The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-20 00:00:00

resist or deliver you from the subtlety of its vital
principles ? What is easier than for such combatants
to be bold in the absence of an enemy, or to curse
the errors of another Church, leaving the errors of
their own church unreformed ? What though they
are eloquent at the expense of Papists in an anti-
Pap's: icJ assembly, steady in aisertirg incontrovert-
ible truisms in the midst of an audience where such
truisms are sure of meeting with no opposition,
and bold in denouncing the barefaced impos-
tor when they are out of his reach ? When the
disguised impostor asserts his pomp and power,
they become mute ; those lions arc converted into
lambs ; those watchmen against Popery undis-
guised, suffer .Popery with a Protestant mask, to
walk unmolested through your land ; those valiant op-
ponents of the impostor whose pretensions are a jest,
are the supporters of the impostor in authority; those
who expose the puerilities of the Romish priest, help to
rivet upon you the faith-confounding heresies of the
pseudo Protestant ; and those who revile the assertor
of a spiritual dominion which has been usurped, cringe
to the wriggler into a Protestant trust which has been
betrayed.
Thus the Roman Catholic principles taught by the
Gamaliels of the young clergy, seconded by the efforts
of the Roman Catholics, and not opposed by the " No
Popery" defenders of the Protestant faith, form g fit
foundation for the superinduction of a dynasty which
now appears to you a farce, but which in a very short
time may prove a tragedy. _ _ _

A timely and vigorous reform of such ecclesiastical
abuses as are clearly and decidedly Evil. might, hu-
manly speaking, save the national Church from merging
into the Church of Rome. If you, my fellow subjects
and countrymen (for the beads of the Church neglect
this-duty) would send a humble, dutiful, and • loyal po-
tion to the gracious Sovereign who now adorns the Bri-
tish throne, praying for the repeal (the etertril Spirit re-
quired us to Atition that which" is aria., Rag, xii. 9,
infeWieriremy be diteitedl of theta._ Piichasaantary
enactments which set up (diattrld,--,aathtty against 1
scriptural authority, the Queen to your
prayer ; the pernicious religion now imbibed by the
rising generation of the clergy might be shaken to
its foundation' ; and her Majesty (God bless her !)
might be an instrument in the hands of the Almighty
in saving the Church of her fathers from sealing its
own apostacy from the faith of the Reformation.

In the meantime—your country is a Protestant
country, your Church is (as yet) a Protestant Church,
and all your Church property, according to the 13th
Statute of Queen Elizabeth and other Acts of Parlia-
ment, belongs, of right, to Protestant ministers who
maintain Protestant principles. But what is a Pro-
testant ? And what are Protestant principles ? Such
definitions and such inquiries are far from being super-
fluous. According to the two Latin words of which
it is composed, the word " Protestant" signifies " a wit-
ness for"—the Bible, and FOR NOTHING ELSE. And as
for a definition of Protestant principles, their leading
feature is delineated in the sixth article of your
Church, where it is laid down that, " whatever cannot
be proved by Scripture is not required of any man that
it should be believed." It cannot be denied that a
great want of consistency and circumspection has always
been evinced in admitting men to ecclesiastical offices
of trust without, sufficient reference to this important
point. In fact, your Church property has served in a
great measure to pay your deceivers, and to enrich your
betrayers. It is, therefore, well worthy of being borne
in mind that he who makes it his principle to tcacb you
things not found in the Bible, he who, for the mainte-
nance of his own authority, influence, and advantage,
deliberately renounces or disingenuously evades the doc-
trine of the sixth article, of the sufficiency of Scrip-
ture as a rule of faith, has no constitutional claim to
Protestant power, Protestant privileges, Protestant
pulpits, or Protestant pay.
I am, Fellow Subject, your affectionate servant,
HENRY ERSKINE HEAD.
To the people of England, &c.