Apostle warns his Colossian converts. (Col. ii. 8.) Alexandria gave birth to that pestilential system called Platonism, which, like briers and thorns, sprang up with the good seed of the Gospel, and quickly choked it. Alexandria was unhappily celebrated as a school of learning. Its teachers assumed the name of philosophers; and so attractive was the title, and agreeable the respect with which it was attended, that when any of them embraced the Gospel, the natural man, which was only evangelized, not eradicated or subdued, longed to retain and to merit a title so highly prized; and so, with a friendly suggestion from the arch enemy of the cross, they proceeded to amalgamate New-Testament truths with heathen reveries, and thus to frame a system which satisfied their conscience with the name of Christianity, and their pride with that of philosophy. Theologians are much divided as to whether they should consider the inventor* of the doctrine of demons and demigods a Christian or not: a Sundayschool scholar would find no difficulty in the matter. The man who could maintain that all religions-Pagan, Jewish, and Christian-had one common inventor, and all meant the same thing, certainly knew nothing of Him who is THE way, THE truth, and THE life: and whatever interest antiquity may attach to the names of Pantænus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and others of that school, we cannot doubt that, on account of the things which they taught, and which, in process of time, infected the church to its very core, the wrath of God came upon it at length to the uttermost. If Christian doctrine were corrupted in Egypt, Christian discipline seems to have been no less abused in other parts of Africa. The pious Cyprian has been accused of stretching episcopal authority to too great a length at Carthage; and certainly to allow any of the prerogatives of ecclesiastical power to fall into disuse was not a fault of the primitive church. The origin and process of the Donatist schism also argues an assumption of superiority on the part of some Prelates over their brethren, disallowed by the Shepherd and Bishop of souls; and, however flagrant were the errors of the Donatists and Arians, there was no doubt that the orthodox Clergy assumed and exercised a power of inflicting punishment, after a manner shamefully contrasted with the meekness and gentleness of Christ; and further, we have abundant evidence that many superstitious practices had very early crept into the worship of the African church, and in time utterly perverted its religious offices from their original simplicity and spiritual use. The lives of professing Christians, too, it must be allowed, were in general far below the standard of Christian holiness; yet a spirit of arrogant self-righteousness had taken deep root even in the Pastors of the church,† so as to obscure much of the glory of Christ in the work which * Ammonius Saccas, Teacher of the Alexandrian school, at the close of the second century. † We are reminded here of a name which has not yet been introduced, that of Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, “a man," says Mosheim, "of a haughty, turbulent, and imperious temper." He made himself conspicuous by his violence against Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, who condemned the use of the phrase, "Mother of God," (EOTOKOS,) which, in the heat of the Arian controversy, was applied to the Virgin Mary, and asserted that she should rather be called the "Mother of Christ" (XPLOTоTOKOS); thus cavilling about nice distinctions, not very comprehensible in our day. Cyril assembled a Council at Alexandria, A.D. 430, and hurled twelve anathemas at the head of Nestorius, who retorted by accusing Cyril of maintaining the Apollinarian heresy, which confounded the two natures in Christ. This unhappy contest between the two Prelates was productive of the most dis he was carrying on. Out of this grew the whole system of penances and self-mortifications, utterly at variance with the doctrines of grace; and, as men became self-confident, they declined in love to God, and love to the brethren. This is the true source of heresies and divisions. Let us not forget that the Christian converts, against whom it was alleged that, rejecting the universal headship of Christ, they separated into parties, under such inferior leaders as Paul, Apollos, Cephas, were disposed to be puffed up with a sense of their own wisdom and goodness, while there existed among them envying and strife, and carnal self-indulgence was admitted even into their most sacred rites. (See 1 Cor. xi. 21.) It was not without reason, then, that the divine rod was often and rigorously employed against the African church, nor that it was ultimately swept with the besom of destruction. The Donatist and Arian schemes were at once the types and effects of the prevailing disorders in discipline and doctrine; and they were, doubtless, at length the weapons by which Satan laid waste the African vineyard. The language of Jehovah to his chosen people appears very applicable to African Christians in the sixth and seventh centuries: “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord; they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger: they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment: your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers.” (Isai. i. 4—7.) FRAGMENTS ON THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE.-V. (To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.) IF you teach the repentance of a broken heart, the faith which excludes self-righteousness, the comforting and renewing influences of the Holy Spirit, the life and walk of faith and love, the completeness and perfection of our subjection to the law of Christ in all inward and outward holiness, you cannot escape the imputation of fanaticism.-R. Watson. Is that man likely to do much good, or fit to be a Minister of Christ, that will speak for him an hour on the Sabbath, and, by his life, will preach against him all the week, yea, and give his public words the lie?