"the Constitution are shut against us, as long "as we continue true to the dictates of our own "consciences; but if we abandon the faith of

our fathers, resign every honourable feeling, "and become perjured men and apostates, "then are all our disqualifications removed; "-the sanctuary of the British Constitu❝tion is thrown open to us; we become "senators, privy counsellors, nay, guardians "of the morals of the people, and dispensers "of public justice.-God forbid we should "purchase such distinctions, however valu"able, at the price of dishonour."

This extract from the address of the British catholics, stating their grievances and sufferings, is not more remarkable for corresponding with the description of the pains, the subjects of the beast will endure under the fifth vial, than it is for its singular agreement with the determination of those subjects, "not to repent "of their deeds." "Our principles," say the catholics, "will bear the test of the closest "enquiry therefore, God forbid we should

purchase any distinctions by the abandonment "of the faith of our forefathers:"-that is, our faith is pure, our practice corresponds, all change and alteration, therefore, are quite out of the question.*

*This Declaration of the Catholic Bishops, with the Address of the laity, will shew their friends who entertain the opinion, that if emancipation should be granted, an alteration would speedily follow in their religion, that the Catholics themselves have no such idea, but, on the other hand, that they consider such a change as utterly impossible.-Perhaps one reason that the Declaration and Address are published at

Opinions, accompanied by strong feelings, quickly produce actions corresponding with

this time, is to convince their friends they are mistaken upon this subject

It may be proper to remark that the Declaration I have quoted, has upon the title page, London: : Keating and Brown, Duke-street, Grosvenor-square, and Paternosterrow, 1826, and has the following signatures to it :

William, Bishop of Halia, Vic. Apost. in the London District.

Peter Bernardin, Bishop of Thespiæ, Vic. Apost. in the Western District.

Thomas, Bishop of Bolina, Vic. Apost. in the Northern District.

Thomas, Bishop of Cambysopolis, Vic. Apost. in the Midland District.

Alexander, Bishop of Maximianopolis, Vic. Apost. in the Lowland District of Scotland.

Ranald, Bishop of Aeryndela, Vic. Apost. in the Highland District in Scotland.

Peter Augustine, Bishop of Siga, Coadjutor in the Western District.

James, Bishop of Ursula, Coadjutor in the London District. Thomas, Bishop of Europum, Coadjutor in the Northern District.

Alexander, Bishop of Cybistra, Coadjutor in the Lowland District in Scotland.

May, 1826.

Keating and Brown, printers to the R. R. the Vicars Apostolic

The Address has the following signatures to it:

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them. Give me letters to the synagogue at Damascus, said Paul to the High Priest, whilst under the influence of an imagination heated with mistaken zeal, which "breathed threatenings and slaughter against the disciples," and I will bring both men and women, who hold this new doctrine, bound in chains to your tribunal,-Convinced that their religion is perfect, what does the zeal of the catholics want but letters of power, to enable it to imitate the example of persecuting Paul? Do not catholics everywhere look upon protestantism with angry feelings? Can it be otherwise, when they see it instrumental in overturning their images, and in bringing their interior worship of saints and crosses into ridicule and contempt? Man is never more alive to pain, than when his religious opinions are touched:-and no words can better describe the acuteness of that pain than these words of St. John:-the violence of it is such, that it makes men gnaw their tongues."-The subjects of the "beast," in every part of Europe, are at this time wracked

London: Printed by Keating and Brown, Duke-street, Grosvenor-square.

with it, but in no place more than in Ireland, where they shew, in various ways, they are suffering the greatest torments, because the protestantism of two millions of people is, by its superior excellence, overpowering and restraining the catholicism of six or seven millions. Inspiration has declared that these pains, grievous as they are, will not lead to repentance :—and so long as he who sits in the temple at Rome," as God," receives the support of any of the crowned heads of Europe, so long will his subjects continue to blaspheme, and so long will they continue to tempt the patience and forbearance of heaven;-but, as God is just, as well as merciful and long-suffering, we may rest assured that such iniquity will not always remain unpunished. The pains the catholics are now enduring, are part of the woes they are to suffer previous to the extinction of their religion, and the total overthrow of " the "beast and his kingdom, with the false pro"phet;" and the present wretched state of them affords incontrovertible proof that the predictions* of St. Paul and St. John concerning them are fulfilling before our eyes, and that Omnipotence "has taken unto himself

* If the sceptic and infidel would quietly read the tenth and eleventh verses of the sixteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, and compare what is there said with the present state of catholicism, they would, without hesitation, lay their doubts and unbelief at the foot of prophecy, that great pillar of Christianity, and ever after acknowledge that the doctrine of Christ is of God.

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again his great power, and is reigning,” that he may confound all the corrupters of truth, and destroy them that have destroyed the earth."*

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* "We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to "thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, " and them that fear thy name, small and great: and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth."

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The circulation of the Scriptures has made the Catholic and Mahometan nations exceedingly" angry :" and this " anger," says Daubuz, in his commentary upon these verses, imports "resistance and war, to oppose the kingdom of God and his "Christ, which is not to be advanced without the opposition "of these nations-But this anger or resistance will prove "their third woe, or utter destruction; for it followeth- and thy wrath is come ;'-hitherto God had shewn his patience "and long suffering, which be now worn out, and therefore "to be turned into severity and anger.-He bears long, that he may afterwards shew his anger, and demonstrate his power in the destruction of the vessels of wrath.-The "wrath of God is the certain forerunner of destruction, and being in Holy Writ so often compared to fire, signifies destruction, the effect of fire." The present state of Spain and Turkey plainly shews that the "wrath of God" hangs heavily upon those countries, and that every word of inspira tion concerning the destroyers of the earth, the beast, and the false prophet, will be accomplished.-For "God is not a man, that he should lie ;-bath he said, and shall he not "do it? or hath he spoken, and shall not he make it good?"Every real Christian in Great Britain is the sincere friend of his catholic countrymen.-In honestly pointing out their errors, he shews that friendship. The religion of the Irish Catholics may, in some measure, be different from what it was formerly; but, so long as the members of it profess and defend the doctrine, contained in the "Declaration of the Catholic Bishops," they are very far from the truth, and very near -the wrath of God.

FINIS.