that he is not a true believer in Christ, and that, in such a state, whatever church he may belong to, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Be not deceived," says St. Paul; "God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Now, just think, whether what you are taught by your priests produces this kind of holiness in heart and life which St. Paul describes as necessary. Perhaps, after you have confessed to him, and received absolution, you may for a time feel something like peace; but do you feel your heart changed? Do you feel that you no longer love those sins which you confessed to him, but that you really see how hatefully wicked they are, and desire most earnestly that you never again may be tempted to commit them? If you were of a quarrelsome temper before confession, do you afterwards feel that you are become gentle and patient? If you felt hatred and variance, do you afterwards feel love? If you delighted in revellings and drunkenness, do you afterwards feel no desire for such things? That holiness which God requires, and which true Christians are taught by the Spirit of God, is real, heartholiness. If you do not feel love to God before

* Gal. vi. 7, 8.

you went to the priest, do you feel it afterwards? In short, do you feel that any thing the priest directs you to do makes any change upon your heart? Nor does it never happen, that, after you have been absolved by your priest, and look upon yourself as purified and safe, you have, as the Scriptures express it, "returned as the dog to his vomit, or as the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." You love sin as much as ever, and only begin a new score with which to return to the priest for absolution. If you were to read the Bible, you would find there, that while you are in a state of nature, that is, while your hearts are unchanged, you can neither truly love God, nor do one thing that is pleasing to Him. Now, if, while you are in this state, instead of being urged by those who guide you in spiritual matters to flee to the refuge set before you in the Scriptures-to flee to Christ that your sins may be atoned for by His precious blood, and your hearts renewed by His Holy Spirit, you are taught to do fifty trifling things never mentioned in the Bible; to what a refuge of lies do your priests direct you! And what will you do when the hour comes in which you must enter into the presence of God? What will you do when you find that you must die, and cannot conceal from yourself that you have lived in the commission of sin, day after day, during your whole lives, ever since you remember? "Why,"

say you, "I have confessed, and got absolution very many times, and I shall do that over again before I die." Well, but can you say that your past confessions have changed your heart, and made it holy? Or do you suppose that your last one will? Or have you any authority, but the word of the priest, for supposing it will avail you any thing? And now you have heard that the word of the priest is contrary to the word of God, and which do you choose to abide by? Which of them do you suppose God will abide by when he comes to judge you-His own holy word or the invention of the priest? Oh! it is a serious, most serious matter, to answer this question. You will say, too, that, though you may have sins on your conscience when you come to die, the priest will give you extreme unction, and that you will be prepared by that for an entrance into what place? you will not venture to say heaven; for, after all the priest can do for you, still you must go to Purgatory! This extreme unction, however, you believe is to do something for you in the way of purifying; at any rate, it will preserve you from going to hell at last, however long you may have to remain in Purgatory, if your friends have no money to purchase prayers for your soul. Money! copper pennies, and silver tenpennies, to shorten the time of purification, thought necessary by that "High and Holy One who inhabiteth eter

nity!" Can any man in his senses believe so blasphemous a lie? You will say, it is not the money but the prayers of the church. But is it ever known that those prayers are offered but for money? Do not your priests exhort and entreat the rich to have compassion on the souls of their poorer brethren, and charitably give money to have prayers offered for them. It seems your priests cannot offer these prayers but for money, so it must be the money which gives them efficacy. What a list of delusions and lies! What awful trifling with immortal souls! Such are the effects produced by departing from the word of God, and following the inventions of men. Your priests, in order to make the way of salvation they teach appear perfect, have been obliged to patch in one thing after another, till they have made such an affair of it, that it is absolute blasphemy to call it the religion of Christ. Christ preached most plainly, and commanded his apostles to preach, that men everywhere should repent, and believe on Him for the remission of their sins, and promised his Holy Spirit to those who believed, to renew their hearts, and make them truly holy. This is the simple and glorious gospel, suited in every way to our state as guilty before God. We are sinners. We require to see that we are so, and repent. We cannot atone for our own sins, therefore Christ has himself atoned for them.

We are unholy, but cannot change our own hearts, therefore Christ has promised his Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him, to renew their hearts, and make them truly holy. What we require is, the pardon of sin, and the power to be holy. Christ is revealed as the only propitiation for sin-the only intercessor for pardon. And His Spirit, given to them who believe in Him, is revealed as the Only Sanctifier. Now mark the perfection, and the simplicity, and the sweet suitableness of Christ's salvation; and then recollect how many unmeaning follies your priests have dared to add to it. "Christ is indeed," say they, "the Great Propitiation for sin," but you must also do something yourself. When you feel conscious of sin, instead of humbling yourself before God, and imploring pardon for Christ's sake, and praying to have your sin washed away in the precious blood of Christ, and your hearts turned away from the love of sin, and made holy by His Almighty Spirit, as the Bible enjoins, the Priest says:-Humble yourself to be sure, before God, but also before me. Confess to me. Do the penance I enjoin, and you will thus atone for your sin yourself, in addition to the atonement of Christ. And, if you would be sure to get your sins thoroughly remitted, you must go a pilgrimage to some holy station-and there do many things to mortify your flesh-and repeat numbers of prayers to