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Protestants, nor perhaps would Roman Catholics be equally disposed to yield to their own convictions in going over to their political adversaries. A solicitude for extending the Reformation has, however, begun to influence the minds of the northern Protestants, and in proportion as it shall prevail among them, will more effectually moderate the antipathies of party, than any interference of a politica! nature. The Protestant, who is disposed to encourage the conversion of his Roman Catholic neighbour, must be actuated by a desire of promoting his eternal welfare, and to succeed must endeavour, by a conciliating kindness of address, to satisfy him, that his best interest is sincerely and anxiously sought. The Roman Catholic, on the other hand, gratified by the concern which his Protestant neighbour manifests for his accession to the Protestant Church, will be much less inclined to regard him as a political adversary.

are gratefully received by Roman Catholics: from Drogheda we have been informed, that Roman Catholics crowded to controversial lectures, and listened with decorous and serious attention: and from Dundalk we have learned, that the number of persons attending funerals, most of whom are Roman Catholics, has been much increased, since the Protestant minister has begun to address the crowd assembled on such an occasion. A most favourable inference may also be collected from the greatly increased dissemination of the Sacred Writings. While the issues of the Association for Discountenancing Vice have been much augmented, those of the Bible Society, for the half year ending on the first of last October, have exceeded the issues of the corresponding period in the preceding year by not less than six thousand copies. It has even been strongly stated, and generally credited, that the Roman Catholic primate is inclined to gratify the people with an English liturgy. The rumour is probably unfounded, but its existence may be considered as an indication of an anxiety prevailing among the Roman Catholics for a reforma-instruct Protestants, as well as Roman Cathotion of their church.

Ulster, the Protestant province, holds a high pre-eminence in this important work, having not only in Cavan given a beginning to the Reformation, but having also in its progress produced considerably more than half of the entire number of public conversions. To Cavan, indeed, though Antrim alone, of the northern counties, appears not to have produced any instances of public conversion, the successful efforts in the cause must be chiefly ascribed. For the comparative deficiency of other counties of Ulster, satisfactory reasons may be assigned. In these counties the parochial clergy of the Protestant Church, are fully occupied with the charge of numerous congregations of Protestants, and have therefore little leisure for looking after persons belonging to a different church. The Roman Catholic clergy too, in these counties, feeling themselves overborne by the prevailing strength of a Protestant population, are cautious in coercing the inclinations of their own people, which lead them to peruse the Scriptures, and seize the opportunities of education afforded by Protestant schools. Through this forbearance, it may be hoped, that the people will ultimately arrive at the knowledge of true religion; but at present, finding that they are not subject to violent constraint, they do not feel any very urgent motive impelling them to take the decisive step of quitting their church, and, perhaps, in many cases, read the Scriptures without making any distinct application of them to the doctrines and practices of their own communion. A third reason should, we fear, be added to these, derived from a consideration of the mu

In Armagh, Dungannon, and several other places in the northern provinces, controversial lectures have been delivered by the clergy, to

lics, in the differences which separate the two churches. Perhaps the parish of Loughgilly, situated between Armagh and Newry, from which we have obtained very distinct information, may be fairly adduced as a specimen of the general character of the country in regard to the Reformation. In that parish the Roman Catholic Priest has never interfered with the Protestant schools, except in the single case of a Sunday school; and it appears that he was even obliged to promise, that he would widely distribute the Rhemish Testament. The people of his persuasion, on the other hand, have but in two instances come forward as converts, though they receive with kindness the representations of the Protestant minister, appear to be desirous of knowing what can be said on both sides, and are easily convinced that their clergy act unwarrantably in withholding the wine in the celebration of the Eucharist.

