from Scripture. When you can tell us how many years are required to turn an error into truth, then we will give more heed to antiquity than we now think due to it. "If antiquity will not do, reason shall be pressed to serve error's turn at a dead lift; and, indeed, the pencil of reason can lay curious colours upon rotten timber, and varnish over erroneous opinions with fair and plausible pretences. But because men are bound to submit human authority and reason to Divine revelation, both must give way, and strike sail to the written word. "Hence it comes to pass that the great patrons and factors for error do, above all things, labour to gain countenance to their errors from the written word; and to this end they wrest and rack the Scriptures, to make them subservient to their opinions; not impartially studying the Scriptures first, and forming their notions and opinions according to them, but bringing their erroneous opinions to the Scriptures; and then, with all imaginable art and sophistry, withdraw and force the Scriptures, to countenance and legitimate their opinions. And because pretences of piety and reformation are the strokes that give life to the face of this idol, and give it the nearest reseinblance unto truth, these therefore, never fail to be made use of and zealously professed in favour of error, though there be little of either many times to be found in their persons, and nothing at all in the doctrines that lay claim to it." CONTENT AND DISCONTENT. He who goes into his garden to look for cobwebs and spiders, no doubt will find them; while he who looks for a flower, may return into his house with one blooming in his bosom. CABINET. SELF-DEDICATION.- When many of Socrates' scholars presented him with large donations, poor Eschines came blushing to him, and said, "Sir, I have nothing to give which is worthy of you; but I here offer unto you all that I have to give, viz.-myself! and, I beseech you to accept this present, considering that, though others have given you more, yet none hath left himself so little as I, who have given you myself, and all at once.' To whom Socrates made this reply, even as Christ will do to those who present themselves to him; "Thou couldest not have given me any gift more acceptable than thyself; and it shall be my care to keep this gift choicely; and I will return thee back again to thyself better than I received thee."Dean Comber. Of darkness rivet; in the might of heaven Awake!-and, back to Rome's vile dungeon, hurl Hershackles base and slavery abhorr'd! Without the Bible, Britain's life-blood chills And curdles; in that book, and by that book Almighty-freedom can alone be kept For nor philosophy, with attic grace science deep, can Sounding with searchful eye the vast abyss Of things created; nor politic weal, Transcending all that earthly patriot dreams NOTICES OF BOOKS. Tractarianism_tested by Holy Scripture and the Church of England, in a series of Sermons. By the Rev. HUGH STOWELL, M.A., Incumbent of Christ Church, Manchester, and Honorary Prebendary of Chester. Vol. ii., 8vo., pp. 308. London: Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly. 1846. WE have now before us the second volume of these excellent discourses. In the last lecture, the writer beautifully points out not only the duty of opposing error, but of doing it in the spirit of love. "At the same time, brethren beloved, let us see to it that all our doings be done with charity. How hard is it to keep the dew of kindness fresh upon the spirit amid the heats, and blasts of controversy! Yet, without charity, all our zeal will be nothing worth, and though we gave our bodies to be burned, it would profit us nothing. Let us contend for the truth, in the spirit of the truth. Earnestly, not angrily; tenderly, not bitterly. In this way, however gifted with acuteness of understanding and power of reasoning, you may often avail more with the adversaries of truth, than would the most masterly controversialist, who dipped his pen in gall. The force of kindness and forbearance is often more effectual than the force of argument, and the man who would be proof against your talent, may be taken captive by your temper. Pray much, and heartily, for those whom you oppose; you will find this the best antidote to asperity, and resentment." We think the perusal of these lectures calculated to aid the reaction which is going on in many friends, once under the influence of what are termed Tractarian principles; and, as such, cordially recommend them to our readers. INTELLIGENCE. IRELAND.-Popish Conspiracy."At length, the Romish priests, no longer able to endure the bare exposure, that the Rev. Roderick Ryder has made of them, in his two letters on their doings in the Confessional, and their art in reconciling 'the murder and the murderer,' as in the case of Bryan Seery, have conspired to injure him. Mr. Ryder has appealed to the laws of his country for protection against perjury and subornation, and libellous defamation; and he proposes by this appeal not only to vindicate his own character from foul and wanton aspersion, but to bring to light the hidden things of darkness.' Dublin Statesman. COLONIAL.-New South Wales. -A Popish bishop and several priests left Sydney lately, intending to locate themselves among the islanders of the South Pacific Ocean. FOREIGN.- Cologne. Several Protestants of Cologne have arrived in Berlin, in order to obtain the King's permission to erect a second Protestant Church in the former city. Stamped Copies of the Protestant Magazine, price 6d., may be had at any time by order to the Publisher, and may be forwarded to any part of the kingdom, post free. N.B. Every Subscriber of 10s. annually to the Protestant Association is entitled to a copy of the Magazine: to be had on application at the Office. Macintosh, Printer, Great New Street, London. THE PROTESTANT MAGAZINE. JULY, 1846. AN APPEAL TO PROTESTANTS. PERHAPS before these pages are issued Ministers will be again defeated, Her Majesty will have to confide the reins of Government to other hands, and Parliament may shortly be dissolved. Should these events, however, be postponed awhile, the period, in all human probability, cannot be far distant at which one or all of them will take place. Our readers may ask, "What is that to us? We steer not our course by party men. Those now in office, and those out of office, have alike betrayed us. Long have we discarded all reliance upon party politicians, merely as such, and sought to secure the triumph of Protestant truth in administering the affairs of this great empire. Measures rather than men-principles, not professions-practice, not promises-have been our motto." We concur in these remonstrances, and