nestly entreated of the new and self-exalted authorities that he might not be put to death, but be permitted to retire to the United States; and they received an assu rance that their request should be granted. Yet Colonel Lavalle ordered him to be shot, with only an hour's warning of his destiny. During this hour, he wrote the following most affecting letter to his wife : “MY BELOVED ANGELITA.-It has been just intimated to me that within an hour I must die. I am ignorant for what cause, but Divine Providence, in whom I confide in this critical moment, has so determined it. I pardon all my enemies, and beseech my friends not to take any step to avenge me. My life-educate those amiable children: be happy, which you have not been able to be in the company of the unfortunate MANUEL DORREGO." It is said that the people are quiet under the usurped authorities. But the heart sickens, in the contemplation of the fearful and uncertain state of a community, in which such things can be done, whenever a powerful faction chooses to do them. How thankful should we be that the population of the United States was prepared for republicanism, by principles, education, and habits, which prevented such atrocities: and how careful should we be to preserve the virtue, and promote the intelligence, on which, under God, our future safety must depend. Let our Sabbath-breaking legislators think of this! BRAZIL.-The finances of this state are greatly embarrassed, and the expectation that they would be relieved by peace has not been realized-a debt to the Bank remains undiminished, and the depreciated paper money has not increased in value. It is, however, supposed, that our commerce will be greatly benefited at Rio de Janeiro, by being put on the same footing, as to impost, with the most favoured nations. It is yet uncertain what measures the emperor will take to regain his authority in Portugal. UNITED STATES.-A London paper of the 27th of January says that letters from Constantinople state "that the Treaty of Commerce with the United States had been agreed upon by the Sultan, and had excited a great sensation among the European diplomatists, which had been much increased by a current rumour that an American squadron would appear in the waters of the Archipelago in the Spring." At the inauguration of the President, an immense multitude was collected from dif ferent parts of the country-the estimates of the individuals that composed it, vary from ten to forty thousand. The President's inaugural speech was short, pithy, and excellent. It turns out that the late Post Master General, Mr. M'Lean, is not to be a member of the cabinet-He has received the appointment of an associate judge on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. The President, it appears, has been surrounded and annoyed by a host of greedy office hunters. We hope be will displace no able and faithful officer, who has not been a virulent partizan against him, With the exception of the cabinet, there would be magnanimity in retaining a decidedly good publick servant, even if known to have been actively hostile, provided he had acted with fairness, and without malignity, in his opposition. We belong to no party in politicks, except the party, which we hope is a large one, that wishes and prays for the prosperity and happiness of our beloved country, be its legislators and governors who they may. But on this occasion we think proper to remark, that there is no doctrine more antirepublican, than that which teaches there should be a constant rotation of office. It is a fundamental republican principle, that the publick interest should be preferred before every interest that is merely private. Now, when a man in office has acquired the knowledge-not readily acquired—which qualifies him to serve the publick with the greatest effect, and has moreover proved that he possesses both talents and integrity-to displace such a man, and substitute in his room an untried novice, for the sake of rewarding the latter, as a partizan or a favourite, this is manifestly to sacrifice publick to private interest. It is as antirepublican an act as can be performed: And it is, beside, attended with this evil consequence, that the men best qualified to serve the country, will not seek nor even accept an office, from which they foresee that they may be ejected, on every change of an administration. We hope our present President, to whose administration we most cordially wish all possible success, will use his great popular influence, to put down the error to which we have adverted, and to sanction a system of procedure, the effects of which will be lastingly and extensively salutary. In making these remarks, we have had no other object in view than to sustain the character of a Christian Advocate." ERRATUM IN OUR PRESENT NUMBER. In page 146, the last word of 2d column, for Iconium rẹad Lystra. THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. MAY, 1829. Religious Communications. LECTURES ON THE SHORTER CATECHISM OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES-ADDRESSED TO YOUTH. LECTURE XL. The subject of the present lecture is the second commandment, which is "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor worship them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." This precept of the decalogue, although found in the Vulgate translation of the Holy Scriptures, which the church of Rome holds to be of higher authority than the Hebrew original itself, is, notwithstanding, excluded by the rulers of that church from all their popular books of devotion; and to make the number of the commandments ten, the last is divided into two parts. What more palpable evidence could there be, of a consciousness that a part of their worship is in direct hostility with the moral law of God, than this fraud of withholding a part of that law, as laid down in their own verVOL. VII. Ch. Adv. sion of the Bible, from the view of the people, many of whom never know even of its existence. No wonder that the Pope should be hostile to Bible