mortality are over, and the conflicts with corruption and all the enemies of your spiritual welfare are over, that this supreme felicity shall be obtained. Escaped from the wreck of a decaying body, your immortal spirit shall be an eternal inhabitant of a deathless world. You shall appear as one among the countless myriads who shall surround the throne of the Lamb, wearing crowns of life of brilliant and unfading glory. When a few earthly monarchs meet to deliberate on the destinies of nations, how do the chroniclers of this world's transactions summon up all their powers of description and of flattery to magnify the importance of the rare occurrence; but the vastest assembly on earth, the most splendid concourse of the monarchs of earth, dwindle into utter insignificancy when compared to the meeting of all the ransomed of the Lord in heaven-every saint shall have in his hand a palm of victory, in his mouth a song of triumph, and on his head a crown of life. Contemplate through the medium of prophecy the multitude, which no man can number, arrayed in white robes, and listen to their lofty song. With united voice they sing, Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God, and to his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

Meditate,

2nd. On the glorious giver.—It is Christ who is to bestow the crown of life. Those who are to wear it have not won it by their own prowess, obtained it by their own merit, or inherited it by their natural birth. It is given freely by Him by whose blood it was procured, and by whose munificence it is bestowed. What shall be the emotions of the redeemed when they receive this inestimable gift from Him who created the heavens, formed the earth, and gave life to every order of animated being! How shall their hearts glow with unutterable emotions when this royal diadem of immortality shall be placed on their heads by Him whose toilsome life and excruciating death procured it for them! With one simultaneous burst of gratitude shall they cry, "Thou hast made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign with thee." It is beyond the power of imagination to conceive how they shall feel when those hands, still bearing the print of the nails by which he was fixed to the accursed tree, shall hold out the crown of life as the glorious token of his victory for them, and of their victory through him. When "on the cross he spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly;" and then he vanquished death," and "him that had the power of death, that is the devil." Eternity will seem too short to show forth all his praise. Reflect,

3rd. On the solemn period at which this crown shall be bestowed. The text directs our expectations forward to the solemn period of dissolution, when this reward shall be obtained. This advantage is peculiar to Christianity. There are many circumstances associated in our minds with death which render it truly appalling. The pains, the griefs, the dying conflict, the shroud, the coffin, the dark grave, and the consequent corruption. The very thought of being torn from this warm and living world-from kind friends and endeared companions, rends the heart. But the bright prospects

unfolded in the gospel to the departing Christian, reconcile him to all these, and secure for him a glorious victory over the king of terrors. At death the world's conquering hero lays down his crown, and leaves all his worldly glory behind him. He has no communion with those who herald his praise, sculpture on his tomb the paltry symbols of royalty, or with those emblems distinguishing the place, which keeps a monarch's dust from the mass of those, who tenant with him the regions of the dead. But at death the Christian triumphs. Then he puts off his armour, and receives his crown. His conflicts terminate, his enemies are for ever defeated, and death is swallowed up in victory. Instead of death killing the immortal inhabitant, he has merely pulled down the frail tabernacle in which it was imprisoned, and allowed it to escape to glory, honour, and immortality. When we remember that it is the deathless spirit that thinks, feels, and enjoys, we are in some measure prepared to imagine the happy and glorious transition which takes place when a redeemed soul passes from time into eternity, leaves an emaciated and putrescent body to dwell with kindred spirits; and is severed from weeping friends to behold the face of Jesus. How great its transport when the music of heaven, the songs of angels, and the glories of eternity burst on its enraptured ears and astonished vision, and when, it makes its first attempt to join in harmony with the countless throng, who are celebrating the triumphs of redeeming love.

