was founded. Inquisitors and informers are mentioned in a law published by the emperor Theodosius against the Manicheans; but these were officers of justice appointed by the prefects, and differed entirely from the persons who became so notorious under these designations many centuries after that period. The fundamental principle of that odious institution was undoubtedly recognised, in 1184, by the council of Verona; which, however, established no separate tribunal for the pursuit of heretics, but left this task entirely in the hands of the bishops Rainier, Castelnau, and St. Dominic, who were sent into France at different times from 1198 to 1206; had a commission from the pope to search for heretics, and in this sense might be called inquisitors; but they were invested with no judicial power to pronounce a definitive sentence. The council of the Lateran, in 1218, made no innovation on the ancient practice. The council held at Toulouse, in 1229, ordained that the bishops should appoint, in each parish of their respective dioceses, 'one priest and two or three laics, who should engage upon oath to make a rigorous search after all heretics and their abettors; and for this purpose should visit every house from the garret to the cellar, together with all subterraneous places where they might conceal themselves.' But the inquisition, as a distinct tribunal, was not erected until the year 1233, when Pope Gregory IX. took from the bishops the power of discovering and bringing to judgment the heretics who lurked in France, and committed that task to the Dominican friars. In consequence of this, the tribunal was immediately set up in Toulouse, and afterwards in the neighbouring cities, from which it was introduced into other countries of Europe."

In 1244, the emperor Frederic II. increased the power of the inquisition, by publishing certain edicts, in which it was decreed that the clergy should take cognizance of heresy, and the lay judges prosecute the heretics, after the former had examined them; that all those who persisted to remain in heresy should be put to death by burning, and such as conformed to Popery should be imprisoned for life. This monarch had been accused by Gregory IX. of being a most malignant enemy of Christianity, and of having declared that the world had been deceived by three impostors, Moses, Christ, and Mahomet. This charge was answered by a solemn and public confession of his faith, addressed to all the kings and princes of Europe, to whom also had been addressed the accusation brought against him by the pontiff. It may have been his wish, therefore, to testify a more than ordinary zeal for the Church's defence. Be that as it may, he lived to feel the mischief which this abundant faith, exalted," among the children of God," above the power, was calculated to produce. The popes used it against his interest and that of many of his friends. Their great object was the increase of temporal authority-the enlargement of their sway over the bodies as well as the consciences of men; and for the accomplishment of this object they scrupled not to pursue any line of conduct, however ungrateful or T.

atrocious.

PLURALITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. THE Church, from the most ancient times, has considered that the expression found in the first chapter of Genesis, "Let us make man in our image," intimates several persons in the Godhead. Bishop Patrick tells us that the early Christians so interpreted it; and quotes these words of Epiphanius,-" This is the language of God to his Word and only-begotten, as all the faithful believe ;" and again,-" Adam was formed by the hand of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy host." Archbishop Wake writes,-" It is the lan

guage of St. Barnabas, one of the apostolical fathers, And for this cause the Lord was content to suffer for our souls, although he be the Lord of the whole earth; to whom God said, before the beginning of the world, Let us make man.'"-" He speaks to one," says Bishop Wilson, "who has the power of creating." And Bishop Horne has thus, at full length, discussed this expression. "The phraseology in which this resolution is couched is remarkable,— Let us make man: but the Old Testament furnishes more instances of a similar kind,- Behold, the man is become as one of us: Let us go down, and there confound their language:' 'Whom shall I send? and who will go for us?' These plural forms, thus used by the Deity, demand our attention" (Gen. iii. 22; xi. 7; Is. vi. 8).

6

Three solutions of the question have been offered. The first is that given by the Jews, who tell us, that in these forms God speaks of himself and his angels. But may we not ask on this occasion, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?" With which of the angels did he at any time vouchsafe to share his works and his attributes? Could they have been his coadjutors in the work of creation, which he so often claims to himself, declaring that he will not give the glory of it to another? A second account of the matter is, that the King of heaven adopts the style employed by the kings of the earth.

