shewing the vacillating and unchangeable deadly nature of the Popish policy in contrast to the mild sway of Protestant Christian love. Continue to receive and circulate the Protestant Magazine-a warning voice as usual-containing information of the doings and sayings of the Jesuits, laying bare the intrigues of the Papists in and out of Parliament, with an intent to uproot the doctrines of the Gospel, seize upon vested rights, create perplexities, if not disturbances, and, by various efforts, to subdue the people of the land to Popish sway; all of which is the result of a lax and wicked Government that ruled in 1829, the leaders of which were Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington, in opposition to, and regardless of, the voice of the nation; since which they have been overturned by the broils of the Papists and democracy, as might naturally be expected; all which are signs of a falling nation with its fallen minister. If we cannot undo the mischief that has been done, let us encourage one another to stand fast by what good remains, and to give an intelligent but determined opposition to the intended endowment of the Romish Priests in Ireland. AN ORIGINAL MEMBER OF THE SHEFFIELD PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION. DEVELOPMENT OF TRAC TARIANISM. BUT an express PROHIBITION to pay any worship, however sophistically disguised or verbally modified, to a creature, can never, consistently or rationally, be developed into the Idolatrous Worship of Mary. In truth, the miserable expedient of this same System of Development seems to shew pretty clearly that both Tractarianism and Popery (the latter, as it has been justly remarked by one of the recent perverts, being the necessary and inevitable development of the former) are reduced to the last extremity. Most curious and instructive is it to note, how, step by step, the ground originally taken up has been abandoned. (1). At first, both Tractarians and Papists boldly appealed to the evidence of Primitive Antiquity. Such was the language of Dr. Pusey and Mr. Newman: and such was the famous boast of the Tridentine Council, This Faith was ALWAYS in the Church of God. duce EVIDENCE: and, after every effort of fabrication and falsification, they silently descended from the earlier Fathers to the later Fathers; having now discovered, that the fourth and fifth centuries were the Golden Age of the Church, and that it required full three hundred years to lick the unformed Church of the Apostles into a tolerably presentable shape. (3). Still, though the later Fathers may have aided them on some points; aid, most valueless, without the corroboration of the earlier: still even these were found insufficient to support the entire huge Babel of scripturally unauthorized Human Inventions. (4). Baffled and perplexed, yet judicially hardened in their Apostasy, they next, under the auspices of Dr. Moehler and Mr. Newman, resorted to that ingenious modification of the Quidlibet ex quolibet, that painful extraction of sunbeams out of cucumbers, which is celebrated as The Theory of Development: a theory, which brings out the notable result; that, the further we are removed from the apostolic age, the more pure and *Through the kindness of the treasurer, Thomas Deakin, Esq., the subscriptions will be received by him, and Magazines distributed as usual; and we wish to remind our friends, as well at Sheffield as elsewhere, that subscribers of 108. a year are entitled to a monthly copy of the Protestant Magazine, (2). On this ground they have been met, with a distinct challenge to pro the more complete will be our Christianity. (5). Yet even that wretched prop gives way: and so, at length, "sith't will no better be," we are exhorted, with the joint COUNTER-EVIDENCE of both Scripture and Antiquity alike staring us in the face, to resort to the Personal Infallibility of the Pope and the so called Catholic Church, as they happen to exist for the time being: Mr. Newman assuring us that he has searched the Bible without the least emolument, and Dr. Moehler rapidly settling the matter by the profound Idictum that Christ and the Church are strictly identical, and consequently that by virtue of this identification the Church must inevitably be infallible. 3. If such miserable drivelling were not awful, as shewing, how persons, who receive not the love of the truth, may be judicially given up to strong delusion that they should believe their own lie, it would be positively ludicrous. The ground, originally taken up, has been entirely shifted. Nor does the disgrace attach to only a single shift: it descends, with perpetual increase, to a succession of mutations. To maintain the cherished lie, per fas atque nefas, is necessary to the position (as Mr. Newman speaks) of both Tractarian and Papist. The original ground of EVIDENCE, therefore, must be relinquished: and the dupes of the silliest System, which human folly ever excogitated, are finally expected to give in their degraded adhesion, not only without, but against EVIDENCE. 