But the crown of life shall be given in the most solemn and public manner to every believer at the resurrection of the just. The transactions of the day of judgment shall be awfully and inconceivably grand. Imagination staggers under the load of magnificent images by which its dread occurrences are represented in Scripture. When the last sand has dropt from the hour-glass of time, then shall the whole system of our world begin to give way. The sun shall grow dim, the moon become as blood, the stars be quenched by the brilliancy of a more glorious light. The vaulted arch of heaven shall open, and the mighty Judge appear in his own glory, in the glory of his Father, and attended by all his angels. The archangel shall herald his approach, and blow the trumpet which shall announce the commencement of the last assize. Then shall the throne of judgment be set, and the books be opened. The graves shall give up the dead that are in them, and the sea the dead that are in it. Then the living shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and all the generations of men shall meet in one vast assembly, in the presence of faithful and fallen angels, to receive their changeless doom. Methinks I see the great white throne-the universal Judge-the mighty throng; there you shall stand-there I must appear. At that dread tribunal we must meet face to face, and give an account of all our privileges, and of this evening's service. Then the sentence shall be pronounced, which shall never be removed. Hear it, ye faithful followers of the Lamb, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared you from the foundation of the world." Then shall ye receive the crown of life, and be admitted into eternal glory. Hear it, ye neglecters of the great salvation, and tremble at your awful doom, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his

for

angels." "Then shall the heavens pass away with a great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." Then an eternal order of things shall commence. Hell shall remain to be the prison-house in which the ungodly shall be tormented for ever with the devil and his angels. Heaven shall remain to be the endless habitation of the righteous, where they shall dwell with Jesus, and all holy beings, and cast their crowns at the feet of him whose death saved them, and sing without ceasing, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing -salvation be to the Lamb that was slain."

In conclusion, I call on you to continue faithful to Jesus in defiance of every opposition, even unto death. Every motive which is fitted to operate on a rational being is presented to you in the word of God. The Bible speaks to your hopes and to your hearts, to your desire of happiness and your dread of suffering, to your hope of heaven and your horror of hell. Oh! could I secure for you a repetition of that vision which John saw when in banishment for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus, it would produce a powerful impression on your mind. Were the heavens now to open and disclose the glories of its inhabitants, their number, their songs, their palms, and their crowns, how would you long to join their company and share their blessedness. These objects you cannot see by the eye of sense, but faith can penetrate within the veil, and realize all the visions recorded in this book. While you read it, in the exercise of faith you hear their lofty anthems, you behold their glory, you listen to their welcomes; and the voice of the glorified Redeemer falls on your ear and rouses all your dormant energies. Your failing courage is revived, and your staggering purpose is confirmed. You hear him saying, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Amen.

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY; or the People's Antidote against ROMANISM and PUSEYISM. By the REV. JAMES GODkin. 8vo. 399 pp. J. SNow, London.

THE exigencies of the present times, arising from the vigorous efforts making both by avowed papists, and by their not less industrious allies, who, while they retain the honours and eat the bread of a professedly Protestant church, treacherously endeavour to sap its foundations, have aroused and called forth many champions earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. In this conflict many have acquitted themselves in a manner worthy the cause in which they have been engaged; and among those who have proved themselves to be skilful and valiant in defending the truth, the author of the work before us is entitled to honourable distinction. The doctrine of a superintending and controlling providence has

oftentimes been gloriously illustrated in the history of the church of Christ. Events which have threatened the destruction of the church have oftentimes been so overruled by the wisdom, power, and goodness of Jehovah, that not only have anticipated evils been averted, but good also has resulted from those very attempts which threatened to destroy.

For some time we have been almost ready to indulge fearful forebodings, as to the consequences likely to result from the activity of Romanists, and the efforts of the Oxford Tractarians to spread the principles of priestcraft and popery in the Anglican church. We however begin to hope, that the clouds which have gathered so much gloom and darkness,

"Are big with mercies and shall break,

In blessings on our heads."

The truth, we are convinced, has nothing to fear from the attacks of its adversaries, provided its friends are faithful to its interests. Danger to the cause of truth, does not arise so much from the efforts of the partisans of error, as from the lethargy of those who profess to be its friends. And if, by the renewed exertions of Papists and Puseyites, those who protest against the heresies of Popery are led to closer investigation of the truth, and to more vigorous exertions in defence of its sacred cause, they will thus most assuredly achieve glorious victories over ignorance and sin.

