tion of this particular, with one additional remarkthat, in the idolatry of the Church of Rome, there is, in many instances, something eminently revolting and degrading to a rational mind. What is the solemn adoration of "the host ?"-the tenfold bowing, even to the ground, before a wafer, as if it were a God? What is the venerating of the image of the Cross, and addressing it in language of solemn invocation? And, in short, what is the holding paltry relics of departed men in admiration,-ascribing to them marvellous efficacy, and even offering to them religious homage? What is all this, but idolatry,debasing to man as a rational being, and unspeakably criminal and awful in a Church possessing a divine revelation, and professing to be the only true and infallible Church of the living God? With what emphasis may the words of the Most High, respecting the idolatry of his ancient people, be applied to this unhallowed system“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory

rity for giving to the Virgin the appellation of "Ark of the Covenant;" "When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Priests, the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it." The ark of the covenant was a type of our blessed Redeemer, who is the true propitiatory; but here it is applied to the Virgin Mary, and is advanced as a proof that she is entitled to religious homage! And all this by a Church that pretends to be the infallible interpreter of the scripture, and the sole judge of its meaning!

for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid.”

III. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PAPAL CHURCH

ARE SANGUINARY AND IMMORAL.

I am not ignorant that the fierce, intolerant, and sanguinary character which was believed to be peculiar to the Antichristian system has, of late times, been denied by her interested disciples, and her insidious or mistaken friends. But the denial is made in the face of divine prophecy, and the recorded transactions of a thousand years. In holy Scripture, "the beast" is described as "speaking great things, and blasphemies," "making war on the people of the Most High, and wearing them out," and "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus ;" and, in the concluding words of my text. it is said of mystical Babylon, that, when the apocalyptic angel, in vision, announced her final overthrow, there" was found in her the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." Alas! these inspired descriptions have been fearfully realized in the character and conduct of the Church of Rome. It is true, Protestants have persecuted; but they have done so in opposition to their principles. Their conduct was condemned by the whole spirit and the very letter of the system which they had espoused. The Papal Church, on the

See Appendix, No. I.

contrary, has persecuted from principle. In the decrees of her councils, the bulls of her pontiffs, and the recorded sentiments of her most celebrated writers, intolerance is avowed, persecution is sanctioned. And it is not in some solitary instances, or in a few places, that her sanguinary spirit has been displayed. It has been exhibited in every nation of Christendom, *and in every age since the Bishop of Rome ascended the Papal throne.

I have no design at present to act the part of a martyrologist;-I am not going to shock your feelings, by calling up to your remembrance the scenes of past times, which are everlasting proofs of the relentless spirit of Popery,-the obligations which she has violated-the perfidy which she has sanctioned-the persecutions she has raised-the massacres she has excited and applauded-and the melancholy triumphs she has gained by her crusades, and her inquisitions, over the cause of righteousness and truth. But I do affirm that these scenes remain portrayed on the historian's faithful page, monuments of her character, which will never cease to draw forth against her, as an atrocious system, the hatred and indignation of mankind.

I will be told, indeed, by the apologists of the Church of Rome, who wish to get her again into favour with Protestants, that she is now entirely changed, -that all the fierceness and intolerance of former days, are passed away from her for ever. And we

grant, and rejoice that, in some respects, she is changed. She is not what she was before the days of the Reformation. Her head does not now reign over the kings of the earth. She cannot now command the armies of the nations to engage in the subjugation of heretical states. She cannot, by her bulls, fill kingdoms with alarm. She sees not the world prostrate before her; nor can she at pleasure, as in days of old, fill her coffers with its wealth. In these respects-thanks, under God, to the Reformation, and to the light which it has spread abroad among mankind --she is changed. But what then? All this is a mere change of external circumstances of power, wealth, and glory. Is the spirit of the system changed? Has its intrinsic character undergone any alteration? Would that it had? Would that all its wickedness had passed away from the Papacy, and that, through the converting grace of God, it had become a regenerated, a peaceful, and a holy system! Alas! this is not the case. Not one fact can be adduced to show that this is the case. It is true, the Church of Rome is not at this moment displaying her intolerant character, in such acts of atrocious outrage, as when she sent forth an exterminating warfare into the peaceful vallies of the Waldenses, or, as when she plotted the Bartholomew-massacre, and lighted up the martyring fires of Smithfield! But is this an evidence that her doctrines, her spirit, and her character are changed? Just as strong an evidence of

this, as the harmlessness of the fettered tiger is an evidence that his native fierceness is no more! Individuals and societies in her communion have deprecated the charge of intolerance. But the charge is not preferred against individuals,—it has respect to the Papacy as a system;-and we maintain that, considered in this view, she has undergone no change,— that, at this moment, she looks down with the same air of malignant intolerance on all who belong not to her communion, as she did in the times of darkness before the Reformation. At this very day, does she not arrogate to herself the character of THE CHURCH, Out of which there is no salvation? Is it not an unqestionable fact, that she pronounces, every year, a solemn excommunication on all who are not within her pale? Is not the whole mass of her exclusive and intolerant dogmas still in existence and in force, -not only unrepealed, even in a single instance, but declared by the last of her general councils, to be perpetual? In truth, it is idle to talk of the Papacy changing. She cannot change. If, in any one point, she were to repudiate the articles of her ancient belief, her boasted infallibility—the corner-stone of her system-would be destroyed, and the spell, by which her votaries are bound, would be broken for ever.

It is worthy of notice, too, that, notwithstanding the severe controul to which the Papacy has been subjected, since the period of the Reformation, evidences have not been wanting, even in recent times, of her arrogant and intolerant spirit, and of the line of con