it is unheard of, that any one was forsaken, who, placing himself under thy maternal protection, implored thy assistance, and begged the favour of thy prayers. Animated with the confidence which this inspires, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, and Mother of my God! and in the bitternesss of my sorrow, I throw myself at thy feet. O Mother of the Eternal Word! despise not my humble supplication, but listen graciously, and mercifully grant the request, which from my heart I make thee. Amen." He was not satisfied with this, but added: "Remember, O most Blessed Virgin Mary! that no one ever had recourse to your protection, implored your assistance, or sought your mediation, without obtaining relief. Confiding, therefore, in your goodness, behold me, a wretched sinner, sighing out my sins before you— beseeching you to adopt me for your child, and to take upon you the care of my eternal salvation. Despise not, O Mother of Jesus, the petition of your wretched client; but hear and grant my prayer. Amen." After referring to the way in which Popery has entered the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Ventura observes at page 48: "The Catholic has no longer any enemies but the Methodists, a sect in which are united and concentrated all the mean sentiments, all the cruel instincts of heresy." Such, alas! are the superstitions and impieties of Popery. Such the men, and actions, which Popery delights to honour and reward. With deep shame, do we look around and see men busily occupied in Bible and missionary work, yet voting large sums of money to educate a priesthood in Rome's idolatries: -with feelings of alarm do we regard the inconsistency, infatuation, we will not say insincerity of those, while they promote the cause of Popery, which, whether emanating from Maynooth or the Propaganda, labour with unwearied energy, to quench the light of the everlasting Gospel; and to place traditions, instead of Scripture. A system, in which prayers to dead men and dead women, are enjoined and encouraged, as works of holiness; whilst Christ, the only Saviour of sinners, is made only one with many other mediators, and not always the first; and where idolatry is taught under the venerable name of Christianity!! Surely, surely, there are Christians enough, in this yet Christian land, to pray, and strive against continued, yet more against increased support from a Protestant nation, to support and disseminate the idolatries against which it protests. As Rome gets the population of this country more and more accustomed to her superstitious practices, and finds her way clear, the mask is thrown aside. She now seems little anxious to conceal her idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary, nor her eagerness to regain her lost ascendancy in England. PROTESTANT REPRESENTATIVES. (Concluded from page 15.) "GOOD men, and very good Protestants too, may differ as to supporting or approving the Protestant Association. That is but a human institution, and may have its imperfections and objectionable points, though, for myself, I do most cordially support it and labour in it, and with it, and have done so, with most deliberate judgment, all along. But, as for producing discord,—it is ROME that has produced the discord long ago, and Rome that maintains it, and will maintain it (as the Earl of Arundel and Surrey has plainly and honestly told us) till either Popery or Protestantism be extinct. And, if you are not disposed tamely to yield to Romish encroachment everything that English Protestants hold dear, you must arise and bestir yourself to oppose this subtle, cruel, dangerous enemy, with Protestant energy, in the diligent and persevering use of all lawful means. You must either desert the cause of Protestantism altogether, or else, in regard to Popery, you must gird yourself to a fearful and continual strife. You must say, and act it out, No Peace with Rome.' And if you think any other enemy, 'EQUALLY insidious,' you are greatly mistaken ;you know nothing of Popery yet. To use such an expression, in comparing Popery and Dissent, is very much as if you should represent a rude licentious mob in Bristol or Manchester, and Napoleon himself, in the height of his power, and at the head of his organized and disciplined armies, as being equally insidious and equally dangerous enemies to Great Britain ! Dissent may be sometimes and in some places, very troublesome, and the spirit of Political Dissenters very bad indeed: but the worst of the Dissenters, and the most violent and powerful bodies among them all combined, are but an undisciplined rabble, at whose efforts we may smile. But POPERY is an organized and widely-extended system of iniquity, matured by the growth of twelve centuries, and embodying in itself the concentrated craft, and collected worldly wisdom, of every age, and every country in Europe, from its first origin to this very hour. It is, in fact, the insidious craft of Romanism which makes the Dissenters at all dangerous; for the crafty priests and agents of Rome, always on the watch to turn everybody and everything to the advantage of their Church, have sometimes succeeded in beguiling the Dissenters to unite with