throw of infidelity; but it would be necessary to receive them with an effusion of tenderness capable of demonstrating our sincere affection; and never to hint the least reproach for what is past.-Unhappily they have formed to themselves the most hideous picture of the Romish religion by supposing her to be of a persecuting spirit. Yet they ought to know that in Rome herself Protestants are treated with the greatest kindness; and that from the manner they are received there, they may be persuaded that she really disapproves of the persecutions stirred up against them in those unhappy times when both sides listened only to the dictates of blind, impetuous zeal. Would to heaven it were granted us, even at the expense of our own blood, to hasten the return of our own brethren for whom we feel all possible tenderness. Woe to those who would retain the least animosity against them!" `208, 209.

PP.

While Ganganelli was a Cardinal, but the same year that he was elected Pontiff, he wrote an affectionate letter to a protestant minister; from which we

shall make a few extracts.

"I wish with all my soul that I could convince you, that I have all mankind in my heart, that they are dear to me, and that I respect merit wherever I find it.

"My dear sir, the church of Rome is so perfectly convinced of the merit of the greatest part of the ministers of the protestant communion, that she would congratulate herself forever, if she

could see them return to her bosom. There would be no occasion to rip up old quarrels of times past, to renew the storms and tempests, when each party, transported by passion, forsook the paths of christian moderation.-Nobody laments more than I do the injuries which were done you in the last age; the spirit of persecution is hateful in my eyes. What a multitude of people would not a happy reunion gain! If this could be effected, I would be content to die; for I would sacrifice a thousand lives to be once witness of so happy an event.” Letter 109.

We shall only add one more observation from Ganganelli, and this we hope will be duly considered by all our readers. "We too often lay aside charity to maintain faith; without reflect-ing, that if it is not allowed to tolerate error, it is forbidden to hate and persecute those who have unfortunately embraced it." Vol. i. P. 24.

Such was the spirit, and such: the language of a man who was a papist by education, who passed through various grades of office to the first in the papal church. That he was in some great errors of opinion we readily grant; but who is free from error in our world? Or who knows the extent of his own errors? What intelligent christian, who has any share of the temper of his Lord, would refuse to acknowledge such a man as Ganganelli for a brother? Yet how many men of similar temper have the sweeping denunciations of party zeal, classed with the children of the devil,

and consigned to hell? Yea how many protestants, who were themselves destitute of the chris tian spirit, have been guilty of usurping the place of the Judge ordained by God, and of dooming men to destruction who were humble followers of Jesus, according to the light they possess ed.

We are free to avow the opinion, that the candor and benevolence which appear in the writings of Ganganelli, are better evidence of a truly christian spirit, than all the party denunciations which have ever appeared in christendom, from any sect whatever. Indeed the more there is of this wholesale censure, on the part of any sect, or any individual, the less evidence we have of the christian temper. But the more we see of the humble, pacific spirit which appears in the writings of Ganganelli, the more evidence we have of such religion as God will approve, whatever errors of opinion may be associated with it.

Next to the sanguinary errors which have prevailed both among papists and protestants, that error which disposes christians of different sects to indiscriminate censures of each other, is perhaps the most antichristian, heretical, and injurious of any one that can be named, and the most fatal to christian unity, peace and fellowship. Great errors of opinion may be innocently and even necessarily imbibed by the influence of education; but a censorious, defamatory spirit is as really criminal in its nature, as the spirit of war or murder. And although we

fear that too much of it is to be found in every sect, we hope and believe that there are many in every sect who are not under its influence, and by whom it is both lamented and abhorred. It is a sin which easily besets people while under the dominion of party zeal. If ever a time should come when christians shall rise above the influence of sectarian and schismatic zeal, the error of which we have been speaking will probably be classed among the most odious vices of the present age; and be regarded with more abhorrence than any mere error of opinion which now divides the christian world.

If to assume the name and a

dopt the rites of papists, would insure to men the amiable spirit of Ganganelli, we could most sincerely recommend this course to many of our protestant brethren, rather than they should continue. of their present temper. But all papists have not been like Ganganelli. There has been probably the same diversity of character among them, as among protestants, some very good and some very bad. And such protestants of different sects, as can call themselves CHRISTIANS, and yet defame and ❝devour one another," would not be likely to derive much benefit from merely changing their name. It is a change of temper which they need, to make them truly the followers of him who could bear with the erroneous opinions of his disciples, and still rebuke them for warring passions, by saying, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of."

Many useful lessons may be

1

obtained from Ganganelli; but we have room for only one more suggestion.-Notwithstanding all the thunders and persecutions of the papal clergy against the protestants in former ages; yet after the storm abated, we behold one of the most amiable and eminent of the papal church coming forward, and owning that "the church of Rome is perfectly convinced of the merit of the greatest part of the ministers of the protestant communion," and earnestly seeking for a reunion with the proscribed sect.-Should, then, a general schism be effected in our churches according to the plan recently proposed, there may hereafter arise some Ganganelli of the proscribing sect, who will acknowledge that there are men of real worth among

the proscribed. He may also lament the "blind, impetuous zeal” which occasioned the sehism; and seek in vain to heal the wound which self sufficiency and rashness had made.

