stances of converted priests, the same pains seem to be uniformly taken, either for exposing real delinquencies, of which the church must have been aware before they left its pale, or for inventing such charges, as may tend to injure their characters and mar their usefulness. The great object of Satan, my dear friends, is to weaken or destroy Christianity; and his most subtle and successful expedient for effecting his purpose has been, to persuade men to substitute the dominion of the church (enshrined as she is in the metropolis of the Cæsars, and encompassed by pomp and pageantry resembling that of the heathen despots) for the authority of the Bible. It is through this channel alone, that such novelties as willworship and voluntary humility could have been engendered, and that the simplicity and sanctity, which are reflected from every page of God's Word, could have been supplanted or superseded by human fables and fabrications. Christianity, my friends, is an angel of light, whom the Romish magicians, by their enchantments, transform into a demon of darkness. God and the Pope, divine revelation and human tradition, are wholly antagonistic to each other; for what concord hath Christ with Belial? The Papist argues as if the church, in its infancy, spake as a child, understood as a child, and thought as a child. So far as the inspired record extends, there was no Mariolatry, no invocation of dead saints, no beads, no bones, no chrism, no extreme unction; but when she attained maturer years, she put away childish things, such as the all-sufficiency of the one sacrifice of Christ, and the necessity of an exclusive reliance on his all-prevailing mediation. No wonder that the votaries of Rome dread the Bible, and raise the cry, The church is in danger! whenever the Scripture standard is unfurled. They are right, and their witness is true—their church is in jeopardy every hour, whenever the Bible is allowed to have fair play. Their church is in danger, just as, if despotism ever unhappily prevailed in this country, the state would be in danger from the free circulation of Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights. The Scriptures must not be read without a licence; because heresy, in the eyes of Rome, is a mortal sin, which the Bible, without the aid of Popish spectacles, may lead an unstable reader to commit. But treason against a Protestant sovereign is not a mortal, or perhaps even a venial sin, in the jurisprudence of Romish theology; and therefore we do not find in the Index, placed in juxtaposition with the prohibited Bible, the bulls of Gregory XIII., or Sixtus V., or many similar impious anathemas, by which heretical or disobedient princes have been degraded and deposed. These may be read with impunity, because the doctrines which they promulgate, however (or should I not rather say, because ?) diametrically opposed to the Word of God, tend to foster the arrogance, and promote the aggrandisement, of Rome,-doctrines, it may be added, which, though sometimes timidly and awkwardly repudiated by a few lay Papists, have never, by any Pope ex cathedra, been formally abrogated or publicly disowned. I should be glad to hear any Roman Catholic stand up in either House of Parliament, and acknowledge, that when Pius IV. excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, he committed a mortal sin by issuing such a bull. I believe, that it would be as necessary to get a dispensation from the ordinary for making such a declaration, as to obtain a licence for reading that Book, in which it is declared, that the powers that be are of God. If this wicked and antichristian Pope was guilty of mortal sin by commanding subjects to violate a law so solemnly proclaimed by God, and so peremptorily binding upon man, can any Papist prove, that he ever acknowledged his transgression, or did public penance for his public outrage, on the first principles of morality and religion? The condition and feelings of the Roman people under the grinding despotism of the Cæsars, bear a strong and striking analogy to the profound sense of servitude and abasement, which they have for ages : ; cherished, whilst groaning beneath the sacerdotal yoke. Pontifical as well as imperial statues have been levelled to the ground by an exasperated population. The unavailing efforts made after the deaths of sceptred tyrants, such as Caligula and Nero, and occasionally at later periods, to recover the liberties of the mistress of the world, have sometimes found their counterpart during the dreary ages of antichristian usurpation. Brilliant, though, alas! brief, was the triumph achieved by the heroic valour of ardent patriotism in our day, and permanent success would have crowned their exertions, had it not been for the guilty intervention of "that bitter and hasty nation, which marched through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that were not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful their judgment and their dignity proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen spread themselves, and come from far they fly as the eagle which hasteneth to eat. They come all for violence. Their faces sup up as the east wind, and they gather the captivity as the sand. And they scoff at the kings, and the princes are a scorn unto them they deride every stronghold; for they heap dust, and take it."-(Hab. i. 6-10.) I am thoroughly convinced, my dear friends, that the Bible is the only weapon, by which Italy can be emancipated from her protracted and ignominious thraldom, and Antichrist hurled from his usurped and blood-stained throne. As long as the weapons of her warfare are only carnal, her noblest and most energetic patriots will fight and bleed in vain. Italy may be said to lie like Lazarus in the grave—a grave, which was dug for her by native priestcraft and foreign oppression. Her noblest sons can only exclaim, as Thomas did, "Let us also go that we may die with her;" for none but Christ can say, "Thy country shall rise again." I fear, my friends, that this is a solemn truth, which many champions of their buried country require still to learn; but they will ere long perceive more clearly the connection-the inseparable connection-between slavery and superstition, and say, when reverently prostrate at the feet of Him, who, in respect to nations as well as individuals, alone is the resurrection and the life," Lord, if thou hadst been here, our country had not died." Then, and not till then, when He has been recognised and revered by them (as He is by us) as the Supreme and only Head of the true and living Church, to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth, and who will not delegate his glory to another, and when the stone of unbelief has been removed from the mouth of the grave,-then, I say, and not till then, will He cry with a loud voice, "Italy, come forth!" And blessed, thrice blessed, shall the nations be, whom He may condescend to employ as auxiliaries in this holy and honourable service; while the mitred murderers and barbarous mercenaries, who fondly dreamt, that they had made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch, will shrink back with dismay, when they hear the voice of incarnate Omnipotence exclaiming, "Loose her, and let her go!" III. -CORRUPTION AND BASENESS ATTENDANT ON PAPAL THE manner, in which the papal election is conducted, and the motives by which the cardinals, on whose suffrages the choice depends, are actuated, constitute another ground, on which Protestants deem it impossible to recognise the supremacy or the sanctity of Rome. The conclave has often, or even generally, been the scene of the basest and most complicated intrigues, of the most sordid and hypocritical selfishness, of the most barefaced and lavish corruption. The principal Popish sovereigns give the most peremptory instructions to the cardinals, who are connected with their respective dominions, as to the course which they shall pursue, in regard both to supporting or excluding the various candidates; so that, although the Holy Ghost is nominally invoked to preside over their deliberations, political and worldly considerations form the mainspring of all their proceedings. "There is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue."-(Ps. v. 9). Weeks, months, nay, even years, have been frequently consumed in the most virulent contests, or the most venal negotiations; and the result has been, on many occasions, that, instead of carrying out the principle laid down by an illustrious heathen, detur dignissimo, the successive "vicars of Christ" have proved to be the vilest and most vicious of mankind. And this system of venality, dissimulation, and worldly-mindedness, must ever continue to prevail, until "the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery."-(Job xv. 34.) There is scarcely a page of the work entitled "Conclavi de Pontifici Romani," which does not fully bear out this assertion. I shall content myself with translating, and somewhat abridging, by way of specimen, an account of the election, which took place in 1484, not omitting, however, some very striking preliminary remarks, which throw light upon the wicked and unprincipled character of the pontiff, whose death occasioned the vacancy. "On the 10th August our most holy lord, Pope Sixtus IV. was seen in the evening with clasped hands, and very sad. The next day the ambassadors of the confederates came to him, thinking, perhaps, that they brought him some glad tidings, and explained to him, that peace was concluded throughout all Italy, and that all the princes of the League and Confederation were brought into a state of concord, at which he was much astonished, and wondered, that peace was concluded without him, because, as he said, he should have taken the lead in the |