to deep and lasting gratitude;-these are the purposes which this part of the mediatorial economy is designed to subserve. And if for ends like these vocal utterance could be shown to be better adapted than silent symbols, we can see no reason why it should not be supposed to be used. Besides, what are word, but signs? They are nothing more than symbols; symbols, it is true of a particular kind, but, after all, only symbols of thoughts and ideas. We are not to be understood, in these remarks, as maintaining the position that vocal language is employed by Christ in making intercession; we only object to some parts of the reasoning to which those who oppose this view of the subject have recourse. We express no opinion of our own. We regard the whole question as vain and trifling. Without indulging in foolish conjectures, it should be enough for us to know, that the intercession of our Divine Advocate is conducted in the best possible way, for promoting the glory of God, his own honour, and the good of his people. And one thing is certain, that such is the efficacy of the Saviour's blood, such the value of his death, such the merits of his sacrifice, that the memorials of his atonement exhibited before God in heaven, advocate our cause more powerfully than could ever be done by the language of men. No tongue of orator, or eloquence of angel, can ever plead so effectually in favour of guilty sinners, as "the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel."

[Symington on Atonement, pages 341, 349.]

Christians afraid their money will be lost.

He is unworthy the name of a servant of God, that will run no hazard for him. Venture your charity in a way of duty, or pretend not to be charitable. Will you not sow your master's corn, till you are certain of a plenteous increase? And do you think he will take this for a good account? This is the foolish excuse that Christ hath told you shall have a terrible sentence; you will hide God's talent for fear of losing it; but woe to such unprofitable servants. Baxter. Not Rich Enough.

Sometimes the flesh will tell you that you may want yourselves, or your posterity at least; and that you had best gather till your stock arise to so much, or so much, and then God shall have some. A fair bargain! Just like ungodly men, by their repentance and conversion, they will sin till they are old and then they will turn. But few turn that delay with such resolutions. If God hath not right to all, he hath right so none. If he hath right to all, will you give him none but your leavings? A swine will let another eat when his belly is full. What if you are never richer, will you therefore never do good with what you have? ib.

Paul's Charge.

'Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they are rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves, a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”—(1 Tim. vi. 17, 18. 19.)

CAN A PROTESTANT, WITH A SAFE CONSCIENCE, BE PRESENT At the POPISH MASS?

THE importance attached to this question, will be in proportion to the desire of the enquirer, to be found in the path of duty; and the sincerity of heart in the service of the Most High God. With many of the professors of the religion of Jesus Christ, the desire to appear charitable, and liberal in their sentiments, outweighs, all the commandments of God, all their obligations as Christ's followers. Towards no class of men, or denomination of Christians, does this desire to appear liberal and charitable, manifest itself as in the conduct of many Protestants, towards those who hold to the idolatrous system of popery. Treat every Roman Catholic with all kindness; for cursing return blessings; for evil return good; let them ever see that you are moved with the spirit of your master, and that you desire their welfare: but never let them see that you approve, and countenance their errors; that you can look on quietly, and unmoved attend upon those of their ceremonies, which are so dishonouring to your Lord and Saviour, and so ruinous to their souls.

This question on the Mass which we have so ably discussed below by Bishop Davenant, was translated for the London Protestant Journal from a volume printed by him in 1634. It will be found in the December number of that journal for 1832.

"It has been justly observed by Bellarmine himself (Tim. I. de laic. lib. 3. cap. 19.) _That if all other controversies were settled, yet between Papists and Protestants, peare cannot be effected, because they judge the mass to be the most divine worship of God, while we look upon it as abominable idolatry. But it is not my present intention to expose the blasphemous impiety of masses, but to shew, that we who do abhor this impiety in our minds cannot be present even with our bodies at its celebration. This discussion we institute in opposition to those who foolishly think that there is no danger or sin in the act of external communion with idolaters, provided the mind itself abhors their depraved superstitions. But indeed, he who acts thus, violates the integrity of a good conscience, and sins in many ways.

