according to the Presbiteriall way, or renounce theire former ordination, or are ordaynd by non-officers. "31. An account to bee required of, and given by, the delegate unto this synode of the state of the severall Classis, how manie Congregationall Eldershippes are in each Classis, how theire Classicall Meetings are observed, both for tyme and number. And the severall Classis are required to take an account of, at the Congregationall Eldershippes in theire lymitts, how theire Meeteings are observed, whether the congregations have the Lord's Supper constantly, and how the government is put in execution; and whether the monetly [monthly] fasts bee constantly observed. "32. Ordinary omission of duties of religion, as prayer and such like jointly to bee performed by the familie, is scandalouse in the governoure thereof. "33. The Eldershippes are to take notice of scandalouse gamsters. "34. A voluntarie entertaininge of Papists as servants or Tablers [I am not quite sure that the last word is rightly deciphered] is scandalouse. 35. The Ruleing Elders in a congregation may acte in a Classis without a Minister of the same congregation. "36. A Minister comeinge to a Classis for approbation, beinge of evil report, is not to bee approved of by them, until he bee cleared thereof before them. "37. If a minister give way to one to preach in his place that hath been to his knowledge denyed approbation by that Classis, he shall bee the first time admonished by the Classis. "38. If a person sent for to give testimonie to a cause dependinge before an Eldershippe, and appeareinge refuseth to take oath, or make answeare to the examination, hee is to bee admonished by them, and persistinge, to bee further censured. "39. Sittinge and drinkinge unnecessarilie in an alehouse or taverne on the Lord's-Day shall be censurable. "40. An exhortation to the severall Churches in this Province made and published by this Synod is ordered to be published in everie Eldershippe and Congregation in this Province. 41. If any difference bee in a congregation about Ticketts given to communicants, if the Eldershippe cannot end it, they are to have recourse to the Classis, and if they determine it not, to the Provinciall Assemblie. "42. A Committee is appointed to consult and resolve such difficulties as may occurre, and concerne our publicke acteinge in our offices, which shall meete the 20th of February, and this Committee shall at theire partinge appointe a new Meetinge, for which each Classis shall appointe a Minister and an Elder, and after this manner continue Meeteings from tyme to tyme, while there shall be occasion. "43. This Synod concludinge, appointeth the next Provinciall Assemblie to bee the next Tuesday in May next, at Preston Church, and the second Classe is to appoint who shall preach at the openinge thereof. "EDWARD GEE, "Scribe." "The 31st Meetinge at Manchester, April 10th, 1649, "4. The Sermon heereafter for the Classis, is to begin at tenn a clock, and to continue till eleven, and notice thereof to be given to the Minister that is to preach to observe the order. "5. George Peake of Carrington, in Cheshire, aged about 54 years deposed, saith, that his daughter Elizabeth was married to Richard Smith of Flixton, about September, 1648, without his consent; and that shee tould him shee was married in the night tyme, by Mr. Birch, scholemaster at Prestwich. "8. Mr. Warden and Mr. Angier to speake to the Elders electe for Salford, to move them to stand to theire election. "12. Delegates for the Provinciall Meetinge at Preston the first of May "2. Mr. Dury returned in his si quis, or instrument, with a certificate subscribed by several of the inhabitants of Gorton, testificinge that the instrument hath beene published in the Church of Gorton, and afterwards affixt on the church doore accordinge to order. And nothinge at all obiected against his proceedinge to ordination. "3. Whereas the Churchwardens of the parish of Prestwich did in the name of manie of the Parishioners aforesaid, expresse theire willingnes to have Mr. Isaac Allen for theire Pastor; and whereas another partie of the said inhabitants of Prestwich appeared against the said Mr. Isaac Allen for his non-officiateinge at Prestwich aforesaid, It is ordered, that those that doe appeare in the behalfe of Mr. Allen, they give in their names in writinge, the next Classe at Manchester. And also ordered, that nothing bee done against Mr. Allen, untill such tyme as the parties appeareinge for him come in to make out what they can on theire be halfe. "4. Mr. Birch, Scholemaster at Prestwich, havinge been formerly admonished for makeinge clandestine marriages and private baptizeinge of children, and hath notwithstandinge, since his admonition, offended herein contrarie to the directorie. It is ordered that the said Mr. Birch, bee from henceforth inhibited from the exercise of all Ministeriall offices within the bounds of this Classe of Manchester. And it is ordered that this Inhibition bee published in the congregation of Prestwich. 