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 6 I /'-^ f y/// '/A 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 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