The part of northern Ulster, in which the most strenuous efforts have been exerted for extending the Reformation, seems to be the county of Derry, possibly because among the more northern counties the two churches approach there most nearly to an equality. A solemn conference was offered by six Protestant ministers, but, to the manifest disappointment and vexation of the Roman Catholic laity, declined, in obedience to the order of their Bishop. Frequent discussions have, however, been held by the laity of both churches, and in one of them, maintained before a hundred and fifty persons, by men of the farming class of society, during seven hours, on the question of the apostacy of the Church of Rome, the Protestant minister of Maghera pre

gy, that their children should be withdrawn | knowledge of that book, which from the Protestant schools, is very frequently disregarded, though the Roman Catholic bishop and his clergy perambulated the diocese for the purpose of issuing it. In other particulars also, a useful impression appears to have been made on the Roman Catholics of this district; the pilgrimage to Lough Derg falling rapidly into contempt, and the priests, after an unsuccessful effort, relaxing in the observance of days consecrated to saints. Perhaps the most encouraging prospect is presented by the increased piety of Protestants, for genuine piety alone can overcome the influence of a church congenial to the principles of our corrupted nature.

On the whole, from a statement of conversions recently published, it appears that the total number at the end of last September, was 2,357. It is known that many have silently conformed to the Protestant Church, whose cases have not been included in that statement. It is also notorious, that conversions have not since been any where discontinued; and, when it shall have been considered, that only adult persons have been comprehended in the enumeration, it must be manifest that no inconsiderable inroad has been already made upon the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland, by the number of those who have actually withdrawn themselves and their families from its communion. The review which we have taken of the state of the Roman Catholic Church in every part of Ireland, must satisfy reflecting persons, that the real impression is beyond comparison greater; a spirit of religious inquiry appearing to have been generally excited among Roman Catholics, and the authority of the sacred Scriptures superseding every where the dictation of their priests. If a change thus favourable presents itself at present among adults, very many of whom have not enjoyed the advantage of a scriptural education, how much more widely will it spread, when the great number of young persons, now receiving that advantage, shall have taken their places in society? Even already in most places the persecutions of the Roman Catholic clergy are abetted only by comparatively small numbers of persons, distinguished by the name of "Priests' Men," and the majorities will soon acquire a confidence in mutual support.

In prosecuting this great work of Reformation, the efficacious means are the encouragement of Scriptural schools for the young, and the employment of Scripture-readers for the instruction of illiterate adults. It is desirable also, that the Protestant clergy should deliver controversial discourses, because the minds of their own people should be awakened to a sense of the distinctions which separate Protestants from the Church of Rome; and in very many instances, intelligent and inquiring Roman Catholics have attended these discourses, and have been thereby brought to the knowledge of the truth. The primary instrument of religious improvement, however, is the institution of a school, in which the Scriptures are read.

If the Roman Cathalie alerer offectually.

so much apprehension, and yet from God. If their prohibition one great step has been taken to tion, by shaking off the dominic From the children educated in some knowledge of the Sacred municated to their parents; higher authority than that of th dually made known to those hitherto kept in ignorance, in s of its existence; and the spell o at length dissolved under the o fluence of truth, leaving its ca joyment of his Christian liber stricted perusal of the Scriptu the neighbourhood of Sligo, a marked, an opinion has begun t Roman Catholics, that the reli testants was soon to have How rapidly would the Refo tended, if such an opinion w rally entertained!

The people of England in maintaining the London Hi have proved that they are not i religious reformation of the Iri perhaps the importance of tha ver yet been fully appreciat people of this country have no considered, that the struggle f in reality the struggle of the Pr of England and the See of R looks into the history of the which have elapsed since the of the Reformation, must be the Church of England has be day, the grand and powerfu Protestant Churches of Eur quently must necessarily have nue to be, the main object of hostility of the Papacy, as it and is still struggling, to rega dancy over the governments of England indeed, and even from forts of the Papacy were, afte wholly excluded, though not v of the reigning dynasty. Ir specially subjected to the Pa introduction of the English extensively acknowledges the cy. Here then is the hold, dominion still possesses of th dom. That it attaches impor is manifest from this fact, that the Roman Catholic Church subjected to a special congre nals, though a regular hiera existed in the country. That grasp is not limited to the 1 Ireland, the establishment at its active interposition, must demonstration be required. gripe of an antagonist, who wil the struggle, until he shall h overcome. Either England: Papacy by reforming Ireland will overthrow the Church an England The Protestert voli

ence a renewed ascendancy of the Pope, as in the bloody, though brief, reign of Mary, the Reformation of England was originally purified. But, while we are confident of the permanence of our religion, we should struggle to maintain also the permanence of our religious, and of our civil institutions. If the spirit of those institutions has become languid in undisturbed tranquillity, let us endeavour to restore it to its original vividness; let us act, as if the struggle, in which we are now engaged, were the appointed means of the Divine Providence, for reanimating the friends of a Protestant Church and Constitution, and we may avert a calamitous visitation, by rendering it unnecessary.