6. Warrants to be sent to Mr. Jones, Mr. Woolmer, Mr. Benson, and Mr. Clayton, to shew cause wherefore they doe not frequent Classicall Meetings as formerly. 9. A new summon to bee sent to the Elders of Ouldham to come in the next your last communication, for which I feel myself at present altogether unequal, I design to give you a sketch of my history, which will include my apology, and, at the same time, if such is the will of Providence, it may also prove to be "the last speech, confession and dying words" of your friend. For many years I have been much subject to a stomach and bowel complaint, which, though not so severe as to preclude me from performing the duties of my situation, has scarcely left me a week of uninterrupted good health. You may easily conceive that this radical defect in my constitution for such from early recollections I am convinced is its real character has not been removed by the process of time; on the contrary, every year has rather increased it; and though the use of inedicine, to which I am obliged daily to have recourse, has enabled me to enjoy a good deal of happiness in literary pursuits, and in the society of my friends and family, yet still, upon the whole, I have been making it worse. In consequence of this, immediately after I received your last letter, a young gentleman in Edin Letters from the late Rev. J. Nicol. burgh, who has long been a particular LETTER II. Traquair Manse, May 5, 1819. MY DEAR SIR, Y gre YOU are by no means to suppose for such I fear it will prove, any equivalent for your friendly letter which I received some months ago. When I tell you that I am writing this in bed, propped upon my elbow, you will believe me, when I assure you, that the sole design of my writing, at this time, is to inform you that I am still in the land of the living;" that though I have long been silent, yet my heart is not dead to friendship; and that though I may seem to have forgot the friends of truth and of religion, yet I have never ceased to rejoice in their joy; and the very love of the dearest interests of religion has given you the grounds of suspecting my attachment, which I fear may have taken place. Instead, therefore, of entering into any disquisition on the interesting topics of friend of mine, and is one of my heritors, insisted that I would come to town for medical advice, offered me every accommodation in his father's family during my stay, and, with his wonted generosity, sent out his father's polis. I need not say that I accepted his kind invitation; that I carried your letter to Edinburgh in order to answer it during my abode there; and that, as my other studies were to be broken off for two weeks at least, I sincerely resolved to pay all my literary debts, and yours among the rest. But what is man! Notwithstanding all my virtuous resolutions, matters turned out in Edinburgh very differently from what I expected. Uneasy, and even sick with medicine, unable almost to command a single hour from the attention and solicitude of my friends, and hoping that every succeeding day would prove more propitious to thought than the present, the whole two weeks that I remained in Edinburgh, passed away without my ever putting pen to paper, and I returned home improved in my health, but quite dissatisfied with the manner in which my time was allowed to slip away. All this may do very well; but how has the long interval been filled up from your return to the present day? To shew this, I must go backwards a little. I have been busily employed for several years in elucidating some of the peculiar doctrines of revelation; and in giving a view of them, which appeared to me not only entirely new, but, as far as I can judge, much more rational, and, I must add, much more scriptural than any with which I am acquainted. I was engaged with Original Sin at the time when Wardlaw's" Unitarianism Incapable," &c., fell into my hands. I must state that the doctrine of the Trinity was not included in the plan which I had chalked out for myself. My reason for leaving it out was, not because I did not deem it of the very first importance, but because I despaired of throwing any new light upon the subject, and because the other doctrines which I fondly persuaded myself I could exhibit in a light that would make them perfectly irresistible, would, in all probability, occupy all that remained of a life not very good at the best, and certainly at that particular period rather precarious. But in reading over Wardlaw, I could not help observing, that all that had been done in defence of the primary principles of all religion, whether natural or revealed, was so very far from silencing the orthodox, that they only seemed to gather fresh courage from every attack made upon them; and, half in jest and half in earnest, I began to fill the margin of his volume with notes as I went along, which might serve as memoranda, if ever I should think of turning my attention to that subject. As the margin soon was crowded, I had recourse to separate slips of paper, and many of my notes