purity of the Gospel of Christ, and so to enable it to stand out, bold and prominent, a firm confessor and witness of the truth as it is in Jesus.

In the Scotch church there seems to the writer to have been a similar falling away from the protestant principles of the early Reformers. He confesses that when he looks at the earlier confession of faith of 1560, at Craig's Catechism of 1590, and the Geneva confessions received early in Scotland, and compares them with the present Westminster confession of 1647, he sees in the former a simplicity of Gospel truth, which is wanting in the more apparently accurate but refined and more artificial statements of the later Creed. The difference is the simple statement of faith in the divine testimony, and the elaborating by the human intellect of a complete system of doctrine. The description given by each, of the doctrines of Redemption, may shew the writer's meaning more clearly. The Statement of the confession of 1560, Article nine is simple and scriptural. 'He suffered for a season the wrath of his Father, which sinners had deserved, but yet we avow that he remained the only well-beloved and blessed Son of his Father even in the midst of his anguish and torment, which he suffered in body and soul to make the full satisfaction for THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE.' So in Craig's Catechism, 'What is faith in Christ? A sure persuasion that he is the only SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD, but ours in special who believe in him,' (John vi.) So in the Geneva confession; Of his free mercy without compulsion, he offered himself as the only sacrifice to purge THE SINS OF ALL THE WORLD, so that all other sacrifices are blasphemous and derogate from the sufficiency hereof.' Who can compare these with the limited statement of the Westminster confession of 1647, without seeing a departure from the simplicity of Scripture? They who are elected being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ.-NEITHER ARE ANY OTHER REDEEMED BY CHRIST, effectually called, justified, adopted, and saved, but the elect only.' There is here a want of that marked difference of statement respecting redemption and election, which

we find so generally runs through the Scriptures, and which the Church of England, in its catechism formed nearer the Reformation, has so briefly, and yet so fully and beautifully expressed. I learn to believe in God the Son, who redeemed me and all mankind; and in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the elect people of God.'

Another cause of the progress of Popery has been OUR DEPARTURE FROM THE BIBLE AS THE ONLY STANDARD OF DIVINE TRUTH. The testimony of the Reformers to this is very distinct. How plain our sixth article! How beautiful the language before the Scotch Confession of Faith of 1560! If any man will note in this our confession any article or sentence, repugning to God's holy word, that it would please him, of his gentleness, and for Christian charity's sake, admonish us of the same in writing, and we upon our honour and fidelity, do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God, (that is, from his Holy Scriptures,) or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amiss. For God we take to record in our consciences, that from our hearts we abhor all sorts of heresy, and all teachers of erroneous doctrine, and that with all humility we embrace the purity of Christ's gospel, which is the only food of our souls, and therefore so precious unto us that we are determined to suffer the extremest of worldly danger, rather than we will suffer ourselves to be defrauded of the same,' This zealous adherence to the word of God was the glory of the Reformation, and the great means of its purity. The departure from this has been in some degree checked, by the vastly enlarged distribution of the pure word of God, through all the societies engaged in that work. But it was a fearful mark of this departure, that the circulation of the Bible alone was so greatly objected to by leaders in Protestant Churches, without what was so improperly called by one of them the safeguard of a Prayer Book. Human names have also such credit, that even protestants have too much sunk to this state, judging of sound doctrine by what man says, rather than by what God says. Each class has its human standard, rather than the pure infallible

standard of the word of God. We have all fallen into this serious error. Neither the Fathers, nor the Reformers, nor their successors, nor the revivers of evangelical doctrine in modern days, must for a moment be our standard, instead of God's truth.

A highly respectable, learned, and devout class of men has risen up at one of our Universities, the tendency of whose writings is departure from - Protestantism, and approach to papal doctrine. They publish tracts for the times;' and while they oppose the most glaring part of popery, the infallibility of the Pope, the worship of images,-transubstantiation and the like,-yet, though the spirit of the times is marked by the opposite fault, the very principles of popery are brought forward by them, under deference to human authority, especially that of the Fathers overvaluing the Christian ministry and the sacraments, and undervaluing justification_by faith. With much learning and study of the Fathers, with great apparent and doubtless in some cases real devotion, and a devotedness ascetic and peculiar, they seem to the author, as far as he has seen and known their course, to open another door to that land of darkness and shadow of death, where the Man of Sin reigns.

The STATE OF OUR PUBLIC JOURNALS is another cause of this progress.

cates.

