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crowded to suffocation, and the entire business was conducted with the utmost decorum. -Ulster Times.

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Marylebone.-Protestantism and Popery. A series of twelve lectures are now being delivered to the Members and Friends of the Marylebone Tradesmen and Operatives' Protestant Association, in the School-room, 10, Gee-street, Seymour-street, Somer's-town, on Tuesday Evenings, at Eight o'clock precisely. The following have been delivered during the last month :-May 2nd, "On the Paganism of Popery," by the Rev. A. S. Dubourg; 9th, "The Church of Rome heretical," Mr. J. Chant; 16th, "The unchangeable Character of Popery," Mr. A. V. Allen; 23rd, "The Jesuits and their Principles;' 30th, "The Jesuits and their Acts," Mr. E. Dalton. The following are the subjects and lecturers for June :-June 6th, "Popes and Anti-Popes," Mr. J. Callow; 13th, "The persecuting Principles of the Church of Rome;" 20th, "The persecuting Practices of the Church of Rome," Mr. R. H. Binden; 27th, "The Inquisition," Mr. C. Sibley; July 4th, "Monastic Institutions," Mr. T. A. Smith; 11th, "The Operations of Modern Popery identical with those of former times," Mr. A. V. Allen. Tickets to be had (gratis) of Mr. Moulton, 1, London-street, Fitzroysquare; Mr. Baisler, 124, Oxford-street; and Mr. W. Nicoll, 13, St. Paul's-terrace.

Southwark Operative Protestant Association. A Festival and Meeting of the Members and Friends of the above Association, will be held (D.V.) in the National and Parochial School Room, Borough Road, on Whit-Monday, June 5th, 1843. The Rev. Henry O'Neille, M.A. in the Chair. Doors open at half-past 4.-Tea on Table at 5 o'clock precisely.-The doors will be closed during Tea, and re-open for the Meeting at 7 o'clock, when the following will address the meeting: Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, M.A.; J. S. Sykes, an Operative; and other Friends.

Tickets to the Festival 1s. each.-And may be had at the following places: Mr. J. Sykes, 3, Adam's-place, Borough; Mr. E. James, 21, Temple-street, St. George's-road; Mr.

Published under

THE PROTESTANT

At F. BAISLER'S

124, Oxford-street;

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co.

W. DAVY,]

W. Montgomery, 1, Pitt-street, Old Kentroad; Mr. J. Rogers, 2, Great Dover-street, Southwark; and Mr. J. Todd, 31, Worcester-street, Union-street.

Tickets for the Meeting to be had at the same places Free. No Money will be taken at the doors, and at the close no Collection will be made. As the number of Tickets is limited an early application is necessary.

The Rev. Robert J. McGhee will preach a Sermon in London on behalf of the Metropolitan Operative Associations on the Evening of the first Wednesday in July. Notice will be given by advertisement and placard.

Excursion to Richmond, for the benefit of the Metropolitan Tradesmen and Operatives' Protestant Associations.-The Members and Friends of the Associations will visit Richmond, and its delightful Neighbourhood, (D.v.) on Monday, June 26th, 1843' in that fast and elegant steam vessel, the Richmond, Capt. Reynolds. The Company will embark at the Old Swan Pier, London Bridge, at -past 8, A.M. precisely, and leave Richmond at -past 6 P.M.-An early application is requested, as the number of Tickets is limited, and none will be sold on board.— Tickets, 2s. 6d. Children under 10 years of age 1s. 6d.-All Tickets to be paid for or returned by Friday, the 23rd.-The arrangements will be under the direction of a subcommittee. It is probable that a Protestant Meeting will be held in the Afternoon, in the Town of Richmond, where Popery is actively at work; arrangements will be made and notice given in a future bill. The subcommittee will also arrange that those friends who choose may take tea together at Richmond, at 1s. each.

