serve as warnings to us, and salutary warnings they indeed are.— -Look at the Babel crew that were assembled at these Meetings, viz.: High Church Whigs,-Low Church Dissenters,-Infidels, and Roman Catholics, of the most ferocious spirit. I say, shall we allow a degraded Russell of the present age, for the sake of a few quarters' salary, to level with the ground the Protestant Altars, which the blood of a virtuous Russell, and also of a Sydney, established? I think I can respond, No, No. I shall just call to your memory the many Infidel expressions made within the walls of the British Senate House, by a number of its Members of the late Parliament; and inform you, that some of the same are returned again to the next Parliament. Therefore, British Electors, everything that is dear and respectful to the honoured memory of your departed ancestors, and also for the prosperity and interest of your posterity, as regards the Protestant Church, is centred in your efforts to purge the Senate House of Commons from Infidels, and levelling, factious Members; the great necessity of which is so ably laid down in the Extracts from Solon, Josephus, Junius, Burke, and Fisher Ames. Let no future Elections pass by without bringing to your mind the advice of JACOBUS VERITAS. No. V. TO THE PROTESTANTS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. A PLAIN and simple confutation of the fallacious charge, in which the Protestants are accused of robbing the Roman Catholics of the English Churches and Cathedrals, and the Revenue belonging thereto this confutation is founded on Historical facts; and it is high time that such an unfounded charge should be rebutted, when, in fact, the English Christian Church is here proved to be anterior to any Roman priest visiting the British Isle: for the Gospel was preached in Britain nearly as soon as it was in Rome. The Antiquity of the English Christian Church may be dated 1800 years back. In less than 200 years from the birth of Christ, there were in Britain 28 Bishoprics,—viz., 3 Archbishops, and 25 Bishops. To begin with the earliest writers.-St. Gildas says, the Gospel was preached in Britain before the defeat of Boadicea, the Queen of Iceni; and Euse B 3 bius says, the apostles preached in Britain. It is also proved that St. Paul preached the Gospel in the furthermost corner of the West, (from Rome,) which is Britain. In the year 170 of the Christian Era, Theanus was Bishop of London, and St. Peter's, Cornhill, was his first Church. At the same time, Sampson was Bishop of York, and there was also a Bishop of Chester. In about the year 300 of the Christian Era, St. Alban and others suffered martyrdom in the defence of Christianity, on the spot where now St. Alban's stands, and St. Alban was buried upon the top of a hill. In the year 314, a Council of Christian divines was held at Arles, in France, when three of the English Bishops were delegated to the Council, which took place nearly 300 years before St. Augustine, the first Romish Priest or Monk, set his foot in England: for it was about the year 600 that Augustine came into Britain, which is the first appearance of Romish interference he found a Christian Church in Canterbury, called St. Martin's, and Augustine preached in it. There was also another Christian Church at that time in Canterbury, called Christ Church. This Augustine was sent into Britain, by Gregory, Bishop of Rome, to induce the English Bishops and Clergy to put themselves under the especial care of the Romish Church of which Gregory was Bishop; but they refused to do so, which enraged Augustine, and in the true spirit of the Romish Church, Augustine applied to Ethelfred, the Saxon King of Kent, to assist him with his army, to compel the English Bishops and Clergy to submit to the see of Rome, which Ethelfred did, and a battle was fought at Chester, when 4200 British Clergy were barbarously massacred in that encounter. Still the British Clergy did not submit then; nor was the British Church brought under the ascendency of the Church of Rome until the 12th century, when, from that time to the 15th century, the British Church was in Popish bondage, and under the ascendency of the Pope of Rome.* Still the Cathedrals and Churches of England, with all the revenues belonging thereto, have always been in the possession of the English people, although that unnatural claim for the appointment of the ministers and preachers of the churches, &c. was allowed for a time to belong to the see of Rome. The severity of the Popish Bulls became so intolerant, that the King, and his English subjects, were often under an interdict from Rome, and the churches were often shut up, for the least possible offence given to any one of the papal clergy, which offence was generally no other than the refusal to pay their arbitrary demands for money. This severity was not only practised in this country, but in all parts of the Catholic world. At last, up starts Luther and others, whose writings and doctrines made a grand From the Churchman. stir in all parts against this barbarous crew of the Romish episcopacy; and with the assistance of the 8th Henry, and the general voice of the English people, this tyranny of the popish creed, and also of its plundering acts, became disputed in England; and at last the Crown succeeded in displacing all the popish preachers, in all the cathedrals and churches throughout England. This was done in the reign of the 6th Edward. In the reign of Mary the Roman Catholic preachers were again placed in their old situations; but in the reign of Elizabeth the change from Catholic to Protestant preachers was again effected, and has remained so fixed to this day. During these changes, the cathedrals and churches have ever continued the public property of the English people, and the revenues, whether tithes or endowments, were drawn from English property; the congregations were English subjects, both before and after all these changes of preachers; the communicants and hearers were in both cases the very same people after the Reformation as before it. Then where did the robbers spring from? If the people only changed their creed and preachers, they still held fast their birth-right inheritance in their church freeholds, and they still paid the same tithes under the English law. They only shook off the power of the Romish episcopacy from interfering any longer with the religious worship of England as then Reformed. The cathedrals and |