world who abstained, at that period, from any general union with Christianity in its then purest form? Why it was doing this;-it was exulting over the crimes and divisions of the infant church; and gathering thence many a lesson on the art of leading on its own designs beneath the shadow of the Cross. It was maturing its plans; watching the movements in the enemy's camp; and learning gradually how to accomplish a plausible compromise between God and the world. The conspiracies of the first century were thus the radical principle of the highest triumph since achieved by any form of antichrist.

Electrified and confounded, therefore, as a Christian philosopher of the present day might at first be, could he be transported, instantaneously, from the seclusion of his closet to the basilica of St. Peter's, during the pageantries of a festival, -yet, how rapidly would his astonishment subside into the calms of contemplation, when he could recal to his mind the simple circumstance, that, for eighteen centuries, mankind had been employed in elaborating the stupendous spectacle before his eyes, with all its adjuncts, out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their success is indeed great and overwhelming; but not greater than the urgency of the case prompted. It is the natural, inevitable result of the world's endeavour to darken the effulgence of truth; and to divert its rays in such a manner as might seem to light up its own inventions. Men whose minds, as instructed from above, look before and after, would wonder if things were otherwise. They are not strangers to the maxim, that in proportion to the excellence of any thing is its capacity of abuse. In the same proportion, is it found necessary to impose upon human ignorance by dazzle and glare; that is, with such an exterior as overpowers men too much to allow of their investigating what it conceals.

The above hypothesis surely re

duces the question, Whence originated Catholicity, within definite limits. It exhibits a creative, restless principle, always in action, and quite sufficient to explain all the mysteries of paganized Christianity. Where then exists the necessity of dilating the subject according to the immeasurable scale usually adopted? Fathers, councils, schoolmen, cardinals, are not only without authority, but their interference is positively superfluous. We can anticipate all they can advance; since whatever they allege is comprized, in its elements, in our present theory.

Neither does it more efficiently determine the debate, when Protestant disputants, on the other hand, bring forward counter-statements from the same fathers and councils, and turn the ordnance of these artillerists upon themselves. On the principle I assume, it can be of no avail when they allege, for instance, that Paschase Radbert invented the real presence, Ignatius Loyola the order of Jesuits, Dominic the Inquisition, and Benedict a certain order of Monachism. We are concerned, immediately, with the doctrines and observances which we find, and not with the dates of their appearance. It matters not, in this view, what sides Radbert and Berengarius took in the controversy of the Eucharist. The invention itself, like every superaddition to papal despotism, was only a step found to be necessary in the progress of a system intended to enslave mankind. To illustrate the postulate of my argument, I would, in this place, ask, whether, in the ferment excited among us by the question of the abolition of slavery, we are anxious to ascertain, at the present hour, what individuals have rendered their names illustrious, in colonial history, by the discovery of the cart-whip, the iron collar, and the brand. No! our undivided aim is the ultimate annihilation of sanguinary oppression. The system may have its own accurate and undisputed chronology

of cruelty and avarice; but this part of the investigation is remote, and practically useless. The mere annalist of guilt and misery may, indeed, busy himself with the arrangement of dates and events occurring in West-India history; as they who compile the memoirs of the age of Louis the Sixteenth may find it expedient to detail the invention of the guillotine, and the organization of the Revolutionary Tribunal. But your friend be assassinated, do you ask, except perhaps for the purpose of fastening upon the murderer his guilt, when and where he purchased his dagger?

if

The moment we are beguiled into the mazes of dates, and the distant ramifications of a subject so near to us as the one in discussion, we become detached from its pressing importunities. The substance of the inquiry is forgotten in the examination of its accidents. Catholicity is indeed so affluent in the materials of debate, that an adventurer into the controversy may exclaim, Inopem me copia fecit! I feel the appositeness of this confession, in the difficulty of restraining my self within the limits prescribed at the outset of these papers. With whatever inconsistency, I beg to proceed, in the next Number, with a wider extension of the subject; or rather, with an attempt to illustrate the application of the principle, already developed, to some of the leading particularities of the Roman-Catholic religion. In the mean time, let me record the honest confessions of a great man:-“. My censures of the Papists," said Baxter, "do much differ from what they were at first I then thought that their errors on the doctrines of faith were their most dangerous mistakes. But now, I am assured, that their mis-expressions, and misunderstanding us, with our mistakings of them, and inconvenient expressing our own opinion, hath made the difference in these points to appear much greater than they are. But the great and irreconcileable differences lie in their

