ON POPERY.

Decline of Popery.

THE rapid decline of popery since the
Reformation, requires a brief sketch.

In France, the church property, during the revolution, was taken for national use, and the clergy are now stipendiaries on contributions. The abbeys, monks, friars, and nuns, were dispersed ; and they are now intrigueing to obtain some of their property, which was irregularly sold; and they have succeeded in some instances, on paying the lay possessor the purchase money he gave for it, which, as it was sometimes not half the value, produces great discontent, making the whole party of the clergy unpopular.

given to Holland. It once belonged to Austria, and was full of monks and nuns. All the popish bishops who held tyrannical sway on the Rhine, were abolished by Bonaparte, and their territories form a few states, chiefly protestant. The majority in the diet for electing an emperor of Germany is so uncertain, that the present emperor calls himself Emperor of Austria, in the fear that his line may cease to be elected for Germany. His power alone remains to the pope, and it is more feared than loved by the priests who make use of it. His states are partly protestant, and his Roman-catholic subjects are ripe for revolution, if reformation does not take place.

of Rome.

Papal Cruelty.

In Italy the priests grasp their pro- It has been calculated by historians perty by calling in the aid of Austrian that more blood has been shed by the bayonets, filling a bitter cup for them-popes than by the heathen emperors selves in the hatred of the people. If this foreign influence were withdrawn, the revolution of all Italy would follow, and one priest out of nineteen would suffice, while the immense property of the Church would be sold to laymen for public use.

The council of Toledo decreed, that the king of Spain should not ascend the throne until he was sworn to permit no man to live in his kingdom who was not a catholic.

In Bohemia, from 1523 to 1632, hun

In Spain the same work is prevent-dreds suffered cruel deaths. ed by the coercion of France.

In Spanish America the revolution has removed nine priests out of ten, and set them to useful labours.

In Germany, the last emperor abolished the superfluous clergy, monks, and nuns; the present emperor -reinstated them. It may be in the order of Providence, that when the Austrians have fast hold of all the states of Italy, the work of purifying the Romish church in Germany and Italy may be effected at once, by a succeeding emperor.

In Ireland and Canada, under the freedom of the British constitution, the Romanists are most contented with their priests and superstitions, because they do not feel the evils of a popish government.

Protestantism rules in England, Holland, part of Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark. The Greek church occupies half Europe, under the influence of Russia. The popish elector of Saxony lost most of his territories, for which he changed his religion. The crown of Poland is gone to the protestant king of Prussia. Flanders is taken from France, and 77.-VOL. VII.

At Thorn, in Poland, the protestants were beheaded. The protestant citizens of Saltsburgh were expelled, imprisoned, or executed.

From 1646 to 1655, forty thousand Piedmont protestants were put to death, or driven out of the country.

The protestants of the Low Countries were persecuted to death, from 1521 to 1663.

The edict of Nantz, to allow protestants free exercise of their religion, 1598, was revoked, and one hundred and fifty thousand of them were expelled, some enslaved in the galleys, and others perpetually imprisoned.

In the south of France, at various times, there were numerous sufferers for the faith of the New Testament.

A similar persecution raged in Hungary in 1610.

In Paris, 1572, one hundred thousand protestants were treacherously massacred, and the pope returned thanks to God for it. Thuanus says it was only thirty thousand.

In the reign of Charles the First in England, one hundred thousand protestants were butchered in two months, in Ireland, by the Romanists there.

Pope Urban granted plenary in

2 D

dulgence to the Irish, to extirpate the | in Latin. English, 1643.

Forty thousand Americans were massacred by the Spaniards, for resisting the faith.

The burning of London, and the gunpowder plot, have been, with due evidence, brought home to the Romanists. The Monument records the one, and Jesuit Garnet, who was privy to the other, has been canonized.

Anticipations respecting Popery.

The errors of the church of Rome are kept up, as a pious fraud, to produce an artificial devotion among ignorant people. But let the people be educated and well-informed by the free influx of general literature, and the errors of the Church will lose their antichristianism. The Romanists may not adopt the church government of any other sect, by formally protesting against the errors of their Church, but if that part of them who are infidels, have sway, in Italy or Spain, the whole hierarchy will be swept off with the besom of destruction, as it was in France.

In France, the Spanish peninsula, Germany, and Italy, the majority of the people will adhere to their state churches and parochial ministers, while they will give up the superfluous priesthood in exchange for the church property, and take the benefits of a representative government, in exchange for the tyranny and ignorance of the priest-ridden rulers. The enlightened Romanist who reads the Bible, will consider the infallibility no more than that the pope has a court of final appeal in all ecclesiastical disputes, and in great emergencies his authority is to be strengthened by a council;-infallibility is another name for ultimate decision. His power may be limited to spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction, so far as it does not clash with the good government, peace, and good order of the nations of Christendom. They will still acknowledge him primate, merely as a point of union, to prevent discord between the primates of each nation, in doctrine, discipline, and forms of worship.

