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to the highest pitch, when they were assuming such eminent power, above what had been granted to the Angels themselves, as by their ministry to create the Son of God, and to offer Him before the face of God the Father, for the redemption and salvation of the worldwhen they could receive the homage of their parasites, and suffer themselves to be called by the Title of "Our Lord God the Pope,"* well might they argue, in their pride, that it was a most execrable thing for them to "descend to such ignominy as to be put in sign of subjection in the hands of princes."+

While we tremble at this blasphemy in the heads of the Roman church, in her day of darkness, when the Holy Bible was hidden from the people's sight, shall we not tremble also in this our day of light and liberty, at the attempts to re-establish the system which still virtually maintains it? What but this notion of a super-human power in the priesthood, dragged princes in the chains of Popery? what else enslaved the people?

If you consent to Transubstantiation, you must consent also that the priest has power to create his Maker. You must consent that he can make your God. When the eyes of men are blinded, and their understanding is darkened, so that they cannot see the lie which they have in their right hand, we need not be surprised at their submission to such priestly tyranny.

If you consent to such dominion, you must submit also to auricular confession, the hardest of all the bonds of slavery to bear. You must pour out the secrets of

* Jew. Op. Genev. Apo. Con. Harding Fol. p. 416; Conc. Lat. Sess. 4, Cardillus pro Conc. Tridēt.

+ See the History of the contests between Urban II. and Paschal II. with the kings of their day, concerning the investitures. Vide

Note I.

your hearts before the priest: you must make known to him all crimes committed, that are past,-all crimes intended, that are yet to come. The priest will thus hold you in trammels, which shall destroy your liberty, and put your life in jeopardy, although he dare not divulge your secret.

Thus he may know that one compasses the death of a neighbour, through revenge; he may be aware of the adultery intended, but not yet accomplished. But the unsuspecting husband must not be warned! the hand of the assassin must not be stayed! the murderer must be concealed!-and why? To preserve the system, and the power of the priest; although it makes him even an accessory before the fact! This is no visionary dream; it is the faithful portrait drawn by the hand of one who has bewailed his participation in the baneful system.

The history of the past attests the human misery and crimes that have been appended to its train, and the daily press records the savage deeds of blood, which mark its progress in the present day. Witness the sickening details of sanguinary cruelties in Spain, which have drawn forth the sympathies of this Illustrious City. Witness the soil of Ireland, stained with the blood of victims denounced at the polluted altars of the Roman Church by her deluded priests, in their contest for the mastery, which still appeals to Christian sympathy; but as yet, appeals without avail. For, in the language of the prophet, a wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely; and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof? Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? †

* Rev. L. J. Nolan, "late a Romish Clergyman."

Jer. v. 30, 31.

We have no desire to see the liberty of conscience abridged; but it is enough to bear with the errors and follies of mankind, without countenancing what God abhors. It is thus, that I cannot witness the encouragement given to Popery, nor yet the heavy blows and great discouragements daily dealt out by those in power, against the national religion, without apprehension for its safety; and if you can discern the peril that is at hand, you will lift up your voices against the encroachments of the Roman, and the degradation of our holy Church.

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It was the Church of England, in its Catholic and Protestant character, as it is now established, that opened the Holy Bible to the people in the English tongue. It was this our Church of England, that, by the grace of God, has made us free. It is this our Church of England, that has, through evil report and good report, made great efforts, under divine protection, to Christianize the world with her Societies. Within ten years only, after the Revolution, as the first-fruits of our Christian Liberty, our great Church Societies were established: for one hundred years they occupied the ground alone, and were often thwarted in their operations by those from whom support might have been expected. But like the grain of mustard-seed in the parable, blessed with the dew of Heaven, they have been growing for one hundred and forty years, till they have so spread their branches, as to give shelter to millions from the blast of infidelity, and the corruptions of the Truth, both at home and abroad. Her ministers are only men; but the blessing of God attends their labours: and if but one amidst this vast congregation shall, by this day's labour in the Lord's Vineyard, have been made to discern the difference between the corruptions of Popery and our fellowship in the mysteries of our holy religion, it shall

not have been in vain. May the blessing of God attend you, my Christian brethren, in your choice; and rejoicing in the liberty with which Christ has made us free in the Church of England, may we all, by His grace, continue to render unto Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, our devout and reasonable service, according to her pure, her well-tried, and her holy Form of worship.

APPENDIX.

NOTE A.

"Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." 1 Cor. i. 12. "Ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal ?" 1 Cor. iii. 3, 4.

B.

We learn from Stowe, "that in the midst of the church-yard of St. Paul's was a pulpit cross of timber, mounted upon steps of stone, and covered with lead, in which were sermons preached by learned divines every Sunday in the forenoon, when the Court and Magistrates of the City, besides a vast concourse of people, usually attended. . . . . In foul and rainy weather, these solemn sermons were preached at a place called 'the Shrouds,' which was, it seems, by the side of the Cathedral Church, under a covering or shelter.". . . . . Memoirs, page xvii. Jewel's Apolog., by Campbell. When Bishop Jewel was a pupil at Oxford, Mr. Parkhurst, his tutor, gave him "Tindal's Translation of the Bible" to read,'himself overlooking Coverdale's. Observing Jewel's acute remarks on these two versions, he exclaimed, Surely Paul's Cross will one day ring of this boy." Prophesying, as it were, says my author, of that noble sermon of his, at Paul's Cross, A.D. 1560, on 1 Cor. xi. 23. Walton's Lives by Dr. Zouch.

C.

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"Paschasius Radbert, a monk, pretended to explain with precision, and to determine with certainty the doctrine of the Church on this head, for which purpose he composed, A.D., 831, a treatise Concerning the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ." His two propositions were, "first, that, after the consecration of the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, nothing remained of these symbols but the outward figure, under which the body and blood of Christ were really and locally present; and secondly, that the body of Christ, thus present in the Eucharist, was the same body that was born of the Virgin, that suffered upon the cross, and was raised from the dead. This new doctrine. excited, as might well be expected, the astonishment of 'Accordingly it was opposed by RABANUS MAURUS, HERIBALD, and others. CHARLES the BALD, upon this occasion, ordered the famous RATRAMN and JoHANNES SCOTUs to draw up a clear and rational explication of that important doctrine, which RADBERT seemed to have so egregiously

many."

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