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 TITLE: 
 
 APPEAL TO SCOTTISH 
 
 CHF STIANS 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 G' ASGOW 
 
 DA TE: 
 
 1836 
 
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jio. 13. 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 TO 
 
 SCOTTISH CHRISTIANS 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT 
 
 OF 
 
 PROTESTANT ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 \\- 
 
 •♦ Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom the people shall say, A confederacy ; 
 neither fear ye their fear, nor t>e afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be 
 your fear, and let him be your dread."— Isaiah. 
 
 b.i k 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 A. FULLARTON, 8e CO., 34, HUTCHESON STREET 
 EDINBUROH,~ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK. 
 
 1836. 
 
f. 
 
 APPEAL, &G. 
 
 f 
 
 OLAS(.0\V: 
 FULLARTON ANB CO., PRINTERS, TILLAriELD. 
 
 No enlightened Protestant can be offended with well-meant 
 and judicious means for exposing the errors of the church of 
 Rome, and asserting, in opposition to them, the simple prin- 
 ciples of scriptural Christianity. Such means employed with 
 wisdom, charity, and zeal, while they could offend no true Pro- 
 testant, could alarm no politician, and could scarcely produce 
 any hostile re-action at all to be dreaded on the part of our 
 Roman Catholic fellow-subjects themselves. Indeed, with all 
 deference to the judgment of ecclesiastics, we are not sure 
 that it is fair dealing with the present generation of Protes- 
 tants, to represent them as lukewarm to the doctrines which 
 they profess, or, at least, as utterly inactive and supine, 
 while all the living zeal and energy to be found in Christen- 
 dom at this day is possessed by Roman Catholics. What are 
 the 12,000 Protestant clergy paid by the State doing all their 
 lives long, if not teaching the doctrines of Protestantism ? Is 
 this too small an array ? Then, will it be affirmed that the 
 ardent Methodists, and the various denominations of Dissen- 
 ters, are less industrious in teaching the same doctrines? 
 Besides, we are sure we could enumerate not a few societies 
 having considerable resources, supported by Protestants in 
 this country, and all of modern origin, having for their spe- 
 cific object the instruction of Roman Catholics in the doc- 
 trines of the word of God. We are inclined to think, that 
 as far as efforts for the instruction of Roman Catholics are 
 concerned, at no period in the history of British Protestan- 
 tism has so much been doing as at this day. At the same 
 
 A 
 
time, it cannot be questioned, that a large proportion of pro- 
 fessed Christians, and even of Protestant Christians, are so 
 only in name ; that such cannot be supposed to be alive either 
 to the evils of the Roman Catholic system or to those other 
 evils of which they are themselves the victims ; and that a 
 far greater amount of exertion than has hitherto appeared might 
 be made by Christian wisdom and benevolence, to promote 
 the spiritual interests of both classes. 
 
 But supposing that in place of lending additional aid to 
 existing means for diminishing the influence of Catholicism, 
 it were desirable to organize a new set of societies formally 
 to assail the church of Rome, we beg leave to query, whether 
 the state-paid clergy of this empire, or the more decided par- 
 tizans of our ecclesiastical establishments, acting on the prin- 
 ciples or through the medium of State chnrches, supply the 
 most appropriate materials for constructing these new associa- 
 tions ? In what position do they stand relatively to their Roman 
 Catholic brethren ? They hold the essential opposition be- 
 twixt the creed of the Catholics and their own, that theirs is 
 Christian while that of the Catholics is antichristian ; but 
 they also know, and they proclaim it, that in this respect the 
 Roman Catholics are in a similar predicament with them- 
 selves, holding their own creed to be true, and that of the 
 Protestants to be false. Yet what is the practice of our 
 churchmen ? Do they say to their Roman Catholic breth- 
 ren, " we think you are in dangerous error, but we know at 
 the same time you entertain the same views of us. We would 
 not for our lives do any thing so abhorrent to our consciences 
 as to support your errors, which we think are injurious to 
 civil society, and destroy the souls of men ; and rather than 
 impose on you a yoke which we ourselves would not endure, 
 and which we applaud our virtuous forefathers for shaking off 
 at the expense of their blood, we would subject ourselves to 
 almost any privation, — we would suffer want, we would preach 
 the gospel without charge, we would work with our own 
 hands ?" — No, with all his known conscientious reprobation of 
 Protestantism, the Catholic is forced to support it equally 
 
 ir 
 
 3 
 
 with the most zealous Protestant. Are the exactors of 
 these compulsory contributions, are those who live by the 
 fruits of this violation of the rights of conscience in their 
 brethren, the fit persons to form societies for assailing, with a 
 view to instruct and convert, the objects of these wrongs ? 
 What can they reply to the taunt which Roman Catholics 
 will naturally cast upon them, — " Is there any thing among 
 Roman Catholics more monstrous than this practice which 
 you yourselves pursue? Which of the errors imputed by 
 you to us can exceed in turpitude this error which you have 
 exemplified for ages in your conduct towards us ? — compelling 
 us by law, civil and military, to support a creed and a church 
 which our consciences disown. Wash your own hands ere you 
 point to our pollutions. Be honest in your dealings with us, 
 ere you address us in the character of religious instructors. 
 Physicians, heal yourselves. First pluck the beam out of 
 your own eyes, and then you shall see clearly to take the 
 mote out of ours." If there be one class of men who are less 
 likely than another to benefit Roman Catholics, or rather 
 more exactly fitted to produce a repulsion of all Protestant 
 influence, we conceive the more vehement ecclesiastics and 
 other partizans of our established churches are the men. 
 
 It will not, we think, be denied, that one object of these 
 associations is to preserve in its integrity the present church 
 establishment of Ireland. Their origin, in the exhibitions at 
 Exeter Hall, and the more recent incursions of Mr O' Sulli- 
 van, — the known principles of those who have taken the lead 
 in their formation, — and the sentiments, very freely uttered, 
 and very zealously enforced, at their public meetings, — all 
 concur in proving that the associations are intended as but- 
 tresses of the shaking Irish edifice ; and that their members 
 wish rather to repair its ruins, and enlarge indefinitely its di- 
 mensions, than to reduce its present size, and adapt it to the 
 numbers and the condition of its occupants. Now, to say 
 nothing of those admitted evils, which, in soft and courtly 
 j)hrase, have been denominated, the abuses of the Irish Es- 
 tablishment, let this be carefully noted —?Y is the church of 
 
