modern Romanists de-ire to draw an argument for purgatory; in fact, every text almost on which Protestants and Romanists litigate, was variously interpreted by various Fathers. Thus the Church of Rome asserts the insufficiency of the written word; and, whilst she offers herself to supply the Scriptures' insufficiency, and whilst we urge her to the performance of the task, she will not comply; and if she does attempt to do so, she comes before us with a shadow-she comes with some impalpable thing-she proves herself just loud and boastful to promise, lazy and helpless to perform."

Mr. Armstrong then went on to show how the Church of Rome, in the second place,

"Impugns the sufficiency of the written word, so does she derogate from the glory of the living Word; for we see from this Creed of Pope Pius, that in the justification of a sinner they add the doings of men to the perfect obedience of Christ-they add the penances and sufferings of men to the agonies which the Lord Jesus suffered on the accursed tree; and, in addition to this, they have dug a pit, even the pit of purgatory, into which they cruelly thrust, after death, poor souls to burn in fire, for the expiation of the guilt which Christ atoned for, and which is effectually and for ever removed by the application of his cleansing blood, and thus by her human merit, by her penances, and by her purgatory, has the Church of Rome altogether and completely shut out from sinners' view the salvation of the cross. Three elements she proposes to fill up the insufficiency of the written word, even the Scriptures; three elements she proposes to complete the work and righteousness of the living Word, even Christ; and, in the success of her plan and proposal, she has just brought out a triple plunder, a triple sacrilege perpetrated against God's sure word and against God's dear Son. Thirdly, this Creed, consistently enough with itself as the impugner of the Bible and the despoiler of Christ-this Creed which goes to invalidate for Christians their rule of faith, and corrupt for Christianity its most glorious doctrines, attempts, of course, the corruption of Christian worship, by mingling with the homage offered to the Creator, prayers, and praises, and prostrations to the creatures of his hand, teaching men to invoke the Virgin Mary, to invoke saints and angels, to pray before images and dead men's bones."

To substantiate what he said concerning the Romish corruptions of Christian worship, Mr. Armstrong read some awfully impious and absurd extracts from a book now in common use amongst the Romanists of Ireland, "The Devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus;" and he makes, with respect to his quoting these and other works of the same character, the following observations ;-

"I have not referred to those devotional books, which were in use in the Church of Rome before the Reformation, and which that Church now disclaims; but I have referred to books which Romanists now use to cherish and feed their devotional feelings, which may now be purchased, and which are in the widest circulation in this country, and in England, among Roman Catholics. If the Roman Catholic system be what the creed of Pope Pius presents it to us, what these books to which I have adverted set forth, the Protestant who cherishes not a desire to rescue poor Roman Catholics from that system of religion, can lay no claim to a knowledge of the Word of God, or of the value of an immortal soul, or of the glory of Christ's salvation, or of that pure and spiri ́tual worship which Jehovah requires; for in the same proportion, as you know and value these inestimable blessings, will be your anxiety to stand between Roman Catholics and those fatal errors, under the influence of which they live-it is our duty to attempt the salvation of their souls, even at the expense of the violation of their feelings."

He then combats the latitudinarians who would rest contented and leave

their Roman Catholic countrymen plunged irrevocably in the ruin of his own substitutions; and he defends the name and character of a proselytiser against their scoffs as follows. We must give the whole admirable passage at full length

