men. THE PRESENT CHURCHES. As soon as some Pharisees that believed began to observe days and months, and times, and years; so soon did the apostle begin to stand in doubt of them. rag society; and his little daughter, | sionary prayer meeting, for seasons of a tutoress of a Sunday school. They unusual solemnity or interest. They knew nothing of the hobbies of modern did not at one time abate their zeal, times. In their church capacity their devotion, their gratitude or their alone they moved. They neither liberality, that they might have an transformed themselves into any other opportunity of showing forth to adkind of association, nor did they vantage or of doing something of great fracture and sever themselves into consequence at another. Such things divers societies. They viewed the they condemned in Jews and Pagans. church of Jesus Christ as the scheme No, gentle reader, in the primitive of Heaven to ameliorate the world; church they had no Easter Sunday, as members of it, they considered Thanksgiving Monday, Shrove Tuesthemselves bound to do all they could day, Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, for the glory of God and the good of Good Friday, nor Preparation SaturThey dare not transfer to a day. All days were alike good-alike missionary society, bible society, or preparation-alike thanksgiving. education society, a cent or a prayer, lest in so doing they should rob the church of its glory, and exalt the inventions of men above the wisdom of God. In their church capacity alone they moved. The church they considered "the pillar and ground of the truth;" they viewed it as the temple of the Holy Spirit; as the house of the living God. They considered if they did all they could in this capacity, they had nothing left for any other object of a religious nature. In this capacity, wide as its sphere extended, they exhibited the truth in word and deed. Their good works, which accompanied salvation, were the labors of love, in ministering to the necessities of saints, to the poor of the brotherhood. They did good to all men, but especially to the household of faith. They practised that pure and undefiled religion, which, in overt acts, consists in "taking care of orphans and widows in their affliction, and in keeping one's self unspotted by (the vices of) the world." THEIR UNITY OF ACTION. In their church capacity they attended upon every thing that was of a social character, that did not belong to the closet or fireside. In the church, in all their meetings, they offered up their joint petitions for all things lawful, commanded or promised. They left nothing for a mis Having taken a cursory view of some of the leading features of the christian religion, exhibited in prospective, and in actual existence at its first institution, we shall in the last place advert to its present appearance. But alas! "how is the fine gold become dim !" Instead of the apostles' doctrine, simply and plainly exhibited in the New Testament, we have got the sublime science of theology, subdivided into scholastic, polemic, dogmatic and practical divinity. Instead of the form of sound words given by the Spirit to be held fast, we have countless creeds, composed of terms and phrases, dogmas and speculations, invented by whimsical metaphysicians, christian philosophers, rabbinical doctors, and enthusiastic preachers. Instead of the divinely established order of bishops and deacons, or as they are sometimes called, elders and deacons, which remained when the age of "spiritual gifts" and "spiritual men" passed away, we have popes, cardinals, archbishops, metropolitan bishops, diocesan bishops, rectors, prebendaries, deans, priests, archdeacons, presiding elders, ruling elders, circuit preachers, local preachers, li- ligion. Inquisitive reader, turn your eyes to yonder monastery, built in that solitary desert, filled with a religious order of monks, and an abbot at their head. Why have they shut themselves out from the world in that solitary recluse? It is for the purpose of becoming more abstemious, more devout, more devoted to the study of mystic theology. Hear them contending whether the Solitaires, the Cœnabites or the Sarabaites have chosen the course most congenial to the gospel. See these poor, gloomy, lazy set of mortals, habited in their awful black, their innocent white, or their spiritual grey, according to their order, forsaking all the business and enjoyments of society, spending their days in penury and affliction for the sake of sublimer contemplations of God and of the heavenly world; and say have they ever seen a bible! Again, see this sacred gloom, this holy melancholy, this pious indolence, becoming so popular as to affect all the seminaries of Christendom for a time! See it command the respect of the highest dignitaries of the church; and hear them call those haunts of gloom and superstition, as some of the reformed orders of modern times call our col leges, "fountains and streams that make glad the city of our God" by qualifying pious divines! Yes, these monasteries became so famous for piety and solemnity, that the church looked to them for her most useful ministers. And, indeed, much of