an Independent, or a Wesleyan?" If the bishop had asked him, he could have given him an instant reply. He would have said, "Take the very worst of the batch, and you will have made a most delightful and happy exchange." He was perfectly satisfied that if the Apostle Paul were to rise from the dead, and appear in that assembly, and the Methodists, and Baptists, and Independents were all to show themselves there with their ministers, and if the Jesuits, Dominicans, the Grey Friars, the Black Friars, and the other Romanist sects were to array themselves on the other side, and the question were put to that apostle, which looked most like the successors of the apostles, he would not hesitate to say, "I know this Independent and that Baptist; but pray who are you gentlemen on that side, and whence have you come?" But, said the bishop, "I am not satisfied to leave it in this way-suppose I leave the Church of Rome and go into the Church of England, am I to be an evangelical, or secondly, a High Churchman, or thirdly, a Tractarian?" Now, there was no Church on earth without divisions. There were divisions in the Church of England-there were divisions in the Church of Scotland-there were divisions amongst the Independents-there were divisions amongst the Baptists, and divisions amongst the Wesleyans. But by taking the Church of England alone as our ground, they did not get rid of these divisions. His advice was, therefore, to stand by that rule of faith which the Bible gave them, and which alone was worth living and dying for. The Rev. Gentleman then pointed out the exertions that had been made by the Roman Catholics, in other ways, for the purpose of augmenting their numbers and extending their influence; and after further remarking upon the objects and usefulness of the Society, narrated various instances in which he had had himself to contend with great opposition in advocating the claims of the Society.

No resolutions were passed, but the meeting separated evidently impressed with the importance of increased exertion in the cause of true religion and civil liberty.

DR. WAREING AND HIS DISPENSATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNIG HERALD.

SIR,-I am rather surprised that the public press should so generally be startled at the disclosures in the matter of Wareing, Paley, and Co. Dr. Wareing has acted throughout as a consistent Roman Catholic. He has done nothing for which he has not a precedent, and if he had gone much further in his proffered dispensations to the neophyte, placed by his tutor within the reach of his fascinations, he would still have acted within the limits of those theological opinions which are stereotyped in his Church.

In the year 1839, Alphonsus Maria Lignori was canonized. Previous to that act it was stated that the CONGREGATION of SACRED RITES had examined his moral theology, and that there was nothing in it worthy of censure. In the circular of the Bishop of Asti, domestic prelate of Gregory XVI., published in the Roman Catholic Calendar for 1845, the bishop states "that the Sacred Congregation of Rites had declared that all the writings of St. Alphonsus, printed or inedited, had been most rigorously examined, according to the discipline of the Apostolic See, and that not one word had been found censura dignum,' and made known that the moral system of St. Alphonsus had been more than twenty times rigidly discussed, and on all these examinations they were unanimous.”

On the second day of August last, and of every preceding August since 1840, Dr. Wareing, in common with all the priests and prelates of his communion, thus prayed :-"O God, who by the blessed Alphonsus, thy confessor and pontiff, hast enriched thy Church with a new offspring, we implore that, taught by his admonitions, and strengthened by his examples (or precedents), we may be able to come to thee."

I translate this literally from a Roman Missal in possession, printed at Mechlin.

my

Now since in the judgment of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, and (the unity and unanimity which the Roman Church boasts of enable us to add) in the judgment of Dr. Wareing, also, the moral theology, of Lignori is faultless, and since Dr. Wareing prays, once a year at least, that he may learn its lessons, I cannot do wrong in quoting from writings so applauded or misrepresent Dr. Wareing in supposing that he acquiesces in them. In Lignori's Book II., Treatise 1, these words occur : "Cum non rogaris de fide, non solum licet, sed sæpe melius est ad Dei honorem, et utilitatem proximi, tegere fidem quam fateri : ut si latens inter hæreticos plus boni facias; vel si ex confessione plus mali sequeretur, verbi gratia, turbatio, neces, exacerbatio tyranni, periculum defectionis, si torquereris; unde temerarium plerumque est offerre se ultro."

