea;" for it is written, in charac-
ters that shall last, when not only all the wealth and
wisdom of the world, but when heaven and earth shall
pass away— "THOUGH \, OR AX ANGELFROM
HEAVEN, PREACH ANY OTHER GOSPEL
309
UNTO YOU THAN THAT WHICH WE HAVE
PREACHED, LET HIM BE ACCURSED." Gal.
i. 8. Alas ! let such a poor man sit down, with all his
learning and his talents, " to cast the mighty sum" —
" What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul V and when he has finish-
ed his computation, then shall he lie able to calculate
the gains of his rank, his wisdom, and his wealth, if he
has not been an " Evangelical" preacher of the sal-
vation of Christ to his fellow-sinners. The only pros-
pect of such a wretched man is this — that he shall call
the loudest, and the foremost, "on the rocks and moun-
tains to fall on him," and " hide him from him that sit-
teth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."
With respect to the desecratory application of the term
" Saint," it is enough to make a man tremble at the
prospects of a Church that bears the name of Christian,
when he thinks that of those who profess to belong
to her, in number, in name, in learning, in talent, in
rank — I fear to write how many they are, how gifted,
and how exalted, who dare to take from the pages of
the Sacred Volume, the name which God has given to
his people — a name derived from their very union and
communion with himself — and to hold it up as an
epithet of ridicule and mockery. Ignorance of their
Bible might plead, perhaps, an apology with those who
do not place that Sacred Book within the range of the
education of a gentleman, and who, in these enlight-
ened days, might, perhaps, consider it unnecessary for
that even of a Christian ; but how shall men plead an
310
excuse for a contempt of that, which they themselves
avow as a principle of their religion, in a form which
they call worship, on one day in every seven ; but
which, in genuine sincerity of heart, they confess to
have been a mockery, during the remaining six. They
stand up in the temple of the living God, and avow, as
a principle of their faith, that they believe in " the
communion of saints;" they call on that God in the
language of supplication, that he would " make them
to be twmbered tenth his saixts in glory everlasting ;"
but when they leave the sacred walls, the name is
only found, accompanied with a sneer of insolent con-
tempt upon their lips, which might strike a man of any
sensibility as an unchristian insult to their fellow-crea-
ture, if that were not lost in the impiety, of the atheisti-
cal contempt of their Creator.
I should blush to mention here the name of that
assembly which ought to be held up before the nation,
if not as an example of the purity of the Christian re-
ligion, at least as a pattern of decency and decorum in
its respect for it; in which, if there be some who are
known in their public station, to advocate in their lan-
guage, and to exhibit in their lives, a reverence for re-
ligion, above that wretched standard of nominal Chris-
tianity into which the nation, as a nation, is degraded —
if they stand forward as every man who possesses even
the name of Christian ought to do, to support those
various institutions that exist, to diffuse the knowledge
of salvation through the world — if true religious prin-
ciple dictates their opinions and determines their deci-
311
sions — they arc stamped and stigmatised as "The
Saints!!" — the very name, "a saint" is a scoff— a
shout of laughter perhaps may re-echo its application,
and the gentlemen who have ventured in the outward
form of Christian supplication to pray on Sunday that
He " who had redeemed them with his precious blood"
would " make tliem to be numbered with his saints in
glory everlasting," evince the next day, that whatever
vague ideas they may derive from their religion, of
" the saints' in the next world, the only knowledge
they have of the subject is, to teach them contempt even
for the very name in this. What wonder that the Jew,
the Infidel, the Heretic, and the Idolater should claim
to legislate for such a people as this ? There is a sort
of lingering respect for admitted principles of truth and
virtue, in a country which, even when they have fallen
into disuse, will still survive a little, and preserve awhile
some semblance, if not some influence of their exist-
ence ; which, though it cannot supply the place of then-
energy and life, affords at least a gleam of hope of their
revival. But when not only the principles themselves
are gone, but even the very respect for their memory
is obliterated — when the very names that were once
the objects of veneration, become a theme of scorn and
contempt, then, not onJj" all the blessings of their in-
fluence must be no more, but the hope of their revival
seems to be extinguished for ever. Show me a Church,
a people, a nation, where the very name of the Gospel
of Christ is held up as a subject of reproach — where the
very name of saint is a term of ridicule, and I will
show you a Church, a people, a nation, that is far, far
312
crone in awful apostacy from God — which seems to have
little to look for, but the fulfilment of the threat, " Shall
I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not
my soul b'? avenged on such a nation as this." It is a
melancholy sort of wit whose shafts glance off from the
creature and fly at the throne of the eternal Majesty —
"An atheist's laugh's a poor exchange,
For Deity offended. ''
We talk with great affectation of regard for our
religion — " how excellent, how apostolical, is the
Church of England !"— and truly if she were but
the thousandth part so, in the principles and practice
of those who profess to belong to her, as she is in her
admirable theory and constitution, she would be a
blessing and glory to the nation and to the world.
But let any man who ever opens his Bible, imagine if
he can, the members of one of the Apostolic Churches,
taking that very name, which the Spirit of the living
God had given them as their highest honour, and making
it an epithet of ridicule and score.
Will any man who professes to retain the common
decencies of religion, pretend to say, that he could con-
ceive any of the members of an Apostolic Church,
whom the Apostle had just addressed as " saints in
Christ Jesus," pointing thein- finger at the rest, and
calling them, " The Saints — the Saints ?' There is a
daring presumption of impiety, there is a sort of blas-
phemous indecency involved it, with which the Judge
of heaven hath not arraigned the churches in Asia; but it
is a standing jest in these " enlightened days /" among
, I should blush to let my pen express what
313
members of the Church of England. I write not to
defend the persons or characters of men, I care not by
what name they may be designated ; but I write to
assert and vindicate the principles of truth, I care not
by whom they are invaded. What then is the fact ?
what is it to be a saint? what is it not to be a saint ?
There are multitudes among us, who consider the term
" saint," as belonging exclusively to those who were in-
spired, and they accordingly imagine that it is only to be
applied to the sacred writers, as Saint Matthew, Saint
Mark, Saint Luke, Saint Paul, and think it is a sort
of gross disrespect, bordering on impiety, to mention
their names without this distinctive title: others exhibit
their veneration for the fathers, by bestowing this ap-
pellation upon them ; so we have Saint [gnatius, Saint
Clement, Saint Chrysostom, Saint Athanasius, Saint
Augustine : and there are not wanting writers enough
among us, to borrow a few more from the calendar.
