which the mind of man is permitted to have any cognizance, none requires more scrupulous caution, than the exertion of reason in reference to Religion. If the triumphs of modern philosophy have been achieved, by abandoning the barren wilds of fanciful conjecture, and by being restricted to the assignable

in the pillage of any body of unoffending men (!) His (Russel's) grants were from the aggregate and consolidated funds of judgments iniquitously legal, and from possessions voluntarily surrendered by the lawful proprietors with the gibbet at their door. The merit of the grantee whom he derives from, was that of being a prompt and greedy instrument of a levelling tyrant, who oppressed all descriptions of his people, but who fell with particular fury on every thing that was great and noble. The merit of the original grantee of his Grace's (Bedford's) pensions, was in giving his hand to the work, and partaking the spoil with a Prince, who plundered a part of his national church of his time and country. My (Burke's) merit was in defending the whole of the national church of my own time and my own country, and the whole of the national churches of all countries, from the principles and examples which lead to ecclesiastical pillage, thence to a contempt of all prescriptive titles, thence to the pillage of all property, and thence to universal desolation ". "His founder's (Russel's) merits were, by arts in which he served his master and made his fortune, to bring poverty, wretchedness, and depopulation on his country. His merit was by instigating a tyrant to injustice, to provoke a people to rebellion. The labours of his Grace's founder merited the curses, not loud but deep, of the Commons of England, on whom he and his master (Henry VIII.) had effected a complete Parliamentary Reform, by making them in their slavery and humiliation, the true and adequate representatives of a debased, degraded, and undone people "- "Let the Duke of Bedford (I am sure he will) reject with scorn and horror, the counsels of the lecturers, those wicked panders to avarice and ambition, who would tempt him in the troubles of his country, to seek another enormous fortune from the forfeitures of another Nobility, and the plunder of another church (!)"-" Let his Grace take care how he endangers the safety of that Constitution which secures his own utility, or his own insignificance; or how he discourages those, who take up, even puny arms, to defend an order of things, which, like the Sun of Heaven, shines alike on the useful and worthless."- 66 As to our country and our race, as long as the well compacted structure of our Church and State, the sanctuary, the holy of holies of that ancient law, defended by reverence, defended by power, a fortress at once and a temple, shall stand inviolate on the brow of the British Sion-as long as the British Monarchy, not more limited than fenced by the orders of the State, shall like the proud Keep of Windsor,

limits of human experience, beyond which, there is an impenetrable gloom-can we expect any such beneficial results, if in our investigations in Religion, we relinquish the usual procedure of intellectual research, and plunge impetuously into that deep profound, and thick obscure, where the regions are avowedly

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rising in the majesty of proportion, and girt with the double belt of it's kindred and coeval towers, as long as this awful structure shall oversee and guard the subjected land-so long the mounds and dikes of the low, fat, Bedford level will have nothing to fear from all the pickaxes of all the levellers of France. But if, the rude inroad of Gallic tumult, with its sophistical rights of man, to falsify the account, and it's sword as a makeweight to throw into the scale, shall be introduced into our city by a misguided populace, set on by proud great men, themselves blinded and intoxicated by a frantic ambition, we shall, all of us, perish and be overwhelmed in a common ruin I can form a tolerable estimate of what is likely to happen from characters, chiefly dependent for fame and fortune, on knowledge and talent, as well in its morbid and perverted state, as in that which is sound and natural. Naturally men so formed and finished are the first gifts of Providence to the World. But when they have once thrown off the fear of God, which was in all ages too often the case, and the fear of man, which is now the case, and when in that state they come to understand one another, and to act in corps, a more dreadful calamity cannot arise out of Hell to scourge mankind” (Extracts from a Letter written by Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the attacks made upon him by the Duke of Bedford, &c.). From the above quotations, we have little apprehension, but that Mr. Cunnningham, if he think it "wise and expedient" again to wheel about, will from his brilliant flippancy, educe some valuable reflections for the instruction of the Duke of Bedford's descendant, and of that vile, unprincipled faction, which to glut their own ambition and lust of power, are ready to play the pander to the passions, vices, intrigues, and jealousy of democratical despotism, and popular rage. And we will take our leave of our Reverend friend, by submitting to his consideration, and to others of a similar stamp, a few moderate reflections from a writer of established notoriety; and one, under whose banner, either for talent, principle, or liberality, they would all gladly skulk and crouch. If they regard these remarks as they ought, perhaps their "wise and expedient" tolerance of idolatry, blasphemy, and infidelity, may be speedily dissipated. The writer to whom we allude is the late Robert Hall of Bristol. "Popery (says this powerful and eloquent writer) is at this time, making rapid strides; and Protestants, in general, have lost the zeal which once animated them in its extermination. Certain it is, there never was a period when the members of the Papal community were so active and enterprising, or Protestants so torpid and indifferent.

