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such bad arithmeticians that they cannot that flows eloquently and clearly from the calculate which has done the most mischief, sanctified pen, and fervidly and warmly the Record newspaper or Charlotte Eliza- from the sanctified heart, of Charlotte Elizabeth. If I were that Christian lady, I should beth. God forbid that the thunders of feel myself very highly honoured by being Tractarian batteries, or the sneering arrows thus ranked with the writers of the Record of an infidel press, should ever frighten so in the amount of damage I had done to the valiant a contender for the faith out of the cause of Tractarianism. God grant that field, or that all the waters of the Isis and they may both live long to benefit the cause the Tiber conjoined, should ever quench the of Christ by their exertions. God forbid light of such a mother in Israel. Ninethat any power, lay or ecclesiastical, Anglo- tenths of the young clergy who have girded Catholic or Roman Catholic, should ever up their loins to run before the advancing quench the fire of their Christian zeal, or chariot of Romanism, would do well to prevent the devotion of their distinguished throw away their breviaries and their Oxford abilities to the cause of British Protestant- missals, and go and take their first lessons ism. I do not wonder at the hatred the in divinity at the feet of that highly-gifted Tractarians display against the Record, with lady. The reason is often asked, why we all its faults and to say that it has faults, is are so zealous against the Church of Rome? only to say that it is conducted by fallible Why it is that we form extensive associations men; that noble and courageous, and truly to counteract Popery rather than other forms Christian paper-" faithful among the faith- of error? Our answer to this is simply this, less" has done a service to the Church that though other erroneous systems are of Christ which it is impossible to esti- doubtlessly to be resisted, yet Popery is the mate on this side of eternity. Neither giant evil from which most danger is to be do I marvel at the hot breath they expend, apprehended at the present time. If we look and the nervous passion they exhibit, when around us on the signs of the times, or if we the distinguished name of Charlotte Eliza- study the sure word of prophecy, we discern beth is breathed in their presence. It used the weightiest reasons for a strenuous oppoto be their boast, as it certainly is their aim, sition to Popery. Popery, in short is the with true Jesuit sagacity, that the rising great convicted conspirator-a conspirator generation should be their own; that they under the mask of religion, against the rights would make Anglo-Catholics of our children, of man, the prerogatives of God, the legal expecting, I suppose, that an Anglo-Catho- rights of sovereigns, and the immunities of lic child would prove the germ of a full- states; a conspirator against the honour of the grown Papist; and that our sons and Saviour and the peace of man-a conspirator daughters, if impregnated with Anglo-Ca- who has been condemned and found guilty by tholic theology when young, would rise into the concurrent voices of experience, history, the full development of Romanism hereafter, and Scripture, and against whose advances and grow up to be the polished cornerstones the beacon fires of Smithfield still warn us of the synagogue of Satan. Charlotte Eliza- solemnly, and the walls of the Lollard's beth, however, has performed by the grace tower still preach to us with their silent of God, an herculean task towards preventing eloquence. Yes, Popery has been convicted this; and it is not her fault if British mo- of treason against the Majesty of Heaven, and thers are not alive to the danger that threatens against the peace and tranquility of empires; their offspring, and are not instilling into and the bleeding victims which the cold hand their youthful minds the antagonist princi- of death has gathered in from the scenes of ples to Tractarian and Popish theology. The St. Bartholomew, and the valleys of Piedmont stream of Protestant truth flows full and and the dungeons of the Inquisition, all clear and uncontaminated from her pen; utter a warning voice that if we give the and I know no uninspired writings that I right hand of fellowship to Rome, we shall would, as a minister of Christ, more strongly grasp a hand red with the blood of souls, recommend to the perusal of British mothers and fold to our embrace a system drunk than the writings of that inestimable lady. with the blood of the saints and of the marAs Apollos did not think it beneath him to tyrs of Jesus. Though it is true that Posit at the feet of the Christian lady Priscilla, pery's pride has been checked and her lofty to be instructed more fully in the ways of looks brought low, and she no longer stalks the lord, so neither do I count it a shame, abroad like a second Sampson among the but a very distinguished privilege, to have prostrate nations of Christendom, clothed with imbibed a more extensive knowledge of Di- the storm-cloud, grasping the thunderbolt, and vine truth than I otherwise possessed, by scattering the red lightning at her pleasure, drinking deeply of the stream of instruction trampling on the neck of kings, and shaking

