twenty momentous years, has presided with equal energy and piety over one of our most important dioceses; under whose auspices between 200 and 300 churches, with all their schools and varied machinery of blessing, have, through a gracious Providence, been called into existence; who has conciliat ed towards himself and towards the Church, the esteem and affection not only of his own clergy, but of the laity at large; who, though immersed in anxieties ecclesiastical and spiritual, has never refused succour to any engaged in the sacred toil of scriptural education; that one whose usefulness has been so eminent, whose beneficence so extensive, and whose charity so unconfined, should have been summoned by our beloved Queen to the highest station in our Scriptural and Reformed Church, is a subject for congratulation, not to your Grace so much as to the Church of Christ at large, and has called forth expressions of religious gratitude to that Ruler who directs the hearts of kings. May that Divine Lord and Master, that Chief Shepherd, who has guided and sustained your Grace through so many past toils, be still abundantly with you in the discharge of yet higher functions; and, amid difficulties impending over Christendom, bless the Christian simplicity and energy which mark your Grace's character, to the furtherance of designs which shall gild the evening of your honoured life, and result in spreading the knowledge of our common salvation throughout the dominions of our Sovereign, and throughout the world." The Archbishop replied in a very feeling manner, expressing his gratification at receiving an address from a body of clergy, among whom the remainder of his days was to be passed, but repudiating the praise bestowed upon his exertions in the diocese he had quitted. The spiritual destitution of that diocese was so appalling, that no bishop could have acted otherwise than he had done. With reference to the high station in which Her Majesty had been pleased to place him, he could only say that it was one which he had never coveted; but that, being deeply convinced that our several positions were appointed to us by Pro vidence, he derived from this thought consolation and confidence. His Grace concluded by commending himself most earnestly to the prayers of his brethren. The clergy were afterwards entertained by the Lord Bishop of Winchester. ROBERT FLEMING ON THE ANTICHRISTIANITY OF ROME. .... "THERE are two things almost equally strange to me, that the Jews should own the verity of the Old Testament, and particularly of Daniel's prophecy, and not see that the Messiah is come; and that the Papists should believe the divinity of the New Testament, and particularly of the Revelation, and not see that their Church is Antichristian. But while I admire the wilful stupidity of both these parties, I cannot but admire also the wisdom of God in making use of both these in his providence to confirm to us the verity of Christianity, in prophesying both of the one and the other so long before, and in continuing them to this day as standing monuments of the divinity both of the Old and New Testament."-The Apocalyptical Key. A Discourse on the Rise and Fall of Papacy, by Robert Fleming. Published A.D. 1701. p. 67. "Our Reformers did not rashly, but upon just grounds, desert the Church of Rome as antichristian and apostatical. For not to insist upon prophetical indications of the Roman Church being indeed the great Antichrist, there are four things that lay a just foundation for all honest men's leaving that interest; viz., 1, gross errors, such as purgatory, human merits, and works of supererogation, indulgences, transubstantiation, &c.; 2, horrid idolatry in worshipping angels, saints, and canonized persons, together with images, statues, crucifixes, and a consecrated wafer; 3, the pretended infallibility of the Roman See, in imposing upon men's consciences what they please, and debarring us from reading the Scriptures ourselves, and making use of our own reason in the matters of religion; and 4, the dreadful tyranny of that party seen and felt both in their inhuman cruelties, persecutions, massacres, and diabolical barbarities used against all those that differ from them."-Ibid. p. 78. .... "As our Reformers did justly separate from the Romish Church, so we have just ground also to continue separated from that antichristian party. "Let others, under pretence of a dread of what they call schism, run back into antichristian errors and heresies. Let them, if they are so disposed, forsake pure Christianity, that they may promote the priest's power, and adorn their altars with gold and jewels. And let them, in order to enslave men's consciences and bodies both, sound a retreat to Babylon again. We, I hope, know our duty better, than to run the risk of damning our souls, by becoming renegades to that bloody and wicked party, against whose abominations so many thousands of our ancestors witnessed, under racks and torments, at the stake in Smithfield and elsewhere. They believed that what they did and suffered was in obedience to the call of God (Rev. xviii. 