4. Nevertheless, this state of things, this complete successive shifting of the original ground, this alacrity of sinking from one level to another, is a happy augury for the future. The force of folly can no further go: and, though Tractarianising Popery, like a hunted wild-beast, may finally stand at bay, and may even, through the astounding folly of Modern Liberalism, which seems more inclined to patronise falsehood than truth (for it can scarcely be said to hold them in equal estimation), acquire once more the old and venerable power of persecution for conscience sake; yet the voice of Prophecy, most remarkably corroborated by the signs of the times, distinctly announces, and that at no distant period, the final triumph of sound Religion and the final destruction of the grand Apostasy. We have, indeed, to encounter a time of previous trouble such as never was since there was a nation: but, unless the Bible be an imposture, the end itself is certain. Meanwhile, by this successful and successive driving of Tractarianism and Popery from one line of defence to another, until, at length, the very citadel, the last resource, is invested: we may behold the Lord gradually consuming the Lawless One, with the spirit of his mouth, and may thus confidentially anticipate his final destruction by the brightness of Christ's still more sensible presence. That the insolent spirit of domineering tyranny and antichristian persecution is as strong as ever in the harlot Church of Rome, is abundantly clear from the scandalous conduct of the Popish Priesthood in Ireland and of the wretched dupes whom they employ as their tools. Without danger to life and property, no man can quit the ranks of the Apostasy, which our wise Government, after solemnly declaring it to be IDOLATROUS, delights in defiance of an insulted God, to honour and foster and cocker and strengthen. For a practical exemplification of this ruthless spirit in a concentrated form, we need only turn to Dingle and Achill; and, shame to say, the proceedings of the priestly tyrants have actually been encouraged by the infidel approbation of nominal Protestants, while these same nominal Protestants have liberally volunteered their services to calumniate the victims of Popery. The effort, so conspicuously now making, both in England and on the Continent, to resuscitate the Apostasy, is, I believe, chronologically the last: nor is it anything more than might have been anticipated from the sure, though madly slighted, voice of Prophecy. The Ottoman Empire totters to its fall: and the three spirits of Hellish Infidelity, Despotic Anarchy, and Jesuitical Popery, are already engaged in their allied predicted voca tion. The peace of Europe and of the world apparently rests upon the life of a single wise old man. When the obstacle presented by this modern Sobrino shall have been removed, the demons of discord, now scarcely repressed, will be let loose. Revolution will elevate the successful soldier, the revived Buonaparte, of the day, to the imperial throne of military despotism. Then will follow, or rather then will be continued, that fearful material universal war, which is foretold by all the prophets, as occurring at the time of the end and synchronically with the restoration of Israel. And then Popery, budding as it has ever done into Lawlessness and Infidelity, partly through the loathliness of its own corruptions, and partly through such desperate arguments as constitute at once the delicia and the forlorn hope of Mr. Newman and the Romish Priesthood: then Popery, allied with the great God-denying Antichrist, the False Prophet associated with the apostatic Secular Empire under its last governing head, will, by some extraordinary process of violence, come to its end, none helping it. If we expect a gradual gliding into a new golden age through the medium of peace and prosperity, the nations, as the modern phrase confidently runs, becoming too wise to rush any more into war: we shall, I fear, find ourselves grievously disappointed. The present lull is nothing more than the predicted interval of mercy, placed between the two constituent portions of the last great woe. That no repentance has occurred, no turning away from idols to serve the living God, the present state of what is called Christendom sufficiently shews. THEREFORE may we expect those tremendous judgments, through which we must pass, as all the prophets testify, ere we reach that blissful season, when war shall be no more, when real Christianity shall universally prevail, and when a king, through the agency of his faithful servants, shall reign in righteousness. -From Letters of the Rev. G. S. Faber on Tractarian Secession to Popery, now published by the Protestant Association. A POLITICAL DREAM, IN MAY, 1821, AFTER JOHN