resolving its solemn invocations in their Hymns into mere rhetorical tropes and figures. (N. B. We much doubt whether these Rhetorical expositions would not have cost Mr. B. some serious trouble, had he lived but a few centuries nearer to this celebrated Council.) But the Archdeacon, by one short quotation from Aquinas, demolishes all this curious quibbling.

"Illi exhibemus latria cultum, in quo ponimus spem salutis: sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem salutis, cantat enim Ecclesia, O Crux, ave, spes unica." P. 204.

"The cross of Christ," observes Dr. D. " is, in itself, an innocent thing, and may be a most interesting one, considered as exhibiting an appropriate emblem of human redemption; but when made an object of religious worship it changes its character with the use to which it is applied.

"A parallel case occurs to me. The brazen serpent, in the wilderness, was originally set up as a monument, or memorial, of God's wonderful mercy, in the deliverance of his people in the wilderness. From the days of Moses, down to Hezekiah, this serpent was permitted to remain among the Israelites, because as a pious memorial it gave no offence. For we find, that neither Asa nor Jehoshaphat, when they rooted out idolatry, destroyed it. But when Hezekiah saw that, in consequence of the increased corruption of the people, they burnt incense to it, he brake it in pieces, and called it by a contemptible name. The cross of Christ is an appropriate emblem in a Christian Church, as presenting to every devout Christian an interesting memorial of the great work of human redemption, but when, as in the Church of Rome, it is set up as an object of idolatrous worship, it then, as an offence to that Divine Being, to whom alone religious worship is due, becomes obnoxious to destruction, and as a stone of stumbling to weak Christians, ought to be removed." P. 206.

From the Adoration of the Cross, he proceeds to their solemn Invocations of the Virgin Mary; and shews, first, from the remarkable silence of scripture concerning her, and then from ecclesiastical history, how little authority there is for the introduction of her name into the worship of the Church. It was not till towards the end of the fourth century that this superstition arose.

"When a certain sect of women began to meet together for the express purpose of worshipping the Virgin Mary, by offering up cakes to her; which cakes were called Collyrides, and whence their offerers received the title of Collyridians." P. 214.

We are again obliged to the Archdeacon for one of those valuable recollections of his early travels, which have enabled him to speak so authoritatively of the modern errors of Rome.

"It might have been hoped that three centuries could not have passed away since the light of Reformation broke forth, and that gross darkness should still continue to prevail, on this subject, in any part of the Christian world. If my reader will, however, accompany me to Florence, a city in Tuscany, which seems to be more particu larly under the protection of the Virgin, he will find that the extravagant adoration paid to the Virgin Mary, in that city, does not come short of the pattern which has been above exhibited: and which tends to stamp the character of the Romish worship in the present day. In the Church of St. Mary of Impruneta, near Florence, there is a miraculous picture of the Virgin, which is highly esteemed throughout all Tuscany. Under the apprehension of any extraordinary danger, this picture is carried in solemn procession through the streets of Florence, accompanied by the Prince, the nobility, the magistracy, and the clergy. To establish the miraculous power of this picture, in procuring relief on different occasions, in cases of imminent danger, various acts and records are produced, to prove the several benefits which have been obtained, through the intervention of this all-powerful picture. In one of these records, testimony is borne to a miraculous cessation of a pestilence in Florence, after a three days' procession of the picture in question. Whilst an inscription, set up in the Church about a century ago, has the following words: There is no one who can be saved, O most holy Virgin, but through thee; there is no one from whom we can obtain mercy but through thee. Mary opens her bosom of mercy to all, so that the whole universe receives out of her fulness; the captive redemption; the sick health; the afflicted comfort ; the sinner pardon; the just grace; the angels joy; the whole Trinity glory."" P. 222.

This chapter closes with a brief refutation of the Romish doctrine of the Invocation of Saints.

"To worship the creature by way of access to the Creator, in spite of all the sophistry which has been, or can be employed in its defence, and in spite of all the ingenuity that may be displayed to cover its deformity, is certainly a species of idolatry, if ever that crime has been practised in the world; not, it shall be admitted, the idolatry of Heathenism, the worship of false gods, but the idolatry of Christianity, the worshipping the creature more than the Creator." P. 243.

The ensuing chapter treats of Purgatory and its attendant corruptions.

"By purgatory is understood, in the Romish Church, a state of temporary punishments after this life, from which men, after having undergone a necessary degree of purgation from their sins, are translated into Heaven, by the prayers of the living, and the sacrifice of the Mass, for which a stipulated price is paid.

"That I may not be thought to slander the Church of Rome, I place before my reader a copy of a notice, which I saw publicly affixed to a pillar, in a Church in the Campo Vaccino, at Rome, for the information of its different frequenters. Being struck with such a public notice, I took it down on the spot, and, in a free translation, it runs thus. 'An easy method of providing prayers for the Soul when alive, without waiting till after death. Whoever will be enrolled in the number of benefactors to this Church, and would receive the prayers of the masses, &c. must address himself to the Priest of the Church for the proper form; &c. Whosoever shall give the benefaction of one giulio every month, during his life, shall, after his death, receive the prayers of eighty low masses, and two cantatas. Whoever shall give un grosso a month, shall receive the prayers of forty masses, and one cantata.'

"The reader is then given to understand, that whoever shall have omitted to have done this, supposing he shall be arrived at the age of sixty, he may purchase the whole benefit of the masses in a-lump, upon the following terms: 'ten scudi, for eighty low masses, and two cantatas. Moreover, those who are enrolled, shall be partakers of the masses and cantatas which are every year celebrated in each day of the octave of the death in common, for the benefactors who shall have departed this life. Let every one, therefore, think of his soul whilst he is yet alive, without waiting, in the flames of purgatory, the discretion of another, whilst he is crying out; have mercy on me! have mercy on me! have mercy on me! at least, you my friends, since my own relations have forgotten me.'" P. 245.

