mise (as he calls it). There must be a great indifference as to religion on both sides, to make so strict a union as marriage tolerable between people of such distinct persuasions. He seems to think women have no souls, by agreeing so easily that his daughters should be educated in bigotry and idolatry. You will perhaps think this last a hard word; yet it is not difficult to prove that either the Papists are guilty of idolatry, or the Pagans never were so. You may see in Lucian, (in his vindication of his images,) that they did not take their statues to be real gods, but only the representations of them. The same doctrine may be found in Plutarch; and it is all the modern priests have to say in excuse for their worshipping wood and stone, though they cannot deny, at the same time, that the vulgar are apt to confound that distinction. I always, if possible, avoid controversial disputes: whenever I cannot do it, they are very short. I ask my adversary if he believes the Scripture? when that is answered affirmatively, their Church may be proved, by a child of ten years old, contradictory to it, in their most important points. My second ques tion is, if they think St. Peter and St. Paul knew the true Christian religion? the constant reply is, Oh, yes. Then, say I, purgatory, transubstantiation, invocation of saints, adoration of the Virgin, relics, (of which they might have had a cart-load,) and observation of Lent, is no part of it, since they neither taught nor practised any of these things. Pious frauds are avowedly permitted, and persecution applauded: these maxims cannot be dictated by the spirit of peace, which is so warmly preached in the Gospel. The creeds of the apostles, and council of Nice, do not speak of the mass, or real presence, as articles of belief; and Athanasius asserts, whosoever believes according to them, shall be saved. As I do not mistake exclamation, invective, or ridicule, for argument, I never recriminate on the lives of their popes and cardinals, when they urge the character of Henry the Eighth; I only answer, good actions are often done by ill men through interested motives, and 'tis the common method of Providence

to bring good out of evil: history, both sacred and profane, furnishes many examples of it. When they tell me I have forsook the worship of my ancestors, I say I have had more ancestors Heathen than Christian, and my faith is certainly ancienter than theirs, since I have added nothing to the practice of the primitive professors of Christianity. As to the prosperity or extent of the dominion of the Church, which Cardinal Bellarmine counts among the proofs of its orthodoxy, the Mahometans, who have larger empires, and have made a quicker progress, have a better plea for the visible protection of heaven. If the fopperies of their religion were only fopperies, they ought to be complied with, whenever it is established, like any ridiculous dress in fashion; but I think them impieties; their devotions are a scandal to humanity from their nonsense; the mercenary deceits and barbarous tyranny of their ecclesiastics, inconsistent with moral honesty. If they object to the diversity of our sects as a mark of reprobation, I desire them to consider that that objection has equal force against Christianity in general. When they thunder with the names of fathers and councils, they are surprised to find me as well (often better) acquainted with them, than themselves. I shew them the variety of their doctrines, their violent contests and various factions, instead of that union they boast of. I have never been attacked a second time in any of the towns where I have resided, and perhaps shall never be so again after my last battle, which was with an old priest, a learned man, particularly esteemed as a mathematician, and who has a head and a heart as warm as poor Whiston's. When I first came hither, he visited me every day, and talked of me every where with such violent praise, that, had we been young people, no one knows what would have been said. I always had the advantage of being quite calm on a subject which they cannot talk of without heat. He desired I would put on paper what I had said. I immediately wrote on one side of a sheet, leaving the other for his answer. He carried it with him, promising to bring it the next day, since

which time I have never seen it, though I have often demanded it, being ashamed of my defective Italian. I fancy he sent it to his friend the Archbishop of Milan. I have given over asking for it, as a desperate debt. He still visits me, but seldom, and in a cold sort of a way. When I have found disputants I less respected, I have sometimes taken pleasure in raising their hopes by my concessions: they are charmed when I agree with them in the number of the sacraments; but are horridly disappointed when I explain myself by saying the word sacrament is not to be found either in Old or New Testament; and one must be very ignorant not to know it is taken from the listing oath of the Roman soldiers, and means nothing more than a solemn, irrevocable engagement. Parents vow, in infant baptism, to educate their children in the Christian religion, which they take upon themselves by confirmation; the Lord's Supper is frequently renewing the same oath. Ordination and matrimony are solemn vows of a different kind: confession includes a vow of revealing all we know, and reforming what is amiss: extreme unction, the last vow, that we have lived in the faith we were baptized in this sense they are all sacraments. As to the mysteries preached since, they were all invented long after, and some of them repugnant to the primitive institution.

DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE PRO

TESTANT ASSOCIATION. [THE smallness of our space compels us to omit many excellent speeches. Those of Mr. Foley are given on account of his having been brought up in Popery, and now officiating as a Protestant clergyman in Ireland.]

The Seventh Anniversary Meeting of this Association was held in the Lecture Hall, Derby, on Friday last; Sir MATTHEW BLAKISTON, Bart., in the Chair. On the platform we observed the Hon. and Rev. Thomas Cavendish; the Revs. Hugh Stowell, Daniel Foley, Denis Browne, Henry Crewe, Edmund Carr, R. Macklin, Richardson Cox, William Leaper, Philip Browne, Robert Meek, Thomas

Fell, Thos. Barton, E. Poole; and William Leaper Newton, Esq., Henry Cox, Esq., Dr. Heygate, T. P. Bainbrigge, Esq., and J. Lord, Esq. In the body of the hall were a considerable number of the resident and neighbouring clergy. The Meeting was well attended, consisting of many of the most influential persons in the town and vicinity.

After prayer had been offered up by the Rev. R. MACKLIN,

The CHAIRMAN opened the business of the Meeting in a short appropriate address.

The Rev. R. MACKLIN read the Report of the Society's proceedings during the past year.

JAMES LORD, Esq., moved the first Resolution, adopting the Report, and re-appointing the Committee for the ensuing year.

W. L. NEWTON, Esq., seconded the Resolution.

The Rev. HUGH STOWELL, in a powerful speech, moved the second Resolution.

The Rev. HENRY CREWE, seconded the Resolution.

The Rev. DANIEL FOLEY, of Clonmel, Ireland, moved the third Resolution, "That the character of Popery being unchanged, and her system the same that it ever has been, it is impossible that a Protestant people can comply with her demands, as in them are involved the ruin of the very highest interests of the immortal soul, as well as the total destruction of all civil and religious liberty." The master evil of the land, and, indeed, of every land, was the Church of Rome. The Reformation gave her a deadly stab, but had in no way decreased her malignity. Wherever Popery found a lodgment, there did it deposit its venom and enmity to the Word of God, and the salvation of man. Popery forbad investigation. It was the offspring of darkness. Truth depended on discrimination. Let only ignorance prevail, and all men would virtually be Romanists. It was discussion which established the Reformation, and it was discussion and searching after truth that alone could protect the blessings which followed from it. Men were justly jealous of the slavery of the body,

how was it that they were not equally so of the mind? (Hear, hear.) How was it that they consented to allow that great slave owner, the Pope of Rome, to trample on their best interests both temporal and spiritual? Should this country ever give back her power into the hands of Rome should she ever consent to have on her the mark of the beast-then would she pay a grievous penalty for the sin. The spirit of ancient Rome was as rife now as then. In Ireland, as well as in Italy, there was an attempt to keep back spiritual knowledge-to put out spiritual light. How was it that the Irish people, who were a lively, spirited, impetuous people, impatient of control, and keen of intellect, were content to be led without a struggle by the hand of Rome? How was it that the Church of Rome literally, in a spiritual sense, put out their eyes? It was because of the tremendous power over the minds and consciences of her devotees which she possessed through the agency of the priesthood, and the superstitious ceremonies which formed the vast machinery which she put in motion to enslave the understanding. (Hear, hear.) The English were a candid, honourable people, and every way alive to the great truths of the Bible; but, only permit their children to come under the crushing influence of the Church of Rome, and they would differ scarcely in any sense from the Romanists of Ireland; their institutions would fall, and their own independence both of body and mind would fall with them. (Hear, hear.) Look at the mummeries of the Church of Rome-at her purgatory, mass, and other things set up in utter contradiction to truth, and the Word of God. See their consequences in foreign countries, and even in Ireland, where agitation, both political and religious, caused every man's hand to be raised against his neighbours, and where, through the dominant power of the priesthood, nothing could prosper. Rome panted for power, and was determined to possess it, if possible, and by any means. This had always been her darling object. For this she would threaten when it suited,

