with full powers from the Apostolic See, being favoured by a great part both of the nobility and common people, and powerfully supported by the regal authority, exercised all apostolical and episcopal functions in this land, preached and baptized, ordained priests, consecrated bishops, caused the heathen idols to be pulled down everywhere, converted their profane temples into Christian churches, and, in a word, God giving a plentiful blessing to their pious labours, in the course of a few years, that is, before the end of the second century, they abolished Paganism, and brought at least that part of the British nation which was subject to king Lucius, over to the Christian faith. But it may be asked-How long did this state of things continue? We reply, all agree that (allowing only for some errors of the Pelagian heresy, from which it was soon after purged by the preaching of St. Germanus and St. Lupus, two French bishops) the Christian faith was maintained in it until the Saxon Conquest, when the ancient Britons being driven out of their own country, by those whom they had unadvisedly called in to assist them against the Scots, were forced to fly for shelter into the mountainous country of Wales, and other neighbouring places; and fresh swarms of Saxon idolators pouring in continually into the provinces which they had abandoned, though they themselves persevered, as we have already said, in the profession of the faith which they had received, almost all that part of Great Britain, which we now call England, became once more a prey to Paganism, and continued so until the latter end of the sixth century, when, by the disposition of God, which reaches strongly from end to end, and disposes all things sweetly, king Ethelbert, together with his kingdom of Kent, embraced the gospel preached to them by persons sent thither for that end by the apostolic See; and their example was soon after followed by the other six kingdoms of the heptarchy into which Eng. land was then divided by its Pagan conquerors, the Saxons. And this is the second general conversion of England, for which it stands indebted, next to God, to the piety and zeal of the bishop of Rome. In recompence of which, his holy See has since been distinguished in this country by the shameful title of Harlot of Babylon, and his sacred person by that of Antichrist. LUTHER ON THE INVOCATION OF HOW WE ARE TO INVOKE THE SAINTS. There are persons so foolish, upon this subject, as to believe that the saints can grant by their own sole power or authority that which we demand of them, whilst, in reality, they are only our mediators, for God alone does all! Hence it follows that we must invoke and honour God through them, as we read, Psalm 131. Domine !" "Memento "O Lord!remember David and all his meekness." Thus it is that Moses recommends Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as powerful intercessors ;. and such also is the doctrine of the Church. With respect to the intercession of saints, I say and I believe, with all Christendom, that the saints are to be invoked and honoured, for who will dare deny that, even in our days, God performs visible miracles over their bodies, and upon their tombs? Luther, vol. i. p. 163, a. Jena. Oh! how great and ineffable is this grace, that the Divine Majesty should deign to intercede for me and become my possession; that all His saints are my intercessors, that they interest themselves for my salvation, that they take care of me, that they serve and protect me! Luther, vol. iii. p 100,,A, (To be concluded in our next.) III. TO PARSON STOWELL. Sir,-If an Hindoo, who had never heard much of Christianity until his arrival in this country, were to attend one of your Bible meetings, I very much fear that such an exhibition would not impress him favourably regarding our common Christianity. Of course we suppose that the Hindoo is an intelligent person, a man of letters; and that after his coming to England, he was compelled as it were, in consequence of his co-mingling much with society, and because religion was more talked about here than in any part of the world, to make himself acquainted, at least partially, with the various pretensions and claims of the conflicting societies, into which the religious portion of the British people are divided and subdivided. Now we em phatically ask, what proof of the Divinity of the Christian Religion could he gather from the teachings of yourself and your fellows, at your periodical gatherings ? He finds that you all pretend to reverence a certain" BOOK;" that you declare that it, and it alone contains all that you have to believe, and all that you have to practise. He opens that "BOOK," and he finds its every page breathing the purest charity, and forcibly inculcating its necessity and its obligation. That " BOOK" informs him, that there is no distinction to be made between believer and unbeliever,between rich and poor,-between natives and foreigners,→ but that our charity is to embrace all indiscriminately; for as God is the Father and Maker of all, all are worthy of our love, and we must not, at our peril, except any man or party from the influence