different is the loving spirit of Protestant vitality, so truly called Christianity, as a cause producing its relative effects, viz., -works of charity, and universal benevolence, as manifested in

individual, while it relaxed, at the same time, the ties of all moral obligation. In the period of the Crusades, it was exercised in all its blasphemous extentfew sins were left unpardoned. The gates of paradise were opened wide to receive the consecrated battalions, the "Loyola-like" warriors of the cross were washed by one deed of the Pope from all sin! And in the thick darkness of the age, there were few who could search into the grounds of the Papal authority, and fewer who were willing to expose its impious character.

The Pope's claim to infallibility was a thing unknown to the early bishops, and it is so gross an absurdity that it refutes itself. The writings of the fathers are admitted by all to contain a mass of contradictions; so may it be said of consubstantiation—a mystical notion that Christ was somehow present with the elements of the supper; but even Augustine held that Christ was not bodily present, but spiritually present, and that the bread and wine were only symbols. See I. Taylor of Cambridge, on the Eucharist. In 1215, the Pope, by his final decree, declared the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the conversion of the bread and wine into the real body and blood of Christ! The wafer, by the priest's word, creates these substances into a perfect Christ. Thus the finite human body of our Lord must not only, at the bidding of the priest, descend from heaven, but He must descend in as many distinct bodies as there are masses performed on the same day and same moment! Consubstantiation is in a spiritual sense true, for his spirit is everywhere present, but transubstantiation is an impious lie. It not only destroys the identity of our Lord's true human body, but asserts the ubiquity of the same body, and thereby, in effect, denies its very existence "as bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." But this was necessary to support the sacrifice of the mass,-or ten thousand Christs sacrificed day by day!

This horrifying doctrine is expressed by Humbert in the confession prepared for Archbishop Berenger of Angers, who maintained the opposite doctrine. Thus "the bread and wine, after consecration, are not only a sacrament, but also the real body and blood of Jesus Christ; and this body and blood are handled by the priests, and consumed by the faithful, and not in a sacramental sense, but in reality and in truth as other sensible objects are ;" and hence it may be gnawed by a mouse, and is in fact liable to corruption.

Thus the high notions of Ignatius have, like all other errors, had a very baneful influence. The Roman Church, founding on the authority of Paul, considered it wrong to go to the civil courts of the realm for justice. This was going "before the unjust;" and as the bishops held themselves "as in the place of God," they claimed a jurisdiction superior to all civil judges in matters ecclesiastical, and not only so, for they extended this jurisdiction to every case in which there was any ecclesiastical element mixed up with it. Hence the origin of bishops' courts. And so usurping was the Church, that it prohibited the civil courts from judging priests, whatever their crimes might be. This privilege was called "the benefit of clergy;" and here again the Church extended its power, by declaring that every one who could "read" was entitled to this benefit, but few could read in those days. Thus, if a man could read he was deemed a priest; and let the crime be what it might, he could, by paying the fixed price, obtain absolution. Augustine truly said the Church had a peculiar "law of its social organisation." Thus St Paul said, the "saints" of each Chur h were the proper judges of every dispute between brethren. "Know ye not." said he, that the saints shall judge the world," therefore they were the proper judges in "smaller matters." The two powers are thus independent, and cannot possibly become united; they are like two straight lines running parallel to each other, but never can unite. Their laws are different in principle, and for different ends. The one has the power of the sWORD jure divino, the powers that be are ordained by God, and without the sword of justice society could

her Bible schools, public hospitals, and missions to the heathen, &c., from that false and deceptive unity which has only a seeming prevalence in the Church of Rome? Better that tempest of religions zeal, manifesting signs of life, and that earnest contending for the purity of the faith, which has never ceased since the days of Luther, and which have been the means not only of exposing philosophic dogmatic error, whether speculative or practical, but also of vindicating and establishing what in true science are called necessary and universal truths; and in Theology, what is God and what is man; and in morals what saith the conscience, and what saith the Lord. How true it is that life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel! Better far, I say, is this freedom of opinion, than that ignoring of mental liberty, and that deprivation of the true bread of life by which absolute Popish despotism was estab

not exist. Salus populi suprema est lex. Witness the antediluvians, and hence the new law, blood for blood, given to Noah. The Church has its law equally jure divino, but it is the law of LOVE, which necessarily excludes the sword as well as "the fire and burning of the pastoral office." Oh, what blood might have been saved, what tortures might have been averted, what imprisonments worse than death might have been prevented, if that law had been the law of the Roman Church. How easy is it to prevent a collision betwixt these two powers, which are each suprema lex. The Church is a spiritual union. She has absolute power to exclude the carnal._No pecuniary loss is thereby sustained; hence there can be no appeal to law. But if she enters into a contract to secure a stipend ad vitam aut culpam, a matter not even thought of in Paul's Epistles, that contract must be a written one; and unless the Church is infallible, and can do no wrong, she must meet a deposed bishop at the bar of civil justice, the suprema lex in this instance. The deposed bishop is no more a member, and his pecuniary claims can only be viewed in the same light as a contract for building a church is viewed, and effect given to it according to its terms. Hence the necessity for ecclesiastical forms of process, and the equal necessity for their perfect observance.

