tinue with the companions of debauch and crime, or turn to the confessional, where if compunction could once bring him, one gentle word, one well timed admonition, one friendly turn by the hand, might save your child from ruin, and your heart from unavailing sorrow? And if the hardened sinner, the murderer, the robber, or conspirator, can once be brought to bow his stubborn spirit, and kneel before his frail fellow man, invite him to pronounce a penance suited to his crimes, and seek salvation through a full repentance, there is more gained, than by the bloodiest spectacle of terror, than though his mangled limbs were broken on the wheel, his body gibbeted or given to the fowls of the air. If these reflections have any weight at all; if this picture be but true, in any part, better forbear and leave things as they are, than too rashly sacrifice to jealous doubts, or shallow ridicule, an ordinance sanctioned by antiquity and founded on experience of man's nature. For if it were possible for even faith, that removes mountains, as they say, to alter this, and with it to abolish the whole fabric, of which it is a vital part, what next would follow? Hundreds of millions of christians would be set adrift from all religious fastening! Would it be better to have so many atheists, than so many christians? Or if not, what church is fitted to receive into its bosom, this great majority of all the christian world? Is it determined whether they shall become Jews or Philanthropists, Chinese or Mahommedans, Lutherans, or Calvinists, Baptists or Brownists, Materialists, Universalists or Destructionists, Arians, Trinitarians, Presbyterians, Baxterians, Sabbatarians, Millennarians, Moravians, Antinomians or Sandemanians, Jumpers, or Dunkers, Shakers or Quakers, Burgers, Kirkers, Independents, Covenanters, Puritans, Hutchisonians, Johnsonians, or Muggletonians. I doubt not that in every sect that I have named, there are good men, and if there be, I trust they will find mercy, but chiefly so as they are charitable, each to his neighbor. And why should they be otherwise? The gospel enjoins it; the constitution ordains it. Intolerance in this country could proceed from nothing but a diseased affection of the pia mater, or the spleen." Catholic Question in America. p. 87.

I will now dismiss the question of confession. There are many things to which I should like to give answers, in set speeches; but, whoever reads this controversy, must not suppose that because I have not time to answer every accusation at length, there is no answer to them. I catch all I can of what my friend hurriedly utters; for I cannot hear him, for his occasional hoarseness of voice.

When my worthy opponent stated, in his long-blazoned proposition, "She is the man of sin," I imagined that he meant no more than the exciting of an innocuous laugh at the expense of " MOTHER CHURCH," by making a man of her in her old age. How great, then, has been my surprise, to see him, all sail set, dash headlong upon this rock of commentators, the "infames scopulos interpretum," around which are scattered in profusion, the wrecks of so many learned lucubrations, for the last 1800 years! Catholics and Protestants, churchmen and laymen, ancients and moderns, Papias and Newton, and last, not least, Mr. Alexander Campbell, have all egregiously foundered upon this hidden shoal of controversy.

No wonder, the learned Protestant, Scaliger, observed that Calvin was wise, in not writing upon the Apocalypse. "Sapuit Calvinus, quia in Apocalypsin non scripsit!" Had we a congregation of scary old women, instead of intelligent and sensible men, around us, I should expect to be looked at by many a prying eye, confident of seeing one, at least of the ten horns, sprouting, or already strong, full-grown, and threateningly prominent from my forehead. But as I address reasoners, not visionaries, nor rhapsodists, nor fanatics, I must reason, leaving to my fanciful friend, the regions of imagination, into which he has flown, far above my reach.-I would not fetch him too hastily down, but by sending a few arguments, at respectful distances after one another to pluck a feather now, and a feather then from his wings,

we may fetch him safely, and slowly, and with dignity back again to the apprehension of logic, and common sense. These are the weapons with which I, in the first place, proceed to grapple with the gentleman.

