ism itself as the inevitable growth of Popery; but we would hesitate before setting down this merely as “unfortunately" qualifying a character otherwise unexceptionable. the confessor choose, he may, according to the doctrine of probability, absolve his penitents from the most atrocious crimes, provided he can find some grave doctor who has found an The moral maxims of the Jesuits may be excuse for them, though the conscience of the ranged under three heads-their doctrine of penitent may condemn him for the deed; and probable opinions, of mental reservations, and there is hardly an offence against the laws of of the end sanctifying the means. The doc- morality for which some of these doctors have trine of probability is one of the most extra- not discovered some palliation-some quirk by ordinary, and at the same time the most con- which it is transferred from the category of venient, ever invented to justify crime and sins to a place among actions that are probably | subvert all religion. It is briefly this: That innocent. All sins of ignorance, as they have any opinion whatever which has been supported been called-that is, actions committed when by any learned casuist, or by any argument of the person is not in a state for rightly estimatweight, is to be considered as probable, and, ing the evil of them-when in a state of intherefore, safe to be followed in practice. It toxication, for example-are by these divines matters not though it should be condemned exculpated. "He does not sin," says one of by every other authority, or repugnant to the them, "unless he reflects upon the wickedness plain dictates of Scripture and morality. "If of it;" so that if a man is ignorant of what he supported by one grave divine, the person who ought to know, if he can contrive not to think contemplates the act is permitted to do it with- of the ten commandments, he may break them out incurring guilt, on the ground that it is all without being guilty of sin! Nay, if he probably right;" nay, even "if he prefers, commits the sin in such a way as to escape deagainst his own scruples, that which he con- tection and avoid scandal, he is to be held as siders probable, he is safe, although he may exculpated. We shall only give one specimen think that another opinion is more probable." of this, and it will suffice. The Pope had We quote the words of Jesuit casuists. "A threatened excommunication on all monks who judge on the bench, if he should think each laid aside their canonical dress. Escobar, one opinion probable, may, for the sake of his of the most famous of their Jesuit moralists, friend, lawfully pronounce sentence according thus escapes from the dilemma: "A monk to the opinion which is more favourable to his who puts off his religious habit for the space friend. He may, moreover, with the intent to an hour, does not incur the penalty of excomserve his friend, at one time judge according to munication, when this is done for a sinful par one opinion, and at another according to the | nose." The reason of this is, that he might do contrary opinion, provided only that no scandal more scandal to religion in such a case by result from the decision." "I think it probable," keeping it on! says another casuist of this school, "that the cloak which I possess is my own; yet I think it more probable that it belongs to you. I am not bound to give it up to you, but I may safely retain it." "If a subject," says another, "thinks probably that a tax has been unjustly imposed, he is not bound to pay it." We may well understand how, according to this system, one of their leading casuists is led to exclaim with rapture: "In this diversity of opinions the yoke of Christ is pleasantly borne!" C The frightful extent of mischief to which this doctrine leads it is hardly possible to overestimate. If even among Protestants, who are taught to look to the written Word of God for his commands, it would be dangerous doctrine to teach that every man is at liberty to act according to what his conscience, well or ill-informed, might direct; what must be its necessary result in the case of the Jesuit or the Roman Catholic, who is taught to regard the voice of the Church or the command of his superior paramount to all other authority? If the superior be a bad man, he has only to command the Jesuit to commit a crime-it may be to steal, to perjure himself, to utter falsehoods and calumnies, or to murder; and he is taught to consider that command as the command of God, and binding upon his conscience! If of in Under the head of mental reservation, it is only necessary to state, that all kinds of lying and perjury are permitted. Thus Cajetan affirms that a person, when accused, may an swer that he had no accomplices, although he actually had-meaning, in other crimes; and that he was innocent of the crime laid to himmeaning, since he had been in prison! But the leading maxim of this school, under which they attempt to shelter the worst crimes--such as theft, dishonesty in trade, murder, treason, and regicide-is, that the end sanctifies the means; other words, that the deed is rendered inno- || cent, and even laudable, provided the person has a good intention or a holy end to serve by committing it. We feel that, in stating some out of the many detestable maxims that have emanated from the Jesuitical school on this head, the reader will find it difficult to believe that human ingenuity could have invented such apologies for vice, or that men professing religion should have dared to publish them. The following, however, are extracted rerbatim out of books that have been published and ap proved by the Society: "If you are preparing to give false evidence against me, by which I should receive sentence of death, and I have no other means of escape, it is lawful for me to kill you, since I should otherwise be killed my THE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. self." "It will be lawful for an ecclesiastic to kill a calumniator, who threatens to spread atrocious accusations against himself or his religion, when other means of defence are wanting." "The calumniator should first be warned that he desist from his slander; and if he will not, he should be killed, not openly, on account of the scandal, but secretly." "If a judge has been unjust, and has proceeded without adhering to the course of law, then certainly the accused might defend himself by assaulting, and even killing, the judge." "It is lawful for a son to rejoice at the murder of his parent, committed by himself in a state of drunkenness, provided the joy felt is on account of the great riches thence "I shall never conacquired by inheritance!" sider that man to have done wrong," says Mariana, “who, favouring the public wishes, would attempt to kill a tyrant. To put tyrannical princes to death is not only lawful, but a laudable, heroic, and glorious action.”