and benefits of our kindness and commisseration. He closes the " BOOK," and meditates coolly and seriously upon your conduct; and what conclusion does he arrive at ? This, and this only; either Chris, tianity is worthless,-yea, even pernicious, or it is not in the possession of you or of your companions. If you contend that Christianity inculcates the purest charity,-and that it neither admits of bounds or limitation, then it follows as a self-evident conclusion, that as your constant practice, and your uniform teachings, regarding the pro fessors of Catholicity, are diametrically opposed to the contents of the "BOOK," you have yet your religion to seek, you are an intruder,-a busy-body, -a meddler,— and you ought to be shunned as being incompetent to perform the duties of a public instructor; duties which, without commission or authority, you have very arrogantly presumed to impose upon yourself. Such would be the reasoning of an enlightened heathen, who, having come religious mountebanks, who periodically perform their over to England, would examine into the conduct of the antics, in order to extract from the pockets of poor gulled John Bull, large sums of money for their ungodly and lying. purposes. In fact, if he went no further into the examina. tion of the grounds of Christianity, than barely to study the sayings and doings of Stowell and Co., then indeed the Christian religion could neither charm his mind, warm his heart, nor inform his intellect; and he therefore would be compelled to seek elsewhere for a solution of the query; "What is Christianity ?- and where is she located ?" He seeks in all the opposing societies, which with marvellous inconsistency lay claim to the "BOOK," and swear that they all are guided by its teachings,-in order to find a satisfac tory solution to the important query; but all in vain. The only certainty in this amalgamation of so many uncertainties is, that not any one of them, much less all of them put together, can justify the least claim to the glorious title of true Christians; they are proved to be devoid of› true religion, legitimate ministry, or any mission to preach or teach, derived either from an ordinary or an extraordi there is, distinct from all these, another society, older by far nary source. What then is his next duty? He finds that than any of the societies which claim the "BOOK," but are condemned by the " BOOK”; and he is forcibly struck with one remarkable fact, viz.: that though the countless sects, which appeal so impudently to the "BOOK," hate each other, and curse and denounce each other, yet they all cordially agree in hating this ancient society,-and they very frequently forget their private quarrels, in order to oppose, to insult, and to annoy her. He consults this POETRY. MARY UPON MOUNT CALVARY. society through her accredited teachers, and he finds that "O, all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there be sorrow she demands to be heard; and one reason she assigns, among many, is,-that the very hatred of her combined enemies is an unanswerable argument in her favour. She says,- -" My opponents, who were either my rebellious children, or the spurious offspring of such, pretend that the "BOOK" is theirs; but that is not so.-it is my property, it is mine exclusively, and it was so from the very beginning." "I could," she continues, "adduce instances in abundance to prove my own claims, and to disprove theirs, but I forbear; for this one alone is enough and more than sufficient for the purpose: The "BOOK" cannot be theirs, because they have it only in a mutilated form. They mutilated it, and therefore, it must have been apposed to their teachings. But, notwithstanding that they have mutilated the "BOOK," it still contains a prophecy. What prophecy? A prediction that all my opponents, in every age of my existence would be found linked together in an unholy alliance against me. You shall be hated by all men for my names sake,' says my Divine Founder; this prediction was true in my earliest years,-it has continued so down to this time, and ever shall do so to the end." He finds in this society the object of his search; here he finds not only a solid, and an unanswerable argument to the query-"What is Christianity?-but to his great comfort he also finds that this society is the very one in which Christianity is alone located. This ancient and venerable society gains his esteem and veneration;-her teachings are so sublime,her practices so holy, -the arguments which support her so powerful;-and, in fine, as the Divine Founder of Christianity himself, was even in the estimation of the multitudes who crowded around him, deserving of respect and obedience, because, "he spoke as one having authority, and not as the Scribes and the Pharisees;" so the Catholic Church appears to this heathen to be worthy of his love and submission, because she too teaches as having authority," and not like the heretical societies which have been founded by the modern Scribes and Pharisees,--the Reformers and their disciples. This brings us to your next puzzle; let us see what it is. Puzzle III. "You hold that your Church is