Tickets to be had of Messrs. Binden, 58, Great James Street, Lisson Grove; Nicoll, 13, St. Paul's Terrace, Camden Town; Hart, 10, Gee Street, Somer's Town; Moulton, 1, London Street, Tottenham Court Road; Dart, 143, Long Acre; Armstrong, 52, Stanhope Street, Clare Market; Allen, 120, Bunhill Row; Hancock, 55, Aldermanbury; Sykes, 3, Adams Place, High Street, Southwark; Coulson, 2, Tenter Street, Goodman's Fields, Whitechapel; Naish, Spring Street, Shadwell Poole, Swiss Cottage, Dalston; Rigley, 7, Chapel Street, Stockwell; Smith, 11, Exeter Hall; or of any member of the Associations.

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Seven Shillings per Hundred, for Distribution.

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"If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."-Isaiah viii. 20.

No. 40.

CONVERSATION

JULY, 1843.

BETWEEN TWO FRIENDS ON THE DOCTRINES

VOL. IV.

God," he proceeds from the 19th to the 28th verse of the same chapter, to shew, that we are all under the condemnation of the law of

AND CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. God, which requires constant, unsinning

(Continued from p. 19.)

Mr. B.-Lastly, we come to the subject of good works. On this very important point what does the Church of Rome say?— does she teach the way of salvation or not? Mr. A.-We shall see: by the Council of Trent it is declared, that "good works have in themselves a merit, by which they do truly deserve the favour of God; and whosoever shall say the contrary, and that we are saved by faith and not by works, let him be accursed!"

Mr. B.-I know this is the tenor of her teaching, but is not this according to Scripture? I thought the Bible always enforced good works.

Mr. A.-Not as the means of earning salvation, certainly but let us look at the word of God and see.

Mr. B.-Ah, that is the way-"What saith the Lord?" I must admit, I begin to be tired of man's sayings and teachings, of traditions and councils, in these matters.

Mr. A.-Well, then, what does the apostle Paul say? After proving in his Epistle to the Romans, in the 3rd chapter, that "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of

obedience in thought, word, and deed; (for as St. James says-" He that faileth in one point is guilty of all;") but that on believing, we are justified freely, through Christ: read these verses, and you will see this.

Mr. B. (reads the verses and proceeds.)These passages are very clearly against Rome, I perceive.

Mr. A.-Now read in the 5th chapter of the same Epistle, the 8th and 9th verses.

Mr. B.-" But God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."

Mr. A.-And from the 18th verse to the end you will find the same doctrine enforced; and again, in the Epistle to the Galatians, 3rd chapter (the whole of which is on this subject), the Apostle writes in the 6th verse

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"Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; and in the 8th verse-"And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Then in the 11th and 12th verses-" But that no man is justified

by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for the just shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them; the whole of the chapter is very clear on this point; indeed the Bible is full of passages to the same effect.

Mr. B. But if man is saved and justified by faith only, why should he perform good works? he is safe without them, and they are not to be accounted meritorious, you say. It seems to me that this doctrine must lead to very careless living.

Mr. A.-As you go on, observe how carefully the Apostle guards this doctrine of salvation by grace from abuse: read the whole chapter of this Epistle to the Romans, In the 15th verse he exclaims,-" What then? shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." (xvi. 23rd verse.) And see the exhortation of St. Peter, 1st Epistle, 1st chapter, from the 13th to the 16th verse, "Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy." Again, the Epistle to Titus, ii. 11-14.-"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." By all these passages, you perceive, that we are first represented as sinners under condemnation; then, saved by the free mercy or grace of God, through faith in Christ; and then, our good works are to prove that we are in a state of salvation; for by our general walk and conduct in the world, it will be judged, whether we have a living faith or not;-" Without good works," as St. James says, 66 our faith would be vain, being dead."

Mr. B.-Then our good works are only necessary to shew to our fellow-creatures

that we are the people of God and saved by him.

Mr. A.-Not only so, they will do this, but they must naturally flow from love to God, and the indwelling of the spirit of God; and the Christian cannot be happy unless he is growing more and more like his Master and Saviour.

