by each member, and the consequent character imparted to the whole body; the combination of sympathy, watchfulness, and prayer, directed towards the increase of every holy attainment and Christian grace. In such healthful circumstances, there will readily be found every needful encouragement and assistance, amidst the trials and difficulties of our spiritual course, and those self-denying habits which the service of the gospel demands. When, however, from any cause, the character of the church suffers, when it declines in piety, even without any departure from sound doctrine-a very possible case-the very end of fellowship will be endangered. It will be of little avail to boast of our scriptural constitution, when, in consequence of an allowed and growing indifference to divine things, the objects which it contemplates have been neglected or forgotten. We shall only the more effectually bring it into disrepute, and increase the contempt with which the entire subject is too generally regarded. We mention this, to remind you, that the form and constitution of the church, however scriptural and well adapted as a means, must fail in the furtherance of holiness, if its laws be not faithfully administered, and the end of its creation be not steadily kept in view and perseveringly prosecuted, in the spirit of meekness and love. The constitution of the church is not designed to supply living principles, or to supersede, by a power inherent in itself, the necessity of their diligent cultivation, but merely to furnish facilities and aids for their increase in strength and development in action. One system may be superior to another in affording such facilities, but the best will prove worthless, without the presence and influence of that Spirit which ought to animate it, and can alone secure its intended results. Whatever, then, injures the spiritual character of the church, in the extent to which it is suffered to prevail, defeats its designs. Every church is perpetually exposed to injury. Offences must come. Christians may be seduced by temptation, and fall into sin. The hypocritical may gradually throw off their mask, and become manifestly indifferent to the interests of religion, or make open shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. The continuance of allowed sin, in the purest community, will slowly, but surely, impair its character, and ultimately corrupt it. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Some will be emboldened to similar transgressions, and coming habitually into contact with sin unrebuked, the consciences of all will lose their tenderness. As the infection spreads, the standard of Christian character will be practically and permanently lowered: confidence will be destroyed; and, instead of being mutually serviceable to each other's faith and holiness, and a centre from which emanates a healthful moral influence on the surrounding ungodliness, they will speedily become a confederacy for evil. These disastrous effects may not be immediately discernible, but they may be forming and working out by a strong under-current of infection, which eludes observation, until accidental circumstances reveal them. The intention of scriptural discipline is to furnish a corrective to these evils, and when employed with faithfulness and impartiality, is calculated to exert a salutary influence upon every one concerned in its administration. In witnessing the promptitude and affection with which offenders are rebuked and admonished, or the obstinate reluctantly excluded, when they will not

be reclaimed; all are taught to fear sin, are excited to watchfulness, and receive a fresh impulse, bearing them onward in their course of obedience. Without the protection which discipline affords, we have no security against the introduction of evils, which tend to disturb the peace and impair the prosperity of our churches.' pp. 5-7.

So far as our knowledge extends, we should not have conceived that the Churches embraced by this Union were generally chargeable with a neglect or relaxation of religious discipline; nor is this meant to be implied, perhaps, in the above admonitory remarks. We should not, however, be surprised to find them cited by the Author of "Essays on the Church," or by some honest controvertist of the same stamp, as a confession on the part of the Dissenters themselves, that the importance of a faithful administration of scriptural discipline is not generally understood among them; whence it will be an easy jump to the conclusion, that our discipline is not more effective than that of the Church of England itself. Against such misconceptions and misrepresentations it may be difficult to guard; but we could have wished that some caveat had been entered against the uncandid inference. It is stated, indeed, that many of our churches can bear a willing testimony to the speedy check 'which discipline gives to incipient evils;' and it is certain, therefore, that the discipline contended for is neither chimerical nor theoretical, but exists in practice, and may be universally realized.

6

The subject of discipline is a very important, but a very delicate one, and requires a much more distinct exposition than can be looked for in such an address. That discipline is not the act of those to whom the superintendence of the church belongs, but of the entire body, is a position which seems to us to require some little qualification. If the word discipline is understood simply of the public expulsion or suspension of a member, it is most fit that no individuals should be intrusted with such a power, in virtue of their office, irrespective of the concurrence of the body. But we have been accustomed to understand discipline as mainly consisting in that pastoral superintendence, which, when effectively exercised, will often supersede, by private admonition, the necessity for ulterior proceeding. In cases of open sin, there can be no doubt as to the proper mode of proceeding; but church censures have not in all cases been levelled against offences involving any moral turpitude, and much must depend upon the constitution of the court. We venture to think that there exists no real difference of sentiment on this head between the writer of the Address and ourselves; but we are anxious that such a document should not be open to misconstruction. The all-important subject of parental responsibility is subsequently adverted to, and the duty of pastors to pay especial

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attention to the young. We should be glad to see this topic more fully treated in a future address. Upon the whole, we cordially recommend this Address to the serious perusal of our readers.

We have been led to notice, in immediate connexion with this Address, the second publication, of which we have given the title, because it contains, appended to the more ancient symbols, the Declaration of Faith recently published by the Congrega tional Churches of England and Wales, and adopted by their brethren of Scotland and Ireland. The other contents of the volume are, the twenty-eight Articles of the Irish Church, agreed on by the Convocation held in Dublin in 1615; the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England; and the Westminster Confession of Faith, adopted by the Church of Scotland, as well as by the Synod of Ulster, the United Secession synods in Scotland and Ireland, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America. The object of the Compiler is sufficiently indicated by the title; but we transcribe with pleasure from the Preface, the further explanation of its excellent design.

• The writer is not one of those who can discover nothing but what is evil in the general church at the present day; nor does he love to dwell on the less fascinating features of her members; nor is he a gloomy alarmist, who can foresee nothing but desolation and woe. But with fervent thanksgivings to God, for what He has done and is doing for His Church, and in full faith of the certain bestowment of all that He has promised, he would hold up existing evils to the view of the Brethren, that they may be excited to humiliation, watchfulness, and prayer.

