on Wednesday the 8th, and Wednesday the 15th of February, there were glorious exhibitions of Protestant feeling and principle in opposition to the Irish scheme of education, at two meetings in Exeter Hall; and the following petition to both houses of parliament was adopted:

"The humble petition of the undersigned,

"Sheweth, That your petitioners earnestly desire to promote the glory of God and a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the early reading and constant study of the Holy Scriptures; and are deeply impressed with the belief that the instruction of youth in the letter and principles of the entire Word of God is a duty of a divine obligation, and has been proved by experience to be essential to the moral well-being and social happiness of mankind. That the efforts made by Christians in this, and the sister countries, to impart to the ignorant poor of Ireland the benefits of a system of education, founded upon the whole Word of God, have, under the Divine blessing, been attended with astonishing success, and that the result of the experiment has satisfactorily proved the practicability as well as the moral influence of the instruction dispensed: That as Christian Protestants, we are opposed to any plan of Education in Ireland, which does not recognize the integrity of Scripture as its foundation: That we contemplate with alarm, the dangerous tendency of that system of national instruction which is now in progress under the direction of the Board of Commissioners sitting in Dublin,—a system which imposes restrictions upon the free and general use of the Word of God, inconsistent with Protestant principles: That we view with equal regret, surprise and alarm, that regulation in the new system which provides for the inculcation of the peculiar doctrines of the Church of Rome at the expense of Parliamentary grants, and under the direct sanction of a Protestant Govern

ment.

، Your Petitioners, therefore humbly pray, that your Lordships will be pleased to take the premises into consideration, and to provide that all grants of public money for national Education in Ireland be employed only in the support of systems of instruction which are founded upon the entire Word of God, and which encourage the free and general use of the Holy Scriptures, amongst all descriptions of persons; and, further, to provide that, in the application of such money, no unholy compromise be made with the Church of Rome, and no support or countenance whatever given to those who would substitute a part for the whole of God's Word, or who would teach for doctrines the commandments of men.'"*

See the Protestant Journal for 1832, p. 66. In the same publication, p. 760, it is recorded, that a Protestant Association was formed in the spring of that year, at New York, in the United States, which had issued the following circular:

"Acknowledging the Pope as their supreme common head, and guided by his Vicar, in the midst of them, the Roman Catholics act as a body throughout the land with perfect unity, and with a concentrated and dangerous force against the purity and simplicity of the Gospel of Christ.

Again in 1835, two very important meetings were held in Exeter Hall, in consequence of the following notice, signed by nineteen clergymen of Ireland:

"To the Protestants of Great Britain and Ireland.

"The undersigned having recently discovered by authentic and unquestionable documents which they have reason to believe have never met the public eye, that the standards adopted and the principles inculcated by the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, are of the same intolerant and persecuting nature at this day that are well known to have characterized their Church in former times, do feel it their painful but imperative duty to stand forward and produce before Protestants of all denominations answerable testimony on this subject.

66

They make this public address to Protestants for the purpose of giving to them an opportunity of judging on a question of vital importance to every one who values the rights of conscience and the security of property, of liberty, and of life.”

The large assemblies gathered together on these occasions were addressed by the Rev. R. J. McGhee, the Rev. Dr. Cooke, the Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan, and the Rev. Robert Daly; and the following resolutions were agreed to:

"That it appears to the satisfaction of this meeting, that Dens's Complete Body of Theology has been adopted by the Roman Catholic bishops of Ireland, as containing those principles which they approve for the guidance of the Roman Catholic priesthood, since the year 1808,

"Popery in our land, is precisely the same in its genius and spirit as it ever has been. It is unreformed, and unchanged. Its aspects and peculiaries may be concealed, disguised, and adapted to the circumstances growing out of free institutions. But its claims to infallibility; its perfect and absolute submission to the Pope's will and canons; and its actually using among us to this day, the very same decretals, canons, and all the doctrines and rites of the Missal, which have ever been used in Rome, even in the dark ages,—do complete the demonstration that Popery is unchanged in its nature and spirit.

