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LETTER II.

TO

THE RIGHT REVEREND DOCTOR CROLLY,

TITULAR BISHOP OF DOWN.

[Continued from page 23, of CHAMPION, No. 1.]

REVEREND SIR,

In times, then, Sir, like the present very distressing period, when, that oft-practised, well-known watchword, of discontent, faction, and sedition-Liberty; is the darling idol of the disaffected, the licentious, and the profane ;-and an IDOL, which the imbecility and irresolution of some, very highly elevated in rank, have shamefully pampered, with the truly disgusting sacrifices of unprincipled adulation, and the truckling of political partizanship. But such, may be brought, to experience the bitter fruits, of the undue slackening of the elastic arm of power. A worse fate, may await them, than, even, the verbal taunts, the petty insults, of your Democratic, tax-gathering PauperO'Connel; who has had, the impertinent hardihood, to express himself, in the sarcastic bitterness of his contempt ;-in terms, which, though they were used from a very different motive, yet, undoubtedly are the real sentiments, of every man of rank, wealth, and influence in Ireland, in respect to the present Executive Government of that Country. This hireling Advocate of the mob, has publicly declared, that " more

[Continued from the last note.]

cil of Trent whose doctrines, -as taught in your accredited, and authorized Documents, contradict, in the most glaring manner, the equally Infallible Dicta of many preceding General Councils, whose Ecumenicity, your own historians, regard as far superior, and more reputable! Nay more, whose precepts, are absolutely contradictory, not merely, to those of General, and Provincial, Councils; but likewise to several, held in preceding ages, at Rome, itself,

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human blood has been shed in Ireland in the year and a half of Lord Anglesea's government, than during the last twenty years of Tory Administrations;" -and again," it may indeed be designated as a history of blood;"-and in an elaborate epistle, dated, (Tralee, Dec. 24, 1832), read, for the instruction of

convened, though they were, by her Bishop, and composed of her inferior Bishops! Of such an extraordinary Council, detected in the plainest, and most palpable, contradictions, by the accusing testimony of other such assemblies; and which are confirmed by the corroborative attestations of the ancient catholic Fathers, whom your church pretend zealously to follow, -as well as by the instructions, and opinions, of an almost innumerable multitude of your own eminent Doctors, who living at different periods, and in widely distant countries, can hardly be suspected of the bias of undue partiality; inasmuch, as they belonged to your communion; and on other subjects, connected with the peculiar tenets of Popery, evinced an unsubdued and uncompromising spirit:-and what appears still more strange, confirmed likewise, by the condemning Infallible authorities, of no less than Popes themselves: if indeed the ex-cathedra oracles of Divinity, and infallibility itself, are to be much regarded, when the very same Infallible authority, could be deduced, to prove any doctrine of Faith, whether Atheism or Deism, Popery or Protestanism, Heresy or Schism; or to establish any principle of Morals, whether Unnatural Crimes, Adultery, Incest, Fornication, Purity, Impurity, Austerity, Monachism, Superstition, or Bigotry; in a word, any point of Catholicity of Doctrine, or Practice!!! For, methinks, to prove or substantiate any other kind of Catholicity, or Unity of Faith,---any other kind of uniformity of Discipline, or any other kind of Communion of Saints (!), -would be much more difficult, than the invention of one universal Theorem, to solve the indefinitely variable cases of Geometry; or the discovery of one general Law, to explain all the phenomena of the material Universe ;-and quite as difficult, as to prove the Antiquity of the Popish novelties, -each one of which, the inquiring and impartial historian, can easily trace to its polluted source, originating, as they always do, in the dark night of ignorance, and bewildering mists of superstition, amidst the progressive usurpations of the Pope's spiritual, and temporal dominion; and mainly supported, by playing off, among the rude and credulous barbarians, the monstrous and unhallowed impositions, of lying miracles, forged documents, carnal rites, and a shameful compound, of the awful and sublime mysteries of pure religion, with the deleterious dregs of every species of idolatrous, and heathenish ceremonies. And most assuredly, it would be much easier, to make a more consistent system, out of all the varying tenets, even of the most heterodox; inasmuch, as they do not in general quite blot out the common sense, the legitimately guided reason of man, and the proper tests of truth :-though indeed the ignorance, impudence, and presumption, with which, Dissenters,

