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on the pale forehead of Clara, and bowing respectfully to the lady, left the house.

“Poor, persecuted lamb of the good Shepherd's fold, how barbarous the hearts that have made you suffer thus," exclaimed the benevolent lady, as she used every means to recover Clara, after which she assisted her to undress, and entreated her to take some repose.

"I cannot,” said Clara, whose burning hand and beating pulse spoke of the excited state of her feelings, "I cannot till you tell me where I am, and what next awaits me."

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“ You are in the house of one who loves the Saviour for whom you have suffered; rest contented with knowing this, and believe what shall next befall you will be ordered by His love who has already so wonderfully delivered you. Can you not trust that he will yet deliver?"

"Oh, yes; but how greatly have I failed in acknowledging his goodness!"

"My dear girl," said the lady, “I will read a few verses which will, I am persuaded, express the feelings of your heart. I must afterwards insist on your being silent."

With what a calm and soothing influence did the beautiful verses of the 103d Psalm fall on Clara's ear, now read to her for the first time by a Bible Christian! after which she soon fell into a sweet and refreshing sleep.

Leaving her to enjoy this needful repose, we will inform our readers that the sudden departure of Hubert from his Protestant friends, nearly three months prior to this time, had been occasioned by a letter received from his cousin Clarice, acquainting him with the disappearance of his sister and Frances, as well as her own suspicions respecting the cause.

Mrs. Willoughby and her daughter soon after left Italy, and took a small cottage in a village in the south of France, intending to remain there till Laura, who was still delicate, should be able to return to England, to which country Mr. Murray was already gone.

One morning, as they were partaking of their accustomed meal, a note was put into Mrs. Willoughby's hand, which caused her placid countenance to be clouded. Contrary to her usual custom, she did not offer to show it to Laura, but instantly rose from her seat, and, after the lapse of a few minutes, appeared equipped for walking. Accustomed to her mother's confidence, Laura unconsciously inquired where she was going.

"It is better, my love, that you should not know; be satisfied no harm has befallen any who are dear to you. I hope to return in a few hours. Farewell! and stay your mind on One who has promised to keep in perfect peace those who trust in Him.”

Mrs. Willoughby returned before the evening: she looked pale and anxious, but spoke cheerfully. At an earlier hour than usual she entreated her daughter to retire to rest; and though Laura felt some curiosity and no little anxiety about the mysterious occurrences of the morning, she complied, and was soon wrapped in gentle slumbers, from which she awoke imagining she heard the carriage, and soon after the murmuring sound of voices. She listened attentively, but

all was silence; and persuading herself it was a dream, Laura again composed herself to rest, and awoke not till the sun was shining more brightly than usual.

As she was about to leave her chamber, her mother entered the room. A smile of pure and heartfelt benevolence lighted up her features, and had chased away the anxiety which dwelt there on the preceding day. Tenderly embracing her daughter, she thus addressed her:

"Shall I not make amends, dear Laura, for the suspense of yesterday, if I ask you to receive and cherish with a sister's love one who has known what it is to be hated by kinsfolk and friends for the cause of truth,—if I ask you to receive and love the sister of your brother's dearest friend?"

Laura, who had never heard the tale of horror, felt her heart glow with indignation against those who had made the hapless stranger suffer thus; and it was with feelings of joy, pity, and the tenderest sympathy, that she embraced for the first time the long persecuted but now happy Clara.

And oh how much had she to hear, and Clara to relate !—how much had she to teach, and Clara to learn, during the next few months they spent together on England's happy shore, beyond the reach of Romish hatred or Romish cruelty, where each man sits under his own vine and fig-tree, none making him afraid! Oh, England! Protestant England! land of the vale, the mountain, and the plain! land of the brave, the noble, and the free! land of my fathers! and best, most blest of all, as yet the land of Gospel light, of Bible truth, of pure religion! Ah! can it, must it, shall it be, that thou wilt give thy power and strength to the Beast,❞—that forsaking the God who has so long, so greatly blessed thee, thou wilt come down from thy lofty eminence and crouch at the footstool of the "man of sin!" Alas! alas! if thus it be, then is thy glory fallen; then will the fine gold become dim; and then,-oh, tremble ye who love the Lord!-since if, as a nation, we forsake Him, He also will forsake us!

(To be continued.)

ON THE SATANIC ORIGIN, AND BLASPHEMOUS CHARACTER OF POPERY.

