SHALL PROTESTANT ENGLAND SUBMIT TO

PAPAL ROME?

A

SERMON

PREACHED AT ST. MARY'S CHURCH, SPITAL SQUARE,

ON SUNDAY, NOV. 24, 1850.

BY THE REV. H. T. REES,

INCUMBENT OF THE DISTRICT.

LONDON:

WERTHEIM AND MACINTOSH,

24, PATERNOSTER ROW,

AND BY ORDER OF ALL BOOKSELLERS

Price Fourpence.

THE

SUPREMACY OF THE POPE.

MATTHEW xxiii, 12.

"And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

How painfully does the recently imported Papal Brief of Pius IX. contrast with the Divine sentiment of our text! Hear it, my fellow Christians, and judge for yourselves. This is its inflated commencement: "THE POWER OF RULING THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH, COMMITTED BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO THE ROMAN PONTIFF, IN THE PERSON OF ST. PETER, PRINCE OF THE APOSTLES!!" A very eloquent Roman Catholic, I understand, has made the following observation upon the passage, "The words are few, but place the weight of the world upon them, and they will bear it!" The world is a dead weight, and may therefore rest quietly: we will presently endeavour to ascertain if the passage can bear a living weight — the weight of the Word of life!

I think the time has arrived when it should be considered his duty by every faithful clergyman of the Church of England, not only to resist and protest against the aggressions of a foreign and hostile Church; but likewise, as he shall have the time and the opportunity, to set clearly and impartially before his congregation, the errors and dangerous deceits of that subtle system with which we are menaced.

There are two ways of doing this. We may rip up and expose the errors, corruptions, and deformities of that Church, whose communion we have felt ourselves obliged to renounce, and suppress the truths she holds, and the