thrones down to the dust with her stately tread; yet, semper eadem is written legibly on her brow, and with all the wisdom of the serpent she threads her way into the secret chambers of cabinets and councils, and twines her glossy folds round the thrones and sceptres of kings, and fascinates with the splendour of her hues and the sparkling lustre of her fiery eye, only to sting and wound, and crush and poison and destroy. She does not, it is true, go forth as the demon of havoc, wearing out the saints of the Most High with authoritative edicts, consigning to a barbarous death the impugners of her sway; the decrepitude of old age is upon her, and if she grins with malice, it is with toothless gums, and if she strives to awe and terrify her foes, it is, like Jezebel of old, by painting up her long forgotten charms, and hiding the ravages made in her debauched and emaciated frame. She comes forward amongst us now with mincing steps and bated breath, like a daintily attired woman, robed in the tinselled finery of the harlot, with a brow of brass which the crimson of shame has never mantled, nor the soft dew of modesty ever mellowed; diademed with a wreath of flowers, composed of a few beautiful buds stolen from the garden of Paradise, interwoven with plants of deadly hemlock, plucked from the shades of perdition; wielding in her hand the faulchion of tradition instead of the sword of the Spirit; her head adorned with no helmet of salvation, but topped with the crested helm of bitterness and fiery hate. She comes moving amongst us with a cloud of incense, which conceals her form sufficiently to make that appear a light and graceful figure which is substantially deformed and reprobate and hideous and vile. It is against this system thus striving to robe herself as an angel of light, and passing herself off as the true spouse of Christ, and whose meretricious ornaments and specious pretences have cajoled some of our younger brethren, whose senses were not sufficiently exercised to discriminate between good and evil; it is against this false and Anti-christian system, that we feel imperatively called upon to contend, hoping that the Lord, who can deliver by many or by few, may condescend to use us as a standard to check the advance of the enemy. If false pretences are put forward by the enemies of Christ, then those false pretences ought to be met and exposed and refuted by the disciples of Christ. If a huge system of error is putting in motion its machinery to sap the foundations of our Christianity, and sending forth its emissaries to entrap and snare the unwary, and draw

away souls from the simplicity that is in Christ, then we are bound to tear away the veil from such a system, counteract the subtlety, and overthrow the plots and lay bare the snares of such crafty emissaries, and do all we can to establish, strengthen, settle, ground, and confirm the weak, the wavering, and the youthful disciples of our Lord. This is precisely the work of faith and labour of love, which the Protestant Association is striving to effect. It is, indeed, an unthankful office; it is, indeed, a work so uncongenial to the spirit of the world, so opposed to the prevailing spirit of the age, that men need to have iron nerves, and a heart as fearless as that of Gideon and his 300 worthies, to embark in it. We cannot, therefore, expect the great crowd that are walking in the broad road, to join us in such a work; we cannot expect the mere nominal professor, whose religion is only skin deep, or the formalist, who is a stranger to the spirit of the Gospel, or the man whose religion is worn like the trappings of an actor only for stage effect, to sympathise with us or to aid us in our scriptural exposures of Popery, and our scriptural defence of Gospel truth.

But for this very reason ought those who value .the distinguished blessings of the glorious Reformation, and and can appreciate the value of an open Bible and a Gospel ministry, to support the more strenuously and warmly such an Institution. Another reason why such an Institution should be warmly supported is, that the long repose of the Church of England. from the toil and heat of controversy has too much rusted the weapons of many of our clergy, and they feel loath to enter the lists with so formidable an adversary, with weapons which they have not proved. Many Christian people too, never having seen Popery in its workings, or looked into its real principles, as embodied in its devotional books and works of scholastic divinity, really cannot believe that it is so bad as it really is, and their ignorance of the extent of the evil makes them indifferent to the remedy. Like an uncivilized savage ignorant of the use of gunpowder, who can smile unconcernedly at firearms, when the muzzle is pointed to his heart, so they can fold their arms with indifference, and gaze with unconcern at the Romish sorceress as she scatters her spells from the centre to the circumference of the British Isles, and prepares her instruments of destruction to reap down the Protestant Institutions of the land. With all this indifference, there exists also in the country an immensity of Popery which is unconnected with the Church of

