Q. 44. How many articles are there in the Episcopal church of England?

A. Forty, save one.

Q. 45. How many in the church of Scotland?

A. Thirty-three.

Q. 46. How many in the Baptist creed?

A. Thirty-four.

Q. 47. How many in the Methodist creed?

A. Twenty-five.

Q. 48. Have these creeds preserved unity and purity in those societies?

A. No. They have produced divisions, and every evil work.

Q. 49. What evidences are there that they have produced divisions?

A. The history of every authoritative creed more than fifty years old.

Q. 50. How many sects of Presbyterians are there?

A. Seven in Scotland, besides some new ones in America.

Q. 51. How many sects of Baptists are there?

A. As many as there are of Presbyterians.

Q. 52. How many sects of Methodists are there?

A. More, for their age, than of the Baptists.

Q. 53. What evidences are there that they have produced corrup tions?

A. They are known to have produced hypocrisy, false swearing and prevarication, for the sake of livings-strife, envy, hatred, and indeed every evil work. Witness the anathemas, excommunications, and slanders, hurled from all ecclesiastical bodies meeting under their sanction, against all who oppose their pretensions. The old side Methodists, for example, will not now permit even the preachers of reform to enter into a pulpit or meeting house belonging to them in the capacity of preachers; while, before the formation of a new creed, they used to kneel at the same altar. This is also true of Baptists, and even Quakers, boasting of their love of peace and brotherly kindness.

Q. 54. But will not a creed keep one Lord's table pure?

A. No; not one.

Q. 55. What do they resemble?

A. They are like sieves which will suffer the small grains of wheat to pass through, and retain the large grains of darnel.

Y. 56. But can we call any table "the Lord's" which excludes from it the Lord's people?

A. No; unless the Lord's people put on the livery of the man of

sin.

Q. 57. Did not the Apostles receive to the Lord's table all who believed and acknowledged Jesus by an immersion into his death, provided they kept his moral precepts, irrespective of their opinions?

A. Paul commanded the Roman christians to receive one another without regard to differences of opinion. No man was excluded by Paul for a difference of opinion.

Q. 58. Ought a man to read any human creed for the sake of assenting to it?

A. No, unless he read them all; for how can he decide without a comparison?

Q. 59. But ought he not to compare every one he reads with the Bible?

A. Yes; but this supposes him to understand the Bible as well as the creed and surely, if he can decide what is truth from the Bible, he need not trouble himself with the creed. Why impose upon himself the task of reading the creed, since he cannot receive it unless he understand the Bible before he read it?

Q. 60. Of what use, then, is a creed?

A. Of much use to build and keep up a party; to cause professors to revile, slander, and hate one another; to hold formalists, hypocrites, and prevaricators together; and to exclude weak christians and honest disciples from popular establishments. They, like strainers, retain all the feculent matter, and suffer the pure liquor to escape.

Q. 61. Do not all human platforms of church establishments reproach the Bible?

A. Yes; they all say that the New Testament is incomplete, and that men are either wiser or more benevolent than God.

Q. 62. How do they say that men are wiser than the Lord?

A. By arrogating to themselves the skill to keep the church pure by another form of words than the form of sound words delivered by the Apostles. Every new creed says, This is better adapted than the Apostolic writings to preserve the unity and purity of the church:for every new improvement says this is wiser than that for which it proposes itself as a substitute.

Q. 63. How do they arraign the benevolence of the Author of christian faith?

A. By insinuating that he was wise enough to foresee that the Apostle's word could not keep the christian community one and undivided, and yet not causing an abstract view, or a summary of essential articles to be appended to the Book, to prevent the necessity of fallible human interposition.

Q. 64. Can the christian world ever be united or reformed on the principles of any creed?

A. It is impossible, both from experience and scripture testimony. Other foundation of hope and union can no man lay, which will stand the test of time, but that once laid by Jesus and his Apostles.

Q. 65. Ought not a christian then to oppose, in all meekness and in all firmness, every authoritative creed, as opposed to the wisdom and benevolence of Jesus Christ?

A. Most assuredly he ought, if he have vowed allegiance to Jesus as the only Prophet, Lawgiver, Priest, and King, in his Kingdom.

CONVERSION.

Q. 66. What is conversion?

A. Conversion is simply turning from one person or thing to another.

Q. 67. What is conversion in order to the blotting out of sins?
A. It is a turning to the Lord.

Q. 68. How is it accomplished?

A. By conviction and persuasion. The Holy Spirit is the advocate or pleader for Jesus ever since Jesus was crowned Lord of all in heaven. He speaks in the Apostles as he once spoke in the Prophets. The words of the Apostles are his arguments, and the signs of his presence with them constituted the seal of their testimony. Their own sincerity was also confirmed by their sufferings and death. The words of the Apostles are the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, and he that resists them resists the Holy Spirit. He that is convinced and persuaded by them, is convinced by the Spirit of God, the advocate for Christ.

Q. 69. Is any theory upon this subject necessary to effect conversion?

A. No more than the theory of digestion is necessary to animal health. The theory of conversion, and conversion, are two distinct subjects. Conversion is, on all hands, admitted to be an actual turning to the Lord. No man is converted to the Lord who is only thinking about it, or convinced of the necessity of it, or theorizing about the modus operandi. An actual turning to the Lord, however caused or effected, is the thing in question. The cause, the means, the instrument, the theory, is not conversion; but the turning to the Lord is that which in the scriptures of truth is regarded and designated by this word.

