of high rank, and higher expectations, in the Protestant Church in this kingdom, who resigned their emoluments and their prospects when the Act of Uniformity was passed, in the early part of the reign of King Charles II. By this Act upwards of two thousand of the most able, pious and zealous ministers of the Church in England, felt themselves compelled to resign their benefices, and were thus subjected to most severe suffering and privations, because they would not make shipwreck of a good conscience. The operations of this Act were not by any means so extensive in Ireland; but, where they did occur, they produced some splendid instances of the sacrifice of profit to principle, and of this world to the service of God and the Redeemer. Of these, two of the most conspicuous were the founders of this congregation. Their names ought to be held in perpetual veneration amongst us. One was the Rev. Samuel Winter, D.D. Provost of the University of Dublin; the other was the Rev. Samuel Mather, a Senior Fellow in the same Institution. The accession of these excellent men to the system of conformity was much courted. Had they subscribed to its tests, professed its creeds, and complied with its ritual, they might have attained to the highest ecclesiastical dignities in the land. The same temptations were presented to many of their brethren in England; but allegiance to the great Head of the church forbade them to compromise their religious principles. Compliance with human inventions was incompatible with loyalty to their Divine Master. In such a case, they felt that there was no room left for hesitation. The path of duty was plain before them they remembered the awful warning of our Saviour, that they who are not ready to relinquish houses and lands, and honours and distinctions, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, cannot be his disciples-they, therefore, forsook all, to follow him.

Most of the members of the church in which Dr. Winter and Mr. Mather had officiated, adhered to these eminent confessors in this severe trial. Withdrawing from the parochial church, (St. Nicholas,) they formed the Dissenting Congregation of New-row; and with their Pastors united themselves in communion and ecclesiastical connexion with the Associated Body of Protestant Dissenters then existing in this city. In their place of worship erected in New-row, the congregation continued to assemble for nearly fifty years: they then erected the present church in Eustace-street, to which they removed more than a century ago.

Dr. Winter was succeeded in the co-pastoral charge of the congregation in New-row, by the Rev. Timotheus Taylor, who had been for several years Minister of Carrickfergus, in the County of Antrim. The successor of Mr. Taylor was the Rev.

Nathaniel Weld, in the year 1682. Mr. Weld was Minister for the long space of fifty-one years, and was succeeded by his son, the Rev. Isaac Weld, D.D. in the year 1734. Dr. Weld was Minister forty-two years; and in the year 1777 was succeeded by his son-in-law, the Rev. Philip Taylor, your present venerable senior Pastor. Thus there has been an uninterrupted continuation of the pastoral office, in three successive generations of one family, and in one place, for the extended period of one hundred and forty-six years; a remarkable chain of succession, of which I know of no parallel in the history of the Presbyterian Church.

Through this long space of time, there has been an unbroken line of colleagues or co-pastors. The first of these was the Rev. Nathaniel Mather, who succeeded his brother, the Rev. Samuel Mather, in the year 1671. On the removal of Mr. N. Mather to London, to the pastoral charge of a congregation in that city, and to the lectureship at Pinners'-hall, the Rev. John Hemingway was ordained as co-pastor in New-row. Mr. Heming. way was succeeded, in the year 1716, by the Rev. John Leland, D.D. a name which ranks among the very highest in the list of Christian Divines. His unanswerable defences of revealed religion, and his refutation of deistical opinions, reflect great honour on his memory, and confer a high distinction on this congregation. In the year 1767, soon after the death of Dr. Leland, the Rev. Samuel Thomas was chosen co-pastor. Mr. Thomas was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph Hutton, your present junior Minister, who was ordained in this house in the year 1788.

It were easy to pronounce a well-deserved eulogium on each of these names; but from this I am prohibited for obvious reasons. Let it suffice to remark, that, throughout the entire list, there is presented to your contemplation a continued succession of faithful ministers of the word of life, steadily adhering, through good report and through evil report, to the truth as it is in Jesus, and affording, in their respective gifts, characters, and conduct, the light of a good example to our youthful bro ther, who is now to take his place as a fellow-labourer in this portion of the vineyard of the Lord. May he be a zealous and efficient workman, watchful and diligent in his Master's business; and may the blessing of God crown his labours with an abundant harvest, through Christ our Lord! AMEN.

My Friends of the Congregation of Eustace-street,

It is known to you all that your senior Pastor, the Rev. Philip Taylor, after a ministry of more than fifty years in this place, feeling the infirmities of declining years, proposed to you to exercise your undoubted privilege in the election of a copastor, as his assistant and eventual successor. You have taken sufficient time for deliberation on this momentous step; and, after due enquiry into his moral and religious character, and literary attainments, and a satisfactory trial of his gifts and qualifications as a preacher of the Gospel, you have presented to the Rev. James Martineau a call to undertake the pastoral charge and oversight of this congregation.

