only endures that calamity as long as are content "To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot," under circumstances that would distress a humane mind, if contemplated as the lot of the inferior, and scarcely inferior, domestic animals. Such are the circumstances of Ire land; and to such a state of society are the measures of "reformation" to be adjusted. As assuredly as Popery is connatural with barbarism, so sure ly will it continue to prevail until the condition of the people be improved. And we do not so much rely upon im proving their condition by banishing Popery, as upon banishing Popery by improving their condition; and this in the first instance, by increased vigour in the execution of the laws, and then, by such measures as may tend, gradually, to put the relation between land lord and tenant upon the same footing that subsists in England, giving the latter an interest in the improvement of the ground, and the former an interest in the improvement of the people. The wretched drudge, who is assailed by the cries of a starving family, and only too happy when, by working from sunrise to sunset, he can earn for them and for himself a scanty meal of potatoes, has no leisure for abstract considerations. Let him, however, be set somewhat at his ease, and surrounded by the humble comforts to which every subject of the British government should feel himself entitled by honest industry to aspire, and some traits of rational reflection may be expected. But even if the circumstances of more favourable the country were than we believe them to be to the progress of reason, we do not consider the "Reformation Society" calculated to accomplish any great or extensive good. Reformation implies two things, viz., the overthrow of error, and the esta blishment of true religion. The " Reformation Society" comprises religionists of various denominations; it is a heterogeneous amalgamation of dissenters, of almost every species, with members of the Church of England. "Black spirits and white, Blue spirits and grey, Mingle, mingle, mingle, While they mingle may." Now granting, for a moment, that this medley of creeds, this concrete of contradictories in religion, is well calculated for making an aggressive attack upon Popery, is it well calculated for promoting the ends of true religion? for promoting what may be truly calledthe unity of the spirit in the bond of peace?" We unhesitatingly answer, no. The very instant the members of the "Reformation Society" shall have succeeded in their work of demolition, their confederacy will be at an end: as soon as ever the strongholds of Popery shall have fall en before them, their band of brotherhood will be dissolved; they will no longer know each other as friends, but as enemies. The Baptist, the Moravian, the Independent, the Calvinist, will each contend for the maintenance and establishment of the systems to which they are respectively attached, and the country will be divided and agitated by their conflicting pretensions. A presumptuous latitude of belief will have succeeded to an abject religious credulity; the blind confidence at present reposed in the priests will be supplanted by an addiction to heady and intemperate enthusiasts, or artful and designing hypocrites and impostors, who are but too likely to engage them, for their own weak or wicked ends, in perilous and precipitate courses, alike alien from the ends of good government and sound religion. At the meeting which took place in Dublin, and of which the publication before us gives an account, the speech which appears to have been received with most applause, and which drew forth the marked approbation of the Archbishop of Dublin, consists chiefly of advice to the younger controversialists, and suggests, amongst other valuable hints, that they should not be content with merely refuting the false doctrine, without setting beside it the doctrine that is true. The speaker's words are these: "The next suggestion I would offer is, that in controversy you always place the true doctrine by the side of that which you impugn; there is no more effectual mode of exposing error than by subjecting it to a comparison with truth. It often happens, too, that the mind of a sincere man becomes embarrassed by the reasonings into which he has been misled, and that he is not in possession of the power necessary to extricate him from his perplexities. All know how mighty the influence has been of the great doctrines of Christianity, when presented faithfully, and in their simplicity, to even disturbed minds-how the faculties, and affections, and hopes, settle and rest upon the momentous truths towards which they are directed, and how the fallacy of former hopes and opinions is manifested by the light proceeding from what is permanent and true. Many a man lives within the Church of Rome, dissatisfied with its doctrines, but unable to disentangle the perplexities with which it has encompassed him. It should, no doubt, be your part to assist in extricating him from his embarrassments, and for this purpose you should, wherever it is practicable, teach him to unravel the meshes of argument within which he is held, and when his habits