This claim to infallibility has no foundation in Scripture, reason, or antiquity. Romanists, it is well known, are not agreed among themselves, where this pretended infallibility exists; whether in the Pope, or in a General Council, or in the diffusive body of Christians. Both Popes and General Councils have notoriously contradicted one another; and therefore NEITHER of them can be infallible. To mention only a few instances. Gregory, surnamed the Great, about the latter end of the sixth century, declared that whoever should claim the universal episcopate, would be the forerunner of Antichrist. (Epist. lib. vi. cap. 30.) Yet this very universal episcopate, as we all know, was assumed three or four years afterwards, by Boniface III. and has been subsequently claimed by numerous pontiffs who have sat in what they are pleased to call the chair of St. Peter. Pope Sixtus V. in 1590, published an edition of the Latin Vulgate, which, by a Bull, he commanded should be received everywhere, and in all cases, for true, legitimate, authentic, and undoubted; and that all future editions should be made conformable to this, not the least syllable being changed, added, or omitted, on pain of the greater excommu. nication. Notwithstanding all his infallibility, Clement VII., not very long after, revoked the decree of Sixtus, suppressed his edition, pub. lished another of his own, in which he made more than 2000 corrections. (See James's Bellum Papale.) This pretended infallibility is sup posed to proceed from the Holy Ghost; but how could the Holy Ghost dwell in the hearts of some of those Pontiffs who have worn the triple crown? The Popes and Saints Eleutherius and Victor both sanctioned the heresy of the Montanists: under Dioclesian's persecution, Saint Marcellus denied the faith of Christ, and sacrificed to idols at the prospect of immediate death. "He lived," we are told, "to repent of his momentary departure from the faith; but his case affords another remarkable example of the supposed infallible succession." Liberius, who had been deposed for his orthodoxy, in order to regain his see, subscribed an Arian formulary of faith, which Hilary, Bishop of Arles, designates a "blasphemous creed." blasphemous creed." Saint Felix, the successor of Liberius, was also an Arian. Saint Losimus openly favoured the heresy of Pelagius and Celestius. Vigilius, who favoured the Servian heresy, (a branch of that broached by Eutyches), obtained the see of Rome by bribery, banished the Bishop who had been canonically elected; and who, on the evidence of forged letters, had been accused of corresponding with the hostile Goths; and changed his opinions only four times! Honorius I. determined in favour of the Monothelite heresy, and condemned, as heretical, the opinion of the orthodox Bishops. John VIII. who at the early age of sixteen, without having been in holy orders, or indeed capable of ordination, was placed in St. Peter's chair by his father Alberic, a Roman consul; this monster of iniquity," as Cardinal Baronius terms him, was convicted of simony, perjury, sacrilege, murder, and blasphemy, and deposed by the Emperor Otho, who appointed Leo VIII. in his room. Resuming his dignity by means of an armed force, John assembled a council of his supporters; and in the fulness of papal power, disannulled all that had been enacted against him. While the Emperor was preparing to make an example of the iniquitous but infallible prelate, he fell a sacrifice to 66 the vengeance of a dishonoured husband. John XVIII, was a layman: and his successor, Boniface IX. who at the age of ten years purchased the Papacy, after ten years of profligacy, rapine, and murders, was forcibly and ignominiously expelled by the Romans and after a temporary resumption of his dignity, finding the hatred of the people on the point of bursting forth again to violent measures, sold the right and title to infallibility to the ignorant and unlettered Boniface IX, John XXIII. was utterly destitute of all principles, both of religion and probity; and, after purchasing the Cardinalate, poisoned his predecessor, Alexander V. This infallible Pontiff was deposed for his various crimes. Alexander VI. disgraced his dignity by his ambition, avarice, cruelties, and debaucheries; and, by a righteous reaction of Divine Providence, died, having by mistake taken that poison which he had prepared for some Cardinals, whom he had invited to an entertainment. Not to dwell on other crimes which have disgraced the occupants of the Holy See, numerous Popes and Anti-popes have reigned at various times, all of them claiming to be infallible, and anathematizing their antagonists. (For a full exposure of the unfounded claims to infallibility, the reader is referred to the Rev. W. Keary's Historical Review of Papal and Conciliar Infallibility, London, 1826, 12mo. which is supported in all its details by the authorities of Romanist historians. (To be continued.) Y Invested with light as with a garment, Fixing the beams of his chambers1 in the watery clouds, "Making the clouds his chariot, Walking on the wings of the wind!! He maketh the winds his messengers,2 The flaming lightnings his ministers! He laid the deep foundations of the earth, For ages has it not been moved! SINGLE VOICE. With the deep, as with a garment, didst Thou cover it, 1 "It is HE that buildeth his stories in the heaven." Amos ix. 6. 2 "Canst Thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?" Job xxxviii. 