Do chief, because we have used it with too much latitude, and we have let Rome use it with too much latitude. Do you think, that we make common cause with the Socinian, because he calls himself a Protestant? you think that we make common cause with the Mormonite, or with all the wild sects that call themselves by the name of Protestant? No, verily. If any of the orthodox bodies of Christians make common cause with us, we will heartily welcome them; but if they will not join us, we cannot go over to them; they must show themselves fast and firm friends of our Church; and I would to God that they did, and I believe the day is not far distant, when it will be the Church of England or the Church of Rome, and the faithful hearted will have to come back to the old ark again. But, my Christian friends, in your controversy with Rome, I pray you, keep to your Church, and to the principles of your Church. If the Romanist says 'I do not understand this Protestantism of yours; it is such a heterogeneous jumble, such a great chaos; if I go to the Socinian, he tells me it is one thing; if I go to the Mormonite, he tells me it is another thing; if I go to the Baptist, he tells me it is another thing; which is Protestantism?' I answer, my Protestantism is not negative, but positive; here is a plain summary of the great doctrines of Christ, which I have subscribed, and by which I am prepared to live and to die—the Articles, the Creeds, the Liturgy, the Homilies of my Church. If there are little specks in them, there are specks in the sun; but taking them as a whole, a more glorious confession of faith has never been penned since the apostles' days. I do not for a moment disparage or dishonour the blessed Word of God; but while you look to the sun, without which all were darkness, do not be afraid to take the moon, the companion of the sun, which shines in the light that he imparts. And therefore I say, while you take your New Testament, take your Prayer-Book too; and if the Papist turns upon you ciation. My working friends, I hope you the word Protestant has done us much misare all Protestant advocates in the workshop and by the cottage fireside, and in the assemblies where you meet your Romish friends, as well as when you come together to encourage each other in your Protestant Meetings. I admire, I recommend, I might almost say love the zeal of the poor Romanist. You find him true to one theme: "the Church-the Church-the Church." I freely confess, that I admire it; I only wish there was a change of the word, or rather a change of the principle, and that it were " the Saviour-the Saviour-the Saviour." But next to the Saviour, and for the Saviour's sake, it is to be the Church; and to "set forward the salvation of all men," is the best way to "set forth the glory of God." Yet, shall the Romanist be more zealous to "compass sea and land to make one proselyte" to error and to antichrist, than the follower of Jesus to make a convert to truth and to God? My friends, be missionaries amongst your Romish brethren. Go to them kindly, with the Bible in your hand. They have hearts like your own, consciences like your own, feelings like your own, however they have been fettered and manacled and crippled by man's system; and you may "by manifestation of the truth commend yourselves to their consciences in the sight of God." The Bible, whether it be made to bear on Papist, or Pagan, or Jew, or Turk, or Infidel, or Atheist, has a mighty purchase and power; for there is a witness for God in the secret chambers of the mind, that gives back a response to the truth, in spite of prejudice, and passion, and appetite and superstition. And therefore I have no fear to engage the honest working-man in controversy even with the wiliest Papist; if he lodge his appeal in the conscience, and that appeal come from his Bible, and in the spirit of prayer, God will bless it, and will use the poor foolish man (as the philosopher may think) to do what the philosopher, with all his wisdom, could not accomplish. For God still chooses "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty." Let me further give you a word of caution, Christian brethren, with respect to your rallying point. My resolution speaks of the struggles of Popery, as calling for the most strenuous exertions of "the true members and friends of our Reformed Protestant Church," to oppose and counteract them. In the controversy with Rome, definitude and precision are of the last moment. Now Why the New Testament, the Socinian takes that, and all the various sectarians take it; what is your Protestantism?'-say to him, 'Here is our summary of what we conceive that Book to teach; we do not receive it on the authority of the Church, but because it can be read in and proved by the Word of God; here is our Protestantism?' You may depend upon it, my working friends, you must have some substantial standard in going amongst the Romanists. If you are to throw your shield over all the motley group, that call themselves Protestants, you have no chanee with the Romanist. He tells you -Look what your Protestantism has done; how it has split up religion into a thousand fragments. I say, No; such Dissenters are yours, as much as ours. We do not mean to say, that any but the orthodox Dissenters have anything in common with us; indeed, the rest have more in common with Rome than with us. I grant, that the orthodox Dissenters hold the great truths of Christianity, though they dissent from us in discipline; and so far as they hold those truths broadly and fairly, and prefer Christian truth to Dissent, I believe they will be friends to our Church, and not foes. They must uphold her, as the great "pillar and ground of the truth" in the land, and the great bulwark God has erected to defend the truth in our country; and surely they ought to open their eyes, and see, if they have not seen as yet, that if the Church of England be carried, there is no Dissenting body to stand before the winds of error. 