cious sect of Protestants." Life of Luther, by Scott, vol. i. p. 183.

2. The decree of the Lateran Council, in 1515. This is the substance of it,-that no book shall be printed without the bishop's license: that those who transgressed this decree shall forfeit the whole impression, which shall be publicly burned; pay a fine of one hundred ducats; be suspended from his business for one year, and be excommunicated; that is, given over to the devil, soul, and body, in God's name, and the saints! and no person allowed to trade, or deal, or commune with him!

3. The decree of the Council of Trent, Session 4. "Sed et, &c.-But being desirous also of setting bounds to the printers, who, with unlimited boldness, supposing themselves at liberty to do as they please, print editions of the Holy Bible, with notes and expositions, &c." See more in Cramp, p. 56; and the original Latin in p. 403.

4. The Circular Letter of Gregory XVI., the present pope, issued in 1832. "Huc spectat deter rima illa, &c.-Towards this point tends that most vile, detestable, and never-to-be-sufficiently-execrated liberty of booksellers, namely, of publishing writings of whatever kind they please: a liberty which some persons dare, with such violence of language, to demand and promote !" Having next eulogized the Council of Trent, for its zeal in issuing the Index of prohibited books, he thus goes on:-" Clement XIII., our predecessor of happy memory, in his Circular on the suppression of noxious books," (i. e. Protestant books,) "pronounces,—' We must contend with energy, such as the subject requires; and with all our might, exterminate the deadly

mischief of so many books; for the matter of error will never be effectually removed, unless the guilty elements of depravity be consumed in the fire." "The apostolic See has, through all ages, ever striven to condemn suspected and noxious" (i. e., Protestant)" books, and to wrest them forcibly out of men's hands; it is most clear, how rash, false, and injurious to our apostolic See, and fruitful of enormous evils to the Christian public, is the doctrine of those who not only reject the censorship of books, as too severe and burdensome, but even proceed to such a length of wickedness, as to assert, that it is contrary to the principles of equal justice; and dare deny to the church the right of enacting, and employing it." pp. 13, 14, 15. The Latin copy of this CIRCULAR of the present pope, I have in my possession.

It must be manifest to every one of our fellowcitizens, that where such principles, and practices as these, bear sway, no republican government can possibly exist; no true liberty can ever gladden the heart of man! Had the patriots, and the great body of the people of these states, at the time of our glorious revolutionary struggle, been under the slavery of these principles, and they would certainly have been completely under their slavery, had they been Roman Catholics,—our liberties had never been loved, nor wooed,-nor fought for! And even supposing it barely possible, that American Liberty had received her birth, she would have languished out a rickety and miserable existence; and, finally, have expired a victim under the Ex treme Unction of a popish priest!! This is no conjecture. Like causes will produce like effects.

We have painful demonstrations of this on our own continent. Cast your eyes over South America, and Mexico, once more, and learn wisdom from the philosophy of history. Had the ignorance, vice, atheism, and priestcraft of these wretched republics, at this present time, been the curse and scourge of THE OLD THIRTEEN STATES, in '76, neither the wisdom of THE OLD CONGRESS, nor the skill and tact of the glorious WASHINGTON, and his brave army, could have prevented us from being devoured and annihilated by the British lion! But we were Protestants; and we were inspired by Protestant principles and liberty: therefore, by the grace of God, we became a nation great, and glorious, and free!

As certainly, therefore, as the same cause has been, for these centuries past, producing these same deadly effects, in Europe, and on our own continent, so certainly, will popery, if it ever should, by the wrath of heaven, gain an ascendency here, annihilate liberty, and pure Christianity in our republic! So certainly will it convert this land of light, liberty, peace, and glory, into the land of despotism, and the darkness of the shadow of death; where no freeman can exist, and where it would be a burden, and a wearisomeness, for a good man to live!

11

CHAPTER VIII.

POPERY, WHEREVER IT HAS THE ASCENDENCY, INVARIABLY UNITES CHURCH AND STATE.

The union of civil power with spiritual, an essential mark of popery.-Proof-American popery will do this as it becomes assimilated to Italian, or genuine popery-The papists already use the word Hierarchy here-This implies union of spiritual and civil power-Proof of this unnatural union in popery-Hence the danger of this foreign sect.

"But laymen most renowned for devilish deeds,

Laboured at distance, still behind the priests!"-POLLOK.

I BEG to draw the public attention to this essential dogma, and practice of popery; namely, that the Romish hierarchy invariably puts forth its influence over all lands, in proportion as it gains strength, to unite church and state. There is no one fact more clearly established by history than this; it is inseparably connected with the papal supremacy; and an integral part thereof. And every Roman priest among us, in the service of the Italian despot, is taught to believe this dogma to be as essential to it as the pope's supremacy. And for years they have been labouring to accomplish in this country, what exists in every popish country, namely, the union of church and state. And it is impossible not to see their uneasiness and embarrassment, of late, at the discoveries made relative to their foreign relations, and domestic projects. Their priests and editors begin to tremble; the flimsy veil has proved too transparent to conceal their plots and treason. Hence the secret is re

vealed, why their denunciations have been so violent of late, against those of their protestant fellowcitizens, who are roused to a sense of their real danger! This is the maxim of Jesuitism: whenever-by a discovery—any crime is about to be charged on you, bring that very charge, with the greatest assurance, against your opponents; and overwhelm them with confusion! Hence, the whole popish press, by a simultaneous impulse, put forth the most solemn and unblushing denials of interference in political affairs. Hence, every art was put in requisition to win credit to these denials of what they did, themselves, verily believe. Hence, those savage vituperations hurled at those who have successfully torn the mask from their faces. Hence, like men conscious of the truth, sustainable against them, by the evidence of European history, for the last thousand years, they have anxiously sought to draw off the attention of the American family, from their secret and overt schemes. Hence their appropriate union with the infidel, and profane, in their clamorous denunciations of the Presbyterians, at one time; of the Episcopalians at another: while with overwhelming affectation of gravity, they cease not to bewail the danger of "a combination of all the Protestant sects," to create a union of church and state; and to carry on their ambitious projects against the common safety: for which, it seems, nobody cared any thing, but this foreign sect, of the pope's subjects!

"Vixque tenet lacrymas, quia nil lacrymabile vidit ! Scarcely refrains he from tears, because he can see no tear-exciting disaster!"-Ovid.

But the affectation of alarm, with all its accom