glory of the Lord shall arise upon his churches, and his glory shall be seen among them; then shall their hearts fear and be enlarged, because the abundance of the nations shall be converted to them. 6. As want of unity and peace keeps those out of the church that would come in, so it hinders the growth of those that are in. Jars and divisions, wranglings and prejudices, eat out the growth, if not the life of religion. These are those waters of Marah that embitter our spirits, and quench the Spirit of God. Unity and peace is said to be like the dew of Hermon, and, as a dew that descended upon Sion, where the Lord commanded his blessing, Ps. cxxxiii. 3. Divisions run religion into briars and thorns, contentions and parties. Divisions are to churches like wars in countries: where wars are, the ground lieth waste and untilled, none takes care of it. It is love that edifieth, but division pulleth down. Divisions are as the north-east wind to the fruits, which causeth them to dwindle away to nothing; but when the storms are over, every thing begins to grow. When men are divided, they seldom speak the truth in love; and then no marvel they grow not up to him in all things, who is the head. It is a sad presage of an approaching famine (as one well observes,) not of bread nor water, but of hearing the word of God, when the thin ears of corn devour the plump full ones; when the lean kine devour the fat ones; when our controversies about doubtful things, and things of less moment, eat up our zeal for the more indisputable and practical things in religion; which may give us cause to fear, that this will be the character by which our age will be known to posterity—that it was the age that talked of religion most, and loved it least. Look upon those churches where peace is, and there you shall find prosperity. When the churches had rest, they were not only multiplied, but, walking in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost, they were edified; it is when the whole body is knit together, as with joints and bands, that they increase with the increase of God. We are at a stand sometimes, why there is so little growth among churches, why men have been so long in learning, and are yet so far from attaining the knowledge of the truth; some have given one reason, and some another; some say pride is the cause, and others say covetousness is the cause. I wish I could say there were no causes; but I observe, that when God entered his controversy with his people of old, he mainly insisted upon some one sin, as idolatry, and shedding innocent blood, &c., as comprehensive of the rest; not but that they were guilty of other sins, but those that were the most capital are particularly insisted on: in like manner, whoever would but take a review of churches that live in contentions and divisions, may easily find that breach of unity and charity is their capital sin, and the occasion of all other sins. No marvel then, that the Scripture saith, the whole law is fulfilled in love: and if so, then where love is wanting, it needs must follow the whole law is broken. It is where love grows cold that sin abounds; and therefore the want of unity and peace is the cause of that leanness that is among us: it is true in spirituals as well as temporals, that peace brings plenty. 7. Where unity and peace is wanting, our prayers are hindered; the promise is, that what we shall agree to ask shall be given us of our heavenly Father: no marvel we pray and pray, and yet are not answered; it is because we are not agreed what to have. It is reported that the people in Lacedemona, coming to make supplication to their idol god, some of them asked for rain, and others of them asked for fair weather: the oracle returns them this answer, That they should go first and agree among themselves.— Would a heathen god refuse to answer such prayers in which the supplicants were not agreed, and shall we think the true God will answer them? We see, then, that divisions hinder our prayers, and lay a prohibition on our sacrifice: "If thou bring thy gift to the altar," saith Christ," and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave thy gift, and go, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer it." So that want of unity and charity hinders even our particular prayers and devotions. This hindered the prayers and fast- ings of the people of old from finding acceptance, Isa. lviii. 3. The people ask the reason wherefore they fasted, and God did not see nor take notice of them. He gives this reason, Because they fasted for strife and debate, and hid their face from their own flesh. Again, Isa. lix., the Lord saith, his hand was not shortened, that he could not save; nor his ear heavy, that he could not hear: but their sins had separated between their God and them. And among those many sins they stood chargeable with, this was none of the least, viz., that the way of peace they had not known. You see where peace was wanting, prayers were hindered, both under the Old and New Testaments. The sacrifice of the people, in the 65th of Isaiah, that said, "Stand by thyself, I am holier than thou," was a smoke in the nostrils of the Lord. On the other hand, we read how acceptable those prayers were that were made with one accord, Acts iv. 24, compared with verse 31. They prayed with one accord, and they were all of one heart, and of one soul: And see the benefit of it, "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and spoke the word with all boldness;" which was the very thing they prayed for, as appears in verse 29. And the apostle exhorts the husband to dwell with his wife, that their prayers might not be hindred; 1 Pet. iii. 7. We see then want of unity and peace, either in families or churches, is a hinderance of prayers. 