imagine would be enough to shake the whole fabric of imposture she had raised, but, on the contrary, her dupes not only believed it, but actually prepared a gorgeous cradle for the Shiloh, and crowded round her residence at the appointed time, in expectation of the joyful event. Midnight passed, and they were told she fell into a trance. She died on the 27th of the following December, declaring that if she was deceived, it must be by some spirit, good or bad, and was buried in Paddington churchyard. A post mortem examination showed that she died of dropsy. Among other reveries, she taught the doctrine of the Millennium. The strangest thing of all is that the delusion did not cease at her death; her followers still exist as a sect, though not numerous. They are distinguished by wearing brown coats and long beards, and by other peculiarities. It is supposed they expect the reappearance of their prophetess.

9. A new sect sprung up in the United States of America only a few years since. They were called Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints. It is very generally believed along the sea-board of the States, that the buccaneers of the seventeenth century, and the loyalists in the late revolution, buried large sums of money, and that all traces of the place of concealment were lost by their death. Several idle persons have taken up the trade of exploring for this concealed treasure, and are known by the name of " Money Diggers," calculating, like the alchymists of old, on the avaricious credulity of their dupes. The prophet and founder of Mormonism, Joe Smith, followed this profession. Not he alone, but his whole family, were remarkable for a total absence of every quality which constitutes honest men. Smith was well aware, from his former profession, of the credulity of many of his countrymen, so he gave out that he had a revelation from above, that he was received up into the midst of a blaze of light, and saw two heavenly personages who told him his sins were forgiven, that the world was all in error in religious matters, and that in due season the truth would be revealed through him. It was next revealed to him that the aborigines, the "red men" of America, were a remnant of the tribes of Israel, whose colour was miraculously changed as a punishment for their sins, and whose prophets deposited a book of Divine records, engraved on plates of gold, and buried in a stone chest in a part of the State of New York. Smith searched for the treasure and found it, but was not allowed to remove it until he had learned the Egyptian language in which it was written. In 1827 he was at last allowed to take possession of it, and published an English version in 1830. His father and others were partners in the scheme. The rhapsody made a deep impression on the uncultivated minds of many-especially among the lower orders-in the States, and a congregation was formed, usually called Mormonites, from the Book

of Mormon, as Smith called it, or, according to the name by which they designated themselves, "The Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints." The book, such as it is, is supposed to have been written by a person of the name of Spaulding as a sort of novel, and offered to a publisher, who declined having anything to do with it, and it eventually fell into the hands of one Rigdon, a friend of Smith, and as it was written something in the style of the Old Testament, and purported to be an account of the adventures of a portion of the tribe of Joseph, who sailed for America under the guidance of a Prophet called Nephi, and became the fathers of the red Indians, they determined to pass it off as a new Revelation. It is evidently the production of a very ignorant person, whose whole knowledge of antiquity was acquired from the English Bible. The sect became so numerous in a little time, that a settlement was made in the State of Missouri; but the sturdy people of the West rose up against them and banished them. They next settled down in Illinois, and founded a city which they called Nauvoo, near the Mississippi. A temple on a magnificent scale was commenced, and a residence for the Prophet, who took especial care that his revelations should all turn to his own profit. He established two orders of priesthood-the order of Melchizedec, consisting of high priests and elders, and the order of Aaron, containing bishops, priests, and deacons; but "my servant, Joseph Smith," was of course the autocrat of the whole system, and the others were but his tools. Not alone from the States, but even from the manufacturing districts of England, did multitudes flock to the land of promise. Disputes, however, arose. The prophet, Joe Smith, was killed by a mob in 1846, at Carthage, in Illinois, and most of his fanatical followers dispersed. Numbers have emigrated to California, and intend forming establishments in that country, and time alone will tell whether the delusion will have any duration. The temple remains unfinished, like the Tower of Babel, a standing monument of human folly. The scattered followers of Smith some time since settled down near the great Salt Lake, in the western territory of the United States, and founded a settlement called Utah. Here they have hitherto been permitted to carry out, to its fullest extent, the last and most complete development of Protestantism. Their proselytes are chiefly recruited from Wales and the manufacturing towns of England, where the population is distinguished for profligacy. Polygamy and divorce are most revoltingly practised, and Mahometanism is pure, and paganism holy, compared with Mormonism, the last offshoot of the "glorious Reformation." The late governor of Utah had, it is said, nineteen wives at one time, and the elders a proportionate number, and frequent divorces and interchanges, "sealing and unsealing," as they call it, have made the modern Sodom a portent of iniquity. We may hope that in a little time the central

authority of the United States will be extended over this land of abomination, and the common law enforced against these enemies of God and society.

