According to the Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by

SAMUEL B. SMITH,

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of NEW YORK.

INTRODUCTION.

In the Narrative which is now to be laid before the public, the world will have a fair specimen of Popery reduced to practice. A sure criterion by which to judge of a religion, is to consider it in all its relations, and especially, in the influence it has over the moral conduct of those who live under its control.

It is vain to tell us, pointing to a book, "there is our religion; those are our principles; that is our doctrine." Religion is not an abstract good; not a mere painting to please the eye; neither does the essence of religion consist in ceremony, nor in a firm belief in creeds and doctrines. All this is, as it were, the mere bark; the substance and the pith lie in the heart. It is not through the bark that the sap is conveyed to the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit, but through the veins. Nothing is plainer, or more simple, than the Christian religion. It may be compared to a tree perpetually verdant, whose blossoms diffuse their fragrance all around, whose expansive branches extend a reviving shade to the wandering traveler, parched and panting with the heat of the day, and whose mellow fruit hangs in profusion, at once to assuage his thirst, and to nourish his body.

Every tree has bark, and the bark of religion is its exterior form. Every soul has a body, and it is through the senses of this body that impressions are conveyed upon the mind. Being, therefore, creatures of a compound nature, religion, although simple in its essence, is, to a certain degree, compounded for our use. It is necessary, therefore, that there should be some exterior form of worship, some bark around the trank of this wide-spreading tree, to keep the sap to its direction, and to prevent its being dissipated by the winds. But it is not necessary that this bark should be so protuberant and 'complicated, as to afford shelter and concealment to vermin and corruption': much less necessary, that it should be overloaded with moss and fungus.

The religion of Christ has its forms, but like its divine original, these forms are comely simple, necessary, few. In the whole system of the Christian dispensation, as it is delivered to us in the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour, the forms, or the exterior appendages of religion, are so simple and so few, that we are almost at a loss to point them out. They are all reduceable to these: the formation of a visible Church, who are commanded to worship the Father "in spirit and in truth;" the Sa

craments of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and the preaching of the Gospel.

It cannot be supposed that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in instituting his Church, introduced any thing unnecessary; nor can we think that any thing essentially necessary relative to the government, or to the prosperity of that Church, was forgotten, overlooked, or neglected by him.

In respect to his divine mission, Jesus Christ came to offer unto God his Father, a ransom for a lost world, to preach the glad tidings of salvation, and to point out the path which leads to glory. "I have finished the work," (said the Saviour,) which thou gavest me to do." John xvii. 4. How, or where are we to find what were the works which Christ came to do, and which he tells us he has finished, except in his own Word, speaking of which the Psalmist exclaims: " Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." Ps. exix. 105.

Since Christ came to save sinners, and since salvation was as attainable in the days when Christ dwelt visibly upon earth, as it is now, or ever, has been since his advent, all that was necessary for the salvation of man must have been accomplished by our Lord before he left the world. "I have finished the work," says he. The work was the salvation of sinners;—"The Son of Man is come," (said the Saviour,) "to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke xix. 10.

Sinners cannot be saved without faith, for "without faith," (says the Scripture,) “it is impossible to please God;" Heb. xi. 6; neither can they be saved without works, since "faith without works is dead;" James ii. 20; consequently, when Christ was upon earth, that faith which, was necessary for salvation was both preached and betiered; sice "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" Rom. x. 17. The works, too, without which "faith is dead," were, and must have been known and performed since faith and works, as the Scriptures declare, must go together. Now ye are clean," (said Christ.) "through the Word anjih. I have spoken anto you." John xv. 3. It is true, hitt sajt, addressing his disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." John xvi. 12. He did not tell then what those things were. is probable he was alluding to shat he would have to suffer, and also to what they would have to suffer for his sake. “Howbeit,” (continues he,) Then he; the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John XV. 13.

It

"Ye now therefore have sorrow," (continues the Saviour, still addressing his disciples :) "but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." John xvi. 22. Christ, to comfort his disciples, who were afflicted at the thought of having to part with their divine Lord and Master, as to his visible presence, promises

them the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, to lead and direct them in all their doubts, to strengthen them in their spiritual warfare, and to console them in their afflictions.

This was accomplished on the day of Pentecost, when “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." Acts ii. 4.

