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suspended for some time by other embarrassments. These things, it is hoped, will furnish a reasonable apology for the delay.

The reader will probably observe that the same thoughts recur in different parts of the work. This was in some measure unavoidable, from the affinity between topics which however required a separate consideration. Nor was there much solicitude to avoid it, as it is of benefit to many in whose minds the general course of reasoning might be confused or enfeebled without the aid of occasional repetitions.

The printed proposals describe Part II. as consisting of "proof from authentick facts, that "sacramental communion, on Catholick princi"ples, is agreeable to the faith and practice of "the church of Christ, from the day of Pentecost "to the present time, with a few local and party "exceptions." That his terms may not be stretched beyond his meaning, the authour thinks it proper to disclaim any construction which may be put upon them inconsistent with his own elucidation in the work itself.

The reader will not attribute to an affectation

of learning, the Latin and Greek quotations which occupy so much of the margin in the second part. Had the authour consulted merely his own wishes, he should have been satisfied with a simple reference to the primitive and reformed writers. But as they are extremely scarce in all parts of our country, and absolutely inaccessible in most, it was thought necessary to subjoin the original, in order that readers who have the ability, might also have the means, of judging whether his representations are correct or not.

He would also guard against a misconception of his language respecting the feelings and habits of religious sects in the United States. It might be supposed that they are all in such a state of mutual hostility as, without exception, to decline each other's communion. Such, however, is not the fact. Within a few years there has been a manifest relaxation of sectarian rigour in several denominations. And the spirit of the Gospel, in the culture of fraternal charity, has gained, upon a respectable scale, a visible and growing ascendancy. This happy alteration may be attributed, in a great degree, to the influence of Missionary and Bible Societies.

Still there is room for complaint, humiliation, and rebuke; and remarks of such a character must be viewed as referring to those among whom the Sectarian continues to lord it over the Christian. May that preposterous inversion come speedily to an end! May the Catholicism of "grace and truth" wax stronger and stronger, till “Ephraim shall not envy Judah," nor "Judah vex Ephraim”—the lust of sect being overcome and banished by the all-subduing love of God our Saviour! Amen!

New-York, April 16, 1816.

INTRODUCTION.

IN August, 1810, a combination of circumstances wholly providential, being unsought and unexpected by all concerned, led the third Associate Reformed Church in the city of NewYork, then recently formed under the ministry of Dr. JOHN M. MASON, to hold their assemblies in the house belonging to the church under the pastoral care of Dr. JOHN B. RoMEVN, a minister of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in North America. As the hours of service were different, the one congregation succeeding the other in the same place on the same day, the first effect of this arrangement was a partial amalgamation of the two societies in the ordinary exercises of public worshipthe next, a mutual esteem growing out of mutual acquaintance with each other, as united in the same precious faith; and, finally, after a very short time, invitations on both sides to join in commemorating, at his own table, the love of

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that Saviour who gave himself for them, an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour. The invitations were as cordially ac

cepted as they were frankly given. The bulk of the members of both churches, as well as some belonging to correlate churches, mingled their affections and their testimony in the holy ordinance. The ministers reciprocated the services of the sacramental day; and the communion, thus established, has been perpetuated with increasing delight and attachment, and has extended itself to ministers and private christians of other churches.

Such an event, it is believed, had never before occurred in the United States. The Presbyterian Church in North America sprang immediately from the established church of Scotland. The Associate Reformed Church, Presbyterian also, was founded in the union of ministers and people from the two branches of the Secession in Scotland, and from the Reformed Presbytery.

When they emigrated to this country, it was not to be expected that the esprit du corps, their characteristic feelings, should perish in the Atlantic. All experience justifies the poet's remark,

Cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt ;

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