all the essentials of true Christianity. If the Establishment falls, we must fall with it. The same unsparing axe will cut down the oak, and the ivy which clings to its trunk. "We ought moreover to consider, that not the Protestants of England alone are concerned in this measure. Through this attempt to amalgamate Popery into the Government of England, the whole system of Protestantism is threatened. Of how great importance the conduct and government of this country are to the liberties and happiness of Europe at large, the progress and termination of the late eventful war sufficiently demonstrate. But this Government derives its vigour from being ESSENTIALLY AND ENTIRELY PROTESTANT. Should the councils and politics of England again become shackled by Catholic interference, her influence, her pre-eminence, nay, her very existence as an independent nation, must totter from its foundations. "Has the Reformation at length caused Protestants to forget the great principle of the Reformers, and the hardness of that iron bondage from which they were made the instruments of delivering us? Are the oppressions and cruelties of the Romish Hierarchy blotted out from the page of history? Are they not, on the contrary, written in letters of blood, freshened up as it were on purpose, at this important crisis, by the re-establishment of the Inquisition, and the restoration of the Order of Jesuits? "But we have been living at ease. The privileges of this happy country seem to have lulled us into forgetfulness. We seem not to be aware, that for that peaceful and tolerant intercourse with Catholics, at home and abroad, to which we have been accustomed, we are indebted, not to the spirit of Popery, but to that of Protestantism alone. And hence we have used ourselves to look upon Popery as children look on a Leopard in Exeter Change; admiring its apparent docility and obedience to its keeper, and pleased with the sleek and dotted appearance of its skin, but un mindful of the sharp claws which curl under its paw, the cruel armature of its jaws, and the fierce spirit which resides within, and waits only for convenient circumstances to display itself. "But under whatever veil of innocence and mildness this corrupt Hierarchy may be shrouded, there is one test which our Reformers applied to it, of which we are now particularly called upon to avail ourselves; and which, like the spear of Ithuriel, will make it instantly appear in its real character. That test is THE BIBLE-THE BIBLE; -For no falsehood can endure Par. Lost, B. iv. 811. "The Bible is that sharp two-edged sword, with which our forefathers fought and conquered for themselves and for us. To this are we indebted for our deliverance from tyranny and superstition. Had they not wielded this empyreal weapon, they would only, like the French Revolutionists, have established one corrupt system on the ruins of another, But wearing this armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, they wrought at length that glorious Constitution under which we live-a Constitution, of which the end and the means are alike pure, because the Scriptures are embodied in its laws and form the basis of its Government.' "Now, we have only to read the Bulls issued by the present Pope concerning the circulation of this blessed Book, on which all our peculiar happiness as Britons is founded, as on its corner-stone, to see the immensity of the danger into which we must inevitably be brought, should power again revert into such frightful hands. For, it is Power, and not Liberty, that the Catholics seek. It is not freedom to wor ship Gop, but influence to govern men, which they want. It is not to reason, but to rule, that they aim. And with what sceptre will they rule? Not with the sceptre of the Bible, that sceptre of righteousness, that right sceptre, which is the sceptre of the MESSIAH." He says, in conclusion, "It is utterly impossible that persons holding such opinions should ever harmonize with Protestants in any extensive system of political administration. For religious principles must bear upon every important point of discussion in government and in law-it is impossible to detach them. The attempt must be vain. The readmission of the adherents of Popery into power, therefore, would be destructive of all that free and liberal communication which subsists between men agreed and at rest on the great essențial principles relating to their conduct in this life, and their hopes of that which is to come; and who have therefore no cause to distrust each other on points of the heaviest responsibility. But in a mixture of two parties, one of which assumes to itself the exclusive inheritance of salvation, and considers the other as in the way to everlasting perdition,-it must be contrary to the nature of man, and to all the reason of things, to expect or to hope for that entire and cordial co-operation in the government of the State, which is absolutely essential to peace within, to respect without, and to the continuance of all that is most dear to conscientious Protestants of every name." See a masterly Letter, signed MELANCTHON, p. 67, Antibiblion. In another place, the same able and very spirited writer judiciously observes; "That the British Constitution owes its chief perfection and greatness to the influence of the Reformation (which we are to recollect was both a reformation from the errors, and a deliverance from the domination, of Popery), is a proposition, of which no doubt can be reasonably entertained. It was the Reformation which gave to Britain that lofty and independent spirit which has made her shine forth as the arbiter, instead of being a make-weight in the scale, of European politics: England, since that time, has hurled defiance against all Powers that have attacked her, because she has loudly exclaimed in the ears, and to the dismay of them all * Je crains DIEU, et je n'ai point d'autre crainte.' "The power of the Catholic priesthood over their flocks is not faithfully represented when it is called a mere Spiritual power, because it is supported by penal sanctions. The penances they may inflict, and the privations they may enjoin, are in fact corporal punishments; and punishments in themselves as rigorous and severe as many of those adopted in military discipline. Commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth, they exercise a power and possess an influence, not less inconsistent with civil liberty, than with the principles of unsophisticated Christianity. Were equal restriction and rigour enforced by civil authority in any case without the most absolute necessity, how many voices would be lifted up against it? It is true, that, in a sense, submission may be considered as voluntary here. But this only shows the slavery of the mind under ignorance and superstition; and it demonstrates the utter discordance of such a system with the true principles of British freedom. That system, which gives influence enough to one description of men, to make others forego their food and punish their own bodies at their priestly orders, is too unsafe to be allowed a sway again in a country once delivered from its tyranny. "When also to this power in the hands of the Catholic Clergy is added that of interdicting the study of the Bible, and the consequent concealment of so large a field of intellectual matter from the contemplation of their flocks, the Spiritual dominion which the one exercise and the other en dure, becomes still more awful. To argue from the physical force men have exerted in the field, under the direction of skilful Commanders, to the moral strength of their intellect, as if the former were conclusive of the latter, would be an absurdity scarcely worth refuting. For the former, they merit those rewards which a grateful country rejoices to bestow, and that confidence in their prowess which they have so amply deserved. But their Spiritual courage and strength is not yet proved: when it is, they will cast away those mental bands by which their eyes are closed to the Scriptures of truth, and their feet restrained from the pursuit of knowledge. Till these fetters are broken, and their minds are unshackled, they cannot be eligible to power, in a country which owes the whole salubrity of its moral climate to the healthy and invigorating atmosphere of religious freedom." LETTER XXV. SIR, I SHOULD not do justice to my subject, nor to a writer who addressed you in July 1817, in the Fifth Number of a work from which my last extracts are made, if I did not openly call upon you for a moment's calm attention to his epistle, which I suppose has not yet met your eye, as it has never been, either publicly or in private, noticed by you. LUTHER'S LETTER TO WM. WILBERFORCE, Esq. M. P. "There is a false and prurient species of CHARITY which, however specious in appearance, and however common at the present moment, is but the bastard and counterfeit of another, and a nobler principle. If the Charity which would affect to comprise the whole world, at the same time overlooks and despises the claims of its |