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' • t < 1 S .■uuttiis i.: ais :i'.'l OME time ago several Roman Catholics undertook to ton- vert me to their failh. We argued orally; we argued by manuscript ; vre made arguments fly thick as hail : yet no conversions took place on either side. We might have known it. Yet all was done in good nature. Never was contest maintained under better feeling. Il is true that some of the books that were put into my hand pronounced me impious and blasphemous. Well, 1 knew myself to be no better than I should be, but I did not consider these hard names belonged to me after all. One of the books contained fifly reasons why I should become a Roman Catholic. At last, being somewhat wearied with importunity, I set about writing an answert«the fifty reasons, giviny my reasons why I should not become a Roman Catholic. I have heard of a man who never paid his shoe-maker's bills. At length the shoe- maker took a rather strange method to punish him for the default,— he introduced a spring into the heel of the gentleman's b»ot, which recoiled every time it was pressed, with more than the original force. By means of this, the walking motion being once set a-going, could not be stop- ped, so that it is said the gentleman continues walking, without intermissioB, and will never be able to resiat the impetus. — m h a ■^' i APOLOGIA. This 18 something like the story of the wandering iew. It is certain, howover, that some such like charoi has been played upon me by my Roman Catholic friends, for after my contest with them I cannot stop my—I was going to say goose quill — but least any advantage should be taken of that expression I will call it an Iron pen. And on second thoughts I believe it truly is ; for as springs are made of iron, it seems to me very likely that these ultramontanes with whom I have beon en- gaged (and it seems to me they aie very dextrous at such things) have contrived to get this iron pen into my hand, which has been tempered just like a spring, so that I am condemned to be perpetually writing, as the gentleman was condemned to perpetual walking with his spring boots ! NOW FOR PUSEYISM. .: y-^u :!ii1 i '• ^ilx- t ^.n oi/'n'^'imo t us,... 'j; ^nl cuf ;>.!. f/ilt^-vrr ■^■\i^'i,lUy/J : . :' ■■■■ ^J 4--sy ? ■ '"■ - ' '^ '-::U-^^ 1 «■' _ a' I ■ 11 DEDICATION. 'iijif As writer of the folUowing trifle, I respectfully dedicate it to all tbe Evangelical Clergymen of the Church of England ; and if I might wish to select one as lepreseniative of the whole, a thousand whispers would echo around me, u OUR BELOVED PASTon, . tiu' sr ■ ;.,»■.. hi' nv'c tu 1 Till!: . «REV. MR ^* * ^ ^ * ^." A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH Halifax, September, 1846. i .hji m ., ,j..- , ftff*. r»\ PREFACE. . M^ V!^h , >•*■! i-'I/j w iffi M IT is recorded that a wolfe and a lamb went down to the streamlet to drink. They had not half satisfied their thirsty when the wolfo accused the lamb of stirring up the mud and making the drink unpalatable. That is impossible, replied the lamb, for you stand above ne in the stream, and there- fore, if there be any stir, it must be ©f your own making, and not mine. The Puseyites are very anxious that there should be no stir in the chujrch, and accuse us, members, of making dissensions in it. But if Pusey had not broached his Popish doctrine, there would have been no stir in the church at all. And if Pusey ism had not been '^furthered by the blessing^ of the dignitaries of the church, it would have di«d of its own infirmities, and then all would have been peace. What is this Pusey ism ? It is Popery in disguise, — and Je- suitism is the sworn support of Popery. The three are one ; one creature with thsee faces — three faces and a thousand arms ; and to submit to the embrace of one, is to be encircled by the thousand. The Puseyites are very anxious there should he no stir in the church. AJtl they noiw want; is pei^ce^rr^l^ut while they cry peace to us, they are silently insinuating their ! pernicious doctrines within the pale of our once true Protester,* '^Church. If the dignitaries of '.he church will pfttronizo these corruptions^ we must oppose them. Wo must oppose them with our strength ; with eur intelligence ; with the firmness of our religious principles ; with our devotedness to the caase cftruth— to the cause of Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life ;— ia oppotrition'^ to the moke-believe atone- ment of offerings made by men !— which have no foundation in the bible, but are founded on the inrentions of men -, and ire not the way to truth and life, but art tne way to DARKWFsa AlfD TO DEATH. MEMBERS OF THE TRUE PHOTESTANT ChURCH, that is, of the church which protests against these corruptions, we are called upon to " walk in the light." Let us prize the light of intelligence that ;b abroad in the world; and if we lack divine light, let us " ask of God who givetb to all men liberally ">-of him who alone is able to mnko us wise unto sal- vation. And let us Mspeakof tnese (hii>gs often one to another," and let ns teach oar children these things, in order that the Coming generation may -net be worse than natural fools. It is said that '^ the main body of the members of the church of England were never, in regard to their minds and morals, in a more healthy state. Let us try to keep oarselves like them. It is said that. the working classes of < England were never more resolutely opposed to -Romanism— it is said that many Romanising steps have been taken, but they have not reached the point of imposing Romanism upon as. And it is said that when the apring is squeezed tight enough for that, the recoil will astonish him that is at the top ! It is said that our beloved church has not her equal on earth for coraprehensioii, for com- bination, for orier, activity, dignity and zeal, for anifh i!