4 and 5). And God forbid that any temptation should bring any of us back again to that sink of all impurities and errors; after we have enjoyed the sunshine of the Gospel, in its purity and power so long."-Ibid, p. 81. *It is impossible to read the above passage without being reminded of those unhappy individuals, who, during the last few years, have apostatized from Christianity, by joining the idolatrous Church of Rome. It is a fatal delusion to suppose, that in taking this step they have united themselves to another portion of the Lord's vineyard. Popery is not Christianity, but the very opposite of it. From beginning to end it is a vast system of fraud and imposture, fabricated by the father of lies, and well deserves the title bestowed upon it by Mr. Cecil," SATAN'S MASTERPIECE! Our Reformers renounced the Church of Rome as a blasphemous, idolatrous, and antichristian community, as being so far wide from the nature of the true Church that nothing could be more. Under these circumstances can we entertain any scriptural and well-grounded hope of the salvation of those persons who abjure Protestantism and embrace Popery,-who love darkness rather than light, and who wish to bring us back to an age proverbial for its darkness, when FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BRIGHTON PROTESTANT OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION. THE Committee, in presenting their first Annual Report, beg to offer a few observations respecting the origin of this Society, and the objects which, with the Divine blessing, they are desirous to effect. The formation of the Brighton Protestant Operative Association, was suggested by the rapid progress of Popery throughout the country, its successful aggressions on our once Protestant Constitution, and a too general indifference on the part of Protestants, causing the absence of any adequate resistance, among the constituencies of the empire, to such pernicious attempts, and resulting in an awful departure from Christian truth by our legislature, in the renewed sanction given, in every successive Session, to that anti-Christian system, which, in better times, it had authoritatively declared to be "idolatrous and superstitious." The object of thus associating the Protestant Operatives of Brighton, was to swell the number of those local bands of Christian patriots, who, in different parts of the land, seek, with prayer for a blessing from on high, to assist in maintaining the Protestant principles of the British Constitution, and to endeavour, with the Divine blessing, to rouse the dormant spirit of Protestantism in this town, by occasionally issuing addresses, pressing upon all the necessity of using every lawful exertion to resist the encroachments of the Church of Rome, and, in a Christian spirit, to endeavour to convince the members of that Church of the dangerous errors and soul-destroying principles of their system. Petitions have been presented already by this Association, against the Repeal of Laws, represented by the advocates of Popish concession as obsolete and oppressive, but considered by all right-thinking Protestants as necessary to restrain the efforts of Popery after ascendancy; Petitions the Church had become corrupt, apostate, and abominable?-[A CORRESPONDENT.] also have been presented against priestly denunciations from the altar, in Ireland, and against the admission of Jews into Parliament; and the Committee will ever consider it as an important duty devolving upon it, to enlighten the operative classes of Brighton, on the real nature and tendency of measures before Parliament, with a view of obtaining from them an intelligent expression of opinion thereon, and of placing on the tables of the two Houses their solemn protest against any further concession to Popery, or the legislative patronage of error, in whatever form it marshals itself against the revealed truth of God. The Committee have thankfully to acknowledge a grant from the National Club, of upwards of 1,400 of their "Addresses to the Protestants of the Empire," 400 of which, in very large type, were posted in this town, at the late election. From the same quarter, also, were received several English copies of the Papal Bull, "In Cœnâ Domini." An application to the London Protestant Association for a grant of their periodical papers, for gratuitous distribution, was immediately responded to, accompanied by a liberal presentation of their special publications, to form a library for the use of this Association. pressed with a deep sense of the inestimable privilege, as well as bounden duty, of exalting the Truth of God as the standard of national as well as individual conduct, especially in times when God is so manifestly reminding men that, however excluded from the councils of a nation, he is still "Governor among the nations of the earth." The Committee earnestly solicit support, to enable them to form a library for the use of the Association, and would be thankful to receive such works of a Protestant character as would furnish the members with the information so desirable in the present day. The subscription for the operative members being so small is an inducement for many to join, and thus gain information upon the subject of Popery. Subscriptions and donations of books will be thankfully received by T. West, Esq., Treasurer, or by the Secretary, at the office of the Association, 35, Tidystreet, Brighton. MISCELLANEOUS. STATE OF IRELAND.