or his powers have not accomplished him for such a task, show him the true doctrine-show him what the Scripture approves and reason acknowledges; and, more powerful than ingenuity and argument, the truth shall set him free," This is excellent advice, but how is it to be followed by the "Reformation Society?" They may all agree that the Church of Rome is in error; they may all assist in the exposure and refutation of that error;-but are they agreed amongst themselves as to what "the truth is? And if not, how can they set it forth, or act toge ther for its propagation? One of the speakers, Mr M'Ghee, adopts a line of observation which we think but little calculated to answer any rational end. His notions are intended to be most anti-Papistical, and appear to us to be as uncharitable, extravagant, and unscriptural, as those of the Papists themselves. Verily, if the conversion of the Roman Catholics of Ireland necessarily imply their adop tion of the sentiments of this gentleby the change. man, we know not what they will gain that the principles and teachers of their "It is my full conviction, (says he) religion do not set forth that salvation as PERISH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THEIR We thought it was confined to the Church of Rome thus "to deal damnation" upon all who differ from her. But Mr M'Ghee is one of those who furnish a proof that extremes are nearest; and it is rather unfortunate for himself that that gentleman, when he turned his back upon Popery, should has been carried out of Christendom, have pursued a course by which he and landed upon a terra firma of bigotry, as gloomy and inexorable as any that he could have relinquished. Other speakers are more rational; but it may be truly affirmed, that the theology, if it may be so called, of the Rev. Mr M'Ghee, is the leaven with which the whole mass of the "Reformation Society" is leavened, and the spirit which actuates that gentleman the same that may be expected to characterise all its proceedings. Such being the case, we see not how it can effect any extensive good, and there is but too much reason for thinking that it may do much harm. The Roman Catholics are called upon to do little more than abandon the guidance of their priests, and become, for themselves, interpreters of the Holy Scriptures; self-direction is proposed to be substituted for mis-direction. They are encouraged to embark on the peril ous ocean of controversy without chart or compass; and to undertake a voyage of discovery in quest of truth, without even the rudiments of that knowledge which would enable them to proceed on their course with safety. To our minds, this is extremely dangerous; it must beget a presumptuous self-confidence to be deprecated equally with the most abject credulity, and ensure the perpetuation of religious discord. Indeed, we cannot conceive much eventual benefit to result from any exposures of the errors of Popery, that is not combined with an enlightened demonstration" of a more excellent way," for the attainment of the ends of true religion. Nor do we know how a society, which comprises every variety of religious professor, from the Arminian to the Supra-lapsarian, can agree in recommending a sound and scriptural form of faith in the room of the errors which are to be abandoned. They may agree in much respecting what is to be pulled down; they can agree but in little respecting what is to be built up: thus the work of demolition may go on even at the expense of edification; and converts multiply at the expense of Christianity. Prejudices may be aggravated, passions may be inflamed, a fanatical zeal may be infused and propagated, which would divide father against son, and brother against brother; and the awful saying of our Lord would be a second time fulfilled, "that he came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword." Now this, we conceive, could not be, at the present day, either necessary or expedient. The Roman Catholics are held in blind subserviency to the dictates of a self-styled infallible Church; many essential truths, and many pernicious errors, are incorporated in their system. To produce any effect upon them, which would really deserve the name of reformation, requires much caution and discrimination; and the best mode of proceeding, we are persuaded, would be, to combine the "suaviter in modo" with the "fortiter in re," and to ad mit what is true, and approve of what is good, in their mode of faith and practice, while we endeavoured to correct what is false, and eradicate what is evil. It not a little moves our wonder, that some of the eminent individuals in connexion with this Society do not see the obvious advantages which, in a contest with the Roman Catholics, would attend the adoption of exclu sively Church of England principles. Upon what vantage ground did Cranmer and Ridley stand? They were less actuated by hostility to Popish superstitions, than by a cautious anxiety for the discovery and establishment of truth; and proceeded in the great work of unfolding the genuine doctrines of the Gospel, which had been so long disguised by priestcraft, or mistaken by ignorance, with more judgment, learning, and