< .H-^irJtf.D T-.-/T?tT- P IT C P Y f T "P ■^''•" '*•'''' '-'"^ '^'** «,Ki as' *t^ I ^ eti ii.:'',S>il!|^lim^'fih'ii')f,- .-<^>t-,-^ .*-k.^ •■ *-.-' t '»!■ & • -ii^yl , I 130 THEN I am ih<8 day to be invested with the high office of Clergyman of the Established Church of the Silvery Moon ! — In the saying of 4he Apostle Paul I am to be an amliassador in Christ's stead to beseech men to be reconoiled to God ;-— and being duly qualified by the rules and authority of the church, 1 shall be inserted as a link in the chain of apostolic and unin- terrupted succpssion. I shall swear solemnly, as in the presence of Him that created me, that 1 am moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon me this holy ofiiee ; and in accordnnce with this solemn oath I shall subscribe to thirty>nine articles of Fatthi which are intended as a guard against laying of hends upon profane persons or believers in heritical doctrines, to the detri- ment of the hely churchy which is to be kept pure and free from ^1 false doctrine^ heresies and seisms to the end of time. Well this is all very imposing. Yes, and by good manage^ ment we thall make it more imposing stUl, for by the authority given 10 us at oar ordination we have jpower to remit sins or to retain them; ihatis, we have the power to preserve the souls of men to everlasUng life if we choose, ar>- what scenes wilt thou present to our enraptured eyes ? Yes, I must follow thee. Hebe then for Pvseyism FOR Popery; and for a Popedom ! Heavenly shadow, let me but clasp thee, though it were but as a brilliakt spark that mocks the sight I 1 1 * • • % ftev. John Newton. i'''>-5ti«i-J'W. '. *ii NOTES. '■\ ,v, j,:-'-i)f. ti}5 I J.T is presumed there is no person so hardy as to question the power and wisdom of the great Creator as it regards his dealings with his creature man. On the other hand, all will acknow- ledge that we may be mistaken in some things both as to our belief and our duty. Thus some of the primative Christians were in doubt whether they might eat things strangled, and whether they ought to continue the Jewish ordinance of cir- cumcision, etc. So in our days, Christians of equal purity of motives differ respecting the mode of Baptism. There certainly is a possibility of mistaking the sense of some passages in scrip. ture , and perhaps it may be providentially intended to excite our interest in them, and our assiduity in searching for the truth. If we approach them with a candid spirit anjl pure intention, — that is the glory of God and our own salvation, — surely we must be safe. The passage in Saint John's Gospel, (xx.23) " Whosoever sins ye remit ihey are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained,'' appears to be unconnected with anytlnng else. But we may be sure this was not the case. At verse 30, in the same cliapter, it is said, "And many other things truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these were written that ye may believe that Jpsus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life thrungh his name. This is what Saint John was intent upon proving, that Jesus is the Christ; and as he was obliged to omit ♦' many signs," or mira- cles, that our Saviour performed, much more would he have to omit much conversation on church discipline, which was not of that extreme importance as proving that "Jesus is the Christ." In the next chapter the apostle says, " there are many other things wkich Jesus did, the which if they should be written, eTery one, I suppose that even the whole world itself could not contain the books that should be written." Here the apostle NOTES. certainly knew himself what idea he meant to convey by the whole V. orld not being able to contain the books. But he also tneant us to make use of our oomnaon sense, and not take the extreme meaning: which might be put upon the words,aad upon them to build a theory of extreme absurdity, when none was intended. He, however, gives us full liberty to believe that the Saviour had performed many more things and said many more things than he could possibly record. We are therefore led to conclude that the words " Whose sins soever ye remit, they are remitted," etc., wers but a small part of a conversation which the Saviour vouchsafed to his disciples previous to his ascen: sion, but Saint John left this passage nearly isolated in his haste, as it appears, to bring forward whatsoever he could to prove that " Jesus is the Christ.'' Indeed, if these words re- ferred, as we shall find they did, merely to