takes the sacrament in his right hand, holding the chalice in his left, he makes the sign of the cross three times from edge to edge of the chalice, saying,)—by whom, and with whom, and in whom, (he makes the sign of the cross twice between the chalice and his breast,) there is to thee, God, the Father Almighty, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, (raising the chalice a little with the host, he says,)—all honor and glory, (he lays down the host, he covers the chalice, kneels down, rises up, and says,)-for ever and ever. Res. Amen.

We have, in this prayer, another remarkable instance of the gross inconsistency of some of the prayers in your Mass, with your professed doctrines; and also with each other. You call upon God to admit you into the fellowship of the blessed saints and apostles and martyrs -and on what do you ground your claim of such a blessing? Is it on account of your own merits, or the merits of those apostles, saints, and martyrs? No, you disclaim most properly all such merit; and you beseech for pardon through his merits, who alone possesses any in the sight of God, namely, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We would here inquire, is it not sufficient for you to supplicate to enjoy the fellowship of the holy apostles and saints, and martyrs as a body, but you must needs also introduce a number of names of persons of whom you know nothing? They may be good or bad, for aught you know to the contrary; and I cannot discover by what authority your church, or any church, has to pronounce, or declare, dogmatically, that any individual is in glory. Judge not before the time," St. Paul says, 1 Cor. iv. 5, "until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will manifest the counsels of the hearts-and then shall every man have praise of God." We may believe, that our friends who have departed in the faith of Jesus, are in peace, and heirs of glory. But that is quite another matter from the right which your church has usurped of "canonizing," as she terms it, any persons she assumes are deserving of such an honor; several of her canonized

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saints have been of very questionable characters; and of supposing that the pope's decree alone is sufficient to warrant the title of saint being prefixed to their names.

Your church assumes for her popes the power of granting admission to Christ's glorious kingdom to those he approves of; but our Lord himself tells you he has delegated that power to no person. "I am," said our Lord, "the first and the last, and am alive, and was dead; and behold I am living forever and ever, and have the keys of death and of hell," Rev. i. 17, 18. He here says he retains them in his own possession. He gave St. Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaventhat is, the privilege, as we before stated, of preaching the Gospel, the entrance to Christ's church upon earth, first to Jews and Gentiles; but of death or hell, of man's future state after this life, he reserves all in his own power. And in the third chapter, v. 7, Rev., we read thus :-" Saith the Holy One, and the true One: he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, shutteth and no man openeth." Can any declaration be plainer to show that your popes have usurped a power which Jesus, the great shepherd of souls, reserves to himself, and communicates to no man -mark the expression "man" in the above passage. "The words," saith our Lord, "which I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day," John xii. 48. How can your church answer this?

The concluding part of this prayer is only remarkable for the numerous crossings and genuflexions used; but when your church appointed all these crossings and blessings of the consecrated host and chalice, she never could have believed them to be the very body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus, as requiring any of these forms you call means of grace or blessings. Thus an unobjectionable prayer is corrupted by these unscriptural and absurd forms, opposed by common sense to your own professed principles.

R.-Jungit manus. Oremus.

T.-He joins his hands together, and says-Let us

pray :

Præceptis salutaribus moniti, et divinæ institutione formati, audemus (extendet manus) dicere.

T.-Instructed by wholesome precepts, and taught by divine appointment, we presume (he extends his hands) to say

Pater noster, qui es in cœlis, sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum, fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cœlo et in terra; panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris; et ne nos inducas in tentationem. R. Sed libera nos a malo. P. Amen.

T.-Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. Response.-But deliver us from evil.

R.-Sacerdos secrete dicit-Amen.

T. The priest secretly says-Amen.

No

Mark the simplicity and clearness of this prayer, taught by our Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples. In this prayer we find no address to angels for their intercession, or to or for departed souls of the faithful. crossings, or other superstitious practices. We are thus instructed to go at once to God, the Father of Jesus, our Saviour, and thus the reconciled Father and parent of all who trust in him.

