If popery were Christianity, I should rejoice in its propagation. If the priests of Rome were employed in showing men the way of salvation by free grace, through the righteousness of a crucified Saviour:if they were labouring to instruct and edify those who believe in him; -if they were themselves examples of being dead to the things of this world, and alive to those of another;-if they were, in short, like the apostles of Christ, whose successors they profess to be, I should contemplate no danger, but much benefit to society, from the increase of their number. But every one acquainted with the subject knows, that the reverse of this is the case. Popery is not Christianity, but the counterfeit of it. It is Antichrist; that is, against Christianity. The priests of that religion are not employed in preaching salvation by free grace, but by the merit of men's own doings; they are not labouring to instruct the people, but to keep them in ignorance; and instead of being, like the apostles, dead to this world, and alive to another, their greatest efforts are directed to the things of this world: how they may extort money from their deluded adherents, and how they may promote the reign of ignorance and error. The propagation of this religion, therefore, and the multiplication of its priests, are evils to be deprecated as much as the introduction of the plague into the country. They are the pests* of human society; and wherever they shall obtain a footing, farewell to every social and domestic comfort.

But how, it will be asked, can we prevent the increase of popery? I confess I know no way but that of promoting the knowledge of real Christianity among the people; and forbearing to give any countenance or encouragement to popish ceremonies and worship. Some will perhaps be surprised that I should speak of promoting the knowledge of real Christianity among the people of a Christian country; but their surprise would cease, if they would consider the real state of the people in general, with regard to religious knowledge. They are not all Christians who are called Christian; and those who are Christians only in name, are in the greatest danger of taking up with any counterfeit of Christianity that may be artfully imposed upon them, or that may soothe and quiet their consciences, while they continue to live in sin. Popery is exactly such a religion as persons of this description are prepared to embrace.

Without going further from home, I shall suppose one to make the following experiment: Let him go to the green of Glasgow, on a Sabbath evening: among the hundreds of men and women whom he will see there, he will not find one in ten who can give him a proper answer to the simple question-What is real Christianity? or, What is the gospel of Christ? Yet these are all Christians in their own esteem, and would be affronted should any one refuse them the name. Let him make a more extensive survey: let him go through all the parishes in Scotland: let him even make his inquiries of the people whom he meets coming from church on a Sabbath day: he will, no

:

* Perhaps some will consider this the language of abuse. It is, however, no more than plain truth and so far as regards the Jesuits, my assertion is confirmed by all the courts in Europe, who procured the suppression of the order about the middle of the last century. The present pope has, however, restored it; and the mischievous effects that shall follow, will, no doubt, engage the attention of future historians.

doubt, find among the church-going people more religious knowledge than among those who spend their Sabbath evenings on our green; but still he will be obliged to come to the conclusion, that the proportion is but small that can tell him what real Christianity is; or, what is the gospel of Christ.

I shall suppose an artful, well-informed Papist, (and many of them are such,) going to our green on a Sabbath evening, and entering freely into conversation with all he meets: I could venture to assure him, that he would not find one in a hundred who could tell why he is a Protestant, or make any sensible reply to his arguments in support of popery. Nay more, that I may not be charged with drawing my conclusion from the state of knowledge among the lower classes of society, I shall suppose one going into our coffee room in the busiest hour of the day, and putting the same questions-What is real Christianity? What is the gospel of Christ? Why are you a Protestant? And I question if one in ten would give a sensible answer, unless it were, that he could not tell.

The melancholy fact is, that a large proportion of our population, of all ranks, are not Protestants from a conviction of those truths on which the Protestant religion rests, as opposed to that of Rome: shall I say not Christians, from a belief of that truth on which the church of Christ is built? Now, with regard to such, they are prepared to go over to Rome, whenever her religion shall become respectable and popular.

I said I know no way of preventing this, but, first, by promoting the knowledge of real Christianity. Let the number of evangelical preachers be increased; let them be encouraged and supported in preaching the gospel in all parts of the country. Every obstruction thrown in the way of this belongs to Antichrist, and subserves the cause of popery. The sooner, therefore, it is removed the better. Christ says, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" and who is that servant of Christ that dares to say, Ye shall NOT preach the gospel in my parish? The preaching of the gospel is the divinely appointed means of turning men from idols to serve the living God: it is, therefore, the means which God has appointed to turn men from popery, or to preserve them from being deceived by it. The success of some eminent ministers of the church of Scotland, and of some zealous dissenters, in preaching the gospel of late years in the Highlands, shows what might be expected from the united exertions of all Christian ministers, accompanied by the divine blessing, which the divine promise warrants them to expect. This, with the circulation of the holy scriptures, and the establishment of schools, is the legitimate way of opposing the progress of popery, and it would ultimately prove effectual.

