SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS. 403 laws are well understood, he sets to his seal the so long as the nation continued obedient "no man declarations which are made by the person should desire their land" at these times, it is remarkendowed with this miraculous power. Strictly while the border was left thus defenceless, until the able that we find no invasion of Palestine attempted speaking, however, the power of working mira-final invasion by the Romans under Vespasian. Jerucles never resides in any creature, but is truly the power of God exerted in connection with the word or command of a prophet or apostle. Thus the matter has always been understood by the soundest theologians; and nothing can be gained by any new hypothesis on this subject. Hume's great mistake is, that he takes no account of God's moral government, which is in a movement always onward towards a grand consummation, in which the principles are ever the same, but the developments always new, and therefore not to be measured by experience. The grand defensive position is this: whatever could be verified by the senses, can be verified by testimony. So far as Hume's argument is concerned, notwithstanding his pre tended distinction between the marvellous and the miraculous, no strange phenomenon in physics could ever be verified; a marvel is as much against his vaunted experience as a miracle. Testimony avails to produce the belief of the events called miraculous. And this faith in testimony is as natural as faith in the senses. That the alleged fact is unusual-and Hume's argument, when stripped of its appendages, imports no more-creates no such improbability as may not be removed by observation of the senses; and that which the senses observe may be verified by testimony. SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS. salem was invaded by his forces at the Passover, when vast numbers of the Jewish people, considerably more than a million, were within its walls. God, their glory and defence, had departed. His protection, vouchsafed at 1,500 previous celebrations of that feast, was withdrawn. After the destruction of Jerusalem, the dreadful cruelties exercised on the Jews drove them into repeated revolts against the Roman Government, which were quelled only by the effusion of torrents of Jewish blood. The most remarkable of these revolts was headed by the celebrated Barcochab, a name assumed by himself, and which signifies the son of a star, alluding to the star predicted by Balaam (Numb. xxiv. 17). He pretended to be the Messiah; was crowned king of the Jews; the people flocked in great numbers to his standard; and he soon found himself at the head of 200,000 men. A desperate and bloody led by his best generals. The Jews fought with the contest ensued with the forces of the Emperor Adrian, courage of despair; the impostor was killed at the siege of Bithen, his principal fortress; and in this short but sanguinary war, which lasted three years, 600,000 Jews lost their lives. During the middle ages, Saracen caliphs, Turkish sultans, and kings of Christian Europe, seemed to vie with each other in heaping upon this unhappy people insult and outrage. There is scarcely a country in Europe where they have not been laid under heavy exactions-laid under the ban of secular or ecclesiastical tyranny, banished, slaughtered without mercy. The rapacity of the prince, the bigotry of leagued together for their destruction. The immense the priest, and the ferocious malice of the populace, hosts of the Crusaders were accustomed to whet their appetite for the blood of the Turk, by the indiscriminate butchery of all the Jews who fell in their way. Seven times were this unhappy people banished from France. Their sufferings were no less terrible THE miseries that have come upon this people have throughout England than on the Continent. The never had a parallel in the history of this world. nation united in the persecution of them. At one Most terribly has their own imprecation been fulfilled time 1,500 Jews, including women and children, hav-"His blood be on us and on our children!" Thirty-ing, to save themselves from massacre, shut themsix years after the crucifixion, wrath came upon them to the uttermost. We need not rehearse the devastation made by the Roman forces under Vespasian and Titus; the carnage, famine, and pestilence attendant on the beleaguring of the Holy City; the multitude of wretched fugitives intercepted by the exasperated besiegers, and crucified around the walls; that proud structure, the Temple, levelled in the dust; the whole land made desolate; the miserable inhabitants driven away to a bitter and hopeless captivity -the slave-marts of Syria and Egypt glutted with their vast number, till none would buy them. It is recorded that 1,100,000 Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem; and that 97,000 were made captives. Besides these, numbers lost their lives, or were taken prisoners, in the defence and capture of other places. Eleven thousand Jewish captives, either from neglect or cruelty, were at one time left without food, and perished of starvation. By the Mosaic institutes, all the Jewish males, above a certain age (supposed to have been that of twelve years), were required to keep the three great feasts-the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem. Thus, while the country was surrounded by hostile nations, was the whole military strength drawn from the frontiers, three times a year. In accordance with the promise, that selves up in the Castle of York, were refused all quarter; their silver