NOTES. Note A, page 5. It may be concluded, that the saints in heaven do continually cry against Satan and all his instruments; since they have been made acquainted with their fury against the people of God. Rev. vii. 9, 10. The papists, however, by professing that the saints know our particular necessities on earth, and can intercede for us in our moments of complaint, and at the precise time of our weakness and suffering, have been led to the invocation of them, and to the adoption of the unscriptural tenet of works of supererogation. But such knowledge and intercession belong to God and Christ alone. Note в, page 13. "Since it is religion that makes a church, and not the "church that makes religion; the church is to be tried "and discerned by religion, and not religion by the "church. And the visible church (for the invisible one, 66 which consists only of the elect, is not here treated), "is that which maintains the religion of Christ, and professes its belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, "by baptizing its members in their names, and cele"brating the holy supper, as Christ hath appointed. These things are essential to a church; and as long as these are preserved, a church does not cease to be, though in some other things it may err. For every "error does not subvert the foundation of a church. "But particular churches may not only err, but also "fall off entirely from Christ. For that saying of "Christ, Matt. xvi. 48, Upon this rock I will build 66 66 66 " my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,' is to be understood only of the catholic or universal church." Archdeacon Welchman on the Nineteenth Article of the Church of England. Note c, page 33. "When the papists ask us, where our religion was "before Luther, we generally answer, in the Bible; and 66 we answer well. But to gratify their taste for tradi"tion and human authority, we may add to this answer, " and in the Vallies of Piedmont Dr. M' Lean's Note to Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Cent. xii. p. 11. c. 5., Note D, page 33. The history of the Waldenses, no less than that of every other Protestant Church, may distinctly prove to the English nation, that a firm resistance is to be made to the encroachments of popery, and that political power is to be withholden from the Romanists. As members of the Church of Rome, political power cannot, from a principle of self-defence, be safely entrusted to them. It might, indeed, be said, that all association is to be avoided with a church, arrogating to herself exclusively this title, but which, at the same time, maintains idolatry, and propagates errors, which debase the Redeemer's spiritual kingdom. Whatever be the signs and wonders, which she shall pretend to work, and they are still* many and seductive, her ministers are only false prophets, and dangerous teachers. Y Suffice it, however, for the reflecting and consistent protestant to know, that history, from the seventh century of the christian æra,-the date of the rise of popery as a system, has always pointed out the church of Rome to be a tyrannical church. And let it not be urged, that her temper is changed, though her power happily is lessened, and shall, it is devoutly to be hoped, never be restored to the kingdom of Great Britain, even for a season. Her spirit now, in this our day, is one and the same; it is what it has invariably shown itself,-a spirit of proselytism,a spirit of oppression. Nor can it, in fact, cease to be such, from that openly avowed dogma, on which she has most pertinaciously acted, that salvation is only attainable within the pale of her own immediate church. The Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth, which is the accredited symbol of the Roman faith, and which appears * Among others, Prince Hohenlohe's Miracles, and the Pseudo Prophecy of the Jesuit Pastorini now most industriously circulated in the towns and cabans of Ireland. in Mr. Charles Butler's Book of his Church, ends as follows: "This true catholic faith, out of which none can "be saved, which I now freely profess, and truly hold, "I, N. promise, vow, and swear, most constantly to "hold and profess, the same whole and entire, with "God's assistance, to the end of my life. Amen." THE END. Ibotson and Palmer, Printers, Savoy Street, Strand. |