The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

;402 INFLUENCE OF POPERY ON NATIONS.the same. It is a principle that stereotypes nations. Itdepopulates kingdoms, annihilates industry, destroys commerce,corrupts government, arrests justice, undermines order,breeds revolutions, extinguishes morality, and nourishesa brood of monstrous vices,— murder, perjury, adultery,indolenceand theft, massacres and wars. It enfeebles anddestroys the race of man, and annihilates the very cementof society. Popery has been on its trial before the worldthese three centuries ; and such are the effects which it hasproduced in every country under heaven where it has existed.It is truly " the abomination that maketh desolate."The man who will not hear what the Bible has to say ofPopery, cannot refuse to hear what Popery has to say ofitself.To make the contrast complete, let us glance at thecareer of protestant Britain during the past hundred years.In 1750, the throne of Britain was filled by the secondGeorge, Four years before, the hopes of the Stuarts hadexpired on the fatal moor of Culloden ; France, underLouis XV. had scarcely passed her zenith ; Francis I. andMaria Theresa ruled the destinies of Austria; Philip V.those of Spain ; while Pope Benedict XIV occupied theVatican.England was but a second-rate power, not daringeven to dream of the career of greatness which was justthen opening to her. The British sceptre w-as swayed overnot more than thirteen millions of subjects, including ourNorth American colonies. We held at that time, no doubt,possessions both in the western and eastern hemispheres;but they were insignificant in extent, and precarious inpoint of tenure. The French were masters of Canada andLouisiana, and threatened to expel us from the Americancontinent altogether. Our Indian empire was then limitedto the British settlement in Bengal ; and the French, whoheld the Deccan, threatened to deprive us even of that.Holland and Portugal rivalled us as commercial powersFranco far eclipsed us in political importance ; and Spain,mistress of the gold mines of Mexico and Peru, outstripped