"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." To all who hear the gospel, is freely offered this greatest of all blessedness.

§ XLIII. In the last three sections, something has been said of the idolatrous worship offered to Mary the mother of Jesus; of the very false doctrine of her immaculate conception, and of the blessedness ascribed to her in St. Luke's Gospel. Another point which, for the purpose of increasing the superstitious notions of her sanctity, and the supposed merits of celibacy, much taught by the Romanists, is her perpetual virginity. Respecting this point, I can very cordially say with the Rev. William Goode, in his excellent and learned work, on " the Divine Rule of Faith and Practice," that "it is with much unwillingness that I enter upon the discussion of this point lest I should appear to speak slightingly of one so highly honored of God, and to whom, if upon earth, we should be disposed to pay higher reverence and respect, than to the most potent empress that ever sat upon an earthly throne."* What he says on this subject in the pages following this quotation, I recommend to the perusal of those who have access to the work; and it may be truly said to be a work "for the times."

The early writers, who have treated of this subject, were of different opinions. They who favored the conceit of Mary's perpetual virginity did not view the belief of it as being necessary to true piety or a religious faith, nor did they appeal to tradition in proof of it; but endeavored to prove it from the scriptures; and this all who are acquainted with the scriptures know to be an entire failure. The scriptures, so far as they appear to regard this question, lead us to the contrary belief. And, as the writer above referred to says, p. 158, "It is worth observing

* Vol. ii. p. 152, Philadelphia edition.

how the ground for belief of this doctrine has been shifted. The fathers who defend it place it upon the testimony of scripture, and arguments drawn from the propriety of the case. Our opponents, with the Romanists, seeing that nothing of the kind can be proved from the scripture, fall back upon tradition, and quote the testimony of the very fathers, who appeal to the scriptures for the proof of it, as evidence of its being a doctrine established by an uninterrupted tradition of the church." And we may

hope, by the way, that the existing controversy between Protestants and those who are not improperly called Low Papists, will have, among some good effects and more bad ones, this, of a better and more general knowledge of what is the just authority of tradition respecting essential articles of the Christian faith. On this much agitated and very interesting subject, several learned and very excellent works have been recently published in England, and some of them republished in this country. It is remarkable that this dogma of Mary's perpetual virginity is among the chief articles of religious belief, which, it is now said, we learn from tradition; and the very little or rather no importance of this, shows how little we should gain by tradition, were its authority equal, as the Romanists contend, with the holy scriptures. We make no objection to any one's believing this, but protest against its being taught as a necessary article of belief, and stigmatizing, as unsound in faith, those who think it unessential. Religion has gained nothing and has lost much, by the various attempts of Christians to make that necessary to salvation in Jesus Christ, which God, in his revealed will, has not made necessary, and by pretending to be wise in spiritual things, beyond what he has caused to be written for our learning. Christians will never be united, nor their religion appear in its beautiful garments of salvation till they agree in taking God's word for their guide, and "are per

suaded that the holy scriptures contain all doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ."

§ XLIV. To render the exaltation of Mary more complete, and the religious worship paid her more extensive, there is added what is called her Assumption, which, to give it the greater sanction, the Romanists commemorate by a festival. They teach, that as she was born without sin, so she died without suffering; and that her body being too pure and precious to see corruption and turn to dust like other human remains, was taken up into heaven and there glorified. This they pretend to prove by presuming that had her body been deposited any where on the earth, a treasure so precious would not have been concealed from the early Christians. I have had occasion already, in section XXXIX., to give a much better reason for the ignorance or disregard of the Christians of the first century of the place where the remains of Mary were deposited. If her body was providentially concealed from the knowledge of the first Christians, it was for the like reason that the body of Moses was concealed from the Jews. But it is far more probable, that her grave was forgotten by reason of the little regard of the first Christians to such things:- for the like reason that they did not preserve the cross on which Christ suffered, and many other relics, which, were they now to be seen, would by thousands be worshipped. It is enough under this head to say that we have no manner of proof, nor any good reason for believing or supposing, that her earthly remains did not, like the bodies of other mortals, return to the earth, "ashes to ashes; dust to dust." This pretended assumption of Mary's body, is but one of the "signs and lying wonders," which are predicted in the word of God.

Errors and corruptions began early to be sown in the church, like tares among wheat. In the first

century, they were scarcely visible. In the second, they began to appear. In the third and fourth, their number and their growth increased. In the fifth, sixth and seventh, they arrived to a baneful maturity, and they who did not embrace them were branded as heretics.

May that blessed Lord, who has caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, give us grace so to hear and read and learn, and inwardly digest them, that, by patience and comfort of his Holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which he has given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

§ XLV. I have noticed above forty articles or points practised by the Western Church, so called, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, against which those pious Christians, who thought that they were bound to obey God, rather than man, and to take the holy scriptures for their principal guide, protested. There are many more articles which may be added to the catalogue of those already noticed; but my present purpose is to mention but a few more, and the most of those few but briefly. Protestants should be well aware of "the face which Popery can assume, when addressing itself to an educated mind;" and particularly of what is very common, the saying that such and such things are not the doctrines of the Roman Church. And it is proper that I should often remind the reader that I speak not so much of their doctrine, as of their practice; of what their religion is, as seen by Christians and by the world. I judge not of their hearts or motives or belief. In their bloodiest massacres and most cruel persecutions, they may "think that they do God service." They who would know what are the doctrines of the Church of Rome,

* John xvi. 2.

will do well to read the history and the decrees of the Council of Trent, and the Catechisms of that church, which have been published. Our Saviour Christ has given us a plain rule of judging in these things: "By their fruits ye shall know them." Their fruits we can see, and from these form the best judgment of what the tree is. The profession of men is a very uncertain criterion of what they truly are. Strictly speaking, we do not protest against any Church of Christ, however corrupt, but against its corruptions; against its departure from God's word. I am not pretending to show what the Church of Rome avows as its doctrine, but what in practice she certainly tolerates, and by which, as a hierarchy, she is chiefly sustained.

In section XXXVII. I said something of monkery and monastic institutions, and of the reasons why Protestants reject them. The good which they have effected has, as we believe, been overbalanced by more and much greater evils. In this forty-fifth section I would direct your attention to the subject of nunneries; — to those convents in which myriads of females are imprisoned for life. In Europe, where those institutions are of long standing, and their evil effects on morals and practical religion are better known, many of them have been suppressed, and those remaining are watched with a more jealous eye. In this country, where they are little known, and where every artifice is used to render them popular and attractive to the vanity and enthusiasm of young females, some have been recently established, and there is reason to fear that their number may be increased. The burning of a convent in this vicinity, a few years since, by a lawless mob, though as nothing when compared with the massacres of Protestants in France and Ireland, and other places, was an enormous outrage, condemned, I believe, and detested by every pious Protestant in our country, and it has excited the sympathy of thousands, and