him in everything he required, and they celebrated Easter together with extraordinary pomp and solemnity. The pope officiated in the Latin tongue, according to the rites of the Latin church." Pre-eminence being thus acknowledged by the patriarch of Constantinople to the pontiff of Rome, it cannot be matter of wonder that Justinian, the nephew and successor of the emperor Justin, in his epistle to the new pope, John II, A D. 533, writes, We hasten to SUBJECT and to unite to your holiness all the priests of the whole east. Nor do we suffer anything which belongs to the state of the church, however manifest and undoubted, that is agitated, to pass without the knowledge of your holiness, the head of all the holy churches." as by various distractions in the cor- reason than because he was the Roman rupt and feeble government, the re-high priest! The patriarch indulged peated invasions by the Goths and successive revolutions precipitated "the decline and fall of the Roman empire." But at every descending step of the imperial greatness the pontiff of Rome gained a higher elevation. The chief bishops were perpetually contending with each other respecting their assumed dignities and pretended rights, especially during the bitter and longcontinued Arian controversy. The haughtiness of John, the bishop of Rome, will appear in his conduct at Constantinople, where he went, A.D. 525, to serve his own purposes, but charged by the Gothic Theodoric, king of Italy, to engage the emperor Justin to cease from persecuting the Arians. Five other bishops and four noblemen, in a splendid embassy, accompanied him. "On his arrival at Constantinople," says Bower, "he was received with the most extraordinary marks of honour by persons of all conditions and ranks. The nobility and clergy met him, and he made his entry amidst the loud acclamations of numberless crowds that flocked from all parts to see the first bishop of the Catholic church, who had never before been seen in the east. The emperor met him among the rest, and bowed down to the very ground before the vicar of the blessed Peter, and coveting the honour of being crowned by him, received at his hands the imperial diadem! The patriarch invited the pope to perform Divine service in the great church together with him; but he would neither accept the invitation nor even see the patriarch till he agreed not only to yield him the first place, but to seat him on a kind of throne above himself, alleging no other Pope John, dying in less than three years, was succeeded by Agapetus, A.D. 535; and Theodatus, king of Italy, sent him on an embassy to the emperor at Constantinople to prevent a war. On that occasion he was appealed to respecting the Arian patriarch Anthinus: he was deposed, and Mennas appointed in his stead. "The pope, by the emperor's favour, ordained Mennas, consecrating him with his own hand." But the progress and spirit of Popery at this period will strikingly appear from the titles given in a memorial to the pontiff, by "the bishops and clergy of Constantinople :" it was addressed, "To our most holy lord and most blessed father of fathers, Agapetus, archbishop of the Romans and patriarch, the bishops of the Oriental diocese, and those who dwell in the holy places of Christ our Lord, with the residents and other clerks assembled in this royal had transmitted to Rome. At this city." Plain Christians, learning all their religion from the New Testament, may wonder at all this sacerdotal blasphemy, especially when they are assured, as Lord Chancellor King declares, "It is very seldom, if ever, that the ancients give the title of Saint to those holy persons, but simply style them Peter, Paul, John, &c., not Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint John." Popery, however, steadily advanced, though not with equal steps, until the pontificate of "Gregory the Great," who occupied the papal throne from A.D. 590 to A.D. 604. This famous prelate was a man of consummate talents and of equal priestcraft, as the celebrated martyrologist, John Fox, says, "Of the number of all the first bishops before him in the primitive time he was the basest; of all them that came after him he was the best." Mr. Bower says, "Gregory inviolably adhered to the principle common to all popes from the earliest times to the latest, viz., never to part with any power which his predecessors had acquired, by what means soever it had been gained." With Gregory the title of "Universal Bishop" became a subject of bitter contention, as his pride had been deeply wounded by his pontifical rival, John of Constantinople. "The bishop of Constantinople," as Bower states, "was now distinguished all over the East with the pompous title of Ecumenical, or Universal Patriarch; and Gregory found that he had so styled himself over and over again in a judgment which he had lately given against a presbyter arraigned of heresy, and which, at the request of the pope, he Gregory took the alarm, as if the church, the faith, the Christian religion, were in imminent danger, despatched a messenger with a letter to Sabianus, his nuncio at Constantinople, charging him to use his endeavours with the emperor, the empress, and with the bishop himself, his beloved brother, to divert him from evermore using the proud, the profane, the antiChristian title of Universal Bishop, which he had assumed in the pride of his heart." This labour was all in vain, for his "holiness" of Constantinople refused to relinquish it; and the emperor wrote to the pope, desiring him to live in peace with the bishop of the imperial city. Gregory wrote directly to the patriarch himself, loading