Never forget that one design of your fellowship is the communication of the truth, the conversion of the world to the faith of Christ. As churches, you have important duties to perform to yourselves, and to mankind. In the spirit of the truth, and with an eye to the honour of your Lord, meet in a church capacity and ascertain your true state and character. If any ordinance of the house of God is neglected, it must be attended to; if any abuse is found amongst you, it must be removed; if improper persons have crept in, they must be admonished, and, if impenitent, be put from among you. To prayer and attending on the means of grace, you must add abounding liberality. Individually and collectively let Christians look at their awful responsibility, till they feel an agony of desire for the conver sion of sinners, and seek the accomplishment of this object with a devotion deep and hallowed as that felt by the angels of God! Brethren in the ministry, pastors of our churches, heralds of the cross, servants of the Most High God, permit me also to appeal to you. Think of your sacred character-of your elevated positionof your extensive influence of the vows of God which are upon you as the leaders of the host of God. Let me affectionately entreat you to make a fresh dedication of yourselves of your talents-your time-your property-your all to the service of your Lord and Master. Preach and pray and labour for the salvation of men. Set your faces like a flint against every thing that dishonours Christ and impedes his Gospel. The position assigned to you, in the moral government of God, imposes manifold duties and privileges upon you. The churches look to you as their guides, the public expect to witness your onward progress. Put forth fresh zeal in this noble enterprise. Be" moved by the Holy Ghost;" move forward, and you will set in motion all around you. And allow me to say to all our churches, there is no room for trifling-no time for delay. Souls are perishing! God says, "work while it is called to-day." Remember that the interests of millions at home depend upon you as a home missionary society, and as an Irish missionary society; and that as a colonial missionary society, the undying interests of unborn millions will be affected by your decision; you now exert great influence, and possess great moral strength. But if you prove unfaithful to your charge; if from indolence, or corruption, or worldly mindedness, you prove faithless to your country and to your God, merited disgrace and shame will cover you. If you do your duty, and come to the help of the Lord, and prove faithful to his cause and to your country, God will bless you, and make you to bless others. You will render posterity your debtors, and fill remote generations with gratitude and love. The Union will be distinguished for its truly christian deportment-its love-its purity-and its christian activity. Its transactions will form part of the history of our body and of the church at large, and succeeding generations will look back to eighteen hundred and forty with delight and gratitude. G J. H. REVIEW. 1. The Saviour's Right to Divine Worship Vindicated, in Letters to the Rev. J. Armstrong, D.D. By Wm. Urwich, D.D. Dublin. 1839.-pp. xvi. 412. 2. The Second Advent of Christ, the blessed Hope of the Church. By Wm. Urwick, D.D. Dublin. 1839.-pp. viii, 290. THE successive publication within less than four months of two distinct works on the subjects, and of the compass above stated, must be admitted to attest their respected author's devotion to divinity studies, as well as his unwearied zeal in the defence of "the faith once delivered to the saints." The first-mentioned volume was occasioned by the appearance of a sermon by the late Dr. Armstrong, of Dublin, vindicating the principles of "Unitarian Christianity," and inculcating universal charity, under that vague misapplication of the term so usual with the Unitarians; and consists of seven letters, in the first of which the latter question is disposed of, the remaining six being devoted to an examination of Dr. Armstrong's principal argument against the worship of Christ; and to the statement and discussion of Dr. Urwick's own views on the pre-existence and deity of Christ, and the worship due to him from men and angels. The work displays very great ability, and is honourably distinguished both by the luminous disposition of its arguments and the comprehensive literature adduced in illustration of them. To say that, in his first letter, Dr. Urwick has exposed the inconsistency even of Unitarians in reference to their profession of universal charity, is saying what is of no great consequence, for from inconsistency, whether doctrinal or moral, what author, or what man, is wholly free? but it is more gratifying to be able to state, that he has illustrated with great discrimination the principles of genuine christian charity, and we refer the reader with much pleasure to pages 3-13, where he will find some valuable matter on this subject. In the sentiments there offered, on sincerity and man's responsibility for his belief, we must express our particular concurrence, as we do also with those occurring at the close of the chapter, on the right of private judgment, and the exclusive authority of the Holy Scriptures. It is in the second letter that Dr. Armstrong's vindication of the principles of Unitarian Christianity" is directly contested. This vindication, as stated by Dr. Urwick, (p. 37,) rests upon the Scrip. ture-acceptation of the verbs τιμάω, προσκυνέω, δοξάζω, σεβομαι, and Aarpenw, the first three being, according to Dr. Armstrong, the words "by