church tyranny and usurpations, and in their great corruptions and abasement of God's worship, together with their befriending vice and ignorance. At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved, that a Papist cannot go beyond a reprobate; but now doubt not but that God hath many sanctified ones among them, who have received the true doctrine of Christianity so practically, that their contradictory errors prevail not against them, to hinder their love of God, and their salvation: but that their errors are like a conquerable dose of poison which nature doth overcome." (Reliquiæ Baxteri

ane, London, 1696.)

(To be continued.)

FAMILY SERMONS.-No. CXCIX. Jer. iv. 14.-0 Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness; that thou mayst be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

WHEN we read passages of this kind, we should ever remember that they are not of private interpretation; for, except as respects the peculiar circumstances of the times in which they were written, or the persons to whom they were first addressed, they apply to all mankind. The declarations, the promises, and the threatenings, of the Old Testament have not lost their force; and they are unchangeable in their spirit. The warnings to repentance scattered throughout this prophecy and in this very chapter, and the multiplied assurances of the mercy of God, and his willingness to receive the returning penitent, still speak forcibly to every heart. Oh that each of us may duly consider their importance, and apply them personally to our own case, while we proceed from the text to shew,

First, That the heart of man is the seat of wickedness and vain thoughts; and

Secondly, That it must be wash

of the Revelations. In all these, and various other passages of the same kind, we see the displeasure of God both against sin generally, and against particular sins by name. Nor are gross transgressions or outward vices only mentioned: for we are told, that for every " idle word" we must give an account; that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against "all ungodliness and unrighteousness;"--that even sins of negligence and omission are included, as well as actual transgressions; for it is said, "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness;" and again, "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire."

It is necessary, then, to salvation that our hearts should be washed from our wickedness, and our vain thoughts be dislodged. The character of God demands this; for he is just and holy, and of " eyes too pure to behold iniquity," and is " angry with the wicked every day." The nature of heaven also requires it; for into its sacred regions can nothing enter that defileth. Our qualification also for that world of purity depends upon it; for so long as we continue the willing servants of wickedness and vanity, we can have no taste, no aptness for the service of God or spiritual enjoyments upon earth, or for the divine employments of the celestial world.

But what, it may be asked, is meant by this washing of the heart; this dislodgment of vain thoughts? More is intended than breaking off from openly vicious pursuits if we have been addicted to them. The purification must be as deep as the defilement; the heart, the first springs of thought and action, must be cleansed. The hypocrite would deceive mankind, and the pharisee endeavour to propitiate God, by an outward shew of religion, while the heart remains unchanged; but not such is the purification required in the word of God. To dislodge our vain thoughts, is no slight or superficial process; it is the business not CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 283.

of a day or an hour, but of our whole life. The heart hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, is not easily softened; the corrupt imaginations entrenched in the inmost recesses of the soul, are not readily expelled. There is need of many warnings, many instructions, often of many deep afflictions, to complete this ne cessary transformation. Above all, there is need of an Almighty Agent, the Holy Spirit, to influence and direct this spiritual preparation for the unseen world. But he addresses us not as passive machines, but as reasonable and responsible creatures: His exhortation is, "Wash thine heart;" his expostulation, "How long shall vain thoughts dwell within thee?" Too long have they dwelt within us; too often have they been indulged; too often have his converting and sanctifying influences been repelled. It is therefore to our own neglect and obstinacy that we must attribute it if we are still in our sins. God has mercifully provided the means for our purification, and his grace is promised to render those means effectual. The "blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;" it is "a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness;" but we must betake ourselves to it, or it will not profit us. Those who are now before the throne of God, are such only as have accepted the offered mercy; who "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Let us then follow their example; let us, deeply feeling the necessity of the pardon of our sins, and of being cleansed from their defilement, repair to Him who "gave himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it," meritoriously "by his own blood," and instrumentally "with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that it should be holy and without blemish." Let us seek to be "washed, and sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by 3 G