"There is no word so offensive to Roman Catholic ears, and to some Protestants too, as the word 'proselytiser;' but if that man be called a proselytiser, who is disposed to convert people from a bad religion to a good one-from the deceits and errors of men to the truth of God—I do not know a more honourable appellation than that of a proselytiser. The prophets were such proselytisers-the martyrs and confessors were such pro selytisers-the mantle dropped by these men of God, when like Elijah they ascended the fiery car, we need not fear to take up, or be ashamed to wear. Jesus Christ himself, the Prophet and King of his people, was such a proselytiser, and so were his apostles; and those in the present day who are engaged in the same vocation, are the most honourable of all men. The man who makes no attempt to proselytise others to his religion, in effect says, that he has a religion which is not worthy of circulation. He is like the man who possesses bad money, who holds counterfeit coin, which he reasonably enough fears to circulate, just because he fears the wrath of the king, and the rope of the executioner. But the man who has the true coinage of the realm, and the command of a munificent monarch to distribute the same for the enrichment and happiness of his subjects, has no fear to embarrass, no impediment to restrain him. The men who have in their possession the council of God, which makes known the perfections of Jehovah, and the atonement of Jesus, for the salvation of men-such will go about to speak to their fellow-men of the great salvation of the cross-their work is honourable, and shall be acknowledged as such. Yes; when the wealth and the ambition of the worldling shall fade away and perish, and when he and his honours shall wither in the grave, those who have thus gone forth to publish the glad tidings of salvation, when they have finished their course, shall shine forth as the stars that God hath lighted up in the firmament of heaven. When the man who pried into the secrets of nature, who drank deep into all the mysteries of science, who explored the treasures of literature, but after all died in ignorance of the truths of revelation, will be sunk, with all his knowledge, in the blackness of darkness for ever; the proselytisers, of whom I speak, shall be found, when the thrones of this world shall crumble into dust, when all the emblems of human greatness shall perish, when the globe shall be dissolved, when the world shall pass away- they shall be found, I say, flourishing in immortal youth, and shall behold those whom they were instrumental in converting, as forming bright jewels in the diadem of their Redeemer. The man who knows the secret of the Lord, and who will not disclose it, send him to dwell with the solitary monk within the walls of a cloister-let him live with the misanthrope philosopher in his dark and cheerless cave-send him to the moles and to the bats, his ignoble kindred-he is unfit for society-he has no feelings within him which link him with the men of suffering that are around him, or with the God of benevolence who is above him-love to God does not inspire such a man's bosom, and to love for his brother man he surely is a stranger-he approximates to that world which, though full of inhabitants, is yet without mutual love and friendship's interchange--where none loves his fellow-where every one mourns under the weight of his own sorrow, without giving or receiving pity or sympathy. But Romanists are not so averse to proselytism as they affect to be: it is true, indeed, they are angry with us when we attempt it-they are quite prepared in every assembly where they can speak, to charge upon Protestant exertion for the circulation of the Bible all the teeming misery of our unhappy country. Let a Christian man set himself to alleviate, as far as his abilities can reach, the temporal and spiritual miseries of his country let him bring into a wretched district, which has nothing but its wretchedness to give it an attraction, rank, and wealth, and Christian principles, and compasionate feelings, and heroic devotedness to the public good-let him spend amongst the poorest of the people, and the most ignorant too, a life just employed for their temporal improvement, and spiritual instruction-let him wear out a spirit and a frame in their VOL. XI.

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service, that might have borne the approbation of the proudest civil assembly, and worn the thickest honours of the sternest battle-field-let him endeavour to walk as his Redeemer walked before him, amongst the poorest of the poor, for their temporal and spiritual amelioration-Roman Catholic calumny shall soon busy herself with his name~ the priest's ban shall denounce his person, and the laws of his country shall then be powerless to protect him-then shall be the outpouring of a spiritual necromancer's curse, and it shall be quickly followed by the uplifting of the assassin's arm, and the execution of the murderer's purpose. But this is not all--a mouthpiece of the Popish priesthood shall find his way to the nation's ear, and shall outrage all the Christianity and all the intelligence of the empire, by attributing the distresses and the demoralization of priestridden Ireland, to the establishment of Christian schools, and the circulation of the Bible. Yes, when the Christian philanthropist has been pistoled by the murdererwhen the Bible carried near his heart, has turned aside the bullet-when almost by a miracle the weapon is diverted from its course, just as it has pierced every leaf, and obliterated every page to the leaf on which the 17th of John's gospel pours forth the intercessory prayer of the Redeemer, then the murderous deed shall be excused, nay, applauded, and the devoted Christian shall be branded with the proselytiser's name, and loaded with his infamy. But while Roman Catholics declaim against our efforts to proselytise in this country, I am prepared to show that the greatest efforts are making by Roman Catholics to proselytise Protestants in England and Scotland. Roman Catholic aristocrats and priests are using every species of exertion which can be devised by men to advance their religion both in England and Scotland. In Scotland they are making every effort to locate swarms of professors, who shall ere long go forth, as wasps rob the bee-hives, to plunder Scotland of her honey of God's truth, and which is sweeter than her highland honey; they are doing all they can to spread Popery in the cities and plains of England; and to accomplish this, they are using means which no Protestant dare employ; but while they are so active, it behoves us to be active also. I witnessed in many places evidence of the greatest zeal on the part of Roman Catholics. I saw in Scotland the devotion of a Roman Catholic gentleman, who allocated property to an immense amount, for the establishment of a Popish college in the vicinity of Aberdeen. "In England, also, the Roman Catholics are not inactive, and I would praise them for their activity, if their measures were conducted in an honourable manner, which I shall prove they are not. In England and Scotland, Roman Catholics do not endeavour to establish their interests by the candid assertion of what their doctrines are, but rather by the denial of these doctrines. If they would honestly avow the recorded doctrines of her church, they could be easily refuted; but instead of that, they habitually modify, misrepresent, and deny them; they angle most warily, displaying the bait, but hiding the hook; they gain upon the confidence of the people, by holding out false colours, and firing signals of delusion: they do, indeed, present a system which much resembles the harlot's dwelling: externally, there is light, and the appearance of rejoicing; at the threshold is the proffer of peace and the semblance of friendship; but within is the den of impurity, and robbery, and murder-within is the paralysis of every affection, and the grave of every hope- within is the laboratory of every work of hell, and the sure and certain gangway to the dungeon keep of its every torment,

