mining what is right or wrong in the creed or conduct of our fellow Christians, we ought not to make our own peculiar prejudices and habits, nor those of our party, the criteria of our judgments; but should, in this particular, strive to be directed by the word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Proceeding then, upon this plan, it will readily appear, that many things have been allowed hitherto to divide the Christian church, which should not have been suffered to produce such a lamentable effect. Trifles and prejudices have kept many Christian societies asunder, which ought certainly to have been united in the bonds of holy affection. descendant from the Scotch church, and of course, may be considered as a child of complexion and feature somewhat similar to its parent-the Associate Reformed Synod, on the other hand, is a descendant of a body of Christians who seceded from the communion of the Scotch church; and, therefore, although in its government and doctrines it be essentially the same as the church of Scotland, yet it may naturally be conceived to be tinctured a little in its complexion and spirit by some of the peculiarities of that body from which it has more directly and immediately sprung. Hence it is not wonderful that we should find some of the Associate Reformed church, in this country, still tenacious of those distinctions which This remark is peculiarly appli-separated them first from the Nacable to some branches of the Christian church in this country. Few of those religious parties which exist in the Christian community here, have had their origin in America. They are chiefly the productions of that soil, whence the forefathers of those who compose them, originally sprung. The causes which gave birth to the major part of those parties, consequently, will be sought for in vain in this country. To discover these we must explore the history of the respective regions which gave origin to such unpleasant divisions. Should we, therefore, thus trace the origin of many of those unhappy religious divisions, which still continue, in many places in this country, we shall most undoubtedly find that the first political causes which produced them, do not here exist. This will be found to be particularly true in regard to those two respectable bodies of Presbyterians, known, in this country, by the names of the General Assembly and the Associate Reformed Synod. Both these bodies sprung originally from the Scotch Presbyterian Church; but not exactly in the same way. The Generally Assembly of this country is an immediate tional Church of Scotland, when they considered that church, on account of political interference, to have become sadly corrupted. To the prejudices of such therefore, because we think their prejudices had their origin in good intention, we are disposed to pay no small degree of respect. But, well founded as these prejudices in the first instance might have been, we hope that, by candidly considering the matter, they will see that such prejudices have now, in this land of free toleration, no real foundation. A candid comparison of those circumstances, which first occasioned that body, from which the Associate Reformed Synod in this country sprung, to secede from the communion of the church of Scotland, with the present state of ecclesiastical matters in this country, will, we have no doubt, lead them to such a conclusion. For let them candidly and carefully peruse the account which ecclesiastical history gives of the transactions of those times, when the associate body first withdrew from the parent church, and they will, we are certain, readily acknowledge, that political interference, and the harsh and inju dicious proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts, were the causes which first produced the secession in Scotland. Had patronage been removed, therefore, and the General Assembly of Scotland opened their arms to receive the ejected* ministers, with the same Christian benevolence and friendship with which the General Assembly, in America, have opened their bosom to their associate reformed brethren, we have every reason to suppose that they would have returned cheerfully to the communion of that church, from which, at the time when they did dissent, they considered that they had good reason to withdraw. This, therefore, being our candid opinion, we cannot help rejoicing that the major part of our Associate Reformed brethren do seem to think it to be their duty to act the part which we conceive their pious and worthy ancestors would, in similar circumstances, have done. We have every reason to conclude, consequently, from the liberality manifested by the most respectable and intelligent of the Associate Reformed Synod, that, as the proposal for a complete union was quite unanimous on the part of the General Assembly, so it will be received nearly, if not altogether, with the same dispositions by the presbyteries of the Associate Reformed Church; whose approbation, now, is all that is necessary to consummate a union, which we cannot help thinking will be conducive to the advantage and comfort of the Christian church, and beneficial, consequently, in promoting, in this country, the interests of true and undefiled religion. We would most earnestly pray, therefore, that the spirit of grace and of wisdom may be poured out upon all * Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, and other ministers who were deposed from their charges in consequence of the bold and decided testimony which they bore against the law of patronage, and other evils which existed in the church of Scotland, in consequence of the exercise of that law. courts of deliberation, connected with the church of the living God, and upon all other Christian associations, that pastors and people of all denominations, every where, may be brought more and more to see eye to eye, and be incited to unite more and more closely in constant and unremitting exertions to promote the advancement and establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world. T. G. M.I. Reviews. The Fathers of New England. A Sermon delivered in the Church in Essex street, Boston, Dec. 22, 1820; being the second Centennial Celebration of the Landing of the Fathers at Plymouth. By the Rev. Thomas