are clergymen, and the detailed account of operations during the past year, is very gratifying and encouraging. The two main reasons alleged for this movement, are 1. The altered position of Popery. 2. Its unaltered character. Nor was there ever a more urgent need, that such movements were more general. We may congratulate the cause and the country upon the attitude they have assumed, and the progress they have made. If every parish throughout the country had done the same, it would be well for England, the United Empire, the Christian, aye, and the Pagan world. If each Metropolitan parish and borough attempted and performed what Islington has done, neither the scoffing Infidel, the unbelieving Jew, nor idolatrous Papist, nor those who favour them, would have been returned to Parliament, to immolate at the shrine of an ungodly expediency, the Protestant, the Christian institutions of our country. We may congratulate the clergy, and those of the laity, with whom they have been associated, on the attitude they have taken. Without any desire to over-rate what has been done we cannot be blind to the fact, that example has weight and influence; and the Islington Protestant Institute has lent its weight to advance and to defend a cause, dearer to our ancestors than their lives. Whatever wishes we may have entertained, however anxious we may have been, and we have felt intensely so-that movements here as well as elsewhere, had been earlier, and more generally made; this, at least, has been gained by the delay, that no one can say they have commenced too early, too vigorously, or before the enemy was in the field. They who are not hasty in taking up a cause, are not hasty in abandoning it; and the prayerful attitude assumed by this Institute from its commencement, not superseded by, but united with activity, gives us a well founded hope and right to entertain the belief, that the work will continue, and end as it has begun; and that in the fearful antagonism between Protestantism and Popery, which we are assured shall last till one or the other becomes extinct, there will be a band of Protestants, faithful found amongst the faithless. The Report proceeds to take a review of the position of the country with reference to Popery. Its increase in number, in activity, political influence;—and to point out the unaltered character of Popery in doctrine and practice. It then proceeds to meet many of the objections so frequently urged against similar movements in opposition to Popery, such as that1. That Popery is old and feeble. 2. That it is now too late, and we have gone too far to recede. 3. That charity forbids them to oppose the religion of their neighbours, and that many Romanists are worthy, respectable, agreeable people. 4. That the mummeries of Popery are too contemptible to merit much attention. 5. That it is becoming too political so to interfere. 6. That Protestant agitation only rends the Church. 7. That the best way to counteract error is simply to proclaim the truth. 8. That controversy is injurious to spirituality; and, 9. That faith should repudiate all such machinations, if the cause be the cause of truth, because truth is mighty and will prevail, &c., &c. We recommend any of our readers who have doubts on any of these points to procure a copy of the Report referred to.* The Committee then give an account of some of their operations. That various lectures have been given during the past year in different districts of that large parish: first by James Lord, Esq., and quarterly lectures in the school-rooms, on 1. "Popery in Ireland in the Nineteenth Century, a Warning to Protestants in England," by the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas. 2. "Popery on the Continent," by Rev. E. Tottenham, Prebendary of Wilts, &c. 3. Popery in England," by the Rev. Hugh Stowell. 4. "Popery in the Colonies," by Rev. E. Bickersteth.+ A series of quarterly lectures has been preached in the parish church, on such of the Thirty-nine Articles as are more especially opposed to the Antichristian dogmas of Rome. The following have been published : 1. "The Rule of Faith," by Rev. J. Hambleton. Nor have they been less active with reference to efforts to secure Protestant candidates, and petitions against measures in favour of Popery. The Report concludes (p. 32), "Above all, your Committee feel that they are not alone, for God himself, they humbly trust, is with them. The undertaking has been begun and continued in the spirit of prayer; and sensible as they, and every member of the Institute must be, of the imperfections which cling to their best endeavours, and of the need there is that their services, no less than their souls, should be washed in the atoning fountain of a Saviour's blood, they are yet encouraged by 'promises exceeding great and precious,' sealed and ratified with that blood to be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord."" ON THE SATANIC ORIGIN AND BLASPHEMOUS CHARACTER OF POPERY. (Concluded from p. 374, Vol. IX.) MR. SCOTT in commenting on these words, observes, " To this monstrous savage Beast, was given a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies.' It will soon be stated as the author's opinion, that the ecclesiastical power of