no sinful creature can atone for past transgressions, however pure may be his future life. To these statements our unbiassed reason cannot but agree. Humbled before God, confessing his wretchedness and ruined state, acknowledging the equity of the condemning sentence, the sinner is directed to the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." He opens that sacred volume which, to the majority of Roman Catholics, is a sealed and forbidden book, and thus reads-" All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus"-" Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."* He believes God, and is at peace; embracing these heavenly truths, he experiences "joy unspeakable and full of glory." And gratitude for redeeming goodness becomes the main-spring of piety, the root and source of all holy living, the motive to cheerful and unwearied activity in the ways of God. Very different are the inventions of popery. There Christ is not "all in all;" the sinner is not directed to the Saviour. Pardon is almost a matter of bargain and sale. Instead of "returning to the Lord," the penitent kneels before the priest; for "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," are substituted confession and absolution at the tribunal of penance; and the obedience of gratitude is exchanged for austerities, mortifications, or painful performances, vainly imagined to be meritorious. The "glad tidings of great joy" are not permitted to salute the ears of the devotee of Rome; he knows not "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," but wears the insufferable yoke of priestly bondage. Whenever conscience is oppressed or alarmed, new penances are prescribed, at the will of his spiritual master; nor does even the prospect of heaven itself afford unmingled relief, since he is taught that before he can arrive at those blessed abodes, he must endure the bitter pains of purgatory, from which he laboriously strives to procure some remission by voluntary sufferings, or acts of devotion to the church. Meanwhile,

*Rom. iii. 23, 24; x. 4. 2 Cor. v. 21.

pride is nourished by the dogma of human merit; and he whose heart was never broken by the sense of sin, and whose life exhibits no traces of genuine holiness, is puffed with the conceit of superior excellence, and supposes that his Ave Marias, his Paternosters, his fasts, and his alms, are daily increasing the stock of his worthiness, and lessening the claims against him in the court of heaven.

2. Christianity is a system of spiritual worship. "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."* When as yet only the rudiments of religion were taught, and the sublime disclosures of the "last days" were unknown, the forms of divine worship corresponded with the peculiarities of an imperfect and introductory dispensation. The numerous and burdensome rites of the old law were, nevertheless, highly important, inasmuch as they prefigured better things, and tended to preserve the separation of the Israelites from other nations, till the "fulness of time" was come. When the work of redemption was completed, by the resurrection and ascension of the Son of God, a "new covenant" was introduced with "better promises," and "spiritual sacrifice," and service. The divine character and purposes being fully revealed, direct access to the throne of grace becomes the privilege of all believers; and truth, known and felt, elevates the heart to God, and disposes to those exercises, holy effusions, and offerings, which are "acceptable through Jesus Christ." The victim is no longer consumed on the altar; the smoke of the incense no more perfumes the air; the washings and purifications, the distinctions of meat, and the difference of days, are abolished. For the intricate and expensive ritual of the Mosaic economy, we have the two ordinances, simple yet expressive, of baptism and the Lord's supper; our sacrifices are prayer and praise; nothing more is included in the public worship of Christianity, while in a more extensive sense, every house is a temple, and every Christian a priest. Herein popery and Christianity are entirely at variance. The former exhibits a retrogade movement, a return to the " beggarly elements" of an abrogated dispensation. Instead of encouraging or assisting devotion, the rites of the Roman-catholic

*John iv. 24.

church are decidedly inefficient, if not hostile, in that respect. For how can the heart be engaged with God, when the whole service is said or muttered in a foreign language, and the attention is ever distracted by gaudy pageantry, constantly shifting movements, or the imposing sounds of music, as though everything were to be heard and seen, and nothing felt. And what motive is there to spiritual worship, when it is affirmed that all is a transaction between the priest and God, in which the congregation have individually no share, so that it is not so much their concern 66 to understand the words as to know what is done"-done for them by a fellow-creature? In short, can a stanch Roman Catholic have any correct idea of that worship which is "in spirit and in truth," seeing that he is instructed from his infancy to expect everything from his ghostly father-does not pray but before a crucifix or an image -and in the house of God is plied with perpetual appeals to the senses, rather than to the understanding and the heart? Besides which, it is not to be forgotten that in the practice of Roman-catholic piety, saints and angels are more honoured than God himself, and the Divine Being receives far fewer prayers than his creatures. The indignant language of the Most High, addressed to the chosen people, may be justly applied "When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.”*

3. Christianity is a system of holiness. And holiness of heart and life is the necessary fruit of faith. Here, also, the word of God is the sole rule, standard, and directory. In his service generally, as well as in his worship, he claims the exclusive right of prescribing rules, or enacting and enforcing laws. We must learn from himself what we must be and do, in order to please him. "We beseech you, brethren," said the Apostle Paul, "and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please

*Isaiah i. 12-14.