the few supported by violence done to the many. In this re- 
 spect, in the degree at least to which it possesses this charac- 
 ter, it probably stands solitary and unique in ecclesiastical 
 liistory, from the Mosaic age to this hour. In a country 
 containing a population of fully 8,000,000, more than seven 
 of those millions are against it. Nor has it sprung up in the 
 country under the fostering care of the few who belong to it ; 
 the violence of another nation has forced it, and retained it 
 by force, on the Irish people. It is as violent, and as foreign, 
 as far as the Irish are concerned, as episcopacy was in Scot- 
 land in the days of the Charles's ; or as Russian power is at 
 this day in the prostrate kingdom of unhappy Poland. In the 
 case of the Irish, as in that of our forefathers, and of the 
 Poles, the bayonet alone protects the foreign domination ; re- 
 move that arm, and Ireland, like Poland, is free. It must be 
 added, strange though it may seem, that this church of the 
 oppressing foreigner, so obnoxious to the nation, can have 
 but a very slender hold on the hearts even of its own pro- 
 fessed friends and members. For although it is confidently 
 affirmed, that three-fourths of the property of Ireland is in 
 the hands'of Episcopalians, so indifferent are those rich parti- 
 zans to the comfort of their own clergy, to preserve whose 
 places and emoluments they have threatened to fight and 
 bleed, that the whole empire is at this moment importuned in 
 the most piteous tones of noble and sacerdotal wailing, to come 
 forward to their help, and save them from starvation ; — and for 
 what? Solely for the suspension of a year's tithes. To pre- 
 serve, extend, and perpetuate this most hated establishment 
 that ever human violence formed, have these Protestant asso- 
 ciations (in part, at least) been instituted. What will Roman 
 Catholic Ireland reply to these friends of violence, to this insult 
 from one people to another ? " You come to us with words, 
 smooth as butter, yet like drawn swords ; you come to prose- 
 lyte us with your books, and your tracts, and your Bibles, in 
 one hand, and in the other, with weapons to defend this co- 
 lossal incubus under which our country groans ! Undo our 
 heavy burdens; let our oppressed nation go free; satisfy 
 
 5 
 
 :i 
 
 yourselves, with three centuries of spoliation and insult, 
 
 and then come to us in the character of benefactors and 
 friends." 
 
 • It adds immeasurably to the force of these observations, 
 that we find in that church a host of evils, known and ac- 
 knowledged throughout the empire. Be it remembered, that 
 by Scottish Presbyterians in particular, the very constitution 
 of this church is regarded as unscriptural and mischievous. 
 Its government is prelatical; and it is not more true that the 
 church of Scotland is opposed to Popery, than that she is 
 opposed to Prelacy. 
 
 If the ministers of the Scottish Establishment are true to 
 their ordination vows, and if they possess that coincidence of 
 view with their pious forefathers, of which they perpetually 
 boast, " Prelacy, that is, church government by archbishops, 
 bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans, deans and 
 chapters, archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical officers de- 
 pending upon that hierarchy" must be "extirpated, as the most 
 powerful mean, by the blessing of God, for settling and pre- 
 serving the true Protestant religion, with perfect peace in his 
 Majesty's do7ni7iions, and propagating the same to other na- 
 tions, and for establishing his Majesty's throne to all ages 
 and generations."* Every minister of the church of Scotland 
 knows, or ought to know, yes, and every well-taught private 
 member, that these are the recorded and sanctioned doirmas 
 of his own church ; that these are the orthodox dicta of his 
 own venerable assembly ; that, therefore, his own church be- 
 ing the judge, Prelacy, be it English or Irish Prelacy, so far 
 from being a bulwark of the Protestant faith, — so far from 
 being necessary to the Protestantism of Ireland, or from sup- 
 porting, by its altars, the throne of the king, and promoting, 
 by its influence, the peace of the kingdom, — is at war with 
 all these; and, therefore, that its utter "extirpation" (as far, 
 at least, as legal support is concerned) would be "Me 7nost 
 powerful mean, by the blessing of God, of advancing these 
 
 * Solemn League. Act of Ass. 1G45. 
 
olijects, tlear to all loyal British Protestants," viz. '^settling 
 and preserving the true Protestant religion^ perfect peace in 
 his M(yestys dominions^ propagating the same to other nations, 
 and establishing his Majesti/s throne'' Dr Lee knows well 
 tke sentiments of his own church, Dr Gordon cannot he 
 Ignorant of them, and Mr Candlish is an ingenuous man; — 
 what can these respected men mean by leaguing openly with 
 ()' Sullivan in his Prelatical mission, and in doing what they 
 can to further associations, formed under the auspices of that 
 apostle of Irisli prelacy, in support of a system, which their 
 own churchy which they themselves confess to be opposed to 
 ** true Protestantism, the establishment of the throne, and 
 the peace of the kingdom?" 
 
 While such are the sentiments, most solemnly professed, of 
 the Scottish church respecting the prelacy, it is worth while 
 to observe the sentiments of the prelatical church, expressed 
 with no less solemnity, respecting Presbyterians and all others 
 who separate from her communion. The following are some 
 of the "canons*' of that most venerable and apostolical 
 church: — Cano7i J 'II. "Whosoever shall hereafter atTirni, 
 that the government of the church of England, wider his 
 Majesty, by archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, and the 
 rest that bear olfice in the same, is antichristian, or repugnant 
 to the word of God, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, 
 and so continue until he repent, and publicly revoke this his 
 wicked error." Canon I'lII. " Whosoever shall hereafter 
 affirm or teach that the form and manner of makiu": and con- 
 servating bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth any thing 
 in it that is repugnant to the word of God; or that they who 
 iire made bisliops, priests, or deacons, in that form, are not 
 lawfully made, nor ought to be accounted, either by them- 
 selves or others, to be truly either bishops, priests, or dea- 
 cons, until they have some other calling to these divine 
 offices ; let him be excommunicated ipso facto, not to be re- 
 stored until he repent, and publicly revoke such his wicked 
 errors." Canon X. " Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that 
 such ministers as refuse to subscribe to the form and manner 
 
 of God*s worship in the church of England prescribed in the 
 communion-book, and their adherents, may truly take unto 
 them the name of another church, not established by law, 
 and dare presume to publish it, that this their pretended 
 church hath of long time groaned under the burden of cer- 
 tain evils imposed upon it, and upon the members thereof 
 before-mentioned, by the church of England, and the orders 
 and constitutions therein by law established; let them be 
 excommunicated, and not restored until they repent, and 
 publicly revoke such their wicked errors." Canon XI. " Who- 
 soever shall hereafter affirm or maintain, that there are within 
 this realm, other meetings, assemblies, or congregations, of 
 the king's born subjects, than such as by the laws of this 
 land fire held and allowed, which may rightly challenge io 
 themselves the name of true and lawful churches ; let him be 
 excommunicated, and not restored, but by the archbishop 
 after his repentance."* 
 
 Such are the pretensions of that church, to the support of 
 which, as the medium of promoting Protestantism, these asso- 
 ciations are devoted, — a church which thus brands herself 
 with characters of intolerance, scarcely less deep and glaring 
 than those of the very system they propose to assail, in the 
 days of its thickest darkness, and most terrific power. 
 
