Murray, N. The Decline of Popery and its Causes. An Address delivered in The Broadway Tabernacle, on Wednesday Evening, January 15, 1851. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. First Edition. [12102]
Removed, no wrapper, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, burn mark in the margin of the first two leaves, 32 pages. Good. Pamphlet.
A review of the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome, with a review of the past and present of some nations that used to be held in its thrall. These include England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The reason for the decline of the Roman church is the diffusion of the Bible in these lands.
"How strange and strong the impressions made upon the mind of an intelligent papist by a careful reading of the Bible! As he turns from page to page, he is amazed that he should have been so duped as to receive as the religion of God the teachings of popery." - p. 21.
The "fooleries of popery" is another cause, that is, the legends and fables and gross superstitions promoted by the Church.
Another cause is the despotism of popery: "The people it makes slaves to the king, and the king a slave to the Church." - p. 25
Nicholas Murray, D.D., (1802-1861), b. Co.Armagh, Ireland; d. Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He was raised a Roman Catholic, but having emigrated to America in 1815, and working in the publishing house of Harper & Brothers, he was converted to the protestant faith (1820), and joined the Old Brick Church, then under the care of the Rev. Gardiner Spring. After studies at Williams College in Massachusetts he became an agent for the American Tract Society. He next studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethtown, N.J. in 1833.
"During this time, with persistent and untiring industry, he wrote much for the press, among which was a series of articles for The New York Observer, over the signature of 'Kirwan,' constituting those famous letters to bishop Hughes, the Roman Catholic prelate, noted as a polemic, which have made the name of 'Kirwan,' the nom-de-plume under which Murray wrote, a household word throughout the whole Protestant world, his writings having been translated into nearly all the living languages of the day. They present the history of the writer's progress from Romanism to Protestantism, and examine the reasons for not adhering to the Church of Rome. Luminous and sound in their expositions of truth, they not only uncover the evils of the Romish system, but present a perfectly impregnable defence of Protestantism. The vivacious style, the genial humor, biting sarcasm, anecdotes, incidents, illustration, argument, and appeals, are blended so harmoniously that they obtained a hold on the people at large, instead of being confined to the theological student, and thus enjoyed a circulation unparalleled in religious literature." - M'Clintock & Strong.
