church-for his imagination cannot identify the Ecclesiastical court, in which a layman sits as a judge, taking cognizance, perhaps, of matters of a secular nature, with the Church-and he perceives not, that religion has any thing to do in the business. Such excommunication has certainly nothing dreadful in itself, but in the imprisonment only, which follows. Such was not the primitive excommunication. The objects of that dreadful sentence were none but notorious sinners: fornicators, usurers idolaters, railers, drunkards, extortioners. (1 Corinthians, v. 11.) It was pronounced, with awful solemnity, in the full assembly of the Church, by the Bishop himself, or some person specially delegated by him. It produced the greatest consternation in the conscience of the sinner, and generally brought him to a sense of his guilt, and produced a reformation, which nothing short of this severity could have effected. When the noble and learned Lord said, that excommunication in Ireland was a dreadful thing, the surmise, that naturally rose in my mind. was, that the excommunication of the Irish Prelates were something more resembling the primitive excommunications, than that is, which our courts call excommunication; and I wondered how this was to be turned to the reproach of the Roman Catholic Bishops. But when the noble and learned lord went on, he soon made me understand, that their excommunication is no less than a profanation, though in a different way, but no less, if not more a profanation of the rite, than our practice. It is indeed a dreadful thing: but not dreadful simply by the alarm of the excommunicated person's conscience, but by the worldly distress it brings upon him. It is not simply a separation from the body of the faithful, but it is, to all intents and purposes, an interdiction ab aquâ et igne. No Roman Catholic dares to administer a crust of dry bread or a cup of cold water to the person under this interdiction. And the offence, which draws down this horrible sentence, is any friendly intercourse which & Roman Catholic may be found to hold with Protestants, My Lords, this is an abominable abuse of the power which Christ has placed in the hands of the governors of his Church, not to destroy the worldly comforts of men, but for the salvation of their souls. No precedent is to be found for such tyranny in the conduct of the Apostles. The first instance of an excommunication upon record took place in a very early period, in the church of Corinth. A member of that church was leading a most flagitious life; and the process of the excommunication was this: the Apostle St. Paul, not being able to attend in person, issues his peremptory mandate to the church of Corinth to assemble; and in full congregation, “in the “ name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the power of our Lord Jesus

"Christ, to DELIVER the offender UNTO SATAN," that is, to expel him from the Church, by which he would be deprived of those assistances, which the Church affords, to resist Satan," for the destruction of the flesh"-not that the man was to be starved-driven from civil society, and reduced to perish with cold, and hunger, and thirst; but for the mortification of the carnal appetites; for the flesh here evidently signifies the appetites of the flesh. And this flesh was to be thus destroyed, to this intent and purpose, “ that the spirit might be saved in the day of the " Lord Jesus. And the spirit in that day will be saved. For the many was brought to repentance; and, upon his repentance, the Apostle writes to the Church again, to receive the penitent again into their communion, and to "confirm their love to him." And it appears, that offenders, under this dreadful sentence, were still treated with great charity and commiseration. For thus the same Apostle writes to the Church of Thes salonica: :-" We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord "Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walk"eth disorderly. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, "note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be "ashamed. Yet COUNT HIM NOT AS AN ENEMY BUT ADMONISH HIM AS A BROTHER" Very different this, from the despotism which, we are told, is exercised by the titular Bishops in Ireland, over persons of their own communion.

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My Lords, in this state of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland, it would be in vain to go into a committee to take this petition into con sideration. For certainly nothing of political power and influence can be conceded to the Roman Catholics in Ireland, beyond what they already. enjoy, unless their hierarchy can be reduced to a less offensive form, and { checked in the monstrous abuse of their spiritual authority; I should hope that neither of these things is impracticable; that both may be affected by the influence of persons of rank, of that persuasion, with their pastors, concurring with government, in mild measures, for the attainment of these ends. But if these ends cannot be attained, by the concurrence of the: Roman Catholics themselves with government, I confess, we seem to bo reduced to this dilemma, either this bierarchy must be crushed by the STRONG ARM OF POWER (God forbid the dreadful necessity should arise), or the Roman Church must be the Established Church of Ireland. My Lords, if the thing were res integra, if we had now to form a constitution for Ireland ab initio, I have no hesitation in saying, that it might be matter of grave deliberation, which of the two measures should be adopted. But this is not the case. The Irish constitution is settled-settled long since upon the basis of Protestantism : and that constitution, so settled, has VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. August, 1813.]

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been recently confirmed by the pacta conventa of the union. When 1 speak, however, of crushing the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland, I mean not that the Roman Catholics of that country should be deprived of the superintendance of Bishops; but their Bishops should not be allowed to assume diocesan jurisdiction, in exclusion of our own prelacy, or even co-ordinate with it, nor should they be suffered to domincer, in the manner we are told they do.

My Lords, if these difficulties stood not in the way, I should be ready to go into a committee; still I should oppose the prayer of the petition in the extent to which it goes, for this, among other reasons, that I think s compliance with it would be the worst thing that could befal the Roman Catholics, as well as ourselves. The immediate effect of it I think would be, to revive that detestable rancour between Protestants and Roman Catholics, which for so many years has been the disgrace of the western Church, but is dying away if we only let alone what is well."

..

