confinement in the convent cells be ineffectual, the convent dungeons are most dark and gloomy; seldom have they failed to reclaim the most inveterate."

66

Nay," said Sir Hubert, with all the momentary affection of a parent's heart, "talk not of the dungeons. My Clara, my unhappy child, to what have I exposed thee! Remember, Father, you gave me a solemn promise that gentleness and love alone should be shown to my miserable daughter."

"And what is mercy, and what is love, but to pluck her as a brand from the burning, to save the soul that must otherwise perish. It was thus you reasoned in the case of Philippe. Does not it equally apply to the object of your own affections?"

Sir Hubert groaned, and turned away to conceal the deep emotion of his soul, when fixing a look of piercing wildness on the priest, who shrunk from his stedfast gaze, he exclaimed, "I consented, indeed, that you should immure my child in the convent walls for three long months, but your life shall answer for hers if you restore her not to me again at the expiration of that period reclaimed or unreclaimed. Depart for ever from my roof, lest I lose my reason, and embrue my hands in the blood of him who has caused the death of my once lovely child."

"Dear

The Father kindly laid his hand on Sir Hubert's arm. brother and companion through this weary pilgrimage, I pity you from my heart. Fear not; your daughter's life is safe. The lady abbess and her noble cousin pass many an hour in pleading with and praying for her conversion. Calm those excited feelings; dispel the tumult of your breast, and prepare your mind for more holy thoughts: then, Let us together address the throne of grace, and plead for the lamb who has wandered so far from our fold."

(To be continued.)

THE POWER OF POPERY IN IRELAND.

(From the Protestant Elector.)

THE power which the Roman priesthood hold over their people in various parts of Ireland, though still great, is rapidly diminishing; and were it not that the State upheld there, by legislative endowment, a priesthood to perpetuate error, the work of enlightenment, evangelization, moral and spiritual improvement, would proceed more rapidly.

We denounce Popery and endow it. We believe it wrong, and yet teach it. By voluntary efforts we are seeking to evangelize Pagan nations, but lending the national sanction of the British name to Papalize Ireland and our colonial possessions. Sowing the wind, we must expect to reap the whirlwind. There is One who will not be mocked -cannot be deceived; whose word is truth, and whose blessing rests upon those who individually and nationally honour that word and the author of it. They who honour him he will honour. They who despise him shall be lightly esteemed.

When England was but little, and her empire small compared with other nations, she seemed to have been made the cradle of the Reform

ation, and to have been especially blessed for her national devotedness and adherence to the cause of scriptural truth. She was made and has continued the greatest of the nations, with an empire more extensive, a population more numerous, commerce more prosperous, than any nation before enjoyed.

Have we not just reason to expect the reverse of this by withdrawing our protest against Rome, and seeking an alliance with the apostacy? That Ireland has been misgoverned is too true, and England suffers for it, and will yet suffer. But we shall not improve the condition of Ireland or our own, by riveting the chains of error, darkness, and superstition upon her people.

Still less will the proposed diplomatic relations with Rome obviate the difficulty.

Free course has long been allowed to the agents of a foreign power for the introduction into Ireland of Bulls subversive of the laws and constitution of Great Britain. This ought not to have been the case.

Let none of our readers think us bigoted or intolerant for making such an assertion.

Even various Papal nations on the Continent have forbidden the introduction of rescripts from Rome, inconsistent with the constitution of the country, the due administration of the laws, the independence of the civil power, and the welfare of the community.

Such regulation seemed essential for their protection.

The necessity of it is founded upon this circumstance, that as soon as Papal Bulls are received they become laws of the country; and it is but consonant with order that no new law should be enacted without the authority of those by whom a country is governed.

The opinions of the Roman Catholic population have been moulded after the model of Popery in its worst form; and vainly shall we endeavour to rule when laws directly opposite are instilled under the venerated name and sanction of religion.

We have allowed Romanism to form opinion in Ireland, and it is now seeking, through the medium of Ireland, to rule in the affairs of England.

In order to estimate the real value of Romish pledges, it is requisite not only to observe the theory of Rome's theological and moral system, but to advert to the practical development of that theory, and the operation of those principles. With these the pages of history and present events abundantly supply us.

Thus, from the fruit we may estimate the tree, and infer the cause from the effects produced. Experience of common life, the language of philosophy, and the voice of Scripture, concur in pointing out this as the best criterion.

Men-parties Churches-sects, may disavow motives, but with results before us, we have a more faithful index than the tongue or pen of those who may use language to hide and obscure, rather than to display their meaning.

If we find that promises once made have been faithfully adhered to, and the plighted vow once given has been preserved inviolate, we may be led to form a different estimate of Popery than we at present have, and may condemn those who have condemned it.

But if we find the reverse of this to be actually the case,-if we

confinement in the convent cells be inettectu are most dark and gloomy; seldom have n most inveterate."

66

Nay," said Sir Hubert, with an e parent's heart, "talk not of the dungeons child, to what have I exposed thee. me a solemn promise that gentleness to my miserable daughter."