But doth it seem at all reasonable to imagine, that God should borrow his way of speaking from a king before man was created upon the earth? Besides, as it hath been judiciously observed," though a king and governor may say us and we, there is certainly no figure of speech that will allow any single person to say 'one of us,' when he speaks only of himself. It is a phrase that can have no meaning, unless there be more persons than one concerned."

What, then, should hinder us from accepting the third solution given by the best expositors ancient and modern, and drawn from this consideration,-that in the unity of the divine essence there is a plurality of persons, co-equal and co-eternal, who might say, with truth and propriety, "Let us make man," and "man is become as one of us?" Of such a personality revelation informs us: it is that upon which the economy of man's redemption is founded: his creation, as well as that of the world, is, in different passages, attributed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: what more natural, therefore, than that, at his production, this form of speech should be used by the Divine Persons? What more rational than to suppose that a doctrine, so important to the human race, was communicated from the beginning, that men might know whom they worshipped, and how they ought to worship? What other good and sufficient reason can be given why the name of God, in use among believers from the first, should likewise be in the plural number, connected with verbs and pronouns in the singular? It is true we Christians, with the New Testament in our hands, may not want these argu ments to prove the doctrine; but why should we overlook or slight such very valuable evidence of its having been revealed and received in the Church of God from the foundation of the world? It is a satisfaction-it is a comfort, to reflect, that in this momentous article

of our faith, we have patriarchs and prophets for our fathers; that they lived and that they died in the belief of it; that the God of Adam, of Noah, and of Abraham, is likewise our God; and that when we adore him in three persons, and give "glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," we do "as it was" done in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be."

THE

RIGHT VIEW OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION:

A Sermon

For Easter-Day,

BY THE REV. HARVEY MARRIOTT, Rector of Claverton.

1 PET. i. 3.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

THERE are several very solemn and most comfortable truths put before us in these words. But I do not propose a full consideration of them all. The time would fail us. I would only in general observe, that they are words which could be used in sincerity by no one who had not tasted that the Lord is gracious. None can really bless "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," unless they are " enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come" (Heb. vi. 4, 5). The tongue of an unbeliever may join in this language of praise to the Father for the gift of Christ; but, having no heart in the thing, he has "neither part nor lot in this matter" (Acts, viii. 21). The whole Gospel is a sealed book to those who experimentally know not the transforming, enabling, and sanctifying power of it. As St. Paul writes upon another occasion, "When thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?" (1 Cor. xiv. 16.)

But, my brethren, though I fear that there must be among you, who are here assembled together this holy day, those who cannot join in heart in this thanksgiving to the Father for the gift of his dear Son, yet I shall, nevertheless, urge you all to listen to it. Who can tell what the Lord may do in any hearing of his blessed word? "He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him?" (Joel, ii. 13, 14.) May his Spirit, then, be with us, and take away the vail from every

heart, and open all our understandings, that we may understand the Scriptures.

In taking the text in more immediate reference to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead, I shall consider these two points:

I. The different effects produced upon the minds of many, who have only an outward belief of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.

II. The only right view of this great and most important fact.

I. Of all the wonderful events which marked the Saviour's abode upon earth, when he came to seek and save those who were lost, there does not appear one for which so much was done to make it clearly proved by its evidence as his resurrection. It had been obscurely foretold to the Old Testament Church; "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." It was plainly foretold by Christ himself before he suffered. It was a fact of the deepest consequence to be thoroughly established. For "if," as St. Paul reasoned, "Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished" (1. Cor. xv. 14, 17, 18). It was therefore of the last importance that it should be shewn of Christ according to the Scriptures, not only that he "was delivered for our offences," but that he "was raised again for our justification" (Rom. iv. 25).