BUNYAN. AFTER hearing the debates in a certain great House on the question of giving political power to Roman Catholics in this Protestant country, I returned home at three in the morning, and being exhausted by the attention I had given to all the speakers, I threw myself on a sofa and fell fast asleep. And as I slept, I dreamed that I approached an ancient castle, surmounted by four turrets:-near to this building was a crowd of people holding a consultation, apparently on some important subject. I inquired of a person who was passing, the name of the place, and the cause of the assembly. He informed me that I was on Tower Hill, and that the crowd was composed of the neighbouring inhabitants, who were then considering the merits of a Petition which had been presented to them from the wild beasts who had inhabited the Tower, praying emancipation from confinement, and an equal participation in all rights and privileges possessed by every tame and harmless animal in the metropolis-also admission to the Select Vestry of the parish, and a share in all offices, emoluments, and advantages, at present enjoyed by the resident inhabitants and householders. I thought I was in time to hear the Petition read; and it set forth, among other things, "that the brutes were, properly speaking, lords of the creation, being created previously to man that they were also the original inhabitants and possessors of the British Isles, which were infested by wolves, and other wild animals, before they were discovered by man: that, although they did not deny the truth of certain histories respecting the cruelties, murders, and enormities of many of their progenitors, nor even that they had been sworn enemies both to the human race and to all tame animals, yet that ever since they had become their fellow-parishioners in the Tower they had lived harmlessly and peaceably, molesting no one, and neither biting, tearing, nor devouring anything but their daily food: that, so far from being injurious, they had contributed very greatly to the emolument and security of the Tower; and that in evidence of this their good conduct they could bring forward the testimony of their keeper, and also that of many monkeys, pelicans, and other respectable and defenceless animals, who had lived for years in the Tower with them in undisturbed security. For these, and other reasons, they prayed emancipation from their present state of oppression and unjust confinement." Perceiving the favourable manner in which the Petition was listened to, and fearing, as the crowd was rapidly increasing, that I might not be able to escape before the wild beasts should be liberated, I was happy to learn that counter meetings had been held in Lamb's Conduit and Cateatonstreets, Horsemonger-lane, Hounsditch, and Cow-cross; at which Petitions had been voted and forwarded from the various tame animals in the metropolis against the emancipation of their wild fellow-subjects in the Tower. One of these Petitions stated, "that since the wild beasts acknowledged the lion as their rightful sovereign, swearing obedience to his will and commands, they could not be relied on as trustworthy subjects of King George IV., who was nothing more than a man.' A grave old gentleman entreated Honourable Members coolly to weigh this fair objection-he was, however, silenced by a shrewd and powerful orator, who reminded the assembly that the lions, having for the last 200 years been regularly washed every 1st of April, had been purged by degrees of all their natural ferocity, and would certainly require nothing of their subjects inimical to the of peace the nation at large, or to the authority of their well-beloved human brother on the Throne. The solidity of this argument being confirmed by a loud shout of "Hear, hear!" no one had courage to answer it. Another Petition reminded the Meeting, that the wild beasts were in the constant habit of maintaining that no faith was to be kept either with men or tame animals; and that they were in the habit of taking an oath, that, should it be considered for the good of the wild fraternity, they might tear and slaughter other animals as a matter of conscience. Another grave man now entreated the assembly to allow this fact to possess its just and proper weight with them; so that, if they would not listen to the arguments of the tame animals, they would at least regard the acts and confessions of the wild beasts themselves. A flourishing fellow, however, quashed all this by stating that what the wild beasts promised on their honour to the tame animals, or to man, was of much more importance than all the oaths they took to their Creator. After the counter-petitions had all been read, I thought the debate continued as follows:-" Mr. Chairman, all beasts have equal rights--they have been obedient subjects, and peaceable inhabitants."