The principle avowed and gloried in by one of our leading public journals, especially on this point, is to let men's creeds alone; another leading journal defies any to shew, that the purely doctrinal errors of the Roman Catholic church have been treated with disrespect, by the most valuable Protestant advoBut we have not so learned the word of God. Her doctrinal errors are the very spring head of all her evil practices. If the fountain be bitter, the stream must be so; if the tree be bad, the fruit must be bad. We must not let the poison work, till it produces disease and misery. It is true that human laws can only punish manifested evil, but it is the glory of the divine law, that it goes to the very springs of evil, and the glory of the gospel of Christ, that it sets forth a full remedy for all those springs of evil,

and it is the blessedness of real Christians to know and possess this, and to tell of this far and wide. How manifestly do the sentiments expressed in our journals shew, that they savour the things that be of men, and not the things that be of God!

The clear testimony which the Reformers gave against popery, as being Babylon, is NOT NOW SUSTAINED with equal firmness and clearness. The statement that the pope was antichrist and the man of sin, was powerfully instrumental in bringing about, and establishing the Reformation. It was the main reason given for actual separation from the church of Rome, founded on the express direction of God himself. (Rev. xviii. 4.) The testimony of the reformers on this point was uniform.' It was with this sentiment they

1 Testimonies of English Reformers and others against Popery as

Antichrist.

PUBLIC TESTIMONY.--THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

THE ARTICLES of the Church are almost one series of testimonies against Papal doctrines. In THE HOMILIES, sanctioned by these Articles, the following testimonies appear respecting the Pope as antichrist, Babylon, and the Man of Sin.

In the Homily of Obedience, Part iii.' The Bishop of Rome teaches, that they that are under him are free from all burdens and charges of the commonwealth, and obedience towards their prince; most clearly against Christ's doctrine and St. Peter's. HE OUGHT THEREFORE RATHER TO BE CALLED ANTICHRIST, and the successor of the scribes and pharisees, than Christ's vicar, or St. Peter's successor; SEEING THAT, not only on this point, but also in other weighty matters of christian religion, in matters of remission and forgiveness of sins, and of salvation, HE TEACHETH SO DIRECTLY AGAINST BOTH ST. PETER, AND AGAINST OUR SAVIOUR CHRIST.'

In the Homily against Peril of Idolatry, Part iii., speaking of the worship of images, and the miracles of the Papists, the Homily

says

The scriptures have for a warning hereof shewed, that THE KINGDOM OF ANTICHRIST shall be mighty in miracles and wonders to the strong illusion of all the reprobates.' And again, Such sumptuous decking of images with gold, silver, and precious stones, be a token of ANTICHRIST's kingdom, who, as the prophet foreshows, shall worship God with such gorgeous things.'

Sermon against Wilful Rebellion, Part v.

'After this ambition, [to be head of all the church, and lord of all kingdoms,] the Bishop of Rome became at once THE SPOILER AND DESTROYER both oF THE CHURCH, which is the kingdom of our Saviour Christ, and of the Christian empire, and all Christian kingdoms, as an universal tyrant over all.'.

'In king John's time, the Bishop of Rome, understanding the brute blindness, ignorance of God's word, and superstition of Englishmen, and how much they were inclined to worship THE BABYLONIAN BEAST OF ROME, and to fear all his threatenings and causeless

went to the stake, and offered their bodies to the burning flames of martyrdom. It was the very bayo

cursings, he abused them thus, and by their rebellion brought this noble realm of England under his most cruel tyranny.'

THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND,

CONFESSION OF FAITH :

'There is no other Head of the Church than the Lord Jesus Christ. nor can the Pope of Rome be in any sense the Head thereof; but is that antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God.' XXV. s. 6.

Ch.

THE CHURCH OF IRELAND.

ARTICLES OF THE IRISH CHURCH:

80. The Bishop of Rome is so far from being the supreme Head of the Universal Church of Christ, that his works and doctrine do plainly discover him to be that Man of Sin foretold in the Holy Scriptures, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and abolish with the brightness of his coming.'

THE GOVERNMENT OF BRITAIN.

Declaration against Popery: made by the King, in the presence of the Houses of Parliament.

'I do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, testify and declare, that I do believe, that in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever. And that the invocation and adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and IDOLATROUS. And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me as they are commonly understood by English protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever, and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or any other person or authority whatsoever; or without any hope of any such dispensation from any person or authority whatsoever; or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, although the Pope, or any other person or persons, or power whatsoever, shall dispense with or annul the same, or declare that it was null and void from the beginning.'

The various clauses of this declaration are very instructive, as maInifesting the shifts and sophistries by which Papists, with all deceivableness (arαTη deceitfulness) of unrighteousness have sought to evade the simple, plain truth and corrupt the honesty of an upright mind.

PRIVATE or INDIVIDUAL TESTIMONY.

CRANMER, in his book on the Sacrament

After showing that Christ' made a sacrifice and oblation of his own body upon the cross, which was a full redemption and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world,' he adds,But the Romish Anti. christ, to deface this great benefit of Christ, has taught that his sacrifice upon the cross is not sufficient hereunto, without another sacrifice