 Nor is this all. Without a grievous sacrifice of doctrinal 
 principle, avowed by the Scottish church, in common with 
 Protestant dissenters, it is impossible that the members of 
 these bodies can co-operate with the Episcopalian party, in 
 the way of countenancing the support of the Episcopalian 
 system. Let us glance at the erroneous and delusory char- 
 acter of the English service, in many of its parts, and at the 
 antichristian power ascribed by the prelacy to the church, 
 and to the sovereign in regard to the church. 
 
 From youth to age, from birth to burial, the influence of 
 Episcopalian rites is in a high degree delusory, and perilous 
 to the souls of men. Scarcely has the Episcopalian babe seen 
 
 * The Book of Common Prayer, &c. Fol. Lond. 170G. 
 
8 
 
 9 
 
 the light till delusion is muttered over it betwixt priest and 
 god-father; in its tender and unsuspecting years religion is 
 employed to familiarize its mind to delusion ; in its advance 
 to manhood, delusion is confirmed by the office of the " con- 
 firmation;" the holy communion itself, mingled profusely 
 with Episcopalian additions, rather strengthens than breaks 
 the delusive spell ; amidst the alarms of mortal sickness de- 
 lusion still lifts her presumptuous voice ; and at last, unless 
 excommunication has gone before, (a rare occurrence, except 
 in the instance of Presbyterians and other dissenters, who 
 are religious outlaws, '^ ipso Jacto,") delusion is still heard 
 amidst the awfulness of death and the sepulchre. 
 
 The following are doctrines and practices of that church, 
 which, in the face of their own principles, modern Protestant 
 associations would employ as the chosen instrument for re- 
 pelling Popery. In the " Order of baptism," the priest says 
 of every child, " we receive this child into the congregation 
 of Christ's flock, and do sign him with the sign of the cross, 
 (here the priest shall make a cross on the child's forehead,) 
 in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the 
 faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his ban- 
 ner against sin, the world, and the devil; and to continue 
 Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end. Amen." 
 Immediately after this rite " the priest shall say. Seeing now, 
 dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate, and 
 grafted into the body of Christ's church, let us give thanks 
 to Almightly God for these benefits, and with one accord 
 make our prayers unto him, that this child may lead the rest 
 of his life according to this beginning." After which, " the 
 priest shall say. We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful 
 Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with 
 thy Holy Spirit, to receive him as thine own child by adoption, 
 and to incorporate him with thy holy church." All this the 
 poor child is taught to believe till \\\% confirmation ; and then, 
 he is enjoined to give this reply to the second question pro- 
 posed to him in the awful presence of my lord the bishop : 
 *' Who gave thee this name ?" A us. " My god-fathers and 
 
 / 
 
 god-mothers," (names of superstitious folly which ought to be 
 obliterated from the vocabulary of Christian worship,) "m my 
 baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of 
 God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,'' As if all 
 this were not enough, " The order of the ministration of the 
 holy communion" follows; in which, after a profusion of cere- 
 monies, " the priest (or the bishop being present) shall stand 
 up, and turning himself to the people, pronounce this absolu- 
 tion f which, being said and heard, and, it is to be feared, 
 believed by multitudes, after other ceremonies, the bread and 
 the wine are given to each communicant, with these words, 
 " The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for 
 thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. . . . The 
 blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, 
 preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." After 
 all this, how fares it with the sick and the dying? The priest 
 visits the sufferer, repeats many prayers and exhortations, 
 " earnestly moves such sick persons as are of ability to be 
 liberal to the poor;" moves each individual "fo make a spe- 
 cial confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled 
 ivith any weighty matter. After which confession the priest 
 shall absolve him, (if he humbly and heartily desire it,) after 
 this sort. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to 
 his church to absolve all sinners, who truly repent and be- 
 lieve in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences : 
 and by his authority committed to me,^^ (did ever Pope speak 
 more loftily?) '' I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost Amen" 
 The appropriate conclusion from these premises is found in 
 " The order for the burial of the dead," which is used for all, 
 except such as " die unbaptized," (not being " regenerate, 
 children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven," 
 by the baptism of the church) " or excommunicated, or 
 have laid violent hands upon themselves." In all other cases, 
 " while the earth shall be cast upon the body by some stand- 
 ing by, the priest shall say, Forasmuch as it hath pleased God 
 of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear 
 
10 
 
 brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the 
 ground ; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; in sure 
 and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 That the Episcopalian church has received into her creed 
 much scriptural truth, and that much piety and learning have 
 been found among many of her members, and not a few of 
 her office-bearers, who has ever questioned? But the church 
 of Rome herself holds much scriptural truth ; she has had her 
 Pascals and her Fenelons : of learned men in great numbers 
 she can boast; and who has affirmed that piety has altogether 
 been smothered among her members even by the whole 
 weio-ht of her errors and superstitions? Besides, had not 
 the church of the episcopacy the same amount of truth ni 
 her creed, and equal learning and worth among many con- 
 nected with her, when she banished or oppressed the Eng- 
 lish Puritans, or persecuted our Scottish ancestors with fire 
 and sword ? If she has truth which may guide, she has also 
 abundance of delusion which may mislead ; if she holds the 
 Scripture, she has also abundance of tradition to make it 
 void ; and it is against this neutralizing influence of the sys- 
 tem tliat true and consistent Protestants should lift their 
 
 voice. 
 
 It is probable that the powers claimed for the church — 
 their own church — by Episcopalians, and those conceded to 
 the sovereign by that churchy will be regarded by many 
 Christians as scarcely less objectionable than the deceptive 
 principles to which allusion has been made. The claim of 
 infallibility excepted, has Rome ever arrogated any thing 
 more presumptuous, than the power of absolving from sin ? 
 Yet every Episcopalian priest and bishop claims, it has been 
 seen, this power, and pretends to exercise it. In the 20th 
 Article it is asserted that " the church hath power to decree 
 rites and ceremonies ; and authority in controversies of faith ;" 
 — a power, which effectually interposes the authority of man 
 betwixt God and the consciences of men, — which authorizes 
 the introduction into the sim])le worship of the New Testa- 
 
 -8 
 
 t 
 
 . 
 
 11 
 
 ment, of ceremonies of liuman invention, to an undefined ex- 
 tent, — and which prepares the way for ecclesiastical corrup- 
 tion, oppression, and tyranny, to a degree not inferior to any 
 thing accomplished by the papal infallibility itself. A power 
 which, though now repressed by the spirit of the age, and by 
 our free civil institutions, has not always been so in the Epis- 
 copalian church; by the influence of which, thousands of her 
 best ministers, and hundreds of thousands of her best mem- 
 bers, were banished from her pale ; which filled the jails of 
 England with Christian prisoners, drove myriads into distant 
 exile, and stained with the blood of martyrs the scaffolds, and 
 fields, and mountain sides of our native land. 
 