would only here enter upon this subject for the purpose of animating our friends and readers to a right discharge of the duties which may shortly devolve upon them. A dark cloud seems to be lowering over our land. Society appears to be undergoing a process of disorganization. Theologians, bewildered in the mazes of their own divinity, or the theories of Church Government and ceremonies, have lost in some degree the respect and veneration they should have for their own Church, are ready to welcome Rome as their sister, to raise her to an apparent equality with themselves, and are now and then seen renouncing their own Church for that of apostate Rome. Statesmen deserting principle, and seeking to follow expediency, are scarcely able to govern the empire, and to control the spirit they have evoked. The fountains of the great deep seem to be breaking up, and anarchy and despotism to be struggling for the ascendancy. At such a period, when political and theological discord with all their dreadful consequences teem around us— when a temporary lull is but the prelude to a wilder storm— when the principles of good and evil are aroused to a more than VOL. VIII.-July, 1846. New Series, No. 7. U wonted activity, and brought into a more open collision-when motives of action heretofore unknown, or known only to be disapproved and rejected with contempt, find once more advocates, and start from their obscurity into public notice, and society is raised in arms against itself-when confidence in one another is sorely shaken when continued efforts are made by subtlety or violence to dismember the empire, subvert morality, and destroy religion, or substitute Popery in its stead, it becomes every sincere and good Protestant, every lover of his country, every friend of peace and order, every one attached to good government and pure religion, to rescue the bright jewel of their faith, their loyalty, and liberty from the grasp of anarchists on the one hand, or the tyranny of Romish power and her sympathizers on the other. It becomes the most indifferent to give their attention, and behoves us well to consider our present position, our past history, and our future prospects. If, indeed, in the moral, theological, and political world, we are to regard events, as taking place, by that which, in reference to the physical and material world, atheists would term a fortuitous concourse of atoms-if, with the Turk, we are to look upon all things as happening by a blind fatality, or in compliance to a course fixed by superior power-a course which no aim or effort of man can change or vary-or must consider with the Socialist, that we are so surrounded, operated upon, and controlled by circumstances, that volition is taken away, and thereby responsibility removed-then, either we shall not recognise the existence of a Supreme Being, his superintending providence and control over the affairs of men-we shall not believe history, or derive no instruction from it we shall not be led to exert ourselves by the hope of averting evil, nor, by the prospect of producing good, be led to the attempt of what is great and excellent. But we are not such atoms, fortuitously receiving shape and motion; we are not so pre-ordained by a blind fatalism to evil or good, and so surrounded by circumstances that we cannot in many respects control them. No, things are not so; we read history to gain instruction from its pages; we would make the past our schoolmaster. From it, as from philosophy, teaching by examples, we would learn what to shun and avoid, what to follow and pursue. We regard the responsibility of man as yet remaining, and by all the mighty consequences which that responsibility rightly used or abused involves, we would call upon and urge him to the discharge of his high and noble duties-those duties for which, by the moral and intellectual endowment of his Creator, he is qualified, and in which his true happiness and real glory must consist. We discard the idea of fatalism, and know that to a certain extent man is free in his thoughts, free in his words, and free in his actions. We assert that where he cannot originate, or avoid originating, he can yet, in many instances, by God's freely given grace, control; because that upon this freedom of man is grounded his responsibility, and upon that responsibility the justice of future reward and punishment. "Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, When only what they needs must do appeared, Not what they would?" We believe man, then, to be by his very nature a free, a responsible agent, responsible to his fellow-creatures, responsible to God. How tremendous are the interests which this responsibility involves!! With an entire consciousness of these consequences we would enter in brief outline on a subject of pressing importance, leaving it for our readers to answer the enquiries, to fill up the outline, and to perform the duties which in consequence may seem to be theirs. To those who accede to the principles thus laid down, and to the deductions drawn from them, we need say but little in order to carry them with us in our future observations. They with us will take Scripture as the guide, and view public transactions by the light which that lamp of Divine truth sheds upon the maze of worldly politics. The master spirit of the movement of the present day is Popery, wielding even democracy as its instrument for a time, though shortly, it may be, to be destroyed by it. To the Protestants of England, of Ireland, of the United Empire we would say, Your religion is in danger; your liberties are in danger. A call is now made upon you to throw around them the shield of your protection; to resist Popery in all its forms, and detect its glozing sophisms; to withstand its clamorous invasions of your rights as freemen and as Christians; to resist with the same ardour which animated your ancestors; like them to struggle, or like them to die, in defence of the faith once delivered to the saints. These are times of no ordinary nature; they are stamped by features peculiarly their own. The voice of party should be silent; the clamours of faction should be hushed, and all the energies of your souls be bent to resist the invasion of the common foe. This is no vain-no empty declamation. We have no selfish end to gain; no interest to serve, apart from that of our common faith and our common country. What good has resulted from all the concessions hitherto made to Popery? Divest yourselves, then, for a moment of prejudice; draw off your minds awhile from local and party interests. Take a wide and comprehensive view of our position with respect to that great question which may ere long be-ny, whiach now is, the absorb |