: that the third definition is the most appropriate he came in to see the guests, and condemned one for not having on what was provided for him. Acts xiii. 48, "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." TETAGMENOI, here rendered ordained, is defined-1st, determined for, disposed for; 2nd, appointed, ordered; 3rd, placed, or set in order; 4th, destined. The first definition is most agreeable to our text, "There is no respect of persons with God." Rom. viii. 29-30," For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Here, say Calvinists, is a golden chain-foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. Yes, it is more than golden-every link of it is composed of the most precious gems of divine love; but, unfortunately for their theory, the first link in the chain-not in their chain-destroys their system. Verse 28," And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." The character mentioned here is the first link in the chain—“ them that love God, them who are called according to his purpose." The called according to his purpose are all who, hearing the gospel, believe and obey it." "Whom he did foreknow :" did not God foreknow all the human family? Yes, every individual of it. What foreknowledge does he refer to? To the foreknowledge of those who love him, and who are the called according to purpose. "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to purpose. For whom he did foreknow," &c. Rom. ix. 11 does not refer to the eternal, but to the present state. Jacob was the chosen progenitor of the Jewish nation, in preference to Esau. See A. Campbell's preface to the new translation of the New Testament on this passage. The vessels of wrath mentioned in the 22nd verse, "fitted to destruction," were so fitted by themselves, (see chap. ii. 3-10.) The case of Pharoah is also mentioned in this chapter. Did not God endure him with much longsuffering? He was a blood-thirsty tyrant: he commanded the midwives to destroy all the male children when they were born. Justice called for punishment, but God spared him. Did not God visit him with ten plagues, and remonstrate with him as often by Moses and Aaron? And when the last and most fearful judgment - the slaying of all the first-born of man and beast throughout the land of Egypt - had induced him to let the Israelites go, did not God manifest his indignation against him and his host in the Red sea, for their longcontinued impenitence, followed by this fresh act of rebellion ? Various views are entertained of the expression, "God hardened the heart of Pharoah." Very probably all that God did in this matter was the removal of the plague which he sent ; and, like many others who profess amendment in trouble, when it is removed, Pharoah looked at the gains of oppression, and kept hold of his slaves, that he might continue to enrich himself and his subjects by the product of their labor. One thing is evident, that it was subsequent to the address he gave the riebrew midwives that God hardened his heart. It has been remarked, that God sometimes dements those he intends to destroy. Look at Pharoah's command, "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools, if it be a son then ye shall kill him." God did him no injustice, in treating him as he did, but spared him long in his iniquity. Again, Rom. ix. 15, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." By this expression we learn that God will have mercy on some, but the whom is here a secret. Isaiah lv. 7 is a key, which shows us the whom, and the wherefore :-"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." The mercy is upon character, without respect of persons. Eph. i. 4-5, "According as he hath chosen us in him." The saints are here addressed; but to suit the Calvinistic idea, the expression would require to be, according as he hath chosen us to be put or brought into him; as it is, being in him, they are chosen to be holy and without blame before him, &c. Because of unbelief the Jews were broken off, and the Romans stood by faith, (Rom. xi. 20.) Well may all exclaim, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons!" Acts x. 34, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that believeth, and is immersed, shall be saved, but," &c. Let sinners understand that the gospel consists of three facts-1st, Christ died for our sins; 2nd, he was buried; 3rd, he rose the third day for our justification unto eternal life. To see the truths of these facts, is the belief of the gospel, which, followed by turning from sin unto God, and succeeded by immersion, secures pardon, introduces into the family of God, and is taking the way to everlasting glory -which way, if walked in, ends in bliss. LECTURES ON ROMAN CATHOLICISM. NO. I. THE GROWTH OF THE MAN OF SIN. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY. MAN has been gifted with an intense desire of elevation in the scale of being. It is a glorious gift—the angels share it with him: they, in the evolution of God's providence, seek the wisdom which shall raise them nearer to the throne of God-to the immeasurable vastness of the Divine Mind. And man, too-when God, from love to the being he had made, conversed with him as the evening breeze filled the waving boughs with sweet music man, too, gratified his soul's desire. for he conversed with the Divinity. And fallen man, when the Divine Being shrouded his countenance in an impenetrable veil, in after ages, has striven to grasp the hidden secrets of time. The Chaldean shepherd, when he gazed on the silent stars, Gliding, unchecked and calm, along the liquid sky, strove to wrest from them the secrets of human destiny: he sought from them the power to fathom the depths of the human soul-forgetful or ignorant that God, in mercy to man, had spared him the most hideous of all sights, a depraved human heart ;-and yet that lonely watcher of the stars was only seeking the gratification of one of the noblest attributes of humanity. But, alas for erring man! the noblest attributes of his nature, if severed from their relation to the Divine Mind, prove his greatest scourge !