192

Popery and its Persecution.

one's help or introduction, but God's direction in the Bible and His guidance in the soul; for I went alone to the Bishop's palace, and by working on my own resources, with God helping me, I got the crown. I know that it is the blood of Christ, and not man's invented words, charms, or tricks, that takes away sin." "Oh! you little corrupted heretic," remarked the Popish Bishop, "to deny taking away sin by each of the seven Holy Sacraments, and all the religious things of the church, and to think that Purgatory does not take away the punishment due to sin. Oh! young Protestant fiend, to deny the blessed clergy the power of forgiving sin. Begone out of my presence, you little wretch, for the devil has got into you, and has made you a self-willed fiend to oppose God's holy Church."

From that day forward the boy was persecuted, and he was often in danger of being murdered. But the Protestants having heard all this sent him to school. As he was taught the Scriptures it came into his head that if he could but enter the Protestant Bishop's palace he would never again be poor. So he watched the movements of the Bishop, whom he found one morning walking alone round the pleasure grounds of the palace, and, coming up to him, he addressed him, saying, "Good Bishop, and Protestant brother in Christ, your ministers have been instructing me at school how to enter heaven, and they have told me that heaven and getting to it are realities. This leads me to think that there must be a heaven of some sort upon earth; for God would never teach a little boy like me how to go to His heaven up beyond

Protestantism getting a boy into a Palace.

193

the skies, unless His ministers brought me into some sort of heaven on earth to enable me to understand the reality of God's one." The Bishop, upon hearing this, thought he had better shew the boy practical goodness by taking him into his palace, as the best way to represent to him the glories of heaven. As soon as the boy entered the palace, he was so overpowered at the sight of all the beautiful things therein, and with enjoying its comforts, that he fainted. The Bishop's daughter came then to attend to the wants of the fainting convert, and she took a fancy to him.

When the boy recovered out of his fainting fit, he thanked God for the Protestant teaching which had done so much for him, and which gave him the comforting information that when he entered heaven his name would be written there, as a place conferring comforts and happiness upon him for evermore. "In heaven," he exclaimed with delight, "I will get new garments of righteousness from Christ, my Master, the Head of of the Church and the Shepherd and Bishop of my soul, who gives me grace and favour which can never be taken from me." "All this is quite true," remarked the Bishop, whose soul was stirred by the orthodoxy of the boy, "and I will enrol your name on my books to ordain you a Minister of the Gospel at £100 a year to start with as soon as you will come of age, and know your Bible and become qualified in the learning required by the Church. Until then I will take care of you." Whereupon the boy shouted out with delight, "I believe, I believe in the heaven above the skies, and in the one down here, and in your Protestantism, as it must be the right religion, and not Popery, for

194 Protestantism making a boy defeat a Bishop.

raising the poor, the weak and the wretched." "I will give you," added the Bishop, "a suit of clothes, to convince you that Christ gives a robe of righteousness to all who come to Him for it, even to the worst boy and sinner." "But, my Lord," cried the boy, as he saw that the clothes were worn out, "the robe of righteousness, which Christ gives, does not come from a sinner but from Himself; for we are saved by the blood and righteousness of Christ Himself, given to us freely and undeservedly and put to our account, and not by the merits or things of any other being, whether angel or saint, bishop or priest. Now these clothes, my Lord, are second-hand and in rags, having been worn by somebody else, whose they were. I like new clothes, just as I prefer the Protestant salvation given directly to me from Christ to the second-hand religion and clothing of Popery, or what passes through the hands of the priest with his inventions." Thereupon the Bishop burst into roars of laughter, and ordered new clothes for him, crying out to his High Church Archdeacon, who was present, "Well, surely, the Reformation supplies brains to the poor and ignorant, and it puts people into the way of getting riches; for this youth has got from me all that I can possibly give him, simply because his knowing the Scriptures has opened his mind. Protestant teaching has given him courage and earnestness, and ways and means to prosper; and it has delivered him from the blindness and ignorance imposed upon him by priestcraft. He thinks good men must raise the wretched to their own level, as God brings men to heaven to be kings and priests in Christ."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A list of all householders, and five dissenting preachers, in a parish, advocating a poor vicar's cause-Bishop Peter's Transfiguration tabernacles allowed to Bishops; but his natural occupation disallowed to poor Vicars in finding their livelihood-Bishops power over laymen-The priestcraft of Simeon and Levi in making the Shechemites weak to be slaughtered, by getting them to observe the religious rite of circumcision.

I

THOUGHT I ought to promote myself to become a Church Dignitary by using others, as props, to hold me up. Accordingly, I went to my parishioners, and the whole of them signed a paper in my behalf. This is the document, with the signatures, addressed to my good Bishop.

(COPY.)

To the Honourable and Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Norwich:

WE, the undersigned, inhabitants of Flitcham, representing families, approve of Mr. O'Malley's giving an afternoon service in Church, and morning service, as usual at 9 fixed, or 11 as convenient to him, and earning a fee to help his poor income.

196 A poor Vicar supported by all his Parishioners.

Another paper in the hands of my Bishop, contains the rest of the signatures of the householders in my parish.

High Churchmen should not attack dissenters after this; for dissent, nonconformity, or schism had no place in my church cause, all being in a catholic, or general unity in my behalf to let me live. Five of the signatures above are those of worthy and qualified reverend Preachers in my behalf. Nonconformists, as a body, conform to advocate right principles, fair play, progress, sufficient food for our bodies, and the reform of the form of abuses and evils in the worldly system of the Church, with its tyrannical treatment of poor