II. submission and superstition in its members, is ra- APPEND. ther losing than gaining ground, even in those countries that still profess the religion of Rome. If this be the case, it would seem, indeed, very strange, that Popery, which is losing ground at home, should be gaining it abroad, and acquiring new strength, as some imagine, even in Protestant countries. This, at first sight, must appear a paradox of the most enormous size; and it is to be hoped that it will continue to appear such, upon the closest examination.-While the spirit and vigour of Popery are actually declining on the continent, I would fondly hope, that the apprehensions of some worthy persons, with respect to its progress in England, are without foundation. To account for the growth of Popery in an age of light, would be incumbent upon me, if the fact were true. Until this fact be proved, I may be excused from undertaking such a task. The famous story of the golden tooth, that employed the laborious researches of physicians, chymists, and philosophers, stands upon record, as a warning to those who are over-hasty to account for a thing which has no existence. My distance from England, during many years past, renders me, indeed, less capable of judging concerning the state of Popery, than those who are upon the spot. I shall therefore confine myself to a few reflections upon this interesting subject. When it is said that Popery gains ground in England, one of the two following things must be meant by this expression: either that the spirit of the established and other reformed churches is leaning that way; or that a number of individuals are made proselytes, by the seduction of Popish emissaries, to the Romish communion. With respect to the established church, I think that a candid and accurate observer must vindicate it from the charge of a spirit of approximation to E 4 Rome. II. APPEND. Rome. We do not live in the days of a Laud; nor do his successors seem to have imbibed his spirit. I don't hear that the claims of church-power are carried high in the present times, or that a spirit of intolerance characterizes the Episcopal hierarchy. And though it were to be wished, that the case of Subscription were to be made easier to good and learned men, whose scruples deserve indulgence, and were better accommodated to what is known to be the reigning theology among the Espicopal clergy, yet it is straining matters too far, to allege the demand of Subscription as a proof that the established church is verging towards Popery. As to the Protestant dissenting churches in England and Ireland, they stand so avowedly clear of all imputations of this nature, that it is utterly unnecessary to vindicate them on this head. If any thing of this kind is to be apprehended from any quarter within the pale of the Reformation, it is from the quarter of Fanaticism, which, by discrediting free inquiry, crying down human learning, and encouraging those pretended illuminations and impulses which give imagination an undue ascendant in religion, lays weak minds open to the seductions of a church, which has always made its conquests by wild visions and false miracles, addressed to the passions and fancies of men. Cry down reason, preach up implicit faith, extinguish the lamp of free inquiry, make inward experience the test of truth; and then the main barriers against Popery will be removed. Persons who follow this METHOD possibly may continue Protestants; but there is no security against their becoming Papists, if the occasion is presented. Were they placed in a scene where artful priests and enthusiastic monks could play their engines of conversion, their Protestant faith would be very likely to fail. 11. If by the supposed growth of Popery be meant, APPEND. the success of the Romish emissaries in making proselytes to their communion, here again the question turns upon a matter of fact, upon which I cannot venture to pronounce. There is no doubt but the Romish hierarchy carries on its operations under the shade of an indulgent connivance; and it is to be feared that its members are wiser, i. e. more artful and zealous, in their generation, than the children of light. The establishment of the Protestant religion inspires, it is to be feared, an indolent security into the hearts of its friends. Ease and negligence are the fruits of prosperity; and this maxim extends even to religion. It is not unusual to see a victorious general sleep upon his laurels, and thus give advantage to an enemy, whom adversity renders vigilant. All good and true Protestants will heartily wish that this were otherwise. They will be sincerely afflicted at any decline that may happen in the zeal and vigilance that ought ever to be employed against Popery and Popish emissaries, since they can never cease to consider Popery as a system of wretched superstition and political despotism, and must particularly look upon Popery in the British isles as pregnant with the principles of disaffection and rebellion, and as at invariable enmity with our religious liberty and our happy civil constitution. But still there is reason to hope, that Popery makes very little progress, notwithstanding the apprehensions that have been entertained on this subject. The insidious pub lications of a TAAFE and a PHILIPS, who abuse the terms of charity, philanthropy, and humanity, in their flimsy apologies for a church whose tender mercies are known to be cruel, have alarmed many well-meaning persons. But it is much more wise, as well as noble, to be vigilant and steady against the enemy, than to take the alarm at the smallest II. APPEND. smallest of his motions, and to fall into a panic, as if we were conscious of our weakness. Be that as it will, I return to my first principle, and am still persuaded, that the Protestant church, and its prevailing spirit, are, at this present time, as averse to Popery, as they were at any period since the Reformation, and that the thriving state of learning and philosophy is adapted to confirm them in this well-founded aversion. Should it even be granted, that proselytes to Popery have been made among the ignorant and unwary, by the emissaries of Rome, this would by no means. invalidate what I here maintain; though it may justly be considered as a powerful incentive to the zeal and vigilance of rulers temporal and spiritual, of the pastors and people of the reformed churches, against the encroachments of Rome. The author of the Confessional complains, and perhaps justly, of the bold and public appearance which Popery has of late made in England. "The Papists, says he, strengthened and animated by "an influx of Jesuits, expelled even from Popish countries, for crimes and practices of "the worst complexion, open public mass-houses, "and affront the laws of this Protestant king"dom in other respects, not without insulting "some of those who endeavour to check their " insolence. And we are told, with the utmost "coolness and composure, that-Popish Bishops "go about here, and exercise every part of their "function, without offence, and without observa"tion." This is, indeed, a circumstance that the friends of reformation and religious liberty cannot behold without offence; I say, the friends of religious liberty; because the maintenance of all liberty both civil and religious, depends on circumscribing Popery within proper bounds; sincePopery is not a system of innocent speculative opinions, but a yoke of despotism, an enormous mixture II. mixture of princely and priestly tyranny, designed APPEND. to enslave the consciences of mankind, and to destroy their most sacred and invaluable rights. But, at the same time, I don't think we can, from this public appearance of Popery, rationally conclude that it gains ground, much less (as the author of the Confessional suggests), that the two bierarchies (i. e. the Episcopal and the Popish) are growing daily more and more into a resemblance of each other. The natural reason of this bold appearance of Popery is the spirit of toleration, that has been carried to a great height, and has rendered the execution of the laws against Papists, in the time past, less rigorous and severe. How it may be proper to act with regard to the growing insolence of Popery, is a matter that must be left to the wisdom and clemency of government. Rigour against any thing that bears the name of a Religion, gives pain to a candid and generous mind; and it is certainly more eligible to extend too far, than to circumscribe too narrowly, the bounds of forbearance, and indulgent charity. If the dangerous tendency of Popery, considered as a pernicious system of policy, should be pleaded as a sufficient reason to except it from the indulgence due to merely speculative systems of theology;-if the voice of history should he appealed to, as declaring the assassinations, rebellions, conspiracies, the horrid scenes of carnage and desolation, that Popery has produced-if standing principles and maxims of the Roman church should be quoted, which authorise these enormities; if it should be alleged, finally, that Popery is much more malignant and dangerous in Great Britain than in any other Protestant country; acknowledge that all these pleas against Popery are well founded, and plead for modifications to the connivance which the cle mency |