Indulgences were of the same kind, and even exceeded the sin of Absolution, for the priests not only relieved the sinner from the usual penances for past sins, but also gave them permission to commit sins at a future period. The prices were fixed by a scale, and great was the profit gained by the sale of these indulgences, and which gave rise to the Refor nation by Luther.

That persecution is the spirit of the Papacy, is proved by the Bull of Pope Boniface VIII.: "We declare, define, and pronounce, that it is essential to the salvation of every human being, that he be subject to the Roman Pontiff. Whosoever obeys not as the Scripture declares, let him die the death." And to prove that the Bible is not the foundation of Papal authority, I need only refer to the Pope's brief so late as 1845, in which he charaterises the Bible "as the gospel of the devil rather than of God." It would be vain for any to affirm, in the nineteenth century, that this brief only relates to the Protestant translation as being a false one, for every scholar knows that it is the purest that exists. No wonder that the kingdom or seat of the Apocalyptic "beast" is described as being "full of darkness," and that under such cruel tyranny his subjects, to whom generally the Bible is a sealed book, have for centuries "gnawed their tongues for pain. Even one of the Jesuits, and the general of that order, described the multitude as silly animals, which have no part or choice whatever in conducting themselves." In 1854, the Virgin Mary was by the Pope and his cardinals deemed to have been immaculate, and she continues to be so worshipped as the "mother" of God.

lished, and a slavish blind "obedience" has been, not only commanded, but actually effected, and which has left in it naught but a stupid indifference and torpid listlessness in regard to things spiritual, which resembles more the stillness of sleep, or at best only a fantastic dream of the night, than the activity of that mental reality which is the soul's free energy, and so called moral life; hence superstition is well characterised in Scripture as a state of moral death, which so far from being the means of advancing civilisation, actually checks it in the bud. Hence individual and social progression becomes, under spiritual despotism, an impossible thing, as exemplified in Ireland, South America, and for ages in the States of the Papal Church. Well did a famous general of the Jesuits say of the multitude-" They are silly animals who have no part or choice whatever in conducting themselves." How true it is that the fear of man bringeth a snare, which, if not cast off, would lead even Christians to veil themselves, by putting on the guise of hypocrisy as a habit, until at last they would not only seem to be, but actually become, perfect Jesuits in the basest sense of that word. There is no fear in love. The teaching of the Spirit is not a godless philosophy, for it is written, "they shall be all taught of God." Christ's "words are spirit and life." I will instruct thee, said God; be ye therefore not as the mule which hath no understanding. "The entrance in of thy word giveth light, and maketh wise the simple! The Bible! the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants. Away then with all human fallible dogmas, whether they be Popish or Protestant, for all have erred, and all have fallen short of the absolute truth as contained in God's Holy Word. Infallibility!—who have differed more from each other than the infallible Popes? who among Protestants have differed more from each other than Protestant divines? and that too, not on things which are indifferent, but in doctrines which are most essential! Still one thing is clear, viz., that the Protestant Churches have never abandoned the doctrine of the "true Divinity," and substituted for it the worship of idols, neither have they ever fallen so low in their morality as the Church of Rome has done. For, first, it is well known that, by her image worship, she was the cause of the dissolution of the imperial empire, and of its division into two so-called Churches, the Greek and Latin; and secondly, I need only to say that the history of the Popes is all and all a history of intrigue, open profligacy, and bloody crimes, so much so that Pope Adrian VI. recorded her character in these words: "We are aware that for a long while past there has been much to be abominated in the holy See-abuses in spiritual things, excess in the exercise of privileges, all things perverted to evil. Cor

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ruption has descended from the head to the members, from the Pope it has diffused itself among the prelates-we have all gone astray, there is none that hath done good, no not one;" and what has the Bishop of Edinburgh recorded when speaking of the Reformation? "The morals of Catholic Europe were then unfortunately at a low ebb and nowhere more culpably so than amidst the ranks of her own clergy." Gibbon has also written "that the grandson of Marosia lived in public adultery, &c., that the Lateran Palace was turned into a place of prostitution," and adds more than I need to transcribe. How absurd then was it for Guizot and Schlegel, and others, to say of the Church of Rome" Her civilisation was from the beginning superior to every other, because she had caused it to enter as it were into the region of eternal truth, into the economy of divine providence, and made it to progress according to the intentions of God!" Ah, rather let them say it ended that progress in civilisation, which in the beginning was the will of God. Hence apostasy has its bitter curse !-blood for blood. For what did the learned Romanist (Maitland) say? "The superstition of the age supposed the glorified saints possessed a considerable power in the Church militant on earth; and I lament, abhor, and am amazed at the superstitions, blasphemies, and idolatries which have grown out of that opinion!" And is not Bonaventura's Psalter, which turns the addresses to God into addresses to the Virgin Mary, not absolute blasphemy? Pope Pius may be a man of irreproachable character, but his reformation of manners is not owing to the doctrines of Rome, but to that "rebellion against spiritual power," as Guizot calls it, and which Luther was the first to proclaim.* Where then is

I have surely proved enough. For a more complete refutation of Bishop Gillis's Defence of Popery, see my sixpenny tract.