The Archdeacon shews that this doctrine of the Romish Church bears a strong resemblance to that of the ancient transmigration of the heathens, and to the superstitions still prevailing in India, respecting an intermediate state. (P. 253.) He illustrates his arguments against this absurd and mischievous doctrine, by the following narrative.

"A case in point occurs, when this doctrine of purgatory lately attempted to exercise its accustomed imposition in a country, where the Romish priesthood is, at this time, in the zenith of its allpowerful influence. About a twelvemonth after the death of a most respectable and wealthy Roman Catholic gentleman, his eldest son, a Roman Catholic also, whose mind had been enlightened by reading, and constant communion with the best informed societies, both in these countries and on the continent, was much surprised one morning on coming out of his house, to observe a body of at least forty men, in black, solemnly marching up to his door. The records of his country brought to his recollection a class of people designated white boys, not many years before; but what could be the object of this party in black, he was amazingly puzzled to find out; however, terror had nearly got the better of his curiosity, for as the battalion approached the kitchen, they began to march in

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quick pace, and he was in the act of making a forced retreat, when he fortunately recognized his parish Priest, and his father's old friend. For thirty years this clerical hero had lived an idle, lazy life, pampering his corpulent and well stuffed carcase, whilst he worked upon the fanciful and superstitious mind of his patron; but at his death the scene changed; the heir was abroad, no chimney corner to receive the reverend Priest, he was obliged to attend to his parochial duties, he lost his temper, and in consequence he lost his flesh; and with the fond and delusive expectation of recovering the one, and recruiting the other, he paraded, as it has been abovementioned. Pray, reverend Father,' says the heir, may I enquire what weighty business you can have with me, and so numerously attended?' His Priest, somewhat depressed by the tone and manner he was addressed in, replied, that it was the practice of the holy Roman Church, to celebrate the anniversary of a Papist's death, and to pray him out of purgatory, after which religious ceremony, it was usual to converse on the charitable deeds and good actions of the deceased during life: and that he hoped, as was the custom, he would prepare a dinner, and some gallons of whiskey punch, for the few worthy priests that accompanied him in this pious and quite necessary duty.' Reverend sir,' replied this respectable and enlightened gentleman, I am decidedly of opinion, that my lamented father led a most pious, religious, and Christian life; and I entertain the best founded hopes, that through the mercies of his blessedRedeemer, he is now with the Almighty in Heaven: as to your purgatory, I know nothing; but if you wish to pay any religious respect to the memory of my deceased parent, I request you will pay it over the grave, where (in the neighbouring church yard) his sacred remains repose; but of this I am perfectly certain, that in my house I will sanction neither drunkenness nor carousings under any pretence whatever.' In consequence the door was closed, and the Roman legion retired." P. 261.

In the seventh chapter, Dr. Daubeny very properly defines the original meaning of the term "Catholic Church;" and shews that the Romish Church is guilty of schism in appropriating this term exclusively to herself, and in denying it to all the rest of the Christian world.

"But the fact is, that Mr. Baines continually makes use of the term Catholic, in a sense different from that in which it was used in the primitive days. And this constitutes the foundation of Roman error on this subject; an error which commenced, in the Church of Rome, at least, with the original assumption of the title of Universal Bishop, in the seventh century, a title, which it should be well remembered, was the base offspring of treason and murder :whereas the Apostles applied this title of Catholic to that general assembly' of believers, which they had collected and formed into separate Churches, in different places, under their respective governors, as circumstances permitted; which, taken collectively, formed

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what was understood in those days, by the Catholic Church of Christ. In conformity with this established idea of the general character of the Catholic Church, as made up of its several component branches, situated in different places, St. Paul does not address his Epistles to the Roman Catholic, or Corinthian Catholic, or the Ephesian Catholic Church, but simply, and properly, to the Churches at Rome, at Corinth, and at Ephesus; as several parts of what, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, he calls 'the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.'" P. 282.

Hence he concludes,

"That the Church of Rome has run away with the word Catholic, whilst she has left the true meaning of that word behind her.” P. 292.

The remainder of this chapter is occupied with an historical examination of the grounds on which the Papists are charged with what is usually termed, "the Gunpowder Plot." Mr. B. has insinuated,

That the whole service of the fifth of November is an impious and sacrilegious mockery of Religion, in making the Deity himself a party to a crime as black and deadly as the gunpowder itself." P. 298.

Against this foul and indecent slander of our Church government, Dr. D. shews, by incontestible evidence, that the Papists were the sole and undoubted authors of this horrid conspiracy, "and that no historical fact, in the annals of this country, stands on a broader and firmer foundation of notoriety and truth." The testimony of the great Thuanus, himself a Catholic, is of itself conclusive on this subject; from which History Dr. D. has made a copious extract, from which we single out the following curious and important passage.

"Therefore despairing of their design as to King Philip, the conspirators fly to their last and desperate councils; and in the first place, they made it their business to satisfy their consciences; and this being done, they confirm their resolutions to attempt some great enterprize. And thus their divines discoursed. To depose kings, to grant their kingdoms to others, is in the power of the supreme Judge of the Church. But all heretics being ipso jure separated from the communion of the faithful, are every year, on Holy Thursday, (cana domini) excommunicated by the Pope And this holdeth, not only in professed heretics, but to them that are covertly such, because being reputed, ipso jure, excommunicate, they do incur the same penalties which are ipso facto deserved by professed heretics. From thence it follows, that kings, and other Christian princes, if they fall into heresy, may be deposed, and their