societies, and to the unrestricted possession and perusal of the Sacred Scriptures. The difference between the first and second precept of the revealed moral code, ought to be distinctly noted. You will observe then, that the first commandment relates to the object of worship, and the second to the mode or manner of that worship; the first forbids the worship of any other than the true God, the second forbids the worshipping even of the true God by the use of images, or any other visible symbols; the first impliedly requires all right worship of Jehovah, the second pro'hibits all that is even circumstantially wrong in his worship. Thus careful has our Creator been to preserve the purity of the homage which is due to him from his creatures, by giving two commandments, and these forming the first and fundamental part of his moral system, the one relating to the nature, the other to the expression, of the worship and service which he requires: and this has been done with perfect propriety, because genuine reverence, love and obedience, to the Sovereign of the universe, are the first of all moral duties and the proper foundation of every other; and because there is, in corrupt human 2 B nature, a strong and awful propensity to refuse what is due to God, and to pollute and degrade his worship by human inventions. Having thus shown the difference between the first and second commandment, let us now a little more particularly consider, according to the statement of our Catechism,I. What the second commandment requires; II. What it forbids; III. The reasons by which its observance is justified and enforced. I. "The second commandment res quireth the receiving, observing and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word.” * That we may have a clear understanding of the requisitions here specified, we must first place distinctly in view, "the religious worship and ordinances which God has appointed in his word," since these are the objects to which the requirements mentioned in the answer relate. "Religious worship," says an excellent expositor of our Catechism, is that homage and respect we owe to a gracious God, as a God of infinite perfection; whereby we profess subjection to, and confidence in him, as our God in Christ, for the supply of all our wants; and ascribe the praise and glory that is due to him, as our chief good and only happiness." "O come," says the holy Psalmist, "let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand." "The ordinances which God has appointed in his word," and through several of which, religious worship is to be offered to him, are accurately stated in our Larger Catechism to be "prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ; the reading, preaching and hearing of the word; the administration and receiving of the sacraments; church Fisher. government and discipline; the ministry and maintenance thereof; religious fasting; swearing by the name of God; and vowing to him." The nature of these ordinances I shall have occasion particularly to explain, if spared to lecture on a subsequent part of the catechism. In the mean time, their general nature has been made known to you by education and reading, sufficiently to enable you to understand what I shall say, in showing that they are to be " received, observed, and kept pure and entire." 1. The worship and ordinances which God hath appointed in his word are to be received; that is, we are to take them simply on the authority of God, as he has delivered them to us in the oracles of truth, without cavilling or objecting to any of them, on account of our not seeing in what manner they are fitted to do us good. There has always been a strong disposition to this cavilling spirit, ever since the transgression of our first mother, when she yielded to the suggestion of Satan that she would not be injured, but benefited, by violating the ordinance of God, in eating the fruit of the interdicted tree in the Garden of Eden. Naaman the Syrian, you may remember, was, in like manner, for a time, a caviller of the same description. When directed to go and wash in the river Jordan, for the cure of his leprosy, (instead of receiving that cure in a way which his proud mind had led him to conceive would be the most suitable) he, at first, indignantly refused to comply with the prescription. "Are not," said he in anger-"are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, may I not wash in them and be clean?" In the use, doubtless, of habitual bathing, he did not see how washing, in whatever manner applied, was to remove the leprosy; and if it might possibly produce that effect, he thought the streams of his own country were, for that purpose, far preferable to the waters of the Jordan. He however received no healing, till he yielded to the kind solicitations of attendants wiser than himself, and strictly complied with the divine prescription, as announced by the prophet of Jehovah; and then, immediately, his cure was complete. Now, my young friends, there are those in our days, and within our own observation, who make objections to the ordinances and appointments of God, in the very spirit of transgressing Eve and angry Naaman. What use, say they, can there be in prayer, since God knows and is willing to supply all our wants? What advantage can there be in baptizing infants with water, and in eating bread and drinking wine, in remembrance of Christ? Cannot you devote your children to God, and remember Christ, as well without these external rites as with them? What possible benefit can be derived from fasting? Can abstinence from food be pleasing to the God who gave it, or a refusal temperately to gratify the bodily appetites, be helpful to the soul? Thus, my dear youth, I might go through the whole of the ordinances of God which have been enumerated, and state objections that may be made, and have been made, to every one of them. But the specimen I have given you must suffice-And now hear and remember my reply. To the objections that have just been mentioned, and to all of a similar kind, satisfactory