infallible. Now where does this infallibility dwell? In the Pope, in the Priest, or in the Council? You cannot tell. Your Church has never told yon. Infallible as she is, she cannot infallibly decide where this infallibility is to be found. It is here, it is there, it is nowhere. What a "Will o'the wisp" is this infallibility!" My dear sir, no doubt you think yourself very clever, and you suppose that your puzzlers are not only ingenious but unanswerable. We shal make the contrary appear self evident to the meanest capacity before we have done with you. As the space allowed us is nearly filled up, we can only make this letter a mere introduction. We however promise to devote a more than usual space to this puzzle, and our reasons are the following:-this puzzle has been a favourite ever since the days of Lesley who invented it,-it has been taken up by all the second-rate writers as if it were unanswerable; but the powerful arguments which the Catholic Church instructs her children to use against this wretched sophistry are either unknown or disregarded. It shall, then, be our pleasing duty, not only to expose the weakness of the cause which stands in need of the puzzlers for its support, but also to place before our readers those invincible arguments by which they are refuted. We do this to confound the impious, and the blasphemer, and to point out to the sincerely disposed, an easy means of testing at once the sincerity of your pretensions,-and the veracity of the statements which you advance at your "No Popery" gatherings. That you may yet have time to make reparation for the past, is the ardent wish of yours, &c. &c. THE EDITOR, Manchester, March 9th, 1850. like to my sorrow."-JER. O ye that speed upon your joyous way, While countless woes to rack my breast combine, My Son, faint, bloodless, agonizing, lies Long, long ere to the world his word gave birth. Me, as the loved one of his heart he chose, That ev'n the rocks with pity burst in twain! No friendly face he sees where'er he turns, Almighty Father! who so lov'st the Son, How from thy starry throne can'st thou behold But, ah! what do I say? th' Eternal Sire My Son! my Son! I see thy fleeting soul But ah! no soothing balm can I impart― Love, then, fond souls! love Him with heart and mind, THE JUST PUNISHMENT OF ENVY. SAINT ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF PORTUGAL. A. D. 1336. (Continued from our last.) A little time before his perfect conversion there happened an extraordinary accident. The queen had a very pious, faithful page, whom she employed in the distribution of her secret alms. A wicked fellow page, envying him on account of this favour, to which his virtue and services entitled him, treacherously suggested to his majesty that the queen showed a fondness for that page. The prince, who by his own sensual heart was easily inclined to judge ill of others, gave credit to the slander, and resolved to take away the life of the innocent youth. For this purpose he gave order to a lime-burner, that if on such a day he sent to him a page with this errand, to inquire "Whether he had fulfilled the king's commands," he should take him and cast him into the lime-kiln, there to be burnt; for that death he had justly incurred, and the execution was expedient for the king's service. On the day appointed he despatched the page with this message to the lime-kiln; but the devout youth on the road passing by a church, heard the bell ring at the elevation at mass, went in and prayed there devoutly; for it was his pious custom, if ever he heard the sign given by the bell for the elevation, always to go thither, and not depart till mass was ended. It happened on that occasion, that as the first was not a whole mass, and it was with him a constant rule to hear mass every day, he stayed in the church, and heard successively two other masses. In the meantime, the king, who was impatient to know if his orders had been executed, sent the informer to the limekiln, to inquire whether his commands had been obeyed; but as soon as he was come to the kiln, and had asked the question, the man supposing him to be the messenger meant by the king's order, siezed him, and threw him into the burning lime, where he was soon consumed. Thus was the innocent protected by his devotion, and the slanderer was overtaken by divine justice. The page who had heard the masses went afterward to the lime-kiln, and having asked whether his majesty's commands had been yet exe cuted, brought him word back that they were. The king was almost out of himself with surprise when he saw him come back with this message, and being soon informed of the particulars, he easily discoverd the innocence of the pious youth, adored the divine judgments, and ever after respected the great virtue and sanctity of his queen. St. Elizabeth had by the king two children, Alphonsus who afterward succeeded bis father, and Constantia, who was married to Ferdinand IV. king of Castille. This son, when grown up, married the infanta of Castille, and soon after revolting against his own father, put himself at the head of an army of malecontents. St. Elizabeth had PRICE ONE PENNY