"THE TRADES UNION," this paragon of vulgar declamation, expresses himself, - " I wonder whether the English Government begin to understand the position in which that weak, well-meaning, poor man, Lord Anglesea, and that maniac, Stanley, have placed Ireland.-Anglesea and Stanley have made a repeal of the

and Sectarians of all kinds, almost universally varnish over their arrogance and pride, leaves it impossible to say, whether, it is more disgusting, to see the natural claim of man's birthright-private judgment, so grossly violated, in their ridiculous assumption of individual Infallibility, which these self-constituted, ecclesiastical Mountebanks, in the exercise, and display, of their unparalleled vanity, respectively claim, each to their own persons; -at the same time, with an ignorance, and hardihood, scarcely inferior to their rustic auditories, and naturally impatient of due restraint, erect, each, a Church, for their own government, and use; whilst the proper principles of Ecclesiastical Polity, they have never had either the capacities, or the means of investigating ;-and perfectly as blind to the lights, furnished to us, of the prevailing discipline, of the Primitive Catholic Church, as they are incapable of making a seasonable, and proper judgment, of the concurrent testimonies, of the best Catholic Fathers, of the Eastern and Western World. Now, I alledge, it is most difficult to determine, whether this is more disgusting, than to see the assumed, ill-grounded claims of pretended Papal Infallibility, debauched by impurity, debased by licentiousness, derided by common sense; -denied an existence, because unsuited to the constitution, and weal of human society, (See Paley's admirable remarks, on the inutility of irresistible evidence, in his "Evidences," P. iii. c. 6.) impossible in the nature of things,-disproved by the very exertion, and manifestation of its own prerogatives; - and set at nought, as frequently, by its claimants, as by its defenders, and apologists. Well, Sir, of this Council of Trent, which, -being one fragment, among a thousand others, that have floated down, to us, on the passing stream of ages, -serves at least, as a specimen of Papal absurdities and presumption; and happily enjoys the high privilege of receiving the proffered boon, attached to the golden aphorism of the heathen Poet, that, “invenias etiam disjecti membra poetæ" (Hor. lib. i. Sat. 4.); for, its mutability, variations, contradictions, and inconsistencies, will be found, at once, to mark out their prolific Parent-the hideous front of the scale-covered Leviathan of Romanism:- of this Council, then, in its avowed opposition to all preceding Councils, to Doctors, to Theologians, and to the Popes themselves, you may expect, in a future number of the "CHAMPION," a fully detailed account, and complete exposure, drawn from the most approved authorities, among the different writers of the world, and many belonging to your own Church. The investigating student, who, when he has satisfied himself as to the absolute independance of the British and

union inevitable, and the only question that remains is, how to bring that Repeal about as we achieved emancipation." And another catastrophe may await, those individuals, who have ignobly stooped from an elevated situation of society, to gorge the voracious appetites of the mob, than the bombastic swaggering of another