— R. Baxter. I would rather fall with Christ, than reign with Cæsar.-Luther. Too close a thread of reason, too great an abstraction of thought, too sublime and metaphysical a strain, are suitable to very few auditories, if to any at all.-Burnet. Let us remember the importance of living in the spirit of our ministry; for if we are living in this spirit, we must grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ.-Bridges. astrous consequences to the church. Cyril's reprehensible violence has been, not without much reason, ascribed to jealousy of the rising power and authority of the Bishop of Constantinople. The sacred ministry is not a state of idleness or of delight; but a holy warfare, in which there are always fatigues and toils to be endured. Whoever is not resolved courageously to maintain the interests of Jesus Christ, and to labour continually to enlarge his kingdom, is not fit for this warfare. -Quesnel. The capital error in men's preparing themselves for the sacred ministry is, that they read divinity more in other books than in the Scriptures.Burnet. They who teach not themselves, are unfit to teach others. Nothing is more to be avoided in the composition of a sermon than tame correctness.-Leifchild. What man on earth is so pernicious a drone as an idle Minister?-Cecil. Perhaps few of us are aware of the keen eye with which our dress, furniture, tables, and household are scrutinized, and the minuteness of comparison instituted between our ministrations and our personal habits.-Bridges. We may gratify our vanity by preaching; but diligence in private can scarcely arise from anything but a sense of duty.-Witherspoon. King James remarked of one of his Chaplains, "This man preaches before me just as if death were seated at his elbow." The doctrine of the sermon requires wisdom; the application, earnestness. The one needs a clear head; the other, a warm heart. Particulars ever touch and wake more than generals.—Herbert. There must be the labour of study before Ministers preach, the labour of zeal and love in preaching, the labour of suffering after preaching, and always the labour of prayer to crown the whole with success.-Gurnal. To seek our divinity merely in books and writings, is to seek the living among the dead. We do but in vain seek God many times in these, where his truth too often is not so much enshrined as entombed.-John Smith. May I be taught to remember, that all other studies are merely subservient to the great work of ministering holy things to immortal souls!— H. Martyn. Beware of round sentences; they roll off as fast as they roll on: too much polish is worse than too little. When alone in your study, let these thoughts occupy your mind: "I am now observed by my God. No human eye beholds me; but God trieth my heart. He knows why I choose this subject, and why I propose to treat it in this manner; whether it is to display the powers of genius, or simply to do good. He knows whether I aim to display my skill and ability, or his wisdom and grace." They that share in the griefs of the Spirit, shall not want the comforts of the Spirit.-Charnock. What! shall a Christian Minister consume his valuable time in ease and indolence?-Massillon. Nothing is gained by driving and scolding: almost everything may be done by drawing, and melting, and winning.-D. Stoner. A Minister may say things that are profoundly learned, and very ingenious; that are uncommonly pretty, and extremely pleasing to the generality of his hearers; without aiming to reach their consciences, and to impress their hearts, either by asserting divine authority, or by displaying divine grace.-A. Booth. Behold, how worthy and high an office the Ministers of the word are put in! How great love, what care, what diligence, what earnestness, what labour and travail, they must have, to whom so precious a treasure, and so dearly beloved of Christ, is committed!-Myles Coverdale. IOTA. THE JESUITS.-CONSTITUTIONES SOCIETATIS JESU.* WHEN the Act was passed in 1829, designated, by a venerable Lord, since "consigned" (to use his own language) "to the urn, the sepulchre, and mortality," "a violation of those laws which he held as necessary to the preservation of the throne as to that of the Church, and as indispensable to the existence of the Lords and Commons of this realm, as to that of the King and our holy religion,” † it was attempted to calm our constitutional fears, and allay our Protestant anxieties, by the promise of "safe principles," "full and permanent security," and "the gradual suppression, and final prohibition," || of the Jesuits, and other religious orders, communities, or societies of the Church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows. We have seen, in the course of the nine years (now sixteen) which have followed that reckless and most deplorable enactment, what is the safety of the principles upon which our concessions have been yielded; how great are the fulness and permanency of our security in oaths, abjurations, and declarations; and, above all, how effectually that other most important result has been produced, the suppression and prohibition of an order whose maxims the Pope ¶ himself, "the sovereign pacificator," has proscribed as scandalous, and manifestly contrary to good morals; and whose insatiable avidity of temporal possessions,** idolatrous ceremonies, and intermeddling with temporal matters,†† and the administration of govern * On page 814 of the present volume we introduced to our readers the clauses in the "Act for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects," pertaining to the Jesuits and other religious orders, (10 Geo. IV., c. 7,) with a view to show how zealously the sections in favour of Romanism had been put into execution, while those which imposed certain salutary restrictions on the Society of Jesus, and other religious orders of the Church of Rome, had been adroitly disregarded and shelved. The above paper will tend to exhibit the state of the case nine years after the passing of the obnoxious Act. How affairs stand in 1845, we leave our intelligent readers to judge. The article is taken from the British Magazine, vol. xiv., (1838,) pp. 681-685.