 The formidable power over the church vested by Episco- 
 pacy in the monarch, is far less thought of than it ought to 
 be. It is, to use Warburton's language, (employed by that 
 prelate with entire approbation,) the surrender of the natural 
 independence of the churchy — it is a slavish abdication of 
 Christ's liberty for a yoke of bondage to a human ruler, — 
 while on the part of the sovereign (we speak constitutionally) 
 it is a usurpation of Christ's rights, involving the guilt of 
 impiety, and periling the stability of the throne of these 
 kingdoms. It is curious to remark how this power has 
 vacillated betwixt Rome and the English kings. In the 
 ancient and palmy days of popery, the Pope was the head 
 of the church of England, as part of the one Catholic church, 
 over which he presided. When Henry broke with Rome, 
 he created no new power over the church, he did not 
 alter the quality of any; he found a convenient power 
 already created and acknowledged, and he simply trans- 
 ferred the power of Rome to London, claiming for him- 
 self what he and his people formerly acknowledged in the 
 Pope, supreme headship in all causes ecclesiastical, Mary 
 succeeded, returned to the faith which her father had for- 
 saken, and in reconciling herself to the papal see, conferred 
 no new authority upon his Holiness, but merely gave him 
 back the power of which her father had deprived him. Eliza- 
 beth followed; and in le-cstablishing Protestant Episcopacy, 
 
1-2 
 
 resumed to herself the same ancient supremacy over the 
 cliorch, which the Pope had first, vvliich Henry took, which 
 , Mary gave back, and which now returned to the English 
 princess, by whom it has been faithfully transmitted to the 
 present occupant of the British throne ! The nature of this 
 most impious and perilous power is too well defined in sta- 
 tute, and exemplified in the civil and ecclesiastical history of 
 these kingdoms to admit of dispute. The following is the 
 first paragraph of the 37th Article. " The King's majesty 
 hath the chief power in this realm of England, and other his 
 dominions, unto whom the chief government of all estates in 
 this realm, luhether they be ecclesiastical or civil, doth apper- 
 tain, and is not, nor ought to be, subject to any foreign juris- 
 diction." By the " 36th canon," entitled « Subscriptions re- 
 quired of such as are to be made ministers,'* it is decreed, 
 " That no person shall hereafter be received into the minis- 
 try, nor either by institution or collation be admitted to any 
 ecclesiastical living, nor suffered to preach, to catechise, or to 
 be a lecturer or reader of divinity in either university, or in 
 any cathedral or collegiate church, city, or market town, 
 parish church, chapel," &c. — " except he shall first subscribe 
 to these Articles following." The first of these Articles is 
 this : " That the King's majesty, under God, is the only su- 
 preme governor in this realm, and of all other his highness' 
 kingdoms, and dominions, and countries, as well in all spiri- 
 tual or ecclesiastical thiiigs or causes, as temporal." But if 
 all this should not be deemed sufficiently express, the words 
 of the statute supply the deficiency. " Albeit the king's 
 majesty justly and rightfully is, and ought to be, the supreme 
 head of the church of England, and so is recognised by the 
 clergy of this realm in their convocations, yet nevertheless, 
 for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of 
 virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, and 
 to repress and extirp all errors, heresies, and other enormi- 
 ties and abuses heretofore used in the same, Be it enacted, 
 
 that our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings 
 
 of this realm, shall harr full power and avthority^ from time 
 
 13 
 
 to time, to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, re- 
 strain, and amend, all such errors, heresies, abuses, offences, 
 contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by 
 any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought, or 
 may be lawfully reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, cor- 
 rected, restrained, or amended, most to the pleasure of Al- 
 mighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and 
 for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of the 
 realm."— 26 Henry VHI. cap. 1.* 
 
 To trace and exemplify the exercise of this royal power 
 over the English and Irish churches would require a vol- 
 ume. The following examples are sufficiently prominent in 
 the authorized books of the church, although very gener- 
 ally overlooked by readers. Prefixed to the Articles is a 
 " Declaration " to which the following paragraphs belong. 
 " Being by God's ordinance, according to our just title, 
 defender of the faith, and supreme governor of the church 
 within these our dominions, we hold it most agreeable to 
 this our kingly office, and our own religious zeal, to con- 
 serve and maintain the church committed to our charge, in 
 nnity of true religion, and in the bond of peace ; and not 
 to suffer unnecessary disputations or questions to be raised, 
 which may nourish faction both in the church and com- 
 monwealth. We have, therefore, upon mature delibera- 
 tion, and with the advices of so many of our bishops as 
 might be conveniently called together, thought fit to make 
 this declaration follovvinff : That the Articles of the church 
 of England (which have been declared and authorized here- 
 tofore, and which our clergy generally have subscribed 
 unto) do contain the true doctrine of the church of Eng- 
 land agreeably to God's word, which we do therefore ra- 
 tify and confirm, requiring all our loving subjects to con- 
 tinue in the uniform possession thereof, and prohibiting the 
 least difference from the said Articles', which to that end we 
 command to be new printed, and this our declaration to be 
 
 * Ur Gibson's Codex Jur. Eccles. Lond., 1713. Foho Edition. 
 
14 
 
 published tlicrewitli." To the Articles the " Uatification" is 
 annexed, in the same style of royal supremacy. And 
 so late as the year 1830, the following edict was issued 
 by the present head of the church, and subscribed by a well- 
 known ex-minister, appointing by his '' royal will and plea- 
 sure r the very ivords in which the whole English and Irish 
 churches (oh the abject slavery of that obedience which 
 submits implicitly to such impious dictation !) were to wor- 
 ship their Maker on the four following holidays,— the an- 
 niversary of the gunpowder plot — of the death of the bless- 
 ed royal martyr Charles I.— of the restoration of the royal 
 profligate and persecutor Charles II.— and of a really auspi- 
 cious event, the accession of our present sovereign. " Our 
 will and pleasure is, that these four forms of prayer and ser- 
 vice made for the fifth of November, the thirtieth of January, 
 the twenty-ninth of May, and the twenty-sixth of June, be 
 forthwith printed and published, and annexed to the Book of 
 Common Prayer and Liturgy of the united church of Eng- 
 land and Ireland, to be used yearly on the said days, in all 
 cathedral and collegiate churches and chapels ; in all chapels 
 of colleo-es and halls, within our universities of Oxford, Cam- 
 bridge, and Dublin, and of our colleges of Eton and Win- 
 chester, and in all parish churches and chapels within those 
 parts of our united kingdom called England and Ireland. 
 Given at our court at St James's, the twenty-eighth day of 
 June, 1830, in the first year of our reign. By his majesty's 
 command, R. Peel." 
 
 If we pass from these errors in the very constitution of the 
 Episcopalian church, and glance at a few of those acknow- 
 ledged evils in the working of the vicious system, we shall 
 perceive still more clearly how unsuitable episcopacy now is 
 to become the medium of benefit to Roman Catholics. We 
 shall confine ourselves in a great measure to Ireland. 
 