which the honour rendered to Christ is expressed in the sacred writings, the last two being regarded by him as peculiarly expressive of divine honour, and of the honour due to the Father, being never used in reference to the Messiah." Pages 37-86 are occupied with the examination of this question, which is very minutely, and, on the whole, very satisfactorily conducted, although here and there an opinion is offered (as in pages 41, 42, in reference to the distinction between oneр and Kaws,) which we doubt if either classical or biblical usage will sustain. From the "summary of the conclusions" resulting from this examination, we extract the author's valuable observations on προσκυνέω, σεβομαι, and λατρεύω, as offer ing, even to the English reader, the means of adequate satisfaction on the subject. "IIρookνvéw is used in the LXX. translation of the Old Testament about one hundred and eighty times as corresponding in meaning with the Hebrew word which most commonly, and the Chaldee word which always, expresses the highest act of worship-adoration. It occurs sixty times in the Greek of the New Testa ment, and in every instance, reserving the cases in which its object is the Saviour, it signifies the homage that belongs to God alone. Our Lord, in withstanding the Tempter, quoted the Old Testament as forbidding the honour it intends being offered to any one but the Deity. No instance is found in the New Testament of that honour being accepted by a worshipper of the true God. When it was about to be rendered to the apostle Peter, he instantly forbad it on the ground that he was a man'-intimating that such homage ought to be rendered to no merely human being, whatever were his office in the church, his divine commission, or his miraculous powers. When the apostle John was about to perform it to the angel through whose ministry he received the messages and visions of the Apocalypse, the angel at once and emphatically charged him not to do it, such homage being appropriate to God. "Zébouaι occurs only five times in the LXX., and in each case answers to the Hebrew word which means not any particular act of worship, but the generel habit of piety. In the New Testament it is found ten times, and in each case has the same meaning as in the LXX. But this verb is never, by inspiration, applied to Christians. 26 Aarpevo signifies the performance of service. It occurs about seventy times in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament as answering to the Hebrew word which means to serve.' We meet with it twenty times in the New Testament, where it uniformly expresses the same idea-indicating, according to the connexion in which it is found, the performance of divine commands in general, or the observance of ceremonial institutions in particular. It corresponds in meaning with the dovevw, but is commonly employed to signify religious service per formed in obedience to a deity or in honour of him, while dovlevw, applies in discriminately to the conduct of servants towards their masters among men and the submission which God's servants render to him. “ Generally speaking Λατρεύω is ‘I serve —Σέβομαι, ‘I venerate Προσκυνέω, 'I do homage to'--the object of it as a Deity. The first implies a course of conduct; the second, a habit of disposition; the third, an act of adoration. The disposition prompting to προσκυνέω, may be included in σεβομαι; the ogle ward act signifying προσκυνέω, may be included in λατρεύω; but προσκυνέω itself combines the very highest emotion σeboμat can cherish, with the very highest act λarpeú can perform. Indeed, it would perhaps place po too low to speak of it as a species of Xarpeía. The homage it imports must be the spontaneous movement of a heart possessed with a deep sense of God's glorious, awful majesty, constraining the person to testify it to the Deity himself in * Except in Rev. iii. 9, an instance which though by no means invalidating Dr. Urwick's argument, we could have wished that he had particularised and illustrated.-REV. T the posture of lowliest reverence and entire devotion; while the word λarpevo properly intends doing something as required and prescribed by authority. The priests did what Aarpeów intends when they, day after day, performed their various duties, whatever those duties might be, as ministers of the sanctuary; Paul did it when constantly fulfilling the obligations that devolved upon him as a Christian and an apostle; and all true believers do it when they wait upon God, either in the ordinances of worship properly so called, or in going through the common engagements of life as service that he enjoins. Пpookvvé intends what the people professedly had in view when they voluntarily came from different parts of Judea and the world to pay homage to Jehovah; what a person who ignorantly had entered a congregation of christian worshippers would do, when he inwardly recognised that God was there, and was properly affected by the sense of his greatness and his grace; and what the four-and-twenty elders are described as doing when, favoured with the most magnificent display of the Heavenly Majesty, they rose from their seats, fell down before him that sat on the throne, and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' "And THIS word IIpoσkvvéw is, as you say, 'the very verb which is so frequently employed in the New Testament to express the reverence and veneration paid to our blessed Lord.' Yes; it is the very verb' used to express the homage which the Persian Magi, informed of the oracles that went before concerning him, came, under the conduct of the 'star' they recognized as a heavenly guide, and rendered to him when newly born in Bethlehem. What this very verb' expresses was the homage rendered to him by the Leper, saying, 'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean'-by the wretched demoniac, saying, 'What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God?'