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This appears from the following extract from the Rev. Blanco White.

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'By one of the Trent canons, every member of the Church of Rome is bound to believe that all baptized persons are liable to be compelled, by punishment, to be Christians; or, what is the same in Roman-Catholic divinity, spiritual subjects of the Pope. It is, indeed, curious to see the Council of Trent, who passed that law, prepare the free and extended action of its claims, by an unexpected stroke of liberality. In the session on Baptism, the Trent fathers are observed anxiously securing to Protestants the privileges of true baptism. The fourth canon of that session fulminates an anathema, or curse, against any one who should say that baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, conferred by an heretic, with an intention to do that which the church intends in that sacrament, is not true baptism. Observe, now, the consequences of this enlarged spirit of concession in the two subjoined canons :- -' If any one should say, those who have been baptized are free from all the precepts of the holy church, either written or delivered by tradition, so that they are not obliged to observe them unless they will submit to them of their own accord, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.' -Having soon after declared the lawfulness of infant baptism, they proceed to lay down the fourteenth canon: 'If any one should say, that these baptized children, when they grow up, are to be asked whether they will confirm what their godfathers promised in their name; and that, if they say they will not, they are to be left to their own discretion, and not to be forced, in the mean time, into the observances of a Christian life, by any other punishment than that of keeping them from the reception of the Eucharist and the other sacraments till they repent, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.'—Now, 'it is most true,' says the author of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church, that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their church to be unchangeable; and that it is a tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it now is, and such it ever will be.' Let him, therefore, choose between this boasted consistency of doctrine, and the curse of his church. Council of Trent, that council whose decrees are, by the creed of Pius IV., declared to be obligatory above all others; that Council has converted the sacrament of Baptism into an indelible brand of slavery. Whoever has received the waters of regeneration, is the thrall of her who declares that there is no other church of Christ. She claims her slaves wherever they may be found; declares them subject to her laws, both written and traditional; and, by her infallible sanction, dooms them to in

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definite punishment, till they shall acknowledge her authority, and bend their necks to her yoke. Such is, has been, and will ever be, the doctrine of the Roman-Catholic Church; such is the belief of her true and sincere members; such the spirit that actuates her views, and which, by every possible means, she has always spread among her children. Him that denies this doctrine, Rome devotes to perdition. The principle of religious tyranny, supported by persecution, is a necessary condition of true Catholicism: he who revolts at the idea of compelling belief by punishment, is severed at once from the communion of Rome." (pp. 25, 26.)

Need we say more to prove that the WILL to persecute remains unchanged, as a characteristic of the Church of Rome? or to shew that we are all in danger of persecution, whensoever Rome has power in her hands? The ordinance of Baptism is sufficient; it seals us as the objects of her persecuting tyranny!

And the Church of Rome is actually disposed to persecute, at this day, even unto ruin and death. Dr. Doyle declares upon oath, before the Commissioners of Education, concerning the Bible readers,

The only apprehension I should have, if they came into my neighbourhood, would be that the peasantry might stone them. Part I. p. 270.

What! cannot a man offer to read the Bible to Roman Catholics without danger of being stoned? Here there is persecution unto blood. And let us ask, what will be the consequences if a Roman Catholic in Ireland becomes a Protestant, and openly professes it? We know, that in many cases his life will be in danger; in others, all means of subsistence will be cut off. He will be shunned, and left to starve: even the nearest and dearest of his Popish relations and friends will do their utmost to ruin, if not to murder him. Their rancour will pursue him even after death; they will not suffer him to be committed to the grave in peace. Here then is persecution with a very high hand. And it is evident that pains are taken by the priesthood to keep alive this persecuting spirit among the people; for indulgences are particularly granted to those who visit certain chapels, upon days prescribed, "and there pray, according to the intentions of the sovereign Pontiff, for the extirpation of heresy, the exaltation of the church," &c. The spirit in which these prayers are offered, and the effect of such observances upon the minds of Roman Catholics, are pointed out in the Digest, Part. II. chap. vi. pp. 152-193, on the "present spirit and policy of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland :" in which also will be found some important documents, which space forbids us to quote; and in particular, extracts from the twenty.

seventh canon of the Third Lateran Council, and from the third canon of the Fourth, which expressly declare the doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning the persecution and condemnation of heretics. (See pp. 182-184.)

But some will suppose that this persecuting spirit, with other of the awful characteristics of the Church of Rome, is surely confined to the ecclesiastics and the more ignorant part of the people. It would seem, however, that it is far otherwise. Respecting the spirit which actuated the Roman-Catholic Board in 1817, we have some curious and important information, Part I. p. 502.

'Dublin Evening Post, December 6, 1817.

'Mr. O'Connell moved for a committee to disclaim the Rhemish notes; stated that an action was pending between Dr. Troy and a respectable bookseller; and that while the Board should not interfere with the subject of this action, "they should not let the present opportunity pass, of recording their "abhorrence of the bigoted and intolerant doctrines promulgated in that work."... "There was not a moment to be lost."....." He would not remain a Catholic one "hour longer, if he thought it essential to the Catholic faith to believe that it "was lawful to murder Protestants, or that faith might be innocently broken "with heretics. Yet such were the doctrines to be deduced from the notes to "the Rhemish Testament." Mr. O'Connell moved for a committee to disavow the notes. Mr. Eneas M'Donnell opposed the motion. Mr. Nicholas Mahon thought the business should be left to the clergy. Mr. O'Connell replied, that "if, under pretence of this being a polemical subject, you stop short, the people of England will say that you had not the spirit or the liberality to "condemn those very scandalous notes; that you got rid of them by a side"wind." In the end, a motion was put and carried, the words being amended thus: "That a committee be appointed to draw up an address on the occasion of the late publication of the Rhemish Testament, with a view to have the same submitted to an aggregate meeting."