discrimination, than any of the other more sweeping reformers. The respect which they paid to ecclesiastical antiquity was a striking feature in their proceedings; their retention of many of the ceremonies, and of much of the discipline, of the ancient Church, was not more wise in itself, than respectful and conciliatory towards their opponents. Religion was disencumbered, without being denuded; and ample provision made for every moral and social want of her votaries, while yet they were encouraged, boldly encouraged, "to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free." And thus has arisen a system, not only in all respects more congenial with Scripture, and more accommodated to the wants of man, but also less repulsive to those from whom we originally dissented, and more likely to attract their confidence and secure their affections, than any other with which we are acquainted. Indeed, we can scarcely contemplate the finished work of our reformers, and regard them as ordinary men. We confess a love and reverence for the mild graces of our venerable religion, as they have caused them to beam forth, which has grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength; and the more extensive our acquaintance has been with the rise and fall of contemporary sects, the deeper has been our gratitude for, and the higher our admiration of a form of faith, which, in proportion as it is duly cultivated, brings its votaries, as it were, into the benignant presence of the Saviour. It is the spiritual counterpart of our un rivalled Constitution. Its regimen combines government with liberty; its liturgy exemplifies form and ceremony ministering to pure and elevated piety; and in its articles, doctrine, and practice, faith and holiness, truth and righteousness, are so blended, as to lend each other mutual strength and embellishment, and inspire the fervent wish that what have been thus so happily joined together may never be disunited. This is the substitute which we desire to see proposed in the room of the errors which the "Reformation Society" seek to explode. It bears the same relation to Popery that a comely matron bears to a painted doll; (not to use the more opprobrious similitude that is some times, we think indiscreetly, in the mouths of the reformers ;) and the enquiring and intelligent Roman Catholic would find, upon examination, that it contained the substance of all the excellence for which he has given credit to his own system, without its concomitant drawbacks of absurdity, irrationality, and superstition. were able to trace from the earliest times what corresponds precisely to the orders of bishops, priests, and deacons. The government, then, being the same, the orders the same, many of the doctrines the same, and the Ro man Catholics themselves so anxious to represent others as but little different, we feel surprised that those enlightened members of the Church of England, whom we recognise amongst the patrons and promoters of the "Reformation Society," have not seen the obvious policy of holding up to the admiration of their benighted brethren, a system of faith and doctrine in all respects so likely to satisfy their understandings, conciliate their affections, and win them from the errors of their ways. Equally extraordinary, we confess, appears the adoption, by those enlight ened men, of precisely such an instrument as this Reformation Society." Is there not something strangely incon gruous, to the well-regulated mind, in this ill-assorted combination of churchmen, sectaries, and seceders? Is not their agreement calculated to excite suspicion, and are not their differences likely to produce distrust, in those The doctrine of the real presence, whom they are desirous to inspire with to expiate the heterodoxy of which the confidence? Is it possible for a thinkfires of Smithfield were lighted, du- ing Roman Catholic to reflect at all ring the reigns of Henry VIII. and upon the subject of his religion, withthe first Mary, is that which is now in out asking,-if he is to abandon the vogue amongst such divines of the opinions in which he has been brought Church of Rome, as desire to produce up, for what are these to be abandonany reconciliation between their creed ed? Is he to agree with the Calvinist and right reason. Of the doctrine of or the anti-Calvinist, the Independent absolution, the same may be said: it or the Episcopalian? Or must he osis now defended by the ablest Popish cillate perpetually between the scrip writers, as being the same in substance tural soundness of Mr O'Sullivan and with that of the Church of England. the fanatical extravagance of Mr M'The genuine popish notions on both Ghee? Amid the deafening and disthese important doctrines are still, we tracting cries, which arise on every side, well know, extensively maintained; of "Lo! Christ is here," and " Lo! he but the degree in which the more li is there," are the gentlemen of the beral and better-informed of the Ro-"Reformation Society" agreed as to man Catholic clergy have slidden into a more lax and protestant mode of speaking concerning them, abundantly proves their anxiety to accommodate their system to the growing