35. "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:-and it was so.". Gen. i. 9.4 uozo as At thy voice in the thunder-they hasted away! Thou hast set a bound, which they cannot pass over, CHORUS. Sending the springs among the glens, From among the thick branches they pour forth their song. SINGLE VOICE. The earth is filled with the fruits which Thou hast made. CHORUS. Causing the grass to spring up for the cattle, The bread-corn growing up out of the ground, And bread which strengtheneth the heart of mortals. Even the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; As for the stork,-the fir-trees are her house; He made the moon for seasons,5 The sun to know its time of setting! SINGLE VOICE. Thou makest darkness-and it is night!" CHORUS. Then roams abroad every wild beast of the forest ; The lions roar after their prey, Seeking from God their meat. The sun ariseth-they withdraw themselves, And couch down into their coverts. Then goeth forth man unto his work, And to his country-labours until the evening. 4 See verse 3. 5 "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years." Gen. i. 14. 6 "GOD called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” 7 Lions, on their first going out in the night-time to hunt their prey, set up a loud roar, and then hasten to the noise made by the beasts in their flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the nostril. 8 SINGLE VOICE. O Lord, how manifold are thy works! CHORUS. The sea also so great and wide! The whale formed by Thee to sport therein! To thee they all look up SINGLE VOICE. To give them their food at the appointed time. Thou openest thine hand-they are filled with good! Thou takest away their breath-they gasp, expire,10 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit-they are created! CHORUS. The glory of Jehovah endureth for ever, Jehovah rejoiceth in all his works! He looketh on the earth-and it trembleth! He toucheth the mountains-and they smoke! 12 SINGLE VOICE. I will sing unto Jehovah while I live, I will praise my God with harp while I have being! As for me, my joy is in Jehovah! Sinners shall be consumed out of the earth, Praise Jehovah! "Learn of the little nautilus to sail, S. Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale." РОРЕ. This fish swims on the surface of the sea, on the back of its shell, which exactly resembles the hulk of a ship; it raises two feet like masts, and extends a membrane between, which serves as a sail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the side. 9 "Who taught the nations of the field and wood, POPE. 10 Gasp, expire. This is expressed in the original by one word, which clearly signifies gasping as well as expiring. 11"GOD saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. i. 31. 12 Earthquakes and volcanoes are evidently signified by these two lines. BERENS' ORDINATION SERMONS. MR. EDITOR,-In a former number (for February, 1826,) you dwell on the importance of Episcopal Charges, and the salutary effects they are calculated to produce. A part of the benefits derived from these periodical meetings of the Clergy, may justly be claimed for the sermons delivered on those occasions. Two have lately appeared from the pen of the Rev. E. Berens, Vicar of Shrivenham, Berks. That which stands first was delivered by him at Abingdon, in the present year: the other he preached, at the same church, on a similar occasion, in 1814. He was requested to print the sermon of the present year, and was induced to add the other, partly in compliance with the wish expressed by some of the Clergy present, and partly from a feeling, that "the sermon last preached would be incomplete without its predecessor." They form together a most valuable manual, and are admirably suited to remind each parish priest of the solemn obligations imposed upon him by his ordination vows. The tone is so earnest and affectionate, yet so modest, that it cannot fail to win its way with all who have a wish to discharge their ministerial duties faithfully, and may rouse others who do not appear sufficiently alive to the claims of their holy office. There is a pathos in the former of the two sermons (as they stand in the order of publication) which seems irresistible. Having said thus much by way of introduction, I readily resign the rest of the space in the pages of the Remembrancer to the preacher himself. He has chosen for his text, Acts xx. 28,-Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. The exhortation enforces upon Christian ministers, in the first place, watchful and unremitting attention to their own personal conduct. p. 2. "Upon this part of the subject, however, it is, I am very sensible, altogether unnecessary to enlarge. There is but one opinion among us of the injury done to religion by an immoral clergyman, and of the dreadful condemnation which must await him, who, instead of presenting to his flock, in his own conduct, a pattern of good works and holiness of living, has by his evil example encouraged them in transgression, and, like the profligate sons of Eli, made men to despise or to neglect the service of the Lord. There is something awfully solemn in the reflection, that since in the scheme of God's moral government of the world, it is mysteriously ordered, that one human being shall have an influence over the happiness of his fellow-mortals, not only in this world, but even in the next;—it is, I say, a most serious consideration, that such an evil pastor as we have supposed perishes not alone in his iniquity, but draws down with him into condemnation some, it may be many, of those very persons to whose spiritual well-being he was bound and pledged to minister." "But if we are exempt from all such transgressions as might expose us to public censure, yet still the admonition of St. Paul may be useful in warning us against those many less observed failings and inadvertencies which may materially impede the success of our ministry." p. 4. "Appointed as we are to minister in things pertaining to God, there |