church discipline, he would not ^ink it any matter of importance to corameiit upon and explain them, knowing that all who heard them were aware of that being their only import. Our blessed Saviour generally repeated hia Bayings, and explained them, so that we wonder the people were so blind as not to understand them, and that respecting things which we should be almost inclined to call trivial. We cannot then doubt that if the Saviour meant to give power to men to for- give sins committed against God, aad which none but God could search into, he would have given ample explanations and instructions, and promised them powers of discernment to search the heart, if such powers could be possessed by man, but without which his power of forgiving sins would be likely to create great confusion. We find in Saint MattLew (xviii. 18) what the Saviour said *t Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven/' — which is said at this day to mean binding men's sins which they have committed against God, and subjecting them to everlast- ing damnation,*— was but a small part of a conversation in which many things were taught and explained, and in reading which no candid person will apply the words binding and loosing to anything but church piscipline. Feter understood it very well. He said, '^Lord how many times shall my brother offend me, find I forgive him." He did not say, how many times shall he sin against God, and I forgive him ! Feter knew very well that was none of his business. Chri wiTfri MONEY (what a lesson for those who give money to have •heir sins forgiven them, and to have their friends taken out •( that frightful place, Purgatory). Peter proceeds, ** Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God, Repent, therefore, of this thy wickbdnks, « ,■■1 '■?^- i . ?^ -j '"* 14 NOTES. and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiTen thee, for 1 perceive thou ari yet in the gall of bitter- nesB and in the bond of iaiquity." Ah, tlien^ he was not loosed from his bokd, though he believed and waa baptized. — (Query, regenerated ?) Then answered Simon and eaid, *^ pray ye the Lord that none of these things which ye have spoken may come upon ma."— Peter now perceived by Simon's actions that he had been imposing upon them— that his repentance and belief were but affectation. How comes it that the disciples could not search Simon's heart at the iirst, and perceive at the be- ginning that he was deceiving them. If God had given them the power to remit his sins, would he not likewise have given them knowledge how to esert that power with him. Simon might have died after he believed and was baptized, and before he was perceived to be a hypocrite : but because he was admit- ted into the church, and might fancy that he had had his sins remitted even by a real apostle, was he to be saved though Ite was still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity P Monstrous ! Simon, however, himself, took a different view of it, and said, "■ Pray ye the Lord that none of these things may come upon me. He did not say, Peter forgive rae accor- ding to the power committed to thee : nl^ther did Peter offer such a thing, but said, ^* Pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee." Th«re are plenty of Peter's successors (so called) now a days, who would be glad to take Simon's money, and not only forgive him his sins, but all the sins he might wish to commit the remainder of his life. This is no doubt some ef the <* Essence of Christianity,'' of which we are deficient. Matthew zviii. 16, what the Saviour said to Peter — " Thou art Peter, and on this Rock I will build my church," is a figu- rative expression. It would appear that the Church could not be built upon Peter, even figuratively ; for the Church must be built upon Christ, as Peter also himself declares, (Aets iv. 11)) " This is the stone which was set at nought by -'ou build- ers, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other : for there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved.'' And therefore it would appear that the Saviour referred to himself as the Rock, in the same manner as he referred to himself in saying, '< De^- stroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up. " But the bystanders thought he referred to the temple of which they wiare speaking. It is very true that Christ is the Foundation of the Church in every sense of the word. He bought it with his own most precious bleod, without which the^e would have been no church. He called and appointed its first members, the apos ties and disoiples, and he ordained its first institutions. Who will not candidly say that he might refer to himself as the Rock, nOTKS. in the same rn&hner as he referred to himself as the temple. — Whatever was meant by the passage, it never was meant td create Peter Christ's Vicegerent on earth. It such a thin^ as this had been intended, reter must have known something about it, and his friends must have congratulated him upon his accession to the highest office that ever was conferred upon man. They would havt bowed implicitly to his dscisioii, in- stead of which they withstood him to the face when tSiey knew that he was