* Such are some of the principles for having "unfortunately" fallen into which, the Jesuits have found apologists even among Protestants, though they have been condemned for them by many Roman Catholics. (From (To be continued.) THE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation.") THE following is a true statement of the influence of the religion of Jesus upon several individual members It of a village church in one of the United States. is composed of members of common intelligence, and those in the common walks of life. Other churches might have been selected, in which, perhaps, a greater number of interesting cases might have been found; and there are other individuals in this church that would furnish as good an illustration of the power of the Gospel, as some of those which are noticed below. This church has been selected, because the writer had a better opportunity of visiting it, in order to obtain the facts, than any other in which he knew the power of the religion of Christ was experienced. With the individuals spoken of I am well acquainted, having frequently conversed with them all Their words on the subjects of which I shall speak. in all cases may not have been remembered, but the sense is truly given : His CASE I.-An old man, who has been a professor of religion from early life. He was once a deacon or elder of the church. Twenty years ago he was struck with paralysis, by which he has been ever since confined almost entirely to his room. situation is one that, to a mind which had no inward His consolation, would be irksome in the extreme. books are the Bible, and one or two volumes of the old divines. He is patient and happy: and speaking of the love of Christ almost invariably suffuses his 495 eyes with tears. He delights to dwell on religious subjects; and to talk with a pious friend of the topics which his heart loves gives him evident delight. Recently his aged companion, who had trodden the path of life with him from youth to old age, died in She died, what is called by Christians presence. his In the CASE II.--A converted Atheist. I knew that there were those in the world who professed to doubt the existence of a God; but I had met with no one, in all my intercourse with mankind, who seemed so sincerely and so entirely an Atheist as the individual whose case is now introduced. The first time that I met him was at the house of his son-in-law, a gentleman of piety and intelligence. His appearance was that of a decrepit, disconsolate old man. course of conversation he unhesitatingly expressed his unbelief of the existence of a God, and his suspicion of the motives of most of those who professed religion. I learned from others that he had ceased in some measure to have intercourse with men-had become misanthropic in his feelings, regarding man. kind in the light of a family of sharks, preying upon each other; and his own duty in such a state of things, he supposed to be, to make all honest endeayours to wrest from the grasp of others as much as he could. He used profane language, opposed the temperance reformation, and looked with the deepest His social hatred upon the ministers of religion. affections seemed to be withered, and his body, sympathizing, was distorted and diseased by rheumatic pains. From 1. This old man had for years been the subject of special prayer on the part of his pious daughter and his son-in-law; and he was finally persuaded by them to attend a season of religious worship in the church of which they were members. During these services, which lasted several days, he passed from his Atheism. The change seemed to surprise every one, and himself as much as any other. being an Atheist, he became the most simple and implicit believer. He seemed like a being who had waked up in another world, the sensations of which were all new to him; and although a man of sound sense in business affairs, when he began to express his religious ideas, his language seemed strange and incongruous, from the fact that, while his soul was now filled with new thoughts and feelings, he had no knowledge of the language by which such thoughts are usually expressed. The effects produced by his conversion were as follows-stated at one time to myself, and upon another occasion to one of the most eminent medical practitioners in this country. One of the first things which he did after his conversion was to love, in a practical manner, his worst enemy. There was one man in the village who had, as he supposed, dealt treacherously with him in some money transactions which had occurred between them. On this account personal enmity had long existed between the two individuals. When converted, he sought his old enemy, asked his forgiveness, and endeavoured to benefit him by bringing him under the influence of the Gospel. alone," said the old man; "God is with me." He said that his work seemed easy to him, and his peace of mind continued with scarcely an interruption. I saw him at a time when he had just received intelligence that a son, who had gone to the south, had been shot in a personal altercation, in one of the were moved, but he seemed even under this sudden and distressing affliction to derive strong consolation from trust in God. 2. His benevolent feelings were awakened and expanded. His first benevolent offering was twenty-southern cities. The old man's parental feelings five cents, in a collection for charitable uses. He now gives very liberaliy, in proportion to his means, to all objects which he thinks will advance the interests of the Gospel of Christ. Besides supporting his own Church, and her benevolent institutions, no enterprise of any denomination, which he really believes will do good, fails to receive something from hirn, if he has the means. During the last year he has given more, with a design of benefiting his fellow-men, than he had done in his whole lifetime before. 