66 But, my Christian friends, oh! let your labour be a labour of love. In your endeavours to win Papists, make it apparent, that however you hate their Popery, you do love their souls, and their bodies too; you love them as much as you love Protestants, except their Popery. As St. Paul said, Except these bonds;" so say you-'Except your Popery, we love every bit of you.' Ah! my friends, if a district visitor wants to do good, let him get the love of the people; if a Sunday School Teacher wants to do good, let him get the love of his scholars; if a minister wants to do good, let him get the love of his flock: not by trimming, but by faithfulness. If a man wishes to do good to his neighbour, let him win his confidence. If you want to do good to your Romish neighbours, get their love. Speak to them in love; pray for them in love. These few simple counsels, Christian friends, I trust you take in kindness, as they are given in kindness. I shall now go back to Manchester, and bear with me the good tidings, that whoever may be discouraged, or may be deserting the Protestant cause, the working men of London are staunch, and firm, and true; that if they fought at one time under the banners of noble and titled men, of whom fewer will now grace their assemblies, they will fight without them as they fought with them, for their God and their Captain has not forsaken them. For my own part I do not despair; I trust in God, the good feeling and the honest spirit of Englishmen, will rouse though late. It has roused itself very much in the case of Tractarianism; and the laity have shewn such a sensitive horror about it, that they are sometimes too much afraid of it. But if they start even at bowing to the East, or at a stone altar instead of a table, though the thing is of no importance in itself, as a sign and symbol it is of importance; and I am glad they are so sensitive, and I hope they will be. I would have their Protestant conscience like their eye; so tender, that the smallest speck of dust gives them pain, and they are anxious to protect themselves from it. When a Socinian leaven got into the Church of England, in the days of Watson and Clarke and others, our noble Thirtynine Articles and our orthodox Liturgy and Confessions proved too strong for the heresy, and the expulsive power of the Church of England neutralized it and cast it out; and I trust, it will cast out the semi-Romish leaven, that in later times has infected her, and that the Church of England will be proved too sound in heart, and too staunch in the Reformation, ever to harbour long in her breast, men who would creep into her bosom, in order that they may stab her to the heart. I cannot but hope, then, that the English mind will rouse itself; and that as it was a glorious English Queen, that nursed and cherished the Reformed Church in its comparatively weak and unfinished state, and brought it to its noble stature and proportions, so it will be a British Queen again, under whose fostering care and protecting hand, the Lord enabling her, that Church will be rescued in the time of her peril. A Queen, who has given good sign of it, in that she had the noble dignity and fearlessness to take a step, which, though perhaps in ordinary and calmer times unwise, in the present juncture was a glorious protest from one who holds her crown as a Protestant; for she went to worship in the house of worship of a Church, that has been branded as "Samaria ;" shewing, that neither England nor England's Queen is so bigotted or so narrow-minded, as Tractarianism would have her. INTELLIGENCE. "PRAY WITHOUT CEASING."-1 Thess. v. 17. Increase of Monasticism in Belgium.-The Constitutionnel states, that in North Brabant the monastic orders are multiplying, and appear to wish to extend their influence even over the army. A lieutenant of infantry, the son of a functionary who, previous to 1830, took an active part against the clergy, had assumed the monk's cowl. Popish Relic.-At Treves and surrounding districts, in Germany, there has, of late, been a great excitement among the Roman Catholic population, owing to the exhibition of a piece of cloth, said to be part of the "holy coat" worn by the Saviour. The number of persons who have visited this relic of superstition is estimated by some at 800,000-by others at more than a million. The exhibition of this relic has turned out a profitable speculation for the priest and for other Popish purposes. Already, the money received exceeds £20,000, one-third of which is appropriated to the priests, and the remaining two-thirds to the town of Treves, and to the erection of the Cathedral of Cologne. It is said that a touch of the "holy coat," repeated a third time, has already cured a cripple of the name of M. Jeanne Aroste, who had been unable to use her limbs for four years, and who had tried all other means of cure in vain. One poor devotee was heard making use of the following language before the shrine :"Holy Coat, pray for us!" In what respects can such devotions be better than the invocations of the poor Hindoo to Brahma or Vishnu. If such devotions do not deserve the name of idolatry, what do ?-Archives du Christianisme. : Chelsea. A meeting of the Chelsea, Brompton, and Pimlico Association was held in the Cadogan Literary Institution, Sloane Street, on Tuesday, Nov. 26th. It was well attended. Mr. James Chant was in the Chair. The Speakers were the Revs. J. R. Barber and J. Stimpson, and Messrs. Binden, Allen, Sibley, Theophilus A. Smith, Spicer, and Clarke. The Quarterly Prayer Meeting of the Metropolitan Associations will be held (D.V.) in the Rooms of the Protestant Association, 11, Exeter Hall, on the evening of January 1, 1845; the first day of the year being the time when many Christians, at the suggestion of the Rev. Haldove Stewart, of Liverpool, repeated annually for some years past, have been in the habit of meeting together for Special Prayer. The meeting will commence at half-past 7 o'clock. Our friends are informed that the "Protestant Almanack" for 1845 is now ready, both in the form of a Sheet and Book, price 2d., with numerous embellishments, a new chronology, and much valuable and interesting information relating to the Popish Controversy. Nos. 1 and 2 of the second volume of the 'Child's Book of Martyrs' are also ready, price 1d. each. The first volume may be had, neatly bound, price 1s. 8d. The Protestants of the United States have found it necessary to check the advance of Popery amongst them. A writer in the Times, (Jenevese Traveller,) under date Nov. 9, says, "The religious people of every persuasion are gradually uniting through the native Americans, in opposition to the Papists; many Protestant families refusing peremptorily to employ them as servants or day-labourers." Popish Funds in America.-The association for promoting Popery at Lyons, France, has sent to America, during the past year, 1,044,895 francs-i. e. more than 200,000 dollars, to aid in the establishment of Popery in this country,-nearly as much as has been received by the American Board for evangelising the entire Pagan world.-Boston Recorder. FINIS the direction of PROTESTANT DEPOSITORY at 11, Exeter Hall; And R. GROOMBRIDGE. W. DAVY & SON,] LONDON: Fourteen Shillings per Hundred, for Distribution. [Gilbert-street. |