wrong — he would have exercised hitj authority, and it would have been obeyed. The history of the Acts of the Apostles would surely have recorded oni: word about a thing that would appear, in a manner, like the second appearance of Christ upon ecrth. if the Pope were to die, and one of us siiould be made his BQccessor, we weuld hear of it — our friends would congratulate ns — we should go and take possession of our new dignity — Christendom would ring with the news, and history record the fact as long as history shall be read. But alas for Peter, not a word of his vicegeranship in any history at all. We may there- fore fairly conclude that he had no more a commission to be Christ's vicegerent than he had a commission to put the moon into an egg shell. As to the keys of the kingdom which were promised to Peter, it is plain they were the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven ; and the Pharisees, and Lawyers, and hypo objection to what learning be may have acquired, nor will we care whe ther he is a Methodist, a Baptist, or an Episcopalian, provided he cares for the souls of men, and keeps himself unspotted from the world. The character which we must now introduce to the reader must be of a difi'erent cast. Saint Paul, speaking to the Elders of the Church at £phesus, says to them, (Acts xx. 29^ " For [ know this that after my departitig shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not spar- ing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speak- ing jierverise things, to draw away disciples after them." We have it, therefore, from undoubted authority, that about 750 years after the death of Chrsit, wolves did enter into th« church, and among themselves men did arise " speaking per- verse things." We copy from a Roman Catholic writer ot great talent and of unscathed spirit. He says, ** the seven earliest ages of Christianity farni"h us with no authentic docu- ment in favour of the Pontifical power. For seven hundred years the Bishop of Rome was but the first Bishop in Christen- dom — he was not induced to consider himself as the absolute sovereign of the church, nor as the superior and judge of the kings of the earth. '< The Ecclesiastical decrees emanated from councils, espe- cially from General Councils, and the civil authority, altogre- ther free and independent, obtained from the Clergy, the Sy nods, and the Popes, the homage and obedience which were due to it. Such was in those early times the spirit of the church : It was the result of the maxims laid down in the gospel and the writings of the apostles. *' There was made in the eighth century no new revelation. Jesus Christ has not come eo say to the Pontiffs — be you the rivals of emperors, and oblige to be rendered uuto you that which is due to Cesar. Exercise over the Clergy a despotic rule. Amass treasures, let people and their kings become y.onr tributaries. Without doubt, that which was practised during these seven centuries, in which the church more brightly shone, "W«^ e liim- lome a Ghost chased IS been ilt, the in the n, then I expe- and he hat the tjection re whe rovided ed from phesas, fter my Bi spar- , speak- &t about nto th« ng per- riter ot seren c docu- lundred iristen- Lbsolute of the I, espe- alloge- Lhe Sy fere due shurch : land the NOT£S. .17 '■M is preferable to (he abuses, which, at a later period, have alter- ed its primitive institutions, tarnished its lustre, and depraved its Pontiffs." This is the opinion of a Roman Catholic writer in the nine- teenth century. And if he had added that the present Romish Church commenced only at that lime, upon the almost ruin ot the primative church, he would have done justice to the subject. At that time commenced the reign of lust for power, lust for gold, hypocricy, cruelly, ignorance, superstition, worshiping ot angels, worshipping of relics, worshipping of men, ignorance of God and everythirg that was good, and an universal preva- lence of evil. "'The ultramontaen theologians have distinguished two ages of the chnrch, us they call it, the age ofchildht)od and of weak ness, when either persecuted or protected by princes, it was necessary that it should tolerate their rule, and that it should persue those evangelical principles established to provide for the necessities of such a period. Secondly, the age of vigour and power, since which the church has subdued nations, covered their people with its shadow, and reigning over iminense regions, has crowned and governed kings. Bossuet appears to be ashamed of this doctrine. ' What,' he says, ' when Jesus sends you forth a sheep, he charges you to be lambs only till such time as you may be sufficiently strong to become wolves ! — What, Jesus confines himself to giving you the council to dis- guise yourselves in sheepskins, in order to deceive and to sub- due the princes when you shall approach under such a mask ! " What you wish the gospel to become but a manuel of hy- pocricy and imposture ! and you measure the prosperity of the church BUT by the opulence of its ministers — but by the pomp of its chief potentate, and the terror of which the paraphernalia of the Pontifical Sovereignty inspires the nations and their