A ROMISH PROCESSION.

Our Operative brethren are too sincere and devout worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ to render it necessary for us to warn them of the sin of bowing down to any created thing. But as Popish processions may very soon be more frequent than they have been for many years, (such is the restless and pushing activity of the Papists), it may not be amiss to give the following anecdote of Lady Jane Grey, and to urge upon our readers the duty of staying away from all Popish sights and ceremonies whatsoever-no matter whether they be the consecration of an idolatrous mass-house, or a procession, or a poor victim taking the veil, adorned with a chaplet of roses round her head, as the beasts of old were who went up to be offered to the heathen gods. Alas! that man should treat with such refined cruelty that sex which was meant to be the solace of his dark moments, the heightener of his joys, the soother of his grief, the brightest ornament of the domestic hearth, and the mother of his little ones.

Fox and other historians relate that Lady Jane Grey, when very young, was at New Hall, in Essex, where Queen Mary (then princess) resided. One day, passing through the chapel with Lady Ann Wharton, that lady made an obeisance to the consecrated wafer, hanging, as usual, in a box over the altar. Lady Jane, seeing this, wondered, and asked, if the princess was coming? Her companion replied, "No," and said, she made the obeisance "to Him that made us all." 66 Why," said the Lady Jane, "how can that be he that made us all, for the baker made him?" This being told to the Princess Mary, "she did never love her after."

THE CHRISTIAN APOSTACY.

NOTHING, we conceive, can be more striking than the views which we have brought forward from Scripture touching Po. pery. They at once commend themselves to the understandingThere is nothing forced or unnatural about the interpretations we have given-if, indeed, we can be said to have given interpretation at all. We have rather simply pointed to the thing and its description, and left our readers to their own conclusion than forced ours upon them; and assuredly we may say with Baxter of the beast brought before us in the Revelation, "if the Pope be not he, he had ill luck to be so like him." Yet we have not touched upon the half or the quarter of that which marks out Popery as the Babylon foredoomed of God.

A CLUE TO UNDERSTAND MANY DARK PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE.-Be it remembered, then, that the Romish Churches

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the mystic Babylon-the persecuting oppressor of God's saints -red with the blood of thousands of suffering witnesses of whom the world was not worthy-the idolatrous corrupters of God's services-rendering homage, and worship, and prayers, and vast thanksgivings to saints and angels and dead men and women-robbing the people of their birthright, the word of God, and triumphing in, and profiting by, the darkness that she thus created. Be it remembered that this tyrannizing, conscience-enslaving Church is BABYLON.

In the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, we hear an angel proclaiming-Babylon is fallen! is fallen! In the eighteenth chapter we find the same proclamation awfully repeated, and woes and torments denounced on her and all her followers. The whole chapter is made up of these threatenings. Now, it is worthy of remark, that this chapter is very nearly the same as the fiftieth and fifty-first chapters of Jeremiah-indeed, there is scarcely one sentence in it that is not the same as some sentence either here or elsewhere in the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The language applied in them to liberal Babylon is applied in the Revelation to Popery. Now, this is a clue to us of a very important character. It will enable us to read the ancient prophets with fresh interest. Ancient Babylon is a constant subject spoken of by almost all of them. Here, then, we learn that what is said of them by ancient Babylon may be fairly and reasonably applied by us to modern Babylon and to our own times; it, therefore, becomes fraught with double interest.

A REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCE TOUCHING ANCIENT BABYLON STATED.-One of the most common idolatries into which the ancient Israelites fell was the worship of Baal. This kind of idolatry was greatly promoted by Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab. In fact, the most ordinary_readers of Scripture must know that the service of Baal or Baalim was the great reproach of God's ancient people. Now, first, we should say that Baalim is merely the plural of Baal—as we say cherub, cherubim-so we say Baal, Baalim. The question is-Who was this Baal? He was the same as Belus and Bel, and was a deified Phoenician king. Virgil mentions him in these lines:

Implevitque mero pateram, quam Belus, et omnes
A Belo, soliti.

"She filled with wine the bowl which Belus, and all her ancestors from Belus down, had used."

Now this Belus, or Bel, or Baal, was the first King of Babel after Nimrod; and the first (as it is written) that ever was reputed a God after death: whence it came to pass after

wards, that all dead men, who were thought to be Gods, were called Baals, or Baalim-just as all the Roman emperors after Cæsar were called Cæsars. Here, then, is a most striking truth: old Babel was the first foundress of that sort of idolatry which consisted in deification, or canonisation, or worship of dead men; and, therefore, in this point also, a remarkable type of modern Babylon, Popish Rome, who first defiled Christianity with similar idols, and is, therefore, well called the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth.

