failed. Witness our efforts to defeat the Maynooth grant, and on other Protestant occasions. Had they been a little sooner, and a little more simultaneous and united, they might have succeeded; but we have been defeated, either through procrastination, or through secret disunion, and want of brotherly honesty one with another.

And when is the proper opportunity for us to ward off the blows, which are threatening our Protestant Christianity? Will it be, when the measure is quite ripe, and ready to be brought into the House of Commons, to endow the priesthood of Ireland with 1,500,000l. a-year? Will it be when another measure is brought forward, perhaps to repeal the remnant of our Protestant Christianity, in our Constitution, which reserves the Throne and the Chancellorship to Protestants and to Protestants alone? Will it be, then, that we must awake ourselves, lifting up our voice, and deluge the floor of the House of Commons with our Petitions? I tell you, nay; they will smile at your Petitions; they will mock at your "bray," as it has been called, "set up at Exeter Hall;" they will make light indeed of all your righteous indignation, at such perfidy and betrayal; they will spurn your Petitions under the table of the House of Commons, as a mass of waste paper; but the time for you to tell upon Parliament is when Parliament is in the egg, when it is struggling into existence, when it is to be chosen by you, the Protestant electors of Great Britain. My Christian friends, the man who laughed at your asinine bray, when it came only from Exeter Hall, will, I assure you, bow most humbly and most cringingly before you, when that bray comes from the hustings in Edinburgh, or elsewhere; and rest assured, my Protestant friends, that we shall deserve to be branded as that ignoble, though, perhaps, in some respects, noble, for often patient and honest animal, if we forget how our Petitions were treated, and our protests against Maynooth were regarded, when we come to the hustings, by and by, to vote for Members of Parliament.

Let us remember, my Christian friends, that the next Parliament will, under God, mend or mar this country. We have already seen that God is wroth with us, and that concession after concession has been visited with his righteous indignation; and if our statesmen were not hoodwinked by some Jesuitical spell, they must see, that it is destructive to themselves, as well as to the nation, to be giving up one safeguard after another to the insatiable adversary of a Protestant Throne, and a Protestant Sovereign, and Christianity in its purity itself the great Antichrist, "Babylon the great;" "the mystery of iniquity."

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Look at the Administration which carried the Roman Catholic Relief Bill. They were strong and mighty, when they carried it they thought they had ensconced themselves in power, for at least their life-time; but they had hardly carried it, when God swept them away, in His righteous displeasure and judgment. Look, again, when another party came into power, and they laid their hand upon the Church in Ireland, and robbed it of seven of its bishoprics, and gave them over to those who were waiting to receive them; so that we have now an Archbishop of Tuam, so-called, but an intruder and a

schismatic. What was the consequence? The Administration fell a victim to their attack upon the Protestantism of our country; and they themselves admitted, that they were hurled from their place and power, by their attack upon the Irish Church, by the Protestant spirit which would tolerate them in power no longer. Look at the late Administration, coming in with such plenitude of success and power, that he who reared the noble pyramid seemed to stand upon its base, and as he gazed upon its towering height, and its cemented wall, and its beautiful tapering symmetry, seemed to say in his heart, as said the monarch of Babylon, of old-"Is not this Babylon, that I have builded?" But when seated on the apex of his pyramid, which he fancied stood in impregnable and immutable stability, he perpetrated a sore outrage on the Protestantism of the country, and endowed a Popish seminary, to foster the dogmas of anti-Christianity, both at home and abroad, whilst we have no endowment given, in modern times, to any Protestant university, by a Protestant Government. And what became of the proud pyramid? It tottered and it quivered, even whilst he sat upon it, and in a very little time, it came crumbling down to the ground, and the mightiest party that it is supposed human policy ever planned, or human energy, or talent, or subtle serpentine expediency ever built up, crumbled to the dust, and there is now hardly a particle of the proud pyramid to be seen. And where is its architect? I speak not of him in private life, exemplary and moral as I believe him to be; I speak not of his character, I judge it not, and it is to God he stands or falls; but I speak of his public actions, and the line of policy which he pursued, in the face of this Protestant nation; and I ask, where is he now? Can he build again the proud pyramid? Can he raise again its walls? Will he get a stone from any honest Englishman on this platform, or in this assembly, to build it again? No, my Christian friends, we might be deceived once, because the honest, and the confiding, and the simpleminded took men at their word; but we will never be deceived again.

