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When my lips were to pronounce the truth ye propose to me, and which till now I have not known, would it depend on my own will that my sentiments were not conformable to my words? Why then would ye force me to mock your credulity, if ye hold my protests as sincere or why should I be perfidious before God and become ridiculous in your eyes, if, as prudent men, ye consider them as suspicious? If I act with candour and good faith, I draw down upon me all the inexorable vengeance of the law; but by making use of duplicity and dissimulation, I become in your opinion, deserving of pardon. As ministers of the God of truth, how is it ye think to increase his glory, by giving to him as adorers the weak and perjured? Suffer me to tell you your conduct ought to be very different with me. If I embrace error, because I am dazzled by its appearances of truth, I shall be no other than an impostor, and, at most, deserving of your contempt; whilst if I embrace it with a full knowledge before me, I shall be a madman, entitled to your pity rather than your indignation.'

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"Thy opinions," ye answer me, "deserve punishment, because they contradict the infallibility of God himself in the dogmas of religion;"-But I would ask, is it by fire and sword these dogmas are rendered more credible? If the most obvious truths become obscure under the sensations of pain, will those which exceed our capacity be then rendered more perceptible? And even granted that I am unfaithful to the Divinity, is it ye who are charged to avenge his cause? May it not rather be said, that it is your own interests, and not those of God; a spirit of faction, and not a zeal for religion, which impel you to anticipate his justice? the virtue most pleasing to him is charity, can a holocaust be grateful to him, in which ye so egregiously infringe its precepts? will be induced to believe that ye pity my aberrations when ye hasten my ruin, which, possibly, at a future time I might have escaped? How is it ye can feel an interest for my salvation, when ye cut short that time God had, perhaps, granted me for my conversion? Neither does it suffice that ye should consider my malady as incurable, since the Church, as a tender mother, never despairs of the recovery of her children? If I merit death, because I object to truth from not knowing it, what punishment ought not ye to undergo, who, knowing it, treat it with no less regard than ye do error? Confess rather that it is distrust in that religion whose eternal duration ye blazon forth, as promised by its author, and not its belief, that impels you to sustain it in a manner so foreign to the work of God, and so much opposed to the sentiments of humanity. I may perhaps have erred in not giving my assent to dogmas it was difficult for me to understand; but ye as ministers of a religion it is your duty to uphold, discredit it by means of terror: nay, ye even deny it in a solemn manner, by attributing to it a character which only belongs to sects founded by men, whereby its falsity is argued."

Cease then, and cease, also, ye miserably deluded people, to celebrate among yourselves as a triumph the punishment ye prepare for my constancy, or, if ye choose, my obstinacy, since it has even rested with myself to deprive you of this exultation. At least spare VOL. IX. N. S.

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to the Catholic religion, if ye really seek its respect and increase, the shame that its victories should depend on the will of its enemies. Kather declare that it has not been the rights of the Divinity, but the law of the strongest, which has braced your arm to vengeance; and this not for the purpose of doing good, but to sustain hypocrites, and add to their number.' Vol. I. pp. 94-99.

It cannot excite our surprise, that the attempt to introduce this prime instrument of intolerance and cruelty in the hands of ecclesiastics, should have awakened apprehensions of danger in the minds of the people who were threatened with its terrors, or that it has been productive of popular disquietude and tumults. Rulers who were prepared to sanction its proceedings, and to allow of its establishment in their kingdoms, might well be suspected of losing sight of the proper duties of their office, and of sacrificing the interests of their subjects, to the bigoted caprice of arrogant and mischievous men, aiming at the sole control of religious profession, and not scrupling to use the most infamous means of accomplishing their detestable purpose. If we would contemplate the most humiliating spectacle, we may find it in the servitude of monarchs and states, to the will of a priestly usurpation; all whose designs and conduet were as much opposed to the proper authority of civil governors, as to the rights of subjects, and the legitimate ends of the civil constitutions of nations. To permit the erection of tribunals in their dominions, before which their subjects might be cited, and made to experience the most rigorous treatment, independent of their authority; and in the character of executioners to receive as culprits from the hands of a monkish cabal, persons to whom, but for such ghostly dictators, they would have presented themselves as natural and mighty protectors, was such a divestment of all the true glory of their stations, as might seem incredible, were not the fact among the best authenticated records of past and present times. Among men in whom the common feelings and principles of human nature were not utterly extinguished, it was impossible for the spirit of resistance to be dormant, when the slavery of mankind to priests and monks, was in the train of measures, which they saw in full preparation. Resistance was frequently provoked by the reiterated endeavours of the partisans of the Inquisition, to set up its tribunals in the different countries of Europe; but it was most effectually roused in the Low Countries, where it was so well directed and so spiritedly maintained, as to produce the most admirable effects;-effects which were gloriously visible in the complete deliverance and liberties of Holland. The following paragraphs will revive in the recollection of many of our readers, the brilliant heroism displayed in that arduous and successful struggle, and may proba

