retain, they are retained.' What power can be greater than this? The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son.' All this I see entrusted to the priests by the Son; as if they were already translated into heaven, and were passed beyond their human nature; and, being freed from our infirmities were then deemed worthy of their office.... By some the honour may be considered small. Away with this madness! for madness it clearly is to neglect such a charge, without which we can neither obtain salvation nor the blessings promised to us. If, then, no man 'can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be born again of water and the Spirit;' and if he who eateth not the flesh of the Lord, and drinketh not his blood, is deprived of eternal life;' and if all these things are performed by the hands of these holy men only, and by no other; how, without them, shall any man be enabled to avoid the fire of hell, or to obtain the promised crown? These, these are they who have been entrusted with spiritual labours and birth by baptism. By them we put on Christ; and being buried with the Son of God, become members of that blessed Head. So that neither rulers nor kings ought to be more dreaded than they; but they should, in justice, be more honoured than our natural fathers. These, indeed, begat us of the blood and of the will of the flesh: but those are the authors of our birth from God,-of that blessed regeneration of true liberty and adoption which is by grace. "The Jewish priests had power to remove the leprosy of the body, or rather to examine only the cleansed, and not any power to cleanse: and you know how that office was then contended for. Whereas Christian priests have received authority, not to heal the bodily leprosy, but the corruption of the mind: not merely to verify the cure, but actually to cure it. So, then, they who despise them are much more execrable than Dathan....... God hath given to the priesthood a power both for punishment and beneficence, greater than that given to our natural parents: and there is as much difference between these two, as between our present and future existence; for the one beget us into this life, and the other into the life to come. Those can neither protect us from bodily decay, nor repel an impending malady; whilst these have often saved the struggling and perishing spirit: for they not only can regenerate us, but moreover they have power to pardon our sins. Is any among you,' saith James; let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,' &c.

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sick

"What manner of man ought he to be who is the ambassador of a whole city, (why do I say a city,) or rather of all the world, who has to implore God to be merciful to the sins of not the living

only, but also of the dead. I, in no way, think the courage of Moses, and of Aaron, to be sufficient for this supplication. He who has been entrusted, as it were, with the whole world, and who is the father of all men, thus approaches God, praying that war may every where cease; that tumults may be quelled; that there may be peace and prosperity; and imploring, both privately and publicly, for a speedy relief from all the evils which oppress each individual: wherefore he ought to excel every man in all those things for which he makes supplication, as much as a governor excels the governed. When he invokes the Holy Ghost, and celebrates the most fearful sacrifice—την φρικωδέστατην επιτελῃ Ovorav continually touching our common Lord, in what rank shall we place him, tell me? how much purity, how much piety shall we demand? Then angels surround the priest, and all the tribunal of heaven, and the space around the altar is crowded in honour of Him who is lying there. And this may be believed from the sacrifices there performed. I once heard a person relate that a certain old and illustrious man, in the habit of seeing revelations, declared to him that at that time he had once been favoured with a vision, and that he had suddenly seen a company of angels (as much as he was allowed) clothed in shining garments, who surrounded the sacrifice, and bowed themselves down, as we observe soldiers to do who stand in the presence of a king—and this I believe. Another person also told me, not what he had learned from another, but what he had been accounted worthy to see and hear himself, that when they who are about to depart this life receive the holy mysteries with a pure conscience, at the moment of expiration, angels attend and guard them hence on account of the sacrament received—δι εκεινο το ληφθεν.”

This may suffice-how active an instrument for introducing offences into the church Chrysostom has been, may be judged by these extracts, taken from a work which is generally esteemed his best, and which is continually referred to by the priests of the Romish and Anglican communions, as an excellent exposition of their authority, privileges, and duties. But when this priestly rhetoric is tested by the Scriptures, we at once perceive that it is only an eloquent argument for Antichrist, and that the whole fabric of a clerical body separated from the laity is without any foundation or warrant in the word of God. The very existence of a clerical body, of "the clergy," originates in fabulous falsehoods and impious traditions, generated by the pride of man, in a diseased state of the church, and faithfully indicating the extent of its corruption: for, in proportion to the exaltation of a clergy is the depression of the church; and vice versa; so that we may know how far nomi

nal christians have departed from the faith once delivered to the saints, by marking the degree of their respect and submission to a distinct clerical body. This is the great apostasy, the building up of a priesthood upon earth in the Church of Christ, and dividing believers into clergy and laity; this is the apostasy, the origin and progress of which occupies the entire limits of ecclesiastical history; this is it which hath overspread the world with darkness, which hath given power to the beast to make war with the saints and overcome them, which hath filled the mouth of the dragon with floods of blasphemy, to deluge the remnant of the elect seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ; and this is it which He, who has in his mouth a sharp two-edged sword, shall at last victoriously abolish, to take unto himself his own great power and to reign.

