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Every little bubble that arises in the religious world is termed a revival, and every sect is anxiously looking for what is termed "the Millennium," each one believing in the meantime that his party will rule predominant in that day, and that all the rest will become subservient to its control? Alas! how short-sighted man is! With regard to the evil which abounds, both in the natural and moral world, the antidote is prepared, and has been exhibited for eighteen hundred years, and that is the gospel which Christ and his Apostles first preached in the land of Judea. And small as the effects of the gospel may be in this day, yet as it spread in its first appearance with a rapidity which has astonished the world so will it again go forth to prostrate false ideas and vicious practices, as it previously did heathen temples and idols. The first thing that came in contact with it was the inventions of men, and these have continued to neutralize its influence. The only thing, then, which remains, is for that to be removed which impeded it in its way, and it will again move onward with a rapidity equal to its own intrinsic value. Let its friends be careful m contending for it. Think not that it requires us, on the one hand, to use any cunning or deceit in its defence; or, on the other, to use anger, or wrath, or malice, or evil speaking on any occasion; nay, these last are all arrayed in strong opposition to it.

Every christian man that feels bound to preach the gospel should make use of no means to cause revivals but what the gospel sanctions. And if different sects unite in the abundance of their charity-yea, more, if all the parties would for once lay aside their distinctions and take each other by the hand, still the gospel cannot be said to be received, because it is not the author of their differences; and it is not true that they all possess so much of the spirit which the gospel bestows, that if the divisions were removed nothing would remain to be done but to unite together. A greater mistake could not be conceived than to suppose that a reformation is brought about when the different sects abate their opposition; for in fact their opposition is a natural effect proceeding from a cause. They imbibe widely different and contradictory opinions, and therefore it is just as natural for them to wrangle as it is for thunder to proceed from the ooncussion of two clouds, the one charged with electric fluid and the other containing nothing but water.

There is a certain class of men who declaim against creeds and confessions, and against certain important items in them, (and in their own practice are conformed to the requirements of the New Testament,) who have erected a kind of half-way-house between the law of the Lord and the traditions of men, who seem to meet the prejudices of the people half way. For instance, the people are in Galilee and the proclamation is made of a reviving heart cheering feast in Jerusalem; but you must pass through the Jordan before you can reach Jerusalem. These men seeing this, and also observing many respectable folks kept from the feast because they did not like to pass through the water, they erected a bridge and brought the people over on dry land. This is, indeed, an age of improvements, and no doubt this is thought to be an improvement by many; however, it appears to me only cutting out work for some other faithful harbingers of another generation Alas! for man! He fain would be wise, and, indeed, is too often wise above what is written. Would to God that men would confine their inventions to rail roads, steam boats, &c. Here is latitude, here genius is paid for her exercise; but we must receive revelation as it is, complete in all things. Here genius and the inventive faculty must be laid aside, and the judgment, will, and all our affections must be guided by unerring wisdom. The Lord knows them that cross the bridge to avoid the water. He knows them also who erected it. They that pass the old-fashioned way have his promise, but Lord have mercy on the inventors and they who pass over the bridge.

Hoping always for the best, I must quit for the present.
A REFORMER,

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WE conceive, then, that from a very early period, the world has been deceived by spurious systems of christianity, and that the pure and beautiful religion of the Redeemer has been brought into disrepute by means of these institutions, which, while they assumed its name, have disgraced its character.

It is surprising how soon after the first promulgation of the gospel, the deceiver of the nations began to oppose its progress in his accustomed manner. Trembling for his dominion over the hearts of men, the gospel was no sooner proclaimed than he endeavored to pervert it, and grieving at its success, the apostles no sooner made proselytes than he attempted to seduce them. "I wonder," says Paul to the Galatians, "that you are so soon removed from him who called you to another gospel, which," he adds, "is not another"—that is to say, it is a counterfeit.

For the sake of order we will consider the false systems of christianity as dividing themselves into two classes, the earlier and the later. The difference between them consists in this, that the former more nearly resemble true christianity than the latter. And it was necessary that they should do so. For the degree of resemblance which it is requisite for a counterfeit to bear to the original, depends entirely upon the degree of acquaintance which men have with that original. Thus a base coin, poorly executed, may pass current among those who are but little conversant with sterling money, while those who have the standard coin in their possession, or who are well acquainted with its appearance, would readily detect the imposture.