—(From an eyewitness.) What a wonderful and truly awful state Ireland is now in! Strange to see a handful of lunatics keeping an entire population in a ferment. Only that the material around is very inflammable, and that these same nonaccountables may knock out a spark or two sufficient to ignite them, there would be no real ground for alarm. In the north we are quite at our ease. So much for the Bible, yet some think that this will be the first part to move. There is a wonderful awakening in the Romanists' minds: I preach every Thursday evening to over a thousand people, and vast numbers of these Romanists, who listen with the most serious and solemn interest.-April, 1848. The Committee cannot conclude this Report without expressing an earnest hope, that the formation of this Association may prove a means of grace to many enrolling themselves as members. They deprecate the idea of fostering among them a merely political or party spirit. They expect, with the Divine aid, that the machinery of the Association-its circulation of useful information, the valuable patronage of several of the clergy of Brighton, and the frequent opportunities of meeting together, to receive, from those capable of imparting it, a knowledge of the principles of true Christian Protestantism, and the duty of applying these to the conduct of our national affairs-may be instrumental in forming and maturing a band of Christian patriots, whose zeal against the soul--that the Popery thus honoured and destroying errors of the Church of Rome may be tempered by Christian charity, and endorsed by Christian practice, and whose minds may be im "Make ROMANISM IMPLACABLE. peace, if you will, with Popery; receive it into your senate; shrine it in your churches; plant it in your hearts; but be certain-certain as there is a heaven above you and a God over you embraced, is the very Popery that was degraded and loathed by the holiest of your fathers; the very Popery-the same in haughtiness, the same in in tolerance-which lorded it over kings, assumed the prerogatives of Deity, crushed human liberty, and slew the saints of God."-Rev. Henry Melvill. TRADITION.- "Tradition will end once more, if not arrested in its progress, in an open apostasy from Christ. I say once more; for the apostasy of the Church of Rome began from the very point which it is the object of this discourse to oppose, the admixture of human tradition with inspired Scripture in the rule of faith. Already are the foundations of this apostasy laid in the tenets I have just enumerated. If we once admit another gospel, Antichrist is at the door. Already the chief Romish doctors are hailing the advances of our new divines, and are straining every nerve to regain their footing in the heart of our Protestant country. Rome conceives, and perhaps justly, that if she can resume her sway in England, her ascendancy throughout Christendom is secure. Already the method of argument adopted by the Romish schoolmen, and especially the Jesuits, is too exactly reproduced, as we have seen; and the bulwarks reared by our Reformers against the Roman idolatries and superstitions are now found, by a subtle assailant, to be not inconsistent with a belief in every one of the corruptions which they were drawn up to condemn. . . . The apostasy is thus at hand. These are pregnant symptoms. Two or three steps more, and it has accomplished its work... .. Public recognition and establishment, resembling the proceedings of the Council of Trent, and of the Popish Sovereigns throughout Europe soon after the Reformation, would accomplish and finish the apostasy. This recognition, be it remembered, will not be the commencement, but the awful, but too natural, termination of previous declines." -Bishop of Calcutta. MUNIFICENCE TO THE MONKS FOR PRAYING FOR THE DEAD.-Brabourn (in Kent) was the inheritance, in very ancient times, of a lady, called Salburga, who died about A.D. 864, and in her will gave to the monastery of St. Augustine, near Canterbury, forty measures of malt (the monks were no teetotallers), four oxen, fifteen rams, twenty loaves, four loads of wood, and twenty hens yearly (a pretty good portion for doing an useless, and even a profane work) out of her manor of Brabourn, upon condition that the monks should every day sing for her soul this psalm, Exaudiat te Dominus, i. e., "The Lord hear thee." (What a trick and imposture to get the wealth of this deluded lady.)