But why, we are asked by the self-named liberals of the day, should we not hope, that the religion of Rome, when all political disadvantages have been removed, will purify itself by a spontaneous Reformation, and thus terminate the struggle by a voluntary accommodation. We answer, and we demand, a solemn attention to the assertion, because such an internal reformation is essentially impossible. This indeed, we boldly assert, is the chimera of visionary men, and we throw back the charge of silly and idle speculation upon those by whom it has been advanced. We confidently maintain, and we undertake to demonstrate, that the Church of Rome cannot so purify its own corruptions as to become a sound member of the general Church of Christ. It may moderate, or even cut away, some minor abuse, some grosser impiety of superstition, as men become too enlightened for the practices of an ignorant period, or are more exposed to the scrutiny of a purer Church; but the main doctrines of its faith, and principles of its practice, it must for ever retain, because it has perceived and established the necessity of maintaining, that they are for ever incapable of change.

The unchangeable character of the Church of Rome is by no means a mere boast of its members, elated with the pride of ecclesiastical dominion; and to be abandoned, when that dominion may be better preserved by more moderate pretensions. It has been so plainly exemplified in its history, as to have attracted the attention and to have exercised the reflection, of all who meditate on the public transactions of men. Of this unyielding character our own government has had ample, and recent experience. "For the last fifty years," says Dr. Phelan, in his History of the Policy of the Church of Rome in Ireland, "the Roman Catholic bishops have been engaged, with little intermission, in treating with various members of the government, both in England and Ireland: in every instance they have over-reached or eluded them, and held on their sinuous course of aggrandizement without sustaining

why these should not be successively removed, as it should be discovered that they were not congenial to the genuine religion of Jesus Christ. Even the claim of infallibility, high and presumptuous as it is, might have been long ago explained into a character, belonging only to a just interpretation of the written revelation. It has already, within the Church of Rome, been denied to the Pope, who had arrogated to himself this attribute of Divinity; neither has it been determined, whether it belongs to a Council singly, or to a Council in connexion with the Pope. Why then has it not been wholly relinquished, as the claim of direct temporal dominion, which was once not less explicitly maintained? The true answer to this question is, that the corruptions of the Church of Rome are not merely an aggregate of false doctrines and superstitious practices casually brought together, as ignorance or opportunity might prompt, but constitute a systematic scheme of universal dominion, of which the claim of infallibility is the essential groundwork. If this claim were relinquished, men must resort to the sacred Scriptures for direction, and the authority of the Church of Rome would soon fall to the ground. This claim then they must maintain, and the Scriptures they must, under its protection, as much as possible withhold, or their ecclesiastical empire will perish. They may allow their ministers to dispute, where the high prerogative should be considered as residing, or whether it extends to questions of fact, equally as to questions of doctrine; but somewhere within their Church it must be admitted to reside, or the pretensions of a Church erected on a foundation distinct from the written Word of God, and asserting a general dominion over the souls and consciences of men, must be abandoned as an unauthorized usurpation.

Here is the secret of the unchangeable character of the Church of Rome. It is unchangeable, not because in a period of ignorance that Church has inconsiderately advanced the plea of infallibility, which in a period of knowledge it cannot consistently relinquish, but because the Church of Rome is a scheme of ecclesiastical dominion, and the claim of infallibility is the charter of its power. This charter it has vindicated strenuously in every age, and must vindicate it to the end. If this charter were relinquished, the bishop of Rome would be the bishop of a single and a narrow district, not the ecclesiastical sovereign of many nations; and the prelacy of each Roman Catholic country, instead of administering the powers of the Papal Empire, and reflecting on the multitude their portion of its splendour, would become simply the superintending ministers of a scriptural religion, exercising indeed authority over their subordi

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the general hierarchy every thought is habitually turned, every effort habitually directed.