R.-Deinde accipit patenam inter indicem et medium digitos et dicit.

T.-He then takes the paten between his fore and middle fingers, and says―

Libera nos, quæsumus, Domine, ab omnibus malis præteritis, præsentibus, et futuris, et intercedente beata et gloriosa semper virgine, Dei genitrice Maria, cum beatis apostolis tuis Petro et Paulo, atque Andrea, et omnibus sanctis, (signat se cum patena a fronte ad pectus eam osculatur,) da propitius pacem in diebus nostris, ut ope misericordiæ tuæ adjuti, et a peccato simus sem

per liberi et ab omni perturbatione securi, (submittit patenam hostia discooperit calicem genuflectit surgit, accipit hostiam, frangit eam super calicem per medium dicens.) Per eundem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, (partem quæ in dextera est ponit super patenam, deinde ex parte, quæ in sinistra remansit, frangit particulum dicens,) qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, (aliam mediam partem cum ipsa sinistra ponit super patenam, et dextera, tenens particulam super calice, sinistra calicem dicit,) per omnia sæcula sæculorum. R.-Amen.

T.-Deliver us, O Lord, from all evils, past, present, and to come; and by the intercession of the blessed and glorious Mary, ever a Virgin, the Mother of God, and by that of thy blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and Andrew, and all the saints, (he here makes the sign of the cross with the paten from his forehead to his breast, and kisses it,) mercifully grant us peace in our days, that being assisted by the help of thy compassion, we may be always free from sin, and secure from all trouble, (he places the paten under the host, he uncovers the chalice, kneels down, rises up, takes the host, breaks it over the chalice in the middle, saying,) through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, (he places the part which is in his right hand upon the paten, then of that which remains in his left he breaks off a small piece, saying,) who liveth and reigneth with thee, O God, in the unity of the Spirit, (the other half he places with his left hand upon the paten, and holding with his right the small piece over the chalice, and holding the chalice in his left hand, says,) for ever and ever. (Answer) Amen.

This prayer assumes a new feature respecting the intercession of saints; hitherto you have been only addressing the saints, to plead for you with God. You have been claiming pardon through their merits; both which practices, we trust, we have fully shown to be unwarranted by the word of God, and contrary to primitive usage. But here your Church introduces a variety in the system; and you are instructed to call upon

God to grant your petition, for deliverance from all evils, past, present, and future, which includes every possible case, by the intercession of the Virgin, and the Apostles and the saints. What has become, brethren, of the office of Jesus? You have acknowledged him to be your intercessor, and here you seem to forget such to be the case; and your Church blasphemously introduces others, his servants, into that very office, to fulfil which was one of the purposes for which he came into the world. Can you possibly suppose that God will listen with favor to such a prayer? From one end to the other of Holy Scripture you will search in vain for a precedent-antiquity has nothing like it. But it has remained for your Church to address the King of kings, and Lord of lords, in language totally opposed to that Gospel, which declares, in the passage quoted before, “that there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus," 1 Tim. ii. 5. You have been acknowledging in the prayer just preceding, that the Lord Jesus Christ was he, through whom God gives us all things; and here you introduce a petition as if what you had before stated, you did not believe, but required additional intercessors to plead your cause with God; although Jesus himself has told you that "whatsoever you ask the Father in his name, that," he says, "I will do; that the Father may be glorified in the Son," John xiv. 13—not in those intercessors whom your Church so vainly puts forward. Can any thing be more condemnatory of your practice? And then again at the conclusion, you say-through Jesus Christ, our Lord, that this is to be done. What is the meaning of this? How is it to be reconciled with what goes before? If you profess to believe that Jesus is to intercede, why, unless you think him to be insufficient, make use of the others?

While this prayer is saying, your priest is doing what seems most strange upon Roman Catholic principles. He takes up the host and breaks it in the middle over the chalice, and then he breaks off a piece from that in his left hand; and thus the host is divided into