and gold could not save them, for they could not purchase their lives at any price; and, frantic with despair, they perished by mutual slaughter-each man was the murderer of his wife and children, when death became their only deliverance. Since the Reformation, the Jews have been treated with more compassion. But it was not till a very recent period that in Prussia, Holland, France, and a few other European States, they were relieved of their oppressions. At no period of their dispersion has their general condition been more favoured than at the present time; yet, even now there are few countries where they do not bear the mark of an outcast, rejected race. Even in England, the Jews suffer under many disabilities. No citizen of London will receive a Jewish boy as an apprentice. The mechanic arts are exercised by the members of the guilds, or trade-unions, into which no Jew is admitted. These people are therefore compelled to resort to traffic for a livelihood. They begin at the age of twelve or fourteen years, often with a captial of eighteenpence. They trade in all sorts of commodities, from oranges and old clothes to the securities of the nation. In this way they often acquire great wealth, and along with it that habit of covet ousness which has long been the stigma of their na tion. The rank and power which many European Jews have acquired by their talents, their learning, and their wealth, have been quite remarkable, and have been at times an important safeguard to their poor, despised countrymen. Some of the leading minds in modern days have been Jews. Spinosa, the author of modern pantheism, was a Jew Several learned Jews occupy chairs in the universities of continental Europe, as Leo, Stahl, Neander. Marshal Massena was a Jew. It is said that Marshal Soult and Prince Metternich are of Jewish origin. Those mighty men of wealth, the Rothschilds, who hold the purse-strings of the civilized world, guiding the commercial, and sometimes almost the political destinies of Europe, are Jews. A few years ago they were five in number, with houses at London, Frankfort, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. There are some Israelites in London of princely wealth, among whom is Sir Moses Montefiore, who has repeatedly used his influence to protect his countrymen from Russian and Turkish despotism. In Constantinople and the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, the Jews, by their superior energy, have acquired great wealth by commerce, and enjoy important privileges; though their condition is very precarious. Indeed, throughout that empire, the Jewish people are the sport of despotic power. Mussulmans are, from their cradle, taught to regard them as the vilest of mankind-a link between man and brute, a race accursed of Heaven. They are the common ob. jects of popular malice or superstition-the lawful prey of every one who has power to extort from them. Throughout the East, Jew is the vilest term of reproach. Dr. Wolff thus writes in his journal: "We pitched our tents at Araas. A dervise (Mohammedan monk) flogged his ass, and finished by calling it a Jew." In Constantinople, where there are 80,000 Jews, they all were obliged to wear a blue slipper, as a badge of degradation. In other places they must wear a patch of cloth of some peculiar colour on the breast, for the same purpose as the convicts in our state prisons wear a party-coloured dress. Mr. Wolff was told by a Mohammedan in Mesopotamia: "Every house in Shiraz with a low, narrow entrance, is a Jew's. Every man with a dirty camel's hair turban, is a Jew. Every one picking up, glass, and asking for old shoes and sandals, is a Jew." He afterwards found this description fully confirmed. The Turks throughout Syria may compel the Jews to work without pay, and administer the bastinado if they refuse. The lowest fellah (native inhabitant) will stop a Jew whom he meets travelling, and demand money, or compel him to dismount and give up the animal which carries him, as a Mussulman's right. Throughout the East the Jews are obliged to affect poverty in order to conceal their wealth; what is exposed to view is never safe from Mohammedan rapacity. In 1823, all the Jews of Damascus, suspected of the crime of having wealth, were thrown into prison, and redeemed their lives only by an enormous payment. In February 1840, the seven wealthiest men in the city, with three chief rabbins, and some others of that nation, were seized, carried before the pacha, and subjected, notwithstanding their protestations of innocence, to the bastinado, and other extreme cruelties, in order to compel them to confess themselves guilty of killing a Greek priest, who had suddenly disappeared. In the island of Rhodes, about the same time, the Christians accused the Jews of sacrificing a child ten years old. Witnesses affirmed that the Greek child was seen following a Jew on the public highway. The Jew was arrested, thrown into bastinadoed; his nostrils were pierced with sted stones placed on his head, and a heavy 1 weight on his heart. His persecutors endeavoured to induce him to denounce the chief rabbi; and at last he accused several Jews, though not the rabbi. As many of these as could be found were seized and subjected to similar tortures, under which seven persons suffered till almost deprived of life. The innocence of these persons was afterwards fully established. Even in Germany, within a few years, the Jews have suffered greatly from popular violence. Daring riots took place at Prague and other places, in which the fury of the populace against this devoted people knew no