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craving void, which nothing can fill, nothing can subdue. But in the very longings of this natural appetite, we may detect a pressing demand, even in the unrenewed and unregenerate bosom, for the supplies of an unearthly-a superior-a supernatural gift. We might, in truth, hazard a conjecture, that there never was of created beings, one single instance, that did not eagerly cast a wistful, anticipating glance beyond those approaching precincts, where futurity is deeply and darkly mantled, by the thickness of an impervious gloom. We might positively declare that the powerful suggestion of nature "to die, and go we know not where," has thrilled and convulsed many a breast, the natural consciousness of whose horrifying corruption, cast on the troubled mind of the mere child of nature the darkness of despair, and raised for the future,

ever! But when such Infallibility presumes to interfere in the regulation of human knowledge, but more especially in that species of knowledge which is based on acknowledged facts, and positive demonstration, in opposition to the ludicrous dreams, the trifling fopperies, and exploded nonsense of the dark ages, it then remains for every waggish school-boy of modern times to shoot out his scornful lip, and flog this proud Advocate of Infallibility, with the same ferula, that contributed to supply himself with the knowledge, by which he can so manfully disprove their doughty pretensions! Nor have the liberal Wits of Rome, confined their enlightened zeal, to the seminaries of the learned--they must needs, likewise, interfere with the schools of young ladies! The useful work of Francis Algarotti, entitled—“ Newtonianism for the Ladies" was directly put under the ungracious ban of the Holy Inquisitors. This is but one of the thousand acts of Romish hostility to the labours of genius, and to the reasonable claims of the female sex. Did these foes to the improvement of the female mind, suppose that their softer charms forbade an initiation into the demonstrable truths of Science and Philosophy? Were they afraid that the Newtonian discoveries might be made the instrument of nurturing such brilliant esprits, that their fair productions might probably flash an additional blaze of light upon the miscreancy-fooleries-ignorance, and stupidity of Romanism? No, it would seem, that the extirpation of real knowledge, is far from being the only cause of such prohibitions. It would appear on the part of Romanism, to be likewise an unchanged and unchanging aversion to the progressive refinement of manners, and increasing civilization of human nature. And if it be true as Gibbon says, that " experience has proved, that savages are the tyrants of the female sex, and that the condition of women is

mingled emotions of dejection and disquietude. We might safely assert that such natural reasonings, and meditations as

"Whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
Tis the divinity that stirs within us;

'Tis heav'n itself, that points out an Hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untry'd being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass?
The wide, th’unbounded prospect, lies before me?
But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it."

Addison's Cato. have obtruded themselves on the cheerless solitude of many an inveterately hardened, and apostate rebel to

usually softened by the refinements of social life"-or as Robertson expresses himself in his history of Mexico, "that women are indebted to the refinements of polished manners, for a happy change in their state, is a point which can admit of no doubt. To despise and to degrade the female sex is the characteristic of the savage state in every part of the globe"--what are we then to think of these Holy Fathers, who in their various, degrading institutions, would seem to copy closely the example of the Indian manners recorded by Strabo, who informs us, that, "when their princes set out upon a public hunt, they are accompanied by a number of their women; but, along the road in which they travel, ropes are stretched on each side, and if any man approach near to them, he is instantly put to death !” (Strabonis Geographia, lib. xv.)? And this savage exclusion, existing as we are thus informed in the age of Alexander the Great, has glided down to the faith, rites, and usages of Mohammedanism, the spirit of whose religion has been infused, in many instances, into that of Popery. One point of agreement in their systems, among many others, is wonderfully apparent in respect to this very subject -their contemptuous treatment of the female sex in this world, and the carnal, sensual Paradise of the Eastern prophet. For, if the seventy-two Houris, or black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming and eternal youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, with groves and couches, with fountains and rivers,-with gardens fairer than that of Eden, watered by a thousand streams, and enlivened by the blooming beauties of paradise,-with pearls and diamonds, with robes of silk and palaces of marble, with dishes of gold-rich wines-artificial dainties-numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury, which the Arabian Impos

the Author of his existence. Nor should we be likely to fall into error, when we suppose, that before the eyes of many an obdurate sinner, and unrepenting infidel, the animating gleam of the joys of religion, and the greatness of its promises, has shed its exhilirating lustre; though alas! like the fabled Tantalus-judicially forbidden to have a momentary possession of its passing delights; or like the poetic fiction of the never-ceasing punishment of Sisyphus, depressed at every step by an insupportable and overwhelming load of crimes-impassible to the stinging urgency of the calls of conscience, or the milder teachings of In

tor promised to the meanest believer (Consult the Koran c. 2. v. 25. c. 56. 78, &c. for the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c.) -provoked the jealous indignation, perhaps the bitter envy of the Monks and Friars ;-still the Spiritual guides of the Papacy have, certainly, indulgently gratified these sons of self-mortification, with liturgies, prayers, and addresses to the Sainted virgins of Paradise, containing effusions of grosser sensuality, and more amorous desires, than even Mohammed ventured to bestow upon his obedient followers; particularly, if the apologists of Mohammedanism are to be believed, since they explode the enjoyment of the promised rapturous frenzies of the Impostor's disciples in a future world, and alledge that they are to be received only as figurative and allegorical. The celibacy of the Romish hierarchy, or the monachism of their Ascetics, need not therefore provoke any complaints, in the sullenness of their indignation or envy; for, from this comparison of their spiritual luxuries with those of the Mohammedans' paradisiacal raptures, it would be extremely difficult exactly to decide, in whose favour the scale of exquisite delights preponderates. There are numberless examples of unquestionable veracity to establish this latter fact. We confess that it is with extreme reluctance that it is an indispensible duty to drag to light any more of the rank, disgusting, and revolting blasphemies, with which the foul records of the Papal Beast present The truth must be ingenuously confessed, that it is nothing less than a monstrous anomaly to place so closely in juxtaposition on the very same page, the simply beautiful, and transcendently sublime truths, propounded in the exalted precepts of the pure and holy faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with the hideous and hateful excrescences of such a sink of corruption and mass of iniquity. But in the momentous concerns of religion, faithfulness ought never to be basely prostituted to expediency, nor truth be laid prostrate in the dust, to succumb to the prevarications of chicanery and falsehood. It is the rampant exertion of such unprincipled maxims, which, if not seasonably checked in their wild career, must inevitably undermine all the foundations, and loosen all the bonds of the social