And therefore, my Christian friends, let me remind you, that the time to be up and doing, if we are to tell upon Parliament and Parliamentary matters, is the present juncture. I would not have left my own quiet home, to be present upon this occasion, but from the consciousness, that it was a critical juncture, and that if we are to tell upon the coming Parliament, we must begin to tell upon the constituency, at the present moment.

And how shall we tell upon the constituency? First of all, let us look out for true-hearted men-men fearing God, and "knowing what Israel ought to do." Let us draw them out from their lovely country seats; let us tell them, that they must imitate the fearless John Pemberton Plumptre-a man who for meekness and for gentleness is a lamb indeed, and who for unflinching principle is the lion indeed, the lion and the lamb, beautifully blended. We have many lambs in the Church, but they ought to be lions too; they may see in him how the lion and the lamb may meet and mingle in the follower of Jesus. We want such men as the honest and the Honourable Sir Robert Harry Inglis, the good old English gentleman, so rare a thing now, but compared with whom all the man-milliners of modern times

cannot for a moment be compared. Give me the good, old, home-spun linsey woolsey of such gentlemen as that, and you may take all the party-garments, which are half fetched from English looms, and half-coloured with Italian dyes.

We want such men, my Christian friends; and, thank God, there are such men to be found. Lord Ashley must be in again; Sir Digby Mackworth must be in; Benjamin Bond Cabbell must be in. I hail it as an omen for good to the movements of our Protestantism, at this critical juncture, that the first rally towards the recovery of Protestant principle was achieved where the first martyr shed his blood-at St. Alban's; and surely if "the blood of the martyrs" be "the seed of the Church," and if the blood of the martyr St. Alban, after fourteen hundred years, has germinated, and produced a reassertion of pure, primitive, apostolic Christianity, (not your modern, pitiful, counterfeit Christianity, but the genuine thing,) shall not the blood, which was shed in your own Smithfield, and the ashes, which are now buried in the dust beneath, wake all the citizens of this great metropolis, to endeavour to maintain those great Protestant principles, in defence of which that blood was shed, and cause them to determine, that they will at least return one-shall I say two? shall I say three ? would that I could say all !—of the future representatives in the next Parliament, whether they be Whig or Tory in name, on the principle that they will make no more national concessions to Rome?

My Christian friends, there are not wanting (as I have said,) a reserve of holy, and godly, and Christian men, in the background, who only want to be brought forward; the emergency will call them out, and if they see it to be their duty, they must come forth. I know that Sir Digby Mackworth would not have come forward, but for the imperative conviction of his own conscience. I have no doubt, that Benjamin Bond Cabbell came forward, not from any pitiful, party purpose, not to get a snug berth under this or that Administration; not to get his nephew, or his niece, or his cousin, or his second cousin, or his third cousin, a snug berth, because he had a vote to give, in return for the wretched bribe of his honesty; but because he wished to be an honest man, and give his vote in support of the Protestant religion and Constitution of the land. Let any man read the beautiful and manly address that he put forth upon his election, and observe how he made that election to hinge upon no one point but broad, open, day-light Protestantism; and then they will see, that we are not so sunk in apathy, or so depraved by jesuitical sophistry, but that there is a spirit in the electorate of England which only needs to be aroused, and ruled, and regulated, to give to us a Protestant Parliament again. But perhaps it may be said, "You are forgetting, that if you have one gain to cheer you, you have a greater loss, to retard and dishearten you. Have you forgotten the defeat of Sir Digby Mackworth at Derby?" I have not; but I have it on the faith of a consistent clergyman there, that the election was lost, not on the strength of the electorate, that made the return, but for want of promptitude, for want of sufficient information before-hand,-for that is often the way with those in power, to give no time for the people to express themselves, and their feelings to be aroused. And I am further told, that

if the Dissenters of Derby had been as true then, as at the AntiMaynooth Conference, if they had acted up to their declarations on that memorable occasion, if they had not allowed their jealousy of the Establishment, and of all establishments, to swallow up their righteous horror at the impending establishment of Popery, Sir Digby Mackworth would have been at the head of the poll, and have been returned. I would call upon my Dissenting brethren, to lay aside, for a little time, at least, their opposition to Establishments. Surely you would prefer the Church of England to the Church of Rome, as an establishment; the one has a claim to it, and the other has not; the one has been tolerant and gentle, while the other would soon have you in the dungeons of the Inquisition, or the flames of Smithfield, if it had the power. Retain your honest principles, on the question of establishments, if they be so, (and I have no right to say they are otherwise,) for I never want union in concessions-I want union in principle, or none at all; but do let them go into the background, till the great question in the foreground is decided. Do not let us imitate the lion and the bear, quarrelling about the body of the fawn, and growling and snarling at each other, and wasting each other's strength, until the sly fox stealthily came in, caught away the fawn, and the prey was gone, while they were disputing.