the gloomy aspect, dejected appearance, and holy singing of modern times, and especially of the leaders of devotion, sprang from those monasteries. Next, consider for a moment, yon sobbing anchorite, with his amulet round his neck, his beads solemnly moving through his fingers, bent upon his naked knees in yon miserable cell, muttering his "Ave Maria," and inBut into how diverse and opposite voking St. Andrew to intercede in his extremes and absurdities have many behalf; and say has he a bible ? O run, in their wild, superstitious, and yes! It lies mouldering and moth chimerical views of the Christian re- eaten on his shelves. THE MONASTERY AND WILL-WORSHIP. THE INQUISITION. tian general, with his ten thousand soldiers, and his chaplain at his elbow, preaching as he says, the gospel of good will among men ; and hear him exhort his general and his Christian warriors to go forth with the bible in one hand and the sword in the other, to fight the battles of God and their country; praying that the Lord would cause them to fight valiantly, and render their efforts successful in From this scene of infatuation turn your eyes to yonder dismal edifice, with iron gates and massy bars. Within its merciless apartments view the "minister of religion," the "ambassador of Christ," attired in his sacred robes, with holy aspect and flaming zeal for "divine honor" and that of his church, exhorting the vile heretic on pain of the most excruciating torments here, and eternal dam-making as many widows and orphans nation hereafter, to abjure his heresy. as will afford sufficient opportunity As an argument to enforce his pious for others to manifest the purity of exhortation, observe the red hot pin- their religion by taking care of them! cers in hand, pointing to the boiling If any thing is wanting to finish a lead, the piles of faggots, the torturing picture of the most glaring inconsistwheels, and all the various engines of encies, add to this those Christians horrid vengeance. Do you ask who who are daily extolling the blessings is he? I answer, it is the Reverend of civil and religious liberty, and at Inquisitor. On the most solemn the same time, by a system of the AUTO DA FE, see this incorrigible most cruel oppression, separating the heretic brought forward, arrayed in wife from the embraces of her husband, his santo benito, or sleeveless yellow coat, flowered to the border with the resemblance of flames, of red serge, decorated with his own picture, surrounded with devils, as doomed to destruction for the good of his soul. Then declare of what use is reason or revelation to many called Christians! 66 THE REFORMED" CHURCHES. and the mother from her tender off spring; violating every principle, and rending every tie that endears life and reconciles man to his lot; and that, forsooth, because " might gives right," and a man is held guilty because his skin is a shade darker than the standard color of the times. Adverting to these signs of the times, and many others to which these reflections necesBut leaving the du geon and that sarily lead, will you not say that this quarter of the globe, visit the group of prophecy is now fulfilled-2 Tim. iv. reformed Christians, and see another 3-4 "There will be a time when they order of "teachers of the Christian will not endure wholesome teaching; faith,' ," "ministers of religion," having but having itching ears, they will, prepared themselves by the study of according to their own lusts, heap up Grecian and Roman languages, laws, to themselves teachers. And from the history, fables, gods, goddesses, de- truth, indeed, they will turn away baucheries, wars, and suicides; having their ears and be turned to fables." studied triangles, squares, circles, and Chap. iii. 1-5, "This also know, that ellipses, algebra and fluxions, the in latter days perilous times will come. mechanical powers, chemistry, natural For men will be self-lovers, moneyphilosophy, &c. for the purpose of lovers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, becoming teachers of the Christian disobedient to parents, ungrateful, religion and then going forth with unholy, without natural affection,covetheir saddlebags full of scholastic nant-breakers, slanderers, having a divinity in quest of a call to some form of godliness, but denying the eligible living; then ask again, Where power. Now from these TURN AWAY." is the bible ? Christian reader, remember this comAnd, stranger still, see that Chris-mand and "from such turn away.” Conversion is a more voluntary act than proselytism: it emanates entirely from the mind of the agent, independent of foreign humour or influence-it extends not merely to the abstract or speculative opinions of the individual, but to the whole current of his feelings and springs of actionit is the conversion of the heart and soul. This, in a religious sense, is strictly true so that if any man be converted to Christ he is a new creaold things have passed away, behold all things have become new. Proselyte is a term of more ambiguous meaning than that of convert. The mere proselyte is often the tool and creature of a party. Hence there may be many proselytes where there ture are no