recourse to weeping, prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds, and exhorted her son in the strongest terms to return to his duty, conjuring her husband at the same time to forgive him. Pope John XXII. wrote to her, commending her religious and prudent conduct; but certain court flatterers whispering to the king that she was suspected of favouring her son, he whom jealousy made credulous, banished her to the city of Alanquer. The queen received this disgrace with admirable patience and peace of mind, and made use of the opportunity which her retirement afforded, to redouble her austerities and devotions. She never would entertain any correspondence with the malcontents, nor listen to any suggestions from them. The king himself admired her goodness, meekness, and humility under her disgrace; and shortly after called her back to court, and showed her greater love and respect than ever. In all her troubles she committed herself to the sweet disposal of divine providence, considering that she was always under the protection of God, her merciful Father. (To be continued in our next.) TRUTH. ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, M. A.D. 107. (Continued from our last.) St. Ignatius, not being allowed time to write to the other churches of Asia, commissioned St. Polycarp to do it for him. From Troas they sailed to Neapolis in Mace. donia, and went thence to Philippi, from which place they crossed Macedonia, and Epirus on foot; but took shipping again at Epidamnum in Dalmatia, and sailing by Rhegium and Puteoli were carried by a strong gale into the Roman port, the great station of the navy near Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles from Rome. He would gladly have landed at Puteoli, to have traced St. Paul's steps, by going on foot from that place to Rome, but the wind rendered it impracticable. On landing, the authors of these acts, who were his companions, say they were seized with great grief, seeing they were soon to be sepa rated from their dear master; but he rejoiced to find himself so near the end of his race. The soldiers hastened him on, because the public shows were drawing to an end. The faithful of Rome came out to meet him, rejoicing at the sight of him, but grieving that they were so soon to lose him by a barbarous death. They earnestly wished that he might be released at the request of the people. The martyr knew in spirit their thoughts, and said much more to them than he had done in his letter, on the subject of true charity, conjuring them not to obstruct his going to the Lord. Then kneeling with all the brethren, he prayed to the Son of God for the Church, for the ceasing of the persecution, and for perpetual charity and unanimity among the faithful. He arrived at Rome the 20th of December, the last day of the public entertainments, and was presented to the prefect of the city, to whom the emperor's letter was delivered at the same time. He was then hurried by the soldiers into the amphitheatre. The saint hearing the lions roar, cried out, "I am the wheat of the Lord; I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be made the pure bread of Christ." Two fierce lions being let out upon him they instantly devoured him, leaving nothing of his body but the larger bones: thus his prayer was heard. "After having been present at this sorrowful spectacle," say our authors, "which made us shed many tears, we spent the following night in our house in watching and prayer, begging of God to afford us some comfort by certifying us of his glory." They relate, that their prayer was heard, and that several of them in their slumber saw him in great bliss. They are exact in setting down the day of his death, that they might assemble yearly thereon to honour his martyrdom. (To be concluded in our next.) FALSEHOOD. Principles of the Gnostics regarding the sources of Christian faith.-The Church, tradition and the sacred Scriptures.-Their relation to the Catholic Church.Their mode of Divine Worship. (Concluded from our last.) It would have been impossible to have formed a system of ecclesiastical order amongst the Gnostics, for they pos. sessed no established, no uniform system of doctrine: the scholars continually changed and departed from the instructions of their masters, and each numerous sect was thus broken into numberless smaller parties. They were, as all who have separated from the Church have been, more eager to ruin and to destroy, than to build or to preserve. Ita fit, ut ruinas facilius operentur stantium ædificiorum, | quam extructiones jacentium ruinarum.” (Tertull de Præscript. c. 42.) Their laws, being only the works of men, possessed no principle of stability: their superiors knew not how to acquire authority; and when necessity drove them to the expedient of forming at least an external constitution,-a species of hierarchy and ecclesiastical government, soon did the weak edifice fall. But, as Tertullian remarks, in his book of prescriptions, we cannot, with propriety, say, that there ever existed schisms amongst them, for then we must suppose that they, for some time at least, possessed a bond of unity, and a fixed