tion is to extend and facilitate the work of making proselytes to the Papacy;-when we see adults, as well as children, in considerable numbers, actually made the dupes and the victims of these accepted offers;-and when those high in ecclesiastical authority among them, are continually boasting of the number and importance of their converts ;-when facts of this kind are daily presented to public view-I must say, if they are not serious and awakening in their aspect, I scarcely know what ought to be so deemed. If those who are "set for the defence of the Gospel," cannot see, and will not give warning of such facts, it is difficult to imagine what would be sufficient to rouse them to a faithful discharge of their duty. The Papists themselves speak without scruple of their proselyting projects. Archbishop Whitfield, of Baltimore, in a late report to an association in Vienna, formed for the express purpose of spreading Romanism in America, says—“ I cannot omit mentioning, that in this school, as in all the Catholic institutions for education, a large proportion of the children are Protestants; a circumstance which contributes not a little to the spread of our holy doctrine, and the removal of prejudices." There are those, it seems, who will not believe them even on their own explicit and undisguised testimony!

Can Christians, or Christian ministers forget that this is a subject of the deepest interest to their own offspring, as well as to the whole Church of God in our land? Can they forget that those large districts in which Popery, if not resisted and exposed, may become predominent, may be hereafter the residence of their children, or their children's children, where they may be ensnared and ruined forever? Can they forget that Popery is, in its own na

ture, a system of tyranny over both the minds and bodies of men; that it openly sets at naught the rights of conscience; that where it reigns, it is essentially destructive of civil and religious liberty; and that, if it should ever obtain the ascendency in our beloved country, we may bid farewell to that liberty with which it has pleased Him who "sits as Governor among the nations" to make us free? Surely every feeling of natural affection, of Christian benevolence, and of enlightened patriotism should inspire an interest in this subject of the most intense character.

Let it not be said, that, while Popery is, in some countries, a corrupt, and corrupting system; while, for example, in Spain, in Portugal and in Italy, it holds a gloomy and a pernicious reign-it is, in the United States, a harmless thing, divested, in a great measure, if not entirely, of every formidable and threatening feature. Many Protestants are entirely deceived by impressions of this kind. They hear some plausible and artful Papist pleading the cause of his religion; denying some of the most serious imputations against it, and disguising others under the most ingenious glosses;-they hear these representations, and wonder why good people should be so much prejudiced against Roman Catholics! This is an utter delusion. The spirit of the Papacy is the very same at this hour, that it was when Luther took his life in his hand, and went forth against the embattled hosts of superstition and sin. There can, indeed, be no change without an abandonment of her essential principles. It is her glory, her votaries tell us, that she is, in all respects, the same, in the United States, and in the nineteenth century, that she ever was. And they say the truth. It is even so. She has undergone no essen

tial change. Like all systems, indeed, of profound and organized falsehood, she can alter her tones, her professions, and even her aspect, at pleasure; but the moment she is placed in circumstances which allow her to act out her genuine spirit, we find it to be the very same spirit which established the Inquisition in the twelfth century; which butchered the poor and pious Waldenses, in their secluded vallies, in the fifteenth and seventeenth; which, for ages, imprisoned and burnt the objects of their cupidity or resentment, without mercy; and which has never ceased, since she possessed the power, to deceive, cheat, oppress and destroy those whom she could subjugate to her will, under the pretext of conducting them to happiness here and hereafter.

And what principle or practice has the Papacy abandoned, in modern times, or in this country, which she was able to maintain ? Does she not to this hour continue to assert the infallibility of the Pope, and his right to pronounce what is the will of Christ, without appeal even to the Scriptures? Does she not virtually contend. for tradition, and for uninspired Councils and Fathers, as equal, or rather paramount, as a rule of faith, to the infallible Word? Does she not maintain, as openly and zealously as ever, the doctrine of human merit, as the foundation of hope toward God; of works of supererogation; and of indulgences to sin purchased by the payment of money? Does she not still hold the doctrine of Transubstantiation, "that enormous outrage on every dictate of sense and reason, as well as of Scripture ?” Does she not still hold fast to her system of "auricular confession," which opens a door to almost every species of licentiousness, and oppression? Has she not, within a few years, deliberately restored the power and the cru

elties of the Inquisition, an institution which, perhaps, has been the means of inflicting more injury and misery, and of bringing on individuals and families a larger amount of destruction to life, liberty, and peace than any other that ever bore the Christian name? Does she not, after all her multiplied denials of the fact, continue to lock up the Scriptures from the common people, and require them to read such parts only of the inspired volume as the Church allows them to see; and to put upon it that interpretation which the Church commands them to adopt? Has she not recently restored the order of the Jesuits, whose doctrinal and moral profligacy caused them, more than half a century ago, to be expelled from the territory of almost every state in Europe, not even excepting those under the dominion of Rome; and finally to be abolished by the Pope, as a disgrace to Christendom? An order, concerning which Mr. Hume has said, that "by the very nature of their institution, they were engaged to pervert learning; to refine away the plainest dictates of morality; and to erect a regular system of casuistry, by which prevarication, perjury, and every crime, where it served their ghostly purposes, might be justified and defended." Does she not insist as much as ever on the celibacy of the clergy, with all the appalling mass of abominations with which that restriction has been always connected? Does she not still endeavor, as far as practicable, to subject the intellectual powers, the consciences, the literary pursuits, the inquiries, and the property of men to her oppressive domination? Are these symptoms of returning moderation or purity? True, she does not practice some of her worst enormities in this country. The unbridled profligacy of her Monasteries and Nunneries; the heart-rending cruelties of the

Inquisition; the public sale of Indulgences to commit the most shocking crimes; the open claims of dominion over the consciences and the persons of men; and the fires of Smithfield and of Constance have not yet been re-acted in our happy land. But why? Simply because public opinion, and public law render it impracticable. That the Papal system itself is still favorable to all these enormities, it is no want of charity to say, because that "infallible and unchanging Church," in all countries in which she dares to do so, IS ACTUALLY STILL EXHIBITING THOSE ENORMITIES, WITHOUT RELENTING OR

SHAME! As long, then, as this ecclesiastical power retains these principles, and practices these crimes, can we be mistaken in applying to it those tremendous titles which the Spirit of Prophecy evidently employs to designate his character;" the Man of sin;" "the Son of perdition;"" the Anti-christ," who "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped?"

The character of the late Bishop Watson, as remarkably free from a spirit of bigotry, and what some are disposed to call "puritanical prejudice," is well known. Yet he, in reference to the subject before us, has expressed himself in the following terms:

That the Popish religion is the Christian religion, is a false position; and therefore Christianity may be true, though the religion of the Church of Rome be, in many of its parts, an imposture. This observation should always be kept in mind by such as are sent to finish their education by travelling in Catholic countries. It may seem paradoxical to assert, that the corruptions of any religion can be proofs of its truth; yet the corruptions of the Christian religion, as practised by the Church of