plundered, and their revenues confiscated, they were reduced to the lowest ebb of distress. In this country, however, some of them have found a safe asylum. But the kingdom of Antichrist still exists, as it has long existed. In the Roman hierarchy we observe all the marks of the Man of Sin,' which are so particularly specified in the volumes of prophecy. The idols, and pictures, and crosses, and relics of Popery, are still objects of religious adoration. She retains the samè corrupt doctrines, and observes the same distinction of meats, and the same abstinence from marriage. She maintains the same claim to miracles*, and professes the same intolerance of heretics. The conduct of the Romanists in Ireland, at the conclusion of the last century, discovered the same bigotry, exciting men as of old to perfidy, massacre, and treason. In short, the present appearance of things tends to confirm in every respect the truth of those prophecies, which regard the latter times. The open avowal of atheism and idolatry, which has disgraced the history of our age, is a melancholy consequence of the corruptions of that superstitious church. "Atheism hath been more prevalent in popish, than in protestant nations. The reason is plain.

* In a church at Paris a box was placed, in 1802, opposite to a cross (for the purpose of receiving charitable contributions) with this inscription: "For the miraculous Cross."

It is the annual spawn, and the natural effect, of the gross superstitions and corrupt manners of the Romish church and court*."

The apocryphal moralist, no negligent observer of human nature, has remarked that the worshipping of Idols not to be named is the beginning, the cause, and the end of all evilt. Hence he derives the black catalogue of crimes, which he enumerates in the preceding verses. And St. Paul, in his description of men given over to a reprobate mind, attributes their depravity to the same cause. How, indeed, can it be otherwise? A rejection of the worship of the true God must estrange the heart of man from every thing noble and virtuous, and involve the forfeiture of all pretensions to divine grace.

As to the state of Popery in this United Kingdom, it is by no means under depression. It does not flourish, it is true, in it's pristine vigour, or display itself in costly processions. But surely it may be asked without impropriety, Whether the Church of Rome has not enlarged the number of her votaries among us, and with her usual

* Jortin's Sermons, III. 254.- "For some ages before the Reformation, atheism was confined to Italy, and had it's chief residence at Rome. This atheistical humour among Christians was the spawn of the gross superstitions, and corrupt manners, of the Romish church and court." (Tillotson's Works, I. 30.)

+ Wisdom, xiv. 27.

exuberance of zeal exerted every art to extend her influence?' When the establishment of that Church is pronounced to be venerable;' when it is declared that Protestants and Catholics are divided by thin partitions;' when the fabric of her idolatry is dignified with the appellation of 'the majesty of religion;' when it is asserted that the Son of Perdition is yet future, and that he shall be neither a Protestant, nor a Papist, Jew, nor Heathen;' when in the sister-island a college has been founded at the national expense for the exclusive education of popish priests, and that with such munificence, that no college in Oxford or Cambridge can boast of a more liberal endowment*-do not all these things argue a diminution of attachment to the real interests of the Church of England? Do they not imply sentiments not very unfavourable to a system of religion, which every genuine Protestant must acknowledge to be truly ANTICHRISTIAN?

* Out of sixty-nine students in this college, thirty-six are said to have been personally engaged in the late Irish rebellion. A memorable instance of gratitude and loyalty!

A LETTER

TO THE

LORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER

(Dr. HORSLEY)

ON HIS OPINION CONCERNING

ANTICHRIST.

QUID, MI FILI? NEGAS PAPAM ESSE ANTICHRISTUM?

(York, 1801.)