in defending some one version in everything, through thick and thin,-in that case, again, we should lose much valuable security, which we have now, for the general trustworthiness of the common translations.

You see, then, that, though much evil may often arise from the freedom of thinking and speaking which we enjoy, yet much good arises from it also: and hence you may perceive, further, how foolishly those act who would take away that freedom, lest the unlearned should be injured by it. For that would be taking away from the unlearned one of the greatest of all securities for the truth of what is told them by their betters.

But people are apt to make a confusion in their own minds between two different meanings of the word "authority," and, in consequence of that, to fall into serious mistakes.

When we speak, for example, of the authority of an Act of Parliament, regularly passed, we mean that the parliament has power to bind the Country to submit to that Act. And, you will observe, that such authority extends quite as much over those who disapprove of the measure as over those who approve it. Every good subject is bound, and every subject may be compelled, to submit to and obey an Act of Parliament; but no one is bound to approve of it, or think it wise, any farther than he sees reason for so thinking.

But we use the word "authority" in quite a different sense when any one says, for instance, that "Macaulay is a great authority in matters of English history." That means that he is a writer to whose statements and opinions about English history we should pay attention and deference, as the statements and opinions of an intelligent person, who has diligently examined the matters about which he writes.

Now it is in this sense of the word that learned and able men may be said to have a certain "authority" in questions connected with religion, from having carefully examined such questions with the aid of all the best lights which their learning and ability could supply. Whatever, in short, gives a man some peculiar advantage towards forming a correct judgment on any question, ought (unless we are pretty sure that he has wilfully neglected to use that advantage) to give his judgment some degree of weight or "authority" in this sense.

But no one could think of saying that a great historian had

any authority to force men to submit to his decisions; or, on the other hand, that all Acts of Parliament should be regarded, under pain of a misdemeanor, as perfectly wise and welljudged.

II. Roman-catholic writers, again, sometimes produce a strong popular impression in favour of their church, by selecting some part of its system which may be painted in bright colours, and made to wear an attractive appearance, while all the rest, with which that part is connected, is kept in the back ground.

Thus, for example, we have fine pictures drawn of the ancient monasteries. The monks are represented as all pious men, who, bent upon the cultivation of a religious temper of mind, withdrew from the world for that purpose; as if the business and duties of this world were not the very discipline which God has appointed for cultivating real righteousness in us. And then, the learning, peace, and piety of the monasteries is strongly contrasted with the ignorance and irreligion and perpetual wars, of the dark and troublous times, which are commonly called "the middle ages," in such a manner as that even Protestants are sometimes led to think and say that, at least in former times, and for those times, the monasteries were commendable institutions. But they forget that it was the very system of which these were a part, which made the world so dark and unquiet; and then, like the ivy, which has reduced a fine building to a shattered ruin, they held together the fragments of that ruin.

Of course, if you teach men that holiness can be only, or can be best attained by withdrawing from the world into a cloister, all those who are bent on living a holy life will withdraw from the world; and they will, in so withdrawing, take from the world that which should reform it-the benefit of their teaching and the encouragement of their example. One after another all those most promising men, who should have been, each in the place where Providence had set him, "the light of the world," and "the salt of the earth," will leave the station to which God had called them, and seclude themselves within the walls of a monastery; and then, in proportion as the influence of good men is removed more and more, society will become every day worse and worse. The business and pleasures of the world will be looked upon as necessarily sinful, and those who mix in them as necessarily unholy; and the thought of using

them as a discipline in godliness, and learning how to "use this world without abusing it," will be lost out of men's minds; till at last, by the working of such a system, all appearance of piety will really be confined to the monasteries, and the common state of society, and the ordinary course of life, will be tainted with impurity, and disturbed by violence, and the world will seem again, as it did in heathen times, to "lie in wickedness." When the SALT is thus drawn away from the mess, and collected to particular spots, the remainder is left to putrify.

Let us illustrate this by an example. Some, even Englishmen, who have visited Slave-States, are satisfied at being told that the slaves are far better off and more civilized there than in their own barbarian Countries; which is, probably, for the most part true.

But why have the African countries continued so long in gross barbarism? They have long had intercourse with Europeans, who might have taught them to raise sugar and cotton, &c., at home, for the European markets, and in other ways might have civilized them. And it cannot be said that they are incapable of learning; since free negroes in various countries, though they have the disadvantage of being a degraded caste, are yet (however inferior to us) far advanced beyond the savage tribes of Africa.

