Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

some, their hearts, and some, their indifference, with the worst of enemies, in the worst of causes; who are not only deluded themselves, but help to delude others to utter destruction, by the weakest and most groundless insinuations, by the most specious and insidious arguments, and by all the most absurd methods by which any cause was ever supported and propagated. Our minds, Reverend Brethren, in these matters, which very deeply concern us, ought to be stirred up, by way of remembrance and caution. The devices and designs of the church of Rome have, during many years of internal tranquillity and of foreign wars, slipped out of our memory, and we have passed insensibly into a perilous amnesty-into a hollow and insidious truce with our old and inveterate foe. Like an emeritus miles, our Church has been reposing herself in a dangerous slumber, in a vain imagination-that, rude donata, she has no further need to enter the lists of controversial war.

It is, however, full time for her to awake, unless she means to sleep the sleep of death. The enemy is within the gates of the citadel:

"the Philistines are upon thee, Sampson." If thy strength be departed from thee, they will put out thine eyes, bind thee with fetters of brass, and make thee grind in the prison house. God, in order to try and prove what was in the hearts

of his ancient people, permitted the Canaanite to remain amongst them. Thus, as a test of our obedience, and "love of truth," has he left the Papists amongst us, as pricks in our eyes, and thorns in our sides, to vex us in the land wherein we dwell. Oft, in happier days, has our Church, by the word of God, and the force of truth, driven from the field the Papal antichrist. But, to use a figure, Antæus like, he rises from the ground of his past defeats, refreshed and cherished by the powers of his mother earth, and the God of this world. Collecting all his might, he now dilated stands, with his stature aspiring to the sky, anticipating fresh conquests over a foe, weak, wavering, and divided. It is no longer safe for our own interests, nor faithful to the sacred trust committed to our charge, to rest upon our arms in supposed security. We must change the peaceful toga of our sacred office for the martial sagum of polemic theology. The thorny field of controversy is, indeed, neither pleasant nor profitable; but it is our duty not to suffer our folds to be invaded with impunity, nor our lambs to be carried off by the prowling wolf. Imperious necessity imposes upon us a painful task, and our sacerdotal oath binds it most solemnly upon our consciences. By our ordination vows, upon the faith of which we have been received into the ministry of the Church, it becomes our bounden duty to be ready,

C.

with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous doctrine. The venerable Clergy of our Establishment, like their ancestors of old, must be found in the first lines of the hottest battle, contending for that pure and reformed religion, which has been for ages the glory of England, the pride of our Church, and a blessing to the whole Christian world.

We now come to consider the several devices of our old and inveterate foe, to overturn the Protestant Church. The pages of sacred history record those unchristian councils on whose authority the church of Rome rests her confidence and strength. Summoning to her aid the spirits of the darker ages, fiction and fable; encircling herself within the magic ring of lying wonders; deeply intrenched in the Papal formulary of Pius the Fourth, and fortifying herself, as with a mighty bulwark, by the edicts of the tridentine fiat-she goes forth in her fancied strength, to bring into obedience every thought and imagination which opposeth itself to her authority, that she may again sit enthroned, as in the ages of

If the creed of Pius the Fourth can be seriously believed, it may again be cruelly acted upon, if power was again given to its votaries to do so-it is still the faith of the church of Rome-we must infer, "that the church of Rome has not partaken of the supposed illumination of the age we live in."-Townsend's Accusations of History.

mental slavery and darkness, queen of all the churches. Every plan and effort to arrest her progress she treats with self-confident contempt, and laughs at the parade of missionary labours, reformation societies, and all the bustle of circulating prayer books, homilies, and bibles. The distribution of these sacred volumes of our faith, she compares to poisoned bread given by a master to his household.

For the mighty work of reducing this Protestant nation to the Popish faith and yoke, the Romanists have enlisted into their service men of divers talents, parties, and occupations; choice spirits, whose name may not improperly be called

Legion, for they are many." The eye of observance, that marks passing events, has noticed,

Who can read the old legendary tales of the Romish church, and the modern lying wonders of Hohenloe, and others, and not call to mind one of the prophetic marks of the man of sin-"Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish."-2 Thess. ii. 9, 10.

• The acrimonious spirit with which a Romanist, in the Town-hall at Leicester, uttered this sentiment, the false, insidious allusion he made to tithes, and the stern aspect he assumed, struck the mind with an awful reminiscence of former times.

for several years past, a powerful body of mercenaries marching in the train of their political camp; the demagogues of turbulence, the demons of falsehood, and the fiends of delusion, proceeding, as pioneers, to smooth and prepare their way. To persons unacquainted with the temper of the Romish hierarchy, the nature of the books they are distributing, and the various modes in which they are secretly, though effectually, carrying on their aggressions against the Church of England, these expressions may appear harsh, and unbecoming the pulpit. And though we are not always justified in answering a fool in his folly, yet necessity may sometimes compel us, in selfdefence, to retort with asperity upon a calumniating foe. The false colouring which Popish writers give to history-the lying statements, and insidious versions, which their partizans publish of the Reformation-and the wilful and malicious misrepresentations spread abroad respecting our Protestant Constitution-more than warrant the lauguage of indignation and reprobation. Let our words be ascribed to their proper motive, as not originating in malevolence towards any person, but proceeding from a desire of vindicating truth, and defending honesty. It would not, indeed, be just to the pious memory of those, to whom we

See Cobbett's Account of the Reformation, and Lingard's History of England.

« ZurückWeiter »