capacities and expanding views of the members of their own communion. The discipline of the two churches is nearly the same; the reverence with which our reformers regarded ecclesiastical antiquity, not suffering them to innovate essentially in that particular; as they the mode by which the hesitating and anxious Romanist should discriminate between their conflicting pretensions? They say, " Read the Scriptures ;"but he sees that they all read the Scriptures, and equally make them the ground of their respective creeds. So that some certain standard of interpre tation, and some rational and definite guidance, is necessary, respecting which these gentlemen are not agreed amongst themselves, and without which their diversity of opinion must be as em barrassing and as interminable as the confusion of tongues. The man who takes his stand upon Church of England ground is differently circumstanced. He is not mere ly a negative reformer; while he has something definite to propose to those whom he endeavours to convert, he requires less to be relinquished. The differences to be reconciled are diminished, and the means of reconciliation are increased. And, surely, he may take fully as much advantage of the growing liberality of the age, in prevailing on Roman Catholics to become truly enlightened Protestants, as the clergy of their persuasion exhibit adroitness in reconciling them to the communion of the See of Rome, even while they are persuading them that they are professing the doctrines of the Church of England. There is nothing in which the providence of God has been more strikingly exemplified, and the parting promise of Christ more perfectly fulfilled, than the manner in which, amidst all the corruptions which disfigured the church, vital and essen tial truths were preserved unextinguished. While the true doctrine was suffered to be disguised, it was not permitted to be destroyed by the errors with which it was encrusted; and, therefore, when the light of reason shone again upon the world, and the Holy Scriptures recovered their proper ascendency over the minds of true be lievers, little more was necessary than to pare off the excrescences which had accrued in ages of darkness and ignorance, in order to restore true religion to the express form and lineaments by which it was recognised in the apostohe times. Far different would the case have been had the errors been those of curtailment, and not of redundancy; had they consisted in believing too little, instead of believing too much. It was a much easier, as well as more natural process, to throw off the envelopements within which the Christian verities lay, as it were, se cured beyond the reach of accident, than to engraft them anew upon the barren stock of a defective and mutilated faith. The difficult and delicate part of the task of the enlightened reformer consists in so opposing error as not to endanger truth. And it is because this caution is so little used, that Roman Catholics, when they quit the religion in which they have been brought up, so frequently become infidels or Socinians: the arguments, by which they were disabused of some of their grossest errors, not having been gently and gradually insinuated, as they were able to bear them, but communicated with accompaniments of zeal and presumption, by which their passions were inflamed, and their judgments blinded, until they were driven from the comparatively safe and happy condition of superstitious devotees, to the perilous one of reckless and unprincipled latitudinarians. Surely this is not desirable. It is not desirable that reform should stalk abroad in the religious, as it proposes to do in the po litical world, over the ruins of every thing venerable for its antiquity, or interesting from its associations. It is not desirable to supplant Popery by Socinianism. It is not desirable to supplant superstition by atheism. It is not desirable to root up tares for the sake of planting henbane. It is not in the storm or the whirlwind that the presence of God may be most beneficially felt; the "still small voice" can only be heard when the angry passions have been hushed to silence, and when " there is a great calm." Provided our modern reformers can induce the Roman Catholics to depart from their communion with the See of Rome, they seem to care little or nothing "Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes, new changes, they must pass." They seem to think that men cannot go astray when they exercise, in the most unlimited manner, the right of private judgment. They forget that that is a right which may be either advantageously used or perniciously abused, according to the information and intelligence of those by whom it is assumed; and that blindness, moral or physical, is in effect the same, whether men suffer themselves to be blindfolded by others, or employ a quack medicine by which they put out their eyes. The Scriptures are a volume which contains all truths necessary for salvation. To have access to them, and to read them when they please, is the undoubted privilege of all Christians. In them, truths are revealed, and precepts are given, which the humblest and least instructed will |