suffered for us on the cross, and by the Blessed Virgin Mary, that I will burn, destroy, and murder all heretics, up to my knees in blood. So help me God." The second was added to the private's test, when he was a Roman Catholic, and is as follows:

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Every loyal Irish Protestant heretic I shall murder, and this I swear.

All the unsuspecting Protestants who joined in the rebellion of 1798, have had sufficient cause to repent their acts; and we hope that those who are now inclined again to try Popery, will first look to the laws by which she must ever be governed, and try if they can find anything there that warrants them either to conciliate or compromise. Let them look through the brief history of the rebellion which has been here given, and say, "can these things be of God?"- -can such fruit be produced by a good tree? or can such foul and diabolical acts bear any resemblance to the charity of the Gospel.

Protestants may be seduced into vile and barbarous breaches of the laws of God and man; they may, through the agency of their own evil hearts, be led to persecute their nearest friends; but if one of their spiritual teachers told them that it was their duty to murder a man because of his religion, they would spurn the demon, and hate the intolerant spirit of persecution by which he was actuated. The religion of Protestants teaches them to love all men ; the charity of the Bible is preached up to them on all occasions; there are no pulpit harangues, breathing hatred to all who differ from them in religious matters; there are no anathemas pronounced upon those who "obey not the Church;" there are no threats of hell to those who refuse to persecute those who dissent from their notions; and, if there were to be found in the ranks of Protestants one who would preach such doctrines as these, there is not a single Protestant in the universe that would follow the advice given. Not

* The first letter of each word of the above oath, when put together, will make the word ELIPHISMATIS, which was the password of all who had taken the black test, and who constituted the pioneer corps of slaughter to the rebel army, and, it is supposed, were appointed to commit all the cold-blooded murders that were perpetrated during the rebellion.

so, as we have seen, with Roman Catholics; their religion teaches them how and whom to persecute; it knows none but its own votaries; it protects none but those who hail its most awful aggressions as the offspring of heaven. How, then, are we to act? Can we place confidence in those who deny our right to form our own judgment, or can we expect a reformation in infallibility? We have our way clear-there is but one course for us, and that consists in putting our trust in God, and being always ready to rally round our rights as Protestants and Christians, and to live in peace and harmony with all men. Let us not vainly imagine that God will do all for us; he has given us commands to obey, and duties to perform. Let us then use the means, remembering that, if the children of Israel did not use the ram's horns, the walls of Jericho never would have fallen; not that they could of themselves perform the work, but they were the means by which God chose to work. Under these circumstances, and in accordance with these sentiments, that Roman Catholics cannot be depended on by Protestants, we have only to prove it by the following extracts:

Azorius, highly eminent in the Romish Church, says: -"A Catholic wife is not tied to pay her duty to an heretical husband; the sons of an heretical father are made sui juris, that is, free from their father's power, and servants are not bound to do service to heretical masters."

Father Cresswell, an English priest, said :-"It is the belief of all Catholics that subjects are bound to expel all heretical princes by the commandment of God, the most strict tie of conscience, and the extreme danger of their souls."

According to the decree of the Council of Constance, it has been held, and the doctrine has been constantly carried into practice, that no faith is to be kept with heretics, in consequence of which no contracts, leagues, provisions, vows, or oaths, are sufficient security to a Protestant that deals with one of the Church of Rome, if he shall make use of the liberty which may and is often granted to him that solicits it.

In a Council held at Vienna, Pope Clement the Fifth avowed and maintained that the power of all kings de

pended on him. Pursuant to this doctrine, the whole Council of Bishops at Constance determined, in 1415, that John Huss should be burnt; which was done accordingly, although his safety had been guaranteed by the Emperor Sigismund. Huss was one of the first and most zealous Reformers; was invited to the council to defend his doctrines; but he was a heretic.

A Council, held at Toledo, enacts provisions against heretics, that if a temporal prince shall neglect to purge his territories of them, notice must be given to the Pope that he may pronounce the subjects of such prince discharged of their oaths of allegiance, and give his dominions to another.

The dissimulation and cruelty of Queen Mary were the result of these councils; for she gave her subjects the strongest assurance that she would permit them to pursue any religion their consciences would dictate; but, when firmly established on the throne, she promoted the burning of her Protestant subjects, merely on account of their religion.

Human ingenuity could not form a better device to impose the shackles of superstition on the human mind, and that universal domination over sovereign princes, than the acts of the above council; but, the Pope knowing that he could not enforce the execution of this dreadful engine unless he had a number of persons attached to him in every state, struggled hard to obtain the investiture of bishops; and, having succeeded, he laid them all under a necessity, at their inauguration, of taking the oath of allegiance to himself, of which we give some paragraphs :

"The rights, privileges, and authority of the Holy Roman Church, and of our Lord the Pope, and his successors, I will be careful to preserve, defend, enlarge, and promote."

"All hereticks, schismatics, and rebels against our said Lord the Pope, and his successors, I will, to the utmost of my power, persecute and impugn.'

When Pascal the Second excommunicated Henry the Fourth, he used exactly similar words as the latter in the above paragraph :-" We command you and your soldiers to persecute and impugn Henry, the head of the heretics."

The only heresy of which he could accuse this innocent prince was, that he opposed the Pope's claim to the investiture of bishops in his dominions.

The Popes, well knowing that riches are the sinews of power, adopted the selling of indulgences for the most heinous of crimes. At length the remission of sins became so systematic, and such a constant source of revenue to the Holy See, that they were reduced to a schedule, in a book of rates, with the sums corresponding, for which they were to be remitted.

The reader may judge of this schedule from the following short extracts :

“A nun, having committed fornication several times, shall be absolved and enabled to hold the dignities of her order, even that of abbess, on paying thirty-nine livres tournois, and nine ducats."

"The absolution of a priest, for having committed fornication with a nun, within or without the limits of a nunnery, or with a relative, or any other woman, thirty-six livres."

These great liberties the Pope gave the nuns and the clergy, because they were prohibited from marrying. But that which is most abhorrent is the license he can give his subjects to massacre heretics, which was the cause of the murders of the Albigenses and Waldenses in the thirteenth century; that of the Protestants of France in the sixteenth; the extermination of hundreds of thousands of them in the Low Countries; the expulsion of the Moors from Spain; and the persecution of the Vaudois in the King of Sardinia's territories. Having such facts as these, fully authenticated by their own authors, we cannot be surprised that they should have produced so many rebellions in Ireland, and their attendant horrors, as her Popish inhabitants have been plunged in the most abject ignorance, and blindly devoted to their priests. Hence, since the year 1567, we have had periodical rebellions, occasioned by the interference of the Romish Pontiff, and the fermentation of Popery.

James Wilson, Printer, 70, High Street, Belfast.