Gospel, and that in this result of their ministry, according to their own appreciation of the design of Christianity, all its objects were accomplished.

Let us imagine such a person transported from the assembly of the primitive Christians at Corinth, or at Ephesus, where he had been familiarized with the unostentatious spirit and lowly circumstances of the first teachers of Christianity, and brought into contact with the Church of Rome in the zenith of its power, or even as it now exists in some European countries. Then unfold to him its history; inform him of the lofty pretensions it makes to spiritual monarchy; exhibit its ritual; and explain the offices and ordinances of its hierarchy-and what would be his astonishment and horror! Shew him the Pope in the assumed character of St. Peter's successor, encircled with reverence and majesty, having a large silver cross carried before him as a sacred banner, and the multitude kneeling in adoration as he passes; cardinals, archbishops, arch-priests, archdeacons, prebendaries, canons, choristers, &c. clothed in purple, and other coloured robes; wearing the mitre, the stole, the alb, the cope, the rochet, the hood, the pall, the dalmatica, the tunica, and other apparatus of the hierarchy; and he would be utterly confounded! He would recognise in these splendid fopperies and habits, something very different from the lowly forms in which he bad seen the pastors of the Christian flocks in the purest of all Christian periods and assemblies. He might find in the former the magnificence of Pagan temples and of idolatrous altars; but nothing to remind him of the Church of Christ at Corinth, or at Ephesus. Now rehearse to him the intrigues and daring projects, in the success of which its power was acquired and consolidated;-throw open the doors of its dungeons, and conduct him through the secret chambers of its Inquisition;lead him to the numerous victims of its vengeance, expiring on racks, and consuming in flames :-will he not now recognise the mystery of iniquity--the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus?-And while he wonders with great admiration at the strange spectacle, he finds one more proof of the truth of Revelation, in the fulfilment of its most awful predictions.

The long period during which this power was in the plenitude of its influence, ferociously sporting itself with the miseries of mankind, was emphatically "The mystery of God," which, challenging the faith and patience of the saints, presented at the same time the most ample occasions for their display. How many prayers fraught with earnest supplications for the destruc tion of a tyranny which had taken peace from the earth, were in secret ascending to heaven, while the souls of the faithful

slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, were accusing this tyranny night and day before the eternal throne! They found consolation only in the assurance that its desolation was determined, and would in proper time be accomplished; and in the anticipation of such a judgement, the departed and the living felt the purest and the noblest triumph. In proportion as they sympathized with the degradations and afflictions of mankind, and were alive to the interests of truth and of goodness, must the enlightened have wished and prayed for the complete subversion of the papal system.

In our own times, that system has been shaken to its very foundations. Societies formed under its authority, and making part of it, composed of persons under preposterous vows of celibacy, by which the energies and prosperity of social life were counteracted and destroyed, have been broken up. Thousands of priests, employed as the agents of papal despostism, were separated from the people whose minds they had enslaved. The Inquisitors of Spain and of Portugal were driven from their black and horrid tribunals. The conclave itself was scattered; and the whole Romish Hierarchy was trembling with affright. What was the interest which these events excited? What, the feelings which they inspired among Protestants? Were they such as comported with the love of Christian freedom? such as were suitable to the prayers which had been for ages identified with Protestantism? Were they such as responded to the predictions of the word of God? When Angels were preparing to give the signal of exultation,-" Rejoice over her, "thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets," what were the feelings and the expressions of many Protestants? It was quite natural to suppose, that to all who bore that name, the proclamation of religious freedom to millions of men, the subjects of states where for centuries intolerance had reigned, the putting down of Inquisitions, and the taking away of power from incorporated bodies of clergy who had too long employed it to annoy and injure mankind, would have excited such joy, and have given occasion for the celebration of such a jubilee, as had not hitherto been known in our world.

Strangely different were the general feelings and the general practice in Protestant countries. We may not blame the withholding of admiration from the agents in those transactions; we' may applaud the compassion and the relief extended to the exiled and the necessitous; we might regard with the tenderest feelings of humanity, and with the purest sentiments of benevolence, the persons who, by the changes we have described, were placed in a state of suffering. But, looking to the events themselves, we might have expected demonstrations of joy from all professors of the Protestant faith, when principles and insti

tutions which breathed the fiercest spirit of hostility against that righteous cause, were shaken and falling. Strangely at variance were their feelings and their practice. The consternations and tremblings of Rome were, as if by sympathy, communicated to the ministers of Protestant churches; and a mourning was commenced, which could not have been exceeded, and which, there is too great reason to fear, would not have been equalled, had Christianity itself been interred. The members of Protestant communities were seen associated with "The "kings of the earth, and the merchants of the earth, weep"ing and wailing, and crying, Alas! that great city!" Some Protestants, indeed, partaking of the feelings proper for the occasion, were congratulating each other on having lived to see such a day; but they were persons whose stations and whose influence did not attach much importance to either their sorrows or their joys. The events to which we are referring, were adapted to interest and gratify the long cherished hopes of good men, the friends of true liberty; but the end which they promised has not yet in its expected measure been obtained. The dissatisfied and sullen temper with which they were viewed by the powerful, soon opposed a check to their free operation; and the streams of freedom were met by a tide of irresistible fury, before which they were driven towards their sources.