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My Christian friends, our division is our weakness. learn wisdom, even from the tactics of war. the Jews there were two factions against each other, in bitterest animosity; they filled Jerusalem with terror. But when the Roman besiegers were seen applying their scaling ladders to the wall, or endeavouring to batter down their ramparts, they forgat their mutual animosities, and marched side by side, to beat back the common enemy; and then they returned to their intestine conflict. Now may we not imitate them in all but their return to animosity? have the Roman, (for it is the Roman still,) with his scaling ladders against our Constitution, and his secret Jesuitical mines underneath the Protestant ramparts of our noble old Constitution, whilst we have traitors within, who are willing and anxious to open the door to the besiegers without, oh! shall we not cease our party-strife and struggle, and agree to mount the walls, and fling back the intruder with all our might? Then, if we must do it, let us resume our intestine discords; but I verily believe, that when we have won the victory together, we shall get to know and love one another so much better, that we shall give up our discords; and though I do not think you will make us Dissenters, I think we shall make you Churchmen, at the last. But that, I can honestly say, is not my aim and design; my aim and design, before God, is this: that we may be united before the common enemy. We disagree about Establishments, about Episcopacy, or Presbyterianism, or Independency; I do not call them little matters; to me they are so important, that I cannot and would not give them up, at whatever expense; but I do not consider them vital mattersfor I consider "the truth as it is in Jesus," the one atonement, the single oblation, the only way for a sinner to come to God, as above all. Shall we, then, in our contests about non-essentials, let essentials be endangered? Shall we allow our differences with each other to

blind us to our differences with Rome, which are almost as "wide as: the poles asunder." For although I may be told, "You hold the primitive creeds, and Rome holds them as well," I answer, She holds them, and holds them not-we hold them in sincerity; she holds them, to bury them under her own Articles of the Council of Trent, and of the Creed of Pope Pius; and I must say of the Councils, and of the manifold traditions of Rome-"They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him."

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My Christian friends, be assured of this-that if we Protestants do not agree, the agreeing party will be sure to win. Rome is agreed; and many within our Church, and the Latitudinarian, and the so-called Liberal, and the seeming Infidel, are agreed with Rome. They are agreed against us; and if we are not agreed against them they will obtain the victory. Be assured of this, the question whether Popery shall be endowed in Ireland, or whether we shall maintain our Protestant standing there, is not a question of the Church of England, of Episcopalianism, or of Dissent,-it is a question, whether or not this nation shall identify itself with Antichrist, or whether it shall keep the spirit of Protestantism which yet remains to it. And if it be true, (as no man who studies the Apocalypse,, and the prophecies of Daniel, with an enlightened mind, and who subscribes to our Articles, and adopts our Homilies, and admits our Canons, can doubt,) that Popery is the predicted apostasy, the "Antichrist" of Revelation, the "little horn” of Daniel, "the mystery of iniquity," which has worked, and is working, and will work, till Christ destroys it,—that it is that "mother of abominations," to which the ten kings shall give their strength, (and they who give it shall share her doom, because they have shared her abominations,) that it is that "beast” the mark of whom some bear on their forehead-open Romanistsand others bear in their right hand—covert abettors of Rome, of which we have so many, in these days, then it is not a question between Episcopalians and Non-Episcopalians, between endowments and nonendowments, but it is a question between national existence, or national ruin: it is a question between sharing Rome's destruction, or escaping the vials of wrath, which shall be poured out upon her and upon her abettors; it is a question whether we shall submit to Christ or to Antichrist; it is a question, whether the blood of our martyred forefathers is to be trampled in the dust, and their ashes scattered to the winds of heaven, or we are to preach as they preached, to protest as they protested, and if needs be, to bleed as they bled, rather than have peace with Antichrist.

My Christian friends, I speak the words of truth and soberness. I know they will be despised by the worldly wise man, who thinks he has all wisdom, but is a fool in the sight of God, (for he knows not Scripture, by the guidance of the Spirit, and by comparing it with Scripture,)—the man who brands all history as "an old almanack," and perhaps would do the same with the Bible, if he dared. I have often observed, when I have been touching upon Protestant sentiments, and there is a whole rank of reporters before me, that they have not the moral courage or resolution to report me, but that their pens all drop from their hands. My Christian friends, I have a practical illustraVOL. VIII. December, 1846. M M New Series, No. 12.