tered. Yes, measures had, about eighteen months ago, been brought forward by the Government, and urged in Parliament, in face of the coronation oath, and in violation of the spirit of our Constitution,— measures to endow and encourage Popery, and thereby to shame God's holy religion. Those men who were bound to maintain inviolate the Protestant Constitution of the country had originated and carried out a principle of vain, hollow, heartless, and deliberate expediency. But what followed the adoption of these measures of the Government? The anger of God was brought down on the land in the shape of a famine, for the fruits of the earth had been blighted. The Acts of Parliament he alluded to were said to be of a conciliatory nature; but before one year had elapsed since their introduction, the same Government had been compelled to bring forward measures to coerce those whom they had previously attempted to conciliate. An Act of Parliament ordered that the clergy of the Church should, on each anniversary of the horrible Popish plot, read a prayer of thanksgiving for our deliverance from Popery; and it was therefore an insult to God to encourage the promulgation of doctrines which they knew were idolatrous and opposed to Christianity. He concluded by calling on the Meeting to unite in resisting the inroads of Popery, and aggressions on the political and ecclesiastical privileges of the Protestants of this country.

J. E. GORDON, Esq.-Sir, it is with some risk to the cause, and with much more risk to myself, that I respond to such applications as have been addressed to me by your Committee; but as it is said of old and wounded war-horses, that they are again roused by the sound of the trumpet, the present trumpet, which gives any other than an uncertain sound, may perhaps inspire me with new vigour.

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The Resolution, which has been so eloquently and so ably proposed you, has been read to the Meeting; and as I wish to shape my sermon, as much as possible, by the text, I shall read it in clauses.

The first clause is, "That the signal deliverance vouchsafed to our ancestors and this Church and nation on the 5th of November, 1605, and the blessings which have been handed down to us, call for grateful commemoration."

On this clause of my Resolution, Sir, I shall merely remark, that the deliverance which we commemorate, when connected with St. Bartholomew's night, and the exterminating crusades of Simon de Montfort, and the atrocities of Louis the Fourteenth, and the treacheries of Alva in the Low Countries, and the burnings of bloody Mary, and the murder of 20,000 Protestants in Ireland, proves the Romish religion to be the religion of him who was "a murderer from the beginning." We hear of a Church, Sir, which stakes much of her authority on her claim to antiquity. She certainly can appeal to antiquity; and so can we, when we assert, that Cain was the prototype, and first practical, living illustration of that religion.

With these remarks, I shall dismiss the first clause of my Resolution. The second is, "That this Meeting regards the present menacing attitude of Popery, and its more insidious, though not less dangerous workings within the pale of the Established Church as evidence of the displeasure of a justly-offended God, for one national

insensibility to the value of the inestimable blessings of the Reformation and our spiritual neglect of the Romish part of the population." With respect, Sir, to the fact of the increase of Popery, it is scarcely necessary for me to advert to it. There is a publication now in circulation, (and I am happy to say, in very extensive circulation in this country, having gone through fifteen thousand copies,) which contains a statement proving, that within the space of forty-eight years, the number of Popish chapels in this country have increased from forty to six hundred; that the number of priests has increased from a like number to upwards of seven hundred; and that the number of colleges has increased from none to ten. I say, that such a startling fact as this, (and it is one of those facts, which should be kept before public observation,) presents the most practical and intelligible appeal to the understandings and to the principles of a Protestant nation.

We read, Sir, not only of the interests of Popery, without the Church, but of the insidious workings of Popery within the Church: to that, however, I shall refer more particularly hereafter.

The third clause in my Resolution is, "That, in the opinion of this Meeting, our criminal neglect of these privileges, and the important obligations which they involve, are just causes for humiliation before God, and present, at the same time, a loud and scriptural call to the discharge of long-neglected duties.'

