espoused by the nominalists of our church. They insist upon the fact, that the priest a designation of the pastoral office exceedingly acceptable to persons of their character-by the pronunciation of the formulary in question, actually imparts, to the repeaters of the Confession, a certain measure of pardon. To all practical purposes, this is a counter-part to

From the uncertainty of language, and from less innocent causes, the public formularies of any communion will be open to various, and even contradictory, interpretations. The term priest, if synonymous with presbyter, has a harmless meaning: if used in the Papal sense, as designating one who offers sacrifices, it becomes an illustration of what Mirabeau said and he was fully aware of the import of the observation that words are things.As an example of the eagerness of the Papalizing party in a Protestant church to bend words to their purposes, we find Heylin attempting to prove a Real Presence to be acknowledged in the Anglican Church by the doctrine of the Catechism, as well as by the authorities of Bishops Ridley, Bilson, Andrews, Morton, and Dean Nowell. He sums up the evidence by stating: It is agreed on both sides (that is to say, the Church of England and the Church of Rome), that there is a true and real presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist; the disagreement being only in the modus præsentia. (Cyprianus Anglicus. 1671. 22.) This writer pleads for the plenary power of the priest in giving absolution. He also denies the moral obligation of the Sabbath; while he seriously enforces the duty of bowing towards the East! I have sometimes read such authors as Heylin, Collier, and Laud, till I have wondered whether these men really believed that Christianity had any other object than the establishment of sacerdotal power, and of rites and ceremonies. It is, at least, evident, that they were extremely jealous of the Reformation, and wished to restore the discarded system, provided they might re-possess themselves of Papal authority, but without sharing it with foreigners.

the Papal transfer of guilt from the people to their minister, and an opiate to the Protestant conscience. If the confessors, thus deluding themselves, were really and truly anxious to ascertain the sincerity of their repentance and of their reliance on the sacrifice of Christ, they might indeed derive consolation from the language of the Absolution; but no farther than as they would obtain similar comfort from the declarations of forgiveness in the Scripture to all penitent believers; and, farther, from such sermons as illustrate and amplify those declarations, and thus fulfil the prophecy, as interpreted by the Son of God, when he said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor: he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The consolation of the Gospel, therefore, is doubtless proclaimed in the Absolution; but with no greater efficacy than in other ministrations to the same effect. In all cases, the authority of the minister is the same; and the Spirit of God can equally convey grace,

whether his servants pronounce from the desk, or preach from the pulpit.

we

No church can be responsible for the abuse of its ritual by Antinomian formalists. If the Book of Inspiration itself be forced into the service of sin by the glosses of bad men—as when a libertine justifies himself, on the plea that Christ said to the woman taken in adul"Neither do I condemn thee tery, need not wonder if uninspired formularies, imperfect and ambiguous as they must necessarily be, should receive the same treatment; and if, in consequence, the Liturgy of a reformed church should be compelled to aid the Missal and Breviary in extending the delusions of Antichrist.

In times o'ergrown with rust and ignorance,
A gainful trade the clergy did advance;
When want of learning kept the layman low,
And none but priests were authorized to know;
The mother-church did mightily prevail :
She parcell'd out the Bible by retail;
But still expounded what she sold or gave,
To keep it in her pow'r to curse or save.
Scripture was scarce, and, as the market went,
Poor laymen took salvation on content,
As needy men take money good or bad-
God's word they had not, but the priest's they had.
At last, a knowing age began t' inquire,

If they the book, or that did them, inspire;

And, making narrower search, they found, though late,
That what they thought the priest's, was their estate:
Taught by the Will produced, the written word,
How long they had been cheated on record.

*

The Book's a common largess to mankind,
Not more for them than ev'ry man design'd;
The welcome news is in the letter found,
The carrier's not commission'd to expound;
It speaks itself; and what it does contain,
In all things needful, to be known is plain.-DRYDEN.

In pursuing the melancholy course marked out for an inquirer into the system of Popery, I

shall remind the reader, that it can survive only so long as the governors and the governed reciprocally obey each other. There must be a perpetual interchange of despotism and submission.

Of all mankind, Papists are the most consistent patrons of the doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance: and necessarily are they so; because the plebeians of their church yield their submission on a certainty that the aristocracy will and must support the course of policy already established. Their loyalty has nothing in it of the dignity of an unbought and patriotic obedience. A loyalty of principle can sustain, without murmuring, the opposition of a legislature, and not indulge a spirit of sedition. On the contrary, a Catholic populace are at once enslaved and feared by their despotic government. They are Catholics, just while the Pope of the day ratifies the plans of his predecessors.

The head of the Papal empire is to his adherents, what Napoleon was to the military population of France. He was the idol of the army, because he led them to plunder and martial glory. They adored him as a genius of extraordinary address, in directing and completing their own selfish projects. But had he, in the full career of his success, abandoned the lust of conquest, declaimed against the