Luther and others set out to reform some things which they thought erroneous, and not to make a schism in the church. The schism was brought on by the proscribing denunciations of the majority. These denunciations, however, occasioned a more full examination of the disputed points, and a great accession of numbers to the dissenting party. Passion and prejudice soon took the lead on each side, and dreadful were the effects. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

the Sadducees, believed in the doctrine of a future life; and they believed also, that it was plainly taught in their scriptures. The Talmudists say, they have no part in the future life, who teach that the resurrection of the dead is not asserted in the law. Yet we read, and hear, that the doctrine of immortality is not taught in the Jewish scriptures; and Warburton's great argument of the divine legation of Moses, is comprised in the three propositions; 1. that the inculcation of the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments, is necessary to the well being of civil society; 2. that all mankind, es

pecially the most wise and learned nations of antiquity, have concurred in believing and teaching, that this doctrine was of such use to civil society; 3. that the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments is not found in, nor did make a part of the Mosaic dispensation. The omission of this doctrine, considered in connexion with the history of the Jews, is therefore internal evidence, amounting to moral demonstration, that this dispensation was from God.-But it is worthy of remark, that in reasoning with the Sadducees, who would have concurred most cordially both in this argument, and in the inference from it; our Lord said to them, do ye not therefore err,

SCRIPTURES, neither the power of God? And as touching the dead, that they rise, HAVE YE NOT READ IN THE BOOK OF MOSES, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? (Exod. iii. 6.) The inference of our Lord from this text is, He is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto him; or, as Campbell renders, the expressions in Luke, (xx. 38.) for they are (though dead to us,) alive to him We are told that the multitude, when they heard this, were astonished at his doctrine; and that the Sadducees, after that, durst not ask him any other question. But they were astonished, not at the doctrine itself, but at the new evidence which he had given of it from their own scriptures; and an evidence peculiarly suited to silence Sad

ducees, if indeed it be true, that the five books of Moses were the only scriptures, which were received by these sectarians.

"It is a great argument for the immortality of the soul," said Menasseh Ben Israel, "that men dispute whether or no it be immortal; for even hence it appears, that the doctrine of immortality must be true, because so noble and elevated a thought could not have entered into the mind, only through the medium of the senses."-But the inquiry which demands our attention is, what are the passages in the Old Testament, in which the Jews thought that the doctrine of a future life was inculcated. We adduce a few of them.

1. Gen. v. 24. Enoch walked with God, and was not; for God took him."

Here is not only an indication of a future life, but an example to all succeeding generations, of what God will bestow on all the righteous in another world. So the Jews interpreted these cxpressions; and the christian reader may compare with them the 14 and 15 verses of the epistle of Jude.

2. Exod. vi. 3, 4. "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah, was I not known to them. And I have established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers."-Says Rabbi Simai, "God says in the text, to give to them, and not to give to you; from whence it is manifest, that the resurrection may be proved

from the law."This is the same kind of argument as our Lord employed, in reasoning with the Sadducees; and indeed the Jews do not pretend to adduce, especially from the five books of Moses, any other proofs on this subject, than those of inference. But in these they see great force, and attach to them very great importance. In the same manner they argue from the expressions of God, in Gen. xvii. 8. "I will give unto thee, and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger; all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession." But Abraham and the Patriarchs, did never possess the land. It follows then necessarily, that they must rise from the dead; otherwise, the promises of God will fail of accomplishment.

This has appeared to be very conclusive reasoning, to christians, as well as to Jews. "This covenant," says the pious and profoundly learned Joseph Mede, "was to give unto them and to their seed the land, wherein they were strangers. Mark it. Not to their seed, or offspring only, but to themselves. See the pla

ces.

To Abraham, Gen. xiii. 15. -XV. 7.—and xvii. 8. To Isaac, Gen. xxvi. 3. To Jacob, Gen. XXXV. 12. And to all three, Exod. vi. 4, 8.-Deut. i. 8.-xi. 21.-and xxx. 20. If God then made good to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this his, covenant, whereby he undertook to be their God, then must they needs live again to inherit the promised land, which hitherto they have not done; for the God that thus covenanted with them, cov

enanted not to make his promise good to them dead, but living. This is the strength of the divine argument; and it is irrefragable; and from these very places, thus understood, did the Jews, in the time of our Savior, infer the resurrection, against the Sadducees, out of the law."

3. Deut. xxxii. 39. “I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal."

The same person is here thought to be the subject, both of the disease, and the cure; of death, and of life.

We add a note of Delgado, a modern Jew, and author of "a new English translation of the Pentateuch,' or five books of Moses, or Gen. ix. 5. Surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every man &c. "From the first part of this verse, the crime of suicide, and its punishment, I think, may be fairly deduced; and if so, the immortality of the soul is prov ed from scripture."

The Rabbins have given, what they consider as very satisfactory reasons, why this doctrine is taught in the law, by inference, or by implication only. These reasons would probably be interesting only to a few, and we are therefore unwilling to enlarge this article, by adducing them; but if any are inquisitive on the subject, they are referred to the first authority, which is cited at the close of this number.

On the passage, Job xix. 25. I know that my redeemer liveth, &c. which is very differently interpreted by very learned chris