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religion, and he would, in a little time, have thought it right, as well as pious, to bestow on them all the public establishments. Rigours and persecutions against Heretics would speedily have followed, and thus liberty and the Protestant Religion would, in the issue, have been totally: subverted."

This, let it be remembered, was the opinion of Hume; a man very far removed from any thing that savoured of bigotry, or prejudice in favour of a particular faith, and who also is the apologist of James II.

No doubt indeed can remain in the mind of any one who is willing to listen to the sure testimony of History, that the rights of conscience and civil liberty cannot be protected or preserved, if the enemies of both are allowed to possess even a partial share in the legislature: the encroachments of Popery are such, that it will never rest till its supremacy is established; the only way to prevent which, is to maintain, unimpaired, those bulwarks which were formed, by the wisdom of our ancestors, to fortify the constitution; safeguards which no real, or, at least, wellinformed, friend to that constitution can wish to demolish.

Yours, &c.

ANGLICUS.

To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate.

SIR;-I am one of those (very many, I hope), who have hailed with delight, and perused with avidity, your excellent and well-timed work. On the use and necessity of it I could say much, but I judge it will be far better, after offering you whatever assistance is in my power, to commence my career by a few observations on your two first numbers.

A passage is here omitted.]

I would recommend to you particularly Dr. Kipling's most able tract referred to in p. 21. I was much struck with his proofs of the FORGERY by which St. Peter was first foisted in amongst the Bishops of Rome; the author of which was Jerom of Stridon, who ought surely no longer to be called a Saint. Thus the very foundation of Popery is removed, so that the superstructure is an air-built nothing.-See the Dean's Tract, p. 33. The position in p. 23, that Popery was the creed of those who founded British liberty at Runnymeade, and conquered at Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt;" is subtle and jesuitical. The Bishop of Gloucester's answer is admirable: "It was the creed also of those who massacred the Protestants on St. Bartholomew's day, and in Ireland in 1641. It was the creed of those who, under Mary, martyred our holy VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. Feb. 1813.] 2 N

Bishops, and, under James, devised the infernal Gunpowder Plot. It was the creed of the second James, who, under the same semblance of mildness and equality of rights that is used at present, had nearly destroyed our religion, &c. &c. This retort, I say, of the Bishop's is triumphant; but it might be further enforced by observing, that they were not the peculiar tenets of Popery that induced our ancestors to stand forward at Runnymeade, or enabled them to conquer at Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt; whereas it was entirely owing to the peculiar doctrines of Popery, that so much Christian blood was spilt in the above anti-Christian massacres and executions; so that the cases are widely different.

To the Whig families, whom you mention in p. 30, as seeming to abandon the cause of the constitution, permit me to add that of the great Lord Somers. Of Lord Russel, the glorious martyr of Protestantism, I may, perhaps, have occasion to speak in future.

The very important quotation from Mr. Plowden, in p. 42, about Roman Catholics being incapable of change; which is also produced by the Bishop of Lincoln, and many others, is taken, it seems, from a publication called "the Case stated." It appears a curious circumstance that this Popish writer should have borrowed, if he was aware of it, or if not aware, that he should have stumbled upon the very title of one of the most complete and triumphant refutations of Popery that can well be imagined. I allude to a Tract, now lying before me, entitled, "The Case stated, between the Church of Rome and the Church of England, wherein is shewed, that the Doubt and the Danger is [are] in the former, and the Certainty and Safety in the latter Communion." It consists of a conversation betwixt a Popish Nobleman and a Protestant Gentleman. It is anonymous, and "printed for George Strahan, at the Golden Ball, over against the Royal Exchange, Cornhill, 1713;" i, e. a century ago. Perhaps you may be able to discover the author,

P. 43. The appeal to Popish Universities seems to have been of very little consequence, since their answers must necessarily be regulated-by what they call "ecclesiæ utilitas."

P. 51. The pamphlet by the truly excellent Bishop of St. David's is a vast acquisition. I had long suspected that, the Church of England was prior in its foundation to the Church of Rome, and, on turning to my “Case stated," mentioned above, I found the following in p. 19. " Lord.-But we are the great body of Christians from which all broke off.-Gentleman. -No, my Lord, not the half, nor ever were. The Greek Church is an elder Church than yours, &c." Now, though it is not essential, I should like to see this point established, and an enumeration of the several Churches prior to that of Rome; and I find I had formerly written at the

bottom of this passage, "and possibly even the English Church, according to Gildas, &c." There is also, I think, a Romish tradition that Joseph, of Arimathea, went and preached in Britain immediately after our Lord's Crucifixion, leaving some precious relic, &c. The relia smells strong of Popery, though the report implies that they can have no objection to crediting that the evangelizing of Britain might be anterior to that of Rome. The Gentleman then goes on to prove, that "the Communion of Rome is now (in 1713) reduced to a very small part of the Christian Church.". As we know that Christianity more or less pervades all nations, I have somewhere seen it computed, a few years ago, that the Romanists were then to Christians in general, as 1 to 7. But they must now bear a far less proportion, especially since the immense and still rapid increase of pure Christianity in Asia, where, as Dr. Buchanan tells us, p. 197 of his Star in the East," Multitudes of Hindoos, both Heathens and Roman Catholics become Christians of the Protestant Church. And yet the Church of Rome still perseveres in styling itself Catholic!