The whole of the lying miracles, legends, relics, and superstitions, will cease to influence the minds of a wellinformed people.

The mass will be printed in the language of each country, as well as

All the worshippers will

know the meaning of it. The scriptures being freely read, true Christianity will be understood. The pictures and statues, which served instead of scripture, will cease to be the vehicle of an artificial memory, when the people cease to be illiterate. The knowledge of God will take place of the tyranny of man; the power of the priest, derived from confession and absolution, will cease, as soon as it is clearly and generally understood that God forgives the penitent. This will restrain the little gossip of confession, which puts the priest in possession of family secrets, and enables him to intrigue in their worldly connexions and business.

The meagre supply of devotion in the mass-book, induced Chaloner, a converted protestant, providentially to edite many books which are used by Roman-catholics, containing some scriptural prayers in English, which they use both in private and in popish chapels; while the Latin mass, which they don't understand, is repeated by the priest at the altar.

The doctrine, that the Bible is so large and learned, it would confuse simple people, lays aside the word of God; but the voice of this Church is contained in three great ponderous folio volumes of the pope's bulls and decretals, the decrees of councils and canon laws, the common law, compiled in 520, and the capitularies of Charlemagne, together with various other collections and creeds. Hence, the fact is, that the priest, as a little pope in his parish, gives out what he pleases, and withholds what he dislikes from his flock.

Papal Indulgences.

Retrospective Review of the "Spiritual Treasury of the Indulgences, &c." dedicated to the sacred Spouse and Mother of God, the most sublime Queen of Heaven. Dublin, 1753.

[This work is authenticated by its approbations from five dignitaries of the Roman church, and is translated from the Italian by R. F. White, M. K. Or. Er. S. P. N, Aug. S. T. D.]

The brethren and sisters of the confraternities of the Cincture called St. Augustine, may gain, use, and enjoy all the indulgences, and shall be partakers of all the spiritual graces granted to the order of St. Augustine, and

also to all the good deeds that are per- | formed in the said order for the time; and for this they are to recite daily thirteen Paters, thirteen Ave-Marias, and one Salve Regina, for the safety of the pope of Rome.

tradictory, if confined to the temporal life. In order to evade the assumption of divine authority, it implies a confused notion of a scale of crime, as ideal as an algebraic negative quantity; and a scale of pardon, on remittance of the temporal punishment, or penance possible during

Pope Gregory XII. decreed, that these indulgences and spiritual graces must avail the said brethren and sis-mortal life, in idea also. ters, provided they say the Lord's prayer five times for the exaltation of our holy mother the Catholic Church, and the extirpation of heretics.

On the nativity of our Lord, yearly, for the above merit, to have one hundred days' penance relaxed. Whitsuntide, for visiting the church, they are relaxed one year and forty days.

At Easter, one thousand years; for giving something in aid of building the churches, one hundred years' indulgence of their sins.

For reaching their assisting hands towards repairing, restoring, and increasing the said church, a plenary remission of all and every their crimes, misdemeanors, and sins; yea, though they be not then mindful of them,

Giving any assistance for building the altars of the fraternity, one hundred years' indulgence.

The general idea of an indulgence is said to glide from those most limpid fountains of the divine scriptures, Matthew xvi. John xx. The indulgence, page 65, is "An absolution, not of the guilt of sin, but of the temporal punishments due, before the penitential tribunal. It doth not cancel the moral guilt, for the relaxation of the guilt is supposed by true repentance, confession, and absolution." Plenary indulgence remits the whole debt of the temporal punishment. Then the soul goes to heaven without delay in purgatory, (presupposing true repentance.)

A partial indulgence, such as the remission of a fourth part of the sins, granted to those who die in the habit of our holy father St. Augustine,

The order of the Cincture is founded on the girdle of the Virgin, which has performed miracles in lying-in women and healing the sick;-stopped a bullet that hit a priest ;-preserved a woman from a stab of a poniard, whose point became soft as wax on touching the leathern girdle;-(Aug. Ann. p. 691.)-helped a pirate, who wore it, to make his escape;-expelled devils from the empress, wife of Leo caused a barren lady to bring forth and a witch, in the form of a cat, attempting to kill a child in vain, as it was covered with the girdle;-and it restored a boy to life, that was drowned in a well.

The same indulgence is to be found at the altar of the confraternity, as by visiting the seven privileged churches of Rome,-St. John's, St. Peter's, St. Paul's, St. Mary's, St. Lawrence's, St. Sebastian's, and the Santa Croce.