The second part of my proposal is, to give no countenance or encouragement to popish ceremonies or worship. Much evil has been done in Glasgow, by the attendance of many of the respectable inhabitants, on Lord's days, in the popish chapel. It has, indeed, become a fashionable lounge for a Sabbath forenoon. Heads of families can without scruple go there, and take their children with them. If one has a friend on a visit from the country, and who must see all that is to be seen in Glasgow, he must of course attend worship in the popish

chapel. If persons are entire strangers, they cannot go to one of our own churches, unless they know beforehand where to get a seat, lest they be allowed to stand in the passage: but, in the popish chapel, they receive the most polite attention, and are instantly shown into the best seats in the house, especially if they have given silver into the plate.

It is true, many persons go out of mere curiosity, and some of them have told me that they were disgusted with the mummery which they saw, and the nonsense which they heard; but they did not tell this to the people or to the priest. Their presence was taken as a compliment; their money went to support the idolatrous system; and some who would give only a halfpenny to the poor at the door of the parish church, would, for the honour of the thing, give sixpence or a shilling, on entering so fine a house as the chapel. The consequence of this has been that the Papists here have become more bold in declaiming against our religion; and have become more sanguine in their hopes of soon seeing their own prevail. A few years ago, not one of them would have had the effrontery to publish such things against Protestants and the reformation, as AMICUS VERITATIS has done in the Glasgow Chronicle. If Protestants be reviled and insulted by their popish neighbours, they have themselves to blame. They ought not to have given them such flattering encouragement.

Besides, as Papists look upon theirs as the best of all possible modes of divine worship;-as they adore their own manner of performing divine service, they flatter themselves that all who witness it must also approve, that they will in due time become admirers, and at last conform to it. Every Protestant, therefore, who honours them by his presence, contributes to confirm them in their delusion; and cherishes in them a hope that, by and by, we shall all return to the communion of the church of Rome.

But more seriously, I do not know how any Christian can justify himself to his own conscience, after having spent part of the Sabbath in witnessing the mummery of the popish service. We are taught to pray, "lead us not into temptation;" and to be delivered from the counsel that causeth to err from the way of knowledge. But he that voluntarily puts himself in the way of hearing error, cannot, without gross hypocrisy, offer such a prayer to Him who searches the heart. Christians of the first ages of the church, would rather die than go voluntarily into an idol's temple, or be willing spectators of idolatrous worship. Popery is idolatry, as I hope to prove at length before I have done, and also, that the principal rites of the Romish church are derived from those which idolatrous heathens practised in their worship. The popish chapel, therefore, is an idol's temple. It is a shame for any Christian to be seen in it; for what fellowship hath the temple of God with idols?

CHAPTER XI.

POPERY DENIES THE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION. BAPTISM AND EXTREME UNCTION. THE PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF POPERY. SEVERAL INSTANCES CITED. EVEN IN FRANCE PERSECUTION PREVAILS CONTRARY TO THE LETTER AND SPIRIT OF THE CONSTITUTION. PERSECUTION OF PROTESTANTS AT BOURDEAUX. MISREPRESENTATION CONCERNING ENGLAND AND IRELAND.

SATURDAY, September 26th, 1818. POPERY is the religion of depraved human nature. What Toplady said of Arminianism is applicable to it. Every man is born a Papist. He is born not only in a state of alienation from God, but with an innate propensity to trust in himself, or in something done by himself, or by fellow-creatures, to obtain the favour, or remove the displeasure, of God. Christianity reveals a Saviour, who has obeyed and suffered in the room of the guilty; who has, in short, done every thing that was necessary to reconcile sinners to their offended Creator: and every sinner who believes in him is so reconciled. This reconciliation, however, is necessarily and invariably accompanied by a radical change in the character, as well as the state of the individual. He becomes a new creature. He commences a new and spiritual life ;or, to use the emphatical words of our Saviour, he is born again: and without this no man can see the kingdom of God. The future life of such a person is characterized by a hatred of sin, and a daily opposition to it, in all its motions and operations in his own heart, together with a love of righteousness, and an earnest desire to please and serve God. It requires nothing less than the power of the Holy Spirit to produce this change: and nothing short of this will be recognized by the righteous Judge as real Christianity.