tenor of doctrine; but we know that of these sects, division and instability were the chief constituents. "Et hoc est, quod schismata apud hæreticos fere non sunt: quia cum sint, non parent, schisma est unitas ipse." (Tertull. de Præscrip.) The preparation of the catechumens, which was then observed with so much care in the church, and the separation of them from the faithful, were not known amongst the Gnostics; or if any distinction were drawn between the two classes, it was the distinction rather of the Pagans, between their esoteric and exoteric religions, than of the Christian Church. Even women occupied public stations in their sacred ministry, and in some sects, as among the Marcosians, women presumed to administer baptism and the eucharist. "Their ordinations," says Tertullian, were ridiculous, and subject to perpetual change: to-day this man, to-morrow another, is a bishop: to-day he is a deacon, who to-morrow is a lector, and to-day he is a priest who to-morrow is again a laic, for they sometimes grant the exercise of the priestly functions to the people." Many of them had no particular Church, for their parties consisted of scattered companions in belief; and hence they frequently entered into communion with those who differed from them in faith. This social anarchy they denominated noble simplicity: the prudence of the Catholic ecclesiastical discipline, and the harmony of its ecclesiastical government, they ridiculed as vain and frivolous. It appears, however, that the Marcionites had perpetual bishops and priests. The Basilidians, and perhaps the majority of the Gnostic sects, celebrated as a day of solemn festival the 10th of January, in honour of the baptism of Jesus-the day which in their system formed the point on which the economy of our salvation turned; as then the Eon, Christ, descended and united himself with the man Jesus. The Gnostics must have viewed the sacraments in a light far different from that in which the Catholic Church beheld them, for as they denied the dignity of the human body, and of all matter, they considered all corporeal substance as the seat and incentive to evil, and would not therefore believe that God would select water and oil, bread and wine, to be the instruments of conveying his graces into the soul, as he would thereby have gone into a foreign kingdom, the kingdom of the Demiurgos, for the means of our sanctification. Some of the Gnostic sects, branches of the Valentinians, consequently rejected all the sacraments, even baptism. These men, the Quakers of antiquity, taught that the mysterious workings of the ineffable and invisible power of God could not be imparted to things transient and falling under the senses, and that perfect purification and redemption were found in the knowledge of divine things; that all faults, sins, and corrupt inclina tions of the heart of man, sprung from ignorance; and that the gnosis, (or knowledge) was the regeneration of the inward man. (St. Irenæus, lib. i. 21, 4.) Others of the Gnostics viewed baptism as an ordinance of the God of the Jews, and was to be rejected, as pure religion is spiritual and free from all sensible signs. The Marcionites differed from other Gnostic sects by administering to their proselytes a rite similar to Catholic baptism; only however to those who had not entered into the state of matrimony, or who had resolved to live in celibacy; those who refused to comply with these conditions, continued as catechumens, and received this baptism only on their beath-bed. In the time of St. Epiphanius, they administered a triple baptism, corresponding probably to the three degrees of imitation into their sacred mysteries. The Marcosians had two baptisms, the first of an inferior order, the physical; the second, the spiritual baptism, without which no one could hope to enter into the Pleroma. This spiritual baptism was performed with the greatest solemnity, as, by it the person baptized was supposed to be united with the more exalted half of his nature, the angel in the Pleroma; to this bap tism, there succeeded an unction with odoriferous balsam. There remains no trace of evidence that children were baptized amongst the Gnostics. The Eucharist was rejected by some of the sects and admitted by others, in forms more or less varying from the true doctrine of the Church. Some of the more ancient Gnostics, cotempories of St. Ignatius, expressed themselves on this dogma according to their principles of Dochetism, acknowledging that the Eucharist was the flesh of Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father raised from the dead. (Ignatü Ep. ad Smyrn. vii.) Others likewise Dochetists, not only preserved this mystery, but received it like the Church, as a sacrifice, and as a sacrament, containing the body and blood of Christ. It is in reference to this that St. Irenæus (iv. 18, 4) says of the Valentinians and Marcionites, "Quomodo constabit eis, eum panem in quo gratiæ acta sunt, corpus esse Domini sui et calicem Sanguinus ejus? Ergo aut sententiam mutent, ant abstineat offerendo quæ prædicata sunt." Tertullian also testifies, (adv. Marc. 1. 