-by the ruler, who implored him to raise his dead child to life-by the shipmen, saying, when he had stilled the wind, 'Of a truth thou art the Son of God'-by the woman of Canaan, who pleaded with him for her daughter, saying, 'Lord, help me'-by the man who was born blind when he recognized in him that cured him, the Son of God'-by the mother of Zebedee's children, when she came asking honour in his kingdom for her sons: and what this very verb' expresses was the homage paid to him by his disciples, on at least two occasions, between his resurrection and his ascension ;—yet in no instance was this homage declined by him, nor the slightest hint given that presenting it to him was in any respect or degree improper. No sooner had the twelve ascertained that he had ascended from them into heaven, than they unitedly presented to him the homage this very verb' expresses. And the homage which this very verb' expresses, all celestial beings are to render to him, for, it is written, 'When he bringeth in the First-Begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.'"-pp. 82-86. The work advances in interest as the author passes from the consideration of Dr. Armstrong's views to the more unfettered representation of his own. The opening of the third letter, in particular, is eminently valuable, for the fair and lucid manner in which the points, whether of agreement or difference between our author and Dr. Armstrong, respecting our Lord's person, are exposed to view. The passage, which will be found in pages 88-94, is worthy of the attention of controvertists on both sides, and reproduced on our own mind the impression we remember to have felt on reading, for the first time, Hooker's candid and masterly clearing of the ground," in his controversy with the Romanists, on justification. The whole argument is, indeed, very forcibly sustained, and as the author does not appear to us to have done himself justice in the summary state ments contained in his table of contents, where matters of primary and secondary moment are very confusedly intermingled, we shall offer both to him and to our readers what we think a fairer, as well as a more lucid, abstract of his third and fourth letters, on the preexistence and the deity of Christ. The determination of both questions, both being matters of divine revelation, rests entirely on the results of biblical investigation; and the following may be given, we conceive, as an accurate and adequate representation of Dr. Urwick's argument in the fore-mentioned letters. 66 LETTER THIRD, ON THE PRE-EXISTENCE OF CHRIST. "Introductory remarks. "Enquiry regarding our Lord's PERSON proposed.-Christ really MAN.Origin and moral state of his manhood -Sentiments of Unitarians on the latter subject.-Proofs that he is Man do not preclude his being MORE THAN MAN.Possibility of the Incarnation.-Incarnation not Transubstantiation.-Impossibility of the latter without change of species.-Presumption of denying the Incarnation to be possible.-The Humanity of Christ the Incarnation of a preexisting agent of exalted dignity. "Biblical proofs of the pre-existence of Christ. “I. John i. 1—3, 10, 14, 15. Christ the pre-existent, incarnate wORD.-The WORD not an attribute personified, but a living personal agent. "II. John iii. 15, 31-33, 38, 41, 42, 50, 51, 58, 61, 62. Christ dwelt in heaven before he appeared on earth. The objection drawn from John vi. 31 examined. "III. John viii. 56-59. Christ before Abraham.-Different views of the passage.-Christ's pre-existence in the divine purpose not intended by it. "IV. John xvii. 5. Christ actually glorified with God before the world was, the natural import of this passage. The idea conveyed not the same as that in 2 Tim. i. 9, and Rev. xiii. 8. "V. 2 Cor. viii. 9. Christ though rich became poor.-Consistency of the interpretation which implies Christ's pre-existence with the context.-The passage without meaning on the humanitarian scheme.-The humanitarian interpretation tried as to its accuracy and consistency with the apostle's design. "VI. Phil. ii. 4-8. Christ being in the form of God, humbled himself, &c. Similarity between and the last recited passages.-Their practical tendency.What intended by the phrases being in the form of God,' thought it not robbery to be equal with God,' and other expressions.-Dr. Drummond's exposi tion stated, and shown to be inconsistent both with the terms of the passage and the mind of the writer. "VII. 1 John i. 1-3. Christ the manifested word of life.-Conformity of the passage to John i. 1-3. Concluding illustrative remarks, on the import of the title 'WORD' as used to designate our Saviour's pre-existent nature, and on some of the manifestations of such an agent recorded in the Old Testament." "LETTER FOURTH, ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST. "Connexion of this with the foregoing subject. "Proofs from the New Testament. "I. John i. 1. 'The word was God.'-Unitarian expositions considered. "II. John xx. 26-29. Thomas's acknowledgment of Christ's deity.- Note of the Improved Version,' its parentage and misrepresentation of Beza's judgment on the text.-Dr. Drummond's psychological explanation and alleged similar instances examined. “III. Rom. ix. 5. Christ over all, God blessed for ever.'- Peshito version of the text.-Unitarian evasion untenable.-Two-fold nature of Christ.-Paral |