These exorbitant and unchristian claims of the Church and See of Rome, have been, over and over again, refuted by the Learned of the Reformed Churches of Europe; and by none more ably, or successfully, than by the Protestant Divines of Great-Britain and Ireland. Still they are repeatedl urged by our Popish opponents, Milner and Troy, Gandolphy and De la Hogue, &c. &c. and therefore require to be as repeatedly answered, in this interminable and never-to-beabandoned Controversy, as it is justly styled, by one of our most zealous and powerful Champions, the Editor of the PROTESTANT ADVOCATE; which is nicknamed by Mr. Gandolphy and his associates," The Devil's Advocate!" And, strange to tell! Popery, (though prostrate, and well nigh expiring, on the Continent of Europe,) still rears her head aloft in the British Isles, and once more threatens the overthrow of the PROtestant ESTABLISHMENT in Church and State, which she has often attempted before!! And the present hoary and wily Pontiff, Pius VII. though "fallen, fallen, fallen from his high estate," and, like a meteor, shorn of his rays,

-See the Oath at large, in Hales's Letters to Doctor Troy, &c.; or Marsh's Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome, p. 122.

* See Letters to the Rev. P. Gandolphy, in the Protestant Advocate, May, 1815, p. 357.

does not relax one jot, or one tittle, of the loftiest pretensions of his predecessors, in the zenith of their power; In defiance of all the Sovereign Powers of Europe, he has had the hardihood, lately, to revive the Inquisition, and the Order of the Jesuits, though formally suppressed by a foregoing Pontiff, those tremendous firebrands of the See of Rome!!

Wishing, therefore, to expose these unwarrantable claims more clearly and concisely, than I have hitherto seen it done, for the information of Protestants, (both in, and out of, Parliament,) unacquainted with this vital Controversy, and to guard them from delusion, and prevent them from blindly surrendering the main barriers of the Constitution, to the audacious reiteration of "Catholic Claims," perpetually returning to the charge, though repulsed ever so often; and for the reformation of such ingenuous RomanCatholics as dare to think for themselves, and examine the grounds of their profession of faith; I shall attempt to analyze these grounds in this Introduction; and then shall proceed, in the Essay itselt, to prove the true origin of the pri mitive British and Irish Churches, and their total independence on the See of Rome; in order to rouze, if possible, their degenerate posterity of the Popish persuasion, to emancipate themselves from their spiritual bondage, and to re-assert their ancient liberty and independence.

i.

"The Roman Church" is NOT "THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH" of the Apostles Creed, nor "THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH" of the Nicene.

The word Catholic signifies Universal; but for any particular Church to call itself the whole, is a grammatical solecism, and a downright absurdity. The best refutation I have any where seen of it, is furnished by an authority that must be decisive with Roman-Catholics, even the infallible authority of Gregory the Great himself, both Pope and Saint; in his celebrated letter of censure to his brother John, the patriarch of Constantinople, for assuming the synonymous title of Ecumenicus, or "Universal."

"Certainly Peter, the Apostle, is the first member of the Church; our Paul, Andrew, John, what else are they than heads of particular congregations? And yet they all are members of THE CHURCH under one head [CHRIST]. And, to comprize the whole in a short compass of expression, the Saints before the Law, the Saints under the Law, and the Saints under Grace, all these, composing the body of THE LORD, are appointed members of the Church, But none of them ever wished to call himself Universal *"

* Certè Petrus, Apostolus, primum membrum sanctæ et universalis Ecclesite est: Paulus, Andreas, Johannes, quid aliud quàm singularium sunt plebium capita? Et tamen sub uno capite, omues sunt membra Ecclesiæ. Atque, ut cuncta brevi cingulo locutionis astringam, Sancti ante legem, Saucti

In this admirable and enlarged definition of the Catholic Church, Gregory justly included the Patriarchal, Mosaical, and Christian Churches, comprehending the whole corporate body of the Saints or of the Faithful, from the beginning to the end of the world. And, in this sense, the word Church is frequently used in the New Testament, Heb. xii. 23; Acts vii. 38; Col. i. 18; Matt. xvi. 18, &c. &c.

By a similar absurdity, the particular Apostolic Church of Rome claims to be the general Apostolic Church, founded by all the Apostles; excluding all her sister Churches from any share in the title!

II. "The Roman Church, is NOT the Mother and Mistress of all Churches."

"The Mother of us all, was the original Church of Jerusalem," Gal. iv. 26, which was founded on the memorable day of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, A.D. 31, by the conversion of 3000 prejudiced Jews to the Christian Faith; and afterwards rapidly encreased: for "THE LORD added daily to the Church, such as were desirous to be saved." Acts ii. &c.

sub lege, Sancti sub gratiâ, omnes hi perficientes corpus Domini, in membris sunt Ecclesiæ constituti; et nemo se un. quam universalem vocare voluit. See the whole letter, in the earlier editions of St. Gregory's works, Basil, 1564, or Antwerp, 1615, or in Hales' Observations on the Pope's Supremacy, 1787, p. 12, Appendix

The mother of the Gentile Churches especially, was the Church of Antioch, founded by Barnabas and Paul, about A. D. 43; when the converts, (before called “ Nazarenes," in contempt.) were

first honoured with the title of "Christians." Acts xi. 26; xxiv. 5. This Church was jointly established by Peter also, when he went thither, after his miraculous deliverance from prison in the second Jewish persecution raised by Herod Agrippa, A. D. 44; Acts xii. 1-17. But this Church of Antioch was founded and established long before either Peter or Paul visited Rome. NOR is the Roman, the mistress of any of the Churches.

This is evident from what was said of the independence of all the primitive Churches on each other; as ratified by the first four General Councils, which "Gregory the Great professed to reverence as the four Gospels."

III. The Roman Church was NOT founded by St.Peter.

Among the first fruits of the Mother-Church of Jerusalem, we read of οι επιδημέντες Ρωμαίοι, "the Roman sojourners, or Jews, residing at Rome. Acts. ii. 10. These, we may presume, on their return home, formed the embryo of the Roman Church. Of this Church were Aquila and his wife Priscilla, Jews of Pontus, settled at Rome, and expelled from thence, with "all