In this day of rebuke and blasphemy, when Popery is putting forth all its energies and attempting to rear its hydra head again in England, and when an Infidel Liberalism is zealously seconding its efforts, it becomes necessary to exhibit this Antichristian system in its true colours, and point out the source from whence it emanates.

Much ignorance prevails as to the real character of Popery. Many would fain have us believe that it ceases to be the blasphemous, idolatrous, and persecuting power that it once was. But as it is too infallible to err, so it is too immutable to improve. Semper eadem is indelibly stamped upon its brow, precluding all hope of reformation,

Popery is certainly no human device. The finger of Satan is as

discernible in this mystery of iniquity, as the finger of God is, in the great mystery of godliness. Numerous authorities might be quoted in confirmation of this fact. Let the following suffice :-It is called by Mr. Thos. Scott-" Satan's grand scheme for opposing the Gospel;" by Mr. Bickersteth-" The Devil's cunning device of twelve hundred years' growth for leading countless myriads to perdition;" by Mr. Robert Hall-"A detestable system of iniquity, cruelty, and imposture, fabricated by the father of lies;" and by Mr. Cecil-" Satan's masterpiece:" Mr. Cecil adds-"I believe him utterly incapable of such another contrivance. It was a systematic and infallible plan for forming manacles and mufflers for the human mind."

No unprejudiced person can study the character and history of Popery without being convinced of its Satanic origin, indeed, there is no other rational and satisfactory way of accounting for such “ a monstrous system of iniquity and soul-murder," as Dr. Townsend, in his "Accusations of History against the Church of Rome," designates Popery.

The power and subtlety of Satan are strikingly exhibited in the Papal system. Why the Almighty should permit the existence of a being whose only object is to do evil, and who is constantly endeavouring to rob him of his glory, and man of his happiness, exceeds the bounds of our finite capacities to fathom. It does not become us to arraign the incomprehensible God at the bar of our limited understandings, or pry too curiously into the motives which influence his conduct. Enough is revealed in the Word of God to show the personal existence of our great spiritual adversary, and Popery furnishes incontestable evidence of that existence, at the same time that it evinces his malignity, wickedness, and cruelty. The system, and its author, mutually reflect light upon each other.

"... The slaughters committed by the Inquisition are now beyond any accurate calculation, but they stand in fearful rivalry with the most prodigal expenditure of blood by war. The tribunal went on its course of plunder, imprisonment, torture, and burning, for six hundred years! ... But what calculation of the slain can give us the true estimate of the evil; the myriads of broken hearts of orphans, widows, parents deprived of their children, families banished and beggared; the life of perpetual fear in the presence of a tribunal against which no man at any hour was secure; in whose hands torture, death, or an imprisonment of a length and severity that made after-life useless, and from which no man came, but as hardly escaped from the grave? And what are we to think of the religion that could create, sanction, and triumph in this tribunal? What of the abject and desperate prostration of mind which that religion must labour to produce, before it could venture to lay the weight of the Inquisition on the world? What of the hideous repulsion of all the principles of Christianity in the establishment of this formal and cold-blooded system of murder? We may presumptuously doubt, if we will, the Scripture that declares the existence and hostility of the evil spirit; but on what other conception can human reason account for the horrors of the Inquisition? We are driven back to the revealed Word, and forced to see, in this triumph of torture and death, a cruelty beyond man, the form of the fiend enveloped and enthroned in the circle of agony and flame."-Rev. G. Croly on the Apocalypse, p. 245.

The author of the "Protestant" thus writes :-"Deceit and violence are the two main pillars of Satan's kingdom. This corresponds with the character of the adversary himself, who has been a liar and a murderer from the beginning-that is, one who makes use of deceit and violence for the promotion of his cause in the world. Viewed in this light, Popery proves itself to be of its father the Devil."-The Protestant, vol. iii., p. 201.

We might enumerate and enlarge upon some of the abominations which characterize this Antichristian system, and leave no doubt upon the mind as to its author; such as its blasphemy and idolatry, its treachery and cruelty, its falsehood and hypocrisy, its pride and lust of domination, its hatred of the Bible, its rejection of the doctrine of justification by faith only, and its denial of Christ as the only Mediator between God and man. But as it would occupy too much space to dwell at length upon all these fearful evils, we will content ourselves with adducing evidence in proof of the blasphemous character of Popery.

