most at liberty to enjoy myself; nor was this the consequence of not knowing the words of the bible, for with no other book whatsoever am I so well acquainted, from having been brought up in a school in which the almost only punishment was learning the bible in portions, varying from five to one hundred and fifty verses, divided into three lessons, in proportion to the offence, which inspired us with such a profound veneration for the sacred volume, that it was a common saying throughout the seminary, that " God made the bible, and the devil sent it to school." But when the Methodists informed me that a man who had ever been a dutiful son, who was a good husband and father, a kind master, an upright dealer with his neighbour, a considerate creditor, of chaste, sober, and even religious habits, could have no more hope of the joys of heaven, than one who was a blasphemer, a drunken abuser of his wife and family, &c. because, if we say that he has, we disallow the need of a Saviour, and believe that a man can save himself, which they say cannot possibly be, for if a man can save himself, there was no need of Jesus Christ to save him; and I inquired for the authority of so preposterous a doctrine, so diametrically opposite to that of the New Testament, which expressly says, "that no unclean person can enter the kingdom of heaven," I generally found their most unquestionable authority to rest on the bare ipse dixit of some fanatical, puritanical, half-starved old clothes-man; and on much such foundation was erected all the sophistical batteries of the absurdities of many other sects. I once asked one of my Protestant brethren, what was the use of tolling the church bell at the time of a funeral, the intention not being that of collecting the mourners? I received for answer, that it was one of the remains of Popery. Then, thought I, it is clear that Popery is antecedent to Protestantism, and consequently must be one step at least nearer the epoch of the apostles. At length, meeting with some learned high church-. man, in the course of our conversation on the different religions professed in this overgrown metropolis, he pointed out, by way of abuse, so many traces of the times of the apostles in the Roman Catholic religion, that they soon convinced me that this religion really spread from the eastern part of the Ro man empire, which, at the time of the apostles, extended.

eastward as far as the river Euphrates. He observed that the images of the Virgin Mary and the apostles, succeeded those of Ceres, Diana, and Apollo, and were erected many of them in the same places. Then the Roman Catholic religion must have emanated from those places and times, when those supposed deities were worshipped. It was at the period of our Saviour's birth, that Augustus shut the temple of Janus, in token of universal peace. Pagan Rome abounded with statues of inimitable workmanship, worshipped as gods in magnificent temples; their priests held in the highest veneration, and adored by people as ardent in their worship of their gods, as sanguine the field. Amongst these people (for the Jews had refused the gospel) the Christian church was to be founded by mildness and persuasive preaching; for though Jesus Christ could have chosen his apostles from amongst the soldiers, had it been his divine will, he had, on the contrary, elected them from the most peaceable of men. Had St. Paul, who was a wise and deeply learned man, perfectly well acquainted with human nature, as well as an inspired apostle, thrown down those images without erecting others in their places, the impetuous Pagans or Gentiles would very soon have re-erected every one of them. The only way permanently, and with Christian peace, to put down the idol, was by raising one that would direct and keep their attention to the Saviour and the church. If the figure of the Virgin Mary really did take the place of the Ephesian Diana; if the cry of Ave Maria gracia plena immediately (succeeded the two hours vociferations of Magna Diana Ephesiorum, then the church must have existed since the time that St. Paul established the church at Ephesus, at which time Diana and Apollo were the two principal deities worshipped in that city. But remember that the image of the blessed Virgin Mary was not erected as a deity, but simply to remind the people of her influence as a pleader. If my Protestant brethren are anxious to know the utility of retaining the use of images, now that there is no longer any fear of a return to Paganism, I beg leave to inform them, that beside the great use of their constantly reminding us to imitate the virtues of the orginal, they are of great chronological utility. Customs, which the Protestants affirm have continued from the times of the Cæsars, no one can

mistake for not being apostolical customs; for the apostles not only first began to preach in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, but the Christians were protected in the capital to the end of that emperor's reign, he having threatened death to any one who should accuse them; for he, from the accounts he received from Pilate, ordered Jesus Christ to be accounted a God among the Romans, which order was over-ruled by the jealousy of the

senate.

Prostrations, our dissenting brethren say, are of pagan origin. I am glad of it; for it is another proof of our church being the same which the apostles taught, to prostrate before the throne of the living God and Saviour, instead of the statues of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, &c. &c. And surely less humility could not be necessary to be observed by penitent sinners in their acts of homage paid to the sovereign Lord of all things, then was observed by Pagans, in their worship of the aforesaid ladies and gentlemen.