Thus, after all this bluster on the part of this Goliath of the Roman-Catholic cause, a committee to disavow could not even be appointed. And even the committee which was appointed, it seems, took care never to present their report. This business was got rid of by a side-wind: and, with his usual consistency and faithfulness to his word, the liberal mover still remains a Roman Catholic, though the scandalous doctrines of the Rhemish notes may still, with the greatest justice, be imputed to every member of his church!

But we fear the truth is, that the Roman Catholics generally are more intolerant and bigoted, more disposed to hate and persecute Protestants, at this day, than they were at the time of the Reformation. The persecutions and cruelties then exercised were more the acts of the bishops and pastors than of the people; who often, to a vast extent, sympathized with the martyrs, honoured them, and were excited by their sufferings to search the Scriptures, and consider the grounds of that faith

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which supported them under all their trials. We suspect, that, if the same scenes of cruelty were re-acted in our times, there would be much more of a calm, deliberate approval, on the part of Roman Catholics in general; that multitudes of those classes who, at the time of the Reformation, shed tears in secret for the martyrs, and cursed their murderers, would now look on with savage exultation, and willingly assist in the work of torture. There was then a very general spirit of inquiry, which the Inquisition and the clergy found the greatest difficulty in suppressing, When Bibles were first put into the churches, multitudes thronged to hear or to read them. A great and effectual door was thus opened to the preachers of the truth, and vast multitudes embraced the doctrines of the Reformers. But we fear that now the bigotry more completely pervades all classes, from the highest to the lowest; that the laity are much more disposed to despise, reject, silence, and persecute the preachers of the truth, thau then. If this be not the case, we are sure that a fearful burthen of reproach and guilt rests upon Protestants, that we do not make more strenuous and successful efforts for their conversion: for certain it is, that, where thousands were converted formerly, it is a great matter if we now can number tens. We suspect, indeed, that, in truth and fairness, the blame must be divided. The Protestants are more careless and indolent in preaching the truth but the Romanists are also more hardened against it: they have been trained up in a settled abhorrence to the very name and doctrines of Protestants, which they could not be till the character of Protestantism was fixed; and therefore we find them armed against conviction, and the force of argument and reproof, with brass and triple steel. And may we not learn, from the persecutions of the Jansenists in France, that the Papists are more violently hostile to all appearances of vital godliness, seen within the pale of their own church, than they were before the Reformation? Many men of true and vital godliness, who appeared among them previous to that period, and who might justly be considered of the same class as the pious Jansenists, not only suffered no persecution, but were held in honour

their persons, their opinions, their writings, were respected ;— for instance, Anselm, Bernard, Bradwardine, and Wesselus of Groningen, for accounts of whom we need only refer to Milner. We do not think that the Roman Catholics were then so decidedly the adversaries of all righteousness as they are now. But we need not repeat what we have already said, in the conclusion of the Article on Quesnel, in our last Number. We set out with saying, that, in her doctrines, the arrogance of her claims, her manner of dispensing with all ties Divine and

human, and her persecuting spirit, the Church of Rome is unchanged. We could but give hints on each of those heads, to set our readers thinking. We hope they will pursue them; and we feel assured, that if they do, they will come, with us, to the conclusion, that, while in respect of all these errors she remains unchanged, she is also more hardened and obstinate in maintaining them.

How, then, comes it to pass that so many are deluded with the idea that a vast amelioration has taken place? Three reasons, we conceive, may be assigned. First, that those persons who are thus deluded are persons of small judgment in such matters, and easily deceived. Would they have been able to discern the true character of the Church of Rome at any former period? Would they ever have deemed themselves called upon to come out and be separate from her, and to protest against her abominations? We suspect that all those who take this mitigated view of the Church of Rome at present, would somehow have contrived to take much the same view at the time of the Reformation. They would have gone, perhaps, with Erasmus, but never with Luther. They are, therefore, no judges in such a case. They are so easily and willingly deceived, that their judgment must go for nothing. Then again, it must be remembered, in the second place, that we see the Church of Rome at present under forced restraint, especially in our own country. Divine truth, when powerfully set forth and proclaimed, has not only a converting, but also a restraining power; and where the heart is not changed (and therefore no real improvement effected), it will yet repress many outward enormities, and keep the wicked within the bounds of decency, in many respects. They dare not, for very shame, to run into the same excesses, when a pure standard is raised up and set before them, as when nothing of this kind is exhibited. But, more than this, the existence in Europe of so many powerful Protestant states has controuled the Papal power, and compelled the Church and Court of Rome to a moderation in the exercise of its authority, even in regard to Roman-Catholic states and kingdoms, which is not the result of any real improvement, but merely of fear and policy. The arrogant and tyrannical measures which were once adopted, would, under these circumstances, only serve to expel increasing multitudes from the pale of their church, and to drive them into Protestantism. So long as Great Britain remained a Protestant country, it was peculiarly the bulwark of the Protestant cause, and a continual check upon the ambition and insolences of Rome. Perhaps now we may learn, within a few years, how vast and

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