OF EXORCISMS AND BENE-
DICTIONS, OR BLESSINGS
OF CREATURES, IN THE CA-
THOLIC CHURCH, AND OF
THE USE OF HOLY WATER.

unclean spirit commanded
to depart in his name, who
is to come to judge the
living and the dead, and the
world by fire. Amen.

Let us pray.

After this, the priest proceeds to the exorcism of the water:-"I exorcise thee, O creature of water, in the name of God the Father Almighty, and in the name of Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord, and in the virtue of the Holy Ghost, that thou mayest by this exorcism have power to chase away all the power of the enemy, that thou mayest be enabled to cast him out and put him to flight, with all his apostate angels, by the virtue of the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who is to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. Amen. Let us pray, &c.

(To be continued.)

A FEW REMARKS ON POPERY.

EVERY man who desires the permanent welfare of his country, must view with melancholy forebodings the concessions made by the Protestant Government of this nation to those whom our forefathers regarded as its most dangerous enemies. All well-instructed Protestants have been taught from childhood to look upon the Church of Rome as diametrically opposed to the religion inculcated by the Gospel, and riper years have tended to mature that instruction into permanent conviction.

Among many Protestants, however, the idea appears to obtain, that Popery is changed-that the Liberalism, falsely so called, of the age has infused into it a better spirit. A more erroneous supposition

cannot be entertained. That the Popery of the present day is the Popery that instigated the Marian persecution, cannot be denied, when we have the avowal of Mr. Butler, an able and accomplished Romanist, that "It is most true that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their Church to be unchangeable, and that it is a tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it is now, and such it ever will be."

Another eminent Romanist, Dr. Doyle, late Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, in his evidence before a Committee of the House of Lords, March 21, 1825, is asked, "Is the creed of Pius the Fourth the creed acknowledged in the Irish Roman Catholic Church?" to which he replied, "Yes; every Catholic admits that

creed."

The creed of Pope Pius the Fourth was promulgated about 1564, and was received throughout the Roman Catholic Church as an accurate summary of their faith, and continues to be acknowledged as such up to the present time. It is binding upon the whole body,—the clergy, the monastic orders, and the laity. This creed, with the catechism of the Council of Trent, published in 1566, may be termed a compendium of the faith of the Romish Church.

It would be well for the cause of truth, if Protestants generally were carefully and seriously to peruse these two authorized standards of the Church of Rome. To their culpable negligence in these matters is to be attributed, in no small degree, the inroads which Popery is making in this country in the present day.

The ninth article of the creed of Pius the Fourth is as follows "I likewise undoubtedly receive and profess all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent, and I condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies which the Church has condemned, rejected, and anathematized."

Now it must be apparent, from what has been stated by Mr. Butler, Dr. Doyle, and the authorized documents of the Roman Church, that Popery is unchangeable. The idea that Popery is a system that belonged to the dark ages only is fallacious. True, many Roman Catholics profess themselves superior to what they term the bigotry of a former period, yet, nevertheless, before Protestants can regard the Church of Rome in a different point of view, as a Church, it is necessary that the same authority that promulged the unscriptural tenets of Popery, should disavow them.

Having said thus much of the unchangeableness of the Church of Rome in doctrinal matters, we will briefly allude to the tactics employed by her advocates, in order to regain the ascendancy in political affairs. In Great Britain she is Liberal-in Ireland, Revolutionaryin America, Democratic.

In England there is too much Protestant feeling to render the full development of Popery safe or expedient. "Popery, in its proper colours," to use the language of Archbishop Wake, "is so unlike Christianity, that it is in vain ever to promote it, if it appears in its own shape. It is necessary, therefore, that this religion be made to look as orthodox as possible. Some things are denied, others modi

fied, all disguised; and a double benefit is thereby obtained,-Popery is to be received as a very innocent, harmless thing, and the Protestants, especially the ministers and first Reformers, are to be represented to the world as a sort of people that have supported themselves by calumny and lies, and made a noise about errors and corruptions, which are nowhere to be found but in their own brains or books, but which the Church of Rome detests as well as we."

How applicable to the present times are the observations of the worthy Archbishop! The Tractarians, laity as well as clergy, whose Romeward tendencies are borne out by every day experience, are unremitting in their exertions to avail themselves of every opportunity to disparage the glorious Reformation, and to traduce the honoured instruments, in God's hands, for its accomplishment. What glowing pictures have we presented to the rising generation of the piety of our ancestors, in erecting and endowing those monastic institutions, which our Reformers considered as cages of all manner of unclean birds! And then, again, we have the catholicity, the devotion, the unity of the Church of Rome contrasted with the supposed deficiency in these respects of the Church of England. But what can be said of that catholicity which is supported by means utterly at variance with the. spirit of the Divine founder of Christianity, who said, "My kingdom is not of this world"? What can be said of that devotion which emanates, not from "perfect freedom," but from the grossest superstition? As to the unity of the Church of Rome, it is an absolute fiction. What an exposé does Bishop Hall give of the boasted unity of Popery, in its palmiest days! No system could be imagined, composed of more heterogeneous elements. The unity of the Church of Rome is the dreary union of the sepulchre, where lay commingled the decaying tenements of those who, when invigorated by the breath of life, were irreconcilable.

What a contrast is presented in the life-giving and elevating principles of Protestantism! True, we cannot but deplore the unhappy divisions which mar, to a certain extent, its fair portraiture; but amidst all sectarian vagaries, there is a vital and indissoluble connexion, by which, as by electric swiftness, the whole body is animated, and each individual member presents to the eyes of an atheistic world, the incontrovertible credential of his pedigree, whereon is written, "The Bible only is the religion of Protestants," proving that all, though differently arranged, are children of the same Father, and members of the same household, even "the household of faith."

We have been induced to make the foregoing observations, from the fact of it being very generally rumoured that it is the intention of ministers to endow the Romish priesthood of Ireland. It has also been broadly hinted at by various leading publications, who, there is too much reason to apprehend, are but the pioneers of Her Majesty's Government. We trust the Protestant electors of this country will not be unmindful of their duty at the forthcoming elections.