"In Cheltenham, there were seven or eight priests at our meeting. Our principal business in the controversy was, faithfully to contrast the Roman Catholic doctrines, as orally announced, with the written declarations of the church of Rome. We had the priests and the creed of Pope Pius-we had the priests and the breviary-the priests running away from the breviary, and the breviary running after the priests-we had the Douay catechim, and the catechism of the council of Trent, treated unceremoniously by the priests-in fact, not a document we produced that they did not deny; but at last, when they discovered that we knew more about these documents than they were aware, they retracted their original disclaimer, and admitted the validity of those documents which they were going to throw overboard altogether. Like those pirates or smugglers who convey away goods not their own, or goods unlawful, when they are pursued by the

king's frigate they throw them overboard-marking however well the place where they were thrown, that after the danger of the pursuit is over they may come again to haul them up. So it was with those priests; they threw away their breviaries, and canons, and councils; but in the cover of the night they would come back-they would come back, when they expected that we were unprepared and off our guard, to haul up again their bales of stolen and contraband goods. I never witnessed such disclaiming and redisclaiming-first proving, and then disproving; their inconsistency was truly astonishing."

"The Church of Rome confederates with infidels, as the ten apostate tribes confederated with the Syrians against Judah, to carry on a desperate warfare against the true faith. I would say to Protestants, you see the efforts which Rome is making to preserve herself against the coming overthrow, for she shall be destroyed by the Spirit of the Lord, and by the brightness of his coming-imitate her zeal, but do not imitate her manner-show forth the way of truth plainly and uncompromisingly ; but do not do as the Church of Rome does-as her advocates do-do not resort to cunning, and subterfuge, and misrepresentation. You are under no necessity, for the truth you are called upon to declare is great, and it shall prevail-it is beautiful, and needs no disguise.— Those who would league with the infidels, may adopt the maxim recommended by a master spirit of infidelity, whose motto was-tell lies by the hundred, if one in ten succeeds, you will gain by the manœuvre. Those who deal in contraband theology, may tell their lies as smugglers run their cargoes, anticipating abundant compensation, if there be one successful effort after twenty failures. You seek no infidel alliance-you desire to spread no spurious Christianity; therefore, you are shut up to no such disho nourable procedure."

We shall conclude our extracts by quoting what he says about the fearfully awful allowance that we have often seen as taking place between infidels and Romanists, to decry the reading of the sacred volume, and to detract from the internal evidence of its authenticity.

"This is an interesting feature in the character of the times in which we live. This is an important fact-it is proof to my mind that the downfal of the enemies of Christ is at hand. I find the men, the successors of those who trampled down the power and authority of kings-who twisted sceptres from the mighty—who wielded the powers of both worlds in their day and generation, succumbing now, and pandering where once they dictated and overspread. I find the Lamb like, who exercised all the power of the first Beast before him, is now teaching the nations to worship the infidel, to compromise away every truth of Christianity to the sceptic and the blasphemer. When Judas comes to betray his Master with a kiss, and lets in the black band with swords and staves upon his privacy, it is a proof that the last outrage of his person is at hand, and that his final and great triumph draweth nigh. Thus when the son of perdition, and the infidel Antichrist address themselves to the last outrage against Christianity, their own destruction slumbereth not, and its glory is about to be revealed.