It would have been in vain for Satan to have produced any of the modern systems of christianity during the lifetime of the Apostles, or while the world were well acquainted with the character of the original institution. At that period civico-religious dignitaries, dandled in the lap of luxury, living in magnificent dwellings, surrounded by an obsequious crowd of servants, and deriving a lordly revenue from the sweat and toil of oppressed and starving parishioners, would in vain have assumed the character of Apostles, and pretended to be their successors. Such a deception may well enough pass current now when men generally are ignorant both of what the Apostles were and of what they taught. But then the most ignorant would have readily detected one of these men even if he had presented himself in his powdered wig, his lawn, his surplice, and his cassock. They were then too well acquainted with the cut of Peter's fisherman's coat, and were too well used to the humble plainness and honest simplicity of the true Apostles, to be deceived by the haughtiness of a LORD BISHOP, or the magnificence of a metropolitan. "Your Grace," or "Most Reverend Father in God," * would have

*The manner of addressing the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England. Christ came not to be served, but to serve; and Paul could say, "Be you followers of me, even as I am of Christ;" but such a sentence as that would come with a very poor grace, even out of the mouth of "His Grace."

sounded strangely then to those who were used to address a real Apostle as plain "Peter," "James," "John," or "our beloved brother Paul." In those days whenever the apostleship of a Paul was doubted by some, and he was under the necessity of appealing to his having seen the Lord, to the great privileges to which he had been admitted, and to the signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds which he had wrought; when the church of Ephesus "had tried those that said they were Apostles, and were not, and found them liars," it would have been entirely impossible for men to succeed who have never seen the Lord; who cannot work a single miracle to prove their pretensions; who, instead of being full of the Holy Spirit, are full of the spirit of this world; who were never sent or acknowledged by Jesus Christ; and who, in short, have no more to do with the apostleship than holiness has to do with the Pope of Rome. "Such truly are false (counterfeit) Apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light; therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works."

Then young elders, such as are considered quite au fait, would have commanded slight regard. Sent by a distant college and called by the highest bidder; domineering over large congregations, to whom they administer once-a-week the unadulterated milk of sectarianism; and receiving the end of their labors, even wealth and fame, they would have illy borne a comparison with those venerable pastors who are described in the New Testament as "examples to the flock," as "not taking the oversight thereof for filthy lucre's sake," as "laboring with their own hands; as vigilant, prudent, fit to teach, and having, as a necessary prerequisite, brought up families in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

Then no Pope would have presumed to claim infallibility, to crown kings and to depose them, to levy armies and to divide kingdoms, The thunders of the Vatican and the terrors of the Inquisition were unheard and unknown when men were taught to love their enemies and to bless them, and when "peace on earth and good will among men" was the song of angels.

At that time the decrees of councils, synods, conventions, conferences, presbyteries, and associations, would have been impotent and of no authority among those who were used to listen to Christ and his Apostles, to keep their decrees alone, and to see every congrega. tion attending to its own business. Nor would any religion then have been received as Christian which did not grant peace and salvation to the rebellious, and confer a certain and immediate acquittal of past transgressions upon those who embraced it. For there was no feature in primitive christianity more striking than this. Salvation being what men needed, it was the very boon which christianity proffered to them; and the true ministers of the gospel were not con tent with telling the people, like some of our modern professors of *Gal. i. 11. 1 Cor. ix. 2 Cor. xi. xii. †Rev. ii. 2. 1 Cor. xii. 12. VOL. III. 7

divinity, that there was a Saviour, and that they would be condemned unless they embraced his cross, and at the same time leaving them perfectly ignorant of the way in which they should receive his favor; but were always able to direct the believing penitent to an institution, by obedience to which he could assure himself of acceptance with God, and remission of past sins.

We find accordingly that the first counterfeits did not fail to preserve this characteristic of the ancient gospel, without which they would have entirely failed of success. The judaizing teachers who promulged at Antioch and other places the false gospel which the Apostle notices in his letter to the Galatians, were accustomed to declare that salvation was connected with the observance of the Jewish institution, and that "unless the disciples were circumcised and kept the law, they could not be saved." Here we perceive that salvation was indeed proposed, and the precise means by which it was supposed to be obtained indicated; but it was placed upon a wrong basis, and therefore the Apostle denounces it as spurious and as a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and anathematizes in the most solemn manner all who would presume to propagate it.