Religious processions owe their rise to the most remote antiquity. The Egyptians had their processions--the Jews after the Egyptians. The Roman Pagans had also theirs; and in each of these nations they were sometimes of the priests alone, and at others of the people also. Then the processions of the Catholic church is another distinguishing characteristic of its antiquity. David, Eli, &c. &c. accompanied their religious processions with music and singing, but they were no idolaters; and as our blessed Lord never reproved the Jews or any other sect for the observance of them, what reasons could the apostles have had for dispensing with a ceremony so eminently calculated to rivet attention, to inflame the cold, revive the tipid, warm the careless, and set a public example of devotion and attachment to their church? Again, the ornaments of the church savour of Pagan times. Let me ask one question; was it probable that poor deluded creatures, sunk so deeply in the grossest idolatry, who had ever seen in the magnificent abodes of their numerous gods, all that was calculated to dazzle the sight, and strike the mind with wonder and admiration, statues of exquisite workmanship, gold, silver and precious stones, all wrought by the hands of the most skilful craftsmen, would all at once have been brought to worship in large square whitewashed

places, with no other ornament than an old bare, clumsy, mahogany dining table? Besides which, the making of gold and silver shrines for their gods and heroes, furnished employment for immense numbers of men, who, brought up to that craft, could not have found the means of supporting their families, had they been suddenly thrown out of that employ. Now had St. Paul, who was "all things to all men, so that he could win souls to Christ," offered to bribe the infatuated Gentiles from the worship of the mighty gods of thunder, wisdom, and battles, &c. with nothing but the promise of starvation, we might be tempted to exclain with Festus, the Roman governor, that much learning had made him mad." It was then expedient that the hitherto deluded fanatics, who so long supported their bodies in adoring the objects which destroyed their souls, should now toil in the service of the Redeemer of them. So after all what the Protestants so loudly condemn in the Catholic church, are in fact indelible stamps of its venerable antiquity.

By way of conclusion, I beg to relate the following story. There lived some few centuries since, a very powerful monarch, who possessed a most valuable gold coin of one of the Cæsars; it was the admiration of all beholders, and its antiquity was unequivocally allowed by all the antiquarians and sages of his time. Of this precious relic, which had been an heir loom for many years in the sovereign's family, he was for a long time as anxious to preserve from friction, or any thing which could tender in the least to injure its device, or efface its date, as any of his predecessors. But in process of time, old age, and the love of strange women, appeared to overpower all his better reason, and vain and foolish thoughts took possession of his mind. In this state of delirium, he determined to set about improving his coin. With this intention he assembled all the nobles and wise men of the empire, whom he supposed devoted to his will and pleasure, to maturely deliberate on the most probable means of perpetuating the antiquity of this coin to endless ages throughout his dominions, by preserving its date unobliterated. When lo! the sages, councillors, philosophers, cunning gentlemen, and lords, after many days sapient cogitations,and many nights of sagacious deliberations, after rummaging every magazine of learning and wisdom to the bottom, they

discovered that the only way to preserve the old date of the coin unimpaired was, to grind it out and replace it with another fifteen centuries newer; which result being reported to the king, that monarch so highly approved of the plan, that he not only gave his royal assent, but further, to signify his approbation, he appointed these sagacious men and their successors its guardians for ever. As yet some traces of former beauty, and antiquity was discernible on the face of the coin. But the successors of the primitive wiseacres, who obliterated the date, continued for many years annually to modernize it as it best suited their convenience, till at length not a vestige of its original superscription, date, &c. is to be seen. And notwithstanding a boggling confused device, of different workmanship, is all that it now presents, the present guardians of it are extremely indignant, because the antiquarians who can make neither head nor tail of it, insist upon calling it a Brummageham. I am, Sir, A CONVERt.

To the EDITOR of the CATHOLIC MISCELLANY.

Mr. EDITOR.-Permit me, through the medium of your journal, to return my thanks to Consistent, and to S. N. for their two interesting communications, and to your other correspondents who have favoured you with original documents. To the opinion of S. N. I subscribe, that during the reign of Charles the second, licenses to eat flesh meat on fasting and abstinence days, were greatly limited with regard to time. Yet I think that the following extract from one of the register books of Newington Butts, will prove that the quality of the meet to be eaten, was not a little thought upon, in the reign of James the first. "I, James Fludd, Doctor in divinity, and parson of the church of St. Marie, Newington, in Surrey, do give license unto Mrs. Ann Jones, of Newington, the wyfe of Evan Jones, gentleman, being notoriously sicke, to eat flesh this time of Lent, during the time of sickness onlye, according to lawe in that case provided; videlicet, in the 5th of Eliz. chap. 5, and 1 Jacob. chap. 29, provided alwaies that during the time of her