We allude to scores of the Orthodox, falsely so called. They never, perhaps, seriously think of even an approximation to Rome; but the Gospel they profess is surely mutilated and defaced. Pitiable is the condition of those who are not Papists only because Popery has committed a few improper and hasty faux-pas-lighted, perhaps, too many candles, or put too much paint on the windows, or too much gold on the pillars. We are far from the mark in battling about the external improprieties, when it is the fundamental deceits that call for our inquiry. The practical errors which change the whole status of man's condition in respect to his Maker, these are apt to be overlooked in the tumult of affray; and happy does the combatant think himself who escapes the brand of Popery in its ceremonials, while he clings to a false view of the inner, the vital principle. He congratulates himself that his castle is undefiled by the brush of superstition-unhaunted by the craftsmen of the modern Babylon-disallowed by the feudal lords of Rome's iron despotism; but is he sure that after all it is founded on the rock, and has he ensured its stability against the day when the rains shall descend and the floods come? Popery is not the gay weed that blossoms on the surface of the stream; it goes deeper-for its true nature we must search where its root lies embedded; and happy he that condemneth not himself in condemning Popery,-unhappy he that while assuming the post of keeper of the vineyards keepeth not his own!

And this we have suggested, not because we would for an instant discourage or disavow the doing battle with those outward ravages of the disease which must strike every observer. God forbid! We would struggle for the faith once delivered to the saints, alike in its simplex oneness and its exuberant fulness, we would contend against the doctrine of "reserve" and the doctrine of " DEVELOPMENT," clasping with the grasp of child-like faith that revealed light in a dark place which setteth forth to us the whole counsel of God. But we see constant instances of the worthlessness of mere superficial Protestantism, a thing of times and seasons, changes and chances, doubts and difficulties, vacillations and tergiversations. We are bold to believe that Popery, not as recognized by political chicanery, but in its essential, elementary phenomena, is the crouching fiend that poisons the ear of all the descendants of Eve; and that against this principle of rooted ungodliness, this malignant disposition of the heart towards the All Pure and towards spiritual worship of Him as such, is the principle against which the whole moral dealings of God for well-nigh six thousand years have been directed. Against it, as the presiding genius of ruin, are pointed the examples of divine wrath and vengeance. The cherub's sword in Eden; the rush of waters at the deluge;

the fires of the cities of the plain; the catastrophes, accumulated and disastrous, of the forty years in the wilderness; the thunders of the mount that might not be touched; the destruction of idolaters, Jews and Gentiles; the outburst of pent-up anger upon ungodly nations and Infidel Israel; and most fearful of all, the coming vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of his Son; these are momentous lessons in the school of religion. O God of Light! Open thou our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law! CANTABRIGIENSIS.

THE TIMES WE LIVE IN.-A WARNING FROM OXFORD. TO ALL THE PROTESTANTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

THE workings of the human mind, and the results of those workings, as evinced in the course of events now in progress, are infinitely more remarkable than in any former period of the world. We seem to be eye and ear witnesses of the movements of a mighty moral and intellectual volcano, apparently preparing to convulse, and perhaps overwhelm, all former systems. And: we cannot help inquiring what the end of these things will be. If we turn to the improvements which are taking place in arts and sciences, and manufactures, we admire and wonder. And our surprise is greatly increased, on beholding the gigantic powers of the steam and the machinery which impel us from place to place, throughout the world, in a way which seems almost to annihilate time and distance: so that the old prediction recurs forcibly to our minds, that "many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."

The same remarks will also apply to the most important of all subjects-Religion. But in this we perceive phenomena far more remarkable than those connected with secular matters, however striking those may be. Attentive observers do not fail to notice that in those parts of the world, and most particularly of Europe, where the human mind has been hitherto oppressed, and bowed down, and debased, by the tyranny, superstition, and priestcraft of Popery, men, disgusted with their thraldom, have begun to burst the bonds which confined them, and to assert their right to worship their Creator according to the dictates of their own consciences. And that consequently in Germany alone, nearly 50,000 persons, including many clergy, and other men of learning and talent, have renounced the Pope of Rome and his system. The same leaven has extended to France, is working in Italy, and has begun its operations in the United States of America. And in Ireland too, where Popery reigns in its most virulent and degraded form, various priests* and numerous laymen are constantly abjuring that Church. But if the

* See List given in the January Number of this Magazine.

assertion of religious liberty has extended in other countries, the reverse has occurred in Great Britain, hitherto considered as the light of nations, and the example of constitutional liberty. The movement now going on may be compared to the waves of the ocean, which, whilst they gain ground on some coasts, recede from others. Such a recession from the principles of Protestantism and of rational liberty, is, alas, now taking place in our own beloved country. Here we find that the superstitious and tyrannical doctrines of Rome are eagerly propagated by her open emissaries, to a considerable extent, and have also grievously infected the ministers of our own Church, and the teachers of the youth of one of our universities. Many of the latter seem, like the schoolmaster of Veii, to take a wicked pride in betraying their pupils to the destroying Romans. And, many of the former, in a spirit of traitorism to the Church which supports them, and to the Queen who rules over them, are openly seeking, through the pulpit and the press, and by the introduction of strange doctrines, and obsolete ceremonies, and absurd observances, to lead their flocks to join the hostile ranks of that Foreign Potentate of Rome, who, whilst calling himself the "Servant of Servants," seeks, as he has done in all ages, to bring the whole world under a tyranny so galling, that even his own subjects in "The States of the Church can, at the present moment, scarcely endure it, being kept quiet only by the presence of foreign soldiers. These deluded and wicked clergymen glory in the shame of their country, and will, no doubt, rejoice in its downfall and slavery. And what is still more surprising, our ecclesiastical dignitaries have, with few exceptions, taken but little pains by their acts to stop the retrograde movement, though some of them may have spoken well on the subject.

