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Fagland, of the der the superiaclergymen, are Jesuits: witness merous conversions of the higher orders, ted to me by a most person who knows them Sosed to the religion of Come. The Jesuits have ers, and many periodical er partially or wholly uneal. Their affected liberal their professedly exclusive ssenters, methodists, &c.; their , affable, conciliatory, mbunist; their decorous manners, conv, and diversified learning,-bave bem a footing in almost every socieere true religion does not predomi and quieted the apprehensions of ds. When all this is considered, when it is recollected that no Protes* Converted to Popery can ever after be laimed,-being either persuasively or thoritatively restrained from perusing such controversial works as might tend to refute the sophistry by which he was enfish-suared-is there not abundant reason for ular apprehending, that the growth of Popery here will be, at least, as rapid as I have their said, if not much more so? is it not then ough the duty, the bounden duty, of every true Some follower of Christ, not only to deprecate, Janded but to endeavour to become instrumental for the in preventing its growth?" P. 266.

of ex- It is stated in the treatise of Dugald which Stewart, preliminary to the Supplement of the of the Encyclopædia Britannica, th

44

Theological Review.

The Protestant, a Weekly Paper, on the principal points of Controversy, between the Church of Rome, and the Reformed. Vol. iii. Glasgow, printed at the University press, and sold by Wardlaw and Cunninghame; and by Ogle, Duncan, and Co. London, 1821, pp. 420. price 9s. 6d. bds.

and Enthusiasts, join in perverting to their own purposes a doctrine which, rightly understood, is applicable rather to console the afflicted, and to support the persecuted, than to give confirmed power and rancour to the persecutors and injurious.

why not when it has reference to that modification of it called Popery? The reasoning here, it must be allowed, is plausible, and will readily convince all those who do not observe that it is equally available in the mouth of a Mahomedan, or a Brahmin-of a disci

If the hand of God be not with us, say the apologists for Popery, how will To boast of encreasing numbers is you account for the almost universal an artifice common to all proselyting extension of our reign-for the rapid sects. Of the efficacy of such boasts, diffusion of our tenets, or the uninterDemetrius, the silversmith, was not rupted continuance of our church? Is ignorant, when, to the praises of his it not an argument for the divine origin "great goddess," he added, "whom all of Christianity, that in a very short Asia and the world worshippeth." Pa- period it overspread the earth, and subpists in like manner have taunted re-verted the ancient idolatry? And if the formed churches, with the question, argument be valid, when used in de"Where was your religion before Lu-fence of the Christian religion generally, ther?" And modern professors, whose existence as sectaries has not continued a century, send forth to the world, annually, a triumphant statement of their thousands, their hundreds of thousands. These statements, especially when they emanate from the Romish Church, are intended to serve two important purple of Confucius, or a worshipper of the poses of intimidation and of argument. image which fell down from heaven. Of intimidation, by tacitly suggesting Attila, the "scourge of God," and Tathe inference, that a party thus daily merlane, the desolator of the East, could acquiring strength, must soon become with as much justice, use this plea for predominant, and consequently formid- their perpetual invasions. If real Chris able to all who are not enrolled in its tianity derive any support from this muster-of argument, by an easy ap-mode of argumentation, it is only by plication of the well-known rule, that the success of a cause proves its justice. It is thus that in religion as in politics, "the finger of providence" is believed to point out his peculiar favourites. When Moreau was mortally wounded by one of the first cannon shots fired at the battle of Dresden, the great usurper of our times could perceive in this event, the vengeance of heaven against traitors. When an earthquake had swallowed up the greater part of the city of Caraccas, the Popish priests were able to persuade the terrified survivors that the event was owing to their defection from the parent state and ancient religion; and when a blasphemer is stung by a bee on the tongue, the Methodist Magazine calls it a particular providence. Infidels, Papists,

contrasting its success with the feebleness of the instruments employed by heaven in its propagation, and the un acceptable nature of its doctrines. And to distinguish it entirely from Popery, it is sufficient to remark, that the latter in fact never had an existence, much less could it be said to prosper, until, relinquishing the legitimate weapons of truth, the Romish Church had recourse to violence, fraud, and imposture. Of this any one may convince himself by perusing Bower's Lives of the Popes; a work undertaken, as the author tells us, for the confirmation of the Papal authority, but completed with a view to its overthrow.