Now what is the fact ? what is the plain Scriptural
application of the term ? The poorest, humblest crea-
ture, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ during the
apostles' days, or who believes in Him at this day, has
just as good a title to the name, as an apostle or evan-
gelist — is just as truly a "saint ;" and whatever au-
thority there is in the Word of God to apply the title
to the one, the same authority is there to apply the same
title to the other. What is a saint ? A sinner who is
" sanctijied by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all ;" Heb. x. .10 ; who is brought through
grace " by the renewing of the Holy Ghost " to the
foot of the cross for pardon and acceptance with his
e e
314
God; who is " turned from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan wito God, that he may receive for-
giveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are
SANCTIFIED by faith that is in Christ Jesus," Acts
xxvi. 18; who is " washed, who is SANCTIFIED,
who is JUSTIFIED, in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Cor. vi. 11. Accor-
dingly, the apostles apply the terra saint, or sanctified
person, to every member of the church of Christ ; all
their epistles are addressed without distinction "to them
that are sanctified, called to be saints;" 1 Cor. i. 2 ;
" to the saints and faithful in Christ /'* Eph. i. 1 ;
(i to all the saints in Christ Jesus ;" Phil. i. 1 ; — all
are alike in Him saints, none more or less so than
another ; so that to be a saint, is simply, in scriptural
language, to be a sinner justified by faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, through the influence of the Holy Spirit
enlightening and regenerating the heart. Now what is
it not to be a saint? It is to be a sinner, unenlightened
— ignorant of himself and of his God — unjustified by
the blood of Jesus — unwashed in that atoning foun-
tain — unrenewed by that blessed Spirit. What is it
not to be a saint ? It is to be under the wrath of God
— to be " dead in trespasses and sins;" Eph. ii. 2;
to be "an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, a
stranger from the covenants of promise ; to have no
hope, and to be without God in the world." Eph. ii. 12.
Reader, you may be one of those who have used
the name of " Saint," as a term of reproach— you may,
perhaps, be a man of rank, and taste, and literature,
315
and talent; your profane wit, perhaps, may have set a
larger circle than " the table, in a roar ;" but alas ! un-
happy man, the best that can be said of you, in your
present state of ignorance, and unbelief of that Gospel,
in which alone there is salvation for the soul, is, that
M the wrath of God abideth upon you," John iii. 36 —
you are " in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of
iniquity," Acts viii. 23 — " except you repent you must
^<?m/j,"Lukexiii.3; alas! there is but a vapour between
you and the gulph of everlasting death — for " what
is your life ? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a
little time, and then vanisheth away" James iv. 14.
Ofly " while it is called to-day" "from the wrath to
come" Where shall you fly in that day, when the
mandate shall go forth from the Judge of quick and
dead, " gather my saints together unto me, those that
have made a covenant with me by sacrifice ?" Psalm 1.5.
When " He shall send his angels with a great sound
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other?" Matt. xxiv. 31. Shall you be found among
those, who have been your scoff while here below ?
Can you belong to them, and sneer at them ? Impossible!
For it is not more certain, that a faithful servant never
made fidelity to his master, a subject of reproach to his
fellow- servants — that a loyal soldier never made loyalty
to his sovereign, a subject of scoffing among his com-
rades — than that a man who was at peace with his God,
or in a state of salvation in his Maker's sight, never
could dare, to admit the contemptuous application of
that name, which he would account his highest pri-
316
vilege, his noblest honour, yea, far beyond all the titles
that ever were conferred on man. What are they all
in comparison? — what is a peer ? — a prince ? A cloud
— a vapour — a feather — a bubble. The relics of a king
of Britain, are lying at this moment in state in his de-
serted palace ! the ashes of a mighty potentate are about
to be consigned to the cold and silent tomb I Let an
angel, whose voice could reach from pole to pole, take his
stand upon that solemn spot — let him plant his foot upon
that mournful, but commanding elevation, and let him
demand of a nation that professes to call itself by the
name of Christian — what is man's most dignified and
most exalted title upon earth? — a Monarch — or A
SAINT ?
With reference to the charge which I have antici-
pated, that these Reflections have been written to sup-
port a party in the Church. This accusation implies in
the estimation of some persons, a criminality of no or-
dinary complexion. Let us examine it a little. A party
is either good or bad, in direct proportion to the prin-
ciples on which it acts, and the ends which it has in
view. If it be granted, that there exists a difference
between right and wrong principles and objects, and that
some men follow the right, and others the wrong;
I believe it will be conceded, that of necessary conse-
quence, the individuals who do so, must think and act
differently from each other, and so far forth must be of
different parties. We* all readily acknowledge that there
are good and bad parties in every state, and we naturally
expect, that a man of any sound and well regulated
317
mind, will not so far confound what is right and wrong,
as not to be able to discriminate between thera, when
called to think and act, and that he will form his prin-
ciples and conduct accordingly ; that he will unite him-
self with the party that is right, and refuse to identify
himself with that which is wrong. If there were such
a rebellion in the land, that there could be no neutrality,
that every man must either range with loyalists or
traitors, what man of principle could hesitate in such a
cause, to stand fast to his post, for his sovereign and for
his country ?
Now, I lay it down as an incontrovertible principle,
that the world is in a state of rebellion against its
God, and that there is no such thing as a neutral man
on earth. There may be neutrality in politics, there
cannot be any in religion. The Redeemer who de-
clares that, " the word which he hath spoken, the same
shall judge us in the last day," John xiii. 48, hath put
it totally out of dispute — for he hath said, u he that is
not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not
with me scattereth abroad}' Matt. xii. 30. Amidst all
the varied religions, or forms of religion, and the super-
stitions which overspread the earth, there are, in the eye
of Jehovah, but two classes, to one of which every indi-
vidual belongs — " the sheep" and " the goals'— for
" when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and
all the holy angels with Aim, then shall he sit upon
the throne of his glory ; and before him shall be ga-
thered all nations, and he shall separate them one from.