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Rome. The unconverted man, who has not been humbled by Divine grace and yet wishes to be religious, is essentially a Papist at heart. He does not understand the essence of the Gospel, and therefore he puts on the form of godliness but denies the power of godliness. The great struggle now going on is one which will naturally draft off such characters as these to the ranks of Popery. The line of demarcation will be drawn, the trumpet will give no uncertain sound, the voice will be heard, "Who is on the Lord's side, who?" and men will be forced to take their proper position. Do I err when I say that the great struggle now commencing is between spirituality of worship and dead forms-between a religion which worships God with the spirit and with the understanding, and one which strives to worship God with the natural feelings only, and with a fettered and beclouded understanding,-between a religion which enables men to say with truth, "we know what we worship," and a religion which compels men to confess, we know not what we worship, but the priest does." The great battle now going on is for just this, "the supremacy of God, or the supremacy of man." Is God to reign, is Christ to be head over his Church, or is man to lord it over God's heritage, and usurp the prerogatives of the Saviour? Is the Word of God to be supreme, or is the word of man to be put above it? The Church of Rome knows well that her stability, her security, the continuance of her empire over the human mind, depends upon closing the avenues of the mind to the Scriptures, or prejudicing the mind against their sufficiency, and the plain and obvious impressions they convey to the unprejudiced reader. She would put the lamp of Divine truth under the bushel of priestly prohibition, wrap up the pearl of great price away from the sight of man, in the napkin of traditionary legends, or bury it low in the impenetrable depths of a dead language; rolling a huge stone to the mouth of the well of salvation, and muffling and deadening the sweet toned melody of the silver trumpet of the Gospel. The Tractarians follow in the footprints of their "erring sister," of whose faults they speak in such gentle whispers, and of whose imaginary virtues they talk so copiously and so loudly. The Tractarians depreciate God's blessed Word, drag it down from its lofty elevation as the sole revelation of God to a guilty world, deny its perfection, deny the clearness of its light, and roll it in the dust of musty folios, and obscure its radiancy with the dark lanterns of uninspired men. The life blood of Romanism beats in the

veins of Tractarianism, one spirit animates them both. Like the Siamese twins, they may have two faces, but they cannot move a step but in the same direction, and the blow that is fatal to the one will prove mortal to the other. The pulse of Tractarianism may beat less strongly than that of its elder sister, but the same blood that flows from the heart of the Papacy at Rome, throbs in the arteries of Tractarianism in England. The genius of the two is one and the same; if Tractarianism be true as far as it goes, then Romanism is true in its fuller developement. Tractarianism is but the ante-chamber of Rome, the master of the ceremonies that introduces the inquiring mind across the threshold of the Vatican, the bridge that spans the yawning chasm our noble Reformers left between the Protestant Church of England and the erring Church of Rome. The essence of the two false systems is the same. They both wear the cloak of a "voluntary humility," they both glory in the gloomy depth of their ascetic austerities

both rear their heads loftily and high above the powers that be, with ecclesiastical pride and towering ambition. They seat themselves aloft with the disdainful boast on their lips, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are we," and look proudly forth upon a world, which they would fain subdue and trample beneath their foot. They fear not the wisdom of man; they fear not the eloquence of man; they laugh to scorn the learning and the intellect of man. But shall I tell you what they do fear, aye, fear as Belshazzar feared the mystic characters traced on his palace wall? the open Bible, the "still small voice" of Omnipotence. They cannot bear an unfettered Bible. I remember an anecdote of a clergyman visiting a gentleman of profligate character, and finding a Bible chained in his hall. Upon inquiring why the owner had acted in so extraordinary a way with the Word of God, the wretched man replied, "I never opened it but it spoke against me, and so I chained it down to prevent it flying in my face." And thus the Bible must be chained, a padlock must be clapped upon its sacred pages, or its character must be traduced and sullied, and its sufficiency as a rule of faith denied, for fear it should fly in the face of Romanism and its close ally Tractarianism. open Bible won the Reformation, and if our Reformation blessings are to be perpetuated, it will be by that Word having free course and being glorified amongst us. Closely compact as the structure of the Papacy may appear, impenetrable as it may be to the