"Wherever it gains an ascendancy, it tends to subvert and destroy, by the very laws of its nature, all civil and religious liberty. This fact is written legibly in the history and present condition of every kingdom and nation, where it is the religion of the Court, and is established by law, as in Spain, Italy, Austria, &c. Hence we may fairly infer, that it waits only the opportunity of gaining the ascendancy of power, to inflict on us in this country, all the evils produced by it in Europe, and our southern Continent. That this will not take place we readily admit. But, then, the calamity is to be prevented, under divine grace, only by the concentrated and active exertions of all Christian patriots. "With these preliminary remarks, we beeseech your attention to the following resolution:

"Resolved,―That it be recommended to our brethren of the Protestant Churches in all our principal cities, to form a PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION in each city, for the purpose of exposing the evils of Popery, and defending the principles of the Reformation, and that the president and secretaries be instructed to transmit a copy of this Resolution to one or more of the most respectable Clergymen and laymen in each city, to stir up the Christian community, and to defend the truths of God against all encroachments upon the purity and simplicity of the Gospel."

and set up for the conferences of the priests in the province of Leinster, since the year 1831.

"That the concurrent testimonies of approved standards of faith in the Church of Rome, and of the conduct and character of Roman Catholics, confirm our conviction that Dens's Complete Body of Theology was adopted as a conference-book by bishops in Ireland, because it was in conformity with their opinions."

At the close of the first day's proceedings, J. E. Gordon, Esq. "gave notice of a meeting to be held on an early day, for the establishment of a Protestant Constitutional Association, and read a series of resolutions intended to form the basis of the society; which had been adopted by a number of noblemen and gentle

men.'

That meeting was held on Saturday, July 11,-and at it was formed the Protestant Association, upon the basis of the following resolutions:

"I. That the influence of true religion over a people forms the best security for their individual rights, and the surest basis of national prosperity.

"II. That the British Constitution acknowledges in its principle and laws the Sovereignty of Almighty God, and the supreme Authority of his Holy Word, and has provided for the Scriptural Instruction of the people by its religious Establishments.

"III. That in opposition to this principle of the Constitution, doctrines have of late been propagated, that religion is unconnected with the duties of Legislation,-that in the eye of the State all religions are alike—and that support should be equally given or denied to all.

"IV. That under cover of these doctrines, the Members of the Church of Rome are zealously exerting themselves to destroy the Protestant character of the Constitution, and that the first object to which they direct their efforts, is the overthrow of the Established Churches, as forming the main obstacles to their ulterior designs.

"V. That to counteract these efforts, all who venerate the Word of God, and value the British Institutions, should be called on to cooperate in pointing out to the people the peculiar dangers of the present time, and in taking measures to inspire them with a just sense of the benefits and blessings of the Protestant Constitution."

The proceedings of our Association may be seen detailed in the annual reports, the first of which was delivered in May 1837, and illustrated in the publications which have been issued.

A few observations must conclude this sketch. It will have been observed that the appeal of the Protestant Association in 1779, did not rest its opposition to the favour then extended to

* See "Authentic Reports of the two great Protestant Meetings, held at Exeter Hall, London, on Saturday, June 20, and Saturday, July 11, 1835, to prove to Protestants of all denominations, by authentic documents, the real tenets of the Church of Rome, as now held by the Roman Catholic Priests and Bishops of Ireland." London, 1835, price 6d.