Irish Churches, in reference to the See and Jurisdiction of the Court of Rome, at the period of the first establishment of Christianity in these countries, and for a lengthened period afterwards; would do well, to consult throughout, the very learned, valuable, and truly "Protestant Catechism" of The Right Rev. Dr. Burgess, Lord Bishop of Salisbury. Also the six first chapters of the illustrious Usher's "Discourse on the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British," with Leland's Hist. of Ireland, vol. i. chap. i., and Blackstone's Commentaries, lib. iv. cap. 8.; where will be fully shown the continued, and determined struggles, which our Ancestors made so unceasingly from age to age, -even long antecedent to the days of Henry VIII., or our Reformers, -to maintain their Ancient and Established claims of independance, against the threatening tyranny, and pressing encroachments of Papal policy. And to expose the shallow pretensions of the alledged Antiquity of the doctrines of Popery in England, in peculiar reference, to the last finished Masterstroke of Romanism, conveyed in the decrees of the Council of Trent; it is only neceesary to compare them, with the doctrines taught by Pope Gregory the Great or First, A. D. 590; who condemned the Antichristian title of Universal Bishop, in his great rival, the Patriarch of Constantinople; and publicly branded, the impious usurpation, of his universally acknowledged coëqual Patriarch-John, in his profane claim of universal dominant Supremacy, and monarchical power, over the whole Church Catholic; in such opprobrious and striking language as, My Fellow-priest John, attempts to be called the Universal Bishop. I am compelled to exclaim: Otimes! O manners! Priests seek to themselves names of Vanity; and glory in New and Profane appellations. Far from the very hearts of Christians be that Name of Blasphemy, in which the honour of all priests is taken away, while it is madly arrogated to himself by a single individual!!!" (Pap. Gregor. I. Epist. lib. iv. epist. 32.-"Consacerdos meus Joannes, &c.") Again, says the same Pope Gregory, -" No one of my predecessors ever consented to use this so Profane Appellation. But far, very far, be it from a Christian mind, that any person should wish to Snatch to himself a Title, whence he may seem, even in any the very smallest degree, to diminish the honour of his brethren!!!" (Epist. 36.) Again, Gregory adds, in addressing his celebrated letter of expostulation, to his presumptuous brother of Constantinople, -" in the use of so Perverted a title, who, I ask, is proposed for thy imitation, save he, who, despising the legions of angels, constituted in a Social Equality with himself, endeavoured to break forth to the sum

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Delegate of Popish dregs, another puny but purulent champion of Priestling's power:-a championship which has procured for him, as well as for many others, "a local habitation and a name;"-who, otherwise, would have remained long deep buried in the soil, which, by their advocacy of the lawless and the rabble,

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mit of an Unapproached Singularity?-To consent to the adoption of that Wicked Appellation is nothing less than to Apostatise from the faith." (Epist. 38.) In this passage Gregory evidently draws a parallel, between the proud claim, of John's assumed supreme monarchical domination, which was subsequently seized upon, even to a more horrid and blasphemous extent, by this very Gregory's own successors, and the present Popes (See "CHAMPION,” No. 1. p. 5-13, and notes.); and between the super-extravagant vaunts of the power and ambitious designs of Lucifer, -a fit emblem of Satan, prince of the apostate angels; of whom, Isaiah, in his sublime description (Isa. xiv. 13, 14.) speaks, as exultingly, and boastingly exclaiming, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God," i. e. "above God's ministers," who, according to Vitringa, are called after the Eastern manner-" stars of God." And in (v. 14.) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." (See CHAMPION No. 1. p. 3.) But once more, says our honest Gregory, " I indeed confidently assert, that, whosoever either calls himself, or desires to be called, Universal Priest; that person, in his vain elation, is the Precursor of Antichrist: because through his Pride, he Exalts himself Above the Others." (Epist. 30.) Here also a similar allusion is made to Isaiah's Lucifer.. And lastly says Gregory, brother and Fellow-Bishop John, despising the commands of our Lord, the precepts of the Apostles, the rules of the Fathers, endeavours, through his boasting, to be in name, a Harbinger of Antichrist." Here, with strict justice, Gregory impugns the Antichristian violation of the mutual independence, and proper coëquality, of the two great ecclesiastical Patriarchs, which, his Eastern Brother is guilty of; -by a Positive Appeal to Revelation, to the Fathers, to the acknowledged practice of the Church, and, consequently, to Councils. It may not be denied, that Hildebrand, whose life, and character, and destination, the knowing sagacity of Modern Wits, has detected, even in the formation of his name,—“ Brand," and "Hell: "-by no means, methinks, an unfit mystical emblem of the obscure ambitious monk, when metamorphised into the aweinspiring scowl, the murderous projects, the monstrous horrors of Gregory VII.; who, as Gibbon, piquantly says, "may be adored or detested as the Founder of the Papal Monarchy." (Dec. and Fall, vol. xii. p. 266.) It cannot be denied, I say, that this Holy, Pious, Infallible and Sainted (!!!) authority, tells us, (Lib. 2. epist. 55.) that, "the Roman Pontiff alone, is rightly called Universal; "-or, that the Gallican Church rejects the Pope's absolute authority, and spiritual supremacy, and the infallibility of his dogmas, when they

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