That tide still continues to flow; and till its force be spent, we must consider the best interests of mankind as exposed to danger. The recent changes in Europe are not, we must confess, calculated to dissipate our fears, and to console our hopes. Can it be questionable whether the leading agents of papal do minion be elated with the prospect which those changes open? Are they expecting less than the revival of its grandeur and authority? The tide is flowing according to their wishes; and they are on the alert, ready to embark and to pursue the voyage of popish circumnavigation. The Jesuits-the Janizaries of the papal court-are waiting the orders of their superiors, to compass sea and land in its service. The hammers and the anvils necessary to prepare the chains of mental degradation, are resounding with the blows of papal artizans; and the shafts which are to be directed at the most valuable liberties of men, are sharpening. We are unshaken in our confidence, that the best of causes shall not always be an oppressed one ;-that God will arise to scatter his enemies; to overthrow the thrones of tyrants, and to hurl the enslavers of the world from their proud and abused pre-eminence; to raise liberty from the dust; to strike off her fetters; to adorn her with beauty; to pour a celestial radiance around her; and so to ennoble and endow her, that she may become the admiration and the delight of mankind. In the mean time, we would endeavour to arouse every Protestant to a sense of the dangers which surround him; and to urge

on all who possess more than common talents and influence, the duty of employing them in the support of Protestant principles. Secure of salvation while their sentiments are in accordance with the Gospel, and their lives regulated by its laws, Protestant Christians may well dispense with the trouble of justifying their separation from the Church of Rome.

In other respects, however, they are to be considered as obeying the calls of no unimportant duty, in engaging in that controversy. It becomes them to advocate the cause of pure religion; to assert the sufficiency of the Scriptures; to expose the corruptions of Christianity; to deliver mankind from the most inglorious bondage; to forward the interests of true liberty; to warn the world of the hazards to which its freedom is exposed; and to prevent as much as in them lies the extension of a tyranny which, insatiate as the grave itself in its desires, will never be satisfied, till its power prevail over every right inherent in man, or conferred upon him by Revelation, and the subdued world be prostrate at its feet.

We are glad, at this crisis, of the opportunity of commending to our readers, the publications, the titles of which head the present article. Reserving our notice of Mr. Townsend's edition of Claude's defence of the Reformation, to the close of this article, we shall direct our attention to the important pamphlets of Dr. Smith and Mr. Carlyle. The discourse of the former, more ample in its range of topics, than the Examination' of the latter writer, states in a comprehensive manner the principal tenets of the Romish Church; and furnishes very satisfactory refutation of its pretensions. Mr. Carlyle confines his statements and his reasonings to one primary article, The Pre' eminency of the Roman Catholic Episcopacy;' which he investigates with admirable acuteness, and fairly and completely demolishes. So well do both these writers manage the weapons which they have selected as best adapted to the place and circumstances in which they respectively combat, and so mighty.' are those weapons, that in battle they must be victors. Were mankind to submit themselves to the dominion of truth only, and to abandon or adhere to religious communities only as they feel the power of convincing arguments, these pamphlets alone would produce a striking and extensive change, and would go far towards effecting an entire desertion of the Romish Church. We shall furnish some specimens of their efficient tendency towards the accomplishment of this object.

< The Papal system,' Dr. Smith remarks, presents itself under two considerably different aspects. The one is that grosser form which it wore during the period from the eighth to the sixteenth century; and which it still wears, with little alteration, in those countries where civil and religious freedom have obtained no footing

The other is a more mild and polished form which it has assumed, since the era of the Reformation, in more enlightened countries, and under the representation of cautious and able advocates. Either

of these views, without some corrections, would be erroneous. But, not to deprive the Roman Catholic cause of any pleadable advantage, I have been careful to derive the statements of its doctrines brought forwards in this discourse, only from its own public and authorized documents, and from the writings of its most approved modern defenders.' pp. 3-4.

This manner of proceeding is highly honourable to the Author; and is demonstrative of his candour towards his opponents. Great caution, however, is evidently necessary in adopting the representations of Catholics writing in a country so enlightened as our own, in which there are so many motives to be found in the prevalence of Protestant principles for an extreme carefulness. Whatever meliorations may have taken place in the feelings and inclinations of Catholics residing among Protestants, and surrounded on all sides with the knowledge and manners of a well-instructed and liberal-age, we question whether any alteration has obtained in the Papal system itself, and whether the Papal Court has done any homage to the increasing knowledge and liberal sentiments of modern times. Does that Court look upon the rights asserted and secured at the Reformation by the intrepid advocates of liberty, in any other light than as a violent alienation of its possessions, which it is watching the proper opportunity to recover? Has it ever revoked its severe edicts, from which so many cruelties have resulted? Is it less ferocious because it has become a new creature, or because the curbs and chains by which it has so long been bound, prevent its mischievous assaults?

We give credit to the professions of some Catholics, and respect them as liberal and benevolent men; but the system of Popery is, in our opinion, unaltered, and unalterable. It is dark in its whole complexion, and vindictive in its temper; and nothing is wanting towards the revival of all that history marks as odious and horrible in its conduct, but the same strength and extent of domination which it has possessed. We feel convinced that a true picture of Popery, is presented in Spain and Portugal, rather than in England or Ireland; and in the whole of its history, rather than in the publications of a Butler or a Eustace.

These gentlemen must have well known that their professions of liberality, the genuine effusions of their hearts we have no doubt, towards Protestants, are in direct opposition to the tenets and decrees of their own Church, which does not permit its members to regard persons without its pale as admissible to the hope of eternal mercy. They must surely have felt, that in