3. His affections have received new life. He said to me, in conversation upon the subject: "One part of the Scriptures I feel to be true-that which says: 'I will take away the hard and stony heart, and give you a heart of flesh.' Once I seemed to have no feeling; now, thank God, I can feel. I have buried two wives and six children; but I never shed a tear -I felt hard and unhappy; now my tears flow at the recollection of these things." The tears at that time wet the old man's cheeks. It is not probable that, since his conversion, there has been a single week that he has not shed tears; before conversion, he had not wept since the age of manhood. An exhibition of the love of Christ will, at any time, move his feelings with gratitude and love, until the tears moisten his eyes. 4. Effect upon his life. Since his conversion, he has not ceased to do good as he has had opportunity. Several individuals have been led to repent and believe in Christ through his instrumentality. Some of these were individuals whose former habits rendered a change of character very improbable in the eyes of most individuals-one of them, who had fallen into the habit of intemperance, is now a respectable and happy father of a respectable Christian family. He has been known to go to several families on the same day, pray with them, and invite them to attend religious worship on the Sabbath; and when some difficulty was stated as a hindrance to their attendance, he has assisted them to buy shoes, and granted other little aids of the kind, in order that they might be induced to attend divine service. A most remarkable fact concerning this old man has also come to the knowledge of the author. When converted, one of his first acts, although he had heard nothing of any such act in others, was to make out a list of his old associates then living within reach of his influence. For the conversion of these he determined to labour as he had opportunity, and pray daily. On his list were one hundred and sixteen names, among whom were sceptics, drunkards, and other individuals, as little likely to be reached by Christian influence as any other men in the region. Within two years from the period of the old man's conversion one hundred of these individuals had made a profession of religion. We can hardly suppose that the old man was instrumental in the conversion of all these persons; yet the fact is one of the most remarkable that has been developed in the progress of Christianity. 5. Effect upon his happiness. In a social meeting of the Church where he worships, I heard him make such an expression as this: "I have rejoiced but once since I trusted in Christ-that has been all the time." His state of mind may be best described in his own characteristic language. One day, while repairing his fence, an individual passing addressed hiin: "Mr -, you are at work all alone." "Not 6. Physical effects of the moral change. As soon as his moral nature had undergone a change, his body, by sympathy, felt the benign influence. His countenance assumed a milder and more intelligent aspect; he became more tidy in his apparel; and his "thousand pains" in a good measure left him. In his case there seemed to be a renovation both of soul and body. This case is not exaggerated. The old man is living, and there are a thousand living witnesses to this testimony, among whom is an intelligent physician, who, hearing the old man's history of his feelings, and having known him personally for years, and the obvious effects which faith in Christ had produced in this case, combined with other influences by which he was surrounded, was led seriously to examine the subject of religion, as it concerned his own spiritual interest. By this examination he was led to relinquish the system of "rational religion" (as the Socinian system is most inappropriately called by its adherents), and profess his faith in orthodox religion. CASE III. Two individuals who have always been poor in this world's goods, but who are rich in faith. Many years ago they lived in a new settlement where there were no religious services. The neighbourhood, at the suggestion of one of its members, met together on the Sabbath to sing the Lord's praises, and to hear a sermon read. Those sermons were the means of the conversion of the mother of the family. She lived an exemplary life, but her husband still continued impenitent, and became somewhat addicted to intemperance. Some of the children of the family, as they reached mature years, were converted; the husband, and, finally, after a few years, all the remaining children embraced religion. From the day of the husband's conversion, he drank no more liquor; and, he says, he always afterwards thought of the habit with abhorrence. The old people live alone. I The old woman's sense of hearing has so failed that she hears but imperfectly. When the weather will allow, she attends church regularly, but sometimes hears but little of the sermon. In church, on the Sabbath, she looks up at the minister with a countenance glowing with an interested and happy expression. She has joy to know that the minister is preaching about Christ. The minister once described religion possessed, as a spring of living water, flowing from the rock by the way-side, which yields to the weary traveller refreshment and delight; the old lady, at the close, remarked with meekness: “I hope I have drank many times of those sweet