Such, under God, has Britain become; the mightiest nation on the earth. But this mighty influence we have not used for the conversion and civilisation of the globe. We have devoted it to Mammon and to Moloc; to avarice and ambition; to commerce and war. And must not this be a great sin in the eyes of God, that so little, that nothing should have been done by Britain for the world? We should think this to be one of the great grounds of God's controversy, that she does not know for what end she has been brought to the kingdom, that she does not realise her high destiny, that she does not seek more ardently to diffuse the gospel throughout the earth, of whose destiny she has been made the arbitress.

As we have not improved our position for diffusing the gospel abroad, so we have not improved the gospel at home. The greatest of all our sins is a despised gospel and a rejected Saviour. And no doubt, the despite done to his word and his Son, to his Spirit and his ordinances, the unbelief, the carelessness, the lukewarmness, the formality that abounds, is highly displeasing unto God, and must call down his righteous judgment. For, let any one consider what the gospel is, and how it is treated, and he will be constrained to say, "it is of the Lord's mercy that we have not been consumed."

Let us think, too, of the moral condition of our country. Think of the sins that prevail in its purest and most religious portions; think of our large towns, these dens of iniquity, these hotbeds of sin, these sinks and common sewers of all filth and pollution; think of the hundreds of thousands of heathens by which their dark alleys are inhabited-who are without God, without Christ, without hope-without any sense of honesty or piety, or truth; think of the perfection to which they have carried the system of iniquity, of the prodigious skill, the facility, the almost wonderworking power which they have attained in doing evil; add to this the luxury, and dissipation, and debauchery which prevail so extensively in the better circles; and does not a multitudinous cry of wickedness daily ascend to the bar of infinite justice? What a spectacle must Britain present to the eye of the Holy One, before whom the heavens are not clean, and in whose presence the seraphim are vailed! To think of a holy! holy! God as the governor of the world, it is not wonderful that he smites her with famine; the wonder is that he has not made her as Admah, that he has not set her as Zeboim.

And matters have not been bettering with us. All this mass of heathenism was once under gospel influence; the darkness is increasing and the light is not expelling the darkness. Notwithstanding the advantages possessed in modern times, it is to be feared the moral character of the country is becoming worse; and that with more talk about religion there is a greater progress of irreligion. Principles are now avowed, and practices are now adopted, and measures are now advocated, which would have filled the land with astonishment in the days of our godly ancestors. And some of these measures we cannot but regard as great sins, and calculated to bring down righteous judgment. Among these we would mention Sabbath profanation, concerning which sentiments have been put forth, and measures have been advocated and adopted the like of which were never heard of in Scotland since the gospel came to it until this day.

Another great sin with which the land is becoming more and more chargeable, is the public countenance given to Popery. To the Reformation Britain owes, in a great measure, her greatness; yet her statesmen are giving of our public funds to undo the Reformation, to propagate error, and superstition, and idolatry. How awfully criminal in the sight of God must this be? How cruel is it to the poor benighted papists, to give a stone instead of bread, and a scorpion instead of fish? How unworthy of statesmen to become the propagators of a superstition, believing it to be such. How inexpedient to become the propagators of a system which the history of twelve hundred years proves to be fraught with mischief to the human race; which the history of Ireland itself teaches in so conspicuous a manner. The ingenuity of all our statesmen, for at least a quarter of a century, has been directed to the conciliation of Ireland by concessions made to its religion; each new concession was to pacify it, but instead of being oil on the waters it has been oil on the flames. By laying his hand, last year, on a part of the produce of the soil on which Ireland was specially dependent, God has shewn, that schemes not in accordance with the word of God will soon have their folly shewn by the providence of God.

