been said that Lords Fingal and Trimbleston are as competant judges of ecclesiastical subjects, as the Bishops or Pope. According to the principles of the Catholic Church, no individual has a right to interpret the Scriptures, save in the sense of that church; nor to act or decide in matters of religious concern,otherwise than according to ecclesiastical laws and discipline. This is the doctrine of the church; any individual denying this doctrine, ceases to be a catholic." Mr. O'D. "I differ with you; it is no such thing." Mr. C. "Sir, I have taken some pains to acquire a competent knowledge of the religion, which, as a pastor, I am bound to teach; I have taken more pains in that way than you have, and I believe I am not over-rating my slender powers by saying, that I am as capable of acquiring knowledge as you are. You will therefore allow me to state those principles. If you dissent from the tenets of the Catholic church, you have a right to separate from her communion. But you have no right to impugn those tenets in the face of a Catholic congregation, and to the obstruction of their pastor." Here the dialogue ceased.

CHESTERFIELD AND BOLINGBROKE
AT CHURCH.

The Earl of Chesterfield was induced by the extraordinary accounts which he heard of Whitfield's eloquence, to go and hear him preach, taking some friends of the same rank along with him. They were all so much pleased, that they expressed to the worthy divine a wish to hear him again the

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same day. Whitefield says, " I therefore preached again in the evening, and went home never more surprised at any incident in my life. All behaved quite well, and were in some degree affected. The Earl of Chesterfield thanked me, and said, 'Sir, I will not tell you what I shall tell others, how I approve of you.'

At another time, the celebrated Bolingbroke come to hear Mr. Whitefield; sat like an archbishop, and said, the preacher "had done great justice to the divine attributes in his discourse."

DISGRACEFUL OUTRAGE.

During the commonwealth, the Rev. Mr. Harrison of Sandwich was summoned before the Sequestrators, but refused to attend. On the Sunday following, which he was engaged in the prayer before sermon, an officer entered the church with a file of soldiers, and commanded him to descend from the pulpit; which he did not regard, but continued to pray quite unconcerned. The officer then gave the word of command to the soldiers, to make ready and present; when perceiving the minister still unmoved, he did not venture to give the last word of command, but ordered the soldiers to go and drag him out of the pulpit; which was done immediately, and he was carried in triumph to prison, where he was confined some time.

CASUISTICAL DOCTRINE.

A strain of preaching prevailed in the seventeenth century, which was called casuistical doctrine, consisting in the solution of particular cases of conscience. Sometimes great acuteness and accuracy were displayed on these occasions; and the principal defect of this system seems to have been, that preachers formed their discourses upon ideas of abstract reason, instead of the suggestions of sentiment. Yet so much good effect was produced in this way, that serious and thoughtful men imagined they saw their own cases described in these discourses; and thought, and often justly thought, themselves greatly edified. Dr. Sanderson, a learned and worthy man, and one of the chaplains to Charles the First, was an able divine of this sort. The king used to say, that "he carried his ears to hear the preachers; but he carried his conscience to hear Dr. Sanderson."

BORROWING A SERMON.

Dr. Adam Ferguson, formerly professor of Moral Philosophy in the college of Edinburgh, was of a benevolent disposition, and not only assisted his friends with his purse as far as it went, but also with his genius, which was infinitely more extensive. Sometimes he lent or presented sermons to his friends. One of these happened to preach a very profound discourse on the superiority of mental qualifications over external accomplishments, thatshowed a thorough acquaintance with the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle.

The clergyman in whose church the divine had delivered the sermon, was at first greatly surprised at hearing such observations and arguments from a worthy neighbour, whom he well knew to be totally unacquainted with the philosophy of Plato, or any other ancient or modern. When service was over, he paid the young man many high compliments on his discourse, and added, that it really much exceeded the highest expectations he had ever entertained from the talents of the preacher. The gentleman in reply told him honestly, that he knew very little about those matters himself, but that he had borrowed the sermon from his friend Adam Ferguson.

A HIT AT METAPHYSICS.

Dr. Stebbing of Gray's Inn, speaking in one of his sermons of Hume, and some other metaphysical writers, said sarcastically: "Our thoughts are naturally carried back, on this occasion, to the author of the first philosophy, who likewise engaged to open the eyes of the public. He did so; but the only discovery they found themselves able to make was, that they were naked."

JOHN CALVIN.

Jerome Bolsec, who distinguished himself at Geneva for the opposition to the tenets of Calvin, delivered on one occasion a violent discourse against the doctrine of predestination. Calvin was among his auditors; but hiding himself in the crowd, was not noticed by Bolsec, which probably made him the

bolder. As soon as Bolsec had ended his discourse, Calvin stood up, and confuted all he had been saying.

He answered, overset, and confounded him," says Beza, "with so many testimonies from the word of God; with so many passages, chiefly from St. Augustine; in short, with so many solid arguments, that every person was miserably ashamed for him, except the brazen-faced monk himself." A magistrate who was present, not content with the triumph which Calvin had achieved over Bolsec in argument, was pleased to send the monk to prison. His sentiments were made the subject of a serious judicial enquiry; and at last, with the advice of the Swiss churches, the senate of Geneva declared Bolsec convicted of sedition and Pelagianism; and as such, banished him from the territory of the republic, on pain of being whipped if he should return thither.

VINCENT DE PAUL.

Vincent de Paul, a French catholic priest, who was born in 1576, early distinguished himself for pulpit oratory, and for his zeal in founding charitable institutions. He successively established a mission for the reformation of galley slaves; a foundling hospital for forsaken children; and a nunnery of nurses, bound by vow to visit and attend the sick poor, gratis. He also preached sermons, and obtained collections in behalf of the lunatic asylums at Bicetre, and at the Saltpetriere; and to the local infirmaries at Marseilles and at Santreine, his eloquence rendered repeated and lasting services. Such men are the saints of humanity, whose memory should be cherished.