bly excite in others, the wish of enlarging their knowledge of the period to which they refer.

The Low Countries rebelled against Spain, in consequence of the same king Philip persisting to give activity to the Inquisition, which had been established there by his father Charles V., though it had remained in a state of suspense, owing to the opposition of the inhabitants; and also to introduce it into Brabant, where it had hitherto been impossible to effect its erection. In the year 1567, he consequently sent inquisitor Alonso del Canto to superintend its organization, under the rigorous form the inquisition had assumed, through the efforts of Torquemada. The Flemish, who till then had lived. under a constitution somewhat liberal, and therefore trembled at the bare name of the Inquisition, seeing their privileges trampled to the ground, and their remonstrances disregarded, appealed to force as the only refuge left them. All orders of society, from the hardy rustic to the highest nobles and clergy, rose up against the establish ment, with an enthusiasm only equalled by the implacable hatred, with which they detested so monstrous an institution. They considered it contrary to divine and human laws, more cruel than the greatest tyrants of history, and an infernal invention, intended to build up the fortunes of a few wretches, insatiable in avarice and ambition, out of the spoils of honourable families, and at the expence of public happiness. They next proceeded to form a regular conspiracy, binding themselves to each other's aid and defence, and calling down the anger of God and man, if they laid down their arms before they had completely secured their liberty.

The Duke of Alva, Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, a good soldier but a sanguinary character, proceeded to suppress this rebellion, at the head of an army chiefly composed of veterans. The people, > inexperienced in the art of war, and badly equipped, were over thrown in the first onsets, being unable to withstand the impetuosity, and guard against the stratagems of the Spanish general. But neither these misfortunes, nor the atrocious punishments inflicted by the Duke, on Counts Egmont and Horn, as well as on the other persons of distinction, whom he ordered to be beheaded; nor the consternation he spread throughout all the provinces, by condemning thousands of citizens to the sword, gallows, and flames, were able to induce the people to submit to the Inquisition; nor did this parade of violence produce any other effect, than to confirm the idea they already entertained of its cruelty. Daily irritated still more, misfortunes only added to the courage of the insurgents, and they acquired new energies, when the heavy chains which the conquered had to endure, rushed upon their minds. The result of these inconsiderate

oppressive plans of the Spanish Government, was the dismemberment of the Seven Provinces, which afterwards constituted the republic of Holland, by which means the then colossal power of Spain was so greatly diminished, and the national character tarnished." Vol. I. PP: 117-120.

So perish all attempts to enslave those on whom God has set his image, by enduing them with reason, and whom he can

make immortal by the illuminations of his spirit, and the communications of his grace! So united be the feelings and the sentiments, and so heroic and determined be the resistance of the oppressed, in all cases in which lawless power aspires to the dominion of the human conscience, and arrogates the office of being its judge! And such, while the earth endures, be the success attendant on all the struggles and the conflicts in which man associated with man contends for that true liberty, in the possession of which alone he can feel and assert the dignity of his nature, and pursue the objects of a rational felicity! May the sun, at every successive rising, be pouring his irradiations among newly emancipated tribes of men, till all be free; and with the utter overthrow of all despotic power, and the extinction of its very name, may the bitter sorrows of the injured and oppressed cease, and the universal prevalence of truth prove to be the dominion of happiness and peace. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, and let them that hate him flee before him. 'Come forth out of thy royal chamber, O Prince of all the kings of the earth; put on the visible robes of thy imperial majesty; take up that unlimited sceptre which thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee; for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and 'all creatures sigh to be renewed."