8. It is a dishonour and disparagement to Christ that his family should be divided. When an army falls into mutiny and division, it reflects disparagement on him that hath the conduct of it. In like manner, the divisions of families are a dishonour to the heads, and those that govern them. And if so, then how greatly do we dishonour our Lord and governor, who gave his body to be broken to keep his church from breaking, who prayed for their peace and unity, and left peace at his departing from them for a legacy, even a peace which the world could not bestow upon them. 9. Where there is peace and unity, there is a sympathy with each other; that which is the want of one will be the want of all. "Who is afflicted," saith the apostle, "and I burn not?" We should then "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being ourselves also of the body;" Heb. xiii. 3. But where the body is broken, or men are not reckoned or esteemed of the body, no marvel we are so little affected with such as are afflicted. Where divisions are, that which is the joy of the one is the grief of another; but where unity and peace and charity abound, there we shall find Christians in mourning with them that mourn, and rejoicing with them that rejoice; then they will not envy the prosperity of others, nor secretly rejoice at the miseries or miscarriages of any. (To be continued.) CHRISTIAN UNION THE DEATHKNELL OF ROME. By Sir Culling E. Smith, Bart. Romanism, with all its present apparent energy, would prove utterly weak if attacked with the right weapons. Rome has only one hold on men's affections or judgments, and that is, her ostensible unity. Believers, show to the world that you possess, what every true Christian knows that you do possess, unity of heart, and of essential doctrine; manifest a readiness to exalt your common faith above your minor differences; and Rome will totter before you! Why, however, speak of earthly potentates? The Lord of lords is against her! But he will not destroy her till his church is united. Then the world will believe (John xvii.,) and in a believing world Rome would be an impossibility. It may be said that the Lord's time for union is not arrived. How do we know till we have tried and failed? Have we ever tried lawfully? Union has hitherto been attempted either on the principle of the incorporation of communities, or of the confederation of individuals. The confederation of congregations, without violating doctrinal or disciplinary predilections, has never, that I am aware of, been proposed. If devised with prayer, promulgated with wisdom, and carried forward with a frank and genuine re spect for conscientious differences, I apprehend that such a movement would even now embrace all the sound congregations of Christendom. See the Romanism of Italy, &c. ROME'S INTOLERANCE; OR, ANTI-CHRISTIAN SPIRIT OF THE PAPACY BY THE REV SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. Now, there are two particulars connected with this slaughter, that deserve attention, viz., first, the pre-determination of the Popish party to perpetrate such a bloody deed; and, secondly, the spirit of elation manifested by the Pope and his compeers after the accomplishment of it. With regard to the former, it is a matter of notoriety, learned from MSS. found, belonging to parties concerned in this atrocious scheme, that this foul deed was determined upon fully two years before its execution; and that Catherine de Medicis (who governed the kingdom of France after the demise of Francis II.) assisted by the Jesuits, planned the whole transaction, and directed the issue thereof. The Duke of Guise, and the Jesuit Maldonat, were also engaged in this fiendish plot, which was, 66 to make one utter extirpation of the rebellious Hugonots;" and, in the carrying out of which, as the Duke of Sully asserts, the Priests and Jesuits were the most active and indefatigable instigators. Davila, in his remarks on the peace ratified in 1570, observes, that the Queen-mother, the King, the Duke of Anjou, and the Cardinal of Lorraine, granted the Hugonots an apparent peace, in order to get their foreign allies out of France, poscia con arte e con opportunita opprimeri i capi della fattione;" and, afterwards, artfully, and at a fitting opportunity, to overwhelm the chiefs of the faction. Père Griffet confirms this statement, and says, it was made, "dans la vue de les envelopper, plus surement, et plus aisement, dans un massacre general," with a view to involve them the more surely, and the more readily, in a general massacre. e As regards the latter, no sooner did the news of the dreadful havoc reach Rome, than public rejoicings were instantly visible; and not only here, but throughout Papal Europe this maternal act of the "Mother and Mistress of all