1st. Is he an infallible? He pretends not, verily, to be such. Then what is all his fanciful theory worth? It is based on reason and history, is it? Well but Hugo Grotius, and Hammond, and Dr. Herbert Thorndike, not to mention fifty others, of different religious denominations, but all Protestants, and at least as good biblical and classical scholars, as my learned antagonist, have ridiculed the notion of calling the pope of Rome, Antichrist! If only one learned and pious Protestant were pitted against my friend, I would be even with him, or more than even.-How much superior in this argument, when I have so many wise men on my side, while all the monomaniacs are on his? "Let them not lead people by the nose," says Thorndike, "to believe they can prove their supposition that the pope is antichrist, and the Papists, Idolaters, when they cannot." Thus the most learned and orthodox Protestant divines cannot subscribe to-they are, on the contrary, ashamed of--this interpretation of my learned opponent. 2nd. Those Protestants, who agree with him in calling the pope, antichrist, disagree as to the particular pope to be so called, and still more, as to the time when the downfall of Babylon was to have taken place, or is to take place-as in the case of the Jewish testimony against Jesus Christ, there is no agreement among the witnesses. Braunbom confidently asserts that the popish antichrist was born in the year 86; that he grew to his full size in 376; that he was at his greatest strength in 636; that he began to decline in 1086; that he would die in 1640; and that the world would end in 1711. (Bayle Art. Braunbom) bishop Newton, Napper, Fleming, Beza, Melancthon, Bullinger, had all their peculiar and conflicting theories, and none of them, we may safely assert, has found the Apocalyptic key. Turien, Alix and Kett, are in nothing more wise, and equally unsuccessful.

3d. The scripture is opposed to him. For St. John says, 1st Ep. ch. 2. v. 22. "That the liar who denieth Jesus to be the Christ is antichrist." Now this, the pope has never done; but, on the contrary, he contends earnestly for the faith in the divinity of Christ, once

delivered to the saints.

4th. Church history is opposed to him. For it shews, at every page, how the pope sent missionaries into every part of the world, even the most distant, to gather barbarous nations into the fold of Christ, to preach to them salvation through his blood. Now according to the rule of the Savior, "a kingdom, divided against itself, cannot stand." And it is unheard of among all the signs of the antichrist, that he was to be the strenuous, and for many centuries, the only apostle of the true Christ, the Savior. Even the worst pope, was true to doctrine, and made the beams of the sun of righteousness, of pure, christian faith, gild the villages of Tartary and cheer the roving hordes in its deserts.

5th. My friend is opposed to himself; for he said to day, that the eyes of the little horn signified wisdom and knowledge. Now as the Catholic church is the mother of ignorance, the victim of blind and ridiculous superstitions, the cause of all the obscurity of the dark ages, she cannot be the antichrist. Again its mouth indicated elo

quence, was eloquent.-Then my opponent is, himself, the beast, for his speech was truly eloquent. Indeed the ingenuity with which he dressed up even the old story of "she is fallen, the mighty Babylon, the great harlot, which corrupted the earth-Allelujah, Allelujah!" is proof positive that he would, by his command of language, deceive, if possible, even the elect, into the belief, that he had succeeded, where so many had failed, in breaking the seal of the mysterious volume. He has clearly put the lion in a net, and not so much as a mouse durst approach, to gnaw a hole, to let him out.

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6th. He is opposed to Catholics. For they have been wont to apply the words of St. John, just before he speaks of the antichrist, to the Protestant sects, which, they conceive, are fast hastening into the arms of the Unitarians, who deny the divinity of Christ. They went out from us; but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have remained with us, but that they may be manifest that they are not all of us. I have already said something of the "monster," not merely "beast," but "monster," which my friend attempted, like Prometheus, to form and steal fire from heaven to animate, that he might call it "Apostolic Protestantism." This, in our estimation, may be found to possess, some, at least, of the characteristics of the Apocalyptic beast. But we should beg leave to baptize it "Polypos" or Legion." We could very satisfactorily shew that it has made war on the saints, and devoured them by thousands, not to say millions; that a portion of the beast so detains, even now, when light from heaven is breaking, MILLIONS of the saints, of those who for the Confession of Jesus Christ and for conscience sake are reduced to a galling servitude, a poverty, and a degradation, far worse than the lot of the negro, of the southern rice-fields.