 It has already been remarked that the Irish church is the 
 church of a small minority, excluding the great majority of 
 the inhabitants. The whole ecclesiastical revenues of Ire- 
 land are annuallv seized 1)V what the nation deems, and can- 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 not but deem, a legal confiscation of their property, on be- 
 half of a privileged handful. Were these guilty recipients of 
 the spoils of Ireland in other respects exemplary, and did 
 they sin only by the blinding influence of ignorance and 
 prejudice ; were they models of meekness, and gentleness, 
 and all goodness ; (there have been, and there are, men of 
 excellence among them, good in spite of the system;) were 
 they receiving only to use with a wise and rigid economy 
 that portion of their more than dubious wealth, which their 
 temporal comfort might require, in order to scatter the resi- 
 due among the spoiled and the starving around them ; were 
 they lowly, self-denied, faithful, indefatigable Christian pas- 
 tors, spending and spent for the people whom they have 
 sworn to serve, then the worth of the men might form some 
 apology for the system, the hostility of injured Catholics 
 might be conciliated or allayed, in the accomplishment of the 
 end facile moralists might forget the means, and much evil 
 might be overlooked for the sake of the good that prepon- 
 derated. What are the facts ? 
 
 England has ten archbishops and twenty-five bishops. 
 The handful of Irish Episcopalians are provided wath four 
 archbishops, and twenty-eight bishops, having powers, titles, 
 palaces, lands, equipages, and wealth befitting the style of 
 princes ; as if purposely elevated by the genius of evil to in- 
 sult and outrage the poverty in the midst of which they are 
 placed, and to rouse the worst passions of which the human 
 heart is susceptible against that blessed religion of which 
 they call themselves the ministers. To the seats of these an- 
 tichristian functionaries swarms of sinecures are attached. 
 Of these the official Report states, that " ninety-four are 
 mere sinecure offices, save and except the duty of preaching 
 occasionally in their respective cathedral churches." In seventy- 
 five instances the returns made to the commissioners by the 
 individuals themselves state, that they have no duties whatever 
 to perform. Yet for these "no duties" the dean of Raphoe 
 receives £1491 per annum ; the precentor of Lismore £448, 
 and the archdeacon of Meath £723 ! The parishes in Ire- 
 
IG 
 
 17 
 
 land amount to 2348; but in so many cases have several 
 parishes been united to form what is called a benefice, — a liv- 
 ing for one parish priest, — that the number of benefices in 
 all Ireland is 1385. These unions are in some cases strangely 
 formed, for the interest of the incumbent it may be, but cer- 
 taiidy without any regard to that of the people : " Thus, in 
 the union of Bilcooly, we find ten parishes thrown togetlier, 
 one of which is six miles, and another ten miles, from the 
 rest. In the union of 13allymahill, which consists of nine 
 parishes, one is 27 miles from the church. In the union of 
 Buronchurch, which consists of 14 parishes, three of them 
 are stated by the commissioners to be at opposite extremities 
 of the county of Kilkenny, many miles from each other, and 
 from the body of the union." Of these unfortunate parishes, 
 of which assuredly Ireland only can furnish examples, and of 
 which not Popery but a miscalled Protestantism alone can • 
 boast, there are 151 in which there is not a single Protestant; 
 194 which contain fewer than ten; 155 without either Pro- 
 testant, clergyman, or church ; and 895 without 50 Protes- 
 tants to each. Of the 1385 holders of benefices, 496 are said 
 to be non-resident; and no wonder, when so many parishes 
 are livings^ not cures: places created to give a livelihood to 
 men who could hardly find one elsewhere, but in which people 
 cannot be found stupid enough to place themselves under 
 their care. Of 264 benefices, (and how many parishes do 
 264 Irish benefices include !) " there are many of which the 
 rector, his children, his servants, his wife, with perhaps a few 
 occasional policemen, constitute the whole of the congrega- 
 tion." The following is a table of seven benefices, taken 
 from different parts of Ireland, and containing, in all, 62 
 Protestants, in which there is no church, and no resident cler- 
 gyman; while the parochial income from tithes amounts to 
 £2888 annually :— 
 
 /• 4B'>< 
 
 Modeligo (Union), 
 Soskeinane, 
 
 CIcnne, . . . . 
 
 Effin, . . . . 
 
 Gilbcrtstowii, . . 
 
 Malioonagh, . . 
 
 Killeedy, . . . 
 
 Protestants. 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 Resident 
 Clergymen. 
 
 None. 
 None. 
 None. 
 None. 
 None. 
 None. 
 None. 
 
 Church. 
 
 Tithes. 
 
 
 
 None. 
 
 £\\Q 
 
 None. 
 
 3;}.5 
 
 
 
 None. 
 
 559 19 
 
 
 
 None. 
 
 320 
 
 
 
 None. 
 
 250 
 
 
 
 None. 
 
 500 
 
 
 
 None. 
 
 484 12 
 
 
 
 In another table are 50 parishes, the united revenues of 
 which are £11,897, while the whole Protestant flock consists 
 of 527 individuals ; and, as if to aggravate the evil of such a 
 state of things, in these 50 parishes there are 42 without a 
 resident cJcrgyman, and 41 without a church! 
 
 It is worth while to observe in what proportion this so 
 called national church of Ireland has supplied accommodation 
 for worship, as compared with that afforded by other religious 
 denominations. Tlie Episcopalians have 1534 places for 
 worship, the Roman Catholics 8105, and the Presbyterians 
 452.* 
 
 But we must have done with our selections from these dis- 
 gusting details. There are some circumstances, however, con- 
 nected with these abuses which must not be overlooked. 
 They have been drawn into public notice, not by the church 
 herself making virtuous efforts for her own reformation ; not 
 by the honest remonstrances of some pious members of that 
 church, afraid of sharing in the responsibility arising from 
 connection with such wickedness under the name of religion, 
 "faithful among the faithless," and lifting their intrepid voices 
 against the surrounding abominations ; but by a body of men 
 ill-fitted to interfere with religious matters,— the British 
 House of Commons, — who have been reviled for their pains 
 with the most cordial and unsparing virulence of the clergy 
 of our establishments. The other circumstance alluded to is 
 the remorseless violence to which the Irish church has long 
 resorted for the extortion of tithes from the Irish people,— a 
 
 * Hamilton's Tables, Ridgeway, 1835 — The Irish Church, Ridgeway, 
 183G. 
 
