all his honour—all the hope, and honour, and happiness of his fellow-sinners, if, and when, converted. He considers Popery as none the better for being the corruption of the best. He would rather see a noisome reptile on a dunghill than in a room of state; and poison is not the more acceptable for being presented in a golden chalice. But the subjects of Papal antichrist are yet fellow-creatures; they are yet spiritual, immortal, and accountable creatures; they may yet escape from their spiritual delusion and thraldom. For such, no Protestant Christian exists, who does not entertain the sincerest and most fervent charity. He feels for them precisely as St. Paul did for his countrymen, similarly circumstanced, though they were no idolaters, not even materially, much less formally. Our hearts' desire for every subject of erring Rome is, that he may be converted and be saved.
There is a class—I fear a large one—of which we must think and speak in a far different strain. They are not the deluded, but those who silently and basely acquiesce in the delusion, knowing it to be such; or, not simply acquiescing in it, but promoting it with the same knowledge. I will not say, but I believe, this to be the case with many of the clergy, nobility, and higher orders.[1] It is,
- ↑ In the examination by the Committee of the Lords on the State of Ireland, of the Rev. John Burnet, then of Cork, March 16, 1825, occurs the answer—"Some gentlemen of the