"And what is mercy, and what i from the burning, to save the soul. thus you reasoned in the case of P... to the object of your own affections"

Sir Hubert groaned, and turned: of his soul, when fixing a look of p shrunk from his stedfast gaze, he that you should immure my child months, but your life shall answer me again at the expiration of t! Depart for ever from my roof, lest hands in the blood of him who has child."

The Father kindly laid his har brother and companion through this wears my heart. Fear not; your daughter's li and her noble cousin pass many an hour for her conversion. Calm those excited of your breast, and prepare your mind fo et us together address the throne of who has wandered so far from our fold." (To be contin

"at foundation then rests the right of Roman Catholics to appeal tion, and the Church, as infallible authority? Human prejudice: tom rioly Writ.

These written Scriptures are the immediate revelations of God's , they must necessarily be perfect. It must be impious not nem ample for their object: and it is nothing less than prouption to attempt to superadd to them oral tradition, which regarded as mere gossip ;-until it can be authenticated as of God.-Until that time shall arrive, I shall regard the the Council of Trent, which declared that “unwritten tradi› be received with equal piety and reverence, as the written Fod,"-as blasphemous.

itings contained in the New Testament afford evident and e proofs that they were intended by their authors to be a record of the apostolical doctrine. This doctrine is founded actice and precepts of Christ, as recorded in the Gospels:

Gospels are the oracles of GOD. Any departure from this . however sanctioned by the authority of the Fathers,-the Lopes,—or the decrees of Councils, are consequently to be 1 as human alterations, as unworthy of obedience :—because Tons of the Church of Christ.

ruly stated in one of the Articles of the Church of England, Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so atsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to red of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith." following are my reasons :-I object to some of the Sacraments inistered by the Roman Catholic Church.

THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

mass."

ot respect, because, as administered in the Romish Church, I d it as a human institution. I hold it to be totally unauthorized gripture. No proof exists in any Greek manuscript of the New Tes ent that either Christ or his apostles practised the ceremonial called celebration of the mass. This absence of authority for such cereial has ever been seriously felt by the Romish Church as a weak it, and various efforts have been made to sustain it when attacked. a work recently published by a great authority among Papists, find the following defence of this favourite practice of his hurch :-"Our Divine Redeemer was the first to offer up that holy crifice called He assures us that "our Lord took both made them his body and his blood;" and he sited the victim upon the sacred table." If the merely to maintain that Christ instituted the have stated a fact which no Christian denies. fficient for his object: his object was to justify ceremony of the mass as practised by Papists, by believe that it was practised precisely in the same himself. Now I ask, What is there beyond his naked this? What evangelist states that Christ did more ead and distribute it with the wine to all his disciples? is Saint Luke (the fullest authority on the subject)

vine

find that oaths the most sacred, and engagements the most solemn have been entered into as wantonly as they have been lightly broken, -Protestants must be excused for still retaining their too wellgrounded opinion, that the Church of Rome stops not at treachery, which will really tend to promote her cause; and leads her votaries by other paths, to act on inferior principles than those which Pagan nations, the laws of nature,-the sanction of sound morality,—the authority of Scripture and pure religion, recommend and enjoin.

REASONS FOR NOT BECOMING A CONVERT TO THE CHURCH OF ROME.

As I have been often asked by Romanists, since my residence in France, why I do not renounce the heresy of Protestantism, and return to the true faith; and as I have heard, with painful regret, of the efforts which are zealously making in my own country, to unProtestantize the Church of England, I am anxious to declare my reasons for not becoming a convert to the Church of Rome. The only postulate I ask as the basis of such reasons, is, that as a Christian I have a right to reject any doctrine, or article of faith, that is not founded on the words of Christ himself, or of his apostles, as recorded in the New Testament. On such momentous points no authority uninspired and merely human can be acknowledged. I should regard any dictum of the Sanhedrim-as a mere legend; though countenanced by the Mishnah and the Talmuds, if it were unsupported by the authority of Moses. Even the followers of Brahma can produce the authority of the Veda for every one of their religious tenets: and no true Mussulman pays attention to any dogma drawn from the bundle of traditions called the Sonnah, unless sanctioned by a passage in the Koran. I have a right to hold the Scriptures to be the sole rule of faith, because they alone were referred to by the apostles, and because no other rule was even hinted at by them. And I am bound to consider them a sufficient rule, because they were declared to be so by the apostles. St. John tells us that they were expressly written "that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, we might have life in his name." (Chap. xx. 5.) St. Paul has affirmed that "they are able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2d Epistle to Tim. iii. 14.) It follows, as a necessary consequence, that Scriptures which are "able" to produce a saving faith, and which can make us "wise to salvation," are sufficient to work all the good for which revelation was vouchsafed, and stand in no need of additional testimony. But, even if the authority of apostles could be deemed by any class of Christians insufficient, I can bring forward the authority of Christ himself, who always referred to the "written" Word of God. It was by such standard of appeal that he silenced and subdued Satan when he made three efforts to tempt him and by such standard he rebuked and silenced the Sadducees. Can any instance be shown in which Jesus appealed to tradition as authority? None. He condemned traditions when they were once maintained by some Jews, as authority. Did he ever set up the Jewish Church as a standard of infallible judgment? Never.