Hitherto sufficient attention has not been, generally, given to the questions of difference, subsisting between papists and those who truly regard the Bible as the only infallible standard of religious truth. Many persons who are professedly protestants, have ignorantly imbibed papistical sentiments, and have supposed that they were derived from the word of God. This has been the case in reference to many of the members of the established sect, usually designated the Church of England. For instance, they have supposed, that their ministers, episcopally ordained, possessed higher degrees of Divine authority for preaching the Gospel and administering its ordinances than any other ministers in this land could possibly possess; and that the sacraments, administered by them are, by some occult means, made efficacious to the salvation of those to whom they give them, and that the same ordinances administered by other ministers are utterly invalid.

The doctrines now advanced by the Puseyites, although more startling, are not more erroneous than others which have been for many years avowed by, what is very generally designated, the high church party. We therefore regard it as highly advantageous to the cause of truth, that the bold avowal of papistical sentiments by clergymen of the establishment, has aroused the slumbering energies of advocates of the truth; that a spirit of inquiry has been excited; that the dogmas of priestcraft are now subjected to searching examination; that the long-continued delusion, as to the wisdom and authority of the writings of the fathers, who succeeded the apostles, is now exploded; and we are at length fairly driven back,

from reliance upon the contradictory authority of uninspired men, to learn truth from the Word of God, the only sure, unerring, infallible guide.

The author of the work which has led us to make the foregoing remarks, is engaged as a missionary in Ireland; and judging of him from the work, we must say, that we rejoice that a man so well qualified to dissipate the darkness in which Popery lurks, is employed in so important a sphere of ministerial labour. Having been from his boyhood familiar with the controversy between Papists and Protestants, he possessed considerable advantages for writing on that subject; and he has made good use of those advantages. The work contains twenty-three chapters, in which all the leading topics of the controversy are discussed.

In the chapter on "The Chair of Peter" it is shown, that the Apostles of Christ had no Pope,-that they acknowledged no superiority in Peter,-that if Christ constituted Peter his vicegerent, the apostles were insubordinate to him, and consequently disobedient to Christ!-that Paul declared his equality with any of the apostles, and therefore denied that he was inferior to Peter; which is inconsistent with the opinion, that Peter was the vicegerent of Christ, as affirmed by the Papists. The false interpretations, affixed to those passages of Scripture, on which the Papists profess to found their opinion of Peter's supremacy, are amply refuted.

"The Rise of the Papal Supremacy" is next brought under notice. By a variety of forcible arguments, it is shown, that there are strong reasons to conclude, Peter never sustained the office of Bishop of Rome. In fact it is proved to be absurd to believe that he ever sustained that office; that to have sustained such office he must have renounced the work and office of an apostle, and, "His mission was general to the world, and was wholly incompatible with the charge of any particular church." The means by which the Bishops of Rome gradually usurped authority over other bishops are clearly described. The Patriarch of Constantinople for some time asserted his right to pre-eminence over the Bishop of Rome, on the ground that Constantinople had become the seat of the Imperial power; at length, however, the Bishop of Rome succeeded in obtaining the title of Universal Bishop from an Emperor who was a monster of iniquity. In the volume before us, the history of this transaction is recorded as follows:

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Those friendly to the claims of John to be styled Universal Bishop, maintained that Constantinople, as 66 new Rome," was entitled to that distinction, founding it expressly, not on the jus divinum, but on the jus humanum. However, Gregory took fire at the assumption of his brother, John, and moved heaven and earth against his new title. He wrote to the patriarch and to the emperor, and sent his nuncios, remonstrating in the strongest terms. He declared that whoever assumed the heretical, blasphemous, and infernal title, was the follower of Lucifer, and the herald of Antichrist! "The direction and primacy of the whole church (says he) has been given to St. Peter; nevertheless, we do not call him the universal apostle; and yet the holy man, John, my brother, is ambitious to be called the universal bishop." It no longer served the purpose of the Pope, to rely on the imperial name and dignity, since the empire was overthrown by the barbarians. Spiritual con