we shall be set free from this delu

sion.

A few examples of the manner in which testimony is to be rendered less disadvantageous to the Church of Rome, and of the manner in which she has unconsciously recorded evidence against herself, may be usefully selected from our author's very numerous cita

tions.

"In the Bibliotheca of Sextus Serensis, Origen is adduced against Transubstantiation, his doctrine is typicum ac symbolicum corpus, (a body in type and symbol.) Let us hear the explanation of Serensis: Suspicor locum fuisse ab hæreticis depravatum-I suspect that the passage has been perverted by heretics."

:

"Let us now see what has been done to rectify the changes said to have been made by heretics, in the opus imperfectum," (a series of Homilies of Chrysostom, on the Gospel of St. Matthew.) "These words in the 11th Homily in quibus non est verum corpus Christi, sed mysterium corporis ejus continetur, (in which there is not the true body of Christ, but the mystery of his body is contained,) are entirely left out in the editions of Antwerp, apud Johannem Steelsium, 1537. Paris, apud Johannem Roegry, 1543. Paris, apud Andoenum Parvum, 1557-though they are in the more ancient editions, one of which is as old as 1487. Again, in the "19th Homily," sacrificium panis et vini, (the sacrifice of the bread and wine) are altered into sacrificium corporis et sanguinus Christi, (the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ.)"

"In 1520, xvii, Kal. Julii Leo 10, published his famous Bull, 'contra errores,' &c. (against the errors of Martin Luther and his followers.) The Pope having said that if the laudable constitutions, confirmed by his predecessors for the extermination of heretics from Germany, were at that time observed, utique hac molestia careremus, (we should not be afflicted with this griev

To these instances of fraud and intolerance, adduced by Mr. Gibbings, we shall add one of a different kind, but not less instructive :-" It being thought advisable to deal gently with the early ecclesiastical writers, lest the damnatory volumes should fall into the hands of enemies, the only resource left for those who dreaded the test of Catholic antiquity, was to obliterate all references to hostile passages, and thus prevent every one but the very careful student, from forming true ideas of the doctrines held in former times."+ &c.

Mr. Gibbings has cited with merited eulogium, the character of the Church of England, as given by Bishop Jebb, in the appendix to his sermons a character in which we cordially concur, although we do not think it advisable, as we are sure it is impracticable, that the members of our Church should rest their convictions of its wisdom on the truth of an argument derived from their examination of the records of primitive antiquity. Mr. Gibbings quotes with disapprobation, expressions used by Mr. Finch and Mr. M'Ghee, with respect to those writers who are styled comprehensively, but somewhat vaguely, the Fathers. If the services rendered by Mr. Finch to the cause of truth, by his judicious selections from the works of those early witnesses, were known to the author, he would not, we are sure, have censured, because he would have understood, the full meaning, of the expression he has cited. The contributions of Robert M'Ghee, taken from the works of Ro

+ Ibid. 81.

man Catholic writers, are such as to free us from the necessity of proving that the principle of selection on which he acted was not unwise. For our own parts-we do not refuse the succour which the testimony of early writers affords us, in defence of our pure Church-but we would suggest that that borne by individuals, is not of the highest, or even of secondary authority. After the decisive evidence

of Scripture we would rank-1. Ancient Creeds-2. Approved Liturgies-3. Councils-4. Individual writers. That there may be always in our Church, men competent to bring out all that is valuable, in each of these classes is our strong desire-and that works like that of Mr. Gibbings may facilitate their studies, and lighten their labors, we willingly anticipate.

entirely forgetting that the number of their flock is assignable to the energy and zeal with which they exert themselves, to perpetuate religious darkness, by preventing the dissemination of the Bible, and the relentless and unchristian intolerance which they excite, by representing the members of every other sect, as doomed heretics, fit only for temporal and eternal destruction.

Or the many misrepresentations which the enemies of the Established Church in Ireland have employed to prejudice the minds of the English nation, there is none which they have brought for ward with more unblushing effrontery and apparent success than their reiterated misstatements of the real situation of the Irish clergy. By positive assertions-by sneers-by ridicule-by every means, direct and indirect-they have endeavoured to represent them as a body of useless and indolent drones, enjoying an abundance and luxury totally unbecoming ministers of the gospel. They insinuate that the detail of their wrongs and sufferings is altogether imaginary; that the few anxieties which disturb the even tenor of a life of indolent ease and idleness are the natural and necessary consequences of the wanton cruelty with which they exact the payment of an oppressive and exorbitant income, altogether disproportioned to their duties or necessities, and that the frequent and barbarous attacks on themselves and their families, are at least pardonable if not commendable in a poor and persecuted peasanty, whom clerical avarice harasses without mercy or moderation. While the actual state and real character of the Protestant ministers of the gospel has been so grossly misrepresented, and the justice of their complaints so audaciously denied, the Romish priesthood have been described as the truly poor and Christian sufferbecause they are without a national provision, which they are reluctant to accept, their poverty is concluded to be necessary, entirely disregarding the enormous amount of the income derived from clerical dues which ecclesiastical ingenuity can exact, and ignorant superstition blindly pay.

ers ;

Because their flock is numerous and poor, their labours and duties are concluded to be arduous and important,