E e 2
318
another, as a shepherd dimdeth his sheep from the goats,
and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the
goats on the left," Matt. xxv. 31, 32, 33.
Now, although it is very certain, that it is not for
man, to presume to draw the line of demarcation, or to
pretend to affix to the characters of individuals in ge-
neral, that seal, which it is the prerogative of God alone
to stamp on them ; yet it is equally certain, that it is
hoth his privilege and his duty to ascertain those great
broad principles of God's revealed truth — whether with
reference to points of faith or practice, to which that
truth has annexed salvation or condemnation — if not,
both human intellect and divine revelation, were alike
useless to guide us to eternity. We cannot mark with
our imperfect senses, in this twilight state below, the
intersection of the circle of light and shadow, as the
eye that looks on our globe from another sphere ; but
if we know not the difference between noon and night,
the sun and our sight might as well be both extinguished.
Now, I grant as fully as any man can desire, the ex-
cessive folly and wickedness of those, who, arrogating an
unscriptural importance to certain principles or prac-
tices, would endeavour to excite divisions among Chris-
tians, and kindle or keep alive a party spirit in the
Church, which in such a case as this, it were the part
of genuine Christian charity to extinguish ; but if to
maintain and vindicate the great broad principles, on
which alone the soul of man is to be saved — if to point
out, and warn our fellow-men against those awful errors,
which divine revelation stamps as fatal to man's ever-
lasting happiness — if this be to support a party — me-
319
Jancholy and degraded must be the condition of the
Church — if those principles can bo peculiar only to u
part, which ought to be characteristic of the whole ; in
such a case, and such a cause as this, a man, who values
the salvation of his fellow-men, and the word and glory
of his God — if there were but a hundred men to be
found to advocate the cause of truth, would take his
stand with that hundred — if but fifty, with fifty — if
but ten, with ten — if there were but one to be found,
he would divide with that single man, and if there were
not one to stand beside him, he would stand alone — he
would stand, not only without support, but he would
stand in the face of every opposition — he would stand
alone against a Church — he would stand alone against
a nation — he would stand alone against a world — he
would smile at its ridicule — he would be undaunted at
its rage —
" Si fractus illabatur orb is,
lmpavidum ferient rainae."
I speak of man's privilege, his dignity, his glory, as
strong in the truth and the power of his God. Weak-
ness, irresolution, and vanity, are all he has to boast in
himself: a bubble on the stream of ignorance and sin —
a weathercock in the blasts of folly and temptation.
Alas! how little " valiant for truth" is his heart! how
cold, how senseless, and how dead his spirit! ! O M who
art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that
shall die, and of the son of man that shall be made as
grass ; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath
stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations
of the earth V 1 Isaiah li. 12, 13.
320
If to support the cause of truth — yes, of evangelical
truth, in its pure and genuine sense — the truth of the
everlasting Gospel, as opposed to falsehood, ignorance,
and superstition ; if this be to support a party, then I
admit the charge, and only trust I have faithfully en-
deavoured to deserve the imputation; the shafts of ridi-
cule, or of rebuke, discharged against an advocate of
truth, like arrows aimed directly at the sky, fall down
with an accelerated momentum proportioned to their
velocity and weight, on the heads of those who shoot
them; it is for them to beware of the force of
that gravity, which shall return their feathered and
pointed weapons on themselves : but as to writing to
support or vindicate the character of men, I leave that
task to those who may please to undertake it. It is
not for me to enter into the question, who, or how many,
or how few, maintain the pure and genuine principles
of the Gospel in the Established Church. I have
stated before, and I repeat the assertion, that a fearful
ignorance, or disregard of those principles, can alone
account for the indolent,, the criminal, the awful, the
unchristian neglect of the superstitions of the Church
of Rome, which has so long characterised the bishops
and clergy of the Church of England : but if we must
admit the existence of parties in the Church, that there
are some who maintain the doctrines of the Gospel,
and some who maintain them not ; then, so far is my
intention from that of supporting men, instead of truth,
that I both intend and feel, that it is on those who
profess to maintain the doctrines of the Gospel, that
321
every charge that man could write upon the neglect of
the Church of Rome, must fall with accumulated
weight. As to any members of the Church of Eng-
land, who are ignorant of the Gospel, that is, who
maintain the doctrine of salvation, in whole or in part,
by works, what can be expected from them ? Con-
sidered as consistent members of the Church, there is
a point, in which they are inferior to the priests of the
Church of Rome. A Roman Catholic priest is igno-
rant, indeed, of the Bible ; but, at least, he knows the
doctrines of the religion be professes ; but a Protestant
minister, who maintains salvation by works, is ignorant
not only of his Bible, but of the very fundamental
principles of his religion. It is not wonderful to hear
such men talk of the uncharitableness of holding forth
the judgments of God against the superstitions and
idolatries of the Church of Rome ; not wonderful to
see them make light of the guilt and danger of other
men, when they are utterly regardless and ignorant of
their own ; what efforts could they make, could we ex-
pect from them, to reform that superstition ? They
are ignorant of the nature and extent of the evil, from
which its unhappy votaries need to be reformed, and
of the value and glory of that Gospel to which they
require to bo brought. There is an infinitely less dif-
ference between the religion of any such men, and that
of the Church of Rome, than there is between their re-
ligion in its best form, and the Gospel of Christ— they
are virtually agreed with the former in the foundation
of all her errors, and they are opposed to the latter on
the very vitrl principles of its truth — to embrace every
322
opinion that they can possibly hold, would be no re-
formation of the Church of Rome, for on the very foun-
dation of man's hope, they want reformation themselves.