Rome was the agent, and the Pope the speaking It may be ordered through any bookseller, from J. H. Jackson, Islington-green. + These four have been published. This image of this Beast; and every one knows what blasphemous and enormous claims of His Holiness,' 'Infallibility,' 'Sovereign of Kings and Kingdoms,'' Christ's Vicegerent on Earth,' yea 'God upon Earth,' have been spoken by this mouth of the Beast. Power also, or authority, even the secular empire, was given him to continue, or rather to practise, or to prosper in his undertakings, for forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty years. This term coincides exactly with that during which the Two Witnesses prophesied in sackcloth. Beast would during this period, open his mouth in blasphemies against God;' combining with the ecclesiastical power in its usurpations, and entrenching upon the peculiar honours and prerogatives of God himself. 'He would blaspheme the name of God,' by requiring all men at the instigation of the ecclesiastical power, to render that worship to creatures, which belongs to God alone; and his tabernacle,' or true Christians, by stigmatizing, anathematizing, and murdering them as heretics; and 'them that dwell in heaven,' by scandalizing angels, and departed saints, as if they sacrilegiously sought, and were pleased with the idolatrous worship rendered to them, and by ascribing to the saints a variety of ridiculous actions, which they never did." Mr. Scott proceeds to enumerate some of the cruelties and wholesale butcheries of Papal Rome, which far exceed those of Pagan Rome; indeed, persecution constitutes one of the distinguishing characteristics of this Antichristian power. The blasphemous character of Popery is further shown by the impious homage paid to the Virgin Mary, who is exalted far above the ever blessed Trinity. 6 Thou Bishop Jewell says,66 They lead men from trust in the blood of Christ, and teach them to believe in such things, and to put confidence in those creatures, which cannot profit or help them at all. You may remember, what prayers they used; they are words full of horrible blasphemy. They said to the Holy and Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Redeemer and Saviour; 'Our trust and hope we put in thee, O Virgin Mary; defend us everlastingly.' They say, 'O happy mother, which doth purge us from our sins;' and 'The merits of holy Mary bring us to the heavenly kingdom.' Again, Thou art the mediator between God and man, the advocate for the poor, the refuge of all sinners.' O merciful Christ, what is become of thy passion! Where is the price of thy blood! How are we led away from thee, to seek redemption in a creature! Again they say unto her, art the Lady of Angels, thou art the Queen of Heaven; command thy son, show thyself to be a mother. He is thy son, thou art his mother: the mother may command, the child must obey.' Again, they turn all that is spoken in the whole book of the Psalms of the prophet David, either of God, or of Christ, and apply it to the Virgin Mary, and call that Psalter, the Psalter of Blessed Mary.' Whoever will take the pains to peruse it, shall find that comfortable speech of our Saviour, Matt. xi., 'Come unto me, all ye that are weary and laden, and I will ease you,' thus blasphemously abused in the second Psalm: Come unto her, all ye that travail and be heavily laden, and she will give rest and comfort to your souls.' "Another saith, The kingdom of God is of two parts, of justice 6 and of mercy. He reserveth justice to himself, and the other part, that is mercy, he hath yielded unto his mother. Therefore, one of them plays the proctor, and takes upon him to show the difference of those two courts, saying, You must appeal from the court of God's justice, to the court of his mother's mercy.' And is there not good cause, he should give us this counsel, if it be true that he hath written,No mercy cometh from heaven to the earth, but it must pass by the hands of Mary; for she is the mediator of our salvation, of our justification, of our reconciliation, and of our participation?' What is blasphemy if this be not blasphemy?"-Bishop Jewell on the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. * Bishop Bull in his "Corruptions of the Church of Rome," says, "Who can read without the greatest horror, such a prayer to the Blessed Virgin, as this that follows:-' O my Lady, Holy Mary, I recommend myself into thy blessed trust, and singular custody, and into the bosom of thy mercy, this night and evermore, and in the hour of my death, as also my soul and my body. And I yield unto thee all my hope and consolation, all my distress and miseries, my life and the end thereof, that by thy most holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my works may be directed according to thine and thy Son's will. Amen.' What fuller expressions can we use to declare our absolute affiance, trust, and dependence on the eternal Son of God himself, than they here use in this recommendation to the Virgin? And who observes not, that the will of the Blessed Virgin is expressly joined with the will of her Son, as the rule of our actions, and that so, as that her will is set in the first place? A snatch of their old blasphemous impiety, in