In the into the House of Lords, two Roman Catholic noblemen, the Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord Camoys, having avowed it. They were indignantly replied to, not only by those peers from whom such a protest might have been anticipated, but by Lord Brougham, who admitted that he had been deceived by Romanist asseverations; that those who had predicted that the oath would be violated were right, and that he was wrong; and that the insensibility shown by a Roman Catholic peer to the obligations of his oath proved the necessity of a reformation in the studies of Maynooth, the fountan of theology, casuistry, and morals for the Roman Catholic priesthood and laity of Ireland. These were pungent declarations; but not more pungent than true; and they ought not to fail of good effect upon the legislature and the country. lips of Sir R. H. Inglis or Mr. Plumptre, such statements were the effervescence of fanatical bigotry; Maynooth was a hallowed seminary of piety and virtue, as well as a school for gentlemanly and clerical bearing; the outcry about Dens was uncharitable and absurd, and the Romanist priesthood of Ireland were models of every Christian grace. But even Lord Brougham now admits that the charges were true; and yet, in spite of the lurid light thus thrown upon the malpractices of Popery, Parliament is urged to make that pernicious system dominant in Ireland. One section of our legislators, including Lord Lansdowne, advocates paying the Irish priests from the national purse; another proposes ceding a portion of the revenues of the Protestant clergy to them; and another, more consistent, wishes to abolish the Irish Protestant Church altogether, as a perpetual obstacle to improvement." 66 The folly of these propositions is only equalled by their impiety. The latter objection, we fear, a large number of our public men do not regard; and this causes an insuperable difficulty in duly impressing upon their minds the most solid arguments for the perpetuation of the Protestant Church in Ireland, and the withholding legislative patronage from Popery; for if religious truth or falsehood is not heeded in national concerns; and if the Protestant Reformation was not a matter of spiritual obligation; then Ireland might without guilt be handed over to the Bishop of Rome as a province of his usurped dominions. But even then the folly of the proceeding would be obvious, and we will add, the injustice; for Great Britain is essentially a Protestant empire; its best interests are Protestant; Popery is its bitterest enemy; and in Ireland, though the numerical majority of the people are Romanists, the potential majority, the moral majority, the mass of the landowners, and the best-ordered of the people, are Protestants; and the tithe is paid chiefly from Protestant property. But if even these added considerations are not sufficient, our legislators may derive a useful warning from Mr. O'Connell's undisguised avowal of his ulterior objects; namely, the total abolition of the tithe rent-charge; the abolition of poor-rates; extinction of grand-jury cess; vote by ballot; manhood suffrage; and "an equitable arrangement of the relation between landlord and tenant." These, he says, are but a few of the many glorious advantages which would be secured to this country by the restoration of her native parliament. He is right in linking these things together; for if the Protestant Church is allowed to be subverted, all the other effects will follow. Whether the Queen's ministers have acted wisely in merely preparing for defence or attack, as may be necessary, without attempting to prevent Mr. O'Connell's inflammatory and dangerous proceedings, time will shew. They have, however, unequivocally expressed their determination to oppose Mr. O'Connell's designs, and to preserve to Ireland its union with England, and its Protestant Church Establishment. The Protestants also of Ireland are preparing themselves for a struggle, should this be forced upon them; and a considerable number of influential gentlemen among them have convened a meeting to organize the Protestants of Ulster to resist the repeal of the Union. In their address they say: "The repeal of the Union is but a covert name for the dismemberment of the empire, the extinction of the Protestant religion, the destruction of Protestant property, and the ruin of the Protestant people of Ireland. Though we have hitherto refrained from giving public expression to them, lest we should contribute to produce alarm, or disturb public confidence; yet, considering the manner in which the agitation is now carried on-the masses of the people that are marshalled in military order-the reiterated boasts of their irresistible power-the inflammatory speeches by which they are excited-the seditious papers that are circulated amongst them-the seductive promises of agrarian allotment by which they are deceived, and which the emissaries of Repeal know to be as fallacious as they are impracticable-and the hatred which, under the appellation of Saxons, is directed against all Protestants-we feel it a duty we owe to our religion, to the throne, and to our country, to give an open expression of our opinions as to the ultimate designs of the agitators." "While under these alarming circumstances, we can confidently repose in the power and preparation of the Government-we feel that there are efforts for public safety which no Government can make, and which require the unanimous and perfect confederation of the parties endangered, to guard against the machinations of those by whom they are threatened; and we feel persuaded that, if, under the providence of God, anything can preserve the peace of the kingdom, it will be through conviction of the restless agitators of Repeal, that their Protestant fellow-subjects, who desire nothing so much as to live in peace, are yet fully prepared and united for purposes of self-defence." The doctrine that all religions, so called, ought to be regarded by the State with equal eye, is essentially antiscriptural; for legislators, as well as other men, ought to have a conscience; nor is it bigotry for a British statesman to declare, that he upholds Protestantism in Ireland upon principle; and not from political partizanship, or predilection