Our readers, by this time, must be fully satisfied that Mr. Horsley was guilty of a gross mistake in conceiving that the Bishop would have voted amongst the promoters of the Popish claims. We recommend the tract under consideration to the attention of the public, not only so far as the authority of great names ought to go, but as furnishing many reasons, particularly in Lord Ellenborough's speech, why the claims should be resisted. We have only room for the conclusion of what his Lordship said. After arguing the impropriety, and the danger, of giving the Romanists a right to sit in Parliament, and the impolicy of tampering with the Church established in Ireland, Lord Ellenborough says, (p. 20,) I am one of those, my Lords, who labour under an unfortunate persuasion that, even if this could legally, and in fact, be granted to them; that if the Roman Catholic religion were already established in Ireland in some degree of communion and participation of privileges with the united Church, even this grant and indulgence, large as it might now appear to us, would be followed by fresh demands and increased importunity. What assurance is there that they would rest contented with this boon? or would not the broad banners of Papal supremacy be immediately unfurled, and the exclusive domination of the Romish Church in Ireland be authoritatively claimed on the ground of this very concession, and of that majority of the population of that country, which alone confers the right (as they contend) of establishing the Protestant religion as the religion of the state in this country Compared, with the value of this ultimate prize, the objects hitherto obtained in the struggle would be vile and worthless in their estimation.

Jam tenet İtaliam, tamen ultra pergere tendit

Actum inquit nihil est, nisi pœno milite portas

Frangimus, et mediâ vexillum pono suburrâ.

Before it is yet too late, I, for one, am disposed to rally round the standard, and to preserve the altars, of my country. The palladium of our Protestant, and indeed of our political security, consists principally in the oath of supremacy, and the tests connected therewith, and (as more particularly concerns Ireland) in the provisions contained in the 5th article of our recent union with that country, against every attempt to weaken these safeguards of the constitution. I, as long as I live, and am furnished with faculties, either of body or mind, enabling me to struggle with effect, will manfully struggle, and as far as in me lies, will avert the mischief, which must result from the admission of persons, (owning and yielding, as they do, an imperfect and defalcated allegiance to the State), into the entire and perfect rights of completely affianced subjects.

Not being able, iny Lords; to feel any material degree of evil in the present state of political restraint, as it is necessarily for their good as well as ours, and the prevention of common calamities affecting us all, applied to our Roman Catholic brethren in Ireland; and seeing a sure prospect of enormous and incalculable mischiefs before me, which must immediately result from a change :-as a subject interested in the safety of the crown and kingdom; as a Protestant interested in maintaining the possession of that pure and reformed religion, which, having been in times past preserved and sanctified to us by the blood of our ancestors, has been, by God's providence, long and firmly established in these realms, and which is inseparably knit together, in one system, with all our civil rights and liberties with our best means of happiness here, and our best hopes of happiness hereafter; I feel it my duty, my Lords, Now AND FOR EVER, as long as the Catholic religion shall main'ain its Ecclesiastical and spiritual union with, and dependance upon the See of Rome, To RESIST, to the utmost of my power this and every other proposition, which is calculated to produce the undoing and overthrow of all that our forefathers have regarded, and ourselves have felt and know to be most venerable and useful in our establishments both in Church and State." 21. A Catechism for the Use of all the Churches in the French Empire: to which are prefixed the Pope's Bull, and the Archbishop's [the Achbisbop of Paris's] Mandamus. Translated from the Original, with an Introduction and Notes by David Bogue, Author of an Essay on the New Testament, &c.- Unus Deus, Una Fides, Unum Baptisma."-Eph. iv. 5. 12mo, pp. 187.-William's and Smith, 1807.

One of the most prevalent delusions under which multitudes of people lie, respecting Popery, is this-that it is a very different thing at present from what it was in the days of our fathers; that it has undergone a silent reformation; that its doctrines are not so revolting as they were formerly; that Scripture is now its sole guide; that the tyranny of its priesthood is "come utterly to an end;" that the Church of Rome is grown tolerant, no longer lays claim to exclusive salvation, nor presumes to ordain as commandments what God has not ordained. To all those Protestants who, in the simplicity of their hearts, and the abundance of that charity which is not inclined to think evil, or suspect deceit in any one,-have been se duced to entertain such thoughts concerning Popery, we earnestly recommend the perusal of this little book. Drawn up for the use of the Gallican Church, notoriously free, at the earnest wish of Napoleon, Emperor of France, a personage on whom it might be expected that the Pope would not venture to impose any articles of faith, rules of practice, or modes of worship which were not held indispensable, we may fairly deem the "Catechism for the use of all the Churches in the French Empire," an examplar of the Romish religion set forth with the very latest corrections and improvements-if, indeed, after all, we can be justified in looking for any emendation of that which had already the sanction, as it had long ago undergone the revision, of infallibility !-Romish infallibili ty, however, (if Miss Edgeworth, learned in the history of her country's bulls, will allow us to say so), is a mass of error. All the old fallacies, and unfounded assertions, and unscriptural dogmata, are here new-revived and sent into the world, to the annoyance of common sense, fresh cast, spick and span, as if they were sterling, as if Wickliffe had never declared them counterfeit, as if multitudes of his successors had not brought them to the test, and proved them to be of no value.

This Catechism, we are told, is chiefly taken from that of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux; who was counted, in his day, a powerful defender of the Romish faith; but how completely he was refuted by Bishop Bull, in the instance of his famous queries, our readers can judge from the specimen which we gave of that prelate's masterly exposure of the Romish corruptions, in the Protestant Advocate, p. 464. Mr. Bogue very successfully points out, in an introduction to his translation, the principal errors retained in this new catechetical compilation. He remarks very properly, and with becoming indignation, the use which is made of the Apocrypha as an authority, in addition to the canonical books of the Old and New Testa"But this is not all," says he, (p. v.) "there is something as bad, if not worse, still behind. Tradition is another source of religious opinions in the Church of Rome; and many of them are presented to

ment.