terious," and accessible only by the heaven-sent gift of Faith? In consequence, therefore, of the majestic and sublime mysteries of Faith, reason, in the conception of such, is baffled, and laid prostrate. Let us, however, more minutely descant upon the office, and extent, of the privileges of unassisted reason, in the

Innumerable symptoms appear of a prevailing disposition to contemplate the doctrines of Popery with less disgust, and to witness their progress with less alarm, than has ever been known since the Reformation. All the zeal and activity are on one side; and while every absurdity is retained and every pretension defended, which formerly drew upon Popery the indignation and abhorrence of all enlightened Christians, we should be ready to conclude, from the altered state of public feeling, that a system, once so obnoxious, had undergone some momentous revolution. We seem, on this occasion, to have interpreted, in its most literal sense, the injunction of hoping all things, and believing all things.' We persist in maintaining that the adherents to Popery are materially changed, in contradiction to their express disavowal; and, while they make a boast of the infallibility of their creed, and the unalterable nature of their religion, we persist in the belief of its having experienced we know not what melioration and improvement. In most instances, when men are deceived, it is the effect of art and contrivance on the part of those who delude them; in this the deception originates with ourselves; and, instead of bearing false witness against our neighbour, such is the excess of our candour, that we refuse to credit the unfavourable testimony, which he bears of himself. There is in the mean time, nothing reciprocal in this strange method of proceeding: we pipe to them, but they will not dance; our concessions, instead of softening and mollifying, have no other effect upon them than to elate their pride, and augment their arrogance. An equal change in the state of feeling toward an object which has itself undergone no alteration whatever, and where the party by which it is displayed profess to adhere to their ancient tenets, it will be difficult to specify. This singular phenomenon may be ascribed to the length of time which has elapsed, since we have had actual experience of the enormous cruelties of the Papal system, and to the fancied security we possess against their recurrence. impression of the past has, in a manner, spent itself; and in many, its place is occupied by an eagerness to grasp at present advantages (!), and to lay hold of every expedient for shaking off the restraints, which a narrow and timid policy has imposed. The influence of these circumstances has been much aided by that indifference to religious truth, which too often shelters itself under the mask of candour; and to such an extent has this humour been carried, that distinguished men have not scrupled to represent (Query-Isit not an unprincipled assault against principle, for the vile purposes of filthy lucre, or other such base motives?) the difference between the Papists

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mysteries of Religion. Man is a reasonable, free, and accountable agent; yet the truths and sanctions of Religion, requiring from their incomprehensibleness, the supreme authority of a faithful communication from God, are confessedly beyond the grasp of man's intellect, but present themselves only to the ordeal of his