us.

spiration. Hence we may conclude, that even among the very enemies of religion, the confirmation of the sanctity of its precepts, and nobleness of its promises, find an unwilling support. In the secret and darkened chambers of their flinty hearts, superior spirits can doubtless in the very trembling of their awe-struck souls, witness the triumph, and predominance of those principles, which are solely destined to raise man from earth to heaven-from corruption to incorruption-from dishonour to honour-and from weakness to power-did he but lay hold of that golden sceptre of forgiveness and mercy, which unto all is graciously

system. It is the especial province of every member of the state, if he regard in the least degree the sacred majesty of divine truth—if he love the unalterable sanctions of christian morality-if he respect the present and future weal of human affairs, boldly to denounce the liberal advocates of so destructive a morality-as the very worst enemies—as the most pernicious examples-and as the very mid-day assassins, who with the thrust of their murderous daggers, infuse such a deadly poison, as rapidly pervades, taints, and corrupts all the diversified orders of society. But what is to be thought of those Ministers of Truth-those professed Guardians of Religion-those avowed Teachers of the unchanging laws of the Divine oracles, who by shuffling, cringing, expediency, sycophancy, and parasitism, under the fashionable veil of temperance and discretion, disgrace their Master, and scandalize his holy cause? We cannot find any terms sufficiently adequate to express our perfect execration of, and disgust at the conduct of some of these Pilates of our venerable Church. It is to be lamented that the complaint, which is as old as Chrysostom, is at all times lamentably verified, that, the World has crept into the Church: but it is still more to be mourned, that any of the Church's appointed servants, should desecrate their awful vows, and sacred functions, by an insincerity -- a lukewarmness-an apathy---a treachery-in which the children of Mammon, or of the world, cannot but luxuriate, and hail as the offal filth of secularity; and regard, as such unseemly practices, as would cast a foul, and perpetual blot of dishonour, even upon the members of any one of the worldly professions. That there are such characters at the present times, who make a sacrifice, on the altar of ambitious expediency, and base delinquency, of those very principles, which they ought at all hazards to have stood forward inviolably to maintain, even amid the shafts of opprobrium, and the fires of persecution, is a fact, that the utmost obstinacy, or wilful pertinacity could not dispute. What then remains but to brand such with that indelible mark of infamy and shame, which the bright lustre of the more faithful, zealous, and consistent advocates of Truth, and of our Apostolic church, will assuredly contribute to hold

held out, that all might touch and live. (1 Cor. xv. 42—44; John, v. 40; 1 Tim. i. 15.). It is then, an undeniable truth, that, although the Creator implanted in the breast of man-his noblest master-piece, all those innate impulses-all those distinguishing faculties worthy of the impression of his own heavenly image; and although in their legitimate objects, there is no beauty that the mere natural, animal man desires-feeding on ashes, having lost his relish for immortal food-his soul defaced by a whirlwind of brutal and abominable passions-blotting out his very understanding, by plunging into the depths of lust,

up to execration, in the very same proportion as the honourable weapons of honesty, independance, sincerity, and virtue are by them vigorously wielded in defence of the dearest, and most valuable interests of humanity and the world. It ought not however, to be by any means supposed, that unqualified, and unmitigated exposures of Romish idolatries, blasphemies, superstitions, and debaucheries, in the remotest degree, foul with their detestable slough the sacredness of Apostolic, primitive, and catholic Christianity. To those at all conversant in the "lively oracles" of the inspired Prophets, such palpable facts are nothing less than astonishing verifications of the truth of Revelation, which has so pointedly and so strikingly delineated, and portrayed the sinuous windings of the "Mystery of Iniquity”—the nefarious impostures of the "Man of Sin"—and the disgusting “fornications" and harlotry of the "Whore of Babylon". In every ingenuous and faithful exposure of the hideous enormities of the Papal system, and in every unsparing disclosure of the blasphemous heresies of their antichristian Apostacy-the single eye of faith can behold an accurate and indisputable fulfilment of the plainest, and most distinctly marked prophecies of the New Dispensation. This has been, also, truly remarked by one of the most venerable, pious, and solid divines of our Church-Rev. W. Jones of Nayland; to whose talents, zeal, and learning the writer freely offers his tribute of praise and admiration; little dreading that his most happy and dear connection with one of his nearest descendents, can draw upon him the imputation of undue impartiality to the memory of a man whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the churches." Mr. Jones observes-" In what state do we now behold the Jews, who for two thousand years were the people of God? Where are the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, and Thyatira ; of Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea; of Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople; of Carthage and Hippo, and the rest in Africa; where shone some of the greatest luminaries of the Church; and where assembled at once in council more than two hundred bishops? They forsook God their Saviour, and he forsook them. It is a

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