I wrote more fully out afterwards at by-hours, if you will excuse the expression. At the period of my return from Edinburgh, therefore, I had a large mass of observations, of explanations of texts and of expositions of sophisms which were employed by the orthodox, all lying by me. I need not add, that in the course of composition, many argu ments for the Unity of God, which I had not met with, many new elucidations of texts, which are generally brought forward by both parties, occurred to me; and even upon this subject I began to flatter myself that I might do something for the interests of religion. My papers, however, though valuable to myself, I well knew, could be of no value to any other person, from the detached manner in which they were written; and as I had then completed Original Sin, I set to the copying and extending and forming into a whole the insulated materials I had by me, and in a short time I got so immersed in the investigation, that I lost sight of every thing else; and wishing, with the greatest enthusiasm, to add one labour more to what I had done, I brought on myself a return of my former complaint, which my journey to Edinburgh had a little mitigated; and as I have not been able for many years to sit at my desk when writing, from a pain at my breast, I was under the necessity of standing; and the constant standing about three weeks ago brought on a swelling and inflammation in both my limbs, which has confined me to bed, and put a stop to all my operations. I am, however, getting fast_better; any degree of fever which I had is gone, and I hope in a few days to resume, with more caution, my labours. This, then, is the real state of the matter. I could not think of writing to you without entering at some length into the subject of yours. I could not do that without spending a day or two upon it; and a day or two, in the way in which I felt my mind, seemed an age, as it might probably hinder me from finishing my Essay; for the state of my health is far from being good; and I hoped, by telling you the truth, and shewing you the effects of my silence, to obtain your forgiveness. I have now, however, been brought to a sense of my duty; I have made a confession of what I otherwise would, perhaps, not have done, and I wait with some hope of your pardon *****. You must write me soon, notwithstanding my delinquency. I will prove a better child for the time to come. Send me all the news, not about trade and manufactures, but about something else, which is of infinitely more importance, the success of truth and true religion. Am I never to see you? I must conclude, then, by assuring you that I am, My dear Sir, Yours most sincerely, stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as she was delivered. Vers. 3, 4. From the explanation in Daniel of the fourth beast, and in the seventeenth chapter of this book, of the beast with seven "heads and ten horns, it is certain that the dragon is intended to typify the civil power of the Roman empire in its original state of Pagan idolatry." This dragon stood before the woman who brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up to God and his throne. This is universally understood to refer to the conversion of Constantine to the Christian faith, NOW proceed to consider the account we have of Michael in the New Testament: this is contained in only two places, Jude 9, and Revelation xii. 7. We have already seen that Michael (as described by Daniel) who, by the Divine providence, was is a great temporal prince. "In the elevated to the imperial throne, and vision of the above chapter of the ordained to govern with despotic powRevelation, a prophetic view is given er all the nations comprised within of the state of the Christian Church the limits of the Roman empire." In both before and after her apostacy consequence of his conversion, Chrisfrom the religion of the New Cove- tianity was raised to imperial dignity, nant promulgated by Jesus and his and an alliance was formed between apostles." There appeared a great the Church and the State, which alliwonder (sign, as it should be rendered, ance led to the degradation and corand as it is in the margin of the Bible) ruption of the pure religion of the in heaven; a woman clothed with the gospel into the vilest superstition and sun, and the moon under her feet, and idolatry. The woman, we are told, upon her head a crown of twelve fled into the wilderness, where she stars. Here, under the type of a hath a place prepared of God, that woman, the church is emblematically they should feed her there a thousand, described as representing "the state two hundred and three score days, ver. of the church as first instituted by the 6; typifying that state of immorality apostles, invested with the splendour to which she was reduced, as described of that heavenly light which is or- chap. xvii. 3: He carried me away in dained to illuminate the understanding the spirit into the wilderness, and I of all mankind, and which forms a saw a woman sitting upon a scarletmost striking