object for which the meeting is to be summoned; and that not less than seven days’ notice be given, by circular, to the Subscribing Members of the Society.

XII.  That none of the Rules of the Society be repealed or altered, nor any new ones adopted, but at the Annual Meeting, or at a Special General Meeting called for that purpose.

XIII.  That all Meetings of the Society be opened with prayer, and closed with benediction.

XIV.  That it be earnestly recommended to all the members of this Society to make its important object and plans a subject of special and frequent prayer, both in private and in the family.

N.B.  1.  Contributions in aid of the Institute will be thankfully received by any of the officers.

2.  As the pecuniary qualification for Membership has been fixed at the low rate of 5s., and as every Subscribing Member receives, in the form of publications, considerably more than an equivalent for that sum, it is obvious that the Society can only be maintained by the liberality of such as can afford to contribute more largely to its Funds.

3.  All the publications of the Institute may be purchased at Mr. Jackson’s, Bookseller and Publisher, Islington Green.

4.  Parties contemplating the formation of similar Societies in any part of the country, are cordially invited to correspond with the officers of the Institute, who will also be thankful for any authentic information and friendly communication from Societies already in existence.

THE ACCOMMODATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE NATURAL HEART.

There are two points of view in which every system may be regarded—its external action, and its internal principle.  We may examine either the great effects of its machinery, its plans, its purposes, its advances, and its perils; or we may trace its inner principle, and endeavour to detect the secret spring by which the whole is set in motion.  It must at once be obvious that this latter inquiry is by far the more difficult; for our attention is directed rather to the philosophy than the action of the system; and we are called to examine the subtle tendencies of the human heart, which, of course, are more difficult both of detection and exhibition than the great, broad, startling facts which lie on the surface of the world’s history.  This difficulty I have seriously felt in the preparation of the present lecture, the subject of which, is, “Popery the accommodation of Christianity to the natural heart.”  The subject plainly requires that we should study the secret working of the natural heart, and should also examine into the corresponding principles of Popery, in order to discover their mutual accommodation, and to show how the whole system of the one is dexterously fitted to allay the fears and supply the cravings of the other.  Throughout, therefore, we have to deal more with principles than with facts.  I must ask your forbearance, therefore, if the lecture assumes a somewhat abstract form, and contains but few of those startling statements which abound in the history of Popery, and which are of the utmost importance in arousing the dormant Protestantism of the land.  But yet, as facts are but the development of principles, I must ask the attention of thinking minds, and earnestly beg the candid consideration of all those Christian friends, whose desire it is to be established in the truth.

In its outward dress, then, and external presentation, we see at once that Popery adapts itself to the natural man.  The Bible presents the Gospel to us in the most unmixed simplicity; the fruits of the Spirit are its choicest ornament, and the humbling of the heart is its proudest triumph.  It goes to the unlettered cottager, places the Bible in his hand, and gives him the saving promise, “Believe in the Saviour as there revealed, and live.”  In the external aspect of such a system there is nothing to catch the natural eye; to the man who is not taught by the Spirit, there is nothing peculiarly lovely in its fruits, and to the person who is not influenced by his grace, as there is nothing to charm the senses, so there is little to attract his favourable regard.  But Popery, in presenting a spurious Christianity, has dressed it up in all the meretricious ornaments of sense.  It has summoned to its aid all that may allure the natural tastes, so that if it fail to win the heart, it may at all events enlist the eye and ear in its behalf.  Thus there is no natural taste which is not pre-eminently gratified by Popery.  The lover of music and the fine arts will find his highest delight while he hears the sounds of the well-sung anthem thrilling through the vaulted roofs of a magnificent cathedral.  The admirer of architecture will draw a contrast unfavourable to truth when he compares the noble ruins of Tintern Abbey with the simple church on the hill side that overhangs it.  The antiquarian is provided with an ample supply for the spirit of research in the legends, the brasses, the ruins, and above all, in the claim it sets forth of resting its pretensions on a far-gone antiquity: while the ignorant and superstitious find all their wishes satisfied in the relics, the charms, the pilgrimages, the holy coats, the miracles, and the whole tissue of fanatical deception with which the system abounds.  The effect upon such minds is proved by the fact, that in those countries where Popery prevails, there appears to be no room for all the new schemes of quackery which abound in our own.  The Church has secured a complete monopoly, and finding that poor death-stricken man is ever craving after some unnatural mitigation of his woe, has undertaken to supply his utmost necessities, and to furnish a thousand charms and remedies to hush his longings, if it cannot cure his ill.

But if this were the only manner in which Popery adapts itself to the natural man, there would be comparatively little cause for complaint.  There is no sin in an attractive exhibition of the truth, nor is it wrong to enlist the tastes in favour of the Redeemer’s kingdom, for the Apostle to the Gentiles was himself “made all things to all men.”  So soon, however, as the truth itself is modified in order to suit the prejudices or inclinations of those to whom it is addressed, the accommodation from that moment becomes sinful in its character.  Now it is impossible to study the records of Romanism without perceiving that it is perpetually guilty of this sinful modification.  Thus in different countries it assumes different external aspects.  In catechisms for the Irish, for example, it omits the second commandment, while in those for England it generally inserts it, adapting itself in each case to what it considers that the people’s mind can bear.  In China the Jesuist missionaries actually went so far as to omit from their teaching the great fact of the crucifixion, because they considered that a truth so humbling would be unwelcome to that proud and self-sufficient people.  The foundation of Christianity was removed in order to accommodate it to the pride of the natural heart.

Thousands of other instances might be adduced to show the pliability of the system.  It is like the camelion, and varies its colour according to the soil on which it treads.  It will even preach justification by faith in those parishes where the people have learned the value of that blessed truth; while, at the very same moment, in the decrees of the Council of Trent, it levels its anathemas against those who venture to maintain it.  In Protestant countries it will be foremost in its denunciations of idolatry, while in others, where the people are prepared to bear them, it will fill its churches with its idols.  In all cases, it accommodates itself