ru- lers with— when the glory of Christianity is confined to render- ing men holy, to rectifying iheir religious ideas, and to regene- rating their moral habits, — when its influence but consists iu civilizing the people, enlightening their chiefs, and in establish- ing concord in the Dosom of families or of provinces, — when the priests cause themselves to be reverenced only by their supe- rior knowledge, their talents, and their virtues, it is then His church appears to you childish and imperfect, and you bitterly lament its weakness. But when, after the seventh century, you at lenc:th behold the chief pastor of the flock of Jesus Christ, threaten Emperors — excommunice them, cuusi: them, lead THEIR SUBJECTS TO REVOLT, AUTHORIZE OR COMMAND DISOBEDI- ENCE, INDUCE ANARCHY, AND KINDLE AND PERPETUATE CIVIL WAR*, then yov recognize the church, then behold it according to your doctrine in all its lustre, in all its power,— and such is the high destiny to which you wish it may have been appointed by its founder. i f 18 NOTES. • r I%o sacred text, however, no trait of the eilifying annals of the church of the first age, can servo as an anthority or pretext for the establishment of the papal power—it beoamo necessary to forgo documents which might appear to institute or to recog- nise it. Accordingly in the eighth century the * Donation of ' Constantino' was forged, nea^ 400 years aftfr his vkath ! ! What, you now acknowledge the Donation of Constantine to have been forged —you require now that it be no further men- 1»oned. But m the eighth century you fabricate it, but you have produced it as the most decisive of its titles — but during more than 600 years you have impressively cited it—you insert* ed it in your cades — you permitted not its truth to be questioned; BUT in 1478 you burned those who refused to believe it — but in 1712 you had not ceased to require that the grant of Louis- le-Debonaire should be recognized as authentic. You deplored the blindness of the times in which it was dared, as you said, to treat as Apocryphal, a deed consecrated by antiquity. Hut finally, all these acts disavowed in time of need by the parti- sans of the Church of Rome — this court is at all times cautioHall the HOTEP. 1U' tnonhsi, as well as (o the dukes, counts, nrmies, and inhabitants of France. t« I Peter, the apostle, called by Christ (he Son of the living God, in virtue of a decree of the sovereign clemency, to en- lighten, by means of his power, all the universe, even as the Lord our God has confirmed, in sayiag: Go! teach all the nations, baptizing them in the nanne of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and again; Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; the sins shall be remitted to those to whom ye shall have remitted them ; and addressing me, his poor servant, call* r^d an apostle, and reoommending to me in particular his sheep, he said to me : Feed my sheep, feed my lambs; and again Thoa art Peter, and on this rock (petram) I will build my church, and the gates ot Hell shall not prevail against it ; and 1 will give thee the keys ot the kingdom of Heaven, and whatsoever thoa shalt bind on earth shall be bound a so in Heaven, and what- soever thou shall loose on earth it shall so be dune in Hea- ven likewise. '* Let all those, therefore, who have heard and fulfilled what I have preached to them, rest assured, that their sins are, by the order of God, forgiven them in this world ; and hence- forward, let them preserve themselves pure and unspotted. Tou, whose hearls the Holy Spirit has enlightened, you, whom the preaching of the evangelic word has made lovers of the holy and undivided Trinity, the hope of your future reward is, without doubt, attached to thisehurch of God, the Apostolic and Roman Church. ' *^ It is for this cause, I Peter, apostle of God, who have adopted you as my children, stimulate and exhort your charity to defend this city of Rome and the people which is confided to me, to protect them against their enemies ; to preserve the House where I dwell, according to the flesh, from the poUu- tione of the nations : and to deliver the Church of God, which the Divine Power has enlmsted us with ; which things I solicit aj\d adjure of you, because of the afHictions and oppressions which they have endured from the very wicked nation of the Lombards. Do not deceive yourselves my beloved friends ; but be certified that it is I myself that, living, you behold before you : that it is I myself, in person, who conjures you, and addresses to you these exhortations. Beeause that, ac- cording to the promise which we have received from our Lord God and Redeemer, we cherish you, ye people of France^ above every nation ; therefore we convey te you as in an enig- ma and conjure you earnestly, you three very christian kings, Pepin," Charles, and Carloraan, and all the priests, bishops, abbots, and monks, and all judges, also the dukes, counts, and people of France ; therefore it is, I say, Dehold me as present in the flesh and living before jou, myself, Peter, the Apostle of God. Believe indeed, that I speak to you, that! exhort uu NOTEB. 