"When the Holy Spirit completes his work in us as a spirit of grace and supplication, he worketh on the will and affections to act obediently towards God in and about the matter of their prayers. Thus, when he is poured out as a spirit of supplication, he fills them unto whom he is communicated, with mourning and godly sorrow to be exercised in their prayers as the matter doth require. He doth not only enable them to pray, but worketh affections in them, and suitable unto what they pray about. And in this work of the Spirit lies the fountain of that inexpressible fervency and delight, of those enlarged labourings of mind and desires which are in the prayers of believers, especially when they are under the power of more than ordinary influences from him. For those things proceed from the work of the Spirit on their wills and affections, stirring them up and carrying them forth unto God in and by the matter of their prayers, in such a manner as no vehement working of natural affections can reach unto. And, therefore, is the Spirit said to "make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Rom. viii.) The Spirit is said to intercede for us with groans, which can be nothing but his working in us, and acting by us that frame of heart, and those fervent, labouring desires which are so expressed; and these with such depths of intention and labouring of mind as cannot be uttered. And this he doth by the work now mentioned. Having truly affected the whole soul, enlightened the mind in the perception of the truth, beauty, and excellency of spiritual things, engaged the will in the choice of them, and prevalent love unto them, excited the affections to delight in them, and unto desires after them, there is in the active discharge of this duty of prayer, wrought in the soul by the power and efficacy of his grace, such an inward labouring of heart and spirit, such a holy, supernatu

ral desire and endeavour after an union with the things prayed for in the enjoyment of them, as no words can utter or expressly declare, that is, fully and completely; which is the sense of the place. There is that wrought in the hearts of believers which is pervious to none but him that searcheth the heart. This grace in all our supplications we ought to aim at, especially in time of distress, trouble, and temptation, such as was the season more especially intended when commonly we are most sensible of our own infirmities. And wherein we come short hereof in some measure, it is from our unbelief, or carelessness and negligence, which God abhors. The Holy spirit gives the soul of a believer a delight in God, as the object of prayer. Now this delight in God is for the substance of it included in that description of prayer given us by the Apostle, namely, that it is crying Abba, Father.' Herein a filial, holy delight in God is included; such as children have in their parents in their most affectionate addresses unto them. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and grace to help in time of need.""-Owen.

"Religion is so far from being the occasion of any public evils, that public evils proceed only from the neglect of religion; and the little good or happiness that remains in any declining state is due to that alone. This alone supports and preserves it from final destruction. And this has been the sense of the wisest men in all ages, even concerning religion in general, those kinds of worship which were of mere human contrivance, miserably patched up by human reason. Thus Plutarch: A man may perhaps meet with a city without walls, without fortifications, or without a theatre, but never without a temple. For,' says he, 'it may sooner stand without a foundation than without religion." "—From an old Sermon.

"No wonder that our estates and conditions are so variable, like the face of the heavens or the sea: or like weather, which is now fair and presently again foul: or like the hard winter, which for one fair sunshine day hath oftentimes ten foul. God sees that it is very good for us: for, as seeds that are deepest covered with snow in winter flourish most in the spring, or as the wind by beating down the flame raiseth it higher and hotter, and as when we would have fires flame the more we sprinkle water upon them: even so, when the Lord would increase our joy and thankfulness, he allayeth it with the tears of affliction. Misery sweeteneth joy: yea, the sorrows of this life shall (like a dark veil) give a lustre to the glory of the next, when the Lord shall turn this water of our earthly affliction into that wine of gladness wherewith our souls shall be satiate for ever."-Younge.

Miscellanea.

CONTRAST OF FORMER SCARCITY AND PRESENT ABUNDANCE OF BIBLES. About 1,500 years ago, the Emperor Constantine addressed a letter, which is preserved by Eusebius in his life of that Emperor. It was addressed, indeed, to Eusebius himself, and required him to select some well-qualified scribes, and employ them in preparing, elegantly written and handsomely put together, fifty copies of the sacred writings, of which the Emperor speaks with great reverence. The word which he uses leads us to suppose that they were to be made portable copies: for he speaks of the grouping together of the parchments into three or four, making what we should call quarto or octavo volumes; so that this mode was then come into use. These fifty copies were to be completed and brought to the Emperor; and it appears, from a single sentence in the letter, that they were intended to be placed in churches. Now, though we cannot but admire the munificence and apparently pious spirit which dictated that command, how ought it to excite our thankfulness that we live in a different day, and see different things! Every one of us would have joined in thanks to the Emperor, for his care for the instruction of a part of his subjects; but what thanks do we not owe, under God, to those who conduct your affairs, that now, if I am not greatly in error, about as many copies go forth, from your central depôt, in every twenty minutes of time throughout the year-as many copies issue from your centre, to go into the world every twenty minutes, as the Head of the Roman Empire, with all his expense and munificence, was able to provide for a part of his subjects!

TRANQUILLITY.-Positive happiness being unattainable in this world, mental tranquillity is all that should be aimed at, and this can only be preserved by a strict adherence to the true spirit of the Christian religion, (founded on self-denial) the existence of which, considering how counter its precepts ran to all the base, sensual, and malignant passions of men, is in itself a daily miracle. Carefully avoid (if you can) the perpetual irritation of embarrassed circumstances.

THE SPANISH CHURCH.-The Edinburgh Review lately circulated a statement concerning the ecclesiastical establishment of Spain, which the British Magazine charges with error, and thus corrects:-"The learned reviewer has only added fifty archbishops to the eight really existing! But six hundred and eighty-four bishops! The real number is forty-six! One hundred and twenty-seven parishes, too, in Spain! The population, as every one knows, is about eleven millions; so that this ingenious gentleman figures to himself a country so well divided as on the average to contain about eighty-six