supposes the object of confession to be the offended or injured person, and none else. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another," says St. James; and our Lord bids the offender go and be united to his injured brother before he offers his oblations. Nay, where the offence was such as would reproach the Christian profession, and the offender unaffected by it, our Lord there bids the offended, to go and privately admonish him, and if he remained obstinate, then take two or three of the said society to reprove him. Upon this being unsuccessful, he was to tell it to the church, and have no further communication with him, till he reformed. So groundless is auricular confession when made to a priest.

The above publication also corrupts the object of Christian worship in the unity thereof. It does so as the Athanasian and Nicene creeds will have it, that there are three distinct persons of one and the same substance, and equal in power and glory; and yet that the Father is unoriginated and underived, the Son generated, and the Spirit proceeding. The Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten. The Father sends, the Son sent, the Spirit poured out, communicated, or given. The Father's supremacy is more generally acknowledged, without allowing of a subordinancy; and though that supremacy reduces an equality to a most gross absurdity, we can add, that Jesus Christ, in the character of God's well-beloved Son, always paid his worship to the one God, his God and our God, his Father and our Father, and taught his disciples and followers to contemplate the one God, the Father, as the supreme object of their address : the above creeds must, therefore, be manifest perversions of the object of religious worship. A further perversion is that of the Mediation of Jesus Christ, which I prove thus: St. Paul thus defines a mediator: "A mediator is not of one, but God is one;" that is, God, as one of the parties mediated between, cannot be a mediator, forasmuch as it is impossible he should mediate between himself and other beings; and he likewise says, that though idolatrous Gentiles had gods many and lords many, yet Christians "have but one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," and our Lord never once mentions any mediatorial name but his own. "Hitherto ye have not asked any thing in my name: ask and receive, that your joy may be full." Now, Sir, if we look into the Litany for Family Devotions in this missal, we find an army of media

tors, viz. of saints, angels, archangels, holy patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, doctors, priests, levites, monks and hermits, all holy innocents, bishops and confessors, with all holy virgins and widows, who are supplicated to make intercession for the devotee. N. B. Not a single word of any virtuous married woman, though marriage is honourable in all. Here we might ask, Why has the Romish Church made matrimony one of her seven sacraments, and not rather celibacy, if celibacy is more meritorious? We further observe, that in the Liturgy of our Lady of Loretto, the Virgin Mary is styled "Holy Mother of God; Mother of our Creator; Seat of wisdom; Cause of our joy; Queen of angels, patriarchs, apostles, martyrs, confessors" -no fewer than forty-four characters, many of which are far more than divine, which are ascribed to the wife of Joseph. "In the days of Cyril, she was styled Queen of Heaven, and Mother of God, and so decreed to be in the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon; and Cyril himself, who presided in the council of Ephesus, made no scruple to call her the Complement or Supplement of the holy Trinity."* But what, if possible, is yet harder of digestion, is what this Popish writer has said of the Christian's one Mediator, under his 28th meditation, viz., "That from the first moment 'of his conception in the womb of his blessed mother, till his expiring on the cross, his soul was ever employed in adoring, glorifying, blessing, and loving his heavenly Father, and in offering himself to his will." If nature, reason, and the truth of things be consulted, a greater insult upon the human understanding cannot be imagined; but, if viewed in the light of revelation, it is beyond conception offensive and untrue. St. Luke most aptly and expressly says, that "the child Jesus, increased in wisdom and in stature, and also in favour with God and man." Nor does it appear that he was qualified for the execution of his divine mission, or that he had a knowledge of what it was intended to be, till after the spirit of God descended upon him, when he was baptized of John, his harbinger. In every credible report made of him in the New Testament, he appears to have been in all things made like unto his brethren. But it is not much to be wondered at, if a priest who pretends to

* See Ben Mordecai's Apology, Letter VII. p. 148.-N. B. Cyril persecuted Nestorius, in the fourth century, because he would not allow Mary to have been the Mother of God.

transmute or convert a wafer into a man, should presume to gain on the credulity of mankind in this excess of absurdity. I beg leave to conclude with only this his priestly direc tion ; "In order to adduce reception of the consecrated wafer, the person must be fasting at least from midnight, by command of the Church, and by a most ancient and apostolical tradition; for in reverence to so great a sacrament, nothing should enter into the body of a Christian before the body of Christ."

INTELLIGENCE.

VECTIS.

Anniversary of Welburn Sunday-school.