- "What do you mean?” replied a stable-keeper: why one of them got loose and killed the keeper's wife in the Tower the other day; and a relation of his, at Exeter Change, broke out, and ate two monkeys. Another wild beast near Salisbury, attacked the Exeter mail-coach, tore one of the horses, and killed a dog; and wherever they have broken out they have always done the same: and as for the Tower, if they have lived harmlessly there, it has been only for this plain reason, that they have not had the power of doing mischief, which very power you now wish to allow them." 66 66 as 'But," said a lawyer's clerk, "they may be let out safely now, for they are ready to grant security; they will give bonds, and sign and seal anything you please." Hang it," exclaimed the keeper of the wild beasts, "but they can claw it to pieces soon as they have signed it." "Sir," said one, "a gentleman has most unjustly reproached wild beasts as bloody and ferocious in their dispositions; I can disprove such assertions altogether, and put beyond doubt the fact, that all wild beasts have at times been generous, grateful, and honourable; in proof of this universal characteristic in wild beasts, I will appeal to the story of Androcles in history, and to the fable of the Bear, who so carefully whisked the flies from his master's face while he was asleep." "I'll tell you what," observed an Honourable Member; "you had better let them all out directly; for they have grown so much stronger latterly than formerly, that, if you do not, they will soon force their way out without leave." No one present seemed to think this argument worth answering, since all remembered our successful opposition to the French Revolution, and the glorious end of the battle of Waterloo. "I am for letting them out," said another, "because I am sure that we enjoy so much light, knowledge, and freedom now, compared with what we did when England was covered with wolves, that neither men, women, sheep nor pigs will suffer themselves to be torn to pieces as they used to be formerly." Another advocate for the claims, who had been conversant with many foreign menageries in the course of his life, appeared to think, that so far from there being any real grounds for alarm, the wild beasts, when released would, from the natural principles of gratitude and self-interest, be found among the most orthodox, pacific, and loyal of all His Majesty's subjects, and even afford considerable assistance in keeping in order certain refractory animals, who, under the present system, were often showing their teeth, and giving him considerable trouble; and as this advocate was known to be much in the secrets of Government, his notion seemed to take surprisingly with all, except with those who apprehended, that, when the wild beasts should once feel their own strength, they would set up for themselves, and only concede to this modern champion of their claims the privilege of being devoured last. Another Member affirmed, that "times were completely altered, and that therefore wild beasts and everything else must be altered too." 66 Yes," said one, "but what has made the alteration? Has it not been the putting down the power of these 66 ferocious animals? If you are sensible of the blessings of light, freedom, security, and peace, then keep them while you have them; and if so, you will continue those under control who have never allowed these blessings to other animals than those of their own fraternity." He also added, Suppose, you let them out, and they should begin their old tricks of tearing and devouring, how are you to get them in again?" He was, however, silenced by cries of " Order, order!" and a reprimand from the Chairman, that his expression, "old tricks," was unparliamentary, and that any reference to future evil could only be speculative. The facts which had been brought forward were, however, deemed likely to have some effect on the minds of impartial hearers, and it was therefore considered advisable to divert them from close consideration: and, in order to effect this, I thought a lively little old man stepped forward as a volunteer with a violin under his arm, and said, "Mr. Chairman, I will sing you a song on this subject;" on which he began, and I thought I never heard a more musical voice than that of the old man. He skipped round and round like a bird on his perch, and brought such melodious sounds out of his violin as made all the people cry out, "Hear, hear!" and clap their hands with ecstasy. The following I thought was his song: 66 "Through this grand conciliation, Now, I suppose, it will be allowed that there was more sound than sense in all this, yet it had such an effect on the hearers, that they seemed indisposed to hear any one else, and there was a general cry of "Question, question!" A member indeed "Mr. Chairman, on ventured to say, a subject of this serious importance to us and to our children, is it to be supposed that we shall allow our A late Member for Bramber. |