Hence it has pleased our heavenly Father that the fact of the resurrection should be proved by a chain of such strong and reasonable evidence, that even enemies have been compelled to acknowledge it. It has been proved against all that human wisdom and hellish spite could contrive against it. It was proved by the angels; it was proved by the confession of the Roman soldiers who guarded the sepulchre; and so entirely was their testimony believed as to the fact, that the Jewish rulers invented a falsehood to contradict it, and bribed the soldiers to publish that falsehood. It was proved by the single testimony of some of the apostles, and by the united testimony of them all. It was proved by the testimony" of above five hundred brethren at once" (1 Cor. xv. 6). It was proved by the testimony of the eye, the ear, and the hand: "That," saith the apostle, "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled" (1 John, i. 1). The consequence has been, that all who profess to believe Christianity believe the fact of Christ's resurrection.

Hence we see that a real and justifying belief of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ acts immediately upon the will and the affections. We may have an intellectual belief of the fact; but it is the inward operation of the Spirit which alone gives life and power to the doctrines of grace. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John, vi. 63). Unless we have such a sense of the power of Christ's resurrection as shall bring us to feel that we have a personal interest in it, we do not savingly believe it. It is impossible that we can as yet believe that Christ 66 rose from the dead, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name" (Luke, xxiv. 46, 47), unless we so far feel ourselves sinners, and indebted to him for pardon, peace, and future glory, as to feel personally interested in acknowledging that he died and was buried, and rose again for us. It is only then that faith becomes that active principle in the soul which Abraham had when "it was imputed to him for righteousness;" and of which it is testified that to us also "it shall be imputed, if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Rom. iv. 22, 24).

But, my brethren, where is this faith, this true and lively faith, seen? The Gospelmessage, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for the salvation of the lost sinner, is freely, and fully, and constantly spread out before us. But who receive it? Who really believe it? Where are those who shew themselves buried with Christ in his death, and quickened into spiritual life by the power of his resurrection? Where are those who cast all their care upon him? Surely we must still ask, in reference to the constant Gospel-message, and to the little leaven of real and spiritual religion among us, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" (Is. liii. 1.) "Faith," saith the Scriptures, "cometh by hearing" (Rom. x. 17). But not by every But not by every hearing. There are many hearers; but few converts to the truth of Christ crucified. Many sit under the Gospel; but few receive it. It is now as it ever was: "Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed" (Acts, xxviii. 26, 27). There is a dreadful delusion upon living souls, which causes so many to remain, amidst the full blaze of Gospel-light, as those who "sit in darkness;" and, what is far more dreadful, this is but the forerunner of the eternal night of darkness,

torment, and despair, which will come upon them when their day on earth shall have passed away. When that night cometh, the day of Gospel-light will return no more for

ever.

Would you, my brethren, who are now involved in this spiritual blindness, desire to escape this eternal night? You may in Christ. By the power of "the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," you may be "begotten again unto a lively hope." It is a covenantengagement from God your Saviour, that if you fly "for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before" you, you shall" have" that "hope as an anchor of the soul," because it "entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus" (Heb. vi. 18-20).

But this is no new thing which you hear of the power of Christ's resurrection, however dead your soul may be to any real sense of its vital influence. This great day of the feast, this morning of the resurrection of Christ from the grave, has returned to you once more; and you hear the truth of what the angel said of the newly risen Saviour to those who first sought him at the sepulchre : "Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified he is risen; he is not here" (Matt., xvi. 6). This triumphant morning once more proclaims the great event. This is the third day since those things were done wherein he poured out his soul unto death. Yesterday he lay in the grave; and early on this first day of the week he fulfilled in himself the great prophetic declaration of the Saviour of sinners: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction" (Hos. xiii. 14).

But to many, I fear, this day comes round, and finds them where they were; still ignorant of any saving knowledge of Christ, still "afar off," "strangers and foreigners,"

strangers from the covenants of promise, having no" saving "hope, and without God in the world." Many come to hear of the resurrection of Christ; but when they hear, they are not persuaded to close with the gracious offer of this glorified Saviour. When he is set forth from the Scriptures in all his fulness of mercy, power, and love, the mind, as in former times, of many still shrinks from accepting him. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John, i. 11). So now, when held up as the gracious and all-sufficient Saviour, a friend of sinners, the inward thought of many still is, "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" (Is. liii. 2).

But while many reject Christ as the Sa