Spirit-rapping and table-turning are the most melancholy proofs of what the human intellect may come to, when losing the light of Faith. Thousands in the United States believe, that certain persons, called "Mediums," have the power of conversing with the spirits of the departed, who answer the questions put to them by a certain number of raps on a table, and by causing the table to turn when pressed by the fingers. Numbers have become lunatic by believing and practising this superstition. The Mediums are well trained to cause the noises by muscular contractions, and the table-turning is but a clumsy juggle. It is remarkable,_however, how errors repeat themselves century after century. Tertullian, in his "Apologeticus pro Christianis," mocks the table-rappers and turners of his day: "Per quos et capræ et mensæ divinare consueverunt." (Apol. c. xxij.); and Virgil, in the second Æneid, appears to allude to it when he says:

"Troia gaza

Incensis erepta adytis, mensæque Deorum."

10. The German Catholic Church. Such was the designation adopted by a party raised up within the last few years in Germany; but the reader will perceive what little right it has to such a title, when, at the last meeting, held at Schneidemuhl, they not only rejected the Dogmas and Sacraments, which peculiarly distinguish the Catholic Church from the various Protestant sects, but openly renounced even the Apostles' Creed, denied the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, and, in fact, their whole creed now consists, we may say, of one article-to believe in the existence of God. The origin of this party was thus: In the cathedral of Treves, it is piously believed, the scamless garment worn by our Lord is preserved; it is usually called the Holy Robe of Treves. From time to time this is exhibited to the veneration of the people. The Bishop of Treves, Monsigneur Arnoldi, published to the faithful of Germany and the world, that the robe would be exhibited for a few weeks. Hundreds of thousands responded to the pious invitation. From the snowy summits of the Swiss mountains, to the low lands of Holland, the people came in multitudes, to venerate the sacred relic. Ronge, an unquiet, immoral priest, who had been previously suspended by his bishop, imagined that it would be just the time to imitate Luther in his attack on Indulgences, and, accordingly, wrote a letter to the prelate Arnoldi, which was published, not alone in the German papers, but in several other parts of Europe besides. He then declared that he

renounced the Roman Catholic Church altogether, and established what he called the German Catholic Church. He was soon joined by another priest of the same stamp, Czerski; and numbers of the Rationalists of Germany, having no fixed religious principles of any sort, ranked themselves under the banners of the new apostles, not through any love for the new form of faith, but hoping to destroy Catholicity. We have seen, however, at their last Conference, that they have abolished Christianity itself, and the sect, as it is, is already nearly extinct.

END OF THE HISTORY.

REFUTATION OF HERESIES.

REFUTATION I.

THE HERESY OF SABELLIUS, WHO DENIED THE DISTINCTION OF PERSONS IN THE TRINITY.

THE Catholic Church teaches that there are in God one Nature and three distinct Persons. Arius, of whose heresy we shall have to speak in the next chapter, admits the distinction of Persons in the Trinity, but said that the three Persons had three different natures among themselves, or, as the latter Arians said, that the three Persons were of three distinct natures. Sabellius, on the other hand, confessed, that in God there was but one nature; but he denied the distinction of Persons, for God, he said, was distinguished with the name of the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Ghost, by denomination alone, to signify the different effects of the Divinity, but that in himself, as there is but one nature, so there is but one Person. The Sabellian heresy was first taught by Praxeas, who was refuted by Tertullian in a special work. In the year 257, the same heresy was taken up by Sabellius (1), who gave it great extension, especially in Lybia, and he was followed by Paul of Samosata. These denied the distinction of the Persons, and, consequently, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and, therefore, the Sabellians were called Patro-passionists, as St. Augustin (2) tells us, for as they admitted in God only the Person of the Father alone, they should, consequently, admit that it was the Father who became incarnate, and suffered for the redemption of mankind. The Sabellian heresy, after being a long time defunct, was resuscitated by Socinus, whose arguments we shall also enumerate in this dissertation.

SEC. 1. THE REAL DISTINCTION OF THE THREE DIVINE PERSONS IS PROVED.

2. In the first place, the plurality and the real distinction of the three Persons in the Divine nature is proved from the words of Genesis: 66 Let us make man to our own image and likeness" (Gen. i. 26); and in chap. iii., v. 22, it is said: "Behold, Adam is

(1) Euseb. His. Eccles. (2) St. Augus. trac. 26, in Jo.