bounds. The watchword throughout Germany is, "Hep! Hep!" (derived from the initial letters of Hierosolyma est perdita-Jerusalem is lost), first raised by the German Crusaders in 1097, and still the signal for outrage and cruelty against the unhappy Jews. No Israelite is allowed to set foot on the shores of Norway: two Jews recently suffered imprisonment for having landed in that kingdom. In Russia, they are subjected to much oppression. The present emperor (Nicholas), on his accession to the throne (1825) banished them from St. Petersburg and Moscow; where they are not now permitted to sojourn more than a week without renewed passports. Three years ago, an imperial ukase commanded all the Russian Polish Jews to remove fifty versts-about thirty-three miles-from the frontier within a limited time; under which order, it is said, 500,000 Jews were compelled to leave their houses. The Russian Government ap pears determined to compel the Jews to embrace the Greek faith: and in default of this to worry and harass them to the extent of its power. There is, in truth, no end to the detail of their sufferings. They have exceeded all other human experience. Our Saviour wept at the foresight of them; and his followers ought to be deeply affected at the review. Everywhere, during these 1800 years, they have been subject to countless vexations, to innume rable indignities, to unparalleled miseries. ARE YOU A SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHER: If you are, you are engaged in a good work. Yes, able to men. It is good in its direct operation, and it is good, both as acceptable to God, and as profitgood in its reflex action. It is not merely teaching the young idea how to shoot, but, what is still more important, it is teaching the young and tender affection what to fix upon, and where to entwine itself. Nothing hallows the Sabbath more than the benevolent employment of the Sabbath school teacher. It is more than lawful to do such good on the Sabbath-day. It has great reward. Continue to be a Sabbath school teacher. Be not weary in this welldoing. Do not think you have served long enough in the capacity of teacher, until you have served life out, or until there shall be no need of one saying to another, "Know the Lord." What if it be laborious? it is the labour of love, in the very fatigue of which the soul finds refreshment. But perhaps you are not a Sabbath school teacher. "No, I am not," methinks I hear one say. "I am not a professor of religion. You cannot expect me to be a teacher." You ought to be both, and your not being the first, is but a poor apology for declining to be the other. The neglect of one obligation is a feeble excuse for the neglect of another. You seem to admit that if you professed religion, it would ARE YOU A SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHER? be your duty to teach in the Sabbath school. Now, whose fault is it that you do not profess religion? But I see no valid objection to your teaching a class of boys or girls how to read the Word of God, though you be not a professor of religion. I cannot think that any person gets harm by thus doing good. Experience has shown that the business of teaching in the Sabbath school is twice blessed-blessing the teacher as well as the taught. "But I am not a young person." And what if you are not? You need not be very young in order to be a useful Sabbath school teacher. We don't want mere novices in the Sabbath school. If you are not young, then you have so much more experience to assist you in the work. Do Sabbath school teachers become superannuated so much earlier in life than any other class of benefactors-so much sooner than ninisters and parents? There is a prevailing mistake on this subject. But you are "married," you say. And what then? Because you have married a wife or a husband, is that any reason why you should not come into the Sabbath school? Many people think that as soon as they are married, they are released from the obligation of assisting in the Sabbath school. But I do not understand this to be one of the immunities of matrimony. As well might they plead that in discharge of the obligation to every species of doing good. Such might, at least, postpone this apology, till the cares of a family have come upon them. And even then, perhaps, the best disposition they could make of their children on the Sabbath, would be to take them to the school. I wonder how many hours of the Sabbath are devoted to the instruction of their children by those parents, who make the necessity of attending to the religious culture of their families an apology for not entering the Sabbath school; and I wonder if their children I could not be attended to in other hours than those usually occupied in Sabbath school instruction; and thus, while they are not neglected, other children, who have no parents that care for their soul, would receive a portion of their attention. I think this is not impossible. But perhaps the wife pleads that she is no longer her own, and that her husband's wishes are opposed to her continuing a teacher. But has she ceased to be her Lord's, by becoming her husband's? Does the husband step into all the rights of a Saviour over his redeemed? If such an objection is made, it is very clear that she has not regarded the direction to marry "only in the Lord." But perhaps you say, "There are enough of others to teach in the Sabbath school." There would not be enough-there would not be any, if all were like you. But it is a mistake; there are not enough of others. You are wanted. Some five or six children, of whom Christ has