Is this faithfully to maintain the supremacy of the English and Irish Church, as they are sworn to do? Most assuredly not. It is, in fact, to enslave the Church, which they pretend to cherish and to uphold. And rather acting like the tyrant, who, not satisfied with casting his victim into chains, would make him feel their galling weight and friction, and, at the same time, mock the poor sufferers with a profession of feeling and love. Those heartless and religionless men are in truth banishing true religion as fast and as peremptorily as they can from the country. Shall we believe their professions any longer? I would fain warn my fellow-countrymen against doing so. Their professions are hollow; their promises not to be trusted. Let some of their actions speak for themselves. I speak not of one party, or of the present Administration alone; all we have had for some years past have been equally bad and equally opposed to the interests of true religion. It is a public, a well-known fact, that in Spain our Ambassador even yet has no chaplain appointed, nor is there any Protestant Church of England service held in its metropolis, as in other Roman Catholic countries where our Queen is representedParis for instance. This, no doubt, is, in the common cant of the day, praised as a token of a growing liberality; but to every thinking mind in Great Britain it at once declares this awful truth, that our Government and our own Protestant Parliament have become ashamed of Christ and his Gospel, and that they have set aside both Him and their Protestant faith in the face of their deadliest enemies. Well may Romanists pretend that Englishmen have no religion, when they so constantly thus leave it behind them on quitting their own shores, to mix in the Popish desecration of Continental Sabbaths, and to enjoy the gross mummeries of the mass in the gorgeous temples of a Christianized Paganism. Now this is not even attributable to the Infidel views, or to the total indifference about subjects of this nature, which it is more than probable may have been held by some or many individual ambassadors; for it has unfortunately been placed under the publiceye, with all the solemnity of the Regal and Parliamentary sanction of Great Britain, and by the official announcement of one of her high officers in administration of the Government.→ Lord Palmerston, when in office, was permitted, to the everlasting disgrace of the British nation, and the degradation of our National Church in the eyes of every foreigner, to issue the following Circular to her vice-consuls. "I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to instruct you to warn any British subjects who may attempt, by preaching or by distributing books in Spain, to assail the Roman Catholic religion, that they will render themselves liable to a State prosecution, which may possibly end in their imprisonment, or their expulsion from the country; and that Her Majesty's Mission in Madrid cannot be expected to protect them from the consequences of such an open violation of the laws of Spain." * It will not, after this, be any matter of surprise then that there should be neither chapel nor chaplain attached to our Embassy at Madrid, it would be too illiberal for modern times. It would not suit the temper of our rulers, which at present leads them to confound truth and error, and not only so, but to cherish the one and despise the other. When Mr. Rule was in Madrid, and on the Sabbath inquired at the Ambassador's about the Protestant worship of the Church of England, the then Ambassador's steward's reply was, “That he had been in that service eight years, but had never seen anything of the kind, nor indeed any observance of Sunday, nor was there any chaplain." (To be continued in our next.) CHRIST OUR ALONE PRIEST. "BEHOLD We have our victim above, our priest above, our sacrifice above. Therefore, let us offer such sacrifices as can be presented on that altar, no longer sheep and oxen, no longer blood and incense; all these things are abolished, and there is introduced in the place of these, rational worship. But what is rational worship? That which is offered by the soul; that which is offered by the Spirit?"-CHRYSOSTOM. PROTESTANTISM fails in its one, pervading motive, if it fail to bring the soul of man into an intimate and holy communion with God. It is its distinguishing feature to clear the way for a happy, though withal, reverential, approach to the throne of grace; and this simply, because the Great Fore-runner is thither for us entered. It soothes the mind with promises that come direct from the upper sanctuary, unmutilated in their passage by the conflict of earthly · powers, and unmarred by the leprous touch of error. If, therefore, Protestantism do not elevate personal holiness, it does not answer its purpose; that is, it does not answer the alone purpose which can justify its origin. If my reformed doctrines do not avail to bind me to the Rock of Ages; if they suffice not to shut out more of the creature, and strengthen with more of the uncreate; if they do not lay me lower in the dust, and yet give me a hope of glory, exceeding great