However great may be the exaggera tions of the adherents to the Romish Church in estimating their increase,

clergy of the establishment, without appearing openly against them. Whenever any of the clergy begin to be active in the discharge of their parochial duties, the

we believe that they are not entirely without foundation. It is well known that in this country, especially in Lancashire, they have gained a great accession of numbers, and in Ireland, what-priests throw out their innuendoes, and the

collectors of the tythes go round for the people soon take them up. When the tythes, they are shot at, and in many cases killed, and the clergyman is necessitated to relax his diligence, or lose his income, and perhaps his life. But if the minister be on good terms with the priest, (which he never can be unless he is inactive,) the tythes may be collected with ease, and his life is perfectly secure." Protestant, p. 146, &c.

ever may be the actual increase, the relative proportion of Protestants and Papists is understood to be materially altered in favour of the latter. These facts are not unaccountable. The ignorance of the people, the diligence of the priests, which must always be greater than that of the established clergy, in proportion as the hope of good is a stronger stimulant than the possession, combined with motives of interest, These details sufficiently indicate the of family convenience, and of good power of the priesthood in civil affairs, neighbourhood, have effected much in over both their own flock and their favour of the ancient system of spiritual opponents. thraldom. The majority of our com- system still needs consolidation, the In England, where the munity have, in truth, no other preven-plans are somewhat different. In a tive to their apostacy, than the strength letter inserted in the Protestant, now of their prejudices. These are suffi- before us, we have the following incient to preserve them Protestants, formation. when unattacked by any suggestions of interest; but they must give way in every encounter with the temptation of personal aggrandisement. To such temptations we are to attribute the greater number of recent conversions to Popery; temptations which the priests have both the power and ability to apply with too great a certainty of

success.

"The rural people of England, of the lower order, when not under the superintendance of evangelical clergymen, are easily entrapped by artful Jesuits: witness the almost incredibly numerous conversions in Lancashire; many of the higher orders, as was lately intimated to me by a most sensible and pious person who knows them well, are not indisposed to the religion of the Church of Rome. The Jesuits have several newspapers, and many periodical "Another source of the influence of the publications, either partially or wholly unpriests, is their interference with the com-der their controul. Their affected liberal mercial concerns of their parishes. When sentiments; their professedly exclusive any thing is to be sold in a parish, it must hatred of dissenters, methodists, &c.; their be advertised by the priest from the altar, insinuating, affable, conciliatory, submisafter the celebration of mass; for if it is sive conduct; their decorous manners, connot, the people are taught to infer, that the viviality, and diversified learning,-have proprietor of the article to be sold is not given them a footing in almost every sociein favour with the priest; and in that case ty where true religion does not predomihe will find no purchasers. This is so noto-nate, and quieted the apprehensions of riously the case, that when gentlemen in the country have any thing for sale, the result of the sale will be in exact proportion to the degree of good understanding that may exist between them and the priest. In public establishments, such as breweries, the case is the same. I have known the proprietors of such establishments give, in some instances, regular salaries to some of the most active of the priests, in order to have the sale of their Commodities promoted by them, through their influence over the people. Some gentlemen among the Protestant landed interest of the country, do the same for the protection of their property.

"The priests have another mode of exerting their influence in the country, which checks most effectually the efforts of the

thousands. When all this is considered, and when it is recollected that no Protestant converted to Popery can ever after be reclaimed,-being either persuasively or authoritatively restrained from perusing such controversial works as might tend to refute the sophistry by which he was ensnared is there not abundant reason for apprehending, that the growth of Popery here will be, at least, as rapid as I have said, if not much more so? is it not then the duty, the bounden duty, of every true follower of Christ, not only to deprecate, but to endeavour to become instrumentai in preventing its growth?" P. 266,

