ther, by which he is led to offend against his own conscience, and the law of God.

This is the scope of the doctrine of Romans 14: 17. It has no aim, or power, to reverse, by itself alone, the great doctrine of the kingdom of heaven at haud. It is a powerful text, to show the true and large extent of Christian charity: that even in matters of our daily food, we should be scrupulous of the feelings and prejudices of our brethren in the faith, if we would come to the righteousness, peace, and joy of the kingdom of heaven. It is a most gracious word, and comforting, especially to the poor souls who were troubled about meats and drinks, in ways of heathenism, and, also, of Jewish customs, unknown to us: but by no means is it a word to teach that the kingdom of heaven is in this world, so much as to guide us in the way to attain to it in the world to.come that we need not by eating, or abstaining, think to serve God, and find entrance into the heavenly kingdom; but rather by righteousness. and the pursuit of peace, and the demonstration of joy in the Holy Ghost; "for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

“I WILL GIVE UNTO THEE THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF

These are words of grave import in any connection, and especially in this. They weigh on many minds, precisely

as they do with the Pope, to persuade man, that the Lord gave some power here to Peter, which has come down in the ministry, through all ages, whether to one bishop only with the Romans; or to all bishops with the Episcopalians, or to all pastors, or elders, with Presbyterians and others. Now Peter, and Peter alone, has the solemn promise of the King in person: "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven," which will surely be kept with all fidelity; and will be fulfilled in the eyes of the angels and glorified saints, in the day, when all the faithful come to receive and enter into the everlasting inheritance of the things promised; Abraham and his seed their heavenly Canaan, and celestial city: Paul and all who with him love the appearing of the Lord, their crown of righteousness," which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me in that day," and Peter his promised keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Mean what the promise may, there is no record made on earth of the presentment of the keys of the kingdom of heav. en to Peter but a record only of the promise that he shall have them. That we are bound to believe, and no more. We are bound to believe that the Lord will keep all his promises to the letter; and among them, this also to Peter: and to believe more is folly, which has plunged the Bishop of Rome into madness, and the church into apostacy and distraction; and has filled the world for ages with oppression, guilt, sorrow, and wo. All the enormities of papal power have been perpetrated in the name of the apostle Peter, and by the authority conferred in the inheritance of his apostolic keys of the kingdom of heaven; when Peter never had the keys, and, therefore, could not have left them to any heir, whether of Roman, or Carthagenian birth and lineage. The Lord requires men to believe just as he says, and neither more nor less: he requires implicit faith in his word;-a faith which neither adds a word, nor diminishes a tittle from what he has spoken. He does not require us

to believe, that Peter has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He has not recorded the donation; but only the promise of it. The belief that the promise has been fulfilled is wholly gratuitous on the part of men; and is uncalled for ; and is productive of much mischief; and has wrought, in cyclopean furnaces, chains, not for the liberties of nations only; but, strange to say, chains for the word of God, to confine the preacher, and to lock up the record from the fam. ishing nations of the earth, even from the intelligent citizens of christendom; chains, which to this day 66 wear out the Saints of the Most High." God be praised for his righteousness and truth! His truth is in the letter of his word, and no man may believe more, or less at his peril: his righteous. ness is in chastising christendom with that sceptre, which it put falsely in Gods' name into the hands of Peter and of the Pope. God be devoutly praised for a simple and righteous view of this subject, in his word, which even at this late day, gently disarms the Roman Hercules of his formidable club, with which the Pope has slain whole nations, and sent great multitudes to people the realms of death. The shepherd sling, and smooth stone of the stripling of Israel, were not more fatal to the proud Goliah, than the plain truth of the kingdom of heaven is to the haughty claims of the preud champion of Babylon. It is impossible for the Pope, or for Peter himself, to have the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and of the world to come; until Jesus comes in his kingdom, to make all things new in heaven and earth; when the heirs of the promises shall receive their crowns and harps and pledges of the divine favor for an everlasting possession, at once and together, even in the day of "the Lord Jesus, who shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom." On this account not only Paul and all saints, long for and desire the coming of the Lord Jesus,-" press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," -" for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, are

not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us :" but even the lower creation is earnestly waiting for the "manifestation of the sons of God." "For we know, (adds the apostle,) that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together, until now. And not only they, but ourselves, also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body :" (Rom. 8: 18, 19, 22, 23.)—which must be awaited, until the resurrection of the dead; for then only is the redemption of our body.

It is worthy of notice that the same remarkable man and accredited heretic, whose name is an abomination in both the Greek and Latin churches, throughout all their borders, and in all their generations, is the inventer of both the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven come, and also of the keys of the kingdom having been received by Peter, for Peter's own personal use. * Origen had no more idea of the Pope's using Peter's keys, to open and shut heaven upon poor souls at the Pope's will; than the Pope himself has, that he is wholly indebted to that detested heretic of Egypt, for the sole invention of the doctrine of Peter's keys and kingdom, with the power of which the Roman sways whole nations, and shakes the wide earth; causing men and women even in this age and republic, whose farms are fruitful of the produce of their own toil, and whose houses are furnished with the abundance of heaven's blessings on their own industry, to confess all that the Roman's commissioned officer may require of them, even to the light or to the guilty thoughts of their heart, and to the secret emotions of their inmost bosom and soul: and causing them one day, or two, in the week, to eat, or not to eat, meat, at his Roman will; and firing them with a spiritual pride, which flashes with proud contempt

* I have examined this subject, and the result is summed up in manuscript, to be had when called for.

upon all the new light doctrines and followers of Luther and Washington and Edwards.

But I will not mock thee, O Roman; for thou art a man, and I am no more. We Occupy a little space on this footsool, and have a brief span of this life at the best.

We must stand

at the same bar of God in the kingdom of heaven, and be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and to the light and knowledge and talents God has given us, to occupy for his glory, and to employ for the benefit of our fellow men. The air I have been given to breathe from infancy is not that of a poisoned monastery. The institutions of my country are not trammelled with the superstitions of the dark ages. The American churches trust not in the intercessions of the blessed virgin: American christians ask not the Holy Spirit at the hands of any man on earth, not even the Pope; but of God only, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, why should an American, in the glorious liberty, which, under the law of Christ, God has given him, rail at the delusion of the Pope, or mock at the errors of the nations, which wor. ship idols of gold and silver and stone ?—I will not do it. My heart shall rather be broken with the woes of the suffering nations, led astray by the doctrines of the God of this world, and oppressed with every form of injustice, robbery, degrada. tion, and cruelty; and my mouth shall be shut against condemnation now, lest in the judgment day it be shut for me, by the uprising of those very nations of sinners and worshippers of images and of devils, and by their condemning both me and my countrymen, who are exalted in point of privi leges for that if they had known the things that we know and might tell them, they would have turned wholly to the Lord, and repented long ago of their sinful ways, and would have sought with earnestness, by the love and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, also to turn all other people from Satan unto God.