and cajole when such policy seemed the most likely to be effectual. (Hear, hear.) At this moment she was in every Roman Catholic chapel in England speaking lies in hypocrisy ; and that with only one view, to deceive for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. In her nature, however, she was unchanged, and unchangeable; and what she now is in Italy and Spain, and in Ireland, she would be in England, ready to pursue the same career, and act the same part which had ever distinguished her history. (Hear, hear.) There was no document however horrible which she had put forth that she was not now ready and determined again to act upon, if the power to do so were extended to her. [Mr. Foley then read parts of the celebrated curse which had been framed by Rome and pronounced by the priesthood on those who disobeyed her orders, and which it will be recollected was produced at Nottingham some time since, at a Meeting in that town, by the Rev. Dr. Cumming, and which was also referred to by that gentleman at a public Meeting in Derby a few months since.] That tremendous curse, so horrible and deeply revolting in its nature, he (Mr. Foley) had himself heard pronounced from the altar against a poor Roman Catholic woman, by a Romish priest in Ireland; the poor creature's only offence being that she had sent and persisted in sending her child to a school in which the Scriptures were read. This curse truly demonstrated the spirit of the Church of Rome. It was her own authorized evidence of the character which distinguished her both in former and present times (hear, hear); and could not be contradicted or evaded. Rome, however, laboured to advance her object in numberless ways, alike abominable and oppressive. [Mr. Foley then proceeded to narrate a number of instances which were within his own experience of the power of the priests over their flocks, and how they, in courts of law and in other ways, turned the current of justice aside, and inflicted the heaviest oppressions upon those who in any manner proved disobedient to their

imperious and unjust commands; and especially their denouncing from the altar persons who left the Romish Church, calling upon their friends and relatives to forsake them, and their neighbours not to deal with them.] These things (he continued) proved, unequivocally, that that the Church of Rome was unchanged in every respect, and that the dearest ties were rent asunder if only the temporal and spiritual power of that Church could be increased, or even maintained. The general preaching of the priests in Ireland, he knew, was, to a large extent, confined to working up the bad passions of human nature-attacking and holding up to public odium those landlords who did not please them, and subserve their views and interests-and, in every possible manner, exciting the population. (Hear, hear.) The English public little knew, notwithstanding all that was said, the terrible state of things in Ireland produced by these causes. He (Mr. Foley) had for two years burned to testify against Rome before he did take that step, and dared not for fear of the personal consequences. He feared the Popish press-the malignity of those against whom he was about to bear witness- he feared for his life. He had known men specially marked out whose only offence-but this was the greatest in the eyes of the Church of Romewas, that they left her pale. Men who left that Church might not expire in the flames of martyrdom, but they forfeited the love of kindred, and the affection of friends in consequence; and many a man, in such circumstances, could hardly bear up against the monstrous tyranny which was immediately put in operation towards him. (Hear, hear.) If there was any class of men who deserved the sympathy of the Protestant publie it was the converts from the Church of Rome. Mr. Foley concluded by strongly and eloquently impressing on Protestants the great responsibility which devolved upon them at the present moment, to come boldly forward and take their proper part in the coming struggle, and sat down much applauded.

The Rev. THOMAS FELL seconded the Resolution.

HENRY COX, Esq., moved, and T. P. BAINBRIGGE, Esq., seconded a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

The doxology was then sung, and the Meeting separated.

EVENING MEETING.

There was a Meeting held in the Lecture Hall at seven o'clock in the evening, which was very numerously attended.

Sir MATTHEW BLAKISTON presided, and commenced the business of the Meeting by calling upon the Rev. P. BROWNE, to offer up prayer.

The Rev. E. LILLINGSTON, then, in a few remarks, moved the first Resolution; which was seconded by

The Rev. D. FOLEY. He commenced his address by saying that he felt it a great privilege to be allowed to stand before them, to raise his voice against Popery. He stood there to defend the ancient religion of this country, and to oppose the new religion; and to do so, he had had to make great sacrifices-in forfeiting the esteem of those whom he loved, including his own relatives. He did not appear there out of any want of charity to his Irish Roman Catholic brethren, but with a sincere desire for their spiritual welfare. The Rev. Gentleman then proceeded to urge on those present the necessity of bringing their children up in the true faith. In Ireland, the little children did some of the work of the Roman Catholic priests, and were employed by them to shout and throw stones at the people who were Protestants. After alluding to the spread of Romanism in this country and in Ireland, Mr. Foley went on to say, that it was not the duty of the clergy, but of the whole community, male and female, to assist in the good work now going on. There must be more sincerity in the Protestant people. (Loud cheers.) They would not find in Ireland a man who would do or say anything against his priest; men in false religions were always sincere, but, in true religion, they found a deal of insincerity amongst its members. (Cheers.)