18 
 
 li) 
 
 violence often exercised by military, or armed police, — and 
 which, after sparing neither age nor sex, after tearing from 
 the hovels of the peasantry the last comforts remaining to 
 them, and not shrinking even from blood, has dared to call 
 for still more soldiery, till it has drawn down the just rebukes 
 of the government itself. Yes, Ireland has exhibited the un- 
 natural, the monstrous spectacle of the professed ministers of 
 Jesus calling for the soldiery, and of the civil power refusing 
 and rebuking the call. The following remarks, from the pea 
 of an intrepid minister of the church of P2ngland, deserve to 
 be universally known, and the more so as their author does 
 not even profess any partiality towards Dissenters. Having 
 been invited by letter from an ecclesiastical superior to con- 
 tribute to the necessities of the Irish clergy, he thus replies : 
 — " As one of the clergy to whom your letter in the Here- 
 ford Journal is addressed, I answer your call ; but at the 
 same time I feel myself bound to declare, (and I do so 
 with pain and with sorrow of heart ; but the occasion allows 
 me not to remain silent, or to disguise my sentiments,) 
 that I have no compassion for the Irish clergy, who ap- 
 pear to me to have had no compassion on the unhappy 
 people in the midst of whom they are established, — estab- 
 lished, I grieve to say, not as ministers of good, but as 
 ministers of ill ; or, if here and there, one and another, of a 
 little good, yet universally of much more ill, — and are placed 
 there upon a footing, and have adopted or consented to a 
 principle of maintenance, that, so applied, completely alters 
 the nature of the establishment, and changes it from Chris- 
 tian to imchristian, inhuman, impious, (before God, and I 
 think, weighing things in his balance, I can form no other 
 judgment!) and makes it impossible for such an institution 
 to be of Him, or to be sanctioned by Him, who gave author- 
 ity to his ministers to this extent, — no farther, — that they 
 should receive of men's carnal things in return for their spiri- 
 tual thinors, — and who has commanded all men to do unto 
 others as they would that others should do unto them. Never- 
 theless, Sir, thougli I have no compassion for the Irish clergy, 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 J. 
 
 — or, at least, though whatever compassion I have for them 
 is mingled with feelings of a very different kind, — though I 
 regard the establishment to which they belong as an odious 
 and a guilty establishment, maintained upon an odious and a 
 guilty principle, and regard them, through their acquiescence 
 in that principle, and indeed identification of themselves with 
 it, as individually partaking in its guilt, and meriting to share 
 in its odium, — and though in their late emergency they have 
 not scrupled to appeal to the sword for relief, and might 
 justly, therefore, be left to such relief as the sword can bring, 
 — yet, in deference to your authority, and to that of the 
 bishop, I answer your call with such contribution as my 
 means enable me to offer. . . The point betw^een us is 
 nothing else, is nothing less, than this, — Whether the estab- 
 lished church in Ireland be a Christian church, whether its 
 ministry be a Christian ministry, or not ? I argue the nega- 
 tive, that it is not; and that they are not, upon this ground, 
 
 because that church has accepted at the hands of man a law 
 contradictory to the law of Christ, — an immoral, unjust, and 
 uncharitable law, — contradictory to, and destructive of, the 
 moral, just, and charitable law given to it by Christ for its 
 direction in such matters, — that by so doing it has abjured 
 Christ, and can be considered no longer, and in truth is no 
 longer, Christian, but is thereby become entirely a thing of 
 that world whose law it has preferred to the law, whose pa- 
 tronage it has preferred to the patronage of, and for whose 
 sake it has denied and forsaken, its divine Master. The law 
 objected to is the law of tithe, — not the law of tithe in itself, 
 but that application or misapplication of the law of tithe, 
 whereby not only is the tithe received from those who are in 
 communion with the church to which the tithe is paid, (and 
 so far Christianity permits,) but whereby tithe is exacted, 
 reluctantly and violently exacted, from those who hold no 
 communion with the church that thus exacts their tithe of 
 them. This to do, and to persevere in doing, appears to me 
 to unchristianize the church doing it, and to unchristianize, 
 or manifest that he is not Christian,— that he knows not, 
 
120 
 
 feels not, the force of CliristianitV} — every minister of that 
 eliurch, consenting to, abiding by, partaking in, the unchris- 
 tian, ungodly, and inhuman deed of his church." * 
 
 This language may be thought strong; but it is forced by 
 a conviction of its truth, from an honest man, prejudiced by 
 education, habit, and interest, in favour of the Episcopalian 
 church. Indeed the moral results of the identifying of Irish 
 Episcopacy with Protestantism, can hardly be too strongly 
 put. Let us but place ourselves in the circumstances of 
 Irishmen, arid examine what the effect must be on their 
 minds. So many archbishoprics, and bishoprics, deaneries, 
 archdeaconries, prebendaries, juecentorships, parish unions, 
 &c. — places known from time immemorial as prepared stalls 
 for the wild steeds of the aristocracy to fatten in, — shepherds 
 without flocks, — pay without labour, — tithes for those whose 
 existence was never submitted to the ocular inspection of 
 the tithe-payers, — pluralities all the land over, — oppression, 
 — spoliation, — violence by proctors, — violence by police, — 
 violence by soldiers ; — and all this in order to the Christian- 
 ity and Protestantism of Ireland ! Well may Britons blush 
 for such a Protestantism, such a Christianity. But if the 
 Irish are men, if they reason with human faculties, if human 
 feelings stir witliin them, what must be the effect on them, 
 their opinions and circumstances considered, of this union of 
 Protestantism and Christianity with such a system in the law 
 and nomenclature of the country ? In their circumstances 
 can they help exclaiming, " If this be Protestantism, if this 
 be Christianity, better for us that Christianity and Protes- 
 tantism had never visited our shores?" 
 
 Indeed one wonders how by possibility such a system 
 should have stood so long ; how this Colossus of evil has not 
 long since been struck and shivered by the angry lightnings 
 of heaven, or thrown to the earth by some violent commotion 
 
 • * A Series of Letters, touching the Cluirch of England and Ireland, 
 addressed to the Dean of Hereford, Earl Grey, the Archbishop of Dub- 
 lin, &c. &c. by the Rev. Maurice James, B.D., Rector of Pcmbridge, 
 Herefordshire.' — London : Simpkins & Co. 1835. 
 
 r 
 
 I 
 
 t 
 
 21 
 
 of the Irish people. Well might Lord Morpeth express him- 
 self to this effect, in proposing his plan for the diminution of 
 the evil, as he is reported to have done in the House of Com- 
 mons, that if the Irish Episcopalian church were not there de 
 facto, no man would propose that it should now be placed 
 there. 
 
