come from, wherewith to endow the Romish priesthood? Shall we, whilst there is a dearth of Protestant places of worship and ministers at home and abroad, give such vast sums of money for Popish superstition and Idolatry, or anything at all? We hear, indeed, that the money required for such purpose will not be taken from the Irish Church property, lest that should rouse the Church party both there and here against it; that it will not be taken from the Consolidated Fund, lest the Dissenters and Anti-Church and State party should offer opposition, but that some third course is to be resorted to by which, without directly infringing upon either of the above-mentioned sources, a fund will be forthcoming to pension the Romish priesthood, in other words, to reward them for their turbulence and agitation. We solemnly, therefore, call upon all our friends not so to be bamboozled. Whether with us they hold Church and State principles, or prefer the Voluntary principle, let them all now bear in mind the grand principle at stake is, Shall we, as a Christian nation, endow the Antichristian Church of Rome? Shall we, as a Protestant nation, 'endow the superstitious, degrading, intolerant, and idolatrous system against which we protest? We may do it. But the moment that is done, Ichabod will be written on our glory, and the anger of Him who has denounced the mystic Babylon and her worshippers will descend upon our country with a heavier hand, and the fearful visitation now visiting Ireland may be but light, and the precursor of far heavier judgments to fall upon a faithless and backsliding nation. May the Lord in his mercy avert such evils from us! MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. THESE have been too often found opposed to religion, the peace of families, prosperity of nations, and happiness of individuals, for us to hail their increase with pleasure. Indeed, we cannot but regard them as very dangerous and injurious to our country. They serve as so many watchtowers from which the enemy may spy out the vantage ground, and perceive how and when most successfully to attack us. In the course of a debate in the House of Commons, 5th February last, on the Roman Catholic Relief Act, Lord John Russell is reported to have said : "Whether it would be expedient to repeal that part of the law which restricted monastic orders, or whether some security ought not to be required from them, similar to that given by Protestant Dissenters, viz., that they should be registered, and subjected to the inspection, if you will, of Roman Catholic visitors, was a great question he was not yet PREPARED to answer. What had happened in various countries in respect of these religious orders was well known. They were not attacked because they professed particular tenets, but because they actually interfered with the politics of the State in which they were established." A correspondent, viewing the question more in its social than political bearings, has sent us the following: : "The horrible event, mentioned in your number for September, of the murder of a young and beautiful creature, in a nunnery, authenticated by the signature of Mr. Hogan, now a barrister in America, but formerly a student at Maynooth, and priest in Ireland, surely requires that an investigation be set about into the deeds committed in these sinks of iniquity, which too many of easy, careless, and credulous people in this country, and particularly in Ireland, believe to be the abodes of religious exercise and prayer. Mr. Hogan's book serves to corroborate similar accounts which have been laid before the public, of acts of as great atrocity committed in Canada and in the United States and in various parts of the world. There are no evils without their remedy. These deeds of darkness would not again be introduced and perpetrated, nor would the means of concealment have been allowed to spring up like mushrooms all over the land, in the shape of nunneries and convents, had we had Christians and men of courage at the helm of affairs. But whilst there are browbeating and intimidation on the side of the arch-enemy of Protestantism on one side, met only by faltering indecision and expediency on the other, we may expect affairs to go on from bad to worse, until, in no long time, the drama will terminate (and that ere long) in a third grand rebellion, such as drenched the land in blood in 1644 and 1796, &c. &c., in this country, and a St. Bartholomew in France. "But to the question. We make a great parade in this realm of a regard to the protection of the life of the lieges, and expend large sums in paying coroners, &c. &c., but allow lives to be sacrificed within the walls of our nunneries, and convents, and monkeries, without the slightest notice. Let, then, the Secretary of State be called on, by remonstrances from all parts of the land, to do his duty in this respect. It may be easily accomplished. Let a list of all the inmates of nunneries, &c. &c., be furnished to the lord-lieutenants of counties and other magistrates. Let a muster of those domiciled therein be taken once every six months, and let the heads of these establishments be obliged to give instant notice of any