It is stated in the treatise of Dugald Stewart, preliminary to the Supplement of the Encyclopædia Britannica, that

The relics he

measure sacred, from the innumerable images which they bring. Even the peasant, whose knowledge of former times extends but to a few generations, has yet in his village some monument of the deeds or virtues of his forefathers; and cherishes with a fond veneration the memorial of those

several of the German Literati have re- has preserved no record. lapsed into the bosom of the Catholic contemplates seem to approach him still Church. The very eminent philoso- nearer to the ages of his regard. The pher who records this fact, attributes it dress, the furniture, the arms of the times chiefly to the prevalence of the doctrines are so many assistances to his imagination, of Kant--doctrines, which from their mys-offering him a thousand sources of imagery, in guiding or directing its exercise, and, terious absurdity, and the dogmatical provide him with an almost inexhaustible style and lofty pretensions of the pro-field in which his memory and his fancy may pounder, might serve as a convenient expatiate. There are few men who have introduction to transubstantiation and not felt somewhat, at least, of the delight Papal infallibility. Errors, like truths, of such an employment. There is no man have a universal affinity; they are conin the least acquainted with the history of catenated as systematically, and operate antiquity, who does not love to let his on the human mind with an equal imagination loose on the prospect of its power of association. Perhaps, how-remains, and to whom they are not in some ever, other causes may have contributed to this apostacy. It is a well ascertained fact, that our susceptibility of the emotions of taste is encreased by mental cultivation. This is the certain effect of increasing the number of our ideas, since it is upon the association of ideas, that our emotions of sublimity and beauty depend. "No man in general," says Alison, "is sensible to beauty in those subjects, with regard emotion of sublime delight, which every to which he has not previous ideas." man of common sensibility feels upon the The beauty of a theory, or of a relic of first prospect of Rome? It is not the scene antiquity, is unintelligible to a peasant. of destruction which is before him. It is The charms of the country are altoge- not the Tiber, diminished in his imagination ther lost upon a citizen who has passed to a petty stream, and stagnating amid his life in town. In the same manner, the ruins of that magnificence which it once the more our ideas are increased, or adorned. It is not the triumph of superstition over the wreck of human greatness, our conceptions extended upon any suband its monuments erected upon the very ject, the greater the number of associ-spot where the first honours of humanity ations we connect with it, the stronger is the emotion of sublimity or beauty we receive from it.

"The delight which most men of education receive from the consideration of antiquity, and the beauty that they discover in every object which is connected with ancient times, is in a great measure to be ascribed to the same cause. The antiquarian, in his cabinet, surrounded by the relics of former ages, seems to himself to be removed to periods that are long since past, and indulges in the imagination of living in a world, which, by a very natural kind of prejudice, we are always willing to believe was both wiser and better than the present. All that is venerable or laudable in the history of these times present themselves to his memory. The gallantry, the heroism, the patriotism of antiquity rise again before his view, softened by the obscurity in which they are involved, and rendered more seducing to the imagination by that obscurity itself, which, while it mingles a sentiment of regret amid his pursuits, serves at the same time to stimulate his fancy to fill up, by its own creation, those long intervals of time of which history

good old times to which his imagination returns with delight, and of which he loves to recount the simple tales that tradition has brought him.

"And what is it that constitutes that

have been gained. It is ancient Rome which fills his imagination. It is the country of Cæsar and Cicero, and Virgil, which is before him. It is the mistress of the world which he sees, and who seems to him to rise again from her tomb, to give laws to the universe. All that the labours of his youth, or the studies of his maturer age have acquired, with regard to the history of this great people, open at once before his imagination, and present him with a field of high and solemn imagery, which can never be exhausted. Take from him these associations, conceal from him that it is Rome that he sees, and how different would be his emotion." Alison's Essays on Taste, 4th edition, Edin. p. 39-42 of the Ist vol.

From these premises it follows, that every accession of ideas brings with it an increase of sensibility, and hence the more cultivated any mind is, the greater is its liability to be led astray by mere feeling. The justice of these reflections will not be questioned, and their application to our subject is ob vious. The Romish hierachy, amidst