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shafts of human learning, and the flashes of past history can inform us what Popery ramhuman rhetoric and wit, it is not impregna- pant is capable of doing. There is only one ble against the sword of the Spirit-that divinely tempered weapon can penetrate every joint in the armour of the man of sin, can pierce every coat of mail which Romanism may buckle round her stalwart limbs. Rome now may gather up her energies for an imaginary conquest of the world, and dream again of walking on the necks of kings, and towering proudly as a queen above the storm and the whirlwind, the strength of man and the power of the press; but there is an energy and a might in that Word which the Lord hath spoken, that will break down her strongest battlements, plough up her deep foundations, and at last dash her proud summit in ruin to the dust. In contending against this system, therefore, in endeavouring to stay the plague and stem the torrent of Popish leaven which is infusing itself amongst our population, it is of the utmost importance to act on the broad and fundamental principle that, "the Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants; " we must oppose error with truth, we must hold up the shield of truth if we wish to ward off the shafts of corruption; "to the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." This is precisely the way in which the Protestant Association strives to work upon the public mind. Romanism puts forth statements of error; the Association puts forth statements of truth. Romanism falsifies historic facts, and pollutes the current of historical evidence; the Society lets history speak for herself, and publishes a naked narrative of plain and unvarnished facts. The emissaries of Rome strive to deceive the politicians of the day, and lead them astray as to the real bearing of religious and ecclesiastical questions; the Society endeavours to make its voice heard by its Petitions in the British House of Parliament, protesting against these misrepresentations, and placing facts, broadly and clearly, before the minds of British legislators. If the cloven foot of Rome is apparent in any legislative measure, they strive by the platform and the press to point it out to the people of England, because they know that where she can introduce her foot she will be soon in, head and shoulders, arms, body, and all-because they know that if she is allowed to thrust in her little finger, she will very soon grasp the reins, turn and twist the vessel of the State which way she will, and scourge us with scorpions, as she did our fathers of old. Popery unresisted is, and ever must be, Popery rampant; and

way of keeping off an inundation, and that is, by erecting a barrier against its advance. We did fondly hope in days gone by, that there existed between us and Rome a barrier loftier than the Pyrenees and more impassable than the Alps. We did hope that the hold and influence which the Word of God exercised on the British mind, was sufficiently strong to prove England's safeguard against the blandishments, as well as the grating thunders of the Scarlet Lady. We did hope that Rome and England were so far asunder by the pious labours of our martyred Ridleys, and Latimers, and Cranmers, that it would be easier for the lips of Etna's crater to meet, when the mountain laboured with the throes of an eruption, than for Lambeth and the Vatican to embrace and form an alliance. The Tractarians, however, have taught us a useful lesson; they have taught us to look more closely to defences, and watch with greater vigilance the thirty-nine noble buttresses of our country's faith. They have taught us not to be highminded and vain-confident, but to strengthen our standing on the immoveable rock of God's Word, and to instil more diligently into the minds of the rising generation a veneration and a love for the lively oracles of our God. They have taught us to do what this Society is doing, and what I trust you are all anxious to help it in doing, to spread far and wide throughout the country able exposures of Popery, written in a Christian spirit, and solemn warnings against the peculiar dangers of the present times, and clear expositions and statements of Protestant truth. As the shadows of darkness come down upon the land by the overshadowing wings of the spirit of Antichrist, we are bound to spread in every direction the light which flows richly forth from the religion of Christ. This the Society does. The religion of Protestants is the religion of Christ, because it is the religion of the Bible, which is the Word of Christ. It is not founded, like the Church of Rome, on man,-it is not dependent like Rome on the word of man, but it rests on the solid and immoveable rock of Divine Truth. It existed long before Luther, in the Old and New Testaments, and in the hearts of those who read and believed the lively oracles. It existed under the axe, and at the stake, in the cavern of the mountain rock, and in the gloomy vaults of the Inquisition. It existed, Sir, in the storm-blast of persecution, spread its roots wide in a soil watered profusely with the blood of its professors, budded and blos