churches," was hailed by national festivities-discharges of artillery, ringing of bells, and bonfires. Both Fleury and Mezeray relate, that "the Pope (Gre gory XIII.) went in state to the Church of St. Lewis to return God thanks for so happy a result, and offered up a solemp mass, and had the 'Te Deum' chanted on the occasion." "In the evening," writes another historian, "fireworks were discharged at Adrian's mole, in token of the public rejoicing; fires were kindled every where in the streets, and nothing was omitted which usually took place at all the greatest victories of the Church of Rome." The Pope also despatched Cardinal Fabius Ursinus upon a special embassy to the King of France, thanking" the eldest son of the Church" for his exertions in the extirpation of heresy. In Spain, the same deed was panegyrised in the presence of Philip II., who had a play acted before him under the title of the "Triumph of the Church militant." A bull was also issued for a jubilee to be held throughout the kingdom of France, on the 7th December, 1572, as a day of great joy for the success of the massacre. But, lest these acts should not be a sufficient testimony of Rome's complacency at this scene of butchery, the Pope actually directed large paintings to be made representing it, (which, although much defaced, are still to be seen at Rome), and had also medals struck in 1 Fleuri Histoire Ecclesiastique, tom. 23, livre 173, p. 557. (A. Nismes, 1780.) 2 "Sub vesperam in Hadriani mole in publicæ lætitæ signum displosa tormenta, ac passim per vias accensi ignes, nihilque eorum, prætermissum, quæ in cunctis ac maximis quibusque pro ecclesiæ Romanæ victoriis fieri solent." T. Aug. Thuani Historiarum, lib. 53. (Londini, 1733.) 3 With reference to these paintings, Misson speaks as follows :-" Since I am about pictures, cannot forbear taking notice of the murder of Admiral Coligny, the history of which is curiously described in three large pieces, in the hall, where the Pope gives audience to ambassadors. In the first, Coligny is represented as he was carried to his house, after he was wounded by the assassin, Morevel; and, at the bottom of the picture are these words, Gaspar Colignius Admirallius accepto vulnere, domum refertur. Greg. XIII. Pontif. Mar. 1572: that is, Gaspar Coligny, the Admiral, is carried home wounded: in the Pontificate of Gregory XIII. 1572.' The second exhi bits him murdered in the same house, together with his son-in-law, Teligny, and others, with these words- Cades Colignii et sociorum ejus,'-' The slaughter of Coligny, aud commemoration of the event, upon the upper side of which are the wordsGregorius XIII., Pont. Maxani, R. P." "Gregory XIII. 1572, the Supreme Pontiff;" and, on the under side, " Ugonotorum strages,"-" the slaughter of the Hugonots,' "with a device representing the destroying angel, with a cross in one hand, a sword in the other, and the unfortunate Protestants bleeding and agonising at his feet! The Rev. A. Sillery, A.M., of Dublin, who was some time since in Rome, and with whom I have had the pleasure of conversing since his return, purchased two of those medals at the mint-one in bronze, and the other in silver; so that there can be no doubt about the matter. Let no person, therefore, have the hardihood to affirm, that this cold-blooded slaughter had not the hearty concurrence of the Church of Rome. I shall now allude to the league formed against Henry III., of France, which unhappily terminated in his assassination. The Jesuits' College, at Paris, was the centre of this league, in which assassins were trained for the murder of the French emperors, and from whence they were sent (assuming various disguises, as they may deem such necessary) with a view to foment rebellion and disaffection among the subjects of the king. One of the most notorious of these miscreants was the Jesuit, Sammier, who actually traversed Europe, in order to excite hatred in the breasts of the Popish sovereigns against Henry, who was detested, solely because he "tolerated his Hugonot subjects within his dominions;" and, on which ground, he was excommunicated by Pope Sixtus V., and subsequently assassinated by a monk, named Jacques Clement, who was prepared for the act by a sort of consecration. After the horrid deed was committed, solemn processions were made to the Church of the Jacobins, in thanksgiving for so great a favor con his companions.' And, in the third, the news of the execution is brought to the King, who seems pleased with it, as it appears by the subscription-Rex Colignii necem probat,'- The King approves of the murder of Coligny." Voyage to Italy, vol. ii. p. 19. (London, 1714.) A work was written in justification of Henry's abdication, entitled, "De Justa Abdicatione Henrici Tertii.” ferred upon the Church; and the Pope (Sixtus V.) finally pronounced an oration, in which he declared the act of the monk "admirable and meritorious!" Observing, that "he had attempted and completed a design, which he could never have done by human policy, but by the express ordinance and succour of God." 5 Orat. Panegyric in Antichristo. (To be Continued.) IRISH BULLS. How do Papal bulls, canons, or constitutions, infallible—whether by the decree of the church collected in council, or the church dispersed-how