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Travels of an Irish gentleman in search of a religion
Travels of an Irish gentleman in search of a religion Author:Thomas Moore Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I had now, in addition to the six " plague-spots of Popery," -which I had already, in this her virgin period, counted on the fair face of the Church, to number a... more »lso the three following,— viz. 7. Prayers for the Dead—8. Veneration of Images. And 0. Crossing, without end! Assuredly, any one less determined than myself to find Protestantism somewhere, would have given up the chase in despair. But I was still resolved to persevere, I had bid too solemn a farewell to Popery to allow of my revoking the step now with a good grace. Besides, it is but fair to confess,—what I ought perhaps to have confessed somewhat sooner, —that, in addition to a very conscientious desire of exchanging my religion for a better, I had also some motives of a more mundane and, I may add, tender nature, which had considerable weight in determining me to become a Protestant as soon as possible;—motives which, though of that class usually styled private and delicate, I shall, in some future chapter, venture to communicate to the reader. CHAPTER VII. Great dearth of Protestantism.—Try Third and Fourth Centuries.—St. Cyprian.—Origen.—Primacy of St . Peter and the Pope.—St. Jerome.— List of Popish abominations. Though I had now pretty well convinced myself that if, as Protestants assure us, the pure original of their Creed is to be found in the first ages, it must be found there in some such modest and unobtrusive shape as that of a certain tragic author's " moon behind a cloud," I did not, even yet, allow myself to despair of catching, at least, a glimpse of this retired luminary. I therefore continued my Inquest, and, summoning the Fathers of the two following centuries before me, resolved to try whether, by dint of close cross-questioning, I should be able to detect a single Protestant among them. But n...« less