be a true disciple of the Redeemer. It is peculiarly incumbent upon us to maintain the character bequeathed to us, by resisting every kind and degree of unscriptural encroachment amongst Presbyterians; by evincing our determined abhorrrence of all religious persecution; by a generous sympathy towards those of our brethren who may suffer under this unchristian yoke; and by keeping amongst ourselves the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace."-Pp 21, 22.

"The chief source of the abuse of ordination," says Mr. A., "has sprung from the notion, that by laying on of hands is conveyed some spiritual gift, property, or endowment,―a notion totally unwarranted by any scriptural authority. Even in the apostolical age, when the extraordinary influence of the Holy Spirit was imparted to chosen converts, though this divine gift was sometimes bestowed at the time of the laying on of the hands of inspired men, yet it no where appears to have been the consequence of that action: on the contrary, the gift of the Holy Spirit appears to have been generally bestowed antecedently to ordination; and the laying on of hands was merely the customary form of witnessing the appointment to a special office in the church, and of blessing the person so appointed."-P. 17.

The assertion in this passage has somewhat surprised us, recollecting what is said of the apostles, (Acts viii. 17, 18,)" Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit; and when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given," &c. Again, 2 Tim. i. 6, "Stir up the gift that is in thee through the putting on of my hands." A text on which great stress appears to be laid is 1 Tim. iv. 14, "Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery." But as this is the only place where the laying on of any other hands than those of the apostles appears to be represented as the instrumental cause of conferring spiritual gifts, there seems good reason for adopting the construction of which the words will admit, (inclosing μETA ETEEN TWY XEpay in a parenthesis,) Neglect not the gift that is in thee through the previous recommendation of the presbytery, with the laying on of hands; i. e. of my hands. Vide Mr. Belsham's note on the passage. Our objection, therefore, to this practice is, that since in the New Testament it does appear to have been the occasion or instrument of communicating spiritual gifts, it is naturally associated in the minds of Christians in general with the assumption of some such authority in those who now use it; it is not required, it cannot answer any imaginable purpose, and is extremely liable to be misunderstood.

enter.

Having expressed on the part of the Presbyterian Synod of Munster their concurrence in the proceedings of the congregation, which he says they have "sustained as regular," he then calls on Mr. Martineau to declare his views in undertaking the important office on which he was about to Mr. Martineau's reply gives a distinct and judicious account of his sentiments on the natural and moral perfections of Jehovah, the only scriptural object of worship, -on the office and message of Jesus Christ, the chosen representative of the Most High,— -on the consequent duties of the Christian minister to awaken devotion to God, obedient faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the practical expectation of eternity. He proceeds to express his sense of the necessity of human learning, and consequently of diligent study and research on the part of the Christian minister in order duly to understand the Sacred Volume, and the duty imposed on him to impart to his people, and more especially to the young, the knowledge he may acquire, and the conclusions to which his investigations conduct him. The

following is the statement of his views on the second of these important topics:

"I believe, that of the will, the purposes, perhaps even the existence of Jehovah, we should have remained in ignorance, had he not revealed himself, partially by patriarchs and prophets of old, and more gloriously by Jesus Christ, his well-beloved Son. Him I acknowledge as the Mediator between God and man, who was appointed to produce by his life, and yet more peculiarly by his death, an unprecedented change in the spiritual condition of mankind, and to open a new and living way of salvation. No pledge of Divine love to the human race impresses me so deeply, as the voluntary death of Jesus Christ, and his exaltation to that position which he now holds above all other created beings, where he lives for evermore, and from which he shall hereafter judge the world in righteousness. I receive and reverence him, not merely for that sinless excellence, which renders him a perfect pattern to our race; but as the commissioned delegate of heaven, on whom the Spirit was poured without measure-as the chosen representative of the Most High, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. As authorities for our duties, as fountains of consoling and elevating truth, Jesus and the Father are one; and, in all subjects of religious faith and obedience, not to honour him as we honour the Father, is to violate our allegiance to him as the great Captain of our salvation. When Jesus commands, I would listen as to a voice from heaven when he instructs, I would treasure up his teachings as the words of everlasting truth: when he forewarns of evil, I would take heed and fly as from impending ruin: when he comforts, I would lay my heart to rest as on the proffered mercy of God: when he promises, I would trust to his assurances as to an oracle of destiny.