and precious; if they do not supply energy to motive, purity to desire, and singleness to design; what are their pretext, what their apology, for being what they profess to be, a departure from the predominant system in Christendom? We would not underrate the superior results that mere politics and domestic peace will derive from Protestantism,-Popery being the evil counsellor of state-craft, and the malign whisperer of the disturbed hearth. But as respects the relationship of man to his God, that which is really the all-in-all of human necessities, what avails the profession of a purified creed, if its genial influence wake up no lively care on the "one thing needful? * See "Continental Echo," January, 1846, p. 22. This self-same thing-this protesting voice and protesting conversation against monstrous delusion-how should it expand and ferment within the protester's heart! What carefulness should it work in us, yea, what clearing of ourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire! Barren of fruit, it only doubles the mill-stone of condemnation, for the talent is hid in the earth when it should be plying commerce with busy effect. Now a foundation principle in the doctrines of the Reformation is, that of immediate communion with our One Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Seeing then, that we have a Great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." This Great High Priest is at once the owner of universal supremacy, and the sympathetic Friend of sinners. For the rebellious hath he suffered, for the unjust hath he died, and hath risen again for their justification. This he works, not by human or angelic or saintly aid and agency, but by his own right hand, and by his mighty arm hath he gotten himself the victory. And, therefore, the Lord declares his salvation; and who shall hinder, who shall let it? Rome has dared the sacrilege, and the parting anathema of the apocalypse spends not its voice for nought when it murmurs amid and against the seven hills. To add to the work-the finished work; to subtract from the atonement-the Divine atonement; surely Rome hath done this, with her legions of supernumerary mediators; her thousand tapers to light up the sun, and her tinkle of bells to aid the pleasant travestie. But let us not halt on controversial ground; for the man of plain sense can see that Romanism is wrong,-alas! that it does not follow that he always feels Protestantism to be right. We ever feel grieved when we meet with an instance of this kind. There may co-exist an exuberance of Anti-papal zeal, with an utter deadness of spiritual vigour. The eager Protestant, who can applaud to the echo a stanch Exeter Hall oration, who can boil with indignation at the wrongs of Ireland, who can fire up to the climax of Fahrenheit, when Maynooth is on the tapis,-this Demosthenes of angry philippics may be wanting in the "one thing needful," and be valiant for the truth in its least valuable form. It behoves us to look to our weapons, as well as to our colours; have we the red-cross on our breast, as well as on our banner? Are our arms carnal, or are they spiritual, scriptural, mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds? Do we walk worthy of our high calling? or are we, in fact, behind many a simple Romanist in humility, love, self-denial, devotedness? Romanism leaves the tear to freeze in the eye of the penitent, because it points not to "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Protestantism leads to the more excellent ministry, to the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. Christ hath been once offered, to bear the sins of many; and the opportunities supplied by this access to the holiest of all, involve grave responsibility on the human agent. Seeing it is permitted us, by our most holy religion, to draw near with a full assurance of faith, it is incumbent on us to see that our hearts be sprinkled from an evil conscience. Looking unto Jesus, and not to the dim impersonations VOL. VIII.-March, 1846. K New Series, No. 3. of abstract virtue, wherewith Rome peoples her pantheon, beholding his glory, eyeing his unsearchable riches, be it ours to "lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race set before us." For to have borne a witness, however strenuous, against the deceits of Papalism, will not suffice; nay, it will increase the ruin that shall await the unprofitable servant. It may be a part of that pitiful "cumbered with much serving," which keeps the soul from the feet of Jesus. How precious the privileges of our Reformed faith are, is known only to the enlightened, humble believer; to him who desires rest for the sole of his foot, and whose weary wings have been burdened with the spray of a deluged world. He flees to Jesus for repose and salvation; if he meddle with controversy it is not with boisterous clamour, for he loves not controversy in itself, and it grieves him to make Gethsemane an Aceldama, a field of blood, and Pentecost a Babel, even confusion of tongues. "Wo is me," he cries, "that I dwell in Meshech, and have my habitation among the tents of Kedar?" And so is he one 66 kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation," ready to be revealed in the last time; wherein he greatly rejoices, though now for a season he is in heaviness through manifold temptations. A due appreciation of these truths will enhance the value of the priesthood of Christ. There is, in fact, no other. Christ is the altar. Christ is the priest. Christ is the sacrifice. Shame on the audacity that consecrates men to the office, and strike twice the smitten rock! Let us be very jealous on this point. The consolations of the Gospel are wound up in this "bundle of life." There are no Levitical priests in the New Testament; it is no longer the HIEREUS, but the PRESBYTEROS. As Mr. Goode, writes, in his admirable treatise on the "Divine Rule of Faith," &c., "The Apostle in that Epistle, (viz. to the Hebrews), seems with studied assiduity to impress upon our minds the fact, that with us there is but one sacrifice and one priest; a sacrifice all prevalent for the full remission of sins; and a priest, who being eternal, for ever liveth to present it, and make intercession for us; and that, consequently, every true Christian has, at all times, a sacrifice and a priest to present it for him to God, without the intervention of any other person or thing whatever." Here then would my soul take anchorage. Though now there be on outward calm, I know that the storm shall soon arise, and waves shall fret tumultuously, and I would have Christ in the vessel. Let my Protestantism be a truthful thing; and it will seek not only Jesus as the Redeemer, but the Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier. The aids, the promises, the presence of both will be needed, when frail nature totters on the precipice of this poor life. I dare not at such a moment, lean on any arm but the Divine, and the strength of that Divinity, I would learn adoringly now, even from Him who searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God. "Call upon ME in the day of trouble." He saith not to John, "my beloved disciple," nor to Paul, "my chosen vessel," nor to Peter, or James, or Mary. And when He calls to himself, it is pride to nurse a "voluntary humility," and loiter by the way. They may be all excellent in themselves, but they have no excellency by reason of the glory which excelleth in Him. He must in all things have the pre-eminence. And, therefore, His word shall teach me to sing-looking only to Him "While I draw my fleeting breath; When my eyelids close in death; Bayswater, January, 1846. CANTABRIGIENSIS. THE PERSECUTION IN THE CANTON DE VAUD, SWITZERLAND. THE following Statement has been put forward by the Com-, mittee of that excellent Institution the Foreign-Aid Society: "For some months back the Council of State of the Canton de Vaud has been making encroachments upon the liberties of the Established Church, the said Council of State being composed for the most part of Rationalists, and enemies of true religion. On the 29th of July last, the civil authorities of Lausanne issued a proclamation of a purely political nature, and required the pasteurs (who all receive a salary from the public treasury) to read the same from their pulpits on Sunday at morning service. This order was generally resisted, and in numerous instances scenes of disorder took place in the congregations. The Council of State, willing to justify its acts, referred the matter to the several ecclesiastical bodies called classes, and all those, after due deliberation, unanimously declared, that the pasteurs were justified by the text of the law of 1832, and that the civil power had no right to enforce upon the ministers of religion the office of public criers. Notwithstanding this decision, the Council of State, on the 3d of November just past, condemned and subjected to a penalty, forty-two pasteurs and ministers who had refused to read the procla mation in their churches. In consequence of this and numerous other attempts to subject the ministers of religion to the absolute power of the State (the said Council having had the audacity to forbid the pasteurs to meet their flocks, except at the time and places appointed by the police), a great meeting of the pasteurs was held on the 12th of November at Lausanne, and, after prayer and anxious deliberation, it was unanimously resolved, that they should resign their official connexion with the State. There is included in this act of resignation the sacrifice of their parsonages (cures), and the relinquishing of their salaries, and throwing themselves upon the liberality of their congregations. One hundred and eighty pasteurs and ministers together adhered to the above resolution. They say to their countrymen, 'Dearly beloved brethren, we appeal to you to help us to save the Church of the Reformation, the National Church, the Church of our fathers, that at the time when it is ceasing to be the Church of the Government, it may become in reality the Church of the nation.' "From more recent intelligence it appears that some of the pastors who signed their resignation have retracted, and caused great grief to the brethren who remain faithful to their office and ministry. The |