'H! you ) though absent carnally, Hpiritualiy I am in jour presence : for it is written, he vrho receives a prophet in the name of a firophet, shall receive the recompence of a prophet. But our jady, the mother of God, ever virgin, adjures you with us this day.'' — Enough of Peter's letter. Such were the gross artifices, which, in the eighth century, ■educed the people and their rulers ; and such are the artifices that are practised down to the present time, where they are likely to take effect ; and such is the willingness of mankind to be duped, that, if an old coat were exhibited as an object of veneration, thousands would flock to pay their homage to the bleased coat, and peradventure be found on their knees exclaim- ing, " O, blessed coat, pray for us !*' To this degraded state uf mind PusuTiBM is trying to allure bs by little and little, and if our children are not guarded from its insidious arts they wtli be transformed to semi-pagans. It is true there may be goud men who believe in great errors, and there are bad men who profess a good creed — for a creed is not salvation. The devils have faith, for they believe and tremble>— but the man who repents of his sins and receives forgiveness (not of men, but of God), this man will have the faith which devils cannot have, nor wicked men either, — for as this faith is the gift of God, we may be sure that God, who can search the heart, will not give it to any but to those who seek it in the right way. What « momentous question then is, 'What is the right way ? Oh, hear the blessed Saviour say, " 1 am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me " How necessary then to divest ourselves of every false pretence, and come simply to the feet of Him who has said, ** ask and ye shall receive — for every one that askelh receiveth." lleceiveth what? Receiveth the pardon of his sins from that Almighty being whom he has offended— and ** he that seeketh findeth*'— findeth what? " the pearl of great price" — the peace and love of God in his soul — yea even the Spirit of God bearing witness with his spirit that he is born of God — the fear of death is taken away, and the hope of everlasting life springs up in his soul. It is true he hrs still to fight with his imperfeclious, but he fights in faith, praying his Saviour to sustain him in temptation by his grace, and to deliver hiiii from fearful enemies to which he is continually exposed. But, hark ! " It was the preparation for the Sabbath,— ANU THX Sabbath brsw on ! And soon it will be said of the Christian's warfare, " it was the preparation; and his Sab- bath DREW on !" Nay, even now the morning is dawning upon him that will shine through an Eternal Sabbavh ! THE ROMAN CJlTflOLIC AND PROTESTANT. Kidman Catholic. — Where was your church before Luther Protestant. — What do you mean by our church ? R. C. — I mean the people that htd the same creed ns youm —that did not believe in the Tveal Presence, nor the otr**ringo[ the Mass, nor in the worship of the Virgin Mary. Pro.— Ah, you wi^h to know where the people lived befora the time of Luther who believed only what we do at preseai R. C — That is just what I want to know. Pro.— Give me your hand then, and we will take our flight back over the march of time for eighteen hundred years, arid set ourselves with the woman of Samaria at ihe feet uf the S»- viour and hear him say, ** Woman believe me, the hour cometU when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. The hour cometh and now is, wheo tha true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit utid in truth for such the Father seeketh to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and iit truth." This is the fundamental doctrine of our church; that religion does'not consist in forms and ee«-emonies ot any kind, but in the intercourse between the soul and its creator. And to thiM sentiment St. Paul bears testimony. He says, ** Neither cir- cumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision : but a new creature." As to our creed, we believe that '* God so loved the world ns to give his only begotten son, that whosbever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And on this creed is built the personal faith through which we shall be saved, which itself is the gift of 6od, and by which the Holy Spirit bears witness, with our spirit that we are born of God. This is S2 TH£ ROMAN CATHOLIC AN0 PROTESTANT. the faith that works by love,and purifies the heart. This is the character of a true believer ; and wherever two or three of these belierers assemble together for the purpose of worship, there is & ehurch, for it is said. *' Wher wo or three tre met together ia my name, there am J in the midot.'* 1 have given you the sentiment on which our Church is founded— " God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.'^ The Creed-^that ** God g^re his only Son to save the world.'' The Faith built upo» this Creed— thy " eins arc forgiven thee.'* The effect of that faith— Purity of heart and life. Ae to the question, where was our Church before Luther ; I have shewn that it was .ommenced by the blessed Saviour and continued by his disciples, and if there has always been in existence but two or three in the world such characters as I have described that was our Church ! R. C— O, that is no Church at all. A Church is a stately building filled with the faithful, at the he^d of which is the Pope and Cardinals and a million of Bishops.