But you will agree, Mr. Editor, that it is high time I should now cease, and reserve your second, equally excellent Number for future consideration; though, as thoughts crowd upon me in almost endless succession on so exuberant a subject, I must beg to be indulged in a few reflections before I conclude.

The Prophecies declare, "that the Jews are to be restored, &c. by some nation of pure worshippers." The attempt, therefore, to mix up an impure worship with our own, seems to be renouncing our chance of becoming that favoured people.

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It is observable that Heaven's wrath at present falls the heaviest on those nations where either Popery or Infidelity have most prevailed; so that to admit, or, in any degree, establish either of these by law, is like being candidates for the wrath of Heaven.

Popish bigotry has actually caused most of the calamities of Spain, for Buonaparte might soon have been expelled, had she fought cordially by the side of her generous deliverers, who find no fault at all with her for choosing her own national religion.

The Peninsula "fell among thieves, who stripped, and wounded, and left her half dead,” and a good Samaritan has saved her life. But it is to be feared that, in her heart, she loves the thieves, professing her own religion, better than her deliverer whom she calls a Heretic.

Yet the Popish party now call us Bigots, just as Lords Grey and Grenville once accused Mr. Perceval of insatiable ambition!

Popery seems to be cut out for Buonaparte, and he for it. The more

than heathenish barbarity of those bloody decrees, enacted by its sacrosanct councils, through a really insatiable ambition-its being founded on falsehood, or, in Scripture language, "believing a lie," &c. are so congenial to his soul that one might wonder at his turning Mahomedan, did we not know that the religion of the Arabian Impostor has similar claims to his favour.

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Romanists justly regard success in their present demands as the first step towards eradicating the reformed religion out of this kingdom. A giddy populace, befooled, and gradually vitiated, for this last half century, by such patriots, as Wilkes, Fox, and Burdett, might easily be led astray. The books of martyrs are unhappily worn out in our parish Churches, and certain well-known brewers of mischief have forbidden the cry of no Popery," which has so long saved our liberty and prosperity. Therefore when Monks and bald-pated Friars, with all the trumpery and parade of Popery, may legally assail this same populace by their more be witching arguments, by which they keep enthralled so many hundreds of brave Irishmen, when they assure them, that the Pope of Rome has eternal happiness in store for all those who believe in, and worship him, especially if they have been so fortunate as to have cut the throat of a here tic, what can prevent our physical strength from being very soon wrested from us? -But I trust that neither earth nor heaven will permit this. I trust that a generous insulted nation will be timely roused to hurl vengeance on the heads of irreconcilable enemies, before their true Catholic, Infidel, Mahomedan friend Buonaparte, whose treatment of their Pope they would easily forgive, could come to their assistance.—But I think there are brighter prospects for both parties, though there is by no means sufficient room for me to explain them in this protracted letter.

FIDEI DEFensor.

This letter should have appeared some time since. It is written by a learned and venerable member of our Protestant Church. We are highly gratified by the good opinion which he is pleased to express of us. We hope ever to deserve it. His commu nisations will always be most acceptable,-EDITOR

PROTESTANT INTELLIGENCE.

The revival of Protestant Spirit, which we hailed in our last, continues to gain ground. The question becomes every day better understood. Many who had been lulled into a state of torpor by Popish opiates, awake from their dream of political safety, ensured by Protestant concession; and are alive to the danger of their situation. Pseudo-liberality is stript of its vizard; and betrays the countenance of fatuity in some who would be thought friends to religion; and of disappointed ambition in others who looked for the triumph of intolerance in the expected attainment of Romish ascendancy. We have received copies of the petitions voted by the Protestant noblemen, gentlemen, freeholders and inhabitants of the county of Antrim; that of the noblemen, &c. of the county of Wicklow; that of the noblemen, &c. of the county of Roscommon; that of the Protestant gentry, &c. of Fermanagh and Enniskillen; and of the county aha town of Carlow; the resolutions of the noblemen, &c. of the county of Wexford, who declare that they "coincide in the resolutions adopted at the several meetings of Protestants in the counties of Sligo, Roscommon, Longford, Leitrim, Monaghan, Wicklow, Carlow, Westmeath, city of Dublin, &c. &c. &c."-we mention this in particular, because it speaks an intercommunity of sentiment throughout the sister-island, which best knows the genuine character of Popery ; and has so recently suffered under a rebellion instigated by the unrelenting industry of the Popish priesthood. This adherence of certain districts to the Protestant resolutions of other towns, counties, &c. of Ireland, is very general there; and it is a wise measure. Parliament will never shut its ears to the voice of a Protestant Kingdom; and we feel convinced that the ministers of the crown will stand firmly in the support of Mr. Perceval's religious, as well as his political principles; indeed in the case of the Roman Catholic Question, they are so blended, that they must be counted inseparable from each other. We have before us, too, the spirited resolution of a most ancient and loyal society, consisting of nearly one thousand members, PROTESTANT Freemen and freeholders of the city and county of Dublin, called the Aldermen of Skinner's Alley." They number many senato's amongst their members, who are bound by the rules of the society, "to the utmost of their power to preserve inviolate, THE PROTESTANT CONSTITUTION IN CHURCH AND STATE." Our heart is with them. May Divine Providence prosper their exertions. They have our sincere thanks they have our warmest aspirations! Drogheda petitions. We have received also a requisition (signed by a long list of magistrates and gentlemen, headed by noblemen), to the High Sheriff of the King's County to call a Protestant meeting. We most earnestly demand the attention of the good people of

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