-EDIT. + Lord Eldon. Mr. Secretary (now Sir Robert) Peel. || Act of 1829. Clement XIV. Bull, July 21st, 1773. ** Paupertas, ut murus religionis firmissimus, diligenda et in suâ puritate conservanda est; quantum divinâ gratiâ aspirante fieri poterit.—Constitutiones Societatis Jesu, parte vii., cap. ii. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, Ego, N., licet undecunque divino tuo conspectu indignissimus, fretus tamen pietate ac misericordiâ tuâ infinitâ, et impulsus tibi serviendi desiderio, voveo coram sacratissimâ Virgine Maria, et curiâ tuâ cœlesti universa, divinæ Majestati tuæ Paupertatem, Castitatem, et Obedientiam perpetuam in Societate Jesu, et promitto eandem Societatem me ingressurum, ut vitam in eâ perpetuò degam; omnia intelligendo juxta ipsius Societatis Constitutiones.-Ibid., parte v., cap. iv., 4. ++ Ut plenius possit Societas rebus spiritualibus juxta suum Institutum vacare ; quoadejus fieri poterit, a negotiis sæcularibus abstineant, (qualia sunt testamentariorum, vel executorum, vel procuratorum rerum civilium, aut id genus officia,) nec ea ullis precibus adducti obeunda suscipiant, vel in illis se occupari sinant.—Constitut., parte vi., cap. iii., 7. "Complaints and quarrels were multiplied on every side. In some places dangerous seditions arose, tumults, discords, dissensions, scandals; which, weakening, or entirely breaking, the bonds of Christian charity, excited the faithful to all the ment, forced His Holiness to the conviction that it was very difficult, not to say impossible, that the Church could recover a firm and durable peace so long as the said Society subsisted; and compelled him, in the plenitude of his apostolical power, to suppress and abolish the said company for ever. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Act for the gradual suppression and final prohibition of the Jesuits, consisting in the formal registration of all the fraternity at that time within the United Kingdom, the forbidding any more to come into this realm, or to become, or to admit, members of the order, under pain of banishment, the general increase and dispersion of these vigorous and experienced rowers of St. Peter's bark in all parts of this kingdom has become matter of most painful notoriety; insomuch that, in addition to the Jesuits' College at Stonyhurst, in Lancashire, established by a small fraternity, described, in the Laity's Directory for 1795, as "the gentlemen of the English Academy at Liege," and driven thence by the fury of the French Revolution, to seek an asylum in this Protestant country,—and an offset from Maynooth, erected at Clongowes-Wood, within six miles of that "royal College," in 1814, after a design to set it up within its walls had been frustrated by the firmness of the late Lord Colchester; in addition to these two establishments, founded previous to 1829, the one in England, and the other in Ireland,—a third has lately been erected in Scotland, at Blairs, near Aberdeen, in direct contravention of the laws of this land, but in entire conformity with the constitutions ↑ of their Society; in obedience to which the human will, judgment, and responsibility are urged so far beyond mere prostration, that they are rage of party hatreds and enmities. Desolation and danger grew to such a height, that the very Sovereigns whose piety and liberality towards the company were so well known as to be looked upon as hereditary in their families, (we mean our dearly beloved sons in Christ, the Kings of France, Spain, Portugal, and Sicily,) found themselves reduced to the necessity of expelling and driving from their states, kingdoms, and provinces, these very companions of Jesus, persuaded that there remained no other remedy to so great evils; and that this step was necessary, in order to prevent the Christians from rising one against another, and from massacring each other in the very bosom of our common mother, the holy Church."-Bull of Clement XIV. July 21st, 1773. * Pope Pius VII., August 7th, 1814. + Quo spirituali animarum necessitati subveniri multis in locis majori cum facilitate ac securitate eorum, qui ad id fuerint destinati, possit; Præpositi Generales Societatis, juxta facultatem eis a summo Pontifice concessam, mittere quosvis de Societate poterunt, quocunque magis expedire judicabunt; qui tamen ubicunque fuerint, ad obedientiam sedis Apostolica parati erunt.. Erit autem ejus qui mittitur, officium, nullâ ratione se ingerendo ad eundum, vel manendum in hoc loco potius, quàm in illo, plenam ac omnino liberam sui dispositionem Superiori, qui eum Christi loco regit, ad ipsius majus obsequium et laudem relinquere. Sic etiam, ut alii maneant alicubi, vel alio se conferant, nemo quoquo modo sine consensu Superioris sui, per quem ille in Domino gubernandus est, curare debet.-Constit., pars. vii., cap. ii., 1. Versari autem debet ob oculos Deus Creator ac Dominus noster, propter quem homini obedientia præstatur: et ut in spiritu amoris, et non cum perturbatione timoris procedatur, curandum est, ita ut omnes constanti animo incumbamus, ut nihil perfectionis, quod divinâ gratiâ consequi possimus, in absolutâ omnium Constitutionum observatione, nostrique Instituti peculiari ratione adimplendâ prætermittamus: et exactissimè omnes nervos virium nostrarum ad hanc virtutem Obedientiæ in primis Summo Pontifici, deinde Superioribus Societatis exhibendam intendamus ita, ut omnibus in rebus, ad quas potest ex charitate se Obedientia extendere, ad ejus vocem perinde ac si a Christo Domino egrederetur (quandoquidem ipsius loco, ac pro ipsius amore ac reverentia obedientiam præstamus) quàm promptissimi simus, re quavis, atque adeo litterâ a nobis inchoatá nec dum perfectâ studio celeriter |