advancing the mother above the Son, and giving her a commanding power over him. Yet this recommendation to the Blessed Virgin, is to be seen in a Manual of Prayers and Litanies, printed at Antwerp, no longer ago than 1671, and that by superior permission, and appointed to be used in the evening prayer for Friday." + Bishop Burnet thus bears his testimony against the blasphemous and idolatrous character of the Church of Rome:-" And here it were too long to reckon up the abominations of this saint-worship which are offered to the Virgin, with the blasphemous titles given her, and prayers made to her; as if she were more merciful and gentle to sinners than her blessed Son. What shall I tell of the whole Psalms turned to her? the words of Goddess and Lady being put in the place of God and Lord and that from the eleventh century, in which the form of the numbering their prayers by beads was begun, ten go to the Virgin for one to God. How many more worship her than do her Son! How many more churches are built to her than to her Son! And how *See "Mariolatry; or, Facts and Evidences Demonstrating the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the Church of Rome." And, "The Worship of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Rome, contrary to Holy Scripture." By Rev. J. E. Tyler. The writers of these works show, by an Appeal to the authorized Romish formularies of devotion, and the testimonies of reputed saints and accredited teachers, that the prayers offered to the Virgin Mary are of the most blasphemous character.. + In the Encyclical Letter of Pope Gregory XVI., which was sent over to this country in 1832, the Virgin Mary is blasphemously set forth as the sole foundation of the sinner's hope. And thus I many pilgrimages are made to her shrines and relics! think, little doubting will remain, that the worship of the Baalim, begun at Babylon, is now set up in the Christian Rome. 66 ... And will the poor distinction of dulia and latria save them from this guilt? Alas! these are parts of the mystery by which they would veil their abominations; but their nakedness is not hid with this thin veil. For we see how simply all religious worship offered to creatures displeased God. . . . These nice distinctions, which the schoolmen have devised, will serve in no stead in the great day, when God's jealousy shall burn like fire, against all that have dishonoured him by this profane worshipping of creatures."-See Enchirid. Theol. Anti-Roman., vol. iii., pp. 12—14. The Rev. D. Wilson, now Bishop of Calcutta, in his "Letters from an absent Brother," says, "Nothing seems to me so flagrantly unscriptural as the adoration of the image of the Virgin, and the trust reposed in her by the great mass of the people. I conceive this idolatry to be much more displeasing in the sight of God than the worship of the Queen of Heaven, so vehemently reprobated by the prophet Jeremiah, or the prostration of the Pagans before their idols, which St. Paul and the other apostles so indignantly condemned. Indeed, when I think of the peculiar jealousy of the infinitely glorious Jehovah on the subject of any approach to idolatry, I see in this one feature of Popery, the infallible mark of an open apostasy from the faith. The extraordinary fondness of the people for this worst part of their creed, only increases this conviction in my mind." *—Vol. ii., page 14. "The idolatrous worship of saints and angels is, I conceive, the grand abomination of Popery. It is the highest provocation of the Almighty, directly overthrows the mediation of Christ, in whom alone we are complete, and is the centre of the vast circumference of Romish error and superstition. Around this one point the artful and incredible organization of Jesuitical priestcraft revolves."-Bishop of Calcutta's Lectures on Colossians. The author of the "Protestant" observes, "No man can obtain the pardon of sin but through the merits or righteousness of Christ; but the deluded votary of the Virgin Mary is taught by his Church to ask this blessing for the sake of a mere creature. The purity, the humility, and the abundant charity of Mary, are supposed to be so meritorious as to make up for the want of these qualities in her devout worshippers. This is the great comprehensive sin of Popery. It is trusting in a creature instead of trusting in the living God, and this, according to the Word of God, brings down a curse instead of a blessing. In short, Popish devotion consists, according to their approved liturgies, in little else than calling upon the Virgin Mary *The Virgin Mary is, beyond all comparison, more adored than the everblessed God—the worship paid to her is universal in all places, and by all people. After the Virgin, some of the principal saints seem to be the most worshipped; then the Saviour, and lastly, God our heavenly Father. Shocking as this may appear,” proceeds the writer from whom I quote, "it is too true. I am sure I do not exaggerate when I say, that throughout Italy, Spain, Portugal, and every country where the Catholic is the exclusive religion of the people, for one knee bent to God, thousands are bowed before the shrines of the Virgin and the saints." —Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. i., page 22. |