"The sinner's bonds unbind,

Our evils drive away."

So much for the office of the Virgin Mary. Here we find her regarded as an object of adoration, prayed to as our intercessor with God, and as being able to confer on us those blessings which Christ died to purchase for us. No one who is acquainted with the Word of God can have the effrontery to maintain that such doctrines have any foundation there. They are the cunning inventions of man to answer the basest of purposes-to arrogate a tyrannical sway over the conscience-to support the cause of spiritual ignorance—to aggrandise an artful priesthood, and to prop an ambitious hierarchy. Well may the priests refuse to their flocks the rights of exercising their judgment in perusing their books of devotion? The man who can believe such monstrous contradictions must first completely surrender his right of exercising the measure of common sense with which God has gifted him. Darkness is the proper element of the true sons of the Romish Church; and if the light that is in them be darkness, how great is that darkness ! In making our observations on this subject, we have no personal quarrel with Papists. In the various relations of life, we take them just as we take Protestants-as we find them. Their creed is a fair subject of free discussion.

CONCLUSION.

WE intend now to close our remarks on some points of the creed of the Romish Church. The peculiar dogmas of this Church have given rise to numberless controversies, of which not a few have been conducted, on both sides, in a spirit but too much at variance with that divine message which proclaims "peace on earth, and good will to the children of men." While the supporters of the Protestant faith have sometimes denounced the Romish creed, in toto, as containing nothing whatever which had the slightest claim on the adoption of rational beings; on the other hand, the advocates of Catholicism have not been slack to retort on their opponents charges of a similar nature, with at least an equal intensity of acrimonious feeling. In the present imperfect state of human nature, such consequences are more or less unavoidable in all disputes; but in controversies concerning subjects which, like religion, so deeply affect the present and future state of the contending parties, rousing every latent passion of the soul, and engaging the most stubborn prepossessions of moral and religious education, the spirit of overbearing zeal for a particular system of belief, operates with peculiar force. It were well if controversialists on all subjects

would bear in mind that every speculative error which boasts a multitude of advocates, has its golden as well as dark side; that there is always some truth connected with it, the exclusive attention to which has given it charms for the heart. In the remarks which we have ventured to offer on some points of Romish doctrine, we have endeavoured to avoid as much as possible any personal reference to those by whom such doctrines are held. We have been careful not to impute to Catholics other doctrines than such as we conceive to be contained in their own books. To enter into any elaborate discussion of these doctrines was quite foreign to our present purpose. We are far from indulging the vain hope of gaining over Catholics to the Protestant faith, but we do not despair of our success in warning unwary Protestants against being entrapped into a hasty adoption of the Romish creed. This is our principal object. The Catholics in this place have of late manifested an eager spirit of proselytising, and their efforts to make converts have been, in too many instances, crowned with success. This has been greatly owing to the interest excited by the musical part of the Catholic worship, and by the popular talents of one of the priests. If those Protestants who are so fond of frequenting St. Peter's are really dissatisfied with their own creed, we hope that, for their own sakes, this dissatisfaction is the result of a patient and

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candid examination of the doctrines of the Protestant faith. We hope that before they shall inquire into the soundness of the Romish creed they shall have good reason for condemning that in which they have been brought up. But, if they are satisfied with their own faith, let them stand fast by it, and, in this particular, at any rate, learn a lesson from the votaries of the Catholic Church. We proceed to make one or two extracts from the Romish "Vespers," as its title page bears. At page 215 we find the following :

"O Cross! brighter than all the stars, renowned throughout the world; more holy and lovely to men than all things; who alone wast worthy to bear the price of the world! Sweet wood! sweet nails, that bore so sweet a burthen! Save us here assembled to celebrate thy praises, Allel."

Now, let any person of common sense say what the above means, if words have any meaning at all. Is it not a prayer addressed to the wood of the cross which bore the Saviour, in terms as plain as can be devised? Could any stronger petition be offered up, mutatis mutandis, to the Saviour himself? Is not this very like the worshipping of stocks? What virtue can there be in a piece of wood? Do Papists say " It was the instrument of crucifying Jesus for the sins of the world?" Why, on a similar principle, we might adore Judas Iscariot, and with much better reason, for he was an

active agent in the death of Christ, whereas the cross was a mere passive instrument. We are forbidden to do evil that good may come, and is it likely that we should be required to pay homage to an evil agent which may have produced contingent good? At page 226 we find—

"O God, who didst translate blessed Dunstan, thy Bishop, to heavenly kingdoms, grant by his glorious merits, that we may pass from hence to endless joys. Thro'," etc.

What assurance is there that this same Dunstan is in heaven? How can his presence there be ascertained, except by revelation? Admitting him to be there, what authority have we for praying to him in particular? Is such authority to be found in Scripture? Here again we are to be saved partly by his glorious merits. Who was this Dunstan? We hope he was not the wretch of the same name who figures in the early period of English history. The mercy of God is doubtless unbounded, and is displayed in the salvation of the chief of sinners, but we should as soon think, humanly speaking, of canonising the great enemy of mankind himself as the infamous Dunstan. At page 299 we find

"O God! who hast crowned blessed King Edward, thy Confessor, grant, we beseech thee, that we may so honour him on earth as to reign with him hereafter in heaven,"