It has been thought that it might, through the blessing of God, aid in effecting this object, were the attention of Christians directed to their essential oneness in all the grand characteristics of their common Christianity; and to the views of those who, in these countries, have been instrumental in the plantation and establishment among us of the Gospel, with its privileges and blessings. Their views of divine truth were essentially the same with those of the servants of God in every preceding period: for, while error is multiform and variable, truth is one and immutable. "Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see; and ask for the old paths, where is the good way: and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."

With this design the following little work has been undertaken. It consists of the summaries of faith and practice, originally framed by those who were instrumental, under God, in giving to these lands all that is valuable in their religious,—and even their civil privileges; and which are still held by the great body of professed believers. That, in all their leading outlines, they are founded upon "the apostles and prophets," will be obvious from a careful and candid examination of the passages of Scripture appended as proofs of the statements they contain. That they are in substance the same with those formulas employed by the churches-immediately subsequent to the Apostolic

age, and prior to the rise of "the great apostasy "-for asserting the truth and condemning error, might be easily shown. And when the glorious Reformation took place, and, to use the language of Milton,Then was the sacred Bible sought out of the dusty corners where profane falsehood and neglect had thrown it, the schools opened, divine and human learning raked out of the embers of forgotten tongues, the princes and cities trooping apace to the new-erected banner of salvation; the martyrs, with the unresistible might of weakness, shaking the powers of darkness, and scorning the fiery rage of the old red dragon;"-when Luther, and the rest of the glorious band of his coadjutors and followers, swept away the errors and superstitions wherewith the fair face of the church had been covered and deformed, and adopted the plan which had been employed before, for exhibiting truth and condemning error, that both might be contrasted with the infallible oracles of God, by publishing the Augsburg, Helvetic, and other "Confessions "'-as theirs were in substance identical with those of the church in her purest times, so are these which follow, in all vital points, the same with theirs. No infallibility, nor even authority, is claimed for them on account of the men who compiled them,-however learned, eminent, and holy many of them were; they would, themselves, have been the very first to disclaim all such pretensions, and to say, "Be ye followers of us," in so far as we are of Christ." "To the law and to the testimony." But to every sober-minded Christian it must be satisfactory to find that, amid all the changes in outward circumstances, and all the varieties of forms and rites,-in every age the faith and the practice of the church has been identical; and it must teach such persons to cling to and contend for these, instead of attaching undue importance to modes and opinions that have been constantly varying.

The practice of exhibiting what the church has conceived to be the truth, and condemning the errors which, from time to time, were broached and propagated by its enemies, has been adopted from the beginning; and still prevails. With the view of showing, still further, the harmony which exists among those who "hold the Head," even under the most diverse forms of ecclesiastical polity, -to the more anciently published creeds adopted in these countries, is added "The Declaration of the Congregational Churches."

That " Confessions," like other things, may be abused, on the one hand, by being enforced upon unwilling consciences by the fear of loss or the hope of emolument,-and on the other adopted, hypocritically, from sinister designs, by unprincipled individuals, -is at once admitted; but that, when properly used, they are important and warrantable, is by the common practice of all the orthodox churches admitted and sanctioned. They evince the sense in which Scripture is understood, exhibit the union of the friends of truth, in the assertion of its principles and testifying against corruptions,-and lay the foundation for harmony, in the "walking together" of those who are thus agreed." pp. vii—x.

3

Art. VIII. 1. The Church its own Enemy, being an Answer to the Pamphlets of the Rev. Dr. Chalmers. Particularly to his Aspersions on the Town Council of Edinburgh. Second Edition, corrected. By Adam Black. 8vo., pp. 60. Edinburgh, 1835.

2. Statement relative to Church Accommodation in Scotland: in Answer to the Representations in the Circular of the Moderator of the General Assembly, &c. By the Scottish Central Board for Vindicating the Rights of Dissenters. Third Edition, with an Appendix. 8vo., pp. 24. Edinburgh, 1835.

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MOST truly is the Church-if we must give that name to an ecclesiastical establishment intended to secure a monopoly to a portion of the Church,-its own enemy; and most apposite in its application is the proverb which Mr. Black places upon his title page: Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands." The infatuation of the upholders of the Church and State policy is extreme, and looks, we had almost said, like judicial blindness. Is it not pitiable to find such men as Dr. Chalmers, the sworn enemy of all compulsory payments for the support of the poor, coming forward as the champion of compulsory payments for the maintenance of the ministers of his own sect, and calling upon the Government for fresh grants of the public money, in order to outbuild and outbid the voluntaries, who have outstripped the state Church in providing for the spiritual wants of the people? We honestly confess that we have read Mr. Black's clear and triumphant exposure of the Doctor's unaccountable blunders and unwarrantable aspersions with astonishment. Never was a charge more triumphantly refuted than that which Dr. Chalmers brought against the Town Council. We have not room to go into the subject, but we strongly recommend our readers to obtain Mr. Black's pamphlet, which, though relating chiefly to a local dispute, furnishes a very strong case against the very principle of Establishments. We must make room for the following paragraph.

The Church (of Scotland) has long since lost its hold on the affections and confidence of the common people; that class which Dr. Chalmers is so anxious to recall to its communion. Give them sittings in the Established churches cheap or altogether free, they will not return. Time was when the inhabitants looked up to their ministers as their counsellors and defenders, but that was when the ministers were not the instruments of the court, or a court faction, but defenders against the corruption and the Church Establishment of the court. The people have long had to contemplate the ministers of the Establishment, not only subject but obsequious to the government that supported them; and during the reign of terror, when despotic go