First, towards himself; whilst by an unlawful and impious pretence he wounds his own conscience, and defiles and contaminates his soul. For the mind of a well instructed Protestant is clearly convinced, that the Popish Mass, is not an expiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead, but a sacrilegious violation of the sacrifice once offered by Christ; but the very act of any one entering a popish temple, and uniting himself with those who venerate the mass, bears upon the face of it the hope of the expiation of sins from it, and the approbation of the thing itself as a legitimate and sacred action. Moreover the understanding of a Protestant pronounces, that morsel of bread which is elevated by the sacrificing priest is not Christ, the God man, the Son of the living God; nevertheless, the act of prostrating and adoring, signifies to all those present, that God himself is worshipped and acknowledged under the empty appearance of bread. This opposition between external actions and the internal persuasion of the mind, I call a most base act of simulation, falsehood no more to be tolerated, than if any one in express

words should affirm that he approves the Popish Mass. For it pertains to the essence of truth, that every one should shew himself by exterior signs to be such as he really is: and it is a direct contradiction to this truth, when any one by the signs of contrary actions, signifies the very opposite to what is in his mind; an act of simulation which may properly be called a lying by actions, as Aquinas regularly says. He therefore, who from his heart abhors the Papistical Masses, and in the meantime externally participates in them, is thereby the more to be condemned, because what he falsely demonstrates in his actions, he yet demonstrates so, that the people suppose it to be done under the influence of truth, as Augustine writes concerning Seneca the philosopher; De Civit. 6. 10.

Secondly, if any one of us shall attend the Masses of Papists, he sins against his brethren, especially the weak; for whom he lays a stumbling block, whilst by his examples he allows and entices them to a license, whereby their consciences are necessarily polluted. And how great this sin is, appears from those words of Christ,. (Matt. xvIII. 7.) Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. Nor can it be denied, that an offence is occasioned by such an act, at least to the weak; since an offence is nothing else, than an incorrect word or deed, affording to another an occasion of falling. But this deed affords occasion to the weak, to imagine that the Mass is not an impious and idolatrous act; and so he paves the way for him to revolt to the Papists. They, therefore, who assume this license to themselves, to join themselves to the papists in the external celebration of the Mass, although the mind may reject their idolatry, yet violate that apostolical injunction, (1 Thess. v. 22.) Abstain from all appearance of evil. Nor will it avail in excuse to say, that they do not intend by this act to approve the things which are wont to be done in the Mass; much less to induce their weak brethren to think that the sacrifice of the Mass is lawful and pleasing to God; because the offence is estimated, not from the secret intention of the doer, but from the manifest nature of the act. But such is the meaning and nature of the act, that it impels the weak into the aforesaid error, and draws them into sin: therefore, whatever might be the intention of the doer, the act itself will have in it the nature of an offence. Therefore since every one is bound to refrain from any act to which he is not necessitated, and from which an occasion of offence to the weak may be justly apprehended; how much more from this act of attending Mass, to which he is in no way bound, and by which the minds both of the weak and strong are justly offended.

Thirdly, those lukewarm Protestants, who frequent Masses, sin against the Papists themselves, whom by this pretence they render more obstinate in their errors and idolatries. Indeed, when they perceive that we attend their Masses they forthwith think within themselves, that not only these, but all the other corruptions of Popery are approved; especially since the Mass is accounted a symbol or mark whereby Romanists are distingiushed from Protestants. Let them therefore, answer, how they can, with a safe conscience, confirm those those in their superstitious acts of worship, whom they are bound, by every means, to reclaim from such works of darkness. For it is a peremptory command of the apostle,

