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death, with such blame as Peter, who "dissembled" with the Judaising Christians, and "led away Barnabas" into the same error. And when the college of the Apostles was assembled to decide an important question; James, if any, was the presiding Apostle.

But Dr. B. quickly leaves this subject, to present us with his sixth point of preference.

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"The Catholic Church has ever preserved the stability of character designated by "the rock against which the powers of hell were never to prevail?'....Only the "original church continues undiminished, undivided, and unchanged." —P. 41.

The man must possess no small degree of confidence who could use such language as this. "The original church continues undiminished, undivided, and unchanged!" What does Dr. B. call diminution or division? In the ninth century, the whole of the Eastern churches separated themselves at once: Africa soon followed: six hundred years after, a large portion of Europe became Protestant: and nothing came to repair these losses but the slaves of South America. From being, in fact, the Catholic Church, she has fallen so far as no longer to reckon one half of Christendom within her pale. And yet Dr. B. tells us that she is " undiminished, undivided, and unchanged."

We have now arrived at the end of this discourse; and have found, as we expected, that its ingenious and plausible representations were not supported by either facts or arguments capable of bearing a close examination. We have scarcely room for another word, but we cannot part with Dr. B. without giving him one question to resolve, which it will rather perplex him, we imagine, satisfactorily to answer.

The purport of his sermon is to win us, in a gentle manner, to the conviction that the Romish religion is really the only true, the only safe one, and that Protestants are wandering up and down in mazes of error, from which there is no way of escape but into her bosom. But Dr. B. must believe that the disciples of a church with which Christ promised to be present "all days, even to the consummation of the world," will naturally be the most exemplary and the most happy of human beings; while the poor wandering separatists from her communion would fall into every description of vice and misery. "Length of days is in her right hand; “and in her left hand, riches and honour.”

But what are the facts? Look over the whole face of the globe, and, among the nations professing Christianity, say, which are the most prosperous and happy, and which are the most miserable and hopeless. Look at Spain and at Italy, the two countries which, of all the kingdoms of Europe, are the most exclusively Catholic, and say if they are not, also, the most deplorably situated of all. But, if you would look for peace and morals, liberty, industry, and happiness, look towards Protestant Saxony, Protestant Sweden, Protestant Holland, and, above all, Protestant England. And, to come still nearer home, take the three kingdoms which support the British Crown, and observe the remarkable contrast they present. Two of them, differing in origin, in character, in church government, and long estranged from each other by perpetual warfare, are yet now cordially united, and operate together with a power which is felt in every part of the world. To such a point of influence has Providence now raised this little island, that every thing done in it becomes matter of interest even at the farthest extremity of the globe. But there is a third member of this union there is a sister isle. That isle is blessed with a delightful climate, a most fertile soil, a numerous, active, and ingenious population; and yet this, the most favoured of the three countries in all

natural advantages, is nevertheless a dead weight upon the energies of the sister kingdoms. In every kind of circumstance, under every kind of treatment, she continues an absolute drawback to the strength which she 'ought to augment; a gigantic pauper, reducing the wealth which she ought to increase. And, yet, wherein lies the cause which produces this amazing difference? In this one thing, Religion. England is "a land of heretics:" Ireland continues in the bosom of that church, "with which," according to Dr. Baines, "Christ promised for ever to remain." Like Spain and Italy, she is pre-eminently attached to the Roman Catholic religion; and, like Spain and Italy, she is miserable. Is not this, upon Dr. Baines's principles, even more than paradoxical? We know he would endeavour to attribute the whole to the want of what is called “ Emanci pation." Emancipation from spiritual bondage is indeed the greatest want of Ireland; but mere political emancipation cannot be the cure for miseries, the cause of which lies far deeper than any political remedy can ever reach. Her malady is the malady of Rome; it is the same which ruins Italy and Spain; and her cure will be found in that tree alone "whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.”

DECISION OF THE APOCRYPHAL QUESTION.

We are happy to announce, however late, the termination of this unhappy and alarming dispute, by which the very existence of that noble Institution in which it originated was threatened.

On Monday, Nov. 21, at a Special Meeting of the General Committee, at the Bible Society's House in Earl Street, the Special Committee appointed to examine into the question of the circulation of the Apocrypha made their report; after which the following resolution was adopted :

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"That the funds of the Society be applied to the printing and circulation of "the Canonical Books of Scripture, to the exclusion of those books, and parts of books, which are usually termed Apocryphal: and that all copies printed, either entirely or in part, at the expense of the Society, and whether "such copies consist of the whole or of any one or more of such books, be "invariably issued bound, no other books whatever being bound with them. "And, further, that all Money Grants, to societies or individuals, be made only in conformity with the principle of this regulation."

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TO BIOGRAPHY, RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS, &c. &c. &c.

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