In Jerusalem there is plenary perpetual indulgence in seven stations; also in St. Jaques's of Galicia, in Spain, whoso heareth mass of the archbishop, have a third part of their sins remitted.

The 9th of November, in St. John's at Rome, the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul are shewn, and those who see them gain three thousand years' indulgence if they live in Rome, and six thousand if they live in the neigh bourhood, and twelve thousand if they live further off. On the 6th of May, at the Latin gate, a soul is delivered from purgatory.

In St. Peter's, any day, there are six thousand and twenty-eight years' indulgence, and every day in April twelve thousand years.

The first Sunday in Advent, there are twenty-eight thousand years' indulgence granted in St. Mary Maggiore.

When a thousand years' penance is enjoined, it is argued by the compiler, to be temporal, by the calculation of a common penance; for one year, made It is evident here, that the years a thousand fold, may expend a thou-are portions of the duration of purgasand years' penance in one year. But this does not clearly appear from the bulls, and the grant is not only literal in its application to another world, but it would remain absurd and con

tory, as they exceed the duration of life; and any evasion or denial of this is contradicted by the profession of the Roman church, to bind and loose; thus they have a double view of the

absolution. One, for an enlightened person, qualifies it by presupposing true repentance; the other, for the ignorant devotee, assumes full powers, and in order to make the profitable market of purgatory extensive, there is scarcely an instance of the Romanists going to heaven, except after a period passed in purgatory. In all the epitaphs, there are few with such hope to be found as the salvation of the gospel gives, but in general, "Pray for the soul" is the gloomy inscription on the tomb.

THE

ATONEMENT CONSIDERED

AS A DOCTRINE PECULIAR TO CHRISTIANITY, AND AS A FEATURE OF THE

But with all the consideration due to these circumstances, (and probably much is due,) there is still reason to suspect, that the average degree of knowledge, which divines have been accustomed to ascribe to Jewish beFrom lievers, has been overrated. the typical institutions of piacular sacrifices, pointing to the great Propitiator, it has been confidently concluded, that in them believers distinctly recognized the mystery of atonement by the blood of Christ. But supposing such to have been the fact, how shall we account for that doctrine occupying so small a portion of the succeeding prophecies? or for its so completely vanishing from the national creed, that the crucifixion of Christ afterwards became a stumbling block to the Jews, not less than foolishness to the Gentiles? A doctrine so congenial to the feelings of penitent devotion, involving the primary basis of hope, had it once been embraced, would undoubtedly have been incul

mitted to the posterity of the faithful in uninterrupted succession, instead of being suffered to fall into such oblivion, that at the time of the Saviour's advent, every trace of it had disap

we entertain no apprehension of this great doctrine falling into neglect ; its intrinsic evidence and importance will perpetuate it, unquestionably, amidst all the fluctuations of systems and opinions; and by parity of reason, its clear annunciation to the Jewish church must have been productive of similar effects.

MORAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD. (By the Rev. Robert Hall, of Leicester.) WHAT were the precise views entertained by the true Israel, of the of fices of the Messiah, and of the work of redemption, previously to the Christian era, is one of the most curi-cated with the utmost care, and transous and intricate questions of theology. Without attempting its solution, the writer of these lines may be permitted to remark, that the Jewish belief was probably much more defective, and differed much farther from the Chris-peared. While Christianity subsists, tian, than has usually been suspected. The ignorance of the apostles till after the resurrection, is a fundamental fact, a datum which should never be lost sight of, in this inquiry. It is not necessary, however, to assume it as a | standard by which to regulate our estimate of every preceding degree of information; for when we recollect the long suspension of prophetic gifts in the Jewish church, the withdrawment of the Urim and Thummim, the extinction, in its sensible effects at least, of the theocracy, the intermixture of Jews and Gentiles, inseparable from the introduction of a pagan | government, the influence of Oriental philosophy, the division of the people into sects, and the extreme profligacy and corruption of manners prevalent at the time of our Lord's nativity, it will probably appear to have been the darkest period the Church had experienced, resembling that portion of the natural day which immediately precedes the dawn, when the nocturnal light is extinguished by the reflection of a brighter luminary not yet risen.

If we read the ancient prophecy with attention, we shall perceive, that the atonement made by the Saviour is scarcely exhibited in a single passage, except in the fifty-third of Isaiah, with respect to which, the Ethiopian eunuch was at a loss to determine whether the "prophet spoke of himself, or of some other man." We shall perceive that in the practical and devotional books, such as the Psalms, the promise of pardon to the penitent, and of favour to the righteous, are expressly and repeatedly propounded; though, with respect to the medium of acceptance, a profound silence is maintained. But how this is consistent with the supposed knowledge of that medium, it is not easy to discover. The habitual reserve, on the subject,