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views. They would use public meetings to excite interest, by means of that interest they would circulate their publications. The instruments so effectual to scatter falsehood, they would employ to diffuse truth. Of the efficacy of these means, we may speak with the confidence of experience.* It is now three years and a half since the first Protestant Association was formed. It began in London, in June, 1835. Since that time, many other Protestant Associations have been formed in several towns; we may instance those of Worcester, Bristol, Manchester, Gosport, Clare, Bath, Guildford, Warrington, Hereford, Liverpool, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness. In all these cities public meetings have been held, at which sound principles have been exhibited. In many cases this has been followed up by the exertions of the clergy, who have delivered courses of lectures on the doctrines and tendency of Popery. It is no little praise to Protestant Associations that they have thus enlisted in this cause the services of these distinguished men. The third engine employed by Protestant Associations, is the daily press, which reports the proceedings of their meetings; a fourth is the circulation of pamphlets+ explaining their views, written and published by the Association; and a fifth is the employment of petitions to Parliament to bring sound principles under the review of the Legislature.

What is now required is, that the Associations already formed should persevere in these efforts; and that others should be established through the empire till it glows from the heart to the extremities with the warmth of sound principle.

There are only two objections at all deserving notice, which are made to Protestant Associations. On the one side they are charged as political. We have already anticipated this objection. In party politics, Protestant Associations take no concern, but in colouring the policy of Great Britain with Christian principles, they take a deep and intimate concern. It is their very object; as they contend, it is the duty of every man—of the layman and the Christian, the most especial duty.

The other objection is, that Protestant Associations excite opposition, and create irritation. This objection often proceeds from those who have for years been busy in diffusing false principles. So long as the channels of public communication were left in their hands no objection was offered. This was useful discussion. But the moment that others proceed to employ them for different purposes, they accuse them of irritating the public. This, however, is unfair; we bore with

* The London Protestant Association alone has circulated upwards of two hundred thousand publications.

A series of twenty pamphlets has been issued in London; eight in Glasgow. Several other pamphlets and reports of meetings in London, Liverpool, Hereford, Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, and Greenock, and besides those directly issuing from the Protestant Associations, a cloud of publications called for by the excited curiosity of the Protestant public. To enumerate them were wholly impossible. The London, Dublin, and provincial press has teemed with them. The Liverpool Association has circulated 12,000 tracts and 10,000 copies of lectures. The Glasgow Association has circulated 40,000; and these have spread to the heart of Lancashire on one side, and to the farthest Hebrides on the other.

them during their efforts, they must bear with ours. It is but right that both sides should be heard. Liberalism has pleaded long and loudly, lifting up her voice at the corners of every street: it is right that Protestant truth should also be heard. That attempts should be made to drown her voice we do not wonder, but we should indeed wonder if they prevailed. These attempts are contrary to that free discussion which Liberalism demands, but from which she now shrinks; yet it is right that we should insist upon it, for if our views are erroneous they may be refuted, and when fairly before the public the refutation is easy. We must place them before the public, having, as we confess, great confidence in their decision. Our only fear was, lest, long possessed with opposite sentiments, they should refuse us a hearing; now that they have begun to listen we have no fear of the issue. We shall proceed then in the discharge of our duty with a full reliance on our cause, only seeking from those who agree in our principles co-operation, and from those who question them a fair hearing.

In fine, a Protestant Association would unite those who deny the doctrines of Popery, of Voluntaryism, of Liberalism-who admit the truth of the Bible, the authority of the Bible, the duty of the State to obey the Bible;—who regard it to be the duty of a State to conform its policy to revealed truth, and to make truth known through the medium of an Established Church.

A Protestant Association embodies all who agree in these principles, though they may differ in other points. It directs the attention of the public to every measure of national policy, which it tests by Christianity, and it supports no party, and no measures which Christianity does not sanction.

It conceives this spirit to be the life of our Constitution, and the only one which, when received, can preserve it or make it worthy of being preserved.

We subjoin the fundamental principles of the London Protestant Association.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

I. That the influence of true religion over a people forms the best security for their individual rights, and the surest basis of national prosperity.

II. That the British Constitution acknowledges in its principle and laws the Sovereignty of Almighty God, and the Supreme Authority of his Holy Word, and has provided for the Scriptural Instruction of the people by its religious establishments.

III. That in opposition to this principle of the Constitution, doctrines have of late been propagated, that religion is unconnected with the duties of Legislation, that in the eye of the State all religions are alike—and that support should be equally given or denied to all.

IV. That under cover of these doctrines, the Members of the Church of Rome are zealously exerting themselves to destroy the Protestant character of the Constitution, and that the first object to which they direct their efforts, is the overthrow of the Established Churches, as forming the main obstacle to their ulterior designs.

V. That to counteract these efforts, all who venerate the Word of God, and value the British Institutions, should be called on to co-operate in pointing out to the people the peculiar dangers of the present time, and in taking measures to inspire them with a just sense of the blessings and benefits of the Protestant Constitution.

RULES.

I. That the Association be under the direction of a President, Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, and a Committee, not exceeding twenty-five, who shall have the power of appointing Secretaries.

II. That Annual Subscribers of Ten Shillings and upwards, and Donors of Five Guineas and upwards, assenting to the Fundamental Resolutions, be Members of the Association.

