POETRY. THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS. The Antediluvian-the Patriarchal-the Wilderness-the Temple-the Christian-the Millennial-the Glory. II. THE PATRIARCHAL. THE dove hath returned with the olive leaf now, And the ark is reposing on Ararat's brow: The door is unbarred; the world smiles as before, And the patriarch walks its green carpet once more: His earliest employment an altar to raise, And kneeling, his mighty Preserver to praise. Accepting the worship, God paints on the sky, His pledge, in the rainbow, of fury gone by. But peopled afresh, soon rebellious again, His creatures engage in an enterprize vain ; Tower piled upon tower so immense they will rear, That no second deluge their children shall fear. God sees their devices unmoved on his throne, And showers a profusion of languages down; Distraction exults o'er the multitude now, And anger sits lord on each passionate brow; Till indignant, dividing, each seeks a retreat, And the Babel stands only a badge of defeat. A voice in the vineyards of Ur, 't is the Lord And Abr'ham is summoned to wander abroad: Go far from thy kindred, thy parents, thy home, And thou shalt indeed a great nation become; My blessing on thee shall abundantly rest, And in thee, and thy seed, shall all nations be blest.' Long childless he waits, though old age on his brow Hath scattered his silvery blossomings now; Still faithful, beholding the period extend, And talking with God as a man with his friend. Despondent may Sarai devices invent, Or laugh at the promise while hid in the tent, At the time pre-determined shall Isaac be born, And the bond-woman's child shall be banished forlorn. But now a new trial; 'Take Isaac thy son, The offering on yonder green hill must be done, Whose brow shall sustain, in its splendour and pride, The future abode where my name shall reside, Take Isaac, thy loved one, thy dearest, thy best, The child upon whom all the promises rest, There build thee an altar, the sacrifice he, That all may the strength of thy confidence see.' 'T is done, the fair boy on the altar is laid, And Abraham undaunted prepares the sharp blade; One glance to Jehovah, one struggle in prayer, And a voice from the sky utters loudly• Forbear! Yonder ram, in the thicket entangled, shall be worn, He hath coursed the gazelle since the first flush of morn : With hungry desire, he sees the repast Rebekah's meek son is beginning to taste: 'Here, give me the dish, let the birth-right be thine;' And a moment transfers what a life shall repine. I see their grey father half blind on his couch, Deceived by his wife, and deceived in his touch, Endowing with blessings extended and free The wily supplanter who bends at his knee. I see the stern hunter returning too late, Shedding tears of remorse at his folly and fate. While wandering for safety self-exiled from home, To Jacob bright visions of blessedness come: Heaven opening at Bethel, God visits the place, Renewing the gift of unmerited grace. I see him at Jabbok, when trembling with fear, At tidings that Esau revengeful was near. GUIDE us, O our Jesus, guide us, Then, when thou hast brought us thither, When is passed death's gloomy valley, Then what gladsome hallelujahs, Heavenly pleasures, joys unnumbered, Till we meet thee, Lord, in glory, Let us view our suffering Saviour, Dearest Lord, aecept'our praises, Saints and angels do adore thee, THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE, AND ZION'S CASKET. "For there are Three that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these Three are One."-1 John v. 7. Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.-Jude 3. Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."-1 Tim. iii, 6. MARCH, 1842. POPERY A SNARE AND A TRAP TO UNWARY PROTESTANTS. A Word of Affectionate Counsel Against Giving Encouragement or Support, in any form, to the teachers and abettors of the Church of Rome, wherever they may appear. it!" and then, perhaps, the little creature is taken, when it is too late to regret the peril of the venture. The plan of the papists is this: first to turn some poor man and his wife from the true Catholic or universal Church of Christ to the Romish sect; Keep me from the snare which they have afterwards to take their children into laid for me."-Ps. cxli. 9. THE wise man, a long while ago, remarked, Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird," Prov. i. 17. And we know full well, that to catch a bird in a snare, we must be very wary in our movements, and quiet in all our proceedings. Any creature that hath a wing, would soon be beyond our reach, could it perceive the trap that we lay for its liberty or life. Now, we fear that some of our neighbours, and especially the simple and unlettered poor, are hardly so cautious and prudent as they should be, when Roman Catholics try to beguile them from the faith of their forefathers, and to entangle them in the meshes of Popery. Oftentimes they are caught before they are aware, like a bird which sees perhaps, a bright yellow grain in the trap, and thinks within itself, Oh! if I may but get that nice morsel of corn, I will risk the danger of getting March, 1842.] the Popish schools; by and by, to get this perverted family to open their cottage for worship; then to invite some other people around to attend ; and so, step by step, to obtain a firm footing in the place. Sometimes, where no person can be so turned to Popery, houses are hired, and Roman Catholics are sent from a distance to live in them. By little and little, the opening increases: and, after much sly and secret working on the part of the papists and their helpers, every body is surprised by a sudden outbreaking, or establishment of Popery among them. The snare is laid so cunningly, and the allurements are spread so enticingly, that our unwary Protestant fellow-countrymen, like so many unsuspecting birds, are presently beguiled and entangled almost beyond escape or deliverance and then, alas! for the souls that once for all become the dupes and the captives of Rome! Her fetters are too : H strong to be easily unwrung, and her way goeth down to the chambers of death. In your very sight, it may be, is the snare of the enemy laying: and surely with your eyes wide open upon it, you will not suffer yourselves to be caught or deceived by those who would beguile you from the simple faith of the Gospel, or lead you into the ridiculous mummeries, yea, the awful idolatries of the Church of Rome. Observe how they will begin with you: 66 There is not so much difference," they will tell you, as some pretend 66 to discover between Protestantism and Popery; consequently you may be as good Papists