God, so ye would abound more and more.' Nor are we at liberty to give the reins to our imaginations, and suppose that we may add to the word and statutes of the Most High: such attempts are stigmatized by the epithet "will-worship," and instead of honouring, are highly offensive to the majesty of heaven; for with them are commonly connected very inadequate views of real religion, and petty superstition is substituted for sound practical piety. Of this, the conduct of the pharisees exhibited a striking illustration; their scrupulous attention to the multiplied ceremonies and traditions of the elders invested them with an adventitious and false glare of sanctity, but left them destitute of all true godliness; they "paid tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, but omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.”+ It cannot be denied that the "Holy Catholic church" is justly charged with a similar offence. What does she require of her children? And what are the fruits of her labours? In answer to the first question, it may be safely said, that if they confess and communicate once a year, fast at proper seasons, pay tithes and other dues, obey the injunctions of the priests, and keep clear of heretics and the Bible, they shall be esteemed good Christians, although there be not the slightest evidence of real holiness. For holiness is the effect of the truth; truth cannot be effective but as it is understood and received; and for this there is very meagre provision in Roman-catholic communities. The state of society in popish countries, the neglect and irreverence of the Sabbath, and the general dissoluteness of manners, will answer the second inquiry. And further, what were the characters of the saints, the demi-gods of the church of Rome, as described in her Breviary, held up to admiration in language of extravagant eulogy, and proposed to the faithful as their models and exemplars? Every one knows that their holiness mainly consisted in unnatural chastity and abstinence, self-imposed penances, wearisome ceremonies, and unmeaning devotions, for which scripture furnishes no warrant or injunction, and which its general principles and spirit utterly condemn. The generous food of the gospel produces health and strength of soul, and activity of the spiritual powers; but the low diet of popery enfeebles the mind, vitiates the

moral sense, and excites a morbid irritability that is pregnant with danger to man's highest interests.

4. Christianity is a system of benevolence; for it proceeds from him who is "good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all his works."* In imitation of his heavenly Father, the Christian is desirous, "as he has opportunity, to do good unto all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith.”+ To administer to the spiritual and temporal wants of his fellow-mortals, he will gladly "spend and be spent ;" and though, when he looks upon a divided church, he cannot but mourn over the prevalence of error and disunion, he is too well instructed to suppose that any sect possesses a monopoly of religion, and heartily adopts the language of the apostle, "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."‡ As for those who differ from him, it is his aim to shew the same kindness and forbearance which he expects in return. Their errors are to be exposed and refuted; their persons and property are sacred. His divine Lord has taught him that the tares are to grow together with the wheat, and that the execution of judgment is reserved for himself: the armies that follow the mighty conqueror attend his progress and celebrate his triumphs, but he only wields the sword.§ Man is not responsible to his fellow-man for his religious opinions or practices; but all are responsible to God, and "vengeance is his❞ alone. In direct opposition to these statements, stands the intolerance of popery. The Roman Catholic is bound to believe that all who refuse to hold the doctrines advanced by the Council of Trent, and summarily comprised in Pope Pius's creed, are out of the reach of salvation, and must certainly be damned to all eternity. Nor is this all. The intolerance exists in practice as well as in theory. It is an undoubted maxim of that persecuting church, that those whom she shall choose to call heretics may and ought to be compelled by the secular power to renounce their opinions, or punished for their contumacy, even unto death. Such is the decree of the fourth Council of Lateran, practically illustrated in the crusades against the

*Psalm cxlv. 9.

Ephes. vi. 24.

† Galat. vi. 10.

§ Rev. xix. 11-21.

The third canon of this council anathematized and excommunicated all heretics; ordered them to be delivered over to the secular power; directed