(To be continued.)

Art. IV. The Country Pastor; or, Fifteen Sermons, Doctrinal, Practical, and Experimental, designed for Parochial and Domestic Use to which is annexed, A Funeral Discourse, on the Death of the Rev. Earl Gilbee, D. D. By the Rev. George Bugg, B. A. Author of "Spiritual Regeneration not necessarily connected with "Baptism," &c. 12mo. pp. 354. London. 1817.

THESE discourses are plain, serious, evangelical, and judi

cious and considering them as designed to be used as Sermons, we do not think it any real disparagement to them to say, that neither in point of style, nor of thought, are they any thing more than plain and serious. They treat the following subjects: The right Employment of the Mind-The Corruption of Human Nature-The Guilt and Misery of Fallen Man-The Nature of Regeneration-The Necessity of Regeneration-The Fountain of all Grace-Satan vanquished-The Nature and Efficacy of Divine Faith-Hope resting on Divine Truth-The Efficacy of Christ's Love-The Throne of GraceThe High Priest of our Profession-The important InquiryThe Christian's Pattern-The Believer copying his Pattern.

This volume, though by no means of a controversial character, is evidently written under the perpetual recollection of the important controversies which at present rend the body of which Mr. Bugg is a member. We are pleased, indeed, with the manly, earnest, and magnanimous manner in which he avowe

his conviction of the vital importance of the agitated questions. Mr. B. seems duly impressed with the persuasion, that the salvation accomplished for men by our Lord Jesus Christ, has no part or agreement with the salvation devised by men for themselves; that Divine Truth is not a deposite committed to the discretion of its ministers, to be bartered, even in part, for peace, much less for a shew of uniformity. He is not of the number of those (it may be well meaning persons) who spend themselves in working at a reconciliation between light and darkness. He is, we doubt not, convinced, that a compromise, or, as it would perhaps be termed, a conciliatory line of conduct, on the part of the servants of Christ, is nothing less than treason to their Master, and cruelty to their fellow men; that the ingenuity which would be employed in representing the difference, as amounting only to the value of a logomachy, can be excused from the suspicion of originating in the craft of secular priestism only, by the supposition of the extremest simplicity of a novice. In a word, that so long as extrinsic circumstances bind together, in the same communion, those who know the truth, and those who know it not, professed agreement, were it practicable, is not desirable; that tranquillity is a greater evil than contention; and that the stillness of peace must ever be fatal to the cause of Him who came to send fire on the earth," and "not peace, "but a sword,”

The doctrine of regeneration,' remarks Mr. Bugg, more than any other doctrine, is vital, important, and experimental: it involves the salvation or damnation of our hearers. If we, then (addressing himself to his brethren) should be ourselves ignorant of this divine change, we shall almost necessarily lead others into error respecting it. God may, indeed, sometimes bless means for an end never contemplated by the instructor, but it is a general truth, that we cannot teach others, for their good, what we know not ourselves. Should we, then, be "blind leaders of the blind." we must expect to "fall," with the addition of their guilt upon our souls. If we, instead of being "moved by the Holy Ghost." to teach sinners this pure, this only way to heaven, either omit this doctrine, or take pains to pervert it, make it unnecessary, or explain it away, if we consider it as a mere relative privilege confined to baptism, or describe it as simply a change of religious sentiments, or only a reformation from vice, we deceive the souls of those who are committed to our carewe lay a most awful stumbling block in the very threshold of their salvation; we thus seal up, as it were, their souls in mental blindness; and we thus ensure our own damnation, with this tremendous accumulation of guilt-God will" require their blood" at our hands!' p. 72.

To those who, with Mr. Bugg, entertain, upon this fundamental doctrine, sentiments so just and so serious, how painful must be the recollection of the many thousand congregations in

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