Being filled with the Holy Ghost, they were guided, as Christ had told them, " into all truth." The sum and substance of the truth, which they preached, were committed by them to writing, in the Holy Scriptures. This is the Word of God, which the true followers of Christ now hold, and ever have held, as a sufficient, and their only rule of faith and conduct; for, as the Apostle says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.

In order, therefore, that we might "be thoroughly furnished unto all good works," the Sacred Scriptures, written by divine inspiration, have been transmitted to us from the days of the Apostles, down to the present time, and will continue to shine as "a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path," through the dark vista of time, to the consummation of the world.

With such a light as this, we have no need of the tinsel trappings of Popery. We prefer to follow the meek and humble example of Christ and his Apostles, to the pomp, splendor, and pageantry of the church of Rome. The Apostles and disciples of Christ lived according to the maxims they inculcated. They were plain, and unostentatious in all their ways. They were never clad in purple or scarlet. No rings on their fingers, nor crowns, nor tiaras, nor mitres on their heads-No magnificent palaces had they for the residence of Popes, or Cardinals, or Bishops-No chariot and six, had Peter, Paul, or the rest of the Apostles-No high-sounding titles to flatter pride, such as the Right Reverend, the Most Reverend, Eminently Serene, His Holiness, My Lord, Our Lord, and Most Holy.* Their names were unadorned with any epithet soever to distinguish them from the poorest and lowest of their Christian friends and brethren. They would not even suffer themselves to be saluted with the common title Master, or Mister, as we have it in English.

To an unbiassed mind, nothing more strikingly conclusive of

Sismondi, the Italian historian, speaking of the influence that these pompous titles had on the people of Italy, says: "These decorations always descended still lower among the commonality. Since thirty years they no longer write even to a shoemaker, without calling him ' Molto illustre. But in multiplying titles, they only multiplied discontent and mortification. Each one, in place of what they granted him, only saw what they refused him and there was no little gentleman, or dandy, and no petit officer, who did not look upon himself as mortally wounded, if, in mistake, he was saluted with the title of 'Most celebrated, or Most Excellent,' ('CHIARISSIMO ed Ex CELLENTISSIMO,') in place of that to which he aspired, 'Most Illustrious.'" Sismondi Hist. Ital. T. xvi. p. 227.

the apostacy of the Romish church could be exhibited, than the contrast between the simplicity that every way characterized the Apostolic and primitive Church, and the pomp, splendor, and baubles, which encumber the Popish.

The glaring opposition, however, between the church of Rome and the Church of Christ, is all glossed over by the defenders of Popery, when they tell us that "the Apostles could not build palaces, and live in pomp and splendor in those days; because the Christian Church was yet in its infancy, the disciples few in number, and their enemies powerful and intolerant. They would have dressed in scarlet and purple, have lived in palaces, have worn crowns, and tiaras, and mitres, &c. had they not been restrained by fear"!!

Such reasoning as this is quite sufficient to reconcile the minds of Papists to the vast disparity between the pride and splendor of their own church, and the primitive simplicity of the Church of Christ.

If these were the reasons by which the Apostles were restrained, why, at least, we would ask, did they not assume some of the glorious titles of the Right Reverend, the Eminently Serene, His Holiness, My Lord, Most Holy, &c.? These titles they might have enjoyed with security. The reason, however, for the whole, all Jesuitical subterfuge aside, is this:-The Apostles trode in the footsteps of their divine Master, followed his precepts, and acted in conformity with the doctrines which they themselves inculcated to others. But the Prelates of the Romish church, on the contrary, have deviated from Apostolical simplicity, because they have wandered from the straight and narrow path marked out by Christ, and have constituted themselves the infallible judges of that, by which they are to be judged.

Having now shown, that the Bible, and not the church of Rome, is the Christian's guide to salvation, we rejoice to have it in our power to prove what we have advanced, not only from Scripture and reason, as well as from the striking contrast and opposition between the Romish church at large, and the simplicity of the Church of Christ, but by showing the practical effects of the erroneous and pernicious system of Popery as it works in its interior and more hidden recesses. The Narrative that is now laid open before the public in this volume, is a disclosure made by one who has had an opportunity of knowing, from sad experience, what the influence and effects of Popery are, in circumstances where it can have full sway.

The authoress of the Narrative was a poor, heart-broken widow, who, by the death of her husband, was left destitute, and far from her home, among strangers. Floating about, like a wreck, on the stormy sea of life, the adversity of fortune drove her to the island of Cuba. She landed at Havanna, the capital of that