Besides these passages which I have selected, I will just attempt to give you something like a summary of Christian doctrines, and then leave you to read and examine for yourself, and also to hear them preached and explained. The important question of "What must I do to be saved?" has agitated the soul of man ever since his fall from that state of holiness in which God created him. In every clime and nation, the consciousness of sin has led to various inventions, by which he imagined it possible to make compensation, and propitiate a Supreme Being whom he had offended. The costly sacrifices and self-inflicted tortures of the heathen, the ablutions and long fasts of the Mahomedan,—pilgrimages, and painful monastic austerities-all originated in this feeling; which has kept the mind of man, either in a state of slavish fear, not knowing when enough has been performed to make his peace, or puffing it up with pride and self-righteousness, when he could flatter himself that the various good works he has performed were of sufficient value to merit pardon. Now it is the intention of the gospel, to shew the inefficacy of all these imaginations and inventions, which have occupied the mind of man for ages. It commences by this humbling and affecting truth, that in consequence of sin, man has fallen under the condemnation of the law of his Creator past any recovery, or possibility of making any atonement by his own performances, and this has subjected him to eternal punishment. But God is love, and to this love man is entirely indebted for salvation; for having broken the first covenant of works by an act of disobedience, the moral image of God, in which he was created, was destroyed in him, and all his descendants; therefore the justice of God might have left him to perish, But God truly is love! therefore he has devised the means of his redemption ;-" Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."-(1 Epistle St. John, iv. 10.) And now the holiness and justice of the divine nature has been honored, and the claims of the law satisfied by the atonement of Christ; thus the barrier between God and man has been removed: for Christ

has willingly suffered "The just for the ON THE AGENCY EMPLOYED TO unjust, to bring us to God."

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moment the heart has been influenced by the Holy Spirit to receive this truth, and to believe on Christ as the only hope and dependence for salvation, the sinner is savedsaved by grace. (This means, you are aware, an act of free mercy on the part of God.) There is a deficiency in the comfort and happiness of some Christians, which arises from viewing salvation as a distant and future good, while, in fact, it is the full enjoyment of it only that is distant, the earnest is already the portion of the redeemed. "Being then justified by faith, we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."-(Romans v. 1.) The repentant sinner, then, is fully pardoned and freely "accepted in the Beloved," (Eph. i. 6.) that is, for Christ's sake, and adopted as a child; he has only then to shew the love and attachment of a child, by his obedience to his heavenly Father. Hear what St. John "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."(1 Epis. iii. 2, 3.) Thus, you perceive, all who have truly believed, no longer toil like slaves in order to propitiate a God, and purchase salvation-this they know has been effected for them by Christ, their surety, who has paid their ransom; but they serve as children, from the purer and more exalted motives of love and gratitude; the Holy Spirit producing in their hearts a hatred to all sin, a filial fear of offending, a desire to prove the sincerity of their faith and attachment to Him who has redeemed them, by the constant practice of every good work, and a love of prayer, in answer to which they receive strength to persevere in the Christian race. Always bearing in mind the words of their Redeemer" If ye love me, keep my commandments;" and "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Now do you understand the proper place for good works?

Mr. B.-Yes; and I think I understand too, that this is the only feeling that can produce genuine good works.

To be continued.

OVERTHROW THE TRUTH.

AN ESSAY.

BY MR. R. H. BINDEN.

(Concluded from p. 36.)

BESIDES the various orders of monks, friars, and nuns, to whom are committed more especially the work of instruction, there is in this system a very powerful agency, working surely and secretly, for entrapping the unwary Protestant and drawing him from the truth, viz. the agency of fraternizing. Some hundreds of guilds, sodalities, and confraternities, now exist in this and other countries, distinct in their name and mode of operation. They are under the supervision of the priesthood; bound by a vow to carry out a certain defined object, and encouraged to perseverance by having great privileges, in the shape of indulgences, granted them, as rewards for zeal and obedience, and as a remission of part of the temporal punishment due to sin, called penance. Thus an indulgence of forty days, when thus gained, will relieve the person from the performance of penance for that period-the church accounting the work done to obtain the indulgence, as equivalent to the merit of forty days' mortification. If a master instructs his servants and others in his employment in the dogmas of Rome-if a member of one of these confraternities visits a sick person, or endeavours to bring any one into the bosom of the church, distributes tracts, or in any other way preach up or advance Popery, he receives, in proportion to his success, rewards varying from one hundred days, to a plenary (full) pardon for his past offences, for such service.