death, which should in every case be inquired into by the coroner. The boast of this country is, that there is one law for all. Is it so? or has the priest contrived to, establish the law of the Pope for the law of the realm? Every one knows that his law is, Such is my will, such is my command. It is high time that we assert our rights, or we shall be ridden down by the iron heels of Popery. If our regard for the lives of our fellowcreatures is not merely a part of a farce, or blind for the ignorant, then Government, now that the question has assumed a tangible shape, will no longer allow lives to be "Crushed out by secret barbarous means, Who for the country would have toiled or bled.' "Oct., 1846. "INVESTIGATOR. year of "P. S. The persecution lately of British subjects in Madeira may be added to the numberless instances of reckless attacks upon our countrymen. One is sometimes induced to exclaim, Oh, for Cromwell, to tell and to teach foreigners, that the people of this country once had an energetic government which insured the same protection to Her Majesty's lieges abroad, which is impartially distributed to individuals of every nation on earth, whilst on British ground. Such is the return made by countries who are indebted for their very existence to British protection!!!" PROTESTANT MOVEMENT IN EXETER. A PROTESTANT movement has been commenced in Exeter, which promises, with the blessing of God, to be attended with beneficial results. A Committee sit weekly, and have begun to publish addresses like the following, calculated to awaken the public mind to a sense of the dangers to which the country is exposed "UP AND BE DOING. "Protestants,-The hour is come when you must prepare for action. Are you ready? No party interests are now at stake. The contest will no longer be between Whig and Tory-between Conservatives and Liberals. The struggle is between Truth and Error; between those who would maintain the truth of the Gospel, and those who would promote the errors of Popery. Be not deceived by the false reasonings of Semi-Papists. Beware of the enemy within the camp. Let real Protestants begin to band themselves together; let each do his utmost in his own sphere. Pledge yourselves to each other to be faithful to your country, your religion, and your God. Yield not to the expediency of statesmen, but act upon the principles of the Bible. "Protestant Committee Room, Exeter, October 14, 1846." DUTIES OF CHRISTIAN MEN, CHRISTIAN STATESMEN, AND CHRISTIAN NATIONS. TOWARDS the conclusion of Mr. M'Neile's valuable work "The Church and the Churches," some very important observations are to be found upon the above points. After pointing out that in this country laws are not made by one man, or by one body of men, but by the concurrence of the Sovereign, the Lords, and the people, and hence the importance of the people discharging their solemn trust aright, he thus proceeds, p. 563 "With reference to the balanced order of things in this realm also, although the standard is not so precise, there are general principles sufficiently known and tried which should be held sacred: a substantial prerogative, for example, on the part of the Crown, to guard against all encroachments of democracy; and well-defined privileges on the part of the people of all ranks, to guard against all encroachments of tyranny or oppression. On many matters of detail, affecting the anticipated improvement or apprehended injury to the working of this balance, there may be differences of opinion amongst honest and conscientious supporters of the British Constitution as it is; and if the candidates for our suffrages differed only on such details, all being real friends of the fundamental principles of well balanced government, then there would be comparatively little ground of preference for one above the other, for whoever would be elected, the British Constitution, in its foundations, would be safe. But if some candidates present themselves, of whom we know that they desire and aim at a new charter, which would give a general election every year, and a vote to every man, and a dark ballot mask to every voter, thus VOL. VIII.-November, 1846. K K New Series, No. 11. destroying our balance and our peace, and if other candidates present themselves of whom we know that they cannot be true to their own Church and its head without being untrue to the pledged Protestantism of our Sovereign, and that consequently such persons, if sincere in their religion, as it pledges them against heretics, especially heretical sovereigns, must be insincere in their allegiance to the Crown of England as now limited, and on the contrary, if they be indeed sincere in that allegiance, notwithstanding the contracted, pledged, and indefensible Protestantism of our Sovereign, that then they must be insincere in their Romanism or Papalism; when such candidates present themselves, how can we delegate power to them? How can we, as Christian people, thankful to God for his mercies of peace and good government to our land, vote for such persons in the fear of God? * “Under such circumstances is it not plainly impracticable to separate our political acts from our religious principles and