the title with all the names of reproach he could think of, calling it vain, ambitious, profane, impious, execrable, antichristian, blasphemous, infernal, diabolical, and applying to him who assumed it what was said of Lucifer by the prophet Isaiah, ch. xiv. 12, 13, &c. Our brief limits will not allow us to notice Gregory's letters to the emperor and the empress and the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, who all favoured the claim of John to his title; but it is plain from those letters that Gregory ardently sought to deprive his rival of it, that he might appropriate it to himself; and, as Mr. Bower remarks, that, after all, jealousy for the dignity and authority of Rome, as of St. Peter and his see, "were at the bottom of the whole opposition." On this occasion, and as a stroke of policy, with a view to shame his pontifical brother from using that title, Gregory assumed to himself the title of affected humility, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD," which has ever since been retained by the popes and used in the height of their spiritual pride. Gregory's priestcraft was now called forth by a new series of events, for Phocas had seated himself on the imperial throne by the murder of the emperor Mauricius and his six sons, and, afterwards, most barbarously, of the empress Constantia and her three daughters, dragging them from their refuge in one of the churches of Constantinople! Mauricius is generally commended as a prince of many virtues and of but few vices; and Gregory, in his letters to him, declares that "his tongue could not express the good he had received of the Almighty and his lord the emperor; that he thought himself bound in gratitude to pray incessantly for the life of his most pious and most Christian lord; and that in return for the goodness of his most religious lord to him, he could do no less than love the very ground on which he trod!" Mauricius had, however, offended Gregory, and the pontiff never forgave his favouring the assumption of the antichristian title by John, the pontiff of Constantinople. Like a true courtier, therefore, when Phocas was proclaimed emperor, and sent the images of himself and empress to Rome, that "basest of bishops" received them with every expression of loyal attachment, lodged them in the oratory of St. Cesarius, and congratulated the murderer of "his most religious lord" with the most consummate flattery and hypocrisy. He says, "Let the heavens rejoice! let the earth sing for joy! let the whole people return thanks for so happy a change!" Gregory wrote also to the new empress, Leontia, in a similar strain of adulation: he says, "What tongue can utter, what mind can conceive the thanks we owe to God, who has placed you on the throne to ease us of the yoke with which we have hitherto been so cruelly galled? Let the angels give glory to God in heaven! let men return thanks to God upon earth! for the republic is relieved, and our sorrows are banished!" Much more in the same terms of shocking deceit is contained in these letters of Gregory. Popery only, in the proceedings of its priests and digni taries in connection with the papal government, can offer such examples of blasphemy and hypocrisy, illustrating the spirit of the "mystery of iniquity." Mr. Bower asks, therefore, "Who would have expected such letters from a Christian bishop to a usurper! a tyrant! a murderer! a regicide? Who would not have thought Gregory, of all men, the most likely to reprove such a monster?-of all men the least capable of becoming his panegyrist, of applauding him in his usurpation, murders, and tyranny? But what virtue can be proof in a pope against the jealousy of a rival? What virtue can restrain a pope from employing even the most criminal methods to defeat the attempts that seem to have the least tendency towards lessening the honour and dignity of his see? For that it was with this view, with the view of engaging the tyrant and his wife on his side, and by that means defeating the attempt of the patriarch to assume the title of Universal Bishop, that the pope commended, flattered, and extolled them in the manner we have seen, is manifest from his last letter !" Gregory died A.D. 604, highly extolled by the Romish church, and canonized as a Saint. He is greatly venerated by many in the Church of England, as the author, according to Milner and others, of the "Litany and almost all the collects for Sundays and the principal festivals in the Church of England contained in the Book of Common Prayer." After six months pope Sabinian succeeded, A.D. 605; but he perished, within eighteen months, the victim of his own avarice. Eleven months intervened between him and pope Boniface III., A.D. 607. He had been the nuncio of Gregory to congratulate the emperor; and though he knew that his master, pope Gregory, had written against the obnoxious title, by flattering the emperor, as his master had done, he prevailed on Phocas to "revoke the decree of Constantinople in 588, entailing the title of Universal Bishop on the bishop of Constantinople, and to transfer it to Boniface and his successors, declaring the bishop of Rome the HEAD OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH !" Pope Boniface, therefore, on receiving this imperial edict, assembled a council in the church of St. Peter at Rome, consisting of seventy-two bishops, thirty-four presbyters, and all the deacons and inferior clergy of the city, and issued a decree as absolute monarch of the church! His successors pursued his policy; "nor did their boundless ambition allow them or the world," as Bower states, "to enjoy any rest