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My friend began by observing that symbolical language gives great scope for the imagination. It sets us adrift upon a sea of speculation. Is he ready to embark upon that sea? Are his sails trimmed? Is his compass ready? If the sad experience, to which I have alluded, has not disinclined him to the voyage, I assure him that he will find it to eventuate like that of the three wise men of Gotham, whom our illustrious compatriot Washington Irving, sent to sea in a bowl. We may drift with every wind, and current, through a thousand perils, on this wide ocean of imagination. But, my friends, what has imagination to do with this question? She is a very good slave, but a very bad mistress. Give me full scope with your imagination and I can prove to you any thing and every thing, until we all are like the novel and romance writers of the present day—"in fancy ripe, in reason rotten." Novels and romances are, confessedly, works of fiction. They are not expected to contain reason, and therefore they escape censure. But when men pretend to pass off their day-dreams for the oracles of Heaven, they should remember the law of Deuteronomy, xiv. 5, "that the Prophet and forger of dreams shall be slain," and it tney fear not even the fate of the false seer, at least, they should apprehend the lash of criticism and ridicule. I know in this good city, a respectable dame, who is not a Catholic, but who has written a ream of paper on the Apocalyptic visions. I suggest to my friend that he may possibly gather additional light on the subject, by comparing notes with her. She has made it the study of years, and on one occasion, as I am credibly informed, under the influence of the text's inspiration, she came into

church, with the sun, moon, and stars pictured upon her dress, and trailing beneath her feet as she solemnly moved through the aisle. You, sir, may have surpassed this lady in eloquence, though of that I am not quite sure, but, certainly, she was a match for you, in imagination. My friend observed that the sun would go down, it would take him a whole day, to shew the audience the rationale of the conceit with which he has favored us-I could not help assenting to the gentleman's remark, and saying, in my mind, that it was even so-nay, that it would take 365 days, before he could shew that there was any thing in it that was reasonable.

Southey observes that the "ROMISH CHURCH WAS, in the worst of times, HOWEVER DEFILED, the SALT OF THE EARTH, THE SOLE CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLE, BY WHICH EUROPE WAS SAVED FROM THE LOWEST AND MOST BRUTAL BARBARISM;" and yet in the very face of this reluctant tribute, by a first-rate Protestant historian, Mr. Campbell labors to demonstrate that this very church was Anti-Christ! He places her on the Mediterranean, although it is a weary ride before you reach her splendid domes and everlasting-maugre the liquifying-hills, on which she sits, in humble, if in queenly majesty. The Tiber, like its namesake in the district, instead of being called a sea, may well be called a "Goose creek" now.

My

My friend's Lexicography, Iconisms and Synchronisms, must have all passed for argument strong as the rock of Gibraltar, in his own opinion. It is unanswered and unanswerable. He says that God always by a beast, means some monster or other. Then Jesus Christ must be 'some monster or other,' for what is the cry of Heaven's Jubilee at the end of all things?" Behold the Lion' of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed;" and again—" Worthy was the Lamb that was slain," &c. &c. My friend would make a strange havoc with the language and imagery of heaven-a curious monster of a Lamb and a Lion, than which notwithstanding all he has said, I will force him to confess that there can be nothing, as there is nothing, more beautiful than this entire passage. The Evangelists are represented in the vision of Ezekiel as Beasts and Birds of prey. Are they too Anti-Christs? England has chosen the Rampant and Roaring Lion for her emblem. friend has praised and dispraised her. What portion of Anti-Christ, of the man of sin, is she? She has persecuted-and I might with far more truth say to her, what the martyred Robert Emmett said to Lord Norbury, "If all the innocent blood your ladyship has shed could be collected into one great reservoir, your Ladyship might swim in it." My friend spoke of Elizabeth's long life. He did not say of how many years she abridged the life of the "Fair Queen of Scots." Politically, intellectually, and morally, Rome, or if you will, the papacy was the Savior of Europe, as all historians agree. How, then, could she be the 'Beast?" It is preposterous. Why all this has been prophesied and falsified, and prophesied and falsified again. Forty, or fifty years ago, as my venerable friend there (Rev. Mr. Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States) can inform you, almanacs were published in Kentucky, stating the precise day and minute, when the Hallelujah was to be intoned for the Downfall of Babylon! The day has passed, and what of it? I have got a book here, which makes Napoleon Bonaparte the man of sin. Born on an Island, in the Mediterranean, Corsica, deriving his power from the French Revolution, which affect