But popery can do very well without any change in either the state or character of persons who submit to the discipline of their ghostly fathers. By the sacrament of baptism, a priest can regenerate a sin

ner.

This is all the change he is taught to seek; he is told that by baptism all his sins are taken away, and he is reconciled to God. By the sacrament of penance, all the sins committed after baptism are forgiven; and by extreme unction, when he comes to die, he is assured of everlasting happiness; or that, at the worst, he will only be detained

"Q. What are the effects of baptism? A. A total remission of original and actual sin, with the pains due to them. Hence no satisfaction is appointed, when adults are baptized. Again, all spiritual and supernatural gifts are given at the same time. It is an entire regeneration, or new life; it gives a right to all the other sacraments; it opens the gates to heaven; it gives a character, and cannot be reiterated. All these points are defined by the council of Trent.-Q. Is it lawful to receive baptism twice? A. No; it is not lawful, on any account, more than once, Heb. vi. 4-6; and the reason is, because it imprints a spiritual character in the soul, which will remain for ever, either to our great joy in heaven, or our confusion in hell."-Let my Baptist friends look to their own safety, if popery shall ever prevail.-Q. What are the penalties of re-baptizing? A. By the old civil law, it was death: and now, by the canons of the church, it is irregularity, and otherwise punishable." The real Principles of Catholics: or a Catechism for the Adult, Dublin, 1750, p. 199.

"Q. What are the effects of this sacrament?" (extreme unction) "A. 1st, It remits all venial sins and mortal sins forgotten; 2dly, It remits something of the debt of punishment due to past sins; 3dly, It heals the soul of her infirmity and weakness, and a certain propension to sin, contracted by former sins," &c. It does other wonderful things, for which I have not room: See the same book, p. 254.

some time in purgatory, which will be made as short as possible, if he bequeath a handsome sum to the priests, or if his surviving friend shall pay them for their prayers and masses. All the time, from his

baptism till his death, the person is unconscious of any change having taken place in the state of his heart towards God, or holiness. His affections are carnal; he is in love with sin; and he continues to live in it, flattering himself that his soul is safe, because he observes all the prescribed forms of his religion.

It will be granted, that his life is much more miserable than that of the Christian who hates, and is daily striving, against sin. He lives in perpetual bondage, under the discipline of his ghostly fathers, who prescribe fastings, and penances, and pilgrimages, and who never cease their pecuniary exactions. Notwithstanding that his sins are forgiven by baptism and penance, he is taught that he must still do something, or suffer something, to merit heaven, unless he shall pay for indulgences, or for the transference of the good works of the saints to his account. Miserable, however, as is the condition of such a man, it is that which the carnal mind will prefer to the salvation which the gospel reveals; because it is consistent with the love and practice of sin; it does not require the universal mortification of natural corrupt passions, nor the submission of the heart to the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Christ crucified.

It is on this account, that I am concerned for many who are called Protestants. While they do not submit to the plainly revealed way of salvation, by Jesus Christ; while they are trusting for salvation to any thing, or nothing, or are not thinking about the matter, and living in the practice of sin, they are ready to become a prey to the agents of that religion which professes to save sinners, while yet they continue in their hearts without love to God, and without hatred of sin. The sinner has many misgivings of heart, when he thinks of death and judgment, and he will catch hold of any thing that will afford him relief, and soothe his conscience, without requiring a change of heart and conduct. Popery is exactly suited to his wishes; and he will submit to all its impositions and exactions, for the sake of the peace which it affords him. It is, however, a false peace; and it issues in the ruin of all who suffer themselves to be deceived by it.

Who can think of this, and not contemplate danger from the encouragement given to popery, and the imposing attitude which that religion now assumes among us? I shall be told, perhaps, that the Protestants I have referred to, are men of no religion at all; and that their becoming Papists will not make them worse than they are. It will not make them worse, perhaps, with regard to their state before God, and their prospects for eternity; but it will make them worse members of society, and more dangerous neighbours. Popery is a stern, exclusive, persecuting religion. It will suffer no other to exist, if it has the power of putting it down. Every addition, therefore, made to their communion, I should consider an accession of strength to the enemies of our civil and religious liberties.

I quote the following from a popish writer of the present day, to prove that the sentiments of that body, on the subject of persecution, are the same that ever they were; and though it may seem strange, I make the quotation from a passage which contains, in words, a strong, VOL. I.-15