But it is the very slave-trade itself that has kept them barbarians, by encouraging wars for the purpose of taking captives to be sold as slaves, and the villanous practices of kidnapping, and trading in each other's happiness and liberties. It is the very system itself, which men seek to excuse by pointing out the comfortable state of slaves when they are caught and sold, that, to a great extent, produces, and must, if persisted in, perpetuate, the barbarous condition with which this comparative comfort is contrasted. The whole of these African tribes might, under a better system, have enjoyed, in freedom, far, very fargreater comfort in their native land, than that which some of them now possess, as slaves, in a foreign land.

So, also, in the case of the monasteries. Those who shut themselves up there might have exercised a much better and more rational piety (like the Apostles and first Christians) out of them, and in the world; and if they had lived amongst their fellow-men, would have helped to raise the whole tone of society

around them. And it was just the same evil system which buried some good men (like lamps in sepulchres) in the cells of monasteries, and made the general mass of society outside the walls of those establishments so bad, that it seemed to excuse their withdrawal from it.

It is to be acknowledged, indeed, that some monks sometimes did some good for the rest of the world. They were often engaged in education, attendance on the poor, copying of manuscripts, agriculture, &c., and all these were really useful occupations. It is not to these things we object, when we object to monasteries; for with monasteries these have no necessary connexion.

Let Associations be formed FOR a good object, when needful; instead of first forming an Association as an end in itself, and then looking out for something for it to do; else, that something, being a secondary matter, will sometimes be ill-done, or neglected, and sometimes will be what had better be left undone.

If, for example, in the late famine, Government had resolved to lay out a certain sum in making and improving the highways in Ireland, and had then proceeded to look out for overseers and labourers for the work, how different would have been the result from what took place, when they voted money for relief, and then looked out for something to be done by the people relieved! They mended some roads, and spoiled more, and made some that were not so much wanted as the agricultural labour from which they drew off the labourer.

"Oh, but there is something good in these institutions, and in many other parts of the Romish system also; and therefore it is wrong to blame it in the gross." Well, thus we ought to deal with individual men; never pronouncing any censure on any one's character and conduct, without adverting to his good qualities and actions, even though few and small. But not so with systems and measures. If one of these does, on the whole, more harm than good, and cannot be divested of its evil tendency, it should be totally condemned and rejected.

Be on your guard, then, against that cant of men who "know neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm,” which one nowa-days hears so often. "There is some truth in so and so; and, therefore, it is the mission of him who holds it, though mixed with much error, to propagate the belief of his doctrines. He is

fulfilling the designs of Providence; and his errors, perhaps, are making the truth which is mixed up with them all the more easily received." Some Truth! Yes; the serpent had some

truth in what he said: the forbidden tree was a tree of knowledge. And there was some truth, too, in Eve's reflections. It was pleasant to the eye, and desirable to make one wise. Here was "the love of the beautiful, and of knowledge," in the very first sin which man committed. It is always some mixture of the good and true which makes evil look plausible, and makes error lasting; and if we censure nothing but what is one mass of flagrant vice and absurdity, we shall leave precisely the most dangerous evils in the world uncensured. No mixture of evil is ever necessary for any really good purpose: and those who act as if it were, are really "doing evil that good may come."

III. A favourite topic with all Roman-catholic convertists is Unity. They represent themselves as the great apostles of peace and union, who are endeavouring to heal the breaches, and put an end to the divisions and distractions, of a rent and dismembered Church. And this way of talking, especially in the mouths of amiable and pious men, is very attractive to many. They feel as if persons of so sweet a temper, and so peaceable a spirit, must be right.

But you may remember that, all through the great French war, Buonaparte was always talking of his desire of peace; and, in truth, did aim at what would have ensured it, namely, universal empire; but till all the world would agree to submit to him, he never would let his neighbours alone.

One should look, then, not merely to the sincerity with which any one aims at peace, but also to the conditions he loads it with, and the pertinacity with which he insists on these. It would be very desirable to be in full communion with our fellowChristians all the world over, now; just as it was very desirable then to be at peace with the French and Italians, &c., and other people under Napoleon's influence; but peace is too dearly purchased by slavery of any kind-certainly by spiritual slavery. Truth is the first thing. Aim at that. Those who reach truth will reach unity, because truth is one. But, on the other hand, men may, and often do, gain unity without truth; which is so far from being a good, that it is a great evil. It makes falsehood strong, and the professors of it contented in their error.