them in their attacks upon the Church of England,-(which is, indeed, the only great bulwark between them and the Church of Rome, that else would very soon overwhelm and utterly destroy them :-'Let us only get rid of the Established Church,' said O'Connell, as long ago as 1822, and we will soon settle the Dissenters.') All those who are persuaded to side with Rome, are thus made a portion of that hostile army, which is our only dangerous enemy, and which it is most needful to oppose, with all earnestness, and in the use of all Scriptural and lawful means, and which we ought to fight against with all Christian courage. (Eph. vi. 18-20; 2 Cor. x. 4, 5). "With regard to Latitudinarianism, I will only say, that I have been denouncing it and contending against it, with no little earnestness, for a quarter of a century. I believe you will not find it easy to point out half a dozen persons in the whole country who have more decidedly committed themselves in opposition to it. Popery and Latitudinarianism, I have been in the habit of continually denouncing in the same breath; and this, especially, because the two are allied, like the Pharisees and Sadducees of old, in opposition to the Gospel and all Protestant Truth. Popery has completely blinded and bamboozled the Liberals and Latitudinarians of the age, and uses them as its tools, to do the work which it could not do for itself. And the most dangerous Latitudinarianism of all, is the Latitudinarianism of such men as Mr. Maddock, who are very harsh and bigoted against those whom they choose to designate Ultra-Protestants, but very liberal and latitudinarian in regard to Rome and its abominations; and whose falsehood also to their Ordination vows, subscriptions, and engagements, savours strongly of a moral Latitudinarianism of the very worst sort. "I am not disposed to attribute the expression of your sentiments, with which you have favoured me, to 'any lukewarmness' in the cause of the Church of England. I have no doubt that you are zealous for the interests of the Church. But there is a zeal of God,' which is 'not according to knowledge.' (Rom. x. 2.) And those who have much zeal, but do not rightly understand either the true principles, or the real dangers of the Church, are likely to prove but poor defenders of her cause in the day of trial. You must, therefore, allow me again to urge upon you the vast―the unspeakable importance of making yourself thoroughly master of the Romish question, especially in its bearings upon the interests of the Church of England. The books, to which I took the liberty of calling your attention in my former letter, you will find to be most important helps in the study of this controversy. The documents which they contain, or to which they refer, ought to be carefully examined. But, the matter of first and supreme importance is, to study the Bible, the whole Bible, for yourself, as the Word of the living God-the only infallible standard of truth and righteousness; to study this blessed Book of books for your own soul's comfort and salvation; and so to study it, and search it again and again, that you may lay fast hold of the precious and soul-saving doctrines which it contains and reveals, and may come at length to that spiritual discernment which will enable you readily to see, and to reject with lively abhorrence, the Antichristian errors which are opposed to these blessed doctrines. "THIS is the point which, before and beyond all others, I would, as a Minister of the Gospel, most earnestly press upon your attention; for in THIS your soul's present comfort and eternal welfare are concerned. And if, after having so read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested the Holy Scriptures as to embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which is given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, you are disposed to come forward and exert yourself in the station in which the Providence of God has placed you, as a faithful champion of the Church of England,—the next thing to be done is, to make yourself thoroughly acquainted with the true principles of that Church, by studying her Articles, and studying her Homilies from which last you will more especially learn, what is the .... real judgment of the Church of England respecting the Church of Rome. (See particularly, in the first book, Homily v. 'Of Good Works,' part 3; and Hom. x. 'Of Obedience,' part 3; and in the Second Book, Hom. ii. 