motives, our duty towards our followers from our duty towards God? Where is the anatomist in theology, or in the metaphysics of public and private morality, who can trace the line of separation between the religious principle which secures 'just weights and measures in the shop,' and the absence of it which utterly dissociates religion and politics at the hustings? If it be alleged that religion has nothing to do with just weights and measures, then upon the principles which separate morality from religion I quite agree that it is consistent to separate politics from religion. This is to make religion an exotic indeed, so delicate as it is to be feared to be at the withering point unto death. The man or the nation who puts away a good conscience towards God in his outward duties of whatsoever kind, will, with awful certainty, make shipwreck concerning faith. If religion be not welcomed and entertained as the practical guide of life, both public and private, she will refuse to remain among men as a visitor or a viscoa to be made a convenience of for hypocrisy or deceit. If the revealed will of God be discarded by rulers, as no longer practicable because of the varieties of conflicting opinions among men, what have a set of servants to expect who, while endeavouring to please one another for present ease, are all combined in a course displeasing to their Master? I do not mean to say that every interference with the British Constitution as it now is must be offensive to God. I advance no such untenable position. It is when the law of God is set at nought by the civil rulers of a State, that the Christian Church in that State should bear her faithful testimony against the transgression, addressing herself to every ruler of every degree and grade of influence, from the Sovereign on the Throne to the poorest freeholder whose name is or ought to be on the registration lists, and reminding them all of the revealed will of the King of kings and Ruler of princes, which may indeed be neglected and despised for the present, but certainly not with permanent impunity, that all who rule over men should rule in the fear of God. "It is the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high, to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth. "He it is who sitteth upon the flood controlling the waves of the sea and the tumults of the people. He it is who setteth up kings and removeth kings; who teaches senators wisdom, or pours contempt and folly upon human counsels, who maintains the peace of empires, or, withdrawing his hand of restraint, permits the proud and noisy waves of revolutionary tumult to rise and swell and burst with overwhelming fury over the bulwarks of constituted authority. He it is who in inscrutable wisdom employs free agents of high intelligence as the sure accomplishers of his purposes, albeit they think not so, neither does it come into their heads to serve or obey him. "In vain they combine and consult to establish their own purpose; unless it be a part of his purpose also, the consultations of their highest wisdom are baffled, and the efforts of their utmost strength are crossed and reversed by the smallest, the most unthought of, and, as men speak, accidental or untoward circumstance. Behold! exclaims the prophet, is it not of the Lord of Hosts that the people labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves of very vanity? But when his own work is to be accomplished, and his time is come, then, however weak and inadequate, or even foolish the instrument whom he employs may be, opposition vanishes and success is sure: for the Lord sitteth King for ever. * * 'God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend. For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength. He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work. Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places. Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and snow out of the north. By the breath of God'-mark the personality of the sacred word, by the breath of God,—' frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud: And it is turned round about by his counsels that they may do whatever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his laud, or for mercy. Hearken unto this, O Job,' —and ye also, ye rulers of England, rich in her conquests, and proud of her successes, stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.'* "Realize all this, and let the revealed will of God be your guide, neither be afraid or ashamed to avow that it is so, in the nationalities of Parliament and the Cabinet as truly as in the integrities of commercial, or the amenities of domestic life. If in applying the revealed will of God to national questions you and others differ in opinion, what then? You differ as it is, having no fixed standard for any one principle of honour, or consistency, or truth. A real reference to the Word of God, honestly made on both sides, would narrow your grounds of difference into a question of interpretation only, the standard being one; and whatever differences might arise then, they could scarcely be so 'utterly diverse' as those which now exist in the * Job xxxvii. 5-14. |