Sabine, Pastor of that Church. Boston, 1821-32 pp. 8vo. This sermon compares the fathers of New England to those persons "of whom" the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says, "the world was not worthy." "They were, for the most part, plain men of country life, men that had been habituated to cultivate the soil of their native land," and were possessed of considerable worldly estate. They held to the form of doctrine now denominated Calvinism; which was then, and has ever since been, the doctrine of the public formularies of the Church of England, of which they were members; but they were opposed to many of the ceremonies established by law, because they deemed them remnants of antichristian popery, and thought "that the church of Christ had instituted a discipline abundantly more spiritual than was preserved in the Church of England. All persons in the nation, embracing these sentiments, were denominated Puritans." About the necessity of purity of heart and life, in church and state, they were all agreed, but they differed in their 66 In a space of eighty years, New England had so progressed, as to be divided into several distinct chartered colonies, and so settled and peopled were these locations, that county or shire districts were found to be necessary, in order to give the increasing towns a bond of union, and an efficient jurisprudence. There were, at this time, about 126 towns, which contained about the same number of parishes, and with but very few exceptions, settled with ministers." This is indeed unparalleled in any other country than our own; but within the last few years states in the south and west seem to have multiplied as ra England: but alas! our new states have fewer well educated ministers of the gospel than these original districts of the north and east." views of church government; so that some Puritans were Episcopalians, some Presbyterians, and some finally Congregationalists. "Many of the Puritans were of high rank in the schools of learning and divinity; as preachers and pastors they were well received by the people; but they were persecuted by the court, and by courtly clergymen." A congregation of these people, early in the 17th century, removed to Holland, then " the only country in Europe where freedom of religious worship was granted," and settled at Leyden, in which place their number of communicants amounted at one time to 300. Holland this congregation of Chris-pidly as these counties did in New tians might have continued, and for a time have flourished; but the more discerning men among them saw that a long continuance there would finally amalgamate them and their posterity with the Dutch, and thus their church-state and character be lost." A part of the congregation, with Mr. William Brewster, a ruling elder, for their spiritual leader in the absence of a pastor, removed to New England; with a design to prepare the way for the coming of the Rev. John Robinson, and the majority of the church, which they left in Leyden. "Though the Plymouth Pilgrim Church had no pastor residing with them, yet the absence of that officer was in some measure supplied by the able and well executed services of their ruling elder, William Brewster. He was apt to teach, but never could be prevailed on to assume the pastoral office. There is the copy of a sermon now extant, with a preface dated December 12, 1621, preached in Plymouth, and printed in England the year following. This is probably the first sermon ever printed from a New England pulpit: and equally clear, I think, that it was the work of elder Brewster, though he conceals his name." "Before the conclusion of the century, in which the fathers came out, VOL. I. Religion alone, independent of every thing beside itself," was the occasion of the first settlement of New England. So said the public records of the pilgrims, their private letters, and the whole course of their actions. So taught Increase Mather, "at the expiration of New England's first century," when in the 83d year of his life, and 66th of his ministry, he lamented that "too many are given to change, and leave the order of the gospel, which was the very design of these colonies. The grand interest of New England is changed from a religious to a worldly object." All national relations ought to be considered as subordinate to moral concerns; and nations, no less than individuals, ought to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. But where is the nation, at present, which in its national capacity has any conscience, or any true religion? Our author concludes his pleasing and spirited discourse, by saying, "In a few years, a nation's glory and greatness will not be calculated upon the number of her armies, or the force of her navy; upon her mercantile strength and 2 Z influence, her civil and scientific renown; but upon the sum of righteousness in the land, upon the number and purity of her churches, and faithfulness of her ministers, upon the influence of her moral institutions, and upon the interest which she takes in the conversion of the world. New England, again survey thy charter. Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works." We subscribe, with many tender regards for the Scotland of America, a devout AMEN. E. S. E. Remarks on the Internal Evidence for the Truth of Revealed Religion by T. Erskine, of Edinburgh. Philadelphia, published by A. Finley, 1821. pp. 149. 