converts. The conversion of a sinner to Christ -how important! a result which can alone be effected by the all powerful motives supplied by the Spirit of God, clearly presented, and fully sustained by evidence drawn from the teaching of Prophets and Apostles, as recorded in the Bible. Of his own will begat he us by, or with the Word of Truth, Jas. i. 18. To be converted in heart and soul -to have all the affections of the mind concentrated in one person, and that person none other than the Son of God to have a clear and lively apprehension of his divine glories the perfection of his work, office, and character, is the one thing needful. Such a view, arising from belief of the divine testimony-and it can be obtained in no other way-is sufficient to change the heart, beget the soul anew, and attract and elevate the mind towards the attainment and full realization of all the Saviour has promised--as well as to reduce every thought into subjection to his divine and peace-speaking authority. When a conviction of the truth--that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the Living God- is impressed on the mind, then the volition is controlled, the path of obedience trodden cheerfully, and the heart comforted with a realizing sense of free and full forgiveness of all past sins. Oh, ye believers, arise and be immersed, and wash away your sins! This is conversion: conversion to a person, love to a person, obedience to a person, and He none other than the blessed Son of God. There is nothing of a sectarian or party character in this. Reader, have you followed the Lord fully, or are you only proselyted to a party? Examine, and ascertain this before it be too late. J. W. DIVINITY OF CHRIST. IN a note before us, the writer says "I beg you, Sir, ever to bear in mind, that our hope, trust, and confidence, rest not on the divinity of Christ's person, but on the divinity of his mission as sent from God, in full persuasion that God would exalt no inadequate person to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and the forgiveness of sins." This writer, it appears, is proselyted to the divinity of Christ's mission, and not to the divinity and glory of his person. We entirely differ from this view. The great creed of our religion, the element of belief, and the thing to be implicitly received, is not the divinity of Christ's mission, but the divinity of Christ's person. It is not, behold my missionary, but behold my Son ! The mission of Moses was as divine as the mission of Christ; but his person was not. Thus neither New nor Old Testament REFORMATION-No. VII. WE have just been considering the influence of an inordinate zeal for theories of religion, and for favorite points of doctrine, as manifested in the abridgment of Christian liberty. But this is, by no means, the only injurious effect that results from it. This furor doctrinalis-this congenital disease of Protestantism, not only restricts just liberty of thought and action, and enfeebles the power of religion, but misdirects and perverts the most important of all the influences upon which Christianity depends for its ultimate success-that is to say, the feeling of PERSONAL ATTACHMENT, or love of individual character. There is nothing, I presume, for which partyism is more distinguished than for the extreme veneration paid, by each sect, to the memory of its founder, and to those individuals who are, or have been, chiefly instrumental in sustaining it. They are regarded as models of purity and wisdom-as paragons of learning, human and divine-and as exempt from the errors and frailties of common mortals. Their zeal for a particular set of opinions has, like the fabled cestus, invested them with celestial charms, and secured for them the homage and almost the adoration of their followTheir works, well-bound and gilt, occupy a larger space, and a more conspicuous position in the library, than the writings of the apostles; and the biography of each is more familiar to his party, than the testimony of the Evangelists concerning Jesus the Nazarene. To censure Paul or Peter, James or John, may be pardoned; but whoever shall speak a word against McLean or Sanderman, Gill or Fuller, Knox or Calvin, Wesley or Luther, in the ears of one of their followers, commits an offence which is not to be forgiven him. To express, on the other hand, an unfeigned admiration for their great men to boast of their talents, and to speak of their writings as the only true exposition of the Christian doctrine, and the very bulwark of truth, is to win at once their favor, and secure their confidence. They regard their peculiar tenets as the concentration of all revealed knowledge: the very focus of all divine illumination; and, if they love one another, it is for the sake of these doctrines, and in proportion to the zeal displayed in their behalf. Nay, it is to be feared that the love they profess for Christ himself, is founded chiefly upon their persuasion that, in all his teachings, he agrees with them in opinion. Such, at least, is the true character of the sectary every where; though, doubtless, there are some in every communion who are too well acquainted with the nature |