I have adverted, Sir, to the increase of Popery in this country, even at the present moment; we are more concerned, however, with the cause of that increase, than with the increase itself. The increase is undoubted; but still, it must trace itself to some intelligible cause. And what is that cause? It addresses itself to all those who have ears to hear and understandings to understand, in a form which can neither be misunderstood, nor misinterpreted. What, Sir, was the origin of the Reformation? It was the aggressive influence of truth upon Popery. History presents to us the spectacle of a peasant of Eisleben standing forth in the face of the Church of Rome, when she stood in her strength, and rending to the earth the mightiest establishment which ever bound the human race. How did he effect this? Listen to the groans and the agonies of a burdened soul; listen to those cries, which, through the stillness of the monastery, alarmed its inmates, during the night, and excited their sympathy during the day; listen to them, and there you have the same process, as you witness in the tempering of a sword-blade; you have a piece of rough ore, in a Divine furnace, which is to come out in the shape of that blade, the very effulgence of which is to serve as a lamp to guide men from the dark labyrinths of the Church of Rome. We witness this man transferred from Erfurt, to a professorship of divinity in the University of Wirtemberg; we find him reaching down a dusty volume from the shelves of the monastery at Erfurt; we find him under the exciting discovery, that what he is handling is what he has never handled before-the Word of the blessed God; we find him devouring that Word; we find it pouring a balm into his wounded soul; we find him guided, from discovery to discovery, till he arrives at that grand, that master discovery, "The just shall live by faith."

We find him, with that single weapon, assailing the colossal fabric of Romanism; he plants that light in front of her darkness; and, having done so, did he depend upon the providence of God to bring the Church of Rome to that light? No, Sir; he was better taught. He descended into the dark vaulted blackness of Romanism with the light in his hand, and he held it in the face of every idol, and every idol worshipper, until he discovered the true character and doom of that fore-doomed apostasy. The Lion of the tribe of Judah was there; and we find him standing, with mane erect, before the Diet of Worms, -worms, in the most literal sense of the term; we find him confronted by the most mighty of the earth; we find him in the presence of him, of whom it is said, that the sun never sat upon the extent of his dominions, who demanded a refutation of his principles. And what was his answer? He was ready to yield his body to the rack, but he was not prepared to yield an iota of principle. We find him conducted in safety from this den of lions, and taking shelter in the castle of Wartburg, while the Reformation proceeded. And what was the weapon by which this mighty conquest was achieved? It was the Word of God; it was prayer; it was untiring industry. All other means, all other weapons, all other aids and assistances, Luther spurned away from him; and it was by that Word that he conquered.

Now, Sir, I have presented to you an unaided monk, armed with the Word of God, putting away from him all human helps, and aids, and assistances, and suffering no interference of princes or potentates to hinder or mar him in his work. I have presented to you this peasant, bringing the power of Almighty God to bear upon this colossus of superstition, and emancipating many of the nations of Europe from its influence. Our attention is directed, in the present day, to the very same error, which he overcame by "the sword of the Spirit," by "the blood of the Lamb, and the word of his testimony." We find that error rending to the earth the mightiest fabric of Protestant truth, political power, and moral grandeur, the world has beheld. Here is an inversion of causes which would scarcely seem credible, if we had not the facts before us to attest them. And to what is this owing?

I am here, Sir, not to flatter any man, or any class of men, or the country to which I belong; I am here to make, I believe, a very unpopular speech; and I have said so, because I must assert conscious truth. I assert, Sir, that it has not been on account of any conciliatory policy on the part of statesmen, that there has been an increase of Popery; it is the effect of another cause, and we must look for it in other directions. It has been the consequence of the rampant power of Popery, and not of that which tendered power to it. Popery has brought its physical force to act as a battering-ram on the moral constitution of the country. It was not in consequence of any dereliction of duty on the part of statesmen, but on the part of Churches, and more especially on the part of the National Church. I have adverted to the means by which Popery was encountered and overcome upon the Continent; in this country it was assailed partly by "the sword of the Spirit," and partly by Acts of Parliament. After

we had conquered our way to a settlement (as it was described) of Protestantism, we imagined ourselves secure, and Popery was allowed, not only to grow and to increase, but to assail, in turn, a nation and a Church, which had been guilty of such dereliction of duty.

Now, Sir, we are very well acquainted with a class of casuists in these days, who have more to do with the unclean spirit, that had his residence among the tombs-who have more to do with the churchyard than the Church, every day endeavouring to exhume some antiquated canon or obsolete rubric. For once, I shall be tempted to become resurrectionist also; and in looking among these canons, (which are sworn to by every clergyman of the Church of England receiving a benefice,) I find that there is one referring to the supremacy, which enjoins that every clergyman shall preach at least four times a-year on that subject. "Furthermore, all ecclesiastieal persons having cure of souls, and all other preachers, and readers of divinity lectures, shall to the uttermost of their wit, knowledge, and learning, purely and sincerely, without any colour or dissimulation,-teach, manifest, open, and declare, four times every year at the least, in their sermons, and other collations and lectures, that all usurped and foreign power (forasmuch as the same hath no establishment nor ground by the law of God), is for most just causes taken away and abolished; and that therefore no manner of obedience, or subjection, within his Majesty's realms and dominions, is due unto any such foreign power, but that the King's power, within his realms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and all other his dominions and countries, is the highest power under God; to whom all men, as well inhabitants, as born within the same, do by God's laws, owe most loyalty and obedience, afore and above all other powers and potentates in the earth."