And, first, "to the law and to the testimony." "What saith the Scripture ?" The Apostle Paul warns the Thessalonians against groundlessly supposing that the day of Christ was at hand, and shows that it must be preceded by a great apostasy, "That day," he says, "shall not come, except there first come an apostasy, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he that now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thess. ii. 3-10.)

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Mr. Faber says," With this remarkable description let us compare the pageants and accredited phraseology of a Papal inauguration. When all is duly prepared, and when expectation stands on the very tiptoe, the lordly pontiff is revealed to his gazing votaries, seated upon the high altar in the adytum of the temple, and making the Lord's table his footstool. In this attitude he receives what is called the adoration of the cardinals: a ceremony represented on the medals of Martin V.; where two of them appear crowning the Pope, while two others kneel before him with the inscription, whom they create they adore.'* Henceforth the style and title of the new god corresponds with his inaugural worship. Our Lord God the Pope; another God upon earth; king of kings, and lord of lords. The same is the dominion of God and of the Pope. To believe that our Lord God the Pope might not decree as he decreed, it were a matter of heresy. The power of the Pope is greater than all created power, and extends itself to things celestial, terrestrial, and infernal. The Pope doeth whatsoever he listeth, even things unlawful; and is more than God.' Such are the frantic ebullitions of impious vanity, which mark out as the predicted head of the demonolatrous apostasy, that Italian priest,

* See "The Popes, painted by themselves," where there is a medal with the above inscription.-Published by Protestant Association, 11, Exeter Hall, 8 pages.

whom his adherents fondly denominate the centre of Catholic unity, and from whom they arrogantly pronounce it heretical to separate."Faber on the Prophecies, vol. iii, p. 482.

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Bishop Jewell says,-" In the Extravagants (decretals of the Popes), it is set down, Our Lord God the Pope.' Mark these words; Our Lord God the Pope. In them the Pope is called Lord, and is called God. Oh! merciful Lord God, who from the heavens beholdest this vanity, how great is thy mercy in suffering this! I devise not this. His own books, his own doctors, his own decrees and decretals, speak it and set it down."-Bishop Jewell on the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.

Bishop Newton, after alluding to the inauguration of the Pope, observes,—" At all times he exerciseth divine authority in the Church, 'showing himself that he is God,' affecting divine titles and attributes, as holiness and infallibility; assuming divine powers and prerogatives, in condemning and absolving men, in retaining and forgiving sins, in asserting his decrees to be of the same or greater authority than the Word of God, and commanding them to be received under the penalty of the same or greater damnation. Like another Salmoneus, he is proud to imitate the state and thunder of the Almighty; and is styled and pleased to be styled,- Our Lord God the Pope, another God upon earth, king of kings, and lord of lords,' &c. Such blasphemies are not only allowed, but are even approved, encouraged, rewarded in the writers of the Church of Rome, and they are not only the extravagances of private writers, but are the language even of public decretals, and acts of councils. So that the Pope is evidently the god upon earth at least there is no one like him, who 'exalteth himself above every God.'. . . . The foundations of Popery were laid indeed in the apostle's days, but the superstructure was raised by degrees, and several ages passed before the building was completed, and the man of sin was revealed in full perfection."-Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, Dobson's edition, pp. 404-406. Bishop Newton adds that Justin Martyr, who flourished before the middle of the second century, considers the man of sin, or as he elsewhere calleth him the man of blasphemy, as altogether the same with the little horn in Daniel; and affirms that he who shall speak blasphemous words against the Most High, is now at the doors."-Ibid., p. 410.

Mr. Birks, in applying the little horn in Daniel to the Papacy, says, "Emboldened by success, and encouraged by seeming impunity, its claims became higher and higher as years rolled on. Its blasphemous pretensions were more gross, and its persecutions became systematic and undisguised. . The Christian, when he compares the Church of Rome, as it is pourtrayed in the time of the apostles, with the counterfeit which has usurped the name in later times, may well share in the surprise of the beloved disciple as he gazed on the persecutions, and wonder with a great admiration at the fearful and prodigious change."-The Four Prophetic Empires, by the Rev. T. R. Birks.

Dr. Croly observes-"One of the prophetic characters of Popery was, its blasphemy;' the enormous crime of insulting the majesty of God, by abusing his name, and usurping his authority. What are

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