The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1875-03-17
FoR THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN.
ULTRAMONTANIsM.

"a full report of the Great Public Meeting
an the interests of civil and religious free
dom, held IN the City Hall, Glasgow, ON
Wednesday eusning, It'll October, 1874.
Tenth Thousand"
Through friend now attending Theolog-
ical Lectures in Edinburg, Scotland, we have
enjoyed the rare pleasure Of reading the
above named Report. As many of our read
ers have not had access to it, offer to share
my pleasure with them. M ~
The meeting was called to second the ef-
forts Of Germany to repel the encroachments
Of Popery upon the rights of the State
The Hall, whose utmost capacity is about
1000, was "densely packed, every inch
even Of standing room being occupied. =
" There were clergymen and laymen there
from various. parts of Scotland, from Eng
land, Ireland, France, Germany, America,
Italy, India, &C., &C." The meeting lasted
four hours and passed six resolutions. "
/ must content myself with the first and
leading resolution, with extracts from the
learned and able speech of Rev. DR.. Begg
who moved the resolution.
".That this meeting is of the opinion that
the church of Rome, being based upon prin,
cipleS or assumptions which involve political
claims of the highest kind, and consequently
claiming supreme jurisdiction in temporals
as well as in spirituals, is essentially po-
litical not less than an ecclesiastical organi-
zation, and therefore, to permit uncontrolled
and unbounded action to that organization
in any country, is to violate the first princi-
Piles of liberty, and to surrender the inde.
pendence and self-government of the country
in which such unbounded action is allowed"
"The substance of this" said DR.. Begg,
sis that the Romish system is political as
we'll as religious . "The Papal system is
founded on the assumption that the Pope,
as the successor of Peter, is the Vicar of
Christ on earth. The Pope, moreover, has
now been declared to be infallible. :.
cit was only the other day that DR.. Man
ming, preaching at Birmingham on the text,
8 am the way, &C., is reported in the Bir-
naingham Daily Post for September 29d, to
have sale, Ibid they believe the man, as
they thought him, whom they crucifed on
Calvary to be God incarnate? The Holy
Ghost said that if they had known Him as
such they would not have crucifed Him !;
and if the world knew that Plus IXth was
the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and that he ap-
peared upon earth as the representative and
vith the prerogative of the incarnats Word,
would they dare to lift finger against hin ?
No. But that unbelief did not excuse those
who crucifed the Son of God; and those who
now manifested unbelief in the midst of a
world once Christian, but now rapidly be-
coming apoatate, would be called before the
Judgment seat of Christ "Strange," con.
tinued DR.. Begg, Gas such doctrine may
sound in the ears of many Protestants, il
was the very doctrine in accordance with
which Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth
we're communicated.
Again the speaker quotes from a sermon
preached by DR.. Manning in 1864, which
represents the Pope as thus speaking or en-
titled to speak: 81 acknowledge no civi
power, | am the subject of no prince; ant
I claim more than this, I claim to be the su
preme judge and director Of the conscience
of men, of the peasant who tills the fields, o
the prince that sits upon the throne, of tn
J household that live in the shade of privacy
} and the legislator that makes laws for king
doms. l am the sole last supreme judge 0
what is right and wrong" To prove and il
lustrate this more clearly, the following ar
extracts from paper read by DR.. Mannin
on 23d December, 1873, and afterwards pub
. lished: "Obedience to the church is liberty
and it is liberty because the church carno
: err or mislead either men or nations.
D the church were not infallible, obedience