...

send us strong delusion that we should believe a lie: and it behoves us to enter prayerfully upon a contest with what has crushed so many millions of professing Christians down into the pit during the last twelve centuries. Let it be remembered that the Rev. Mr. Percival, one of these writers, has said the doctrine of the infallibility of the church of Rome will admit of a fair and rational exposition.' The Rev. Mr. Froude has said, 'How beautifully the Edinburgh Review has shewn up Luther, Melancthon and Co.! What good genius has induced them to do our dirty work? Pour moi, I never mean, if I can help it, to use any phrases even which can connect me with such a set. I shall never call the Holy Eucharist 'the Lord's Supper,' nor God's priests Ministers of the word,' nor the altar the Lord's table,' &c. &c: -innocent as such phrases are in themselves, they have been dirtied; a fact of which you seem oblivious on many occasions.' The Rev. Mr. Newman, lecturing on Justification, has said, 'When we go on to inquire, what it is that God has made his instrument, then, as I have said, we find ourselves upon the main ground of dispute between ourselves and the strict followers of the German followers. Our church considers it to be BAPTISM, they consider it to be FAITH.'

Let these, and hundreds of quotations, as strong or stronger, with which we could fill our pages, be weighed together with even the slight specimen we have given of this unfair beginning with the Anglican Fathers,' and if the result do not place every one of us on the defensive, we are culpably negligent, and God will call us to a fearful account for despising the warnings provided in his sacred word.

PROTESTANT ASSOCIATIONS.

WE are frequently repulsed in our earnest efforts to promote the formation of these societies, with an assertion that they are mere 'party' concerns. The manifesto of the Bristol Protestant Association bears so directly on this point, and is in itself so admirable a document, that we must lay it before our readers.

'PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION OF BRISTOL.

The committee have already announced the objects of the society, they now feel themselves called upon to answer an objection which has been raised against it.

'It has been asked-Is it not a party thing? The committee reply :-in one sense, and that the strict and legitimate sense of the term 'party,' the Protestant Association is, and necessarily must be a party thing. For what is a party? According to Johnson a party is a number of persons confederated by similarity of designs or opinions in opposition to others. And such the Protestant Association undoubtedly is.

.

'It is a number of persons confederated by similarity of opinions and designs, in opposition to others. ‘I.—They are confederated by similarity of opinions.' They are confederated in the opinion that the Romish church is corrupt and apostate.

'They are confederated in the opinion that the Protestant church of England stands pre-eminent

amongst the reformed churches as a distinguished witness for the truth, owned and blessed of God in a signal manner.

"They are confederated in the opinion that the Romish hierarchy and priesthood are labouring by every possible means to destroy our national church; as conscious that it is the great bulwark of Protestantism, not only in these realms, but in the whole world.

'II.—They are confederated by similarity of design.' They are confederated in the design of resisting the encroachments and exposing the errors of Popery, and upholding the cause of Protestantism, by all scriptural and lawful means, and more especially by the press or the platform, and by petition to parliament in relation to such measures as affect the security of the Protestant church established in this country.

'III. They are thus confederated in opinion and design in opposition to others: '

'In opposition to the pope of Rome and his antiscriptural bulls and rescripts.

'In opposition to the Romish hierarchy, and their Diocesan Statutes and sanguinary and demoralising systems of theology.

'In opposition to the pseudo-Protestant supporters of Popish colleges, where men are trained to be the propagators of anti-social principles and the actors in the revolting system of the confessional.

'In opposition to the Romish priesthood, and their unceasing endeavours to keep their people in ignorance of the holy scriptures, and in bondage to one of the most soul-enslaving systems that human sagacity ever devised, or human tyranny ever imposed upon mankind.

In this sense the Protestant Association is a party thing; but if by party be meant the banding together in support of any one particular political body in the state-in opposition to some other political bodythis they most distinctly disavow; and they solemnly declare that whatever political body of men may have the preponderance in the councils of the nation, their course will be the same; they pledge themselves not to swerve, either out of fear or favour, from the prosecution of their great objects-objects involving interests infinitely more important than those with which the mere worldly politician is conversant.

'That persons uniting for such purposes as have been described, should, for the most part, be gathered from the ranks of a particular political body is not to be wondered at-since men uniting for the defence not only of the Protestant faith, but of the established Protestant church, can hardly fail to assimilate more or less in their views on other subjects. That the agents of this Society should be led to apply in the first instance to individuals who are reputed to be most warmly attached to the established church, if an offence, is surely an excusable one; since we naturally turn first to those from whom we most confidently expect support; but the Society totally disclaims the idea of excluding any man from its ranks on the score of a political vote, or a party name. invites the support of all who can cordially unite and confederate with it in the opinions and designs above described: Protestant is its party name-Bible truth is its party principle—the Church of England is its sole party ground-and if any man will join it on these terms, it hails him as a brother.'

It

BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

It was a superstition of the ancients, that the birds of passage visited the unseen world; hence arose the custom of consulting them in auguries.

Ye birds through the regions of air who roam,
On the pathless way to your distant home,

In what far-off clime do ye seek repose,

When the cold breath of winter hath withered the

rose?

Do ye rest your bright and wandering wings
Beyond the dim shadows of earthly things?

Ye are like the friends our pathway who throng
In the moments of frolic, and sunshine, and song;
But who shrink when the blast of adversity blows,
And follow mirth's phantom wherever she goes,
Who bask in the light of a gay happy smile,
But are chilled by the grief they ne'er seek to beguile.

Ye visit our earth with the summer sun;
But where do ye fly when its beams are gone?

Ye cannot live in the chilly breath

Of the mists that encircle this climate of death,
But ye wing your airy flight on high,

And are lost in yon boundless azure sky.