-they indeed beat him with many stripes. The harp that, touched by a master hand, awakens with its soft tones the thoughts of the past, causing memory to unbar the gates of the heart, and giving egress to a shadowy host of sweet and bitter thoughts-if it be struck by one unskilled, has lost its power-the strains which caused our hearts to give a responsive echo. are no longer heard the heart is shut, and weariness and disgust succeed. And the soul is like that harp. Let the hand of passion sweep over it, and it no longer gives glory to God--its harmony with the Divine Mind has ceased. That glorious attributethat desire for unending elevation, and Sallust reveals to us the reason of this ambition being so energetic and unvarying, when he profoundly remarks, concerning his fellow-country> men, that they preferred GLORY to WEALTH, because AMBITION approach when unguided by divine law, has degenerated into ambition. The polestar of man's soul is hidden under thick clouds, and he follows a fiery and a wandering meteor, which at length leaves him in eternal night. He no longer strives to rise to the like-ed nearer to virtue than did AVARICE. ness of his Creator-he desires to rise in comparison with his fellow-men: the applause of man is dearer to him than the blessing of God. How forcibly has the Master Genius pourtrayed the madness of man, when the fallen Wolsey exclaims- "Cromwell, I charge thee. fling away ambition. By that sin fell the angels: how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hop t› gain by it?" Christ, who, for the glory that was set before him, "endured the cross, and despised the shame," shows this attribute as consecrated, as in due relation to the Divine Mind. Napoleon, paving with bleeding hearts the way to a gorgeous throne-Attila, trampling down the fairest countries of the world under the hoofs of his Scythian cavalry-Mahomet, propagating his vile doctrines by the edge of the scimitar --these, and the endless train of inquisitors and conquerors, exemplify this faculty as severed from its relation to the Deity. If such be the fruits of one of his noblest attributes, man is indeed fallen! the The absence of divine revelation alone prevented the historian from discerning the use and relation of that element of true greatness. But when the Republic fell, and civil war was succeeded by its offspring, military despotism, the ambition of the Roman citizen no longer possessed a field sufficiently wide; and Paul, when he surveyed with a prophetic eye the course of Christianity, saw that the Roman whose ambition was restrained and crushed by the despotic rule of the Emperors, would seek for another field of action in the Christian church that he would be as indefatigable as ever in the gratification of the passion: nay, more so, for he was only enlarging its sphere- he would rule men's souls, and exult in the consciousness of greater power than his despot. The Apostle saw that wide as the rule of Rome-far as the Roman eagle ever flew-so far and wide would be the AMBITION of the Roman convert-that this glorious, yet perverted faculty, when combined with the traditions of the Jew, the speculations of the Greek and the Asiatic, and corrupted human nature, would produce a system so grasping in its rule so wide in its dominion—so hostile to the purposes of God, and the happiness of man-and yet springing from such small and apparently inadequate causes, that the Apostle aptly designated it as the "MYSTERY OF INIQUITY." When Christianity entered world, it had to contend with four powerful enemies: the corruption which had been accumulating in human nature during four thousand years, and had then reached its climax -the heathen priesthood-the traditions of Judaism--and the speculations of Grecian and Oriental philosophy. But that the omnipotence of the Divine Mind might be fully displayed, there was one other enemy, Paul gave to the disciples of Christ despotism; and at the time when the full and complete instruction in every Christian system began its work, the thing regarding the great apostacy→ whole civilized world was under Rohe predicted all the principles of which man sway, for the Roman citizen had this apostacy should be composed, in been filled with a colossal AMBITION, order that the disciples might be prowhich for many ages, despised the vided with an infallible 'test of recog allurements of wealth and sensuality;nition. He said, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter a falling away first, and that MAN OF times, some shall depart from the SIN be revealed, the son of perdition, faith, giving heed to seducing spirits who opposeth and exalteth himself and doctrines of devils, (or demons) above all that is called God, or that speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their is worshipped; so that he as God conscience seared with a hot iron, for- sitteth in the temple of God, showing bidding to marry, and commanding to himself that he is God." Such were abstain from meats, which God hath to be the doctrines, and the represencreated to be received with thanksgiv-tative of apostacy. But the Christian ing of them that believe, and know the is still further instructed-he is shown truth." There is one sign that Paul the tendency and result of these docmentions, deserving our particular at-trines :-"Ye have heard that Antitention -"having their conscience Christ shall come : even now are seared with a hot iron." It would there many Anti-Christ's, whereby strike the mind of Timothy with pe- we know that it is the last time." culiar force, as it referred to a method Yes, these doctrines of apostacy, when of curing disease, by extinguishing combined into one system, shall be the vitality of the diseased part by Anti-christ, Anti-christian, the enemy cautery-by the application of red- of God and the exalted Redeemer ! hot iron, a method practised in Eng- We have thus a perfect knowledge of land even in the last century. If this the system, the representative, and the expression of Paul's were to be ren- result of the apostacy. With a lamp dered in the English acceptation of lighted at the altar of revelation, we the term, it would read thus-" Hav- | shall now explore the dark mine of ing their conscience utterly dead." human history, to behold its developWhat a fearful portraiture of a lost ment, confident that the light which soul !