triune Jehovah. This is the God to whom as a Christian, every believer is dedicated, into whose name (or nature and glory,) he is baptized, in whom he is to believe, and whom he is to love, honour, worship and obey with all his heart, and soul, and strength, and mind.

The former article of his belief separates the Christian from polytheistic Gentiles. The latter article of his belief separates him from the Jews; for though they have ever firmly expected the promised Messiah, they have generally, as pertinaciously denied that the Messiah has come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth,—that he is God, that the Holy Ghost is God, and that God is a triune Jehovah, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in one essential nature.

We must never forget, however, that mere doctrinal knowledge, however essential, will stand us in little avail, unless it is manifested in our practice. That same Divine person, who declared the knowledge of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be eternal life, declared also, no less unequivocally, "Not every one, that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which in Heaven.*

Unitarians may say, that to know Jesus Christ, is to know the will of God, as delivered by Jesus Christ. But it is not knowing the will of God, but God himself as a Saviour, that will secure us eternal life. To know Jesus Christ is, therefore, to know him as he is represented in the Gospel, as God and man; and as having become such for our redemption; and to believe in, love, and obey him as snch, and thus we perceive the plain, practical, and fundamental character of the doctrine of the trinity.

This does God's book declare in obvious phrase,
In most sincere and honest words, by God
Himself selected and arranged, so clear,
So plain, so perfectly distinct, that none
Who read with humble wish to understand,
And ask the Spirit given to all who ask,
Can miss their meaning, blazed in heavenly light,

* 1 Peter, i: 5-7, and ix: 11.

The true One God, in Persons Three,
Great Father of eternity,

Swift with the sun departs the day,
Oh, shed on us a heavenly ray.

At morn and even to Thee we raise
The sigh of prayer, the song of praise,
Though poor the strain, its aim is high,-
God over all to glorify!

Father, for ever be adored

And Thou, the Son,-our only Lord,

And Thou, true Consolation Giver,

Now, henceforth, and for ever!

God the Father! with us be,

Shield us Thou from danger nigh,
From sin's bondage set us free,
Help us happily to die!

God the Saviour! with us be,

Shield us Thou from danger nigh,

From sin's bondage set us free,
Help us happily to die!

God the Spirit! with us be,

Shield us Thou from danger nigh,

From sin's bondage set us free,

Help us happily to die!

Keep us in the heavenly faith,
From Satan us deliver;
Thine in life and thine in death,
Thine only and for ever!

God! with thy weapons arm us,
With all true Christians, shall we,—

Nor earth, nor hell, to harm us,—

Hallelujah sing to thee!

Hymns of Ancient Church.

ARTICLE II.

THE PSALTER OF THE VIRGIN MARY.

The essential element of the Romish apostasy is creature-worship. Popery, like heathenism, has "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served

the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever."

Perhaps no single work ever written, by Papist or Protestant, exhibits this feature of the great apostasy more strongly than the one, the title of which we have placed at the head of this article. It consists of one hundred and fifty Psalms, in imitation of the inspired Psalms of the Bible, all addressed to the Virgin Mary; several songs of praise in like manner, addressed to her, parodied from different passages of Scripture; a hymn in imitation of the Te deum laudamus, and a creed answering to that of St. Athanasius. The whole is arranged as a service, distributed into hours for all the days of the week, in imitation of the usual services of the R. C. Church, and designed to be used constantly as a book of devotion.

Though written six hundred years ago, and many times printed, widely circulated, and extensively used as a book of devotion in Roman Catholic countries, it is comparatively little known to Protestants; and we have thought it well worth while to draw the attention of our readers to it, and to present them some extracts from it. We trust it may subserve the cause of truth, by exhibiting one of the gross, yet subtle corruptions of Christianity, and by arousing some lukewarm Protestants to a sense of danger from the insidious advances of Romanism in various parts of our beloved land.

