and the Virgin Mary, that they may intercede with the Son of God for men, our Church has rightly judged, that they are but an insult to our exalted Saviour. For the Scriptures speak of but "one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus;" one who is "able and willing to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him;" one who ever liveth to make intercession for us," being touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and who expressly invites sinners to apply to Himself, saying, "Come unto ME, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Hence our Church maintains, that to multiply Mediators, to apply to other and inferior beings to do that for us which the Son of God has himself undertaken,-is to despise his gracious offers, to slight the blessed privilege open to every Christian, of coming boldly to the throne of grace, by that new and living way which God has consecrated for us, by the blood of his only-begotten Son; that it is, in short, to detract from the honour, and virtually to deny the mercy and faithfulness, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, our Church rejects and abhors as impious, the calling upon Saints as well as the worship of images. 5. Another doctrine of the Romish Church which was brought to the same test was, that of Transubstantiation; which means, that by the act of consecration, the whole substance of the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, is changed into the real substance of the body and blood of Christ. Now such

a change our Reformers wisely judged, even were it possible, would be altogether needless. The Lord's Supper is a feast for the soul, and not for the body. We come to it to seek a spiritual union with Christ by faith, and a participation in the benefits purchased for us by his precious blood-shedding. And how

could the feeding upon His actual material body and blood conduce to this? In order to meet the favorite argument derived from the words of Christ at the institution of this ordinance, "Take, eat, this is my body;" and "drink ye all of this, for this is my blood," it was only necessary to refer to other parts of Scripture which furnish numberless instances of the same form of speech, by which the word is is used for signifies, a form so common amongst men in all ages, that it is difficult to conceive how so many should have been caught by so vain and childish an argument. Thus we find that Joseph, when interpreting Pharaoh's dream, says, "The seven kine are seven years; and the seven ears of corn are seven years.' In Rev. i. 20, it is said, "The stars are the angels of the seven Churches:" and St. Paul (1 Cor. x. 4.) says, the Israelites "drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ," i.e., signified Christ; it was Christ figuratively and sacramentally. But even without these instances of the frequent use of this idiom, it is astonishing how the words could be so misunderstood as to make them involve an impossibility. The works and ways of God are often above our reason, but they are never contrary to it. But

to imagine that Jesus, who was then sitting in human form alive at the table, could break and give his then mortal body to be eaten, and yet, that it should remain entire, would be altogether contrary to our reason. And his glorified body, which is now in heaven, though no longer mortal, is still material; the same with which He arose from the grave and ascended thither, and as such, it is incapable of Omnipresence. It is an impossibility that a material body should be everywhere or in many places at the same time, which it must be, if received entire by every one in the Lord's Supper; that it should be one and yet many; always whole, yet often broken; received entire by every communicant, yet always at God's right hand. Besides, the fact that the bread and wine remain the same in substance after consecration that they were before is manifest to all our senses, (the sight, the touch, &c.,) so that we must deny their evidence, as well as that of our reason, before we can admit so monstrous a doctrine as Transubstantiation. Therefore, because they saw that in the adoration yielded to the consecrated wafer, this doctrine gave rise to the grossest idolatry, and because too they found that in Apostolic and primitive times such a doctrine was utterly unknown, our Reformers rejected it altogether, and many of them shed their blood rather than profess a belief in it.

6. In the same manner they dealt with the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass; in which is maintained that Christ is truly offered again from

time to time by the Priest as a sacrifice for the sins of men. They found that the holy Apostles knew of no such repeated sacrifice. They speak of Christ being but once offered. Thus St. Paul says expressly, (Heb. vii. 27.) that Christ" needeth not daily like the High-Priests of old to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sin and then for the people's, for this He died once when he offered up Himself." And again, "where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." "For by one offering, He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Hence, our church has decided that to attempt to repeat the offering up of Christ again and again as is done in the Mass, is a virtual denial of the sufficiency of that one oblation of Himself once offered for the great purposes for which it was designed, and as such is contrary to Scripture, and is impious and heretical.

7. From this false and defective view of the atonement made by Jesus Christ for sin, arose the dangerous doctrines of Penance and Purgatory, both of which imply a measure of temporal punishment, suffered as a partial satisfaction to God for sin; the former in this life, the latter in the life to come. With regard to Penance, I will only observe, that although in the primitive Church acts of penance were often imposed upon Christians who had openly disgraced their holy profession, this was never done with a view to making satisfaction for sin, but merely as a wholesome discipline for the offender. Indeed, it is easy to gather from Scripture, that whatever

temporal punishments God may choose to inflict upon men and especially upon believers, are not designed to eke out the satisfaction for their sins, since this is already perfectly made by the sacrifice of Christ, but for the benefit of the sinner, either to warn him of his danger, or to cure him of his sin. "He chasteneth not for his pleasure, but for our profit." But not to dwell upon the subject of Penance, I must add a few words before I conclude, on the other doctrine, that of Purgatory.

Purgatory, let me remind you, is represented as a state of torment in which the souls of those who are destined eventually to go to heaven, are doomed after death to pass a portion of time before they are admitted there, in order to purify them from sin, and to complete the satisfaction for venial sins which they had not fully made by penance during their life-time. You perceive that it is not intended for those who die in impenitence-for they go at once into hell-but for true penitents, for believers in Jesus, for heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Nor is it designed to take away mortal and heinous sins, but venial offences, sins of a lighter kind. So that the Romish doctrine in this particular, involves this singular absurdity, that whilst the blood of Jesus Christ avails to cleanse the true penitent from sins of a deeper dye, such as idolatry, murder, theft, or perjury: the same precious blood will not avail to take away the guilt of less open and daring offences; for these, though absolved from greater sins, he must suffer