for a blind system of conservancy. The popular declamations against proselytism, and so forth, are based upon broad scepticism or infidelity. A truly religious man will be just, tolerant, and charitable; but in proportion as his faith and love are active, he will be influenced by a missionary spirit. Christianity is characteristically proselyting; it teaches us to desire the salvation of all men, and with that view to endeavour to guide them from error to truth. We retain our conviction that the passing of the Scottish National Church Bill leaves no pretext for secession, except the question whether a certain portion of the inhabitants of a parish shall have an obsolete arbitrary veto, or whether they shall be obliged to assign reasons for their disapproval of a candidate, the validity of which shall be decided upon by the presbytery. We cannot think that any principle is here involved so sacred and fundamental, as for it to justify seceding from a church which a person believes to be scriptural in its doctrines and discipline. We feel indeed intensely for that most respectable body of pious and self-denying men who have made costly sacrifices for conscience sake; but when in future days, after the present effervescence has subsided, it comes to be inquired for what purpose the secession is kept up, we do not think that they, or their successors, will be able to give any reasonable or scriptural reply, unless they coalesce with their new allies, the dissenters upon principle," in the doctrine which they now disclaim, of the unlawfulness of all national church establishments. The commission of the General Assembly, we are glad to find, has received the late enactment with approbation; the only exception alleged, being that it is too popular in its spirit, since it obliges the presbytery to consider not only the objections made to a candidate, but" the character and number of objectors ;" as if meaning that an objection urged by a large number of persons of good character, even though not weighty in itself, or not proved, ought not to be overlooked, in determining the fitness of a candidate for a particular locality. The Seceders, however, are not satisfied, nor are they likely to be so with any measure which could be devised short of delegating the choice of the pastor wholly to the heads of houses, or the male communicants, or some other body whom they prefer to the present patrons. We lament to add that many of them are acting in a very bitter spirit. The church which they have left is worse than "Babylon;" even "black prelacy is not so bad; and all the faithful are exhorted to bid "Farewell to Egypt." And for what? The Scotch Church in the boasted days of 1690, said nothing of the claim of the people to unqualified power;-only of the presbytery to judge, and the people to "object." The charter of 1592 expressly saved the rights of patrons; and the Act of 1712, in which the church acquiesced, abolished even the limited right which the people had in 1690. Total non-intrusion they never had; and the law just passed gives them more than they ever before enjoyed or claimed. Parliament has been prorogued. The Queen's speech will furnish us with heads for some remarks in another Number. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. J. B. S.; M.; C. W.; E. B. Zenas; G. C. K.; D. D. W.; J. M.; W. O.; Christophilus; Theophylact; and Clericus; are under consideration. THE SEALING AND TRIUMPH IN THE SEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE APOCALYPSE. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IN N the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet beheld in vision, "Six men, and every man with a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. And the Lord called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side, and said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said, Go ye after him through the city, and smite; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark, and begin at my sanctuary." In this vision we are instructed that the slaughter of the Jews when Jerusalem was destroyed, though apparently indiscriminate, was not really so: but that God preserved from the impending judgment a faithful remnant to perpetuate his worship, and in the fulness of time to propagate his Gospel to the ends of the earth. In like manner the Apostle St. John beheld in vision the sealing of God's faithful servants in the seventh chapter of the Apocalypse, (Rev. vii. 1-9) before the judgments were symbolically revealed in the eighth, ninth, and eleventh chapters, by which churches and nations, nominally christian, were to be repeatedly chastised, and eventually to be swept away from the face of the earth. This sealing evidently intimates that God would preserve, by his special providence, a body of faithful worshippers during the infliction of these judgments. We are not to understand by it that God would deliver all his faithful servants from temporal calamities, or even from temporal death; but we are to understand that he would preserve a faithful remnant from all the abominations of fierce and bloody controversy, of despotic superstition, and of merciless persecution, and from all the judgments with which he would overwhelm those nominal professors which patronize and support them, together with their systems ecclesiastical or civil. This sealing must needs be co-extensive with the judgments to be inflicted. It is generally agreed that the first of these judgments commenced at the close of the fourth century, soon after the death of Theodosius the Great; and it is generally agreed that the last of these judgments, or at least the last vial of the last judgment (for the last judgment is divided into seven CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 70. 