and the Protestants, as turning on obscure and unintelligible points of doctrine, scarcely worth the attention of enlightened minds; while a Clergyman (Query-Was it for the purposes of "wisdom and expediency?") has treated the whole subject as of no more importance than the idle disputes agitated by the Schoolmen! A celebrated individual (Earl Grey) in England vehemently condemned the oath of abjuration, for applying the term superstitious to the doctrine of Transubstantiation. In exactly the same spirit, the appellation of Papist is exchanged for Catholic, a concession which the adherents of the Church of Rome well know how to improve, as amounting to little short of a formal surrender of the point at issue. FOR IF THE PRIESTS ARE REALLY ENTITLED TO THE NAME OF CATHOLICS,' PROTESTANTS OF EVERY DENOMINATION ARE INVOLVED IN THE GUILT OF SCHISM. Popery, in the ordinary state of its profession, combines the form of godliness, with a total denial of its power. A heap of unmeaning ceremonies, adapted to fascinate the imagination and engage the senses-implicit faith in human authority, combined with an utter neglect of Divine teaching-ignorance the most profound, joined to dogmatism the most presumptuous- —a vigilant exclusion of biblical knowledge, with a total extinction of free inquiry-present the spectacle of Religion lying in state, surrounded with the silent pomp of death. Popery still is, what it always was, a detestible system of impiety, cruelty, and imposture, fabricated by the "Father Of Lies" (See R. Hall's Works, vol. iv. p. 226." Review of Birt on Popery." There are some excellent observations on Popery by Mr. Hall in this review.). The above quotation may be of some weight in the estimation of Mr. Cunningham, and other such liberals of the wise, expedient, trimming, and shuffling school; who are advocating the sinful and absurd coalition, and the mischievous confederacy of Protestanism and Popery ;—and we sincerely trust, that he and they may be instructed by the above sentiments of the renowned champion of charity and dissent, ere that the Vicars of Harrow, be for ever, united in deed and in proverb with the Vicars of Bray-never to be dissevered or torn asunder, in their fond embraces of compacted love and kindred sentiment; and it cannot but be noted how ominously portentous it is, that this latter Vicarage, is now honoured by the ministrations of a worthy son of Lord Chancellor Plunkett. His Lordship's Socinian and Reverend dissenting father-Socinian education-Socinian or Unitarian Eldership in a Dublin meeting-house-patronage and love of a virulent Unitarian writer, a successor to the pulpit of his Lordship's venerable and Reverend ancestor-popish advocacy-protestant professions

reason, in respect to their bearing that genuine and authentic impress of heaven, and heaven's authority, without which the whole might be spurned, and deemed as unbinding upon the consciences of its investigators. And thus our Creator has not contradicted, or thwarted those innate principles that He implanted, and by

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awful vows of Hannibalism-and eternal devotion to resist to martyrdom the friends of the Irish Union—and, finally, his Lordship's late popish, sectarian, and liberal display of incurable, and deeprooted hatred to Protestanism and Orthodoxy, in designating by the terms "pedantic trifling," the bold, learned, and eloquent exposure, firmly made by the Lord Bishop of Exeter-of the apostatical, and base conduct of 66 the Commissioners of Irish Education" in inculcating, and winking at, in their mistranslated, mutilated, and garbled, scriptural extracts, nothing less than the abominable, damnable, superstitious, and execrable doctrines of popish idolatry, image worship, and penance-all these, (we assert) most amiable, wise and expedient" traits of our Lord Chancellor Plunkett, are unquestionably an admirable guarantee, in furnishing our Church, with sound, faithful, and consistent scions, in the persons of the Rev. the Vicar of Bray, or any other of his Lordship's dependents! (See the Debate in the House of Lords on the 19th March, 1833.). We have suffered ourselves to be carried away to a considerable length, in making our remarks upon public men and measures; an apology can scarcely be required, as we are not disposed to interfere with any subject extraneous to the objects of our work; but whatever part of the complicated machinery of society, however remote or obscure it may be, which in the least degree, bears upon the important topics we have purposed to treat upon, our readers may rest satisfied, that neither the smiles nor frowns of any man on earth, will influence us one single iota to swerve from the task of exposing error, rebuking inconsistency, and vindicating the majesty of truth, and the honour of our Apostolic Church. As we were led to this honourable work from pure, and disinterested motives, we are resolved to discharge the task, by the labours of impartiality and disinterestedness. It is our office to do our duty, over which we have some degree of command; as for events they rest not at our doors, and are beyond the range, either of our commands or wishes. We will now as summarily as possible furnish a few more equally convincing facts, in refutation of Dr. Baine's assertions-that Romanists do not worship, but only honour saints. We will confine our attention to the Virgin Mary, since we began with pointing out some of the revolting examples of idolatry and blasphemy, offered to her in the authorized Romish rituals, and services. If our readers refer to Collect. in Hor. ad usum Sacrum. Paris. 1520. fol. 4. Burnet's Hist. of the Reform. vol. ii. p. 143.; they will there find prayers, which have been publically used in the Latin Church, to the Virgin and the Saints,