Papists, on their apostacy from the true Catholic Church of Christ, but on the antisocial and persecuting principle of their system. The step then taken by the legislature being a concession of relief from penal statutes, that might be a proper position for a Protestant Association to occupy. But assuredly when that concession had led to a claim of admission into offices and a participation in political power and privileges, the defenders of our Protestant constitution would have acted wisely and consistently in appealing to the declaration, which was wont to be made by our members of parliament, and which is still made by our sovereign, and which had in effect pronounced those who believed in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and practised the superstitious and idolatrous invocation and adoration of the Virgin Mary and other saints, and the sacrifice of the mass, to be disqualified from exercising official and legislative functions faithfully and beneficially in a Protestant commonwealth; and in declaring their belief that further concessions would be inconsistent with our Christian Protestant state,-inconsistent with the advancement of the glory of God, the good of his church, and the safety, honour, and welfare of our sovereign and our country. But it is remarkable that during the long struggle which ended in opening a wide breach in our Protestant constitution in 1829, those statesmen and politicians who spoke and wrote with most earnestness and ability against concession to the claims of the Roman Catholics, with few exceptions, among whom Mr. J. E. Gordon and Mr. Sadler were pre-eminent, built no argument upon the danger of exposing their country to that wrath which God has denounced against the Church of Rome, and against such rulers as give unto it their power. (See Rev. xvii. 10-14.) Either they were too little accustomed to search the Scriptures for guidance over the stormy sea of political strife, or they needed the moral courage (unto which the Rev. Hugh Stowell at our recent annual meeting, so eloquently exhorted our friends in parliament,) requisite for making such a decided confession of implicit faith in the word of God, before such an assembly as a House of Parliament.†

May our Protestant Association be enabled, by the blessing of God vouchsafed on its efforts and its prayers, to hold up a union standard of sound political and religious principles, even the religious principles of the Reformation, and the political principles of the Revolution of 1688; around which a faithful and undaunted band of religious men and christian patriots may gather, and contend successfully for the restoration of the Christian Protestant character of our Constitution.

G. J. PHILIP SMITH.

* See his Speech, No. XX. of the publications of the Protestant Association. + See the reflections upon the passing of the act of 1829, in the History of England by the Rev. H. Walter, vol. 7.

"AND the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies; and upon them that hated thee and persecuted thee." Such is the declaration of HIM who cannot lie, who knoweth the end from the beginning, and to whom a thousand years are but as one day, when foreshewing the final restoration of His own repentant Israel to the land of their fathers and to the bosom of their God. That the day here spoken of is nigh, even at the door, no man who with his Bible beside him considers the signs of the times can entertain a doubt: and to such a person there is something unspeakably awful in the present attitude of Babylon the Great, replenishing her cup of drunkenness with the bloodnot yet again of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus, but of the seed of Abraham: not within the boundaries of her own ten kingdoms, but in Syria, in Damascus, on the spot where "God over all, blessed for ever," even Jesus, revealed himself to Saul of Tarsus, and filled that "chosen vessel" with the exceeding great treasure which he, to this day, dispenses among us Gentiles by the imperishable words of his inspired teaching.

"Withdraw," says Mr. Myers in his exquisite work,* "Withdraw from Popery all those just accusations urged against her by the Church of Christ, cleanse her from all that is even morally depraved about her, in short, remove from her head the stigma with which she has disgraced herself, and the shame she has brought upon Christendom by it, during a period of at least fifteen centuries, in the sight of heaven and earth-still only place her opposite to the Jew-and behold what sad ravages by her bad example she has made, and still makes amongst themand you must feel constrained to pronounce her to be the Antichrist."

But the force of a bad example, the deep hatred that her idolatrous rites infuse into the bosom of the Jew against the Christianity whose name she falsely bears, and the iron hand with which she crushes the poor remnant still left within her seven-hilled city as an abiding witness against her to her face, this will not suffice to bring up all her ancient sins in remembrance before man, while she herself comes in remembrance before God for final destruction. She must embrue her hands in the life-blood, and feast her eyes with the protracted tortures of the innocent Jew; a capuchin monk must lay the blood-hounds on their track, a consul of France must halloo them forward, and such

* "Both One in Christ." By Alfred Moritz Myers.