If we had not seen the phenomenon too often to consider it a novelty, we might express our astonishment, that a voluminous and learned theologian, such as Chrysostom, should launch forth into all these depths of error, whilst the Bible was at hand, as his acknowledged guide and instructor. But in vain do the Scriptures endeavour to teach where men undertake to expound, not in the Spirit of Christ, but in the spirit of party, or according to those opinions which happen to be accepted by the age in which they live. Whence did Chrysostom derive his heretical opinions about the priesthood? Certainly not from the Bible, but rather from that unmeasured ocean of falsehood, tradition,-whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

We trust that we shall have many opportunities of asserting the truth for which we were here contending; and of clearly stating the doctrine of the true Christian priesthood-the perfect equality of all believers under Christ their head. In the meantime it may, in conclusion, be remarked, that Chrysostom, on many essential points, is entirely Puseyite; that he believes in baptismal regeneration in the grossest popish sense; that he thinks priests do regenerate those whom they baptise; that according to his view, none but priests may officiate at "the tremendous sacrifice," as he is pleased to call the Lord's supper; that priests have power to pardon and absolve from sin; that priests alone may offer up deprecatory prayers, beseeching God to be merciful to the sins of the living and of the dead; and that in an office of reconciliation they stand between God and the church, to make atonement for sin, and obtain mercy in times of need.

Amidst all this darkness, it is not possible that justification by faith should shine forth-indeed, that fundamental doctrine of the gospel does not form a part of Chrysostom's theology. If to this we add, that

Chrysostom adopted the invocation of the saints, the portraiture of his Puseyism will be complete; and that he did do so, is obvious in the following passage:-" Say, where is the tomb of Alexander; shew it me, and tell me the day upon which he died. But splendid are the tombs of the servants of Christ, of Peter and Paul, in the queen of cities (Rome), and the days of their deaths are celebrated as festivals by the whole world. The tombs of the followers of the cross are more resplendent than the halls of kings, not only in their extent and beauty (although in this respect they are superior); but what is more, in the zeal of those who flock thither; for he, who is clothed in purple, goeth to kiss them; and laying aside his pomp, standeth a suppliant, and conjureth the saints that they should intercede for him with God; and he whose brows are encircled with a diadem, imploreth the tent-maker and the fisherman, even though they are dead. The emperor indeed commandeth his prefect to free one subject and to imprison another. The bones of the saints have not this poor and inferior power, but they have one much greater. They arrest and torture devils, and liberate them who are bounden in these bitterest of chains.” (Hom. ii. Cor. xvi).

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GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

MR. PRICE'S LETTER TO THE BISHOP

OF EXETER, &c. &c. HUMPHRY PRICE, a clergyman residing at Needwood Parsonage, near Lichfield, has, through the medium of the Morning Chronicle, addressed a letter to the Bishop of Exeter, dated October 31. This letter is a popular answer to the usual arguments adduced in favour of the apostolical succession. "Since your Lordship," says the letter, "is publicly taking the high ground of ordination in direct unbroken line from the apostles, and is assuming to yourself, on that ground, the power of remitting and retaining sins, and of pronouncing, confidently and undoubtingly, over a dying person, 'I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' I believe I am acting in perfect confor

mity with the public wish, in thus calling upon your Lordship, as above stated, to place before the public plain, intelligible, and satisfactory proof of your Lordship's high assumption, so scouted by all the Roman Catholic world, so utterly denied by great multitudes of your Lordships' Protestant brethren (Dissenters), and so doubted by many of your Lordship's own church." "How does it appear, that because our Lord most plainly and undeniably commanded his eleven disciples to go and teach all nations, that he included Dr. Philpots, for instance, in that command? That he thereby established a public ministry to the end of time? I repeat, that the public should not be satisfied with the wide hiatus in this proposed proof, though it satisfied me when I was a young minister..

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