IMAGE WORSHIP-See Gibbon's History of Rome, and Mosheim's Church History, in one vol., p. 183, 4, 5, where it will be seen that all attempts that were made by the emperors to check image worship, were overcome by the Roman Pontiff Gregory. He was the ringleader of all the commotions which then destroyed the peace of Italy, and because the emperor refused to recall his edict prohibiting image worship, the Pope actually excommunicated him; and the Pope's subjects rose in rebellion, and massacred all the emperor's deputies and officers. In 730, the emperor, in revenge, degraded Bishop Germanus, who was a patron of image worship, and put Anastasius in his place, and ordered all images to be burnt. The church now became divided into two violent factions, accompanied by frequent assassinations! The one adored images, the other did not, and gloried in their destruction. Gregory's successors, by his zeal for idolatry, was the means of separating the Italian provinces from the Grecian empire. The death of the emperor Leo IV., in A.D. 780, rendered the cause of image worship triumphant. In A.D. 786, the Council of Nice abrogated the imperial edict against image worship, and anathematised all who held that God was the only object of religious adoration. The authority of this decree has been always held sac ed at Rome!

POPERY IDENTIFIED WITH MAHOMEDANISM.-Mahomet's infallible decree was Believe, obey, or die." The sword, said he, is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail

the true Church? "Wherever two or three are met together in my name," said Christ, "there am I in the midst of them

than two months of fasting and prayer. Whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven. At the day of judgment his wound shall be resplendent in vermilion and odoriferous as musk, and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels, Koran and Gibbon, 3, 387. "The Caliph commits to his vicegerent the care of all that part of the world which God has committed to his dominion, and intrusts to him, under the name of vicegerent, the guardianship of the pious and God-serving citizens."

"The Pope," says he, "is the vicegerent of Christ, who, acting no more himself as God, has resigned all his power to the Pope;" and "whosoever obeys not the Pope, let him die the death." To him is committed the keys of Peter, and by unsheathing that sword which Peter was commanded to sheathe for ever, he has power to subdue the whole earth under his everlasting dominion. And quoting Mahomed the Bishop says, "Whosoever falls (in battle) a true Christian, conquers and triumphs." The Crusaders who perished sword in hand, said a Pope, ascended direct "to Paradise;" or as Tetzel said, "No sooner does the money sound in the box, than the soul in purgatory flies up to heaven." Mahomed and the Pope are thus not only false prophets, but convicted "liars." See Rev. ii. 2.

POPERY IDENTIFIED WITH BUDDHISM.-"There is a remarkable similarity (says an author) betwixt Buddhism and Romanism. Each had an infallible head. Election to office never conferred infallibility in Greece, or Rome, or in the western nations. Nor is it found in the Bible. It is essentially a Buddhist principle, for they hold that a man may conquer Godhead by force of exertion and preaching certain virtues. In Thibet the Dalai Lama is chosen when a child-in Rome at maturity: and both are infallible! which is the essence of the office transmitted by some virtue inherited from its founder. Segregation of clergy, and the institution of monkish orders, are identical in Buddhism and Romanism. So also celibacy, poverty, and alms. Each have their hierarchy of priors, abbots, bishops, and cardinals. Canonisation are common to both, and entirely different from the demigods of Greece and Rome. Those of the heathen Pantheon were all connected by birth or marriage with the great Olympic family, and owned their rank to descent rather than to virtue. Deification of the emperors approached to Buddhism, which was then flourishing in the East. But where the custom of Buddhahood, or saintship, is adopted in its purity, it is owing neither to birth or office, but to ascetic virtues, donations to the Church, or charity to others outside its pale. As to relics—Buddhists worshipped a pyramid containing a bone of one of their gods, (see Clemens Alexand.).

"The Tartars paid homage to the dead, so also did the Maccabees; (and which, notwithstanding of Jeremy Taylor's opinion, was condemned by Christ in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus), but Buddhism refined on this, for no bodies were venerated unless they had attained to Buddhahood, and they never venerated a whole body, but only a bone, or utensil, or the spot where a miracle had been performed. The worship of holy places and holy things arose in the medieval ages, and became the most prominent forms of devotion. These did not exist in the primitive Church, and are now gradually becoming extinct, although thousands still go to see the holy coat of Treves, the blood of St Januarius at Naples, (or dogs' and cats' bones at Cologne, said to be the bones of slaughtered "innocents"). Liturgies are also similar, being often endless repetitions of " Ave Marias and Paternosters." So in Buddhism, ami mani padini hom." The Buddhists have also prayer wheels to save personal trouble, and the Romanists have their strings of beads, by which to reckon the number of their prayers! All these forms of devotion were found among the barbarians, who overwhelmed the Roman empire, and were by them introduced into the Church of Rome. The policy of the Roman Church, as set forth in Pope Gregory's celebrated letter to Bishop Milletus, was (as already stated) to get the barbarians to receive Christ in any form. Even the first converts were to be allowed to retain their worship of "stones and trees." But this policy was unsuccessful, for the barbarians were to the Chris