APPENDIX.

No. I.-See page 24.

-

THE conduct of the Church of Rome, in relation to the
second commandment, stamps on her worship the awful cha-
racter of wilful idolatry. The prohibition of images in that
divine precept is most express: · "Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to
them, nor serve them."-It was absolutely necessary, either
that the worship of images should be given up, or that the
divine law which forbids it should be concealed. For, even
in the darkest ages of Popery, the thinking and reasoning
faculty of mankind was not quite extinct. The priests, as
Mr M'Gavin remarks, could not inscribe the words of the
second commandment on the wall behind the altar, and then
lay down upon the altar an image or crucifix to be worship.
ped. They could not insert the same words in any of their
catechisms for the instruction of the people, and then exhort
them to come and pay their devotions before an image of the
Virgin Mary. Accordingly, they proceeded the dreadful
length of mutilating the holy law of God, in all the cate-
chisms and formularies of the Church. They expunged the
second from the number of the commandments; and, in

order to make up the deficiency thus occasioned, divided the Thus mutilated, the ten commandments

tenth into two.

are in these words :

"Q. Say the ten commandments of God.

4. 1. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no strange gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

4. Honour thy father and mother.

5. Thou shalt not kill.

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

7. Thou shalt not steal.

8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods."—

Exod. xx.

In this mutilated condition did the law of God remain in all the catechisms of the Papal Church till the period of the Reformation. On the spreading abroad of its light throughout Europe, however, the villany of the priesthood was exposed; and, in consequence of the controversy with the Pro testant Churches, they found themselves obliged to make some alteration or other on the formularies of the Church. Accordingly, first of all, they introduced into some of their catechisms the second commandment, as part of the first, changing, however, some of its expressions, in the following

manner :

"Q. Say the first commandment.

"A. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no strange Gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven thing, nor the likeness of any

thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth, thou shalt not adore nor worship: them. I am the Lord thy God, strong and jealous, visiting the sins of the fathers upon their children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy to thousands of those that love me and keep my commandments."

Another alteration in the Roman catechisms, eminently illustrative of the base cunning of the priesthood, took place at the time of the Council of Trent. It was urged in that Council, as an unanswerable objection to the division of the tenth commandment into two-which had previously been practised in the formularies of the Church-that, in the second edition of the commandments, Deuteronomy v. the arrangement of the tenth is different from that of Exodus XX. In the one case it reads " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife;" in the other, "Thou shalt not desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house :" and thus, according to the Popish arrangement, what was the ninth commandment in the one passage, would be the tenth in the other. The detection of this inconsistency confounded the Council; but, instead of yielding to the force of truth, and restoring the Law of God to its just arrangement, in order to conceal the impious fraud, they devised the miserable expedient of blending together the two clauses, which, in the former catechisms, had constituted the pretended ninth and tenth commandments, under the one united title of "The ninth and tenth commandments ;" and this, though they were not able to point out which was the ninth, and which was the tenth! Thus they stand in the Douay Catechism (the best in the Church of Rome) to this day-" The ninth and tenth commandments."

Q. Say the ninth and tenth.

A. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods."

I must add, in conclusion of this note, that, although the Reformation has forced such changes as these on the Church of Rome, it is only in the more enlightened parts of Catholic Christendom that she has permitted them to take place. There, she saw it would be impossible, after the Reformation had taken place, to keep the people in the ignorance of the dark ages; and, therefore, with the artful policy that has ever marked her proceedings, she has there reluctantly admitted a small portion of light into her formularies. But in Ireland, and the other benighted parts of Europe, she has acted differently. No ray of light has been permitted to enter there. It is to this moment carefully excluded. In the catechisms which she puts into the hands of her votaries, the second commandment, in any shape, is not to be found; the holy law of God is given in the mutilated form above recorded, and every trace of a divine precept against the worship of images is carefully obliterated.

No. II. See page 34.

On the immoral character and influence of the Papal doetrines, the following are the recorded sentiments of one of the most intelligent and judicious divines of the present age. "The baseless and fanciful distinctions between mortal and venial sins-the doctrine of regeneration by the opus operatum of baptism-the system of dispensations and indulgen

ces

-the practice of auricular confession to the priest-the power of absolution entrusted to the discretion of a caprici. ous individual-the injunction of celibacy on the clergy, who in all Catholic countries constitute a very large propor