"Hence, I regard it as my duty to lead my hearers to this Saviour, as the way, the truth, and the life; to urge on them his injunctions; to awaken in them a vital faith in his mission, an awe of his authority, a reliance on his predictions."-P. 27.

A consultation having taken place among the ministers, after which an unanimous approbation of Mr. Martineau's sentiments was announced, (by the way, we should be glad to be informed what would have been the consequence in the conceivable case of the statement not proving satisfactory,) Mr. Taylor offered up the ordination prayer, in the course of which the ceremony of the imposition of hands took place, and at its close the right hand of fellowship was presented to Mr. Martineau by each of the other ministers present, and by a lay representative of the congregation.

The service is concluded by a charge to the young minister and to the congregation, from Dr. Drummond, which is alike admirable for beauty of sentiment and elegance of language, for judicious advice and impressive exhortation, for just views of the Christian doctrine and character, expressed with honest and manly sincerity. Where all is excellent, it is difficult to make a selection; but we extract with pleasure the following forcible and eloquent reflections on the history of the church, the study of which he recommends to the Christian minister :

"Nor is the history of the Christian Church to be less carefully studied. You will contemplate it in its primitive purity and simplicity, when the disciples were known by their mutual love, and their state of society upon earth seemed no faint similitude to that of blessed spirits in heaven. You will then consider how it fell from its happy state, and lost the beautiful image in which it was created; how corruption gradually creeping in, tarnished its lustre, and added the inventions of men to the oracles of God; and how that desire of domination, which our blessed Lord reprehended in the disciples,

12

when they strove with each other who should be greatest, at last acquired the ascendancy. The human mind, instead of making progress towards moral and intellectual perfection, became rapidly retrograde, lost sight even of the most luminous principles of true religion, and floundered and fell in the swamp of metaphysical divinity. Ignorant and wicked ecclesiastics, in the temper of him who asked the Saviour to turn stones into bread, endeavoured to amalgamate large portions of the dross of heathen fiction with the refined gold of gospel truth. The Platonic doctrine of the Trinity supplanted the first principle of all religion-that there is one God, and none beside him; and thence sprang an innumerable host of other hideously false doctrines, which have continued to impede the progress of Christianity, and weaken its influence on the lives and conduct of mankind. The spirit of Athanasius leaguing with the kingdoms of this world, prevailed against the spirit of Christ; and all the demoniacal passions which the gospel condemns, were marshalled to support the unholy alliance. The imperial sceptre was more honoured than the cross. The right to decide on all religious questions was confined to a privileged few. The book of God, the great charter of men's spiritual freedom, was closed as by an hermetical seal, and woe to the rash hand that should presume to break it open! The reign of superstition was at length established; and she spread over the world a night of darkness worse than Egyptian, insalubrious and palpable, and peopled with all the terrific spectres which ignorance and fanaticism engender. The minds of men were cramped and brutalized: they crouched and trembled beneath the rod of the ghostly tyrants who pretended to hold the keys of heaven, and to legislate in the dominions of hell. Much did they suffer, and much did they deserve to suffer, for their folly and pusillanimity. But there are limits to the endurance even of slaves. When the burden becomes too heavy it will be cast down: the chain, when drawn beyond its power of cohesion, will snap asunder. After a long and dreary night, the spirit of the Reformation awoke-arose-and stepped forth as a giant refreshed' by slumber; burst the fetters of Papal tyranny, and shook Antichrist upon his throne. The sorcerer's spell was dissolved-the hearts of men were cheered-they assumed courage to open the sacred volume-a flood of light was poured around them and before them, to guide them in the quest of evangelic truth. They went far, but stopped short too soon in their high and holy career. They left their work incomplete: it remained for posterity to bring it to perfection.

"Hence you learn the necessity of always recurring to first principlesnot to be drinking of the muddy streams which have oozed through the impure conduits of priesteraft and bigotry; but of ascending to the fountain head, where the waters of salvation flow pure and transparent. You will take the volume of inspiration itself as the only infallible criterion of faith and practice; and rejecting all the inventions of men, their traditions, their articles, creeds, and confessions of faith, as shackles to the mind, and burdens to the conscience-as vestiges of the superstition, ignorance, folly, and ecclesiastical tyranny of the dark ages, the supports of Antichrist and the masks of hypocrisy,-pursue your investigations with a single eye to the attainment of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, unshackled and unbiassed, as one who knows and values the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free." -Pp. 37, 38.