This is not speculation, but history, if history can have any authority in the minds of modern liberals, who indeed wisely affect to hold it in contempt; for they, too, like the Church which they advocate, claim to be infallible. When the increasing knowledge of the sixteenth century generated the reformation of Luther, was the Church of Rome amended by its influence? Some minor superstitions were rendered less offensive, where they were exposed to the observation of Protestants; but in that very council, which was assembled for the occasion, the erroneous doctrines of the Church were all, for the first time, reduced to a systematic form, and the newly-constituted order of Jesuits, extended more than ever the prerogatives of the Church of Rome, and maintained them by practices never before adopted. Now, too, in this age of much increased and still increasing knowledge, where are the indications of a tendency towards a spontaneous Reformation of the Church of Rome? The Jesuits, who had been suppressed, by the concurrent indignation of Roman Catholic governments, as sworn enemies to the temporal safety of states, have recently been again embodied, and have obtained establishments even in this Protestant

empire, that they may again exercise their energies and their artifices in maintaining the superstitions and the prerogatives of Rome against the fatal inroads of scriptural religion.

In this struggle the Roman Catholic clergy

of Ireland have, under the direction of that

body, availed themselves of every evasion, in order to prevent that free perusal of the Scriptures, which would dissipate their claim to infallible dictation. In the beginning they boldly protested, not against the abuse, but simply against the use of the Scriptures. Their tone was necessarily changed after the celebrated discussion in Carlow, and only the right of private judgment was then denied, not the mere perusal of the Sacred Volume. Even this defence they were unable to maintain, and they were driven to the necessity of using yet another expedient. We have it now on record, from the head of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland, that it is not even the right of private judgment which is condemned, but the abuse of that right. These modifications of their resistance have been wrung from them by hard necessity. The next step would be to permit the free exercise of private judgment, claiming only the reverence due to the wisdom and piety of the regularly constituted ministers of a Christian Church. This step, however, they cannot take, because this would be to abandon the claim of infallible dictation, and with it all the pretension of ecclesiastical dominion. But this step the people are now taking for themselves; and we trust that the day is not far distant, when they will become generally sensible, that it is a step which no man, or body of men, can have any right to hinder them from taking. When this convic

From the Literary Chr

THE OMNIPRESENCE OF A Poem. By Robert Montgo 200. London. 1828. S. Maund

MR. MONTGOMERY, the young (if we are not misinformed) dist self, though anonymously, as the age, by producing a satire, to th merits of which The Literary season bore ample testimony. vation we do not mean to asser tained sufficient evidence that we allude to was faultless; but imbued with the true spirit of and capable of giving expression polished, or, if it better suited in language at once nervous satire, in terms of sarcastic iron declamation. We were, prepared to expect from his short a space of time too, a elaborately finished, as the w an order, so beautifully con for, in our opinion, were he another line, he would be allow by his " Omnipresence of the I which the most successful bar

how

day might be proud to wear.

No subject can possibly be m that which represents an all-p superintending and directing Deity omnipotent and omnipres is, may fairly be inferred from author's idea of its grandeur eloquent passage, which we very commencement of the po "THOU UNCREATE, UNSEEN, a Source of all life, and fountain Pervading SPIRIT, whom no e Felt thro' all time, and workin Imagination cannot paint that Around, above, beneath, where "Before the glad stars hymn Earth,

Or young Creation revell'd in Thy Spirit moved upon the pr Unchain'd the waveless waters Bade Time's majestic wings to And out of Darkness drew the b "Ere matter form'd at Thy cr Thou wert!-Omnific, Endless In Thine own essence, all tha Sublime, unfathomable Deity Thou said'st-and lo! a unive And light flash'd from Thee,

morn!"

Grand and poetical as the are, they are by no means supe ral tone of the poem. Simila of the Deity, couched in term priate or beautiful, pervade the vividness of the poet's mind s page. What can be more truly powerful than the following en tion of

With what a gloom the ush'ring scene appears!
The leaves all shiv ring with expectant fears,
The waters curling with a fellow dread,
A veiling fervour round creation spread,
And, last, the heavy rain's reluctant shower,
With big drops patt'ring on the tree and bower,
While wizard shapes the bowing sky deform,
All mark the coming of the thunder-storm!
"Oh! now to be alone, on some still height,
Where heaven's black curtains hang before the
sight,

And watch the swollen clouds their bosoms clash,

While fleet and far the lightning-daggers flash,
Like rocks in battle, on the ocean's bed,
While the dash'd billows foam around their

head!