Nearly twelve years ago, when the question of the endowment by the British Government of the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, was under discussion, both in and out of Parliament, Protestants in England, were astonished at the announcement, made in a public meeting by a member of Parliament, that such a book existed, and that it was one in constant use at the College, which it was proposed that the nation should endow. Many of our readers, we doubt not, will be equally astonished by the extracts which we present; and we think they will thank us for drawing their attention to so remarkable a developement of the corrupt system which, throughout Europe, passed under the name of Christianity, in the age when the "Psalter of the Virgin Mary" was written.

Some doubts have been raised as to the authorship of this work. It is not necessary to discuss them. It is sufficient for our purpose, that its reputed author is a Saint of the Roman Calendar; and that the work is, and has been for centuries, in extensive use and high repute, as a devotional book, among the members of that communion. The edition from which our extracts are taken, was printed at Lyons, in 1729, in Latin and French, with the Royal privilege and approbation, and accompanied by a recommendation from a Doctor of the Sorbonne, in which it is styled "a work of great piety." The writer of the preface says:

"The devotees of the Holy Virgin will be charmed, in reciting this Psalter, with the sentiment and affections with which it is filled; for the holy Doctor has here collected all that can be said, both grand and tender, respecting Our Lady. They will see here, with admiration, what a sublime idea of MARY the Holy Spirit gives to the souls which it possesses; and how far the greatest Saints have carried their love, their confidence, and their praises, towards this divine Queen."

"Those who are little touched with the love of the Holy Virgin, and little enlightened in respect to her graces and privileges, will, perhaps, be surprised at the manner in which our Saint expresses himself, in speaking of a mere creature. But let them reflect that it is a Doctor of the church who speaks, a Doctor too, who, by his eminent holiness, earned for himself the title of The Seraphic Doctor. He was both too enlightened to err, and too holy to fill an entire work with sentiments not conformed to the Spirit of God. Let them reflect that this mere creature, whom the Saint here addresses, is the

*St. Bonaventura, born at Bagnorea, in Tuscany, in the year 1221. At the age of twenty-one he became a monk of the order of St. Francis; at thirty-five, General of his order; and the year following, Doctor of the University of Paris. At the time of his death, in 1274, he was a Cardinal and Papal Legate at the Council of Lyons. It is an evidence of the high regard in which he was held that his funeral was attended by the Pope, the Cardinals, two Patriarchs, and five hundred Bishops.

St. B. wrote on the rules of his order and in its defence, on the wor ship of the Virgin Mary, celibacy, transubstantiation, &c. His Itinerarium mentis in Deum is said to have been the work which procured for her the title of "the Seraphic Doctor." He was canonized by Pope Sixtus IV.

Mother of the Creator and Redeemer, spouse of the Holy Spirit, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Sovereign of angels and men, to whom the world owes its deliverance; and who, having been associated with her Son in the work of redemption, is still (associated) in his glory, in his dominion, and in that supreme power which has been given to him in heaven and on earth. Whoever can penetrate, as St. Bonaventura did, all that these titles signify, how easily would he understand the language of this holy Doctor, and how much relish and consolation would he find in it!"

After an argument to prove that this worship of the Virgin is not inconsistent with that which is due to Christ, admitting "that the merits of Jesus are infinite, while those of Mary are finite," he proceeds:

"Still this difference stands not in the way of the fact that it hath pleased that adorable Son to render his holy Mother all powerful with himself; to share with her all his goods, all his honours, all his titles, and to make her the depositary and dispenser of his treasures. This is what the Saints have believed; this is what the universal church gives us to understand, when it calls Mary our Advocate, our Refuge, our Hope, our Life, our Sweetness, our Succour, our Consolation, Mother of Grace, Mother of Mercy, Pole-star, Gate of Heaven, &c. St. Bonaventura has said nothing of the holy Virgin which is not included in these titles. What have we then to fear in using the same language which he used, and in nourishing the devotion of the people toward the Mother of God, with the same affections with which we see that the greatest Saints nourished theirs."

After alluding to the numerous editions of the work which had been already published in various parts of the world, and mentioning some traits of his own, the edition proceeds:

"We believe that in contributing by this means to foster devotion to the holy Virgin, we are rendering a service to the church and to the country; for it is a remark universally true, that wherever this devotion flourishes, there the faith also flourishes; and that on the contrary one of the speediest effects of heresy (!) is, first,