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your country truly free, and truly happy? Are you anxious for God's glory, and the salvation of your Then burst the iron bonds that

immortal souls?

now enslave you.

Cast away the errors and supercreed and an alien Church, and

stitions of a novel return at once to those scriptural doctrines, and that ancient Church, from which you have been beguiled. Search those Scriptures which God has given you, and ask his spirit to guide you into truth. Act like men, like independent men, determined to be free. Whatever you discover to be false, renounce it; you may have held it long, then hold it no longer; you have been taught it from your youth, that makes no difference; your Church asserts it, so much the worse; it may be old, but it is not as old as the eternal truth of God: it may be pleasant, but if it be false there is the greater reason to forsake it.

There are thousands of your countrymen who are awakening to this important subject, and ripening fast to throw off their errors and false dependencies. There are multitudes of Romanists in other lands beginning to see the real nature of the slavery in which they have been bound, and to pant for "the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free." Arise, then, Irishmen, and assert your religious liberty; take your stand with the Catholic Church of your beloved country, which preaches "Christ, and him crucified," as the sinner's only hope, and sets forth salvation through his blood, "without money, and without price." We have no fees for our baptisms-no charges for our sacraments-no payments

for our absolutions. We have no masses to sell-no indulgences to dispose of-no confessions to profit by -no purgatory to trade upon. If you all joined our ancient Church of Ireland to-morrow, it would only bring us additional trouble and responsibility, but no wealth. If Protestants become Romanists, you may consistently glory in it, because you think numbers to be a proof of truth. But if Romanists become Protestants (though we rejoice over every sinner who is converted from the error of his way), we cannot glory in it, because we know that Christ's flock may be, and often is, a little flock. What motives, then, except your own eternal good, and the glory of God, can actuate us in speaking to you upon this all-important subject-in inviting you to investigate and distinguish truth from falsehood, by the unerring word of God-in beseeching you in Christ's name to be reconciled unto God-and exhorting you to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Are we, then, enemies, because we tell you the truth?"-Gal. iv. 16. "I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say."-1 Cor. x. 15. "And the Lord give you understanding in all things.”— 2 Tim. ii. 7.

No. I.

Bull of Pope Adrian IV., addressed to King Henry II. of England (A. D. 1155), granting him the privilege of taking possession of Ireland and the islands adjacent, saving the rights of the Church of Rome and other churches.

"Adrian, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our wellbeloved son in Christ, the illustrious King of the English, health and apostolic benediction.

"Your highness contemplates the laudable and profitable work of gaining a glorious reputation on earth and enhancing the recompense of future bliss in heaven, by turning your thoughts, in the true spirit of a Catholic prince, to widening the bounds of the church, and explaining the true Christian faith to ignorant and uncivilised tribes, and exterminating the nurseries of vices from the heritage of the Lord: and in order to the better execution of this project, you implore the counsel and countenance of the apostolic see. In which matter, the more mature the deliberation and the greater the discretion with which you proceed, so much greater, we trust, will be the success that will, with the Lord's permission, attend your exertions.

"Certainly, there is no doubt but that Ireland, and all the islands upon which Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, hath shined, and which have received instruction in the Christian faith, do belong of right to St. Peter and the Holy Roman Church, as your grace also admits. Wherefore we are the more ready to introduce into them a faithful plantation, and a stock acceptable to God, in proportion as we are convinced, from conscientious motives, that this is urgently required of us.

"You have signified to us, son well-beloved in Christ, your desire to enter the island of Ireland, in order to bring that people into subjection to laws, and to exterminate the nurseries of vices from the country; and that you are willing to pay to St. Peter an annual tribute of one penny for every house, and to preserve uninjured and inviolate the ecclesiastical rights of the land.

"We, therefore, treating your pious and laudable desire with the favour which it deserves, and graciously acceding to your petition, express our will and pleasure, that in order to widen the bounds of the Church, to check the spread of vice, to reform morals and inculcate virtues, in order to the advancement of the

Christian religion, you should enter that island, and do what shall tend to the honour of God, and the welfare of that land. And let the people of that land receive you in an honourable manner, and respect you as their lord: provided always that ecclesiastical rights be uninjured and inviolate, and the annual payment of one penny for every house be secured to St. Peter, and the Holy Roman Church.

"If then you shall think fit to carry out to its execution the plan which you have conceived in your mind, endeavour diligently to improve that nation by inculcating good morals: and exert yourself, both personally and by means of such agents as you employ, whom you shall have found suitable to the work, for their faith, conversation, and life, that the church may be adorned there, the religion of the Christian faith be planted and grow, and the things pertaining to the honour of God and the salvation of souls be ordered by you in such a way, that you may deserve to obtain from God a higher degree of reward in eternity, and succeed in gaining on earth a name glorious throughout all generations."

No. II.

Bull of Pope Alexander III., addressed to the same King, Henry II., confirming the preceding Bull of Pope Adrian IV., A.D. 1172.

Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our wellbeloved son in Christ, the illustrious King of the English, health and apostolical benediction.

"Forasmuch as those grants of our predecessors, which are known to have been made on reasonable grounds, are worthy to be confirmed by a permanent sanction: We, therefore, following in the footsteps of the late venerable Pope Adrian, and considering the fruits of our desire, do ratify and confirm the permission of the said pope given you, relative to the lordship of the kingdom of Ireland (reserving to blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church, as in England, so also in Ireland, the annual payment of one penny for every house), to the end that the filthy practices of the land may be abolished, and the barbarons nation which is called by the Christian name, may, through your clemency, attain to some decency of manners; and that when the church of that country which has hitherto been in a disorderly state, shall have been reduced to order, that people may, through your means, possess for the future the reality as well as the name of the Christian profession."

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