EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF SYNOD, 1830. "Overtured and unanimously agreed to, That annual addresses to our people, on the great doctrines, privileges, and duties of vital religion, be resumed; and that these addresses be continued from year to year, prepared by Presbyteries in succession." (Signed by order,) JAMES MORGAN, MODERATOR, PASTORAL ADDRESS THE GENERAL SYNOD OF ULSTER, assembled at Coleraine, to the CONGREGATIONS UNDER THEIR CHARGE, address this assurance of tender regard, and of earnest solicitude for their temporal and spiritual well-being;-entreating their attention to the following words of admonition and exhortation, and praying that grace, mercy, and peace, from God, may be with them, and with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. BELOVED BRETHREN, IT is with heartfelt satisfaction we find ourselves at liberty to resume the practice, now for a long time discontinued, of addressing to the people under our care, such words of "doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction, in righteousness,' as our accountable stewardship, and their circumstances may, from time to time, require. The discontinuance of this salutary practice arose chiefly from divisions that had, unhappily, sprang up in our body-divisions produced by the departing of some from the Scriptures, and the original doctrines of our Presbyterian Church; denying that "the word was (truly) God,"‡ "God manifest in the flesh," the true God and eternal life,"§-a point so important in itself, its connexions, and its consequences, that, with those who denied it, we could never unite in common instructions, either with comfort to ourselves, or edification to the people. Through what laxity of discipline these divisions were first introduced, it is unnecessary to inquire; but, upon our determined return to the original principles of our church, derived from that of Scotland, in the purest days of her scriptural reformation, such a separation has taken place as, under the good providence of God, promises a speedy and peaceable restoration to our primitive purity of doctrine, and energy of discipline. * 2 Tim. iii, 16—+ Heb. xiii. 17-‡ John i._1—|| 1 Tim. iii. 16, § 1 John v. 20. In the meantime, we desire to bless Almighty God for the reformation to which we have already attained, and the progress we have already made towards one mind, one language, one faith; for the valuable privilege we have thus recovered of promoting the edification of our people, by pastoral letters; and for the preservation of so large a portion of our people from the contagion of those erroneous doctrines to which they were so long exposed. Yes, brethren, we thank God, that all the contempt and sophistry, which, from various quarters, have been poured out upon the great scriptural principles of the reformation, have not been able to alienate you from them; and that, after a fiery trial, long protracted, the great body of the Presbyterians of Ulster still cleave to the faith that was once delivered to the saints. We rejoice that those great doctrines which your fathers held fast, even unto death-the doctrines of the original sinfulness of human nature-of the supreme Deity of the Lord Jesus Christof justification by faith alone-and of regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Godhead-are still dear to you their children, as the solid foundations of unchangeable truth, to which, we trust, you are determined, by the grace of God, immoveably to adhere. But, beloved brethren, we would earnestly remind you, that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which unites his people to himself, and without which you cannot be saved, does not consist merely in professing an Orthodox creed, nor in assenting to the truth of it. Faith in Christ, as our Shorter Catechism rightly teaches, is "a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the Gospel." Faith is thus shown to be manifested, in relying and resting upon Christ for deliverance from sin, as well as deliverance from hell. He is offered to us in the Gospel as a Prophet, who instructs his people by his word and his spirit; as a Priest, who has atoned for their sins on earth, and is making intercession for them in heaven; as a King, who reigns in their hearts, provides for their wants, and subdues their enemies. Thus, in the exercise of faith, we trust in him to teach us, to pardon us, to sanctify us, to defend us from temptation, to comfort us, and to lead us to those mansions of peace which He is gone to prepare for his people. But they who are not taught and led by Him; who are living in practical ignorance of God, and of eternal things; who are walking in their own ways, and not in the ways of the Lord; who are yielding themselves to temptation, and are not subject to His law; however Orthodox their creed, or plausible their profession, have neither lot nor part in the inheritance which He hath provided; while their knowing and professing the truth serves to aggravate their guilt, and brings upon their souls a heavier and more awful condemnation. See Luke xii. 47. Therefore, brethren, we are constrained to express our apprehension that, while you have adhered with so much unanimity to the profession of faith made by your forefathers, many have not evinced the same anxiety to show forth its practical influence; and we feel ourselves bound to declare, that many have far departed from some of those good practices by which these venerable men