But it is the truly apostolical, the genuine evangelical
character of the principles of the Church of England, and
it is the very soundness of the doctrine of those who really
maintain them, that exhibits in an awful contrast to their
doctrine, the guilt of their conduct towards the Church
of Rome. No wonder that worldly men should, hold
up the testimony of justification u by faith , without the
deeds of the law" to contempt, when they can see that
doctrine, consist with a practical adherence to their own
principles and conduct, in the neglect of the salvation
of millions, not only of our fellow-creatures, but our
countrymen, our neighbours, our friends, our acquaint-
ances. Ask a man who is ignorant of the Gospel of
Christ, if he thinks Roman Catholics can be in a state
of salvation ? — he will tell you, " certainly, if they be
honest, well-behaved, moral men, he thinks it most un-
charitable to suppose they are not" — is it reasonable to
expect, that such a man will make any efforts to reform
errors, of the evil and extent of which, he is in a state
of utter ignorance ? But ask a man who knows the
Gospel of Christ, if Roman Catholics true to their
principles can be in a state of salvation ? and he must
answer decidedly — " it is impossible, that in that state
they can be saved" — either the Gospel sanction is
totally untrue, "he that believeth not shall be damned,"
or except a man who trusts in the refuges of Popery
repents, he must perish. Where then is the faith —
where are the works— where the apostolical fidelity—
323
where the Christian charity — where is the sum and
substance of the religion, of the men who know this
Gospel, when they pretend to tell us of the horrors of
Popish ignorance and superstition, and live in the very
bosom of it, without one effort to reform it? Are igno-
rance and superstition abstract terras — names of things,
or names of principles, which have an existence only
in the theories of metaphysical speculation ? or if they
belong to beings — is it worms — or gnats — or dogs — the
insects of the hour — or the beasts that perish that are
bowed beneath them? or is it our fellow-men, our bre-
thren, our countrymen, bone of our bone, and flesh of
our flesh — immortal beings, hastening on to judgment
and to eternity, of whom we say and feel, that they
are under the wrath of God? while, though we know the
remedy, though we can extol ourselves for our superior
knowledge, and pity them as poor, blind, ignorant crea-
tures ; yet we can eat, and drink, and sleep, and walk,
and laugh, and chat, and transact business among them
from day to day, without one genuine, earnest, faithful,
honest, cordial, affectionate effort, to awaken their con-
sciences, to enlighten their understandings, and to win
their hearts to the sweet and blessed hope of everlasting
life that is in Christ Jesus. Evangelical ! is this Evan-
gelical ? — Apostolical! is this Apostolical? What prin-
ciple of the Gospel does it exhibit— which of the
Apostles does it follow — what is the practical fact?
We see men most busy in their efforts to send the Gos-
pel to distant heathen lands — I blame them not — on
the contrary, 1 very willingly acknowledge it is a most
imperative Christian duty — we hear missionaries ex-
324
tolled for their * works of faith and labours of love" —
1 join with all my heart in the meed of praise, and
thanks for their exertions. But I take all that can be
said for missions and for missionaries, and I say, that in
proportion to its truth, so is the aggravated weight, with
which it falls on the heads of those very men who send
them, who will speak most " evangelically for Mission-
ary and Continental Societies, and who will extol their
missionaries for their exertions. A missionary ought to
be recalled — a missionary ought to be disgraced, if he
were to act upon his station in any heathen land, as the
very men who profess the Gospel of Christ, the very
men who send him out, can act in the midst of the
awful superstitions of their own-
Let me suppose a dozen or twenty missionaries in an
immense Eastern capital, where there were a vast num-
ber of resident English, but a much greater proportion
of idolatrous natives — let me suppose, that while these
missionaries had large congregations of residents to at-
tend their ministry, and but few native converts — the
natives in general evinced a readiness and anxiety to
hear, when proper opportunities were afforded them,
and that whenever it happened to be announced, that
their superstitions should be publicly compared with the
Word of God, the poor creatures came in crowds to
listen — that their Brahmins were unable to prevent them
from attending, and afraid to appear to vindicate their
errors. Now, let me suppose, that these missionaries
chose to sit down in the midst of such a field, " white
even to the harvest," without attempting to put in a
325
sickle. Let us imagine some of them so exceedingly
prudent and judicious , as to express their doubts, whe-
ther it were the wisest and most scriptural plan, to
tell the natives plainly that you wanted to convert them
to Christianity ! and that therefore they would not
engage in it at all! ! while some said, that indeed it was
excellent, and very much wanting, and they begged to
have their names on the Committee of the society for
enlightening these poor idolaters; but when the day
arrived when this committee was to meet and to trans-
act business, no business was to be done, and "no quo-
rum" to be entered on the books. Let me suppose that
if a few members of this committee, ashamed of the
general neglect of the very vital principles of Christi-
anity, and the salvation of so many immortal beings,
did make some efforts to have a public opportunity given
to these poor creatures of hearing their superstitions
brought to the test of the Word of God ; that they
found it impossible to get any of these missionaries to
stand forward, and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to
them : one gentleman did not approve of the So-
ciety at all — another had really too much to do —
another did not think he was a good public speaker,
(though he could preach well and fluently every Sun-
day) — another was not competent to enter on the points
of discussion — another had, a most particular dislike to
controversy ; — in short, instead of being every man
ready at his post to " preach the Gospel to every crea-
ture" to " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered
to the saints" " with one heart and with one mind to
strive together for the faith of the Gospel,' 1 not a man,
Ff
326
or scarcely a man, was to be found to come forward to
vindicate the glory of his God, and to proclaim salvation
to his fellow-sinners. Let me suppose this the actual
state of things on any missionary station, and I put it
to the conscience of the members of the Church Mis-
sionary Society — to the advocates of the Continental
Society, whether they would feel it their duty, to come
forward before the public, and ask any man to give a
shilling to support such a set of men on such a mission.
