ing) is applied. These are the credentials of pardon; these are passports to heaven. No attempt is made to investigate the state of the heart, to detect false hopes, or to bring the character of the sick man to the infallible standard of God's word. Nothing is said of the atonement of Christ, or of the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit.". . . Here “we arrive at the point to which every Popish ceremony tends, namely, that the salvation of a Roman Catholic hangs entirely, or principally, upon his priest. All that Christ did and suffered for sinners goes for nothing, unless the priest be allowed the honour of rendering it available. Extreme unction is not a vain ceremony or mere absurdity, which, when it has excited a sufficient degree of ridicule, may be left to the peaceable enjoyment of those who are in love with it. It is in itself antichrist. It is a substitute for the Saviour and his holy religion. It occupies the place of the Redeemer in the ministrations of priests, and in the thoughts of dying Romanists. It leaves the Lord Jesus quite out of the view of a dying sinner, and the priest and his anointing are put in his place.'

*Elliott's Delineation of Romanism, pp. 390, 391.

Reader, the hour of death is before you. Are you ready to enter on its solemn realities? On what is your heart prepared to rest its confidence? Will you trust to the ceremonies and prayers of an earthly priest? or will you place your reliance on that High Priest above, who has himself trod the dark valley, and who is therefore able to be touched with the feeling even of that your last infirmity? If you have recourse to the former, he can but stand at your bedside, and you must leave him there, while you may have to go solitary and trembling into an unknown world. But if you look to Jesus, you will have good reason to say, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

66

XI. AS TO ITS TENDENCY, IT IS AN ENSLAVING

CHURCH.

It cannot be otherwise than that men so encircled by priestly influence should be enthralled by priestly dominion. Look at the member of the Popish church in all his relations, and you find this sway exercised over him.

We have seen the result of it on

his individual character and destiny. It leads him to underrate the evils of sin, to overrate external ceremonies, to give up the right of private judgment, and to become a passive tool in the hands of another.

Look at the effects on his domestic comfort. He cannot execute a single scheme, nor utter a single word, but some member of his household may reveal it at the confessional. The priest has power to scrutinize every family proceeding, to ascertain every family secret, and to foment every family quarrel, should the interest of the Romish church demand such a step, or the acquisition of property depend upon it. The nearest relative may undesignedly prove a betrayer; the dearest friend may conscientiously become an informer; the meanest servant may be employed as a spy. Household confidence is undermined; and though, for a long time, no token of insecurity may be perceived, and no idea of danger entertained, yet at any instant the destructive train may be fired, and the whole fabric of domestic harmony may be involved in hapless ruin.

Equally baneful are its influences on his

civil freedom. Liberty as to political rights is supposed to open the door for liberty of spiritual thought; therefore, to exclude the latter, every means is taken to abridge the former. The Papists rightly deem that where a man has attained freedom for his body, he will aspire after freedom for his soul. Hence, to prevent him from throwing off the shackles of the priest, they seek to hamper him with the trammels of outward subjection. They keep the people in bondage, that they may keep them out of what they call heresy. Their power, in this respect, has been more and more restricted of late; and they cannot now forge political fetters with the same durability as in former ages.

Still, however, they do much to retard intellectual advancement. For people to continue priest-ridden, they must continue superstitious; and for superstition to prevail, ignorance must be cherished. Rome may have done much to promote the fine arts, and has found it to her interest to do so; for the more exquisite her paintings and statues, the more abundant are the worshippers. But the nobler walks of science and literature

have known comparatively little of her patronage. We cannot forget that, in bygone years, it was the Romish Inquisition which forbade Galileo to say that the earth moved round the sun, lest the people should find out that the church was not all-knowing. We cannot forget it because it is the same principle which still forbids a free press in the papal territories, lest it should be found out that the church is not all perfection. We admit that some in this communion are men of learning, but they are exceptions to the general rule. Where Popery has the firmest footing, and can most fully carry out its own designs, there we invariably find the children untaught, the young uninformed, the mass of the people unintelligent. Civil depression and mental ignorance go hand in hand; while indolence, filth, misery, and crime, follow in their train.

We must bear in mind that the tendencies of the Popish religion are not fairly exhibited in this country. Here they are seen catching a borrowed light from the surrounding radiance of political liberty, social civilisation, and pure Christianity. To see the workings