18mo. price 50 cents. for This little volume is said to be the production of a gentleman recently converted from infidelity. It is wholly a philosophical work, on a subject which every man of good common sense may clearly understand. We do not assert that every part of this production will be readily apprehended, and assented to, by the great mass of readers; it is in some places obscure; in others inaccurate in phraseology; and not sufficiently full on the points of discussion; but every man may know, that we judge some propositions to be true, from an internal "evidence altogether independent of our confidence in the veracity of the narrator;" that we may believe in the being of a God, and have some fixed notions of his moral character, and of some of the component parts of a reasonable religion, while we do not assent to the authenticity of Christianity; that we may be convinced "that there is an intelligible and necessary connexion between the doctrinal facts of revelation and the character of God," of which we have before conceived, "in the same way as that there is an intelligible and necessary connexion between the character of a man and his most characteristic actions ;" and, "that the belief of these doctrinal facts has an intelligible and necessary tendency to produce the Christian character, in the same way that the belief of danger has an intelligible and necessary tendency to promote fear." p. 18. From a discovery, that the Bible ascribes to God just such sentiments and actions as we have before judged to be suitable to the character of the supreme moral Governor of the universe, and from a conviction of the moral tendency of the belief of the doctrinal facts of revelation, we may be brought to a conviction of the authenticity and divine authority of the Bible. This conviction will arise from what our author calls the internal evidence of the truth of the Christian religion. That such an internal evidence exists, and may be seen by any intelligent person who will duly attend to the subject, is clearly exhibited in the Remarks before us. The of this work pages are interspersed with many bright thoughts; and the tendency of the whole, notwithstanding some exceptionable representations, we judge will be highly beneficial. tify them through thy truth; thy word is truth;" or, 'they that KNOW thy name will put their trust in thee," might have been selected as the text for this discourse. "Sanc Any system of religion which would secure the approbation of a rational being, must coincide, remarks Mr. Erskine, 1st, "with the moral constitution of the human mind;" 2dly, "with the physical constitution of the human mind ;" and 3dly, "with the circumstances in which man is found in this world." He justly adds, "that a religion in which these three conditions meet, rests upon the most indisputable axioms of the science of human nature. All these conditions can be proved to meet in the religion of the Bible; and the wide divergence from them which is so palpable in all other religious systems, philosophical as well as popular, which have come to our knowledge, is a very strong argument for the divine inspiration of the Bible." p. 21. From these points we cheerfully start with our author, and arrive at the same conclusions with himself, even while we discard the doctrine, that man has a system of natural religion, which has arisen independently of divine revelations. The human family has never been wholly destitute of the influence of the revelations which God has made to the first man, and to several of the pious patriarchs of antiquity. Still, many who have formed some scheme of religion for themselves, have always been destitute of the written revelations of the divine will. This doctrinal scheme will partake in a greater or less degree of rationality and truth, according to the knowledge of the theorist, and the natural operations of his judgment and conscience. If he has heard of the being of a Supreme First Cause of all things, by tradition from any revelation which God has made, he will at once believe it, from the very constitution of his mind, which is always subject to several moral and physical laws of operation. In like manner, having obtained, indirectly from some of the revelations of God to mankind, some other religious notions, they may be deemed rational, they may be systematized by the mind; and the whole may be called a system of natural religion. Such a system is often formed from the constitutional operations of our minds upon subjects of contemplation originally presented by divine revelation; and if this is what our author and others mean by natural religion, we have no disagreement with them. To such a natural religion as this, the whole system of the written revelation will be found to be consonant; and in this sense we can say, "that there is an intelligible and necessary connexion between the doctrinal facts of revelation and the character of God (as deduced from natural religion);" (p. 17,) and that the facts of Christianity "are nothing more than the abstract principles of natural religion, embodied in perspicuity and efficiency; and that these facts not only give a lively representation of the perfect character of God, but also contain in themselves the strength of the most irresistible moral arguments that one man could address to another on any human interests." p. 24. To give a specimen of the work, and improve our readers by some happy illustrations of the truth, we shall conclude with this charming extract: "The materials of the Christian system lie thick about us: They consist in the feelings of our own hearts, in the history of ourselves and of our species, and in the intimations which we have of God from his works and ways, and the judgments and anticipations of conscience. We feel that we are not unconcerned spectators of these things. We are sure, that if there be a principle which can explain and connect them all together, it must be a most important one for us; it must determine our everlasting destiny. It is evident that this master-principle can exist nowhere but in the character of God. He is the universal Ruler, and he rules according to the principles of his own character. The Christian system accordingly consists in a development of the divine character; and as the object of this development is a practical and moral one, it does not linger long to gratify a speculative curiosity, but hastes forward to answer that most interesting of all inquiries, What is the road to permanent happiness? This question holds the same rank in moral questions, and enters as deeply into the mystery of God's spiritual government, as the corresponding question, What law regu lates and retains a planet in its orbit?" does in the natural world. "If a planet had a soul and a power of choice, and if, by wandering from its bright path, it incurred the same perplexities and difficulties and dangers that man does when he strays from God,-and if the laws which directed its motions were ad. dressed to its mind, and not, as impulses, on its material substance, its inquiry, after it had left its course, would also be, |