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hands without any power to act, but according to the course which they have prescribed, this, I say, is hypocrisy so barefaced, that I must believe it will rise up in judgment against them, before God, as a great aggravation of their otherwise deep guilt.

In truth I know not, after all, if this single tenet of persecution ought not to be considered as the most sure mark of Anti-Christ. Certainly it must operate as the most decisive reason against uniting with any church by whom it is maintained. Could we persuade ourselves that we might innocently submit to all the fopperies and the tricks which are daily practised by Roman, ists, under the name of devotions; could we bear to be present while images are worshipped, and bread and wine receive the adoration which is only due to God; yet we could never conceive ourselves justified in pronouncing, and in compelling others to pronounce that all this is right and sound doctrine; in thus calling "good

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evil; and evil good*." But there is no medium allowed by the church of Rome. We must be wholly hers, or be by her devoted to destruction.

Indeed the deliberation, and the circumstances with which her anathemas are pronounced, are among the most prominent and

Isaiah, v. 20.

horrible of her blasphemies; and, as if this were not sufficient of itself, she increases the impiety by derogating from the divine Majesty in the very act, while she devotes her victims to the vengeance of Peter and Paul in the same breath with that of Gods..

Such are a few of the particulars by which we prove our separation from the church of Rome to rest on grounds very different from any which can be alledged by our fellow Protestants for separating from us. So flagrant indeed are these abuses, so manifest these corruptions, that, as we have seen, fully to justify them has baffled the arts of even the most subtle advocates of that church. Unable to support any argument on the justice of the case, they have endeavoured to silence us by recrimination. They bring forward, and exaggerate our differences among ourselves. The variations of the Protestant churches have been a favourite theme with those who could no otherwise recommend an implicit submission to the "commandments "of men." Deeply indeed must we lament the divisions which have torn the church in these, as in the former days; with concern we must observe, that no era of Christianity has been

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36 Such is the conclusion of all papal bulls: "Indignationem omnipotentis Dei et beatorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum."

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totally exempt from that misfortune. Nor indeed has this been in any degree less the case with the church of Rome than with any other churches. Yet deeply as we must regret our share of this calamity, anxious as we all should be to repair the breaches which have been made in the unity of our ecclesiastical establishment, we cannot but see that no peace can be desirable but such as rests upon solid foundations, such as is built upon the divine word, and not upon human inventions. To trust in these is "in vain to worship God*." It is not indeed by sacrificing the truth that any real union can be established.

There is, however, nothing in all this to prevent, but rather much to enforce, the propriety of our agreeing where we can agree; in rejecting and condemning at least what we all (I speak of Protestants at large) agree should be rejected and condemned. It is a great step to wisdom, even to heavenly wisdom, to keep clear of that which is manifest folly. You must therefore, I trust, approve of the anxiety with which I entreat you to bear in mind the state of darkness from which we have escaped. You will join your charitable, nay fervent, wishes to mine, for the conversion of our misguided brethren of the Popish communion; you will pray

* Matt. xv. 9.

that they may at length hear that warning voice, those awful, yet gracious words, which have such a manifest reference to the church of Rome, that I scruple not to apply them in their full extent, "Come out of her my people, that ye be not "partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not "of her plagues*."

* Revel. xviii. 4.

SERMON VII.

HEBREWS xiii. 8.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.

THE immutability which, in this passage, is so directly ascribed to our Lord, is, in various other parts of Scripture, most expressly, as you may well remember, declared to belong to God only. And this is material to be remembered; for the consequence is obvious; and it will hold good, whether we consider the proposition as applying to our Lord's person, to his promises, or his doctrine; for undoubtedly it can be said of no creature, more especially it can be said of no human being, that in any of these points he

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