APPENDIX.

No. I.-See page 24.

THE conduct of the Church of Rome, in relation to the second commandment, stamps on her worship the awful character of wilful idolatry. The prohibition of images in that divine precept is most express: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."-It was absolutely necessary, either that the worship of images should be given up, or that the divine law which forbids it should be concealed. For, even in the darkest ages of Popery, the thinking and reasoning faculty of mankind was not quite extinct. The priests, as Mr M'Gavin remarks, could not inscribe the words of the second commandment on the wall behind the altar, and then lay down upon the altar an image or crucifix to be worship. ped. They could not insert the same words in any of their catechisms for the instruction of the people, and then exhort them to come and pay their devotions before an image of the Virgin Mary. Accordingly, they proceeded the dreadful length of mutilating the holy law of God, in all the catechisms and formularies of the Church. They expunged the second from the number of the commandments; and, in

order to make up the deficiency thus occasioned, divided the tenth into two. Thus mutilated, the ten commandments are in these words :

"Q. Say the ten commandments of God.

4. 1. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no strange gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day,

4. Honour thy father and mother.

5. Thou shalt not kill.

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

7. Thou shalt not steal.

8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods."

Exod. xx.

In this mutilated condition did the law of God remain in all the catechisms of the Papal Church till the period of the Reformation. On the spreading abroad of its light throughout Europe, however, the villany of the priesthood was exposed; and, in consequence of the controversy with the Pro testant Churches, they found themselves obliged to make some alteration or other on the formularies of the Church. Accordingly, first of all, they introduced into some of their catechisms the second commandment, as part of the first, changing, however, some of its expressions, in the following

manner :

"Q. Say the first commandment.

"A. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no strange Gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven thing, nor the likeness of any

thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth, thou shalt not adore nor worship: them. I am the Lord thy God, strong and jealous, visiting the sins of the fathers upon their children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy. to thousands of those that love me and keep my commandments."

Another alteration in the Roman catechisms, eminently illustrative of the base cunning of the priesthood, took place at the time of the Council of Trent. It was urged in that Council, as an unanswerable objection to the division of the tenth commandment into two-which had previously been practised in the formularies of the Church-that, in the second edition of the commandments, Deuteronomy v. the arrangement of the tenth is different from that of Exodus xx. In the one case it reads "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife;" in the other, "Thou shalt not desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house :" and thus, according to the Popish arrangement, what was the ninth commandment in the one passage, would be the tenth in the other. The detection of this inconsistency confounded the Council; but, instead of yielding to the force of truth, and restoring the Law of God to its just arrangement, in order to conceal the impious fraud, they devised the miserable expedient of blending together the two clauses, which, in the former catechisms, had constituted the pretended ninth and tenth commandments, under the one united title of "The ninth and tenth commandments ;"-and this, though they were not able to point out which was the ninth, and which was the tenth! Thus they stand in the Douay Catechism (the best in the Church of Rome) to this day-" The ninth and tenth commandments."

Q. Say the ninth and tenth.

A. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.'

I must add, in conclusion of this note, that, although the Reformation has forced such changes as these on the Church of Rome, it is only in the more enlightened parts of Catholic Christendom that she has permitted them to take place. There, she saw it would be impossible, after the Reformation had taken place, to keep the people in the ignorance of the dark ages; and, therefore, with the artful policy that has ever marked her proceedings, she has there reluctantly admitted a small portion of light into her formularies. But in Ireland, and the other benighted parts of Europe, she has acted differently. No ray of light has been permitted to enter there. It is to this moment carefully excluded. In the catechisms which she puts into the hands of her votaries, the second commandment, in any shape, is not to be found; the holy law of God is given in the mutilated form above recorded, and every trace of a divine precept against the worship of images is carefully obliterated.

No. 11. See page 34.

On the immoral character and influence of the Papal doctrines, the following are the recorded sentiments of one of the most intelligent and judicious divines of the present age. "The baseless and fanciful distinctions between mortal and venial sins-the doctrine of regeneration by the opus operatum of baptism-the system of dispensations and indulgen. ces the practice of auricular confession to the priest-the power of absolution entrusted to the discretion of a caprici ous individual-the injunction of celibacy on the clergy, who in all Catholic countries constitute a very large propor

tion of the inhabitants-these, and various other features in the character of the Roman Catholic system, must, in the estimation of every impartial, moral observer, stamp it with the stigma of immorality and licentiousness. Indeed, the direct tendency of the Catholic system is, to apologize for sins of the deepest dye, and to substitute a religion of show and ceremony, in place of the genuine religion of the conscience and the heart. Transgressions against the law of God it allows to pass with a very slight censure; while transgressions against the institutions of the Church, or the rights of its ministers, are visited with the severest ecclesiastical censures. And hence we find that a marked and visible difference has all along been observed between the moral state of the continental nations, according as they possessed the Catholic or the Protestant religion. I speak, of course, with respect to those countries where the doctrines and institutions of the Reformation have retained somewhat of their native purity." "There are many professors among us who lose sight of this matter (the immoral and irreligious character of the Catholic tenets)-who consider the tenets and superstitions of the Catholic Church as harmless-and who practically renounce their own peculiarities, as at most useless speculations. THIS IS ONE OF THE GROWING CORRUPTIONS OF THE PRESENT DAY; AND TO THIS UNDUE IMPRESSION IN FAVOUR OF POPERY, MAY BE JUSTLY ASCRIBED THE STOICAL INDIFFERENCE OF MULTITUDES то THOSE PRINCIPLES FOR WHICH THEIR FOREFATHERS SUFFERED AND DIED. When once we cease to believe that the peculiarities of Popery operate with a blasting and deadly influence on the great interests of Christian truth and practical morality, it will be a matter of no great consequence what name or profession we assume."-Burns' Letter to Dr Chalmers.