as you may be Protestants." Again, they will ask, "Are you quite sure that the Protestant version of the Bible is a true and correct one? Are there not many perversions of the Scriptures in it?" Thus they would awaken suspicion and darkness in your minds, and then, under cover of that darkness and doubtfulness, bring in their own mis-translations and errors. You will hear, too, plenty of abuse of one Dr. Martin Luther, as if he were the devil incarnate, because he opposed and brought to light all the wicked proceedings of the pope, and the bare-face impudence of the priests, in selling pardons for sin. Once more: a vast deal will be said to you about the Roman Catholic Church as being the only true Church: holy; and one; and universal. Tell them it is stained with the blood of fifty millions of the human race that its boasted unity is a mere delusion, and that it never was or will be, the Mother and Mistress of all Churches. The City of the Seven Hills is the harlot of the Book of Revelation; and what her doom shall be, you may read in the 18th chapter of the same. Masses will be offered for you while you are living, and prayers put up for you when you are dead, if you will give something towards a popish chapel: tell them their masses are vain oblations, and prayers for the dead as useful as moonlight shade to warm us in a winter's night. Their so-called masses are dangerous deceits. Such are some of the deceits whereby popery will catch you if it can. Oh! listen to this cautionary warning! And be aware that when popery cannot growl like a dragon, it will bleat like a lamb; when it cannot devour like a lion, it will fascinate like a snake. : For observe all that is peculiarly objectionable to Protestant light and to Protestant feeling, the priests and teachers of Rome do most carefully keep back and conceal until it suits their opportunity and purpose to bring it forward. Hence, you will not hear at first, of the fearful and tremendous curses which they denounce upon all whom they choose to call heretics. You will not, probably, hear much of the horrors and the flames of purgatory, and of souls writhing and burning in them, some 10, some 20, some 100, others 1000 years and even for ever and ever, unless you will pay money to a Roman Catholic Priest to pray them out of it, Yon may, very likely, just be told how needful it is to confess your sins to a priest, in order to procure their absolution: but this may not be strongly urged upon you for a while. Some considerable time may pass, before you come into the marvellous secret of a piece of wheaten bread being converted into the body, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ! But so every papist holds it to be, when a priest of his Church has a mind to make it so. Only think of a man making his god, and then eating him! Well might the poor Negro exclaim, Massa, me think this is strange too much!" What a wonderful Church it must be, whose ministers can create the Creator, and out of a loaf of bread, make as many gods as there are grains of corn in the loaf, or as there are communicants to eat it! Can you find any mention of such a Church in your Bible? Then again, are you prepared to put your trust in the Virgin? The Pope, now living in Rome, says, that all his confidence, and the confidence of the whole Roman Catholic Church is in Mary, the Mother of God! This he has stated in a letter lately directed to his followers. Surely, you will exclaim, How shocking is this blasphemy! Mary was the mother of JESUS: the Godhead can have no mother. The scriptures assure us there is but ONE Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. ii. 5. How unscriptural and wicked therefore, must it be to say, as all the papists continually do, to a man or woman departed this world, Pray for us!" Moreover, we should think it a very offensive thing, and an act of most undutiful conduct in a child, to alter the will, and to contemn the commandments of a dying and a loving parent ;—without scruple or apology, the Roman Catholics violate the will of heaven's great Lawgiver, and make his commandments void. They will not tell you how they take away the second commandment, and divide the tenth into two parts to make up the number Ten. We have seen five of their Church Catechisms, in as many different languages, and the Second Commandment was wanting in them all. And why? because God has so solemnly forbidden the worship of images, and BOWING DOWN to them, which all Roman Catholics practise ! In England there is a Catechism which contains the Second commandment after a mutilated form : and for this obvious reason, that in England there is too much Protestant honesty to allow so glaring and shameful a dis-service to God's will and word, to pass without its merited indignation and rebuke. On the whole then, these and other such-like things, will be withheld, for the most part, until the poor deceived converts of popery, being bereft of their abhorrence of popish falsehood and deceit and weakened in their Protestant principles, they fall altogether into the trap of the designer, and now learn to put darkness for light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; or in plainer words, evil is mistaken for good, and good is put for evil; lies spoken in hypocrisy are believed, and the truth of God is forsaken for fables. Isa. v. 20. 1 Tim. iv. 2. One most effectual remedy against all the plausible statements of the Roman Catholics, is to bring every thing they say to the test of the Holy Scripture; remembering that what is called the "Apocrypha," forms no part whatsoever of God's Word. It never did so; and it was only of late years that the Church of Rome determined to make it of equal authority with the Bible, because some of its practices, (for example, prayer for the dead, and pardon of sin through giving of alms) are only to be proved thereby. Hold fast, then, the Holy Book of God which your forefathers translated into your own tongue, and suffered even banishment and death itself, in order to keep the Holy Scriptures for your constant perusal and instruction. When we expose to you the dangerous encroachments and plausible pretences of Rome on the one hand; and state the true doctrines of the Word of God on the other; it is very easy to say, I don't believe you; it is all a lie! But seeing it is declared All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimestone;" (Rev. xxi. 8) it must be a very sad thing to charge a man with known and wilful falsehood. Roman Catholics constantly say to us, It is all lies. Well, we reply; either you speak ignorantly, or your are not willing to be informed correctly. We charge |