said, "Suffer them to come to me," may grow up without either learning or religion, unless you become a teacher. Are all the children in the place where you live gathered into the Sabbath school? Are there none that still wander on the Lord's-day, illiterate and irreligious? Is there a competent number of teachers in the existing schools, so that more would rather be in the 405 way than otherwise? I do not know how it is where you live, but where I live, there are boys and girls enough, ay, too many, who go to no Sabbath school. It is only for a teacher to go out on the Sabbath, and he readily collects a class of children willing to attend. And where I reside, there are not teachers enough for the scholars already collected. Some classes are without a teacher; and presently the children stay away, because, they say, they come to the school, and there is no one to attend to them. He who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not," knows this; and He knows who of "his sacramental host" might take charge of these children, and do not. They say every communion season, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" and the Lord replies, "Suffer the little children to come to me"-and there the matter ends. I visited recently an interesting school, composed of adults and children. It is languishing now for want of teachers. There were present some twentyfive or thirty females, and only two female teachers, I wondered to see no more than two there, especially of those who were last at the cross and first at the sepulchre. But I hear one say, "I was once a teacher." And do you not blush to own that you became weary in this species of well-doing? "But I think I taught long enough." How long did you teach? Till there were no more to learn? Till you could teach no longer? Are you dead? If not, you are resting from your labours rather prematurely. This excuse resembles one which I heard of, as from a lady of wealth, who, having for several years been a subscriber to the Bible Society, at length ordered her name to be stricken off, alleging that she thought she had done her part towards disseminating the Bible! The world was not supplied; O, no! not even the country; and her means were not exhausted. But she had done her part. Had she done what she could? The woman whom Jesus commended had "done what she could." But one says, "I want the Sabbath for myselffor rest and for improvement." And who does not? Are you busily employed all the week? So are some of our most faithful teachers. You ought to be "diligent in business" during the week. "Six days shalt thou labour." "But is there any rest in Sabbath school teaching?" The soul finds some of its sweetest rest in the works of mercy, and often its richest improvement in the care to improve others. But perhaps you say, though with some diffidence you express this objection, that you b ong to a circle in society whose members are not accustomed to teach in the Sabbath school. Do you mean that you are above the business? You must be exceedingly elevated in life, to be above the business of gratuitously communicating the knowledge of God to the young and ignorant. You must be exalted above the throne of God itself, if you are above caring for poor children. "But I should have to mingle with those beneath me in rank." Ah! I supposed that Christianity has destroyed the distinction of rank, very not indeed by depressing any, but by elevating all. Should Christians, all cleansed by the same blood and Spirit, treat other Christians as common? "O, it is too laborious there is so much denial in it." And do I hear a disciple of Christ complaining of labour and self-denial, when these are among the very conditions of discipleship? Is the disciple above his Master? Can you follow Christ without going where he went? and went he not about doing good? Pleased he himself? Ah! I know what is the reason of this deficiency of Sabbath school teachers, and I will speak it out. It is owing to a deplorable want of Christian benevolence in those who profess to be Christ's followers. They lack the love that is necessary to engage one in this labour of love. They have no heart for the work. wouldest have asked him, and he would have given thee living water?'" "O, yes; that is in the history of Christ and the woman of Samaria." "Then, you have read the Bible?" "Yes, never through, but self-parts of it at different times." "Well, I am glad to hear it; and though I cannot give you this living water, I can tell you of Him who is able and willing to do so. It is no other than that benevolent person who, as we say, accidentally met with that sinful woman, and enlightened her mind and converted her heart. And He still lives, and is willing to welcome every sinner who appeals to Him; and has expressly declared that those who come to Him he will in no wise cast out. Do you wish Him to bless you, and turn you from iniquity, and save you from final ruin?" "Yes, that I do; but I cannot-I cannot-really, I cannot believe." "Who told you that you must believe on Him? Have you been at all in the habit of attending any of the ministers of the Gospel" "Yes, but very irregularly; I have gone sometimes to one place and sometimes to another, but was never Christian reader, beseech the Holy Spirit to guide you in your deliberation; then take a turn in the garden of Gethsemane. Stand a while at the foot of the cross of Calvary. Remember who suffered in that garden, and on that cross, for your sake! Remember, the object of the Sabbath school is to tell young children of His love in dying for us! Think how you will wish to have acted in the day of his appearing, and throughout eternity! Think of this, and then, if you can, refuse to teach henceforward in the Sabbath school.