When we think of the rich and early harvest there is a loud call to thankfulness. When we think of sin, which is the moral cause of famine prevailing so extensively in the land, there is a loud call to humiliation. Wherefore let the tear of contrition fill the eye of gratitude. Let us extol the Lord by calling to mind all the great things he has done for us, and for our country. Let us "fear the Lord and his goodness," confessing before him our own sins and the sins of our land, and the sins of our fathers. Let us pray that he would lead all classes to mark his hand and to magnify his mercy; that the lessons so pregnant with wisdom, taught by the calamities of the past season, may be engraven on the mind and the heart of the nation; that a spirit of repentance and reformation may be poured out on all ranks; that the flood of immorality, irreligion and profanity, may be averted by a standard lifted up against it by the spirit of the Lord; that the dissolution of our national character may be arrested; that the present luxury, and frivolity, and sensualism, may give place to the sobriety, and the frugality, and the spirituality of former days; and, in fine, that our rulers and our people fear the Lord together, the one taking the Bible as their rule in legislation, and the other taking it as their rule of action.

THE PIETISM OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

OUR attention has lately been directed by various signs in the religious horizon, to the character of the piety or devotion which the Romish Church inculcates, and for which some of her votaries have been distinguished. The subject is one of great interest, and one which, in our opinion, will soon be found practically important. Among all the seductive influences which Popery brings to bear on the minds of men, there is none that threatens in our day to prove more successful. Its supersti

tion may stagger, and its bigotry disgust, where its pietism may find too ready an entrance, and conciliate those who would have been proof against every other pretension.

It is a remarkable, and somewhat suspicious fact, that, even among the children of this world, with whom true Christian piety is no favourite, the pietism, as it may be termed, of the Romish Church, has always been the theme of laudation. Who has not heard of the piety of Pascal and Fenelon? And who can have dipped into the literature of fiction without meeting with enthusiastic encomiums on the holy lives and heavenly devotions of monks and nuns? Without questioning the sincerity, in many cases, of those who have practised these devotions, it is impossible to overlook the deep policy of the system which confines piety almost exclusively to the cloister, and leaves the profession of godliness to be exercised by a class of privileged men and women, who consider themselves, and are considered by all others, as specially devoted to God. The system which thus provides for men being religious by proxy, and which devolves on a sacred few the obligations of all, presents so many attractions to the carnal heart, is so fitted at once to satisfy its scruples, to soothe its fears, and to flatter its indolence, that we need not be surprised to find it infinitely preferred to the system of inspiration, which imposes on every man and woman, high and low, lay and clerical, the uncompromising statute, " Be ye holy, for I am holy."

But while the scheme is so admirably fitted to win the good graces of the world, it is equally so to flatter the spiritual pride of its votaries. Feeling themselves charged, not only with the task of working out their own salvation, but with the responsible office of working out the salvation of those who regard them as their trustees and representatives, their whole time and heart are devoted to what they view as the service of religion. The morning hours, spent by their worldly friends in sleep, recreation, or common labour, are, by these recluses, who, in their phrase, have forsaken the world, dedicated to meditation and prayer. The whole day is divided into hours of devotion; the whole year into days of festival or of fasting.

The natural, the irresistible tendency of such a system, is to issue in mysticism, and hence the ordinary books of devotion, used in monastic establishments, are all of this character. They are full of dissertations on what is called the interior life of the heart,-on secret communings between the soul and God,-on "acts" of charity, of penitence, or of adoration, measured out by rule, and enacted by the performers with all the precision of a mechanical instrument. Two things, however, characterise this seeming devotion, this voluntary humility, distinguishing it essentially from that piety which the Word of God enjoins,-and these are ignorance and spiritual pride.

The pietism of Rome is the offspring of superstition. There is much carnal policy in the maxim of which that Church is not yet ashamed, that "ignorance is the mother of devotion." She has succeeded in dis

sociating piety from Christian knowledge. With all her pretensions to be the sanctuary of truth, and with all her abhorrence of heresy, her devotees are kept in ignorance of the great truths of the gospel, and taught

to ring the changes on one or two elementary truths, which are in fact as much the property of natural as of revealed religion.

It is not our province to speak here of the subject, else we might have been tempted to say, that while it is always hazardous to assert that there are some truths which are not essential to salvation, inasmuch as we cannot draw the line with any precision between essential and non-essential; it is certain that Christian character, Christian piety is essential to salvation, and equally certain that Christian knowledge is essential to the formation of Christian character. There is only one thing which the gospel declares to be essential to salvation, and that is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration is the fruit of that faith. It is, however, impossible, even for the widest charity to suppose, that the person who is ignorant of the leading truths of the gospel, or who takes a perverted view of the gospel scheme, can be a true believer in Christ. And the piety which is based in ignorance or in error is not the piety of the gospel.