I put the question to their understanding — I put it
to their conscience, in the sight not only of the nation,
but in the sight of the Judge of heaven and earth —
ought not such men to be recalled ? Could we utter a
syllable in their defence ? and if not a word could be
spoken for those, who could so totally abandon the pri-
mary duties of their vocation — so totally neglect the
salvation of their fellow creatures in a heathen land ;
what is to be said for those who act precisely such a
part in our own ? If this be not the case in the me-
tropolis of Ireland,, then we have neither eyes to see
facts, nor honesty and truth to represent them. Let us
put away names and parties, let us suppose that every
minister preaches the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ,
with as much purity as the Apostle Paul, and then let
us inquire, what is there of Paul's doctrine — what is
there of Paul's precept — what of Paul's example, in
our conduct to the Roman Catholics around us ? If
he speaks of the awful state of those who "please not
God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding them to
■speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill
up their sins alway," 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16 ; what would
327
he say of those, who will not take the trouble of speak-
ing to them that they might be saved ? I do not mean
to say that those who are so careless, so dead, in this
most important cause, see their duty, in this plain, clear,
scriptural light, and wilfully set themselves against it ;
but 1 assert without fear, that whether they see it or
not, their plain path of duty is, to act among the Roman
Catholics like missionaries in a heathen land, witli this
difference, that the laws and habits of speaking, and
thinking, and discussing every topic freely and openly,
and canvassing every subject boldly and unreservedly,
added to the readiness of Roman Catholics, to listen
to free, candid, and open investigation, gives a facility
of appeal to them in this country, that is not, and can-
not be enjoyed, by any missionaries in the world — and
leaves us the more inexcusable for our neglect, in pro-
portion to the increased facilities of our access, and the
paramount claims of our countrymen — our neighbours,
and our friends. A party in the church ! ! Would
to God there were a body to be found in it, that de-
served the honourable distinction of a party, in such a
cause; a man who knew the importance of that cause,
would write for them, would maintain, and vindicate their
principles, against any man or men in the nation beside.
But who shall dare to impeach them if they are faithful
to their duty ? It is easy to scribble an empty anony-
mous tirade in Blackwood's Magazine, but where is the
man who will presume to take the canons and cate-
chisms of Rome in one hand, and the Holy Bible,
the Articles, the Homilies, and Liturgy of the Church
of England, and the oath of her bishops and ministers
328
in the other, and pretend to stand forward and vindicate
our neglect of our country? I put this solemn question
once more, I put it to every man who calls himself a
preacher of the Gospel of Christ. O ! that it were
printed on every cottage door in Ireland, and that every
bishop, and every minister in the Established Church,
were compelled to give an answer to it, ratified by
quotations from the Catechisms of Rome and from the
Bible. It would do more for this country, than all the
classic productions that ever issued from all the univer-
sities in the empire. CAN ROMAN CATHOLICS
REST THE HOPE OF THEIR IMMORTAL
SOULS ON THOSE REFUGES WHICH THEIR
CHURCH SETS BEFORE THEM, AND BE IN
A STATE OF SALVATION ? 1 answer plainly,
simply, broadly, directly, in the face of all the charges
of folly and fanaticism, and bigotry and uncharitable-
ness, with which ignorance or liberality, whether it be
that which verges to Popery, or that which verges to
infidelity, may assail the assertion — that IT IS UT-
TERLY IMPOSSIBLE, THAT A ROMAN CA-
THOLIC CAN BE SAVED, WHO REALLY
DEPENDS ON THE LYING REFUGES
WHICH HIS CHURCH SETS BEFORE HIM.
I add, moreover, that all the talents and learning in
the empire are utterly incompetent to overthrow the
assertion, for this simple reason — It is truth. The truth
of the Christian religion infers the truth of this pro-
position, and they must stand or fall together. Now if
this be so, I put it to every man acquainted with the
329
value of the gospel, How can indifference to this awful
fact, consist with evangelical or apostolical principles ?
So far from writing to support evangelical men, I
think that in proportion to the evangelical purity of
every man's opinions, so in proportion does the guilt of
his neglect of Popery, and the inconsistency of his
conduct increase. Ignorance of the gospel must ne-
cessarily produce a disregard of the evils of Popery: for,
the religion of every man who knows not the Gospel of
Christ, and who has any principles of religion, how devout
soever he may be, is all impregnated with the root and
essence of that awful superstition : he expects by his reli-
gious and moral duties to recommend himself to the fa-
vour of his Creator; the only scriptural means of reform-
ing the Popish religion are necessary for the reformation
of his own. But a man who knows and understands the
privileges of the Gospel of Christ, and who must, there-
fore, necessarily see the guilt and danger of Roman Ca-
tholics, is, on his own principles, utterly inexcusable be-
fore God and man, for his neglect of them, and in his
disregard of the evils and consequences of their religion,
gives cause to suspect the genuine soundness, at least
he evidently exhibits, the want of practical influence
of his own in the first duty of Christian chanty.
It is, therefore, 1 will not say, against evangelical
men, but to evangelical men, that I would particularly
address a solemn exhortation on this important, this
awful subject. I address it to those in Ireland, and in
the metropolis especially. I trust if I have written
what is false on the subject of the dangers of Popery,
they will have the honesty to stand forward and refute
Ff2
330
it. But if they know, as they do, that it is true,— that
it is not in the power of man to overthrow it, then I
call on them, as they shall answer at the bar of God, to
give up their criminal indolence in this most interesting,
and awful cause. I call on them individually, to con-
sider what account they shall render for their neglect of
their countrymen — perhaps their parishioners, who sup-
port them— when they shall come to appear at his
tribunal. Is it because they hope that their God will
not enter into judgment with them ? Is it because they
hope that all their iniquities have been blotted out by the
precious blood of their Redeemer, that they add to the
number, that great and aggravated sin, of living in the
midst of their countrymen who are perishing in guilt
and superstition, without labouring to give to their im-
mortal souls, that hope which they will say, is the joy,
and refuge, and salvation of their own ? I call on them
to awaken from their criminal lethargy — I call on
them before another season comes round, when they
shall be appealing to the nation to send the Gospel to
foreign lands, to stand forth, and set the example of
what missionaries ought to be, and to do. There is a field
in their native country, such as is not to be found in the
world. Let them not be lying down to sleep in the
midst of their own harvest, when they have been calling
out to the country, to send labourers into another. If
a hero in a battle for the king of England could cir-
culate the spirit-stirring word throughout his fleet —
" England expects that every man will do his duty ;"
shall there not be one man found to give, nor one to
hail the signal, in the battle of the King of kings in
331
poor unhappy Ireland. Alas ! unfortunate country !
when shall any man be found, to arise and do his duty
in your cause ? Your inhabitants, by nature as fine &
people as on earth, are bent beneath a yoke of spiritual
slavery, that bows their intellect, and all the powers of
their immortal souls even to the very dust : their en-
ergies, their industry, their morals, their habits, are all
alike laid prostrate at its feet ; — your soil and climate,
prolific, and salubrious by the favour of your God, from
superstition, poverty, and slavery, and sloth, bring forth
weeds, and briars, and pestilence,like the neglected minds-
of your population. Your government, (to the reproach
of a Christian government be it recorded) endows a col-
lege for the perpetuation of your misery. An institution
for the support of ignorance. An university for the sup-
pression of Christianity. A seminary for the propaga-
tion of superstition. A prison house, where the giant
strength of your young and manly intellect, is betrayed
by the harlot in whose lap you have been laid asleep,
to be blinded, and to grind for the profit of the tyranny
that enslaves you— for the sport of the foe that has put
out your eyes. O, miserable country ! what power can
emancipate ? What laws can ameliorate ? What
commerce can enrich? What agriculture can improve?
