first matter, to its creation, or in a dead man to his resurrection, or in an infant to its generation. Whatever aversion, contrariety, or opposition there may be to it, in the corrupt NATURE of man, it is all speedily and easily overcome, by the divine grace, when the stony heart is taken away and a heart of flesh is given."

These extracts give the lie direct,' to the word of God.-Under the first, a man may murder, commit rapes, arson, robbery, suicide, piracy, lie, swear, and do every bad thing, and then say, "I could not help doing these things, for God was the cause of my doing so badly." "He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass,' so that I am justified in doing evil, because I do just what God has willed I should do, and no man can resist the decrees of God." Such is the amount and effects of Calvinist preaching.

The second extract confirms the first in every particular. It is worse than mockery to call on bad men to forsake their evil ways, and tell them at the same time, they cannot 'pray right,' repent, or do any good thing, on account of their corrupt natures, unless God sends an irresistible influence' to convert them. These extracts make all mankind perfectly justified in doing evil; and, under this gross error, thousands do justify themselves. Go through New-England, preach to the drunkard, the liar, the perjurer, the sabbath breaker, the profane, the lewd, and the vile of every description, tell them to reform, and they will all say, they cannot do it. If you ask them why they cannot comply with the reasonable commands of their Maker, they will all say, because they are not one of the elect, and God has never operated upon them to make them forsake their sins; when their turn comes, they shall be converted--and they are waiting for God's irresistible power to change their hearts!* Such, my friends, is the fatal delu sion and totally depraving effects of Calvinist preaching, and no man can dispute it-and yet, these very men, who spread this piritual Cannibalism, call themselves orthodox, the true teachers of the gospel of Christ; and all who will not believe such monstrous infidelity, are pronounced totally depraved. " I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say.

To be in character with all popular preachers, I will now tell a story-not about revivals, four day meetings, experiences, or conversions,-for all things may be found in another place-but a story to illustrate superstition, and many other facts of a similar nature will claim our attention.

The gallant Francis I. of France had an equally gallant and very shrewd valet-de-chambre, of the name of Lewis * These vain excuses are not confined to the openly vicious,

Brabant, who was also a most skilful ventriloquist. Lewis Brabant had the misfortune to fall desperately in love with a young, very beautiful, and very wealthy heiress, whose father forbade his addresses in consequence of the disparity of his condition. The father, however, died, soon after, and the courageous lover, unsubdued by a first repulse, was determined to try his fortune a second time, under favour of the new state of circumstances, and to see whether it would not be possible, upon a severe push, to call to his aid the art of ventriloquism, in which he was so considerable an adept.

He accordingly waited upon the mother as soon as decency would allow, and once more submitted his proposals. But faithful to the views of her deceased husband, the mother of the young lady made no scruple of once more giving Lewis Brabant a direct refusal. While, however, she was in the act of doing so, a low, hollow, sepulchral voice was heard by herself, and by every friend who was with her, and which was instantly recognised as the voice of the deceased, commanding her to give her daughter's hand immediately to Lewis Brabant, whom the piteous spirit affirmed he now knew to be a most worthy and excellent man, and considerable wealthier than he had taken him to be when alive; adding, at the same time, that he was at that moment suffering a part of the pains of purgatory for having ill-treated, by his refusal, so exemplary a man; and that he would not be released from them till his widow had consented.

All was mute astonishment; but Lewis Brabant appeared more astonished than the rest. He modestly observed, that whatever his merits or his virtues might be, he had no idea that they were worthy of being commemmorated by a voice from the grave; but that nothing could give him more pleasure than to be made the happy instrument of extricating the old gentleman from the pains of purgatory, which it seemed he was suffering on his account. There was no doubt as to the voice; and, consequently, there was no doubt as to the path to be pursued; the mother, the daughter, the whole family, immediately assented with one accord, and Lewis Brabant had the honor to receive their commands to prepare for the nuptials with all speed.

To prepare for the nuptials, however, required the assistance of a little ready money; but Lewis Brabant was destitute of such an article. It was necessary, nevertheless, to procure it; and he now resolved to try whether the same talent which had obtained for him the promise of a wife, might not also obtain for him the material he stood in need of.

He recollected that there lived at Lyons an old miserly banker, of the name of Cornu, who had accumulated immense wealth by usury and extortion, and whose conscience appeared often to be ill at ease, in consequence of the means he had made use of; and it immediately struck him that M. Cornu was the very character that might answer his purpose. To Lyons, therefore, he went instantly post-haste, commenced an immediate acquaintance with M. Cornu, and on every interview took especial care, on entering into conver sation with him, to contrast the pure happiness enjoyed by the man whose conscience could look back, like M. Cornu's, as he was pleased to say, on a life devoted to acts of charity and benevolence, with the horrors of the wretch who had amassed heaps of wealth by usury and injustice, and whose tormented mind only gave him now a foretaste of what he was to expect hereafter. The miser was perpetually desirous of changing the conversation; but the more he tried, the more his companion pressed upon him with it; till finding, on one occasion, that he appeared more agitated than ever, the ventriloquist conceived such an occasion to be the golden moment for putting his scheme into execution; and at the instant a low, solemn sepulchral mutter was heard, as in the former case, which was at last found to be the voice of M. Cornu's father, who had been dead for some years, and which declared him to have passed all this time in the tortures of purgatory, from which he had now just learned that nothing could free him but his son's paying ten thousand crowns into the hands of Lewis Brabant, then with him, for the purpose of redeeming Christian slaves from the hands of the Turks.