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (Ephes. v. 11.) Now consider how admirably they fulfil this command. The apostle forbids fellowship with unlawful works: these men on the contrary attend and make common cause with idolaters in those very deeds of darkness. The Apostle commands us to reprove such works: but these men not only seem to consent to them by being silent, but by conforming themselves to those superstitious rites, really approve and commend (if not in words, yet by their acts) the idolatrous practice itself. By this outward conduct they harden the Papists in their pernicious error. They therefore sin against that charity which is due even to enemies -an offence impossible to be committed with a safe conscience. Lastly, they sin directly against God himself: for the religion which binds us to God, obliges us likewise to the profession of that religion, and forbids a dissembling of the true, and much more an assumption of the external garb of a false one. And hence it is, that God himself acknowledges those alone for his genuine servants, who do not communicate with idolaters in the external acts of worship: I have left to myself seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed down unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. (1 Kings xix. 18.) If they had bowed their knees with the worshippers of Baal before the idol, although they despised that idol in their hearts, God without doubt would not have reckoned them as his. For every one is under a perpetual obligation to that profession of his religion, which consists in the uniting himself externally with the pious, and orthodox, and the separating himself from the idolatrous and heretical. (1. Cor. x. 21.) For since God is the creator both of body and soul; since Christ is the Redeemer of both alike;it is just that we worship God as well with the reverence of the body as of the mind; that we cleave to Christ as well with the fellowship of the body as of the mind. (I Cor. vi. 20.) Therefore in vain do they allege, that they abide in duty to God and to Christ, who join themselves to the service of the devil and of antichrist in an idolatrous worship. Elegantly and piously said Tertullian, It is wicked for any one to lie about his religion: for by his pretending that he worships any other being than the one he does worship, he denies what he worships; and furthermore does not worship what he has denied,—(Apolog. cap. 21.)

All these things might be illustrated by examples of the saints, drawn as well from the sacred Scriptures as from ecclesiastical history; but brevity forbids. Since, therefore, Protestants, who attend the idolatrous sacrifice of the Mass, pollute their own souls by hypocrisy, wound the weak brethren by causing them to stumble; injure Papists by confirming them in their impiety, and finally dis honour God himself, by halting between his true worship and idolatry: We conclude that Protestants cannot, with a safe conscience be present at Mass."

The Indian eating a Popish God.

"How many gods are there" said a Popish missionary to an Indian whom he had taught that the consecrated wafer was God, and that there was but one God. "None" said the Indian convert. "What! have I been so long labouring with you, and you do not now know how many gods there are." "There was one, but the other day you gave

him to me and I eat him."

DESTROYING OF CHRIST IN THE MASS;

As taught in the standard works, and practised by the Priests of the Church of Rome.

"The Mass in the Roman church, consists in the consecration of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and the offering up of the same body and blood to God, by the ministry of the priest, for a perpetual memorial of Christ's sacrifice upon the cross, and a continuation of the same to the end of the world." (Page 74 of Challoner's Christian Instructed. Phila. edition, 1824.) The same body of Christ, born of the Virgin and now in heaven— present in the Eucharist, &c.

"The Catholic Church, then, firmly believes; and openly professes that in this sacrament [the Eucharist] the words of consecration accomplish three things; first, that the true and real body of Christ, the same that was born of the Virgin, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, is rendered present in the Holy Eucharist; secondly, that however repugnant it may appear to the dictate of the senses; no substance of the elements remain in the Sacrament; and thirdly, a natural consequence from the two preceding, and one which the words of consecration also express, that the accidents which present themselves to the eyes, or other senses, exist in a wonderful and ineffable manner without a subject. The accidents of bread and wine we see; but they inhere in no substance, and exist independently of any. The substance of the bread and wine is so changed into the body and blood of our Lord, that they, altogether, cease to be the substance of bread and wine."

[Catechism of the Council of Trent. Balt. Ed; 1833, page 207.] Christ whole and entire, divinity and humanity in the Sacrament. "In this Sacrament are contained not only the true body of Christ, and all the constituents of a true body; but also Christ whole and entire-that the word Christ designates the man-God, that is to say, one person in whom are united the divine and human naturesthat the Holy Eucharist, therefore, contains both and whatever is included in the idea of both, the divinity and humanity whole and entire, the soul, the body and blood of Christ with all their component parts-all of which faith teaches us are contained in the Sacrament. In heaven the whole humanity is united to the divinity in one hypostasis, or person, and it were impious, therefore, to suppose that the body of Christ, which is contained in the sacrament, is separated from his divinity." [ib. page 211.

The Eucharist instituted for two purposes. "The Eucharist was instituted by our Lord for two great purposes, to be the celestial food of the soul; preserving and supporting spiritual life, and to give to the church a perpetual sacrifice, by which sin may be expiated, and our heavenly Father, whom our crimes have often grievously offended, may be turned from wrath to mercy, from the severity of just vengeance to the exercise of benignant clemency." [ib. page 230.