ed to crush Christianity, l'infame; which substituted decadi for Sabath; profaned temples: adored a vile woman in the temple of God, immolated and expatriated thousands upon thousands of priests, and hoped that the last of kings might be strangled with the viscera of the last of priests: plucked Pius VII. from the chair of St. Peter, dragged the saints, the venerable monks by their beards, from the horns of the altar, &c. &c. The Apocalypse is a sealed book, which God has not vouchsafed to unfold to man. Better practise what we do know, with certainty, of his adorable will, rather than blaspheme what we do not understand. Meanwhile, if ever there was made a plausible application of this mysterious prophecy, behold it in the rise, progress, and arrest of Mahommedanism. The sea, or lake, the year 666, the war on Christ and the saints; the sword and Koran; the watch-word BELIEVE OR DIE, the conspiracy of Christendom during the crusades to check its power, the gloriously disastrous battle of Lepanto, the present crippled, but still formidable state of Islamism, all pictured so vividly as almost to convince us that we have surely discovered the object of the prediction. Let us read from Waddington. I shall make a few brief pauses which you will fill up by appropriate reflections. How few have understood the appalling dangers that this civil and religious despotism of the IMPOSTOR OF MECCA, threatened, during so many ages, to Christianity and the world!

"The seventh century was marked by the birth of a new and resolute adversary, who began his career with the most stupendous triumphs, who has torn from us the possession of half the world, and who retains his conquests even to this moment. Mahomet was born about the year 570; we are ignorant of the precise period of the nativity of that man who wrought the most extraordinary revolution in the affairs of this globe, which the agency of any being merely human has ever yet accomplished. His pretended mission did not commence till he was about forty years old, and the date of his celebrated flight from Mecca, the Hedjirah, or era of Mahometan nations, is 622, A. D. The remainder of his life was spent in establishing his religion and his authority in his native land, Arabia; and the sword with which he finally completed that purpose, he bequeathed, for the universal propagation of both, to his followers. His commission was zealously executed; and, in less than a century after his death, his faith was uninterruptedly extended by a chain of nations from India to the Atlantic.

the

The fate of Persia was decided by the battle of Cadesia, in 636. In Syria, Damascus had already fallen, and after the sanguinary conflict of Yermuk, where the Saracens for the first time encountered and overthrew a christian enemy, conquerors instantly proceeded to the reduction of Jerusalem; that grand religious triumph they obtained in 637. In the year following Aleppo and Antioch fell into their hands, which completed the conquest of Syria. Thence they proceeded northward as far as the shores of the Euxine and the neighborhood of Constantinople.

The invasion of Egypt took place in 638, and within the space of three years, the whole of that populous province was in possession of the infidels. Alexandria was the last city which fell; and in somewhat more than a century after the expulsion of philosophy from Europe by a christian legislator, the schools of Africa were closed in their turn by the arms of an unlettered Mahometan.

The success of the Saracens was not inconsiderably promoted by the religious dissentions of their christian adversaries. A vast number of heretics who had been oppressed and stigmatized by edicts and councils were scattered over the surface of Asia; and these were contented to receive a foreign master, of whose principles they were still ignorant, in the place of a tyrant whose injustice they had experienced. But in Egypt, especially, the whole mass of the native population was unfortunately involved in the jacobite heresy; and few at that time were found, except the resident Greeks, who adhered to the doctrines of the church. The followers of Eutyches formed an immediate alliance with the soldiers of Mahomet against a Catholic prince; and they considered that there was nothing unnatural in that act, since they hoped to secure for themselves, under a