waters." Except what concerns their particular domestic duties, the conversation of this aged pair is almost entirely religious. They are devout, and very happy in each others society; and sometimes, in their family devotions and religious conversations, their hearts glow with love to God. They look forward to death with the consoling hope that they will awake in the likeness of the glorious Saviour, and so "be for ever with the Lord." CASE IV. A female who, in early life, united with the Church, and conscientiously performed the external duties of Christian life. She had, for many years, little if any happiness in the performance of her religious duties, yet would have been more un ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCES. happy if she had not performed them. She married a gentleman who, during the last years of his life, was peculiarly devoted. During this period, in attending upon the means of grace, she experienced an entire change in her condition. She felt, as she says, that "now she gave up all for Christ. She felt averse to everything which she believed to be contrary to his will. To the will of Jesus she could now. submit for ever, with joyful and entire confidence: she now loved to pray, and found happiness in obeying the Saviour." She made, as she believes, at that time, an entire surrender of all her interests, for time and eternity, to Christ, and since then her labours in his service have been happy labours. Before they were constrained by conscience, now they are prompted by the affections. She does not think she was a Christian before. She had repented in view of the law, but she had not, till the time mentioned, exercised affectionate faith in Christ. She now often prays most solicitously for the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of the Church. She loves to meet weekly in the female circle for prayer, and labours to induce others to attend with her. Her little son, nine years of age, is, as she hopes, a Christian; and her daughter, just approaching the years of womanhood, has recently united with the Church. Two years since her husband died, under circumstances peculiarly afflicting. She prayed for resignation, and never felt any disposition to murmur against the providence of God. She sometimes blamed herself that she had not thought of other expedients to prolong, if possible, the life of one that she loved so tenderly; but to God she looked up with submission, and said in spirit: "The cup that my Father hath mingled for me, shall I not drink it?" TIME. TIME's an hand's-breadth; 'tis a tale; 'Tis a vessel under sail; 'Tis an eagle in its way, Darting down upon its prey; "Tis an arrow in its flight, Mocking the pursuing sight; "Tis a short-liv'd fading flower; "Tis a rainbow on a shower; "Tis a momentary ray, Smiling in a winter's day; "Tis a torrent's rapid stream; "Tis a shadow; 'tis a dream; "Tis the closing watch of night, Dying at the rising light; "Tis a bubble; 'tis a sigh;Be prepar'd, O man! to die. QUARLES. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCES. BY THE REV. JAMES TAYLOR, ST ANDREWS. THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. Continued from page 473. Secondly, The events related in these books are of such a kind, that we cannot suppose, if the account of them had been a fabrication, that any man could have obtained for it that universal credit and authority which the Penta 497 teuch certainly received among the Jews from the very commencement of their state. The narrative of their oppression in Egypt of the plagues brought upon the Egyptians, from which the Israelites alone were exempted-of their passage through the Red Sea, while their enemies sank like lead in the mighty waters-of the publication of the law from Sinai amid thunderings, and lightnings, and tempest-of their forty years' sojourn in the wilderness, during which they were miraculously fed with manna from heaven, and supplied with water from the flinty rock-could never have found credit, had it not been true. Moses, in the law itself, appeals to the miracles which he affirms to have been wrought before the eyes of the Israelites. He not only asserts that the law was from God, but that the people themselves had heard a part of it published with His own voice, and that they had been eye-witnesses of the signs and wonNow it is utterly incredible that any man would ders by which his mission had been accredited. have risked his character and influence by an appeal to such attestations from heaven, which all who heard him, or read his writings, must have known had not been given. "He would with horrible plagues, if none had been inflicted not have dared to affirm that Egypt was smitten upon it; that the Red Sea was divided before the twelve tribes, if they had not passed through the midst of its waves; that manna fell from heaven around their tents, if they had never eaten that heavenly food; or that God spake to them out of the midst of the fire, if they had not heard his voice publishing the decalogue from Sinai. These events, on the supposition that they really took place, were exposed to the senses of all the people; and no man who had not been a witness of them could have been persuaded that he had. If, however, it be conceived possible for one man to be reasoned or cheated out of his senses, we may without hesitation deny the possibility of such a deception in the case of two or three millions of spectators." Another decisive proof of the Mosaic history is its impartiality. The whole account of the Jewish nation may be said to be written, not only impartially, but even severely. No attempt is made to minister to their national vanity, by glossing over their faults and failings, or by exaggerating their virtues. On the contrary, their frequent murmurings and distrust of God, their apostasy and rebellion, their relapses into idolatry, their imitation of the foul crimes of those nations whom God had driven out from before them, and the judgments which were sent upon them because of their sins, are all faithfully