contrast with the dark-coloured beast, the Roman empire, by ness of that unintelligible mystery with which she is described as branded in her forehead in her apostate state, chap. xvii. 5. She wears upon her head a crown of twelve stars, typifying the doctrine of the twelve apostles of Jesus; and tramples the inferior light of the old partial covenant under her feet, to denote her rejection of all carnal ceremonies and the ritual of the observances of times and seasons of which she was supported in all her abominations, full of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And again, ver. 18, The woman which thou suwest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Upon this adoption and avowed protection of the nominally Christian Church by the Emperor Constantine, it was to be expected that the majority of the subjects of the empire, who were habituated to the polytheism and idolatrous ceremonies of their ancestors, would contend in opposition to the counsels of Divine Providence which had ordained * See chap. vii, the approaching abolition of the old Pagan idolatry throughout the Roman empire." Such a contest actually took place; as it follows, "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels." We have seen that the dragon is the Pagan Roman empire, the defender of the old religion of superstition and idolatry; so Michael, the prince, who fought against him and his angels, his ministers and agents, in support of the new religion, can be no other than Constantine. He it was who abolished the Paganism of the empire, destroyed the temples of idolatry, threw down its altars, and established his new religion upon the ruins of the old superstition of the empire, and changed the very form in which it before existed. "The dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Heaven means a state of political power, authority and government; the sun, moon and stars in this heaven, are the higher orders of the state. This idea ought ever to be kept in view in reading the prophecies. The earth means the lower orders of the state, the common people. The old serpent, the Devil and Satan, does not mean a wicked fallen spirit; but the old Roman empire, with its rulers, which under every form of its government was the great accuser and persecutor of the faithful servants of God, and engaged in the support of the reigning polytheism and idolatry. Michael means Constantine, that great temporal prince, who was destined successfully to combat and cast this dragonic power out of the political heaven to the earth, the common people, among whom it continued to prevail till its final extirpation by his successors. This war is said to be in heaven, in the political heaven of the Roman power, not in the literal heavens, the celestial regions, and between its inhabitants. The prophecy is a prediction of events respecting the church; but what concern could the church have in such a war, espe cially if it took place (as is generally supposed) not only before the church had any existence, but even before the foundation of the world? The only remaining passage where Michael is mentioned, is Jude 9, and here he is again represented as having a contest with the Devil. Before we enter on the particular consideration of this passage, we shall proceed, as was proposed, to inquire what we are to understand by the Deril, the other party said to be engaged in this contest. This inquiry has, in some measure, been entered upon in the preceding observations; we shall, however, make some further remarks on this part of the subject. The Greek word, diabolos, here used, literally means the calumniator, accuser, slanderer. It first occurs in the account which we have of our Lord's temptation in the wilderness; but that was merely a visionary scene, as Farmer has attempted to prove, or, as others, a mental temptation. The Devil here, then, is not a real but an imaginary being, and we may observe, that that is the only instance in the New Testament in which he is denominated a tempter. Christians are never said to be tempted by him, or to be liable to his temptations, nor are there any warnings or cautions on that subject. The term is applied to Judas, John vi. 70. It is said, that in the last days, "Men shall (will) be false accusers," Greek, devils. 2 Tim. iii. 3. So of deacons' wives it is said, "that they must be grave, not slanderers," Greek, devils. So also of aged women it is required that “they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers," Greek devils. Titus ii. 3. In 1 Peter v. 8, "Your adversary, the devil,” means the enemies and persecutors of Christians, by whom they were greatly afflicted. This appears evidently from the following words: "Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world." In all those cases where devils are said to be cast out of persons who were possessed by them, the Greek word made use of is uniformly demons, not devils. It is very questionable whether the term devil is ever applied in the Scriptures to an evil spirit, such as the Devil is |