This will in some measure account for the

zeal and assiduity of Roman Catholics in advancing their faith, being moved, not from the holy and scriptural principles of love and faith, but from a sordid and covetous feeling to merit a reward and earn their salvation of God.

The agency of the Confessional is the key-stone of this arch satanic scheme. It is here every true Romanist must come-from this must he receive his punishment or pardon-here he must pour out his heart, and bring forth from its secret chamber the most unrevealable and hidden thought and feeling -it is here the penitent must disclose everything passing in him and around him. The minister of state must disclose the secrets of

his sovereign and the government-the servant, the secrets and affairs of his masterthe child that of its parent-the husband those of the wife, and vice versa. It is from this secret and awfully wicked place that the plots and schemes of Rome are made known and her commands enforced. In this place they are instructed when and how "to strike the blow" at Protestants and Protestantism. Past history abounds with facts, and living witnesses who have been rescued from Popery, attest the truth, that the fate of individuals and nations are declared in the confessional. Without this agency all others would be useless, and the efforts of the agents uncertain and powerless. Rome by this part of her machinery, sets all the other parts in motion; without its action the entire system must cease and remain inactive. Her movements must be successful as far as she is concerned, for not one command is given before she knows it will be obeyed, and no law or edict issued until she knows by the confessional that she possesses the power of their enforcement.

Thus then, we are enabled in some degree to perceive the kind of agency now employed to overthrow the truth. Those parts of this system of satanic agency already enumerated are only the most prominent and likely to prove effective. False miracles, lying wonders, &c. &c., might be adduced, and illustrated by a reference to ancient and modern practice; but enough surely has been advanced to prove that there is in existence, and in active operation, a powerful and dangerous scheme for the entire and complete enthralment of all mankind in the net of the Papacy, to the destruction of civil and religious liberty-the downfall of the pure and holy faith of the Lord Jesus, and the ascendancy of falsehood, corruption, tyranny, and superstition in this and every land where the everlasting gospel of the blessed God is faithfully preached and practically obeyed.

Against such a combined power and determined foe as Popery, what are we, the friends and lovers of the truth, to do? Are we to remain inactive ? Can we forbear to guard against and "resist even unto blood' this enemy to the cross of Christ? How are the efforts of this agency to be counteracted? Surely not by silence, coldness, apathy, and indifference. It cannot be met by the efforts of single individuals; a combination against must be opposed by a combination for the upholding and maintenance of the truth.A united effort must be made against this adversary, if we we would preserve our lives, our religion, our liberties, and our Protestant monarchy. This effort to be effective

must be aggressive as well as defensive. We all must be, what the Jesuits profess to be, soldiers of Jesus. To this, we in baptism have vowed "to fight under the banner of Christ's cross," not with the "carnal weapons of flesh and blood," but "with the two-edged sword of the Spirit-the Word of God," and this not for a season only, but " unto our life's end." It is a duty devolving on all who bear the christian name, to unite, to oppose, and slay this "man of sin," this son of perdition,-the mystery of iniquity. The religion and liberties of all are at stake, therefore all must be engaged. Associations on purely sound and scriptural principles are powerful as means to expose and oppose the workings of Popery. The young should be well instructed in the glorious truths of the ever memorable Reformation. -The agency of the press should be called into requisition, for by its agency the system of Popery was once shook to its centre; the light it introduces must disperse darkness, and where there is no darkness Popery can make no progress.

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Above all things, let every Protestant, every lover of his Bible, the Saviour, and his Church, implore, by earnest and importunate prayer, the prevailing and conquering agency of the Spirit of our God. Men may write, they may oppose, they may struggle and fight against this direful system, but cannot prevail unless they go forth with God and for God and in the strength of God, who alone can make them more than conquerors, through Him who hath loved them. For "it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."

TEXTS FOR THE TIMES.
No. 1.

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."-Col. ii. 8.

"For many deceivers are entered into the world."-John ii. 7.

"False brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage."—Gal. ii. 4.

"Believe them not though they speak fair words unto thee."-Jeremiah xii. 6.

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They will not speak the truth."—Jeremiah ix. 5.

"But by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple."-Romans xvi. 18.

"Try the spirits whether they be of God." -1 John iv.

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