Q. 70. But may not a good theory contribute to the conversion of an individual.

A. No. A good theory may be of use to the physician, but is of no use to the patient. Medicine for the patient, and not theory! A theory of the mode of conversion may be of use to the converter, to direct his energies and to guide his operations; but the theory is not to be preached, as all the Apostles by their example show us. In this remote sense a correct view of the means of conversion may be of use to the converted, inasmuch as the preacher or parent, who is the converter or instrument of conversion, is led to a rational and consistent

course.

Q. 71. Is it not too presumptuous for any one to say he has converted another?

A. It is too presumptuous for orthodoxy, which ridicules the idea of any other agent of conversion than the Spirit of God; but it is not too presumptuous for the style of the New Testament.

Q. 72. Where are men said by the Apostles to convert one another? A. James says, (v. 19.) "If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Paul says, (1 Tim, iv. 16.) "Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; continue in them, for in doing this you shall both save yourself and them who hear you." Jesus said to his Apostles, "Go, concert the nations." Matth. xxviii. 18. And Paul

says, "How do you know, O man! but you may save your wife; and how do you know, O woman! but you may save your husband." 1 Cor. This is too strong for orthodoxy, but not for the New Testament! 73. Q. But may not conversion be gradual?

A. A person may be some time in turning; argument after argument may induce him. This may be the work of an hour, a day, or a year, less or more; but when the last argument decides his conduct, he is still not converted until he has actually turned to the Lord. So that not almost, but altogether the change must be effected. Yet still be it remembered that conversion is conversion, and neither more nor less.

74. Q. Is there not some act called turning to the Lord?

A. Yes; when Jesus said, "Go, convert the nations," he meant not only that they should preach and teach, but that in converting they should immerse the believers into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

THE CHRISTIAN.

75. Q. What constitutes a christian?

A. Faith in Jesus as the Messiah the Son of God, and obedience to

A. An assurance, founded on the testimony of Apostles and Prophets, that he is the Messiah the Son of God.

77. Q. Does not this assurance draw mankind to him, and cause them to repose confidence in him?

A. All who know his name and character will put their trust in him,

78. Q. What are the privileges of christians as respects this life? A. They are all reconciled to God, justified, sanctified, adopted into the family of God, saved, and constituted heirs of God through Christ. 79, Q. Are all these blessings, honors, and hopes, secured to all in Christ?

A. Yes, by the promise and oath of God. God sware to Abraham that he would bless all the families of the earth in his Son.

80. Q. What do the scriptures mean by being reconciled to God? A. Just what is implied in being reconciled to man. When a misunderstanding, alienation, or enmity exists in both parties, they are said to be reconciled to each other, when the causes are removed, and when they are restored to mutual confidence, love, and affection. When alienation exists only in one of the parties, he is said to be reconciled to the other, when his alienation or the causes of it are removed.

81. Q. Whether do the scriptures represent that God has reconciled us, or that we have reconciled him?

A, "God has reconciled us to himself," is the language of the book. 82, Q. How did God reconcile us to himself?

A. By teaching us that he could not approve or delight in us as sinners, by making his Son a sin-offering for us; thereby making it EXTRA, NO. IV,

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every way honorable and gracious in himself to forgive us our sins through the blood of his well beloved Son, whom he sent forth from his own bosom in proof of his love to the world.

83. Q. What is meant by being justified?

A. It is to have the remission of all our sins, and to stand as righteous persons in the sight of God.

84. Is it not, then, equivalent in effect to being pardoned?

A. It is so used by the Apostles: "By him all that believe are justified from all things from which no one could be justified by the law of Moses.

85. Q. What do the scriptures mean by the word sanctified?

A. To be sanctified is to be separated to God as respects our relation to him, and to have a purification of heart conformed to that state. Thus christians are said to be holy as respects both their state, dispositions, and behavior,

86. Q. What do the scriptures mean by being adopted?

A. Adoption, or receiving into the relation of a son, is the same act, whether God or man be the adopter. On as many as receive Jesus in his character as God's son, he bestows the honor of an induction into the relation of children-of sons and daughters to the Lord Almighty. And more; he communicates to them the spirit of children, so that they can, with feeling, say, "Abba, Father!"

87. Q. In what sense are christians saved in this life?

A. From sin. "He shall save his people from their sins;" from the guilt, pollution, and dominion of sin in this life, and from its punishment in the next.

88. Q. In what consists the inheritance or heirship of christians? A. "All things are theirs." Angels, Apostles, and Prophets; the world, life, death, and immortality; Christ himself, "the heir of all things," is theirs, and they are his. Their inheritance is in the heavens "incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading."

89. Q. How many salvations are spoken of as belonging to christians? A. Three. The salvation of their persons from all the dangers of the kingdom of nature; the salvation of their souls from the guilt, pollution, and power of sin; the salvation of their bodies from the grave and from all the punishment of sin. God is the saviour of all men, especially believers, from physical dangers; he saves the souls of them that fear him from sin and Satan. And he has a salvation to be revealed at the last day, an eternal salvation of the whole person, of which all who are found faithful to death shall be partakers.

90. Q. What are the chief constituents of the present salvation? A. The remission of sins and the Holy Spirit. Pardon of all past in is necessary to peace of conscience, and is God's free and first gift through faith in his Son, and immersion into his death and resurreclion. When the heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience, and the body washed with cleansing water, ours is the spirit of love, joy, peace; for the reign of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Thus in the order of nature the reception of the Holy Spirit is necessarily subsequent to the remission of our sins.