-dead to all high and holy feel- could illumine the valley of the shaing-having lost all regard for moral dow of death, will not fail us here. law-using any means for the accomplishment of a purpose ruined past redemption condemned already! Well might Daniel's soul sink within him when he saw the hideous outline of the Man of Sin! He had been calm and unmoved when at the mouth of the furnace--he had not blenched when in the lion's den-he had seen the hand trace the death-doom of the King of Babylon, in letters of living fire-all this had he seen without dismay; but when he saw this last awful form, he said, "My thoughts much troubled me, and my countenance changed within me." - 66 The mystery of iniquity" was working in the members of the church at Rome, when Paul addressed his Epistle to them. Ambition was already rearing up its head, as an opponent to all constituted authority; and in consequence of this Paul gave them a positive command, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers.' The Roman convert thought that his admission into the kingdom of Christ absolved him from all allegiance to an earthly king; but Paul allowed no such reasoning. He says that "there is no power but of God-the powers that be are ordained of God." And as a final argument he continues thus: :- "Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordi Such were to be the doctrines of the apostacy; but the Christian's instruction was to be more complete. Paul foretold that all these vile prin-nance of God; and they that resist ciples would be concentrated-would find an earthly representative in the person of ONE MAN. "Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come shall receive to themselves damnation." Paul would not have tolerated any appeal to the "god of battles," or any other rebellion-loving divinity: he said that the punishment of all disobedience to authorised power, ever was to be" damnation." But he had not yet finished his remarks: he held up to them the mirror in which they might behold the workings of their own souls, divested of all specious self-deception. "He was a master-spirit: at his spells The heart gave up its secrets-like the mount Of Horeb, smitten by the Prophet's rod, Its hidden springs gushed forth." He told them that the ambition which prompted them to strive for mastery with the legislature, was a corrupt principle—that the desire to overturn authority did not spring from a love for mankind, but from guilty fear"for," says Paul, "rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ?-do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, BE AFRAID, for he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the MINISTER OF GOD-a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." The Christian's duty was to have laid the axe to the root of the tree to have purified his own heart, and have persuaded his fellowmen to purify their's also, since he might be sure, that if the corruptions of human nature were removed -if every thought and feeling were in subjection to the principles of divine law, all corrupt institutions would inevitably fall-the judicial sword, the prison, the stake, and the cross, would quickly pass away, only to be remembered as things which once were—as the offspring of the iron age. The warning of the Apostle was given in vain the same passion which animated the ruined archangel, whispered to the Roman--in the old times "Princes and sceptred men bowed at thy feet"— serve me, and it shall be so yet again. He listened to the voice of the charmer, and became the earthly symbol of the fallen angel. While the ambition of the Roman Bishop was gradually unfolding, no bold and daring measures roused the attention of the Eastern and African churches. His plans were marked out and executed-silently: animated by an unquenchable thirst for supremacy, each succeeding Bishop executed and enlarged the plan of his predecessors: when one died, another steadily marched on to the accomplishment of the same great end universal dominion. These men were gifted with a strange self-denial: it seemed as if they were dead to the passions of our nature. Most men desire to see the fruits of their labors -to reap that which they have sown ; but these men were content to lay the foundation of a grand empire, though they knew that while they were changed into dust, others weuld enjoy the wealth, the temporal and spiritual power for which they themselves had striven-that the triple crown would be placed on other brows than theirs ; yet, like the Patriarchs and Prophets of the antediluvian age, they saw in the future a dark and shrouded figure, whose giant stature and vast proportions showed them that their labors would not be in vain—and they died contented. And how consummately prudent were their first measures! The Roman Emperor had linked the church with the state, in order to make the former a useful and submissive servant. There was no open objection made, but instead, a mental resolve to bow the Emperor into submission to the church. The bishops of the churches were wont to assemble in General Council -a practice essentially anti-christian, for they thus usurped authority over faith and conscience, whereas the only province of the Councils was expediency. The Roman Bishop made no objection to them at first: he attended himself, or sent representatives. If they passed decrees opposed to his wishes, he did not openly wage war |