III. That a General Meeting of the Association shall be held at least once in every year.

IV. That the Committee be chosen annually, out of the Members of the Association.

V. That the Office-bearers be, ex officio, Members of the Committee. VI. That the Accounts of the Association be audited annually, by three Auditors, to be appointed at the Annual Meeting.

VII. That the Committee, of whom five shall be a quorum, shall have power to regulate all matters relating to their own Meetings, or those of the Association, to fill up vacancies in their body, and generally to conduct and manage the affairs and funds of the Association.

Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the objects of the Association will be received by the Treasurer, Robert Williams, Esq., 20, Birchin-lane; at the banking-houses of Messrs. Herries, Farquhar, and Co., 16, St. James's-street; and Messrs. Hoare, 37, Fleet-street: also, by the following booksellers:-Messrs. Rivington, 3, Waterloo-place, Pall-mall, and St. Paul's Church-yard; Messrs. Hatchard, 187, Piccadilly; Mr. Nisbet, Berners-street; Messrs. L. and G. Seeley, 169, Fleet-street; Mr. Dalton, Cockspur-street; Mr. Baisler, 124, Oxford-street; Mr. Shaw, 27, Southampton-row; Messrs. Forbes and Jackson, Islington-green; and by the Secretary, at the Office of the Association, No. 2, Exeter Hall.

Macintosh, Printer, 20, Great New-street, London.

ENGLAND

THE

FORTRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.

BY THE REV. G. CROLY, LL.D.,

RECTOR OF ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOK, LONDON.

(The Preface to "The New Interpretation of the Apocalypse.")

Twentieth Thousand.

THERE is the strongest reason to believe, that as Judæa was chosen for the especial guardianship of the original Revelation; England has been chosen for the especial guardianship of Christianity.

The original Revelation declared the one true God; Paganism was its corruption, by substituting many false gods for the true. The second Revelation, Christianity, declared the one true Mediator; Popery was its corruption, by substituting many false mediators for the true. Both Paganism and Popery adopted the same visible sign of corruption, the worship of images!

The Jewish history reveals to us the conduct of Providence with a people appointed to the express preservation of the faith of God. There every attempt to receive the surrounding idolatries into a participation of the honours of the true worship, even every idolatrous touch, was visited with punishment; and that punishment not left to the remote working of the corruption, but immediate, and, by its directness, evidently designed to make the nation feel the high importance of the trust, and the final ruin that must follow its betrayal.

A glance at the British history since the Reformation shows how closely this Providential system has been exemplified in England. Every reign which attempted to bring back Popery, or even to give it that share of power which could in any degree prejudice Protestantism, has been marked by signal calamity. It is a memorable circumstance, that every reign of this Popish tendency has been followed by one purely Protestant; and, as if to make the source of the national peril plain to all eyes, those alternate reigns have not offered a stronger

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contrast in their religious principles than in their public fortunes. Let the rank of England be what it might under the Protestant Sovereign, it always went down under the Popish; let its loss of dignity, or of power, be what it might under the Popish Sovereign, it always recovered under the Protestant, and more than recovered; was distinguished by sudden success, public renovation, and the increased stability. of the freedom and honours of the empire.

Protestantism was first thoroughly established in England in the reign of Elizabeth.

Mary had left a dilapidated kingdom; the nation worn out by disaster and debt; the national arms disgraced; nothing in vigour but Popery. Elizabeth, at twenty-five, found her first steps surrounded with the most extraordinary embarrassments; at home, the whole strength of a party, including the chief names of the kingdom, hostile to her succession and religion; in Scotland, a rival title, supported by France; in Ireland, a perpetual rebellion, inflamed by Rome; on the Continent, the force of Spain roused against her by the double stimulant of ambition and bigotry, at a time when Spain commanded almost the whole strength of Europe.

But the cause of Elizabeth was Protestantism: and in that Sign she conquered. She shivered the Spanish sword; she paralyzed the power of Rome; she gave freedom to the Dutch; she fought the battle of the French Protestants; every eye of religious suffering throughout Europe was fixed on this magnanimous woman. At home, she elevated the habits and the heart of her people. She even drained off the bitter waters of religious feud, and sowed in the vigorous soil, which they had so long made unwholesome, the seeds of every principle and institution that has since grown up into the strength of empire. But her great work was the establishment of Protestantism. Like the Jewish King, she found the Ark of God without a shelter; and she built for it the noblest temple in the world; she consecrated her country into its temple.

She died in the fulness of years and honour; the great Queen of Protestantism throughout the nations; in the memory of England her name and her reign alike immortal.

James the First inherited the principles, with the crown, of Elizabeth. His first act was, to declare his allegiance to Protestantism. From that moment Popery lost all power against him. It tried faction, and failed. It then tried conspiracy, and more than failed. Its conspiracy gave birth to the most memorable instance of national preservation, perhaps, in the annals of Europe. The gunpowder plot would have swept away the King, the Royal Family, the chief Nobles and Commoners of England at a blow. The secret was kept for a year and a half. It was never betrayed, to the last. It was discovered by neither treachery, nor repentance, and but on the eve of execution. Yet its success must have been national ruin. A Popish Government was to have been set up. The country, in its state of distraction and destitution, must have lain exposed to the first invader. The consequences were incalculable. The hand of God alone saved the throne and altar of England.

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