Which, literally translated, are:

"When you are not asked concerning the faith, not only is it lawful, but often more conducive to the glory of God and the utility of your neighbour to cover the faith than to confess it; for example, if concealed among heretics you may accomplish a greater amount of good, or, if from the confession of the faith more of evil would follow-for example, great trouble, death, the hostility of a tyrant, the peril of defection, if you should be tortured: whence it is often rash to offer one's self willingly."

Again, and in the same book and same treasure, the Saint thus writes:-"Interim vero, etsi licitum non est mentiri, seu simulare quod non est, licet tamen dissimulare quod est, sive tegere veritatem verbis, aliisve signis ambiguis et indifferentibus, ob justam causam, et cum non est necessitas fatendi." That is, "Notwithstanding, indeed, although it is not lawful to lie, or to feign what is not, however it is lawful to dissemble what is, or to cover the truth with words, or other ambiguous and doubtful signs, for a just cause, and where there is not a necessity of confessing."

On the subject of oaths he thus writes, No. 151– "His positis, certum est et commune apud omnes, quod ex justa causa licitum sit uti æquivocatione modis ex

positis, et eam juramento firmare."

"THESE THINGS

BEING ESTABLISHED, IT IS A CERTAIN AND A COMMON OPINION AMONGST ALL DIVINES, THAT FOR A JUST CAUSE IT IS LAWFUL TO USE EQUIVOCATION IN THE PROPOUNDED MODES, AND TO CONFIRM IT

(EQUIVOCATION) WITH AN OATH.”

Your readers will now see that the conduct of Dr. Wareing has been in all respects worthy of a dutiful son of the Roman Church. His practice is in perfect harmony with Romish principle and precedent, and corresponds in all respects with his prayers.

It is of no use to assail the bishop. It is his Church you have to deal with. I only wish Protestants would act up to their principles as fully as Romanists act up to theirs.*

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Nov. 11, 1846.

JOHN CUMMING.

IS CHRISTIANITY FROM GOD?

Continued from page 273.

I call your attention to another and familiar proof of evident design, the home-born bee. The moment that this insect comes into existence, in the month of April or May or June (it may be), it begins to lay up a store, providing for the winter. Now how does it know that winter is to come? Who taught the bee, that it was to provide its treasures for a season when those treasures could not be found? It is an instinct evidently imparted by God with this design.

It was necessary that the bee should treasure up the greatest quantity of honey in the least possible space. Now mark how this is arranged. There are three bodies (and only three,) that can be placed close together without leaving any interstices; these are the perfect square, the equilateral triangle, and the hexahedron or six-sided figure. No other forms can be placed together

*See a most satisfactory exposure of the moral theology of Lignori, by the Rev. R. Blakeney.

without some interstices being left. And the third, the hexahedron, is at once the strongest and the most capacious. Now how remarkable it is, that the bee has chosen the hexahedron, and that every comb in a hive of bees is that which contains the greatest amount of honey in the least possible space and leaves no interstices! Kepler, I think, (the mathematician) calculated the angle that must be at the bottom of the cell, in order to ascertain what would be the best to form the base of a hexahedron comb the most capacious and most fitted for juxta-position with others; and the very demonstration which mathematical calculation proved, is exactly realized in every comb we find in a bee hive. We have therefore in the bee and in the hive, and in all the exquisite adjustments by which they are characterised, the traces of palpable design-the evidences of an existing and a wise God.

So then, if we look upward to the sky, and behold the sun and moon and stars all gloriously arranged and harmoniously moving together, we are constrained to exclaim with the psalmist "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmanent showeth His handywork." If we look around us on the earth-on its hills, its vales, its feathered, its breathing, and its animated tenantry-we are constrained to acknowledge that a wise, an infinitely wise God must have planned and originated all. If we look into the ocean, which would instantly become stagnant were it not for its incessant tides-if we look to the atmosphere, which would be the fountain of pollution and the vehicle of miasma, were it not for the air-currents awakened by the sun-we are constrained to confess, that ocean's caves contain the traces of a God, that the broad bosom of the ground on which we tread bears the imprimatur of the footsteps of a God, and that the blazing sun and glorious stars, all in dumb but expressive eloquence, tell to us-There is a God; and that God how wise, how great, how good!