do they come into operation in any country? There are two opinions on the manner in which Papal bulls and constitutions are brought into operation. One of them is, that the bare publication of any bull at Rome is sufficient to make it binding in every Roman Catholic country; and thus I believe it is held by the Roman Catholic bishops in this country, and by all the ultra-Montanists. But there is another opinion on the subject, namely-that whenever Papal bulls are received by the bishops of a country, and published in the country, that there they are binding. In this point there is no difference of opinion in the whole church of Rome. Now, this is not only admitted by the Roman Catholic bishops here, but this was the very point insisted on by them as their defence for not being bound by certain bulls in this country, when they were examined as to their being in force. I beg your attention to this. Here is Dr. Mac Hale's evidence. He was asked respecting a certain bull of a most atrocious character-the "Bulla Cœnæ Domini," and here is his answer : Examination of Dr. Mac Hale-Appendix, 8th Report of Commissioners, No. 37, p. 290: "You will observe, that so late as the year 1741, there is a bull excommunicating all persons, without exception, or without any limitation of time or place, who bring Roman Catholic ecclesiastics before lay tribunals can you explain how it is, that that does not apply to the case that is put ? "With regard to bulls of this sort, they are never binding upon us unless we receive and publish them; that bull was probably "From the bishops. "Is there any official or other means by which it would be possible to ascertain what bulls have been received in Ireland during the last century? "Icannot say I should think Dr. Murray, or Dr. Kelly, or those bishops who are old in the ministry, would be able to furnish information upon the subject: but as far as my information extends, none have been received." Now observe, he not only proves that where bulls are received in a country they are binding, but he says that the priest is to know from his bishop or metropolitan, whether a certain bull has been received or not; and he refers to one whom he names as the highest authority in the church, Dr. Murray. Again, Dr. Doyle, in his evidence before the House of Lords, on the same bull, says-(Report p. 504.) "Is the bull in Cana Domini now in force? "There are portions of that bull that were in force since the time of Christ: but the bull, as a bull, is not in force, nor ever was in force in Ireland, and has been rejected from almost all the Christian countries of Europe. If that were in force, there is scarcely anything would be at rest among the Catholic states of Europe, and they have been as solemn and as earnest in protesting against it, as we have been at any period in England or in Ireland. "Was not the same bull-namely, the bull in Cana Domini-declared to be in force in the year 1793? "Not only that, but it may, for aught I know, have been declared during the last year to have been in force. But their declaring it to be so in force does not make it to be in force with us. We have never received it, and surely never will. Now you will recollect what he says of the nature of this bull, to which we will refer hereafter; but its not being in force, you perceive, he rests entirely on the ground that it has not been received in other countries, nor in Ireland; therefore its reception puts it in force by his own evidence. I shall quote but one authority more on this.-The professor of canon law in the College of Maynooth, Dr. Slevin, is examined before the commissioners of education : "In what manner is it determined in Ireland whether any particular bull that may come into this country is received or not received in the country, so as to form a portion of its canon law? "By the same rule as in all other countries, by its publication, or general adoption in practice. "Its publication, in what manner? "If it be published in the country, we then consider that it is binding." He here explicitly lays down the principle of its reception. Now it is impossible to have higher evidence than this; here are the Roman Archbishop and Bishop, and here is the professor of canon law in their college, declaring that a certain bull is not in force, because not received in the country, and that where it is received in the country, that there it is binding. I trust it is established to your satisfaction, that when a bull is received by the bishops of a country, then it is binding.-Rev. R. J. M'Ghee, on the Papal Laws of Ireland. POPISH THEOLOGY. Turn now to Thomas Aquinas' Commentary on 1 Cor. v. 13, to which he refers, which we find as follows: "You will say, if we cannot judge those who are without, then the church cannot judge and punish heretics and schismatics, for these are without, i. e., out of the Church. Answer. That those are out of the Church, because they are deprived of the advantages of the Church; yet they are within, because they are subject to its jurisdiction-for by this very fact, that they retain the character of baptism, they remain by their first profession united, bound, and subject to the Church; whence they are bound by the fasts, feasts, and other laws of the Church, and they are in the |