But the dead fly in this ointment, which Popery prepares to mollify the wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores of our nature, is spiritual pride. There is pride in the substitution of self-instituted acts of worship-in the doctrines and commandments of men-the pride of being wise above what is written-the pride of doing something beyond what the law of God demands :-" Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom, in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not for the honour of God, but merely for the satisfying of the pride of the flesh." But there is pride also in the spirit with which these acts of selfdenial are performed. It does not seem sufficiently observed, though it admits of a complete demonstration, that, under the pretext of imitating Christ, Popery actually puts the sinner in the Saviour's place, and represents him as doing the Saviour's work.

A more thorough perversion of the Christian system can hardly be conceived. The gospel says, "Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." "Be ye followers of Christ as dear children;" meaning, evidently, that we should become conformed in our moral and spiritual character to him. But Romanism would have us to ape the Mediator; to humble ourselves as he humbled himself, to suffer as he suffered, and die as he died, in order that we may, like him, merit the favour of God, and work out our own salvation.

As one illustration, we might refer to the well-known work of Thomas à Kempis on the Imitation of Jesus Christ. That work has been frequently translated into our language, though generally the most obnoxious passages in the original, are, in our common versions, altered or expunged. Much as it has been admired, it is a striking fact, that it has never been popular with well exercised evangelical Christians; while, to this day, it is the favourite text-book in the nunneries and monasteries of the continent. We have no hesitation in saying that the whole design and tendency of that work is to make the sinner change places with the Saviour. It is not so much by extracts that this can be made manifest, as from the general bearing of the whole. Such expressions as the following are very common :-"Take then your cross, and follow Jesus, and you shall reach life eternal. He has gone before you laden with his cross; and he died

on it for you, that you might carry your cross, and that you might be inclined to die on it also. For if you die with him, you shall also live with him, and if you share in his pains, you shall also share in his glory. Our merit and advancement in virtue does not consist in the abundance of spiritual joys and consolations, but in courageously enduring the worst of all afflictions and pains. Penetrate my heart with these sentiments, O my Saviour, when thou afflictest me; for thou knowest how naturally we hate the cross, although we are persuaded that it is only by the cross we are saved, and that we can only enter paradise by Calvary." Such expressions, pious and evangelical as they appear, in order to be properly understood, must be taken in connection with the whole treatise, the tendency of which is to effect a complete transposition of the gospel; and under the pretext of the most profound humility, and devout aspirations of heavenly devotion, to transfer to the sinner the whole merit and glory of his own salvation. Other illustrations might easily be given, but this may suffice to explain what we mean. The subject would require a much more extended and elaborate handling.

THE NEW OPINIONS.

No. III. EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT.

Continued from No. V.

IN a former article we directed the attention of our readers to the nature of the atonement, and endeavoured to expose the unscriptural character of the theory of our new school divines on that important subject. The death of Christ was not, as they allege, a mere expedient for manifesting the divine displeasure at sin, and rendering human salvation compatible with the moral welfare of the universe. It was a true and proper satisfaction to the retributive justice of God, and legally secured the salvation of sinners. Christ was made under the law as a broken covenant of works, and by obeying its precept and bearing its curse in our stead he procured for us remission of sins and a title to life.

The next question which demands our attention respects the extent of the atonement. For whom did Christ die? According to the advocates of the new theology he died for the whole human race-the non-elect as well as the elect, those who shall finally perish as well as those who shall be eventually saved. The same sentiment is held by the Arminians; but in the system we are now considering it is combined with the doctrine of particular election, which the Arminians deny. The theory of our opponents may be stated thus:-God, foreseeing the ruin of all mankind by the fall, decreed to provide an atonement for the whole of the guilty race, and on the ground of it to make them a free offer of salvation, but foreseeing, at the same time, that all, if left to themselves, would reject the offer, he formed another purpose or decree securing special grace to some for inducing them to accept the provided atonement. According to this theory Christ died for all in the same sense. His death had no more re