To mark the caverns of the sky disclose
The furnace flames that in their wombs re-
pose,

And see the fiery arrows fall and rise,
In dizzy chase along the rattling skies!--
How stirs the spirit while the thunders roll,
And some vast PRESENCE rocks from pole to
pole !"

It is not, however, our intention to make long extracts, but to point out some of the varied beauties of the work, and by a sort of running commentary, to enable our readers to form a correct estimate of the author's powers. This we are the more inclined to, because, even in this age of wonders, it is a rare occurrence that a person of Mr. Robert Montgomery's years (we understand he is only twenty) is capable of doing justice to a subject so sublime, and, what is perhaps still more arduous, of extorting praise, almost unqualified, from a reviewer. The following picture of the repose and freshness of nature, after the storm has ceased, is evidently beautiful:

"List! now the cradled winds have hush'd their roar,

And infant waves curl pouting to the shore, While drench'd earth seems to wake up fresh and clear,

Like hope just risen from the gloom of fear,-
And the bright dew-bead on the bramble lies,
Like liquid rapture upon beauty's eyes,-
How heavenly 'tis to take the pensive range,
And mark 'tween storm and calm the lovely

change!

"First comes the Sun, unveiling half his face, Like a coy virgin, with reluctant grace, While dark clouds, skirted with his slanting

ray,

Roll, one by one, in azure depths away,-
Till pearly shapes, like molten billows, lie
Along the tinted bosom of the sky:
Next, breezes swell forth with harmonious
charm,

Panting and wild, like children of the storm!— Now sipping flowers, now making blossoms shake,

Or weaving ripples on the grass green lake:

take such as may be separated from those which precede or follow them, without injuring the

sense.

The Omnipresence of the Deity is divided into three parts; the extracts we have already made are from the first, which gives a condensed view of the boundless influence of an over-ruling power manifest in the works of creation. The second part of the poem (to use the author's own words in his analysis) is devoted to a consideration of the presence of the Deity, as influencing the changeful scenes and affairs of human life; and the third may be considered as a review of the whole subject, interspersed with various striking scenes, and concluding with a description of a burning world, in thought and language perfectly astounding.

Our next quotation shall be the poet's delineation of a captive, which affords us an opportunity of showing that, in depicting the events of human life, (and those, too, not the most enticing,) he is equally felicitous, as in describing the sublime realities of nature, or the might of Omnipotence :

"Within a dungeon mildew'd by the night,
Barr'd from salubrious air and cheering light,
Lo! the pale captive pines in hostile lands,
Chain'd to his doom by adamantine bands!
Oh! how he pants to face the fresh-wing'd
breeze,

And list the voices of the summer trees;
To breathe, and live, and move, and be as free
As Nature is, and man was made to be!
And when at night, upon his flinty bed,
Silent and sad he lays his grief-worn head,
There as the dungeon-bell with dreary sound
Tolls midnight through the sleeping air around,
Remembrance wafts him to congenial climes,
And frames a fairy world of happier times.
The woodland haunts around his native scene,
The village dance upon the festive green,
His thymy garden where he loved to ply,
And smiled as peeping flower-buds hail'd his
eye,

His beauteous partner, and her blue-eyed boy, Who prattled, played, and fed his soul with joy,

All with immingling rapture fire his heart,
And force the stings of agony to start;

Till, like a bark by wrecking whirlwinds driven,
He rolls, and writhes, and groans despair to
Heaven!

And Heaven is by and with ethereal charm Bids Hope to waken, and her smiles to warm; Then, lull'd by her, his home-wed bosom teems With holy raptures, and seraphic dreams."

We, however, find that we cannot do justice to this admirable volume in the present number, without disarranging its contents; nor should we, indeed, have thought of reviewing it till the following week, (having only received our copy on Thursday evening,) were we not anxious to be the first, or at least among the first, to introduce a young man to

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