CO

Of this call Mr. Martineau has signified his acceptance; and the entire proceedings in this affair are sustained as regular by the Presbyterian Synod of Munster, with which you are united in ecclesiastical connexion.

As a recognition of that most valuable privilege of Christian liberty, the free right of popular election, I now call upon you, the members of this congregation, to signify publicly, in the presence of the Presbyterian Ministers here assembled as witnesses of this compact, whether you adhere to the call which you have presented to Mr. Martineau.

(The Members of the Congregation having testified their adherence to the call, by holding up their right hands, Mr. Armstrong next addressed Mr. Martineau.)

Mr. Martineau,

I now call upon you to declare, in the presence of the Ministers here assembled, as witnesses of this solemn transaction, your views on undertaking the important office to which you are called as co-pastor to this congregation.

ADDRESS,

BY

REV. JAMES MARTINEAU.

EVERY Minister of the Gospel I conceive to be the servant of Revelation, appointed to expound its doctrines, to enforce its precepts, and to proclaim its sanctions.

By the authority of this Revelation I believe myself supported, when I assume, as primary principles in the conduct of my ministry, that the first and simplest religious truths are incomparably the most momentous-that there is no being with whom we have so much to do as God; and that as all religion begins, so also does it end, with exhibiting the relation which man bears to his Creator. To this infinite Being, and to Him alone, do I ascribe every conceivable perfection. He is the source of power, to whom all things are possible-He is boundless in wisdom, from whom no secrets can be hidden-He is love; the origin of all good, himself the greatest; and the dispenser of suffering only that we may be partakers of his holiness-He is spotless in holiness; his will the only source of morality, and the eternal enemy of sin-He is self-existent and immutable, for ever pervading and directing all things, and searching all hearts; the Being from whom we came, and with whom, in happiness or woe, all men must spend eternity. From these views I infer that it is my first office, as a Minister of Christ, to awaken the attention of my people to the claims of this one infinite Jehovah upon their adoration, obedience and love. As I believe him to be the only scriptural object of worship, so do I conceive the affections implied in that worship to be the greatest glory of the human soul, and to be absolutely essential to the acceptable discharge of duty here, and to participation in the felicities of heaven hereafter. I am conscious of nothing but sincerity in saying, that to inspire in others and in myself a devotion ever fervent and humble, which shall have a bearing on every duty, purify every thought, and tranquillize every grief, I desire to make the main object not only of my ministry, but of my life.

At the same time I believe, that of the will, the purposes, perhaps even the existence of Jehovah, we should have remained in ignorance, had he not revealed himself, partially by patriarchs and prophets of old, and more gloriously by Jesus Christ, his wellbeloved Son. Him I acknowledge as the Mediator between God and man, who was appointed to produce by his life, and yet more peculiarly by his death, an unprecedented change in the spiritual condition of mankind, and to open a new and living way of salvation. No pledge of Divine love to the human race impresses me so deeply, as the voluntary death of Jesus Christ, and his exaltation to that position which he now holds above all other created beings, where he lives for evermore, and from which he shall hereafter judge the world in righteousness. I receive and reve rence him, not merely for that sinless excellence, which renders him a perfect pattern to our race; but as the commissioned delegate of Heaven, on whom the Spirit was poured without measure -as the chosen representative of the Most High, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. As authorities for our duties, as fountains of consoling and elevating truth, Jesus and the Father are one: and, in all subjects of religious faith and obedience, not to honour him as we honour the Father, is to violate our allegiance to him as the great Captain of our salvation. When Jesus commands, I would listen as to a voice from heaven: when he instructs, I would treasure up his teachings as the words of everlasting truth: when he forewarns of evil, I would take heed and fly as from impending ruin: when he comforts, I would lay my heart to rest as on the proffered mercy of God: when he promises, I would trust to his assurances as to an oracle of destiny.

Hence, I regard it as my duty to lead my hearers to this Saviour, as the way, the truth and the life; to urge on them his injunctions; to awaken in them a vital faith in his mission, an awe of his authority, a reliance on his predictions. More especially would I impress them with the conviction that this life is the infancy of existence; that its discipline is designed to conduct them to a state where all that is imperfect shall be done away; and that as they know not the day nor the hour when the Son of man shall appear, it becomes them, by vigilance and prayer, to hold themselves ready at every watch.

These, then, I regard as the primary duties of the Christian Minister; to awaken devotion to God, obedient faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and practical expectation of eternity. But I conceive that there are other and secondary duties, to the claims of which he must not be indifferent.

The successive revelations of God's will to mankind I believe to be contained in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. These Scriptures were written in languages now extinct, and are the productions of a people widely separated from us, not only by