the chain up or coerce Satan so that he shall not be able to tempt men to sin as at present. In consequence there will be a revival or reappearance of that innocence of life and conversation, and of that obedience to the commandments which was practised by Adam before his fall. This is aptly enough called the first resurrection. During this happy period, God's holy mountain pure undefiled Church will fill the whole Roman earth; there will be no more popery nor dissent of any denomination. Yet men will eat, drink, and be merry, will marry and give in marriage, will die and 'be gathered to their fathers as heretofore; only with this material difference, that all things will be done in and to the Lord. At the end of the thousand years of blessedness "Satan must be loosed a little season" out of his prison, “and shall go out to deceive the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth. . . . . . and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever" unto all eternity, or in Greek tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn. The beast here meant is the apostate Roman empire in its idolatrous condition; and the false prophet is the line of the Roman pontiffs at the head of their clergy teaching false doctrines, heresy, and schism. As in God's house, eternal in the heavens, there are many mansions to receive the faithful into everlasting rest; so in Gehenna there are degrees of punishment but whether heavier or lighter, they will nevertheless assuredly be eternal, that is, never ending. IV. ST. PETER thought that Christ "detracted from the glory and power of God," and he therefore took and rebuked our Lord for forewarning them of His sufferings; but Christ turning round said to Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan,” for thou art doing his work by attempting to hinder the redemption of man, and "art an offence unto me." But the eternal Majesty assumed the nature of His own offending creature, and by its union with His divine nature rendered it free from all stain or sin. As man therefore He suffered, and died in the stead of sinful man, including Adam and all his posterity; and thus in personal union with humanity God made His death a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, satisfaction and atonement for the sins of the whole world. So, as death fell 9 Rev. xx. 6-10. But universally on mankind for sin; so, by man came equally universally salvation on all; but those only who will accept it, and fulfil the conditions of it, will enter into that "rest," which is promised to the people of God. Let us therefore labour to enter into that Rest; and that we fall not from it through disobedience. God desires the eternal death of no man; but has instituted a ministry of reconciliation with the view of persuading men to accept His offer of eternal life. some men will not keep his commandments, and therefore cannot receive the reward which His obedient sons will receive. Nevertheless they may rest assured that a thousand years will only be as one day in the duration of the undying worm's appliance. Redemption by Christ is universal; but final salvation is conditional. "If ye will enter into life [eternal] keep the commandments;" but if ye will enter into eternal punishment, disobey the commandments and die unrepentant. V. IT IS ONLY the dream of a thoughtless enthusiast, a piece of silly sentimentalism unworthy of the good soldier of the cross, to think that the wicked will be saved in the teeth of God's repeated and terrible denunciations to the contrary. None will be finally saved but those who have sincerely endeavoured to keep the commandments. God will accept the sincere endeavour, instead of the perfect unsinning obedience which few can reach, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him, depending on His grace and assistance to help us in our efforts to be perfect even as He is perfect. There is no doubt that the Righteous Judge will command those who persevere in this course, to inherit the kingdom which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and which without doubt is eternal. IN THIS APPARENTLY charitable opinion of Universalism, there is more meant than meets the ear. It is one of the never ceasing devices of popery to gain proselytes to their superstition. Their millennium of fiery punishment is meant as a prelude to introduce the believers in it to the popish doctrine of purgatory; as Father Matthew's tee-totalism was to accustom men to the sacrilege of denying the cup in the Eucharist. We therefore earnestly and affectionately entreat our fair correspondent and those amiable enthusiasts who have been deceived by this device of the "MOTHER OF HARLOTS," to beware, lest they fall into the pit laid for them by those agents of Satan the Jesuits and popish priests; for like their master the devil they walk about seeking whom they may devour, and make twofold more the children of hell than themselves, by the substitution of the blessed Virgin and other mediators for the ONE MEDIATOR, between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus.-ED.] TABLE OF THE APOSTOLIC TAXES. JOSEPHUS informs us that the Pharisees sold dispensations from their vow of Corban; so that they might neither assist their indigent parents nor dedicate their property to sacred uses. It is remarkable that the Church of Rome has adopted this Jewish custom along with the many pagan usages which she has introduced into her system. THE DECREED impositions of the Chancery Court of Rome, that great custom-house for sin, were first published to the world by Anthony Egane, a Franciscan Friar who had been for some years the pope's apostolical penitentiary or ConfessorGeneral in Ireland; and he revealed this mystery of iniquity after his conversion to the Church of England. The original pamphlet went through five editions, betwixt 1673 and 1715; but having grown scarce it was republished by Francis Maseres, Esq., Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, in his last volume of "Occasional Essays," in 1809, "Thinking," as he says, “it can never be unseasonable to expose a religion so destructive to the peace and happiness of societies, so derogatory to the glory of God, so contrary to the main end and design of Christianity, and that persecutes with such an unrelenting barbarity (where it can) those that have the courage to oppose its innovations.” EGANE SAYS THIS table of impositions was carefully concealed amongst the secret things of the court of Rome. "Of the ordinary priests, hundreds knew nothing of the matter," it being entrusted only to the apostolical penitentiaries who are vested by the pope with the power of absolving sins in the reserved cases, under an oath of secrecy not only to conceal the mysteries of the Church of Rome from the laity, but even from the ordinary priests and friars, and especially from any that are suspected of such acute parts, or so much learning and honesty as might make them scruple their authority. The ordinary priest can only inform persons who confess themselves guilty of the reserved sins, where the pope's banker resides (of whom there are one or two appointed in every county and diocese in Ireland), who can only absolve them and grant them a bull of indulgence from the pope, on paying the fees. EGANE'S ACCOUNT is fully confirmed by father O'Leary in his "Caution to the Common People against Perjury so frequent at Assizes and Elections," published after a general election in 1783. "In this diocese of Cork," says he, "and several others, their crime is considered as a reserved case from which no man but the bishop can absolve, let them be ever so penitent. This restraint shews the enormity of the guilt; whereas the inferior clergy can reconcile ordinary sinners upon sincere repentance and a firm resolution of amendment. But the perjurer [if the perjury has been against the interests of the Roman Church only] having exceeded the ordinary bounds, let his repentance be ever so sincere must have recourse to an extraordinary power." THE RESERVED CASES from which none but the pope or his penitentiary can absolve, are 1. The vow of absolute and perpetual chastity [which St. Paul calls a doctrine of devils]; 2. Of the religious orders; 3. Of pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome and Compostella; and 4. Oaths in general. In this great customhouse for sin, marriage, which God ordained, is considered a breach of chastity; but adultery and fornication, which God has forbidden is not a breach of chastity, but a venial sin, not worth mentioning! The following is a selection from the papal tables of dispensations for sins on payment of fees, omitting such as are too horrid to be named before Christian ears. If a man has vowed, but not solemnly, to take the £ s. d 15 4 0 If a man has taken a vow of chastity solemnly, he may have a dispensation for not keeping his vow on paying the prelate. 15 4 0 For changing one vow into another for a perpetuity, in the case of a chapter, convent, or great college. For the breach of an oath or contract respecting civil employments or concerns For a bull containing both the inhibitory clauses, and absolution from infamy For the breach of an oath that cannot be kept without incurring everlasting damnation; as a dishonest vow or a wicked promise DISPENSATIONS FOR CRIMES. For a marriage contracted in the first degree of affinity and in conscience only £. sd. 100 0 0 7 23 56 9 6 620 .1000 2 6 For a marriage in the second degree, beside a gratifi- For pardon and rehabilitation of a heretic [protestant] For simony, or fornication of priests, friars, or nuns 6 36 9 0 36 9 0 each For adultery and incest together. 36 9 4 4 0 6 For the adulterer and the adulteress jointly For absolution for a priest to keep a concubine For wounding a priest in any of his members.. 18 For wounding a layman 0 460262646 4 9 For murder committed by a bishop, abbot, chief of an order or knight, each For murder by a friar or head of a monastery For the murder of a priest by a layman And for commutation of public penance to private, for the same 50 12 6 40 9 For the murder of a layman by a layman 3 4 For the murder of a father, mother, brother, sister or wife, each 4 1 For marrying another wife after murdering the former 8 2 89 THESE ARE ONLY a few of the items of the pope's chancery for the encouragement of sin, and for the increase of the wealth |