4 E parts) is yet future. We are therefore to understand, that God has preserved a body of faithful worshippers from the beginning of these judgments to the present day; and that he will preserve such a body, and render it triumphant when the last of these judgments shall have laid the power of their adversaries prostrate in the dust. When the stone falls on the toes of the great image, the saints shall possess the kingdom. (Dan. ii. 34; Dan. vii. 22.) From these considerations it is evident that the sealing described from the fourth to the ninth verse, is a symbolical sealing not a sealing of literal tribes of the children of Israel; but a sealing of spiritual tribes, consisting of all nations, kindreds, and tongues. There is also internal evidence in this sealing that it is not a literal sealing; for as Scott remarks, "This account of the number sealed cannot be understood in a literal sense; since it can hardly be supposed that exactly the same number of each tribe was sealed." In this sealing Levi occupies the place of Dan. Dan is probably excluded, because it was the first tribe guilty of idolatry. But the enrolment of Levi amongst the other tribes, manifestly implies that his peculiar privileges were abolished, and that henceforth the ministers of the sanctuary were to be chosen from all ranks, orders, and conditions of men; which has been the practice of the Christian Church from the beginning. When we reflect that the Gentile Church is represented as a graft on the stock of the Jewish Church; and that "if we be Christ's, then are we Abraham's seed;" we cannot be surprised to find the true worshippers of God, of whatever nation, kindred, or tongue, symbolically represented by definite numbers of the twelve tribes of Israel. The same number, twelve thousand, sealed from each tribe, is probably designed to teach us that God is no respecter of persons; that if we have "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him," then, "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all." The four Angels holding the four winds of the earth, till the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads, imports that God would restrain the nations who were the destined instruments of his vengeance from bursting on the Roman Empire, nominally Christian, with desolating fury, which may be compared to storms, tempests, and hurricanes, till he had effectually provided for the safety of his faithful servants; and that this is what is really intended by the holding of the four winds, we may fairly gather from the description of the first judgment, which is partly symbolized by a hail storm, (chap. xiii. 7.) If this reference is not sufficient to satisfy the mind of the reader, I would recommend to his serious consideration Jer. xlix. 36, and Dan. vii. 2. In this latter part of the chapter (Rev. vii. 9. to the end) we have the result of the sealing recorded in the former part. I think the reasons adduced are sufficient to satisfy the reader that the sealing is co-extensive with the judgments to be inflicted: that it is a symbolical sealing: that it denotes that God would preserve a body of faithful worshippers, consisting of all nations, tongues, and kindreds, from the commencement to the termination of those judgments. The period of that sealing, or of those judgments, is here supposed to terminate with the description of the sealing. The enemy is prostrate: God's people are triumphant: and here we behold a great multitude of them, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues, clothed with white robes and having in their hands the emblems of victory. We perceive then, as has been already stated, that the period of the sealing synchronizes with that period of the judgments; and that the period of sealing in the chapter before us, is followed by the triumph of the body sealed. We also find that the termination of the judgments in the nineteenth chapter, is followed by a like triumph in the twentieth, exhibited in symbols of a somewhat different character. "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, nor in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." (Rev. xx. 40.) But in the fourteenth chapter, which reveals to us the labours of the Protestant Reformers, the same body appears under its appropriate symbol of one hundred and forty four thousand, because it was still a sealed body, or under the special protection of Providence, and its hour of triumph had not yet arrived. "And I looked, and lo! a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads." (Rev. xiv. 1.) When the Jews shall be restored to their own land, and be settled there in the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, we may look upon them and say, with strict propriety of speech, "These are they which came out of great tribulation;" these are they who were once few in number, scattered, and afflicted; but are now numerous, united, and happy. It is in this sense, I conceive, that one of the elders, in the fourteenth verse, said to St. John, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." These are they which were continually exposed to their powerful and inveterate enemies; who were preserved from utter destruction only by the special providence of God; but who are now triumphant, their enemies being laid prostrate in the dust. These are they who were once few, scattered, despised, and persecuted; but are now numerous, united, exalted, and honoured. Some indeed have affirmed, that the language by which the felicity of the palm-bearers is described in the three last verses, can only be applied to that of glorified spirits in heaven: but a reference to a few passages in Isaiah may suffice to convince us that this affirmation is not supported by Scriptural authority. Respecting the felicity of the church on earth, we read in the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah and the tenth verse, "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them." In the thirty-fifth chapter and tenth verse, we find, "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away :" in the sixtieth chapter and nineteenth verse, "The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory:" in the sixty-fifth chapter and nineteenth verse, "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." We may feel it difficult to imagine how passages like these can be strictly applicable to the church's felicity on earth: but when we reflect that the predicted triumph of the church will be decisive and final; that she will no more be brought into a state of subjection; that she will inherit the earth, and be mistress of the earth thenceforth until the day of judgment; that an attempt to dispossess her of her legitimate authority by Gog and Magog will |