"All the arguments advanced against us in England, were those employed by infidels -the only weapons they could trust to, were infidel weapons; they had to resort to Satan's armoury for weapons to defend their system; and by doing so, just acknowledged their doctrines to be kindred with the school, whence the arguments were brought to sustain them. O! that Protestants might arise in God's strength, and come forward at this interesting crisis to the help of the Lord against the mighty; we ought to stand in the narrow pass which lies between false faith, and no faith, over which multitudes are rushing from Popery to infidelity. What was said by one of the speakers, that there was a tendency in Romanism to advance to infidelity, was a striking and important truth ; infidelity is Popery run to seed Let us, therefore, endeavour to rescue Roman Catholics from the infidelity into which they are hurrying; if we do not, I shudder when I think of what must result from our apathy: of what must take place in every Roman Catholic country; when men shall pass from Popery through liberalism and latitudinarianism

into wild and furious infidelity. Popery has long bound the spirits of men ; she can hold them in no longer; the cave of (Eolus shall be-yea, is bursting open; and if He, who controls the winds, and governs the turbulent spirits, preside not over the direction of the sweeping tempest, what eye can look upon-what mind can think of the horrors which shall be found along the career of its desolation. If Christian truth be not prepared to give a direction and safe guidance to the spirits of men in the day of their emancipation from Papal imprisonment and oppression; if faithful Protestantism be not prepared and powerful to direct the way of the resistless tempest, where shall safety be found for any institution which God has sanctioned, and time attested? Let us beseech our God to appear in behalf of his truth, and for the peace of mankind; in the day when human spirits escape to infidelity's wild fury, from Popery's long, and dark, and death-like incarceration."

We now take leave of this admirable, uncompromising, and truly eloquent speech of Mr. Armstrong, expressing the hope that our readers will, as far as they have opportunity, procure the publication themselves; and, in perusing the whole of what Messrs. Armstrong and Gregg delivered on this occasion, they will admire, and at the same time rejoice, that the Lord, in this our day, has raised up for the advocacy of his own great cause such men, and that they have not only the head and the heart and the unction from above, fitting them for their important work, but that they are endowed with powers of speech, and health of body, almost commensurate to the great field of labour they are called to occupy. At the same time we would anxiously suggest to all whom it may concern, that it is not wise, it is not fair, it is not Christianly patriotic, to urge these young men to exertions beyond their power; or because there exists a greedy appetite to hear, that therefore these willing and worthy servants of Christ should be tasked beyond mental preparation or bodily endeavour.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Religion in Greece; containing an authentic account of the Revival of Scriptural Knowledge, &c. during the last few years, through the means of Missionary exertion. Dublin: Wm. Curry,

Jun. & Co. 1831.

This is a very entertaining as well as instructive compilation, drawn from authentic sources, giving an account of the present state of Greece, chiefly with a view to exciting the attention of the public towards its religious state. The active and truly pious individual who has taken the trouble of collecting the materials, and bringing all together, so as to form this little work, has been actuated to his undertaking by a desire to benefit the Greek Mission; and he has devoted any profits that may arise from the sale to the furtherance of the cause he has so much at heart. The promotion of vital religion in Greece is his only object, and his hope is, that his cause will find advocates, as well as that his book will find readers. And surely Greece, associated as it is in every educated mind with every thing that is great, glorious, and free dear as it is to every Scriptural reader as the scene of the Apostolic Missionary exertion is worthy of all our interest, and

The compilation, independent of its religious interest, is put together with much taste, and with a view to prove entertaining as well as instructive. We might make many selections. We offer the following, taken almost at random, of a modern Grecian martyr :

"Athanasius, a fine young man, about four and twenty years of age, was the son of a boatman, who carried on a small trade in the Archipelago. The business of the father being insufficient to require the assistance of the son, he was obliged, like thousands of his countrymen, to leave the land of his birth in search of a livelihood.

"Athanasius fell at length into the service of a Turk in decent circumstances, and something above the common rank.