What human energy can save you ? What taper could
have dispelled the darkness that heaven judicially inflict-
ed upon Egypt? What sun could have illuminated the
shorn and blinded Samson in his den ? Is there, O
my country, a sword of heavenly temper that can hew
your bands asunder? and are there men who boast that
they can wield, but who refuse to draw it from tin-
332
sheath ? Is there One indeed, to be found, who gives
u deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to
the blind ;" and are there those, who profess to have
been restored to light and liberty by Him, but who re-
fuse to lead you to his feet ?
O, blot upon the name of Christianity ! When,
ye professors of the Gospel, will you awaken to a sense
of what you owe to your fellow-creatures, your country,
and your God ? Evangelical ! — iVpostolical ! — Is it
but a hollow empty sound ? Or do you mean to justify
its application in contempt of your profession ? An
evangelical man who lets his neighbour perish in ig-
norance ! An apostolical church, that educates a
priesthood to teach her country superstition ! Let us
be shown such a man, or such a church in the word of
God — and let us then compose a scriptural eulogium
on the evangelical principles, and apostolic conduct of
any men, of any party in the Church of England, in
reference to the Church of Rome.
When Paul visited Athens — a foreign city, " his
spirit tvas stirred within him when he saw the whole
city given to idolatry ;" he u disputed in the syna-
gogues" he " disputed in the market daily" he con-
fronted Stoics — he confronted Epicureans — he stood up
in the midst of the Areopagus — he stood up like a man —
like a minister of God — like a bishop of a Christian
church-like an evangelist — like an apostle — he stood up
to promote the salvation of his fellow-creatures — he
stood up to vindicate the honour and glory of his God.
333
Did he give money to educate the young priesthood ot
the Parthenon ? Did he levy contributions on the
churches to promote the service of the temple of " the
unknown God ?" Did he act thus in a foreign city ?
and what do we do in our own country ? Some
of us talk and feel, as if our spirit were stirred within
us, when we hear of the idolatries of distant cities
too ; but not a spirit, not a muscle, not a pulse of our
hearts seems to be moved, in the midst of the idolatries
of our wretched native land. Is it because a prophet
has no honour, he is therefore to have no zeal for the
salvation of his own country ? We can readily re-
proach our poor neighbours for their idolatry : nay,
some amongst us can be very angry, and give vent to
our indignation in " sesquipedalia verba," that we are
not permitted to swear, they are idolatrous and supersti-
tious; but we can not only remain unmoved, without one
feeling of spiritual anxiety among them, but can quietly
put our hands into our pockets, and pay our offerings
for the education of the priesthood that instructs them
in this superstition, within ten short miles of the me-
tropolis of Ireland.
Write to support a party in the church ! ! ! What
party in the church can a man support, who sits down
to write with honesty upon her conduct to the church
of Rome — or rather her conduct to the poor deluded,
misguided, unhappy millions of our countrymen, who are
bowed beneath the horrors of her superstition ? Where
were the guardians of the Christian faith ? Where
were the advocates of Christian truth ? Whore were
334
those whom the sacred laws, which incorporated that
truth with the British constitution, placed at the foun-
tain head of all legislative authority in the land— where
were they, when the contemptible policy of base poli-
tical expediency, provided for the education of a su-
perstitious priesthood, to suppress all Christian faith
and truth in Ireland ? Perhaps we shall be told they
were at their post ; but what can the spiritual peers
effect against the overwhelming power of a British
government ? It might be answered, that the members
of a British government ought to be better instructed
by their bishops and clergy, than to fall into an evil so
at war with the first principles of Christian duty. But
it may be affirmed with confidence, that if the bishops
of the Church of England stood up to vindicate the
principles of their religion, and the glory of their God,
on a question such as that, in which they were alike
implicated and dishonoured — if the Bishops and the
Clergy of the Church of England stood up with that
mighty weight of spiritual and temporal authority,
which God has so signally entrusted to their hands-—
there never sat a government in the British senate, there
never sat a King since the Revolution on the British
throne, that could stem the overwhelming torrent of
their moral influence, and energy, and power. If it is
not to us the evil is to be attributed in its origin — it is
to us it is to be ascribed in its continuance, and in all
the accumulated weight of awful consequences, which
that superstition has entailed on this miserable and be-
nighted country. If any man will venture to answer
No ; I ask again, and again, what have we done for
335
Roman Catholics? And if the very stones of Ireland
had tongues and hands, they would rise and point to
live millions of an ignorant and superstitious population
— they would point to the College of Maynooth, and
answer, " Nothing ! Worse than nothing ! !"
There is not a man — I care not who he be — more
cordially, loyally, affectionately attached to the king
and government of my country ; there is not a man —
I care not who he be — more cordially, devotedly at-
tached to the genuine, faithful, scriptural principles,
and constitution of the Established Church ; but in
proportion to that attachment to that government and
that religion, will I lift my feeble voice against the
conduct that disgraces them both : and if it were ray
last dying testimony, and that I were called to bear it
in the face of all the British senate — if I were called
to utter it in the presence of all the Bishops of the
Church of England, I would say, that no man, who
remembers that " The Lord reigneth" can be surprised,
that a Protestant government, which can so far forget
the primary duties of the Christian religion as to
maintain a College for the education of the Popish
Priesthood, should be made to shake and reel to its
foundation, with the political convulsions of Popish
agitation ; or that a succession of Bishops, who can
tamely permit such an insult to the religion of that
God, who has set them up as watchmen in the land,
who can permit the education of men to teach this
superstition to their country, and live and die without
an effort to dispel it, should have their Church over-
336
whelmed, and their religion trampled in the dust, by the
persecuting spirit of Popish superstition. I venerate
the office — I respect the talents — I admire the learn-
ing — and I do not presume individually to judge the
motives of those who fill that sacred office at this day.
