tion; after which, the sacrament of the Lord's supper is partially administered to him; (in one kind only, the wine being withheld from the laity ;) and he then departs from God's supposed vicegerent with the hope of his sins being pardoned! Now, in the name of reason and common sense, where is Christ here? Nay, he is allowed neither part nor lot in the matter; and however this irrefragable statement of facts may be sneered at and denied by the votaries of Rome, who generally deny the truth when they have no other refuge; yet I am a living witness of what is here asserted, for I remember once having made confession to a priest, after which he said, "Remember I have given you absolution." But alas! I found no inward change, no divine operation, or spiritual influence on my mind. Oh! how unlike is this to the religion of the Gospel! which is perfect love casting out fear. 1 John iv, 18. ing by love, purifying the heart.

Faith workActs xv, 9. "He

And justifying the ungodly. Rom. v, 1.

who believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself."

1 John v, 10.

Now this doctrine of penance is as false as it is absurd, having no scriptural foundation. For although the word REPENTANCE is rendered penance in the English Version of the Douay Testament, from the Vulgate; yet it is evident that where our Lord makes mention of the word REPENTANCE in any part of the New Testament, he means directly what he says, otherwise he could not have extended mercy to the penitent thief on the cross, who then had no time nor place to do penance.

Thus, according to the Popish Version, which is, Except ye do penance ye shall all perish,―our Lord must either have contradicted himself, which could not be, or the penitent thief must have been lost; unless it can be made to appear, that he was doing penance when he was suffering and dying. To this it may be answered, his sufferings and death were the penalty of the laws of his country, and that he suffered justly according to his own words: "We receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man (meaning our Lord) hath done nothing amiss." Luke xxiii, 41. It was not on account of the thief's sufferings that Christ forgave him his sins; for on this ground he would have forgiven the other also, as they both suffered alike; but because he repented with a godly sorrow, and believed in the ability and willingness of Jesus Christ to save him. But it is common with persons who hold opinions contrary to truth, when every other argument fails them, to flee to the omnipotence of God, by asking, “Is any thing too hard for him?" But if men espouse false opinions, and consequently are unable to defend them, God is not bound to work miracles to please their misguided fancy; neither can he do any thing inconsistent with his own dignity or perfections, because, "it is impossible for God to lie.". Heb. vi, 18. Some ingenious forger may indeed say that the thief's penance was completed in purgatory. But how could that be, when he never went to such a place? as is evident from the words of Christ, who said to him on the day that he suffered," To-day shalt thou be with me

in Paradise." Luke xxiii, 43. Meaning that very day; unless paradise be purgatory,-to suppose which is impossible. If paradise were purgatory, when Adam was created he was placed in purgatory! and if it is such a place for purging and burning sins away, is it not strange that God should put him there before he had committed any sin? Such are the absurdities to which the papistical doctrine of penance leads! Penance, then, is no sacrament instituted by Christ for the remission of sins committed after baptism, but a mere fabrication of modern priestcraft. For when the Apostle said, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live;" (Rom. viii, 13;) he did not mean that we were to run into wild extremes by lying upon beds of spikes like Indian fakeers, or cutting ourselves with lancets like the priests of Baal, or by walking upon our bare knees on sand or pebbles, like some devotees of the Romish Church, who suppose that by these acts of mortification and penance they not only atone for all their past sins, but excel others so much in piety, that they bring God almost into debt to them by their extraordinary and super-abundant acts of cruelty against themselves in the performance of penance. But the Apostle meant nothing like this; for he says, it is by the Spirit we are to mortify the deeds of the body: i. e., not in our own strength, but, by the power and influence of the Spirit of God, to mortify the deeds of the carnal mind, every evil propensity and ungodly disposition being destroyed, and the mind conformed to

the will of God, by possessing that mind which was also in Christ Jesus.

Of Alms-deeds.

ANOTHER part of the Atonement here mentioned, is that of alms-giving, or what is sometimes called charity. This generous act of christian benevolence is incumbent on all men, according to their abilities; and if it were only a cup of cold water, it shall in no-wise lose its reward, if it be performed as an act of christian duty: but to expect the most laudable action to atone for sin, or expiate guilt, is an insult to the God of heaven; for however strictly we may attend to the commandments of God, we cannot exceed our duty. How easy it is for even well-disposed persons to err here, by not knowing the scriptures or the power of God, and by placing faith in a wrong object! For, however strong and powerful a man's faith may be, yet if, for want of being rightly informed, he selects an improper object, it will prove as ineffectual to his salvation as if he had no faith at all. For instance, God is the proper object of our worship and services,-faith and good works the sum of our duty: but if we make the merit of our works the object of our faith, instead of making our faith perfect by our works, (Jas. ii, 22.,) we rob God of his honour by making works our Saviour, and lose salvation by depending on the merits of christian duty, and not on the atonement of Jesus Christ. None have any thing to spare, seeing that "all have sinned and come short

of the glory of God." Rom. iii, 23. Therefore, the performance of one good work cannot atone for the neglect of another. Where then is boasting? for our Lord says,- "When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do." Luke xvii, 10.

Of the sacrifice of the Mass, its nature and origin.

BUT this vain and superficial atonement, which is substituted for the merits of Christ by the Romish Church, does not terminate in penance and almsdeeds for to them is added the mysterious novelty of the sacrifice of the Mass; which, like Melchisedec, is without father or mother, or any descent; for we cannot find a passage in all the sacred writings either to reveal its ancestry or confirm its authority! From whence then cometh this stranger of the earth, who was never known by prophets or apostles, but appears to have been reserved to distinguish the favourites of heaven in these latter days?

As the sacred pages give us no account of this strange sacrifice, except by disapproving of the improper garb in which it is wrapped up, namely, "an unknown tongue," (1 Cor. 14,) we must, in order to discover it properly, consult the volume of nature, where we find its origin described in the pages of agriculture by the husbandman. There we find the fruit of the farmer's sheaf, and the juice of the vintager's grape, made into bread and