The object of these misrepresentations is now boldly avowed. It is a common argument in the lips of the enemies of Protestantism, that as England is of the Established Church, Scotland of the Presbyterian, Ireland ought to be of the Roman Catholic. The time is, therefore, come, which is to decide the final fate of the Protestant Clergy, and with them, that of the Established Church in Ireland, and the people of the united kingdom have been appealed to as the arbiters of their destinies. If it shall appear to them that the Protestant Church, so far from being an object of sympathy, for its unmerited sufferings, is only an “oppressive nuisance," as the Corn Exchange association designated it ; no doubt such a parliament has been returned, as will support a ministry determined to put it down. If, on the contrary, it shall be made manifest, that a systematic plan has been pursued, to excite persecution against it-that it has succeeded to such an extent, that the incomes of the clergy have been so reduced, in various ways, as to leave them, in many instances, an insufficient support-that even this has been withheld by threats and violence, till it is only at the hazard of their lives the clergy dare to ask for it-that many of their children are educated only by public subscriptionthat personal violence has assailed them in every way, their churches have been attacked, their congrega tions expelled, their own persons assaulted, and many murdered with

circumstances of the most shocking cruelty-if, we say, all this has happened, and is happening every day, it is but reasonable to suppose that a ministry who have taictly permitted, or openly encouraged, such a state of things will no longer be endured by the nation; but such a parliament has been returned, as will dismiss those weak or worthless men, whose designs are so notoriously hostile to the Established Church in England,* and who have already begun its destruction in Ireland, as preparatory to its total abolition.

We affirm, and we do so without fear of contradiction, that the spirit of persecution in the Roman Catholic church-once so bigoted as to pervert every better feeling of the human heart, and so change the very nature of those who were subject to its influence, as to make the otherwise humane and compassionate, exult in human misery and delight in the sufferings of victims, whom, in any other cause, they would deeply pity-that this spirit is still unchanged, however it may be modified by policy or inability that its great object is still, as it ever was, to establish its own preeminence over every other churchthat as a preparatory step to its reestablishment, wherever the common sense of mankind, or, as they call it, the blindness of heresy, has denied its supremacy, to assail every other sect, is a duty which it pursues, and is bound to pursue, per fus et nefas-that the clergy of every other persuasion are the objects of its most deadly hatred, as the prime movers of all opposition to it-that to deprive these men of the means of living is, not only an allowable, but prescribed method of harassing its greatest enemies-and that,

therefore, the persecution of these inveterate opponents of the true church, should never for a moment be omitted, when means and opportunity present themselves.

The facts on which the first proposition is founded, are so notorious, and so universally admitted, that proof would be superfluous. The most superficial knowledge of the history of Italy or Spain-the two countries in which the popish religion has been cherished in its most unmodified and characteristic form-will supply any one with thousands of instances to confirm it. The inquisition alone affords a striking illustration. There, at the exhibition of an auto da fe, people of all sexes flocked to see it, as a spectacle the most delightful and interesting that could be exhibited; and viewed with the highest gratification, the exquisite tortures of hundreds of victims of all ages. Among them were the young and beautiful, as well as the old and venerable, who were never accused of any moral offence, but were known to be highly estimable in every relation of life. We give the instance of an auto da fe, because, as Dr. Geddes, who was himself an eyewitness of one at Lisbon, remarks:"The Portuguese are not, naturally a cruel or savage people, and the joy they exhibit on these occasions, is far from being the effect of any innate cruelty of disposition, but wholly engrafted by the spirit of their religion." Tracts, vol. 1. p. 450.

That the spirit of religious persecution in Ireland is now as active and vigorous as ever, requires no long proof. Spain and Ireland, boasting of a common origin, and exulting in a common faith, are identified in their efforts to preserve it. Without

referring to the deeds of the Spaniards, when they landed at Kinsale, to aid their fellow-countrymen and fellowCatholics; without recurring to the period when the flames of persecution burst forth in all their frightful horrors, when the restraint that checked them was removed; without recurring to the massacre of 1641; without recalling the victims dragged from the inquisitorial prison at Wexford to be sacrificed on Wexford bridge, where one man boasted that the never winced while running heretics through the body; without referring to the actual celebration of an auto da fe, by the burning of 125 Protestants together, in the barn of Scullabogue; without, in fact, calling in the aid of history, even, to record what happened in our own times and is still recent in the memory of many living witnesses-let us look at what is passing before our eyes, and the dismal terrors which every day present themselves to us.

It is but natural that the hostility of the Catholics should be more immediately directed against the reformed clergy, as against the most dangerous enemies of their religion, when they teach and preach the doctrines of gospel Christianity. They, therefore, have always been selected as the most acceptable victims, when the restraints of law and fear have been removed. One of the first who suffered in the rebellion of 1798, was the Rev. Mr. Heyden, a benevolent and highly respected clergyman in Enniscorthy. Almost the first act of the rebels was to pike this venerable man, who had lived to the age of eighty, honored and revered among them. His body was thrown into the street to be eaten by

pigs, and when some humane hand had buried it, it was dug up again and left in the high way as a spectacle of public scorn. It was said, indeed, that the hostility to the Established Church was the result of the civil disability of the Roman Catholics-Grant emancipation, cried the Whigs, and "the Church in Ireland will be as safe as the Church in Yorkshire"-nearly nine years have elapsed since the passing of the healing measure-and is the malignant spirit of hatred abated? Let us look to the situation of the Irish clergy for an answer.

The Protestants of Ireland will not easily forget the effrontery of the Romish prelate, who some time since challenged the bishop of Gloucester "to state the name and residence of any clergyman who had been assaulted, much less murdered." The writer of this notice was at the pains of selecting a few instances out of the cases of the many clergymen, who, for eight years, have been the victims of a persevering and incessant persecution. The ab stract which we publish is not put forward with any pretence to be a complete or even a tolerably full list. The enumeration made is without access to any peculiar sources of information, it may indeed be taken rather as a sample than a catalogue; but it will furnish at least some instances of the security which emancipation conferred upon the church. Every one who is at all acquainted with any district in Ireland will probably be able to add numerous instances from his own local knowledge. Our catalogue is derived from various sources of information. We give the localities and dates following as nearly as possible in the order of events :

At

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