'Against Peril of Idolatry,' and Hom. xvi. "For Whit-Sunday,' part 2.) And, with regard to the Articles, if the words themselves (especially taken in connexion with the language of the Homilies) be not sufficiently plain for any man who has sense and honesty, I cannot do better than refer you to a book, entitled, 'The Faith, Doctrine, and Religion, professed and protected in the Realm of England, and Dominions of the same. Perused, and by the lawful authority of the Church of England allowed to be publike.' By the Preface to the Second Edition, addressed to Archbishop Bancroft, in 1607, it appears, that the author was Thomas Rogers, his Grace's poor Chaplain'-who had been one of the original subscribers to the Articles. This book proves clearly, and beyond all question, what was the sense and meaning of the Thirty-nine Articles then ; and the sense and meaning must be exactly the same now, for not one word in them has been altered. And though many who call themselves Churchmen, are evidently very desirous to get away from the Thirty-nine Articles, and to seek elsewhere for the doctrines of the Church of England-we have the best and highest authority in this case for resolutely maintaining, That the Articles of the Church of England-which have been allowed and authorized heretofore, and which our clergy generally have subscribed unto-do contain the true doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable to God's Word; and that each and every Article is to be taken and submitted to, by all who subscribe them, 'in the plain and full meaning thereof,' 'in the literal and grammatical sense." 6 "I would further commend to your perusal and serious study, 'Dean Nowell's Catechism,' published by authority in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and referred to in the Seventy-ninth Canon, as the larger Catechism of the Church of England. The old English translation of this Catechism (by Thomas Norton) has lately been reprinted by the Prayer-book and Homily Society, and may be had at the office, No. 1, Exeter Hall. It ought to be studied by every member of the Church of England. "But in order to become a faithful and efficient defender of the Church of England against Popery, it is necessary to understand well what Popery really is; and this requires long and laborious study: for that Mystery of Iniquity is a multiform and complicated system, that can suit itself with a wonderful and crafty adaptation to a vast variety of circumstances, and to the different shades of human character. Such a system cannot be rightly understood without long and patient and profound research; and from this our natural and habitual indolence draws back: it is much more pleasant to the flesh to take an easy good-natured view of the question, that gives us no trouble to form; and which requires no after trouble, in the way of strenuous opposition to a system, whose real character we know, and whose craft and malignant enmity we are well aware of. But this indolent, superficial way of looking at a subject so vast and varied as Popery, and so tremendously important, will never do for any one who aspires to the character of a British Statesman, or that of a champion of the Church of England. 6 "I am sorry that you thought proper to return the publications of the Protestant Association; for there is not, I think, so much as one of them, which is not worthy of your attentive perusal, and which might not have supplied you with some information on this momentous question. There are also two volumes which have been printed for the Reformation Society, by G. Finch, Esq., entitled, A Sketch of the Romish Controversy,' and 'A Supplement' to it, which it would be well worth your while to procure and to study. They might serve as a sort of brief but most valuable index, to direct you to a vast number of authentic and original documents, of which you might afterwards examine many for yourself. "This letter has already extended far beyond the bounds which I contemplated when I commenced it; but the subject is one of which the extent can only be equalled by its importance; and this, I trust, will plead my excuse. I will only add, in justice to myself, that if you will take the trouble to read -, you will perceive that my views are not to be set aside, as those of a Low-Churchman (a name which some would gladly lay hold of, and apply to any faithful and consistent Protestant clergyman, as a convenient excuse for neglecting statements and arguments which they cannot answer): but you will find, that I am in fact, in the only right and proper sense of the term, a far higher Churchman than multitudes to whom the name of High Churchmen is commonly appropriated by themselves and others; and who seem to imagine that they are entitled to it, for no other reason than this, that they hate Protestant Dissenters (and Evangelical Churchmen too) far worse than they hate Popery or any form of superstition; while, in fact, they neither understand nor believe the vital and fundamental doctrines of the Church to which they profess to belong. Earnestly praying, that it may please the God of all grace, the Father of lights, and the only Author and eternal Fountain of every good and every perfect gift, to give you abundantly that wisdom which is from above, and which is first PUREE-that wisdom which is profitable to direct, for Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour's sake, "I remain, your very obedient and faithful servant, THIS Report, important and valuable as it is, yet extending over forty pages 8vo., is far too long for us to insert in extenso. We cannot, however, pass it over in silence, nor rest satisfied with a merely formal notice. Though not in immediate connexion with any other Society, it has entered wisely and vigorously, upon an important, and too much neglected sphere of labour, and is following up its object successfully. The Committee consist of forty-seven members, of whom, twenty |