 Scottish Christians, what is your judgment of Protestant 
 associations intended to assail popery in Ireland through the 
 medium of this Episcopalian church ? Should not the Chris- 
 tians of Scotland, in consistency and fidelity, first of all j)ro- 
 claim to the churchmen of Ireland, " Before you enter the 
 lists with popery, reform yourselves. Your constitution is 
 antichristian, and is a very copy of the hierarchy you oppose. 
 We dare give no sanction to your offices and your powers, ve 
 bishops and archbishops ! You have sold yourselves to the 
 State ; you call a secular prince your head ; you swear sub- 
 jection to the king in all causes ecclesiastical ; and we could 
 not look with tranquillity to the judgment-seat, had we any 
 approving sympathy with those who thus profane the hon- 
 our of our only King, even Jesus, the Son of God. Your 
 whole institution is overrun with superstition; your feasts 
 and your fasts; your saints' days and your other holidays; 
 your vain repetitions,— your delusive rites, — are not of Christ, 
 but of Rome. Ye are men of bigotted intolerance; ye have 
 really or virtually excommunicated the churches of the 
 Redeemer; and never have ye held out to us the right 
 hand of brotherhood, — never have ye rendered your pulpits 
 accessible to the most venerable and gifted of our minis- 
 ters, — never have ye condescended to notice us but with 
 contempt, till your idol the State has begun to alarm you 
 with its frowns, or till fell hunger has humbled you. Ye 
 are men of violence, ye are men of blood. Nor can we 
 hesitate to say, that, to such as you, we must apply these 
 terrific words of the prophet, spoken in the name of Jehovah: 
 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, 
 and say nnfo them, Thus saith the Lord God vnfo the shep- 
 herds, IVoe l)e to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! 
 
 u 
 
 m 
 
22 
 
 should not the shepherds feed the flocks ? Ye cat the fat, and 
 ye clothe you with the ivool, ye kill them that are fed : but ye 
 feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, nei^ 
 ther have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye hound 
 up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that 
 which tvas driven away, neither have ye sought that which was 
 
 lost ; but with force and with cruelty have ye rided them, 
 
 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; As I live, 
 saith the Lord God, Behold I am against the shepherds ; and 
 I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease 
 from feeding the flock ; neither shall the shepherds feed them- 
 selves any ?nore ; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, 
 that they may not be meat for them. — Ezek. xxxiv. 1 — 10. 
 We dare not, tlieii, slander true Protestantism by identifying 
 your interests with its prosperity, or by ranking you with its 
 enlightened friends. We cannot look upon you as qualified 
 to advance Scriptural Protestantism in Ireland. We reiter- 
 ate in your ears the language of our forefathers, which is 
 still ours, — not the establishment, but the removal of your 
 prelacy is « the most powerful mean, by the blessing of God, 
 for settling and preserving the true Protestant religion, with 
 perfect peace in his Majesty's dominions, and propagating the 
 same to other nations, and for establishing his thrme to all ages 
 and generations,' '* 
 
 Still, let us not shut our ears to the soft whispers of char- 
 ity, in favour of this uncharitable church of Ireland. Of 
 " tlie excellent," the men of worth, whom even that system 
 still continues unhappily to attract to it, (how melancholy 
 is the power of a vicious system over even good men!) we 
 dare only suggest, whether this benevolent call of heaven 
 does not indicate with sufficient clearness their duty, " Cmne 
 out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and 
 that ye receive not of her plagues.'' 
 
 X 
 
 The attitude which these associations assume towards the 
 great body of Protestant Dissenters is as fantiistic us can well 
 
 2;3 
 
 be imagined. They stand still statelier, they frown still 
 more awfully, they look more of the horrible and unutterable, 
 towards Dissenters than Papists. Scottish Presbyterians have 
 imported the slang of Oxford and Cambridge, and with so- 
 lemn grimace pass the word « Dissenters, Papists, and Infi- 
 dels.' That Dissenters and Papists have coalesced is now 
 their incessant cry. Coalesced in what? If coincidence in 
 some things, or many things, be coalescence, have not they 
 themselves coalesced with papists ? Do they part with their 
 noses, or put out their eyes, because papists choose to wear 
 these facial ornaments? Do they refuse to eat, and drink, 
 and sleep, lest they should coalesce with papists in these cor- 
 poreal indulgences ? Will they renounce the Bible because 
 papists hold it ? or will they keep Saturday holy lest they 
 should coincide with papists in keeping Sunday ? The Dis- 
 senters coalesce with Papists ! What? in receiving the doo-- 
 mas of the Catholic faith, in observing the peculiar rites of the 
 Catholic worship ! If one is desirous of finding Protestant 
 churches abounding with symbols of the Roman Catholic 
 superstition, where shall they be found? His Grace the 
 archbishop, my Lord the bishop, crosses, altars, consecrated 
 pictures, consecrated edifices, consecrated burial-grounds, 
 human absolutions, human anathemas, a man or a woman the 
 head of the Christian church, human authority in matters of 
 religion, violence and blood associated with the Christian 
 name,— where are these to be found? The simplicity of 
 worship among the Protestant Dissenters, — their united and 
 consistent adherence to the great principle, that God alone 
 is Lord of the conscience, and that no man, or body of men, 
 may dictate to their fellow-men in matters of religion, — their 
 careful abstinence from every practice peculiar to Roman 
 Catholics, — their struggles in the cause of civil and religious 
 freedom, and the almost unanimous support they have given 
 to every ministry favouring popular rights and the general 
 good, from the days of the Puritans down to this hour, are 
 matters of history or observation. Oppressed themselves, the 
 Dissenters cannot but sympathize with the oppressed, cannot 
 
•24 
 
 but sigh for the breaking of the rod of every oppressor, and 
 cannot, therefore, but sympathize with their long-wronged 
 and cruelly-oppressed Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in 
 Ireland. Nor, we believe, is there any other expedient than 
 the one now proposed by Dissenters, and for which the coun- 
 try will quickly call, for avoiding one of two evils, — either 
 the pensioning of the Roman Catholic clergy, which would 
 be a virtual establishment of popery, — or the transferring, by 
 resistless necessity, the Irish church establishment to the Ro- 
 man Catholic church, its original and only rightful possessor. 
 If you endow the Episcopalian minoritv, how can you refuse 
 endowment to the Roman Catholic majority ? If an eccle- 
 siastical establishment, at the expense of Ireland, must be 
 kept up, has not Ireland the right, and is the day remote 
 when she shall have the power, to say. Then give that es- 
 tablishment to the religious denomination that includes, ac- 
 cording to your own showing, nine-tenths of the Irish people? 
 The Irish church, it is plain enough, is a machine ready-made 
 for the hands of the Roman Catholics. The nation has the 
 right to say to the few at present working it, for their own 
 purposes, " Step out, we wish to send in new hands, and to 
 employ this machine for the purposes of the nation." Remove 
 the machine, and its reconstruction will not be attempted, or 
 will be found impracticable.* 
 