^ Pro.— Oh, that is your Church. But if you read the epistle of Paul to Philemon ye»ui will find that a Church may be kept in a house, and very likely a small house, for the disciples were mostly poor. And if you read the Acts of the Apostles ynu wiil meet with so many Churches that you will concltxde they must be all house Churches, and the aggregate of them was called The Church, and had its sfHeers of just as poor people as ti:e congregation. U. C. — I am ready te admit that our Church had not so many grand cathedrals then ; because beinf( buiU upon St. Peter, he being the Rock or Fouadalion, it is the oldest Church aqd there can be no other. Pro. — We will agree as well as we can about the size of the Churches, and and aiyou h've now told me when took Church commenced, we will, if you please, examine its marks of antiquity Every Church has its Creed, and without that creed it is not that Church. The Council of Trent and Pope Gregory the 7th, and yourself too, are &U agreed to this. R. C. —Agreed. Pro.— Well, the Council of Trent goes on to say that every man who does not believe or who denies that every particle of bread is removed at the eonsecralion of the Wafer, or changed into the Body of Christ (for they don't appear te know which to say) is anathemized, that is cursed ; that is to eay that he Actual conversation. THE ROMAK CATHOLIC h%D PROTKSTANT. 38 is a heretic, for be cannot be a laember of the Church after he is eorsed out of it. ftut if you did not believe in the Real Presence, ..or in the olfering of the Mass, and in the worship of the Virgin Mary and 9ther things that we protest against, you could not be called a member of the Catholic Church, R. C— No, certainly I could not. pfo. — Well, then, if there were no persons in'the world who believed such things there would be no Catholic Church at all. R. C.— But there has always been Hie congregation of the faithful who have believed those things fron. the time the Church was founded on ^t. Peter to this time and it will always be the same. '^ro. — Now 1 must remind you that ihe primitive Christians diJ not believe in the Real Presence but that it was an opinion invented by Paschase Radbert between seven and eight hun . dred years after St. Peter's time, and this we can prove as suifieiently as we can prove that Luther was the means under God of causing the R9tbrmation. The Roman Catholic Church then was not built upon Peter, but upon Paschaise Radbert, he being the inventor of its chief and distinguishing doctrine, without believing which no mau can be a Catholic. R. C. — 1 do not believe a word of all that. Pro. — Very true — but if you had read as many capital histo- ries as I have, and studied th«m candidly, parhaps you might think difi'erently. v - \ R. C.-^Q, I do not protend to think about it, the moment I doubt I commit a mortal sin. Pro.— Very true again, it»d therefore you dare not search for truth, nor pray to God to shew you which is truth. The Scrip- ture says, '' if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God :'' but you fny no, I will ask of men. Jesus Christ says, fear not man, but fear God> You say I will fear man, and for fear of him I will not ask wiodom of God. Can you then find fault if God withdrav;8 the light of his spirit and leaves you to be lost in delusion. R. C.— 1 ask wisdom of the Church. Pro. — You are commanded to search the scriptures, and to ask wisdom of God : if you disobey these commands you resist the light— you cannot complain then if you are left in darkness. — Ji4 TUB ROMAR CATHOLIC AMD PBOTXBTART. '*We, however, are not in the dark. We pray for lieht— we Mearch the scriptures-'-we read histories of all kinds, till we can judgd for ourselves whether those histories may be depended upon ; and then we believe them. We believe there was a Council of Trent -we believe from as good authority there were cunspicuouB characters who lived before them — we have their writings and their histories. Paschase Radbert is one of these conspicuous characters. We can bring undoubted proof that he was the author of the Real Presence Doctrine, and we defy the whole Church of Rome to prove that it was invented and believed before him. The Romish Church therefore was buill upon Faschase Radbert about eigiit hundred years after the days of St. Peter, (if'!' UMt THE WRITER'S CONCLUSION* 1 must lay down my iron pen— it is growing rusty. In retir* ng from the presence of the public 1 may be permitted to return ihauks to my subscribers for encouraging me to bring out this little work.— If I have only lighted a match at the lamp of truth, they have assisted me to hold it out in the gloom. And the time may come when thousands may say We wish that we had done as much towards keeping alive the blessed light and truth in our own hoppy Nova Scotia. ■PP jht — we Iwe can spended e wtB a ere were ve their of these Dof thftt we defy lied and pas built Lfter the ■v f r In retir* ;o return out this of truth, And the ; we had nd truth