The Church of Rome also owes some of her traits to her early origin. Like true Christianity, she places the remission of sins within the power of her members, and does not hesitate to grant them full absolution. Like the false gospel, however, which we have already noticed, she derives the remission from a wrong source, and places in the hands of men a power which belongs exclusively to God,

There is another point in which these false gospels resemble true christianity-they both claim to be exclusively right. The one declares that unless its requirements were attended to, men could not be saved; the other asserts that she is the only true church, and that those who reject her communion are beyond the pale of mercy. Now it is certain that the Christian religion, like the Jewish, claimed to be what it really was, the only true one; and, indeed, it was this very circumstance which caused the Pagans to regard them both with so much abhorrence. They, like the modern sects, had a great deal of charity. They were willing to admit the pretensions of any god that was presented to them; and lest their courtesy should seem to fail, they could even erect an altar to the unknown God. Indeed, this intercommunity of worship was a most marked characteristic of the heathen world; and in consequence, although they might have been willing to have added christianity to their superstition, whenever it was set up as the only true religion, it excited the most violent antipathy, so much was such a proceeding at variance with all their ideas of civility, charity, and sociability. They considered their gods insulted, and their authority despised by a people who seemed to be obscure and unfriended; and the prejudices of education, the influence of superstition, and the obstinacy of ignorance, all conspired to aggravate the fury of persecution, and to fan the flames in which the martyrs suffered,

The Church of Rome has preserved these marks of her early origin even to the present time. She still professes to be the only true church, and her priests still presume to bestow absolution at the confessional. But the sects which sprung up at the era of the Reformation present quite different features. Dating their origin at an age when the greatest ignorance prevailed respecting not only the religion of the Scriptures, but the Scriptures themselves, when superstition, bigotry, and intolerance were the order of the day, it was not necessary for them to present a perfect fac-simile of christianity in order to pass current. In the twilight which succeeded the dark ages, they were not easily detected; and it has only been by the aid of increasing light and a more perfect acquaintance with what the Scriptures reveal of the original gospel, that their deformity has been at last discovered.

Rejecting the remission of sins offered by the Romish Priest, they substituted hope for fruition, and left to the uncertainty of futurity that blessing which the ancient christians enjoyed from the moment they acknowledged Christ.* In this respect they have permitted their mother (who, by the way, is perhaps the most wicked impostor of them all,) to surpass them, and to retain the advantage of being able to bestow upon her deluded followers at least a quiet conscience. They have also allowed her to excel them in consistency, by their having ceased to claim the privilege of being exclusively right. So exceedingly forbearing and sociable have they become, that they make with each other the child's bargain, "Let me alone and I'll let you alone," and concede to each other almost the same degree of respect and consideration which each wishes for itself, allowing of a degree of intercommunion, and careful not to cast stones at each other, as though they were conscious that their houses were made of glass. In short, take them all in all, they present us with perfect CARICATURES of Christianity. Assuming to be following Christ, they do not even bear his name. Affecting to believe in a Saviour, and calling upon men to come to him for forgiveness, they acknowledge in their prayers that they themselves are neither saved nor forgiven. Each denomination meeting together once-a-week under the pretence of celebrating the praises and the power of the "great Physician of souls," declares at the same time, in the face of heaven and of the world, that he has at least done their members no good, by confessing

*It is quite remarkable, that, although these sects brought with them that theory (so to speak) of Christianity, which the Church of Rome had preserved as her passport-although they affect to believe in the "remission of sins," [see Episcop. Creed,] and even designate the true institution in which it is to be obtained-as, for instance, the Presbyterian Confession, "Baptism is the sign and seal of regeneratton and remission of sins;" and the Episcopal or Romish Creed, falsely styled "the Apostles Creed," "I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;" yet in practice and in reality they are so perfectly destitute of any institution for that purpose, that they are quite astonished when such a thing is mentioned to them; and in this matter come far behind their mother, who, however, has changed the institution, and affects to grant remission through another medium.

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