14;-v. 8, &c.) that Marcion preserved the Eucharist. Dochetism did not prevent these Gnostics from admitting a sacrament of the body of Christ, for although they would not allow that he possessed a true human body, they believed that he possessed more than an empty shadow-a subtle, ethereal substance, which in appearance seemed a natural body; this substance could be given, they conceived, to the faithful in the Eucharist. Marcus taught, that at the consecration the white wine in the chalice was changed into red wine, which was the blood of Charis. Tatian and his disciples, the Encratites and the Severians, as they forbade the use of wine, employed water as the matter of the Eucharist. The Ophites, or rather a branch of them, employed a most extraordinary manner of consecration. They caused the bread, that was destined for the Eucharist, to be first touched and licked by a serpent. It was then broken and distributed. This they called their perfect sacrifice. Still more revolting was the Eucharist of the Barborians and Barbelonites. Among the Marcosians and Heracleonites we find a rite that corresponds to the sacrament of the anointing of the sick, or extreme unction. They poured water, mingled with oil, or balsam and water, upon the head of the dying man, uttering at the same time a prayer, that in his passing to the Pleroma, he might not be impeded or detained by the Demiurgos or his spirits. MR. CLEARY'S LECTURE AT CHARLESTOWN, ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE. and the unfortunate Hogan, of Philadelphian notoriety, Mr. Cleary, by special request, delivered a lecture on Tuesday evening, March 5th, 1850, in the Rev. J. R. Stephens' chapel, Charlestown, which had been very kindly lent for the occasion to the Ashton under-Lyne committee. The Chapel, which is a very neat and commodious building, capable of holding more than 1,000 persons, was crowded to suffocation; many came from Stalybridge and the adjacent towns, and about 150 from Manchester. The chair was very ably filled by Mr. Aitkins, a well-known The occasion and popular character; he is a Dissenter. of the lecture was this: a man named Condell, a packer in some warehouse in the neighbourhood of York-street, Manchester, on the previous Tuesday evening gave a lecture in the Parochial School, attached to the Old Church, Ashton. The subject of the lecture was "The Abominations of the Confessional," &c. All the Manchester people who have ever heard the man, know that he is not only ignorant of Catholicism, but even of the very principles of his own society. He has neither learning, nor good-breeding, nor oratory, nor an agreeable delivery, nor argument, nor even common sense, to engage public sympathy in his behalf. Why Protestants are foolish enough, either here or elsewhere, to listen to the man, is matter for wonder and astonishment! More than sixteen months have elapsed since he first came before the public; and from that time to this, a short interval excepted, he has lent his aid, such as it is, in the carrying out the lying and unholy purposes of the "Protestant Operative Conservative Association," against the religion of the great majority of his countrymen; for unfortunately Condell is an Irishman. This week he returns to Ashton; next week he will go to Openshaw; he cannot go far, because as he is packing all day, his journey must be short, so that he may go and come in a little space of time. Well, on the occasion of his lecture in Ashton, he said, "No Popish priest, nor layman, in Manchester, would meet him; indeed he had challenged them all, and none had courage to enter the lists with him. But knowing that he was a powerful opponent (bah!), one of the priests in Hulme had publicly denounced him from the altar (?); It belongs to abstinence not to anticipate the ordinary and every unfair means were being used by Catholics to time of meals, as Jonathan did when he eat the honeyannoy him," &c. He rambled many times from the sub-comb; it is its duty not to long for such things as are ject of his lecture, and introduced various topies which had not, even remotely, the least connection with it. And when he did touch upon it, he did not prove his case, although he had the infamous Maria Monk (lately deceased), and the apostate priests Nolan, late of Dublin, Gluttony is a mere hypocrisy of the belly, which even when it is too full is still craving more, and when it is just ready to burst, fancies it shall die of hunger; but the cheat is soon discovered, for man is satisfied with little.St. John Climacus. When you are at table, think of the table of heaven, and the meat that is served there, viz., God himself to ba their food: consider also who are the guests invited, viz., the holy angels and saints. Often lift up your eyes to this heavenly table, and ardently desire to be one day a partaker of their happiness. most palatable and dainty, as the children of Israel did in the desert, when they wished for the fleshpots of Egypt; it is for it not to desire that everything should be nicely dressed, to eat like the Sodomites to satiety; nor too greedily, like Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of lentils.-St. Gregory. |