All, as in the last case, was unutterable astonishment; but Lewis Brabant was the most astonished of the two: modestly declared that now for the first time in his life he was convinced of the possibility of the dead holding conversation with the living and admitted that, in truth, he had for many years been benevolently employed in redeeming Christian slaves from the Turks, although his native bashfulness would not allow him to avow it publicly.

The mind of the old miser was distracted with a thousand contending passions. He was suspicious without having any satisfactory reason for suspicion; filial duty prompted him to rescue his father from his abode of misery: but ten thousand crowns was a large sum of money even for such a purpose. He at length resolved to adjourn the meeting till the next day, and to change it to another place. He required time to examine into this mysterious affair, and also wished, as he told his companion, to give his father an opportunity of trying whether he could not bargain for a smaller sum.

They accordingly separated; but renewed their meeting the next day with the punctuality of men of business. The place made choice of, by M. Cornu, for this rencounter, was an open common in the vicinity of Lyons, where there was neither a house, nor a wall, nor a tree, nor a bush that could conceal a confederate, even if such a person should be in employment. No sooner, however, had they met than the old banker's ears were again assailed with the same hideous and sepulchral cries, upbraiding him for having suffered his father to remain for four-and-twenty hours longer in all the torments of purgatory; denouncing that, unless the demand of the ten thousand crowns was instantly complied with, the sum would be doubled; and that the miser himself would be condemned to the same doleful regions, and to an increased degree of torture. M. Cornu moved a few paces forward,

but he was assulted with still louder shrieks: he advanced a second time, and now instead of hearing his father's voice alone, he was assailed with the dreadful outcry of a hundred ghosts at once, those of his grandfather, his great-grandfather, his uncles and aunts, and the whole family of the Cornus for the last two or three generations; who, it seems, were all equally suffering in purgatory-and were included in the general contract for the ten thousand crowns; all of them beseeched him in the name of every saint in the calendar to have mercy upon them, and to have mercy upon himself. It required more fortitude than M. Cornu possessed to resist the threats and outcries of a hundred and fifty or two hundred ghosts at a time. He instantly paid the ten thousand crowns into the hands of Lewis Brabant, and felt some pleasure that by postponing the payment for a day, he had at least been able to rescue the whole family of the Cornus for the same sum of money as was at first demanded for his father alone. The dexterous ventriloquist, having received the money, instantly returned to Paris, married his intended bride, and told the whole story to his sovereign and the court,very much to the entertainment of all of them."

The above story is from Good's Book of Nature;' and, perhaps, some of the 'would-be-thought' orthodox, will object to it. It is, however, a good and reasonable story, and probably true. But as much cannot be said of all the wonderful and marvellous stories so commonly told from the pulpit in these days of general religious excitement. I cannot believe that sensible, respectable and thinking men, are pleased, edified, instructed or benefited, by the relation of the rumors and children's stories, so often recited in sermons and on oth

er occasions by the clergy. This course, however, has become fashionable and popular-and we find all Trinitarian papers filled with these tales of wonder and deception-insomuch that the religious taste of certain sects has become so viliated they cannot read a paper unless it contains some miraculous 'work of God,' in a revival. Indeed, many good people really think these revivals are the work of God, and ought to be spread for the encouragement of sinners. But, I ask, Do these tales benefit society? Are the people made better by them? I think every unprejudiced mind will answer in the negative. These stories deceive the people-they are made to expect that the Lord will at some future time "pass by and convert them." Under this fatal delusion, it is feared that thousands are waiting and expecting "a visit from the Lord," and with this vain and false idea, they neglect religion and all the means, which God in his great mercy has ordained, for the assistance and benefit of all men. Instead of looking within themselves, and striving against sin, through the aid of God's word and spirit, the multitude are looking without-and hope the Lord will come to make them better. Now this is the exact state of the public mind-and a greater delusion has never befallen any people. I appeal to the common sense of every man, and ask, If this statement is exaggerated ? Do the people, generally, expect to overcome evil, and do good, without a special divine influence? Alas! it is a lamentable fact, that too many think they cannot-and this awful and destructive error has been rivetted on the mind by the false and ruinous doctrines of the orthodox, and the means they take to keep up the delusion. I am persuaded, that the evil of these things now considered the work of God by many pious persons-will be viewed by future generations with as much astonishment as we now view the delusion of our forefathers, in the days of witchcraft. The many facts which I have to offer on this subject, will, I humbly trust, assist us in candidly deciding rightly on the popular excitements of the day. They will be given in a chapter on conversion.

If any one wishes to know why so many are fond of the petty tales about excitements in the country, I would refer to the matter contained in certain religious papers-there they can find the cause-there we sec conceit, bigotry, self-will, fanaticism, vain confidence, and self-righteousness, abundantly displayed in their columns. The editors, no doubt, think they are right, and act, perhaps, from honest motives-while they refuse to read and examine for themselves, they seem determined to keep their readers in the same ignorance. They join in the popular cry against Liberal Christianity and main