somed and expanded the noble foliage of its colossal branches in an atmosphere which wafted up to the ear of the Eternal the death groans of its martyred champions, and like the tall and graceful mountain pine, with an elastic spring reared its head more loftily toward its native skies, as each cloud of trouble rolled heavily away. And why was all this? The bush was surrounded with the hottest flames, but not a fraction was consumed. Why? Simply because one like unto the Son of man walked with her through the scorching fire, and fulfilled his sacred promise, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." The Protestant Church in Ireland is now furnishing us with a similar illustration of the faithfulness of our covenant God, and bearing witness to the wide world that the Protestant religion still retains its vitality, and its expansive power. There she is, suffering in meek and uncomplaining submission, an amount of persecution which must be felt, to be understood; there she is, labouring in the very centre of the furnace, renewing her strength with almost everything to depress her, lengthening her cords and strengthening her stakes in the midst of fierce opposition by her foes, and unaccountable desertion by her friends. Like a cork upon the waters she has received many a hard blow, and a long series of grievous discouragements; but she has always floated up again to the surface; she has always retained her buoyancy, and there she is, still shorn of her revenues, robbed of her bishops, deprived of all national help in instructing her children, and yet more vigorous, more useful, more lively than ever. And why? What has enabled her to survive? What has enabled her to fold her flocks safely among the ravening wolves of Rome, and float her noble freight of Scripture truth securely over the wild billows of tribulation? Simply because the Lord Jehovah has been with her, and his strength has been made perfect in her weakness. That merciful being who

Treads with majestic step the flood,
And walks on the mountain wave,

stretched forth his arm, as to the sinking Peter of old, held her in the hollow of his hand, and shielded her with his outstretched wings. Simply because the command had been issued from the Eternal throne, "Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it," and her adversaries could go no farther than Satan

with the patriarch Job, spoil her of her outward substance, and destroy her peace and comfort, but could not touch her life. God grant in the riches of his infinite mercy, that her latter end may be like the patient patriarch's; that her flocks may be doubled, that spiritual prosperity may be poured forth upon her, and that the Lord may give her sons and daughters who may be the fairest among the wise virgins who enter with the bridegroom to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The past triumphs, the present spiritual triumphs of Protestantism, may well lead us to look forward with cheerful courage to the future. The God of truth remains unchangeably the same. The cause of truth depends not on man; it is God who works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure, when we battle valiantly for the truth, and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. While the signs of the times, therefore, stir us up to renewed exertion, let us not despond. The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Let faith sustain us in our conflict with the powers of darkness, and prayer water every step we take in defence of the truth. We have the faithful promise of our God, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." If God will do this for two, how much more for the many thousands of the British Israel, when their devotions mingle harmoniously before his mercy-seat. Oh! my friends, do not be content with attending Protestant Meetings, and applauding Protestant speeches, and putting money into the plate at the door; but when you go home, shut the door of your closet, and invoke the blessing of your Father who seeth in secret, on this and all kindred Institutions. We cannot do without your gold, we can do still less without your prayers. the cause of Christ, then, your fervent prayers. Pray with the morning dawn and the closing shades of night for our Protestant Churches, and the men who labour as the watchmen of the Lord on their ramparts and fortifications. Oh! if the united, fervent, persevering prayers of the four thousand hearts now within this room ascended up daily as a dense column of sweet incense to the throne of that God who heareth prayer, sure I am that they would be poured down again upon our Protestant churches in refreshing showers of that blessed Spirit whose dovelike influences would be succeeded by peace within our walls, and prosperity within our palaces.

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