 * The endowment of the Roman Catholic church in Ireland, and in 
 Britain too, may be brought forward as a legislative measure, (if the plead- 
 ings for additional church-endowments are listened to,) much sooner than 
 many are aware of. The plea of equity will be irresistible with a majority 
 of the members of the House of Commons. Then as to the allef^ed im- 
 piet?/ of the measure, they will be at no loss to find very strong grounds 
 for self-defence. They will be able to show that the Episcopalian churcli 
 resembles, in many important points, the Roman Catholic church ; that, 
 in the recorded judgment of some eminent Episcopalian divines, the dif- 
 ference is not great ; and they will plead, tliat, to Ireland generally, the 
 latter is more acceptable and suitable than the former. They can not 
 only point to a Unitarian synod, pensioned in Ireland, but to a pen- 
 sioned Roman Catholic seminary there likewise. Still more, they can 
 refer to a Popish established church in our own empire, against which 
 (probably on the ground of its being an establishment,— a sister es- 
 
 *25 
 
 The political character of the associations is denied ; and 
 some of their members seem simple enough to imagine that 
 the country receives the denial. That some who have been 
 induced to join them are honest in this denial, there can be 
 no doubt. Besides, that some ladies and gentlemen well 
 stricken in years, of weak nerves, and weaker intellect, and 
 that not a few who are accustomed to form their opinions and 
 receive their impulses from the dictation of some religious 
 favourite and partizan, may persuade themselves that the 
 Protestant religion, nay, that Christianity itself, is in danger, 
 and that these precious associations are indispensable to the 
 safety of the one and of the other, we can believe. But 
 would these associations have been heard of, had a Tory 
 ministry ruled the nation,— had the profane commoners been 
 as averse as the godly peers, rudely to interfere with the Irish 
 church, — had the Irish question been the question ofasmallmi- 
 
 tablishment) even Protestant associations never petition ; and they may 
 argue most plausibly. If it is right to pension the professors at IVIay- 
 nooth, is it wrong to pension the priests through the country ? If 
 you do not object to salary those who teach the priests, how can you 
 object to extend the same indulgence to those who teach the people ^ 
 Popery is the same in Canada as in Ireland : if it is bad for Cana- 
 dians, it cannot be better for Irishmen ; and since you allow us to 
 establish popery there, why do you blame us if we do the same thin- 
 here ? Will they not say with great plausibility, do not mind the passing 
 clamours of churchmen— things are only bad with them till they are es- 
 tablished— they have been altogether quiet respecting popery in Canada ; 
 establish it, or pension it. in Ireland, and they will let it alone there also I 
 they will never propose to alieruate a thing so sacred as church property.— 
 Dr Chalmers, always abundantly gentle in speaking of popery, already 
 proposes to the Commissioners to pension the Dissenters— worse than pa- 
 pists in the estimation of many of his brethren. Is it possible that Dr 
 Chalmers can have worked up his mind to believe that British Dissen- 
 ters whose piety he eulogises, will abandon their convictions, and give 
 the he to their professions, by accepting, in any circumstances, much less 
 m this day of their advancing triumph, the bribe of a state pension ? 
 V\ hat will be the next day-dream of this most excellent and amiable man. 
 whose absurd and flitting visions are now scarcely less annoying to his 
 ecclesiastical friends, than they are perceptibly disturbing to his own 
 mind? 
 
 D 
 
'26 
 
 nority, not that of the cabinet, and of the ministerial majority ; 
 in a word, had these two systems of domination, coincident 
 and coalesced, Toryism and the Church, been safe ; and had 
 Lord Melbourne and the Irish bill been disposed of? Are 
 there ten men among them, among their leaders at least, who 
 would not exult, could the bill and the ministry be crushed ; 
 and who do not in their heart believe that in proportion 
 as these associations prevail, the chances multiply against 
 liberal measures and a liberal ministry ? Is there an Orange 
 and Protestant ascendancy man in all Ireland, who does not 
 look to these British associations as allies? Was the case 
 put with much exaggeration by Sir J. Campbell, that the 
 recommendation for parochial associations was tantamount to 
 recommending the formation of Orange lodges in every par- 
 ish in Scotland ? 
 
 Should the wishes of these men succeed, are they prepared 
 for the result? Do they, in their infatuation, imagine 
 that Ireland, roused, and, to a great extent, united, can 
 be coerced and trodden under foot, for the support of its 
 obnoxious church, much longer with safety? The very 
 hope of partial release, — the presence of that enlightened 
 representative of the sovereign, who, by the justice and im- 
 partiality of his administration, has been hailed as an omen 
 of good to Ireland, — and above all, the magic though peri- 
 lous influence (perilous in any subject) of that extraordinary 
 man, who seems at this moment, under Providence, to wield 
 the destinies of that country, have diffused among Irishmen 
 a disposition to tranquillity, which in no period of her his- 
 tory, since her connexion with Britain, has Ireland known. 
 But if those hopes be blasted, — if every prospect of relief by 
 the government close on this ill-fated island,— if those whom 
 Ireland looks upon as her hereditary enemies, the foster- 
 fathers of her innumerable abuses, the perpetuators of all her 
 wrongs, be brought back to that power which Ireland has so 
 long detested, — if this temporary tranquillity be broken, and 
 the spirit of the nation break forth in its fury, who shall 
 withstand its force? It will sweep like a hurricane over the 
 
 27 
 
 face of the land; and Orange ascendancy, and Protestant as- 
 cendancy, and above all, this hated Irish church establish 
 ment, will be driven like chaff before it. 
 
 Upon the whole, we consider these Protestant Associations, 
 m the relation m which we have been considering them 
 as bad in principle, and in tendency mischievous. We call on 
 our countrymen to repel them with decision. If you wish to 
 weaken popery, do it by means in which there shall be no 
 recogmtion of the Irish church system, no fraternizing with 
 It Let Protestants protest against this system, more loudly. 
 If possible, than against popery, as it does more injury to 
 true Protestantism, than popery has it in its power to do. 
 Let them employ either such means as the various denomina- 
 lons of Protestants use separately; or, which is better, such as 
 they may consistently co-operate in employing, but without im- 
 plicating themselves directly or indirectly, in the unrighteous- 
 ness, the violence, and the abominations of the Irish church. 
 -As for the peril of these associations, in this country, 
 that arises chiefly from the feverish and unsettled state of pub- 
 lie affairs, when events in themselves, and in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, of no importance, may aggravate symptoms, and 
 hurry on a crisis. Otherwise we regard them as the most 
 arrant politico-religious hoax ever attempted to be practised 
 on the people of this country; who, we doubt not, will soon 
 re-echo the sentiments of their forefathers, that the ovei- 
 tHrow of prelacy, Irish prelacy pre-eminentl)^ allied with 
 
 power, IS "THE MOST POWERFUL MEAN, BY THE BLESSING OF 
 ^OD, FOR SETTLING AND PRESERVING THE TRUE ProTES- 
 TANT RELIGION, WITH PERFECT PEACE, IN HIS MaJESTY's 
 dominions, and propagating the same to OTHER NA- 
 TIONS, AND FOR ESTABLISHING HIS MaJESTY's THRONE TO 
 ALL AGES AND GENERATIONS." 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 lULLABTON AND to., FHI.\TI;RS, TILIAFIELn.