-Mag. Brit., vol. ii., p. 1126. PICTURES OF POPERY.--THE SHACKLES OF ROME.-There is, therefore, strictly speaking, neither freedom of thought in the Romish Church, nor healthy confinement of thought, nor exercise of the understanding, nor trial of faith. Thought is not free, for it is bound to subscribe, not merely as in the Catholic Church, to the definite body of doctrine which has been received from the Apostles, but to whatever at any time under any circumstances the Bishop of Rome may have decreed or may still decree. It is not healthily confined; for Popery demanding so much, which cannot be given from the heart, is obliged to content itself with the acquiescence of the lips, and to leave the mind really without control. The understanding is not exercised, because every answer is given authoritatively, and to be received implicitly. And the faith is not tried; for where there is no doubt there is no difficulty, and where there is no difficulty there is no faith.. Sewell's Evidences of Christianity. SINGULAR CONTRIVANCE OF A POPISH ZEALOT. The church in this town (Smarden, Kent) is dedicated to St. Michael; and in it was, in Queen Mary's days, a wood-loft, in which one Dranien, a Justice of the Peace, to get some advantage of his neighbours, made nine holes to look into the church, and observe who did not conform to the Popish ceremonies at mass, that he might punish them; from whence he was called "Justice Nine Holes." -Mag. Brit., vol. ii., p. 1128. CABINET. "He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually."-Lev. xxiv. There was light in and about the tabernacle different in its kind. In the court it was that of the sun, the light of nature. In the holy place it was that of the candlestick, the light of the Church militant on earth. In the holiest it was that of the Shekinah, so in the apocalyptic vision. "The Lord God and the Lamb" are said to be the light of the new Jerusalem, of which the holiest was the type. Rev. xxi.-" Synopsis of the Tabernacle"-Rev. W. Hartshorn. "There could be no readier way of practically bringing the Bible into contempt, of weakening or destroying its influence upon men, than the making ludicrous applications of its statements, or using its expressions to give point to a joke, or force to a witticism. What helps our laughter will soon lose our reverence: we are so constituted, that the absurd sense, which may have been put upon words, will present itself to us whensoever we would use them in their appropriate and solemn-that text will hardly excite a serious thought, which has once been used to excite a ridiculous." "It cannot be a small thing to disobey God, though it may be a small thing in which I disobey Him." CREATURE COMFORTS.-The good found in creatures is always finite and very limited. It is also much dispersed, so that we must apply to many to contribute their part to make up one comfort. The happiness we derive from creatures is like a beggar's garment; it is made up of pieces and patches, and is worth very little, after all. But the blessedness we derive from the Saviour is single and complete. In him all fulness dwells. He is coeval with every period. He is answerable to every condition. He is a physician to heal; a counsellor to plead; a king to govern; a friend to sympathize; a father to provide. He is a foundation to sustain; a root to enliven; a fountain to refresh. He is the shadow from the heat; the bread of life; the morning star; the sun of righteousness;all, and in all. No creature can be a substitute for him; but he can supply the place of every creature. He is all my salvation, and all my desire. My hope, my peace, my life, my glory, and joy. POETRY. "BABYLON IS FALLEN! IS BY SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. ROME shall fall! Her pomp and power Prostrate will lay her pride at last! Rome shall fall! The martyr'd blood London, Jan. 19, 1848. INTELLIGENCE. DERBY.-Mr. Freshfield and Mr. Lord have come forward on Protestant grounds, to represent this borough in Parliament. The following are their addresses:— TO THE ELECTORS OF THE BOROUGH "GENTLEMEN, - Cheered by the kind and cordial reception which I have had the honour to experience at your hands, I beg to present myself as a Conservative candidate for the representation of your borough. "When the proper time shall arrive for a full and particular statement of my political principles, I shall be prepared to render you that account, which you have a right to expect from any individual seeking the honour of representing your varied and important interests in the House of Com mons. "Permit me, however, to state now, that I am a devoted supporter of our great and glorious Constitution, which, |