In a long and valuable appendix by Mr. Armstrong, we are presented with a history of the Presbyterian congregations of Dublin, which will be perused with much satisfaction, not only on the spot, but by all both in England and Ireland, to whom either the history of Protestant dissent or the memory of departed eminence and worth, are objects of interest. And they will not fail to be deeply impressed, as we have been, with the series of

justly venerated names which adorn this catalogue. With the characters of Charnock, Williams, Boyse, Emlyn, Abernethy, Duchal, Maclaine, and Leland, every Dissenter who knows any thing of the history of his fathers must be familiar. They will stand a comparison with the worthies of any church in Christendom for learning, piety, zeal, conscientious integrity, and, in more instances than one, for the constancy with which they witnessed a good confession in days of persecution. Those days, we rejoice to believe, are long gone by; but their successors may derive benefit from contemplating their example in the discharge of more pleasing and probably less arduous and difficult duties. There are other names less known to fame, but which, for ministerial usefulness and private worth, are, we doubt not, with good reason chronicled as deserving to be held in grateful remembrance by the descendants of those among whom they long and honourably laboured. When to these we add the eminent persons who are now occupying their stations in these churches, and who, we trust, are yet destined by many important services to increase their claims on our regard, we see enough to excite the emulation of a young aspirant after similar excellence. May his name, already associated with the religious history of former times, reminding us of a "sad and sanguine" period when many eminent confessors endured the utmost extremities of persecution, and since deservedly respected in our congregations, be henceforth held in additional honour as borne by a pious, active, and successful minister of Christ!

W. T.

LINES

ON THE DEATH OF MR. DANIEL HUTTON, WHO DEPARTED THIS life, APRIL 2, 1829, IN THE 71ST YEAR OF HIS AGE, AT TALLY MOUNT, NEAR RANELAGH, DUBLIN.

[The gentleman whom the following lines commemorate, was a warm and sincere friend to civil and religious liberty from his earliest days; and his latter end was cheered by the bright prospects opening on this country by the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill. He was also a steady Unitarian from the firmest conviction, and by his extraordinary patience under a long and gradual decline, and his most peaceful death, he shewed the natural fruits of such a faith upon the human mind.]

AND this was Death! He closed his eyes,

And gently fell asleep;

As a cloud, that has travell'd through summer skies,
Sinks in the twilight deep,

When its waves have given up the last warm streak,
Where Evening pillowed her fading cheek,
And the myriad stars are assembling all,
In the Firmament's solemn, breathless hall.

Blameless and bland, as that cloud's, had been
His path through the day of life;

And on its horizon his heart could lean
Without any gloom or strife.

He knew he was bidding this land farewell,
But, like it, he smiled till the curtain fell;
And then it was only the bursting forth

Of the stars, we see not, who walk this earth.

To the last his look beamed kind on all,
When he raised its fading light;
And some stood there, who could yet recall,
How it gladdened their earliest sight:

For he ever loved the fetterless glee
Of childhood to ring around his knee;
His gentle hand, his smile it knew,
And to lisp its loving welcome flew.

But this is past! All past!

Empty and silent now,

His place,

Will bring a sadness o'er the face,

A shadow o'er the brow.

But who would weep, when they think of breath
Thus peacefully passing forth to death,
Like green from the leaves of the aged tree,
When it drops at last unmurmuringly?

Death! Death! whose footsteps are so still
That few can catch their sound,

Till thy hand has grasped the heart's warm thrill,
Weighing it to the ground:

On us, on those we love, on all

Let but thy night of silence fall

As softly! and our souls no more

Need shrink to plunge from Life's steep shore
Into the never fathomed sea

Of Mercy and Eternity.

A. T. E.

NATURAL HISTORY OF ENTHUSIASM.*

IT is a great encouragement and satisfaction to those who think deeply and feel seriously to find, that so far from its being true that "there is nothing new under the sun," it is proved, occasionally, by external evidence as well as by their own consciousness, that vast regions of thought remain yet unexplored, and that few themes of speculation are yet exhausted. On subjects of greater importance than those of science, on subjects which regard the highest interests of the human race, it is generally agreed that though too much cannot be said, it is in vain to expect to say any thing new; and, indeed, all that can reasonably be required from those who teach

Natural History of Enthusiasm. 8vo. pp. 311. London: Holdsworth and Ball.