but I have viewed it as a well-merited judgment from heaven, for my having continued so long in the Roman Catholic Church, under a conviction of my error. Oh, my friends, at the awful moments when I thought that this tabernacle of clay was shortly to be dissolved; when I imagined the grave was opening to receive me, and that I should shortly become its inmate, I did not put my trust in the self-created sacrifices of human invention.--I did not recur to the supposed intercession of departed individuals who were once sinful as ourselves, and of whose salvation we have no certainty; no, iny friends, but I placed my entire hopes in the all-atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, and in the "redemption wrought out for me," by that Eternal Being who is the "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." But now to my subject. That my first pamphlet, the production of a poor unworthy servant, should be made an honored instrument in the hands of God, for conveying to many of you a conviction of your errors, is to me a subject of great thankfulness; and that this pamphlet may be also blessed in leading you to a knowledge of the truth, and a steadfast embracing of the faith, is my most ardent prayer and earnest supplication; and "may the grace of God, which is given by Jesus Christ, enrich you in knowledge, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe." But, my friends, before I enter upon the doctrinal points of my intended pamphlet, I consider it necessary to make a few general observations.

You will naturally inquire of me now, what is the religious difference I have observed between Roman Catholics, and my Christian Protestant brethren. My

former acquaintance with you, and my lately acquired knowledge of my present Christian friends, afford me a sufficient opportunity for giving a precise and definite answer to this question. First, then, with regard to you: It is a fact that cannot be questioned, that there is little or no belief of Roman doctrines among the higher and intelligent classes of your body. Their attachment to your creed is merely nominal. Their profession is sometimes extended to the outward appearance, but never to an inward and universal belief of strict Romanism; so that I may lawfully conclude that respectable, educated intelligence and strict Romanism, are irreconcilable terms. In proof of my assertion, let me in the first place select your lords and your baronets, your members of Parliament, or other well-informed gentlemen. Where is the individual among them that, in the Roman Catholic sense of the words, could be called a strict believer in Romanism? Where is the individual amongst them that attends mass upon Sundays and holidays-that receives your doctrine of transubstantiation without reserve--that goes to confession twice a year, or that approaches, what you call, your sacrament, upon each Christmas and Easter, as they are all bound to do, under pain of mortal sin, by the laws of your religion? Can you select one of this description? If so, he is a rare exception.

Let me next come to your lawyers and attorneys, who constitute the most discerning portion of your society. It is only a desire of being esteemed consistent, that continues them members of your faith. It is only a fear of their being surnamed " apostates," that restrains many, I might say all of them, from an open disavowal of your religion. They are too intelligent to receive the unreasonableness of your tenets. to disavow them. Where,

They are too proud openly my friends, is the Roman

Catholic lawyer or attorney, that adheres to the regulations of your church? Where is the Roman Catholie lawyer or attorney that believes in the supposed efficacy of your mass-that visits your chapels upon each Sunday and holiday—that goes to confession and receives your transubstantiation twice a year ? Where such a Roman Catholic is to be found among your law gentlemen, I know not. Where such compliance to Roman doctrines is to be met with among them, would be an utter impossibility to discover. You may point, perhaps, to the solitary case of Mr. O'Connell. It is a solitary case, indeed, among your Roman Catholic lawyers. But you would find, upon examination, that even Mr. O'Connell is not one of the strict Roman Catholics alluded to.

I next come to a third class of individuals amongst you, I mean your professional doctors. Many of these gentlemen have received an expensive education; and are not less intelligent than your lawyers. Now, of the many of this description that have come under my observation, for I know numbers of them, I could scarcely select one who could be counted a strict believer in Romanism. Where are the individuals amongst them that go to confession, and receive your sacrament of transubstantiation twice a year, or even believe in the validity of such doctrines? To this latter class I may add your apothecaries, who, though not having arrived at the same degree of advancement as your lawyers and doctors, have still received sufficient education to point out to them the absurdities of some of your Roman Catholic doctrines. These gentlemen, if not swayed by a temporal fear of displeasing their priests, and thereby losing their custom with the people, would never frequent mass or confession, or submit to your unnatural doctrine of transubstantiation. Their good sense is superior to such belief. Their educa

tion would spurn such doctrines. A little reflection on your parts must attest the truth of such observations upon mine.

With regard to your priests, you know they are interested parties. There are some amongst them, whose weakness of intellect or deficiency of education, renders them totally inadequate to the task of an impartial inquiry into Roman doctrines; and whose minds, enveloped in unscriptural darkness, tacitly submit to all those errors, which the most superstitious credulity would impose. Such individuals are incapable of deciding for themselves. In fact, they place their most implicit belief in that unnatural threat of Romanism, which says, "That to doubt for a moment, constitutes the guilt of a mortal sin ;" and which consequently prevents an impartial investigation as to truth. But, even these priests cannot close their eyes upon the doctrine of the mass. No, for this doctrine forces itself upon them as a continual subject of their doubts. It is my firm belief, and I have had many opportunities of judging, that there is hardly an individual amongst your priesthood (including even the most ignorant of their order) but has, sometime or other, entertained or expressed his doubts upon the Mass.

As to piety, this is a virtue little known, and I am sorry to say seldom practised among many of your priesthood. The frivolity of their conduct, and the looseness of their conversation WITH EACH OTHER, are proofs of the justice of my remarks. Were I to call many of your priesthood pious, even in appearance, your knowledge of the contrary would pronounce upon the falsehood of such an assertion. If unnatural boffoonery at your parties of pleasure-if unrestrained grasps at witticism, and if a silly ambition of being termed jovial men, be characteristics of piety, surely numbers in the Roman priesthood may be looked on as most signal in this respect. My dear friends, after your

A 3

daily or nightly entertainments, where many of you assemble with your priests, have you ever known a single instance of a Roman clergyman reading a chapter of the Bible, or any other pious book, for your spiritual instruction? Have you ever known a Roman priest to summon the inmates of his house to the morning or nightly duty of family prayer? My general knowledge of circumstances, confirmed by your own personal acquaintance of the facts, must return a negative answer to both my questions; for, my friends, it is topics of temporal and unclerical concerns that always constitute the conversation of your clergy, from the commencement to the close of your entertainments; while you must also admit, that a single case could not be specified of a Roman clergyman assembling his domestics to family prayer.

Who, then, are the individuals that believe in the Roman Catholic doctrines? Only some of the uneducated poor profess to believe in them. Only those against whom avenues of research are closed, and who, when they come to confess to the priests, are prohibited under pain of mortal sin, from doubting upon the Roman doctrines. But, my friends, when the threats of Roman excommunication cease to paralyze the human mind-when that link is severed, which binds up the exercise of your consciences under the terror of mortal sin, and that with an honest and religious indignation you break through the sentence which would write captivity upon your judgment, it is then that, even among the poor and uneducated of your body, we witness the most striking instances of unfettered minds, rejecting with contempt some of the money-making doctrines of Romanism, and embracing with eagerness the plain and unvarnished truths of Christianity.

But, my friends, how different is the picture, and how