Now, I wish to know in how many instances this canon is complied with? Further, and more to the point, I find in another canon lxvi. the following language:-"Every minister being a preacher, and having any Popish recusant or recusants in his parish, and thought fit by the bishop of the diocese, shall labour diligently with them, from time to time, thereby to reclaim them from their errors. And if he be no preacher, then he shall procure, if he can possibly, some that are preachers so qualified to take pains with them for that purpose. If he can procure none, then he shall inform the bishop of the diocese thereof, who shall not only appoint some neighbour preacher or preachers adjoining, to take that labour upon them, but himself also, shall use his best endeavour, by instruction, persuasion, and all good means he can devise, to reclaim both them and all other within his diocese so affected."

Here is an obligation, if I understand it aright, laid upon every clergyman, to make inquisitions of Papists, and give religious instruction to them, as far as they are able, and if they cannot find time to do so, to report to the bishop, who is to find somebody else to do it.

Have we none? Not only Papists, but those who are Popishly given; absolute Romanists, and half Romanists. Have we no halfRomanists. I believe the only difference between them, is the

difference between a toad and a tadpole; and I must confess, I have a great antipathy to either.

Now why have I referred to these canons? To prove, that there has been a general suspension of a most important obligation, on the part of the Established Church. It is only by the aggressive application of truth to the consciences and the understandings of Roman Catholics,—it is only by dealing à la Luther, if I may so speak, with them, that we can expect to turn Roman Catholics into Protestants. Instead of the Churches of the Reformation continuing their exertions after they found themselves established, they said practically to the Roman Catholics, as was said of Ephraim, of old, "They are joined to idols, leave them alone." It is under this sentence of "leave them alone," that they are not leaving us alone; and it is this dereliction of duty, which has called for the manifestation of the Divine displeasure, adverted to in the Resolution, and committed this country to a controversy with God. He has not only exposed us to the attacks of idolatry from without, but he has raised up idolatry within; and the sentence is to shew, that we have to deal with it within the pale, since we would not deal with it without.

I hear a great deal, Sir, about our venerable Church, our scriptural Church, our apostolic Church, and I will yield to no man, in my affection for that Church; but I cannot join in these commendatory epithets ; I see that Church like a magnificent steamer, armed with the heaviest ordnance, and fitted with engines of the highest power; I see her upon a lee-shore, a mutiny among the crew, and no captain in the vessel. I hear an order from one part of the crew, "Turn a-head," and from another, "Stop her." The result is, a compromise; one wheel is allowed to act as propeller, while the other backs water. Thus we are drifting rapidly on the shoals of the Tiber.

And what is the bounden duty of consistent Churchmen, in this particular? I said before, that I will yield to no man, in my affection for the Church of England; but, if she is to become a bulwark, in which Popery is to defend itself, if I had the arms of a Briareus, I would employ every one of them to rend her. If the Church, instead of being the conservator of Christianity, become, to a certain extent, the receptacle of error, it is time that the well-wishers of the Church should see to her; and if those in charge of the vessel will not attempt to rescue her, we laymen must act as steam-tugs, and take her in tow; and I trust this Meeting will prove a signal-gun, for the tugs to get their steam up. It is high time, Sir, that a movement should be made in a right direction,-not only to shield Protestantism; for I detest the cowardly idea of shielding Protestantism. What is Protestantism worth, when it ceases to be aggressive? Christianity, from its birth, was an aggressive system; and it is our sin and shame, that we are not, from higher motives, and from the impulse of a higher principle, recurring, not merely to the principles, but to the practices of the Reformers; that we are not compassionating the thousands and millions of our fellow-creatures, who are living in sin, and dying in darkness, around us; that we are not ordering out a great Mission, (for that is what we want,) to the Church of Rome. Why not have a Mission to the idolaters of the Church of Rome ?