ON Monday, May the 8th, the Second Anniversary of the Welburn Sunday-school was held at the Unitarian Chapel in that place; when a sermon was preached to a very good audience, by one of the students from Manchester College, York. As on the first anniversary, the remaining part of the afternoon was spent in the enjoyment of social pleasures. The children first took tea, and afterwards their teachers, together with the patrons and friends of the institution. Of the former, there were nearly sixty, and of the latter, about seventy, several of whom were from York and Malton. Among our York friends, was one of our highly respected tutors, the Rev. W. Turner, Jun., whose presence was truly gratifying to all assembled, and whose sentiments added considerably to the pleasures of the evening. The leading topics to which the speakers confined their remarks were, the Abolition of Slavery—the Rights of the Catholicsand the Unitarian Marriage Bill. Each of these, it was impressively stated, rests on the broad basis of the right of private judgment in religious matters, and on that sacred liberty, which is as dear as life itself. The duty of petitioning Parliament on each of these subjects, was also urged. Judging from the fixed attention and deep interest evinced by the villagers of Welburn, these are to them sacred topics, whose value they appreciate, and whose transmission to their latest posterity they wish to secure. Certain, however, am I, that in point of enlightened liberality, they have proceeded far beyond some who pride themselves upon their residence in cities. Be it stated to their everlasting credit, that not one voice was raised in favour of illiberality, nor the whisper of disapprobation heard, though the rights of conscience and humanity were defended on principles to which those never resort who stifle, in the cry of custom, of passion, or of interest, the voice of suffering humanity. I should ill perform the office of reporter, were I to close the

present intelligence, without adverting to the native talent which was displayed during the evening. Two individuals addressed the Meeting, who, notwithstanding daily labour in their regular avocations, have devoted much of their leisure time to the education of the young, and the dissemination of Unitarian views of Christianity. That they have talents and cultivation of mind suited to the discharge of their duties as Sunday-school teachers, was evident from the mental improvement and general habits of the children; and that they are not destitute of the leading qualifications for the other part of their office, was obvious from the good sense, unaffected simplicity, sound judgment, ready utterance and Christian fervour, which characterized their speeches. When I add, that they seemed fully aware of the importance of the acquisition of general knowledge; that they exhibited correct views on scriptural subjects, and clearly stated the importance of their chapel library to themselves as a Christian society, and to their fellow-christians who wish to know the grounds of Unitarianism; and that they disclaimed every hostile feeling to those who differ from them—the readers of the Reformer will still have but a very inadequate idea of the pleasure, and instruction too, which many who have had more liberal educations than they, but will never have a more willing mind to be useful in their day and generation, derived from their speeches.

As many of our friends came from a considerable distance, the Meeting closed at an early hour, when several expressed their intention of being present at the third anniversary, and of inducing others to join in pleasures similar to those which had on that occasion far exceeded their warmest expectations.

Having communicated some pleasing intelligence to your readers, perhaps they will allow me to suggest a few thoughts. There are villages, if not towns, in which similar meetings would be productive of equal pleasure and improvement.

The anniversary of a Tract Society, or a Sunday school, tends, in an especial manner, to cherish that social spirit which distinguished the first Christians, and to which they were in a considerable degree indebted for their own firmness in the hour of persecution, and the ultimate establishment of Christianity. Is it not at such meetings that we feel ourselves allied to each other by a common interest, and are impelled to exertions which but for their existence would never have been made?

There is another result arising from such social intercourse, which those who wish success to our common cause, and are not too fastidious as to the mode by which its interests may be promoted, must hail with pleasure. It is this: as we have in our societies native talent, and minds well cultivated, some, under their happy influence, would be animated to exertion, and lend themselves to the cause of education, and the diffusion of primitive Christianity. The principles of the most popular party

of the present day, unpatronized by the great, and inerely tolerated by law, were once confined to the breasts of a few; nor would the sentiments of the indefatigable Wesley have been now triumphant, had not that wise founder cherished in his followers the social spirit to its greatest extent

J. KETLEY.

Opening of the Unitarian Chapel at Radford, near
Nottingham.

On Friday, May 12th, the above place was opened for Divine worship, by a service in the evening, conducted by the Rev. J. G. Robberds, of Manchester. The same gentleman preached in behalf of the same object on the following Lord's-day, at the Chapel on the High Pavement, Nottingham, and again in the evening at Radford; when collections were made after each service towards defraying the expenses of the building. The impression produced on this occasion was most satisfactory and gratifying the highly appropriate character of the different discourses, the serious earnestness with which they were delivered, and that evangelical spirit of genuine Christianity which pervaded them throughout-which seeks, above all things, the salvation and moral improvement of mankind, and considers a purer form of faith as chiefly valuable as it may be found to promote in a higher and stronger degree that holiness without which, no man can see the Lord-all contributed highly to gratify a very attentive auditory: and while it again stimulated them to renewed and liberal exertions, left impressions of a higher kind on the mind, which we believe and hope will not soon be obliterated.

The friends and supporters of the above Chapel must now trust to the liberality of their friends at a distance, to enable them to discharge the debt which yet remains upon it.

Eastern Unitarian Society.

The Yearly Meeting of this Society will be held at Norwich, on Wednesday and Thursday, the 5th and 6th July. The Rev. Dr. Hutton, of Leeds, will preach on Thursday morning; after which, the business of the Society will be transacted. The members and friends of the Society will dine together at the Maid'sHead Inn.

WILLIAM NEWSON, Secretary.

The Anniversary of the Kent and Sussex Unitarian Christian Association, will be holden at Maidstone, on Wednesday, the 28th June, when the Rev. J. GILCHRIST is expected to preach. J. G., Secretary.