I write not against persons but principles, and I trust
I may be borne with when I say, that I believe
there is scarcely a man to be found among us, who will
take his Bible, and his solemn oath of ordination and
consecration in his hand, and who will write anything,
which he will say before the nation, he does not fear
to carry as a plea to the bar of God, to prove that he
is in the faithful discharge of his sacred and his awful
duty, in reference to the superstition that overwhelms
this unhappy country. I write, indeed, to advocate
the cause of a party, but it is the party of my poor
Roman Catholic countrymen. I trust, that though
without the power of assisting them myself, I may be
instrumental in urging on some, who are competent to
the important work; too happy if "fungar vice cotis —
exsors ipse secandi."
Before I lay down my pen, I would address a few
remarks to some, whose names are celebrated by the
voice of fame, for the fervor of their evangelical
principles in the sister kingdoms, and especially in
the metropolis of England, I would tell them, that
while we ought to look to that country with longing
eyes, for strength, energy, wisdom, and liberal-
ity, to plead and to maintain the cause of the ever-
lasting Gospel, against the awful abominations of an
unchristian superstition in this land, we might weep
337
tears of anguish at our painful disappointment; we
might weep at seeing and knowing, not only that we
find no help proportioned to our wants in Ireland, but
that Popery is making rapid strides in England, with-
out one faithful effort to prevent it, except the
little efforts of the Reformation Society ; and that the
man who can speak, preach, and write about the
ev'.ls of Popery, on certain political occasions, and
who can speak, preach, and write about the Gos-
pel too, from feeling its everlasting importance for the
human race; yet in the midst of the increasing and alarm-
ing influence and strides, both of Popery and infidelity,
these men, can afford to Infidels and Roman Catho-
lics a just pretence of scoffing at the very profession
of the Gospel ; and while their fellow-men are sinking
in guilt and ignorance around them, into the gulph of
everlasting death, can contend and squabble, and cause
divisions, and make their triflings on subjects of no im-
portance to salvation,! the shibboleth of a party, like
children fighting for marbles in a house that is on fire.
It w T ere easy to enter into particulars — it were painful
to specify facts at large it were out of place to dilate
on them as they deserve ; but the conduct, language,
and publications of some men, who make the highest
religious profession, are enough to draw tears from our
eyes, if we felt as we ought for the cause of our Re-
deemer. There seems scarcely an error on points not
absolutely essential to salvation, which cannot now be
made to consist with a high profession of religion ; and
there are even some that make us stand in doubt of the
men who maintain thorn Men can talk of the bless-
338
ing of diffusing the Word of God, and of publishing
the Gospel, without note or eomment ; but they can
Gontend for the admixture of falsehood with the Sacred
Volume, and that, in such a shape, as to give to the na-
tions sunk in infidelity and Popish darkness, apocryphal
errors as the inspired truth of revelation ! Men can
now set forth such frivolous trifling with the great sal-
vation of the Gospel, as to prove that more of those who
are PARDONED shall be lost than saved ! They
can gravely call on the world to admit, as gifts of God, such
miracles as set Prince Hohenlohe at a distance ! They
can so write, as to make it a doubt, between their logic
and their theology, whether the Lord Jesus Christ is
indeed " a La?nb without blemish and without spot."
Prophecy is certainly a most valuable department of
theological investigation, and we have much cause to
be indebted to those who have thrown no inconsidera-
ble light on it in our latter time ; but some men will
dogmatize with as much confidence on the views which
they maintain, as if the veil of futurity was rent asunder
before their eyes, and that they were admitted to behold
the truths that lie concealed in the secret counsels of the
Lord — they will unchristianize those who do not agree
with them in their opinions, which, whether those opinions
be true or false, is equally far from the spirit of sobriety
or wisdom, that ought to actuate believers in the Gospel.
Granting that all their views are perfectly correct, were
they themselves not Christians before they were led to
see them ? or are they not adding to that truth, which
God has set before sinners as their hope, when they
make a knowledge of them, in the least degree essential
,339
to salvation, or characteristic of real Christianity ? When
we hear from the pulpit, that " next to the German neo-
logy" (which is blasphemous infidelity,) " and on/y
second to t/iat, is the 'principle that prophecy cannot he
fully understood till its accomplishment" — when we
hear a preacher of the Gospel, set forth such a dogma
as this, we should ask whether that man could know the
value of the truth as it is in Jesus, for his own soul,
if there were not publications upon record from hi
pen that led us to think better of him ? — some men can
make the Gospel but the mere A B C in their theo-
logy. " Christ crucified" is but a trifling portion for
sinners to preach, or for sinners to hear — H Christ cruci-
fied" is but a part and parcel of the Gospel — it is Christ
glorified now, that is to be the salvation of the soul.
It is most true that the same Divine authority that
proclaims a crucified Redeemer as the foundation of
the sinner's hope, proclaims a glorified Redeemer as
the object of his expectation ; but it is as true, that
while the holy and inspired messengers of salvation to
a guilty, ruined race, were " determined not to know
any thing among them, save Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified" that a different system of preaching, is but
setting up to be wiser than God, and gives but another
melancholy evidence, of human weakness, and of human
folly. Nor is it wonderful to see the fruits, of so
departing from " the simplicity that is in Christ.''
Unscriptural errors in doctrine, necessarily bring con-
comitant derangement in practice ; and hence, a dogma-
tical presumption and contempt of those, who may not
340
agree in their views — an insolence of language against
persons, scarcely consistent with decent manners, not
to say with Christian courtesy or kindness — "a biting
and devouring one another" and a practical neglect
of the great and primary duties of apostolic labour in
an ungodly world, can all be met with, in professors
such as these. One would imagine that the coming
of the Lord, of which they profess to think so much ?
were but some tragic scene of man's imagination, and
that Popery and Infidelity were but characters which
lhey dress up in the bombastic drapery of language,
to play the dramatis persona? on the occasion. Is it pos-
sible that men can write and talk with such vast solemnity
upon these subjects, and live in the midst of those who
are daily perishing in these antichristian apostacies,
without making any effort to rescue their fellow-
creatures from the impending judgments of the Lord?