recorded, without the slightest attempt to palliate or disguise them. They are repeatedly reproached with their crimes, loaded with the epithets of stiff-necked, rebellious, and idolatrous, and denounced as a "stubborn and rebellious generation—a generation that set not * Dick on Inspiration. p. 104. their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God." A historian who thus concealed nothing that would disgrace his countrymen was not likely to invent anything to exalt them. The same stern impartiality is manifested in the manner in which the nearest relatives of Moses are spoken of. The participation of his brother Aaron in the great sin of setting up the golden calf-the attack made by him and his sister Miriam on the authority of Moses, on account of which Miriam was smitten with leprosy-the death of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, who were destroyed by fire from the Lord, because they offered strange fire upon the altar-are all fully stated. The events in the life of the legislator himself are related in a plain, simple, and unembellished style. No attempt is made to conceal his distrust and unwillingness to undertake the deliverance of the Israelites, even after God had graciously assured him of his assistance, and had wrought three different miracles, and enabled him to repeat them; or his impatient expostulation with God when Pharaoh had increased the burdens of the Hebrews; or, above all, the offence of which he and Aaron were guilty at the waters Meribah, where they "spake unadvisedly with their lips," and were in consequence excluded from the promised land. A comparison of this simple and unadorned narrative with the cmbellished history of the same events given by Josephus, in which the virtues of the Jewish legislator are magnified, and his faults either softened and extenuated or altogether suppressed, shows the striking difference between the genuine narrative of Moses himself and the compilation of a historian writing under the influence of the more uncontrolled feelings and partialities of the human mind. The strict impartiality, therefore, of the Mosaic history shows that we may rely on the truth of its statements, even in the most minute parti culars. These arguments in favour of the authenticity of the Books of Moses are corroborated by the undesigned coincidences between them, and the adaptation of the whole narrative-its facts, sentiments, and language-to the peculiarities of the situation in which the Israelites were placed. The narrative constantly assumes that they were sojourning in the wilderness, all collected together, dwelling in tents, possessing no landed property or houses, without local distinctions or tribunals-placed in a situation, in short, in which they never were either before or after. The whole detail of facts and regulations is in perfect harmony with the peculiarities of such a condition. There are laws which, if we may so speak, seem to breathe the desert air, and arrangements for which there was no necessity, and scarcely any possibility, of their observance after the wanderings in the wilderness were over. In all the directions as to public matters, it is constantly taken for granted that the whole congregation can be collected together at the shortest warning. We are told of dead bodies "carried out of the camp," and of victims, on particular occasions, being burned "without the camp." Exact details are given, not only of the arrangement of the families of the Levites around the tabernacle, but of the particular parts of that structure which each family was to carry during the march; and the most minute directions are laid down as to the mode of taking these different parts asunder, protecting them from the injuries of the weather during the march, carrying and setting them up-details which it would have been most unnatural for a writer to give, who lived long after these marches had ceased, when all such directions were utterly superfluous. The present tense is constantly used in speaking of the facts in the wilderness; the future, in speaking of any thing to be done in the land of Canaan; and it is not till the people have reached the very borders of the promised land, that directions are given respecting houses, and cities, and vineyards, and mention is made of the gate of the city, of the elders of the city, and of other objects and circumstances suited to the new situation in which the people were shortly to be placed. Of the undesigned coincidences with which the Books of Moses abound we can only mention one or two instances, referring those who wish to investigate further this interesting subject to the excellent works of Dr Graves and Mr Blunt.* On the day when Moses set up the tabernacle, the different princes of Israel made an offering of six waggons and twelve oxen. Two of these waggons and four oxen Moses gave to the sons of Gershon, and four waggons and eight oxen to the sons of Merari.-Numb. vii. 7, S. No reason is specified why twice as many waggons and oxen were assigned to Merari as to Gershon; but, on turning back to a former chapter (iv. 24-33), separated, however, from the one which contains this statement by various details entirely unconnected with this subject, we find it mentioned that the family of Gershon was appointed to carry the lighter parts of the tabernacle-its curtains and coverings, its hangings and cords; while the family of Merari was appointed to carry the solid and heavy parts of the structure -its boards, and bars, and pillars. This circumstance at once accounts for the inequality in the division of the waggons and oxen, and yet it is mentioned so incidentally that no one can, for a moment, imagine that it was inserted for any such purpose. In the 16th chapter of the Book of Numbers, we have an account of a conspiracy against the authority of Moses and Aaron. The principal parties engaged in it were, Korah, of the * Lectures on the four last Books of the Pentateuch. By the Rev. R. Graves, D.D. The Veracity of the Five Book! of Moses, &c. By the Rev. J. J. Blunt. |