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We cannot help inquiring what will be the effect of this state of things, if suffered to continue. Those who are able to judge of the future by the past, have but little difficulty in perceiving that it will result in the almost total destruction of the liberties of the people, as well as of the prerogatives of the Sovereign. Upon the ruins of these will be based that worst and most cruel of all tyrannies-a tyranny of priests, who partly from ignorance of secular affairs, and partly from a spiritual pride, and a lust of domination, not derived from him who ought to be considered as their Divine Lord and Master, will rule both the prince and the people, as well Romanists as Protestants of all denominations, with a rod of iron, so severe that nothing but a popular convulsion will be able to break it asunder. Even so does Rome govern Ireland at the present time. She keeps the key of knowledge from the people, and leads them captive at her will. And hence arises the fearfully barbarous state of what would otherwise be the "fine peasantry" of that remarkably benighted island. Is it not a shame upon us as a nation, a

shame upon our rulers both in Church and State, on both sides of the Channel, a shame upon our clergy, a shame upon the heads, and fellows, and tutors, and professors of that which ought to be the first university in the world, that this state of society continues unchecked! Is it possible that the liberticidal doctrines and superstitious observances of POPERY POSITIVE and of POPERY TRACTARIOUS should, in this nineteenth century, and in what has hitherto been called "the land of liberty," be openly promulgated, so that darkness is called light, and light darkness, and no man layeth it to heart? Is it possible that men can labour under such a delusion as not to discern that there is now a POLITICAL CONSPIRACY, of the darkest dye, at work against our liberties, under colour of religious opinions, or Church improvement, falsely so called? If this goes on, we shall soon have "ICHABOD" written on our institutions, and become the laughing-stock of nations.

Let Englishmen take care that they do not falsify the declaration contained in our National Song, that

"The Sons of Britain never will be SLAVES."

Let freeborn Englishmen, of all denominations, UNITE; and, using that sentiment as their motto, lose no time in VIGOROUSLY putting down, by all constitutional means, this black conspiracy, planned abroad, and matured at home, by Papists out of our Church, and Jesuits in our Church, whom it is a shame that Britain should, for a moment, own as her sons.

Whatever benevolence and pity we may feel towards the persons of deluded individuals and faithless clergymen, let us, like Hannibal of old, swear ETERNAL ENMITY TO ROME, its tyranny, its doctrines, and its practices; and especially, wherever anything bordering on them prevails within the Church of England, let us avoid it, and strenuously endeavour to root it out. Let us at once commence REACTIVE MEASURES, and thus show that we are attentive to

Oxford, December, 1845.

THE VOICE OF TRUE LIBERTY.

AN APPEAL TO THE PRIESTS.

BY REV. NAPOLEON ROUSSELL, PASTOR OF THE REFORMED EVANGELICAL CHURCH IN FRANCE.

(Translation for the Protestant Magazine.)

DEAR FRIENDS,-A friend full of compassion addresses these lines to you. I do not know you individually, but I know your sorrows; they affect me, and I would deliver you from them. I know, from yourselves at least, you cannot disguise it, you are not happy-your profession of a priest is a burden to you, and if there be one matter

of deep regret in your life, it is that you have renounced your liberty. For the greater part, you have entered into orders impelled by a will not your own-stimulated, perhaps, by some noble illusions respecting the good that you will be able to accomplish. But, for once, become your own masters. Now the illusion is dispelled by experience, if you could retrace your steps to the fatal hour when you were yet upon the threshold of the seminary; ah! without doubt you would not pass it.

Unhappily think you, the step is taken, an abyss separates me from the world - from the family from happiness-and there remains for me only to weep in secret. Who will give me bread out of the Church? Who would wish to see me if deprived of my priestly robes? The contempt of the world, the vengeance of the Church, would they not pursue me everywhere? I confess these obstacles are great, but are they insurmountable? No; they appear so to you only because you are the other side of the barrier-a little courage,

a noble endeavour, and you are free. If you have not strength, come and let me assist you in the serious examination of your unhappy position. I am going to probe your wounds, perhaps my hand may appear rough; but be not afraid, far from wounding, I wish to heal you. Let us, then, together, first run over the links of this iron chain which embitters your life.

Your inmost soul is a weary solitude. I know that your education, and still more the discipline of the seminary, have endeavoured to stifle in you the voice of Nature; but I know, likewise, that God is more strong than man, and that if these forbidden desires have been conquered by you, at least, they have not been able to chill your heart. For you, as well as for others, a wife and domestic duties, children and their smiles, have formed, amidst your dreams of the priesthood, the first elements of happiness; and perhaps these blessings may appear the more precious to you because you cannot lawfully wish for them. The thought is a torture to you, the desire a crime, and yet you can neither escape these thoughts nor these desires. To beguile your solitude you have called a servant a niece, and thus double your distress, or your dangers. It is not sufficient for you always to keep watch against an affection ever ready to spring up, but you must also conceal every moment of the day a thought which would be communicated-an indecision in need of a counsellor a tear demanding consolation-and that under fear of again finding the guilty temptation in an innocent intimacy. Perhaps you have resisted until this day, and perhaps you may yield to-morrow. Nothing is gained by such combats-victories themselves prepare but for defeats, and if conqueror to the end, you will retire still wounded by the act of resistance. You leave your home for the Church, but you only escape from one snare to fall into a second. Here, in the morning before the altar or under the pulpit, a crowd of women assemble under your eyes, and hang upon your words. In the evening, at the confessional, they come one by one to breathe into your ear and make you the confidant of their most intimate thoughts. Here the woman of the world unfolds to you the seductive picture of her long errors. There this young girl opens to you her virgin heart,