# MODES OF DOING GOOD. (From the Evangelical Magazine.) ON one of the sultry days of last June, I was taking a walk in a grove, which is contiguous to a populous town in Kent, and sat down on a bench to rest under a shady tree. My attention was presently arrested by the approach of a young man, whose emaciated appearance at once excited my commiseration. Perceiving him stagger from weakness, I rose and offered to conduct him to a seat. After expressing my sympathy with him, and my hope that his visit to the place in which I reside might contribute, with the blessing of God, to his recovery, a conversation ensued, of which I give you a faithful report: " "Yes," "Sir," said I, "you appear to be very ill?""" ne replied, "I am reduced almost to a skeleton with an affection on my lungs, and the doctors have given it as their opinion that I shall not get well; in fact, I seem to myself to be leaving this world." "Well," I rejoined, will you excuse a stranger, if he asks you whether you think you are prepared to enter the next?" He turned towards me with an earnest look, and answered, "No sir; I fear that I am not. I know the theory of religion; but I would not deceive you, sir, I do not think that I have ever felt its power. Our reciprocal communications then proceeded as follows: "Do you not think it is high time to ascertain whether you are fitted for death and for heaven ?" "Indeed I do, but I have so long neglected, or almost neglected, divine things, that I cannot now pay attention to them as I would, and I am so weak that I cannot r. ad much nor apply my mind to any subject long together; and I am come to this place alone, and have not any pious friends to converse with me." "Did you ever read in an old book of two persons who met by a well, close to which one sat, when wearied with His journey, and said to the other, 'If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that talketh with thee, thou The above was published as a tract in Dublin. constant. In truth, sir, I wonder I have not perished in my sins before now. I was left an orphan in early life. My father was killed by an accident when I was a babe, and my mother has been dead for years, and I was very early left to do as I liked, and followed many evil ways. I have fought against my convictions, and yet I sometimes think God is afflicting me in mercy." "And I begin to think so too; and as you may have read that the sufferings of the prodigal son were among the means of softening his heart, so I hope your present chastisement may urge you to return in penitence to the house of your heavenly Father. Now, let me entreat you not to trifle with your renewed religious impressions. Lif up your heart to the Saviour, and say, 'Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.' Know, assuredly, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into that he is mighty to save; that it is a faithful saying. the world to save sinners, even the chief. When you go to your lodging think on this passage, and let it encourage you to apply to one who will not quench the smoking flax nor break the bruised reed, but will bring forth judgment to victory." At this moment the youth was overcome with weeping, and I took two tracts and a little book out of my pocket, inquired where he resided, and, several strangers begged of him to give them an attentive perusal. coming up, I bade him good morning, promising at his request to pay him a visit. I went to see him the next day, when he entered more fully into his own history, informed me that he city, to whose kindness during his illness he bore a was a clerk in a house of one of my friends in the grateful testimony. I read to him the first part of the 12th chapter of the Hebrews, prayed with him. and engaged, with the permission of Providence, to increasingly anxious to receive instruction, and acsee him again. On each successive visit, I found him quiring clearer knowledge of the way of salvation A few weeks afterwards he was also repeatedly visited by a pious member of a church in the neighbourhood, who several times conversed very freely with him ou lieved he was a true convert to Christ, and gave the the affairs of his soul; and who told me that he be most satisfactory evidence that he had passed from death unto life. As I was about to leave the place bid him farewell, and was much affected with our in which I first saw him for the sea-side, I went to last interview. weakness he engaged in it with some difficulty, was His conversation, though from of the most pleasing character. Of himself he spoke by their ministrations during his sojourn at his lodwith deep humility; of those who had befriended him ging, with affectionate thankfulness; of his Saviour, POPERY ANTICHRIST. who, he said, had "met him in the way," with the tenderest acknowledgments of obligation to his forbearance and compassion; and of his hope of heaven, with humble confidence and joy. Three days after my departure, received a few lines from a friend, informing me that "he died in the faith, peace, and hope of the Gospel." EXTRACTS FROM THOMAS FULLER. SIN. Before I commit a sin, it seems to me so shallow, that I may wade through it dry shod from any guiltiness; but when I have committed it, it often seems so deep, that I cannot escape without drowning. PROCRASTINATION.