It is like men standing upon a rock, and apostrophizing
tragically to the horrors of the storm, without sending
out a boat, or a rope to save the shipwrecked wretches,
whom the waves are engulphing beneath them.
If my feeble voice might reach their ears, I would
call on all such men to repent of these their sins and
negligences, to remember that a spirit of love is the in-
separable mark of genuine faith before an ungodly
world, that sowing discord, is the w r ork of Satan and not
of Christ, and I would call on them to awaken to a sense
of their responsibilities and their duties. Popery and infi-
delity are destroying thousands in the metropolis of Eng-
land ; and what are those champions of the Gospel doing
341
to oppose them ? When on a late occasion, the political
privileges were about to be conceded to Dissenters,
among whom Socinians, who are but a reputable class
of infidels, were shamelessly included ; and a little after,
when similar privileges were about to be conceded to
Roman Catholics, all, or most preachers, of evangelical
reputation were up in arms — the walls of St. Stephens
were well nigh shaken, with all the thunders of elo-
quence called forth by the occasion ; but, like the dying
of the distant thunder, it is all subsided into the still-
ness of a summer's eve. What have they done against
these evils ? nothing ! Nothing against Popery ? no-
thing ! Nothing against infidelity? nothing! High
mass is celebrating within their hearing — they have Bi-
shops, Legates, and Nuncios, and Vicars Apostolic — all
but the Pope and Cardinals among them. Carlisle is
selling his infidel publications, with Mr. Milman's his-
tory of the Jews at their head; and he and Mr. Taylor
are lecturing on the falsehood of Christianity. There
is not a man in the metropolis of England, to bring
Popery or infidelity before the bar of truth.
What can they do ? Let them go into the places in
that mighty city, where the sound of salvation never
gladdens the heart of a sinner — let them tell the Ro-
man Catholics of London, that they will bring their
errors to the test of the Gospel, and let them do so
— let them take the catechisms, that they are taught,
and the Bible that they are refused, and let them com-
pare both before them — let them invite their priests,
bishops, legates, nuncios, and vicars apostolic to
342
vindicate those catechisms — let them do this in a
faithful, honest, Christian spirit — let them appoint
their rules for the promotion of discussion, and the
preservation of order — let them advertise the sub-
jects of their investigation — let it be seen, that truth?
reason, learning and revelation, are not afraid
or ashamed to lift their heads — let them give up
those divisions which the word of God marks as
characteristic of babes — of those who are "carnal, and
walk as men' — let them unite " ivith one heart and
one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gos-
pel" — let them "contend earnestly for the faith once
delivered to the saints" — let their simplicity, fidelity*
and heaven-awakened zeal for the glory of their Re-
deemer, and the salvation of their fellow-creatures, ex-
tinguish those sparks of discord which their foolish
questions kindle among them, as the light of day ex-
tinguishes the earthly fires that it shines on — let
Christ be exalted, and names and parties brought low
— let not men be misled by mistaking .the " mint and
anise and cummin" for the fundamental principles of
eternal life, and let them not take excuse to make light
of the one, by observing the undue importance that is
given, and the unchristian spirit that is excited in con-
tending foe the other.
Finally, if there be indeed but one — one single hope
and refuge for the sinner's soul — if the two great facts
be established in the understandings and consciences of
men, who have any real title to the name of Christians
— that man is a guilty and condemned creature — and
313
that Christ is a mighty and all-sufficient Saviour;
let those, who hold these principles, and who desire to
promote the temporal and eternal happiness of their
fellow-creatures, and the glory and kingdom of their
Lord, take their stand on the high and holy ground
of God's everlasting Word — let them stand forth
in His name, in His strength, and in His Spirit in
the midst of the nation. If men are anxious to send
out the Bible to other lands, let them hold up the
beacon, of the salvation revealed in that Bible, to those
who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death
at home. If men are anxious to send missionaries to
preach the Gospel in foreign climes, let there be some,
who will set forth that Gospel in its clear distinctive
character, to those who are living in utter ignorance of
it, in our native land ; yea, who are as ignorant of it
as any heathens in the world. It is not by preaching
the Gospel in our Churches merely, where perhaps, a
stated congregation may attend ; or where, perhaps, if
a man be endued with more than ordinary talents,
some strangers may come from curiosity to listen, that
any national impression can be produced, that any ef-
fect can be wrought on the millions who never enter
those churches, who never hear, but who are living
and dying around us, in the belief and practice
of superstitions, abhorrent from the very essence of
Christianity. It is by the most clear, open, distinct,
unshrinking assertion of that sacred truth, that great
salvation, in direct and positive and systematic con-
trast to the errors by which it is opposed, it is by
this alone, that we can awaken men to a knowledge of
314
its nature and importance, excite a spirit of public en-
quiry, and lift up the standard of judgment or of opi-
nion in our country — it is by this alone, we can use
the means which God has put into our hands, of bring-
ing salvation to the souls of our countrymen, and de-
liver our own souls, from the guilt of having received a
ministration of the Gospel, which we have neither ex-
ercised with apostolic zeal or Christian fidelity, for the
happiness of our fellow-creatures, or the glory of our
God. If any spirit of public enquiry can be excited
— any effort of Christian fidelity, and charity awakened
— any body, or any individuals aroused to a sense of
their solemn and imperative duty by these reflections;
and still more, if one immortal soul shall be led to the
foot of the Cross for that salvation that is revealed in
Christ to sinners, the writer shall feel thankful to that
Almighty power, who can bless the feeblest instruments
in His service. Whatever is wrong in the principles set
forth, or the spirit exhibited in their assertion, he de-
sires with sentiments of unfeigned regret, to acknow-
ledge as his own — whatever is true, just, Scriptural,
or faithful to be found in them, he ascribes to the
mercy, and commends to the blessing and direction of
the Lord, to whom be ascribed everlasting praise, do-
minion, and glory, world without end. Amen.
THE END.
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