till they got themselves acknowledged for UNIVERSAL MONARCHS as well as UNIVERSAL BISHOPS !" At present these fearful facts, these signs of the "man of sin," are left to the reflections of every serious inquirer after the truth of Jesus Christ in the light of the Holy Scriptures. The Letter Box. THE PHYSICIAN, OR FAITH ILLUSTRATED. MY DEAR FRIEND,-You asked me, the other day, what faith is ? and if you will allow me, I will endeavour to give you some idea of its operations by an allusion to my own experience. rived from his advice. At my first visit my business was to acquaint him fully with my case, and in return he gave me instructions to follow and medicines to take. I complied with the one and took the other, casting myself entirely on the judgment of my For several years I have been an in-kind physician, for such I had reason valid, and during this time I have to think him, from the courteous and sought relief in various ways-some- generous entertainment I received. Of times exercising my own judgment, and sometimes consulting that of others. Still I did not get the better of my complaint. Lately I heard of a physician whose system differs materially from any I had previously tried. I did not, however, resolve to visit him without the testimony of those who knew him, and who could speak experimentally of the benefit they had de course I did not expect him to explain to me the ingredients of the medicine he put into my hands: it was for me simply to confide in him. This is faith! Just so I must receive the testimony concerning Christ; just so I must come and make known my wants and my condition to him; just so I must give up all efforts to cure myself; and in the It must ever be the case that the most satisfactory conclusion will be derived from our own experience; but it is not always we are sensible of an immediate improvement in our state in the treatment of the body; disease is sometimes aggravated in order to effect a cure-at least it would appear so if we judged by our feelings; but by persevering in the application of our souls to Christ, we shall find that our eyes are gradually enlightened to behold him, our hearts softened to love him, our wills subdued, our affections sanctified, and our whole nature conformed to his Divine pleasure. He will fulfil the desire of our heart, and say to us, same manner I must yield to his authority and follow his injunction, nothing doubting. In either case there are difficulties. Old prejudices and prepossessions must not hinder us. We must not be influenced by those who ridicule the apparent simplicity of the means; we must not give up because we are not sensible of immediate benefit, nor because we do not clearly comprehend the treatment of the great Physician. In my own case my confidence was at first very imperfect, and even now I sometimes return to a measure of my old incredulity. One night especially a strange misgiving came over me, and I omitted the medicine altogether. I thought it was possible" Be it unto thee according to thy there might be some mistake about it, faith." May this be true in each of our and that it might do me harm; but I experience. reasoned thus,-Here is an individual who has restored many, who is an enthusiast in his profession, who is in constant practice, who is giving the most disinterested attention to my case, whose reputation is in a measure staked upon it, who gave me the medicine prepared by his own hands. So I reasoned, and the result was that I took the draught, and by this very act my confidence was increased. Now, my dear friend, it is for us to commit the keeping of the soul to Christ as we commit our bodies to the physician; and surely in the one case there is unspeakably greater encouragement than in the other. The Physician of souls is perfectly acquainted with our case. He not only knows our disorder by the representation we can make of it, but, to a certain extent, he has borne our sicknesses and felt our infirmities. Of all the cases presented to him not one has failed, but in every instance he has accomplished a perfect cure. An earthly physician may be deficient in judgment, or power, or tenderness; he may want time or perseverance; but this can never be said of Jesus. Shall it be more easy to trust in a comparative stranger than to exercise faith in Christ? Shall the favourable opinion of two or three fallible persons operate to draw us to the one, and shall not the concurrent testimony of thousands who have received mercy allure us to the other? Yours affectionately, E. R. THE YOUNG TEACHER. An Address to a Young Man on leaving a Bible-class for the purpose of becoming a Sunday-school Teacher. MY YOUNG FRIEND,-You have now arrived at that period when it is deemed proper to remove you from the Bible-class and to place you in the sabbath-school as a teacher. As the conductor of this Bible-class, I cannot allow you to depart on an errand so important without attempting to give you some little insight into the nature of your undertaking, and to point out what qualifications you should diligently seek to possess, in order that you may labour pleasantly and successfully. This is, indeed, an interesting period to you; your feelings cannot be easily described. I know that you love your Bible-class, and are never more happy than when engaged in its profitable exercises; parting, therefore, will be painful. You are conscious, also, in some degree, of the greatness of the work in which you are shortly to be engaged, and you are fearful lest you should prove altogether insufficient for your duties. These feelings, my young friend, are by no means uncommon or |