-In Nebuchadnezzar's image, the lower the members, the worse the metal; the farther off the time, the more unfit. To-day is the golden opportunity, to-morrow will be the silver season, next day but the brazen one; and so long, till at last I shall come to the toes of clay, and be turned to dust. PRAYER ON BEING DETAINED FROM CHURCH. Lord, thy servants are now praying in the church, and I am here staying at home, detained by necessary occasions, such as are not of my seeking, but of thy sending; my care could not prevent them, my power could not remove them. Wherefore, though I cannot go to church, there to sit down at table with the rest of thy guests, be pleased, Lord, to send me a dish of their meat hither, and feed my soul with holy thoughts. Eldad and Medad, though staying still in the camp (no doubt on just cause), yet prophesied as well as the other elders. PREPARATION FOR DEATH.-Solomon saith, "Man goeth to his long home." Short preparations will not fit so long a journey. O let me not put off to the last, to have my oil to buy when I am to burn it! but let me so dispose of myself, that when I am to die, I may have nothing to do but to die. DANGEROUS KINDNESS.-Lord, I read, when our Saviour was examined in the high priest's hall, that Peter stood without, till John (being his spokesman to the maid that kept the door) procured his admission in. John meant to let him out of the cold, and not to let him into a temptation, but his courtesy in intention proved a mischief in event, and the occasion of his denying his Master. O let never my kindness concur, in the remotest degree, to the damage of my friend! RENOVATION.—I have observed that towns which have been casually burned, have been built again more beautifully than before; mud walls afterwards made of stone, and roofs formerly but thatched after advanced to be tiled. The apostle tells me that I must not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to happen unto me. May I likewise prove improved by it! Let my renewed soul, which grows out of the ashes of the old man, be a more firm fabric and stronger structure, so shall affliction be my advantage. BAD AT BEST.-Lord, how come wicked thoughts to perplex me in my prayers, when I desire and endeavour only to attend thy service? Now I perceive the cause thereof: at other times I have willingly entertained them; and now they entertain themselves against my will. I acknowledge thy justice, that what formerly I have invited, now I cannot expel. Give me hereafter always to bolt out such ill guests. The best way to be rid of such bad thoughts in my prayers, is not to receive them out of my prayers. 407 CATECHISING.-O for the ancient and primitive ordinance of catechising! Every youth can preach, but he must be a man indeed who can profitably catechise. POPERY ANTICHRIST. 66 WHETHER the word Antichrist be held to signify one who places himself in Christ's stead, or one who is opposed to Christ, it is equally applicable to the Papacy. It is true in the first sense, for the pope maintains that he is Christ's vicar, through whom alone, or his licensed subordinates, valid intercourse can be held with heaven. If, again, we view the word in the latter sense, then, in every respect in which we can contemplate the matter, Popery is the enemy of Christ. By pretending to be Christ's vicar on earth, he is the enemy of our Lord's divinity, as if our Lord, by virtue of his divine nature, were not with his people alway, even to the end of the world.” By the doctrine of transubstantiation, which represents Christ's body as destitute of the ordinary properties of a true body, he is an enemy to our Lord's humanity; and every time that the host is consecrated, a practical profession is made of the ancient heresy of the Docetæ, who professed to believe that our Lord had a seeming but not a real body. He is the enemy of our Lord's mediatory office, in both 'ts parts, as the representative of God to the Church, and as the representative of the Church to Gcd. The priesthood is the alone mediator between God and men which is practically acknowledged by the Papacy. All communications coming from God are invalid that have not their mark upon them. Pardon is invalid when it is merely intimated to the soul by the gracious working of the Spirit, and not authenticated by the absolution of a priest; and the sealing of the Spirit is invalid, when not authenticated in the dying hour by extreme unction; and even the Bible, notwithstanding all the miracles attesting its divinity, can only be safely perused when the seal of the Church is appended to it, in addition to the seal of the great God. And all communications with God on the part of the creature are invalid, except when sanctioned by the Church. Confession is invalid, when it is not presented through the medium of a priest. Faith, hope, and charity, and all the graces of the Spirit, will be of no avail, if separated from the priesthood. For out of the Church of Rome Christ does not act as a mediator between God and man. It is an enemy to Christ's priestly office. By the sacrifice of the mass, it incessantly impugns the sufficiency of his sacrifice. By soliciting the and the patronage of departed saints, it impugns the sufficiency of his intercession within the veil. By claiming it to be the head of the Church upon earth, and the rock upon which it is built, the Papacy is the enemy of Christ's kingly office. By the temporal monarchy, it altogether misrepresents and asperses the nature of our Lord's kingdom. And what shall we say of its opposition to his prophetical office? What can we say, but that Popery may be considered as combining in itself all forms of error, heresy, false religion, and irreligion? In it we meet, prayers |