answers may be made, and have often been actually made, in a detail of reason and argument. But is it not enough-I ask you, to put the inquiry candidly and closely to your own minds-is it not enough, and should it not always be esteemed enough to satisfy any rational creature, to know that his Creator, infinitely wise and good, has made an appointment, or instituted an ordinance, for the benefit of his obedient offspring? What though the shortsighted creature cannot see in what manner he is to receive benefit from the appointment of his Maker? ought he not to be perfectly satisfied that there is a good reason for it, and that benefit will result from regarding it, since it comes from the wisest and best, the most powerful and faithful of all beings? Nay, is it unreasonable to suppose that our heavenly Father may leave some things which he requires, without a full explanation, at least for a time, on purpose to see if we have faith enough to trust him barely on his word? Did he not adopt this method of procedure with Abraham, and honour him as the father of the faithful, for his implicit obedience? Did not our Saviour say to Peter, in reference to one appointment, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter ?" And when Peter absolutely refused compliance, did not our Lord say to him-"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me?" You cannot fail, if you reflect, to answer these interrogatories so as fully and freely to admit, that when God speaks, it is infinitely reasonable for us immediately to obey, whether we do, or do not, see the grounds or reasons of his command. We may be assured that the best of reasons exist for all that he requires, although for the present we do not perceive them. I do not indeed dissuade you from endeavouring to understand, as far as you can, the nature and design of all the appointments and ordinances of God. You ought to do this: and you ought, by all means, to examine well whether institutions which claim to be divine ordinances, appear to be such by the unerring word of God; but as soon as this is apparent, on a careful and candid examination-as soon as you see a "thus saith the Lord" for an appointment, then you have the best of all possible reasons, in the known character of God, for an immediate compliance. With prompt and un reserved obedience, therefore, receive every ordinance, which appears from the revealed will of God to have him for its author. 2. We are not only to receive the ordinances of God, but to observe them. It is one thing to acknowledge or admit an institution to be of divine appointment, and another practically to treat it as such. How many are there, for example, who admit that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is an ordinance of our blessed Saviour, instituted in the most affecting circumstances, and for the most important purposes, and intended for perpetual observance in his church and yet, year after year passes away, without their coming to this sacrament, or feeling much uneasiness on account of their neglect. Far be it from me, my young friends, to urge you to a rash or unprepared approach to the table of the Lord. But would to God that both you, and all who receive the messages of the gospel, might be made to feel most sensibly that the command, "Do this in remembrance of me," is binding upon you; and that you are chargeable with a guilty neglect, so long as a cordial obedience to this command is not rendered. But I specify this neglect at present, only because it is a common one, and therefore well adapted to illustrate the general subject. Recollect the enumeration of the ordinances of religious worship, given in the first part of this lecture, and remember that you are bound to observe them all-That every one of them was given by their divine author to be used; that no one of them can be set aside or neglected, without a practical and criminal disregard to a divine institution; in a word, that the conscientious observance of them all, at the times and seasons proper for them severally, is a duty solemnly binding on all who bear the Christian name. 3. The ordinances of God's worship are to be kept pure. All mere ly human additions to the institutions of the Most High, are a usurpation of his prerogative; they are a reflection on his wisdom and goodness, as if what he has done or commanded could be improved, or have some deficiencies supplied by man's sagacity. To this there has been a wonderful proneness in every age of the church. A very large part of all the corruptions of the worship of God that have ever debased and dishonoured it, has proceeded from this cause. To this origin may be traced all the will worship of the Romish church, and all "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men," and all that admixture of human inventions with divine appointments, which still exist in churches less corrupt than that of Rome. God's work is perfect, and all that we presumptuously add to it is an impurity which he abhors. 4. The worship and ordinances of the Lord are to be kept entireAs we are to add nothing to them, so we are to subtract nothing from them. Entireness in the observance of divine ordinances is obligatory both on churches and individuals; and yet it is too often violated by both. Discipline, for example, is an ordinance which God has appointed in the order of his house, and for the benefit of all who belong to the household of faith: and when the church neglects discipline-and she does often neglect it even in the grossest mannershe most criminally disregards one of the ordinances of her Lord and head-She does not keep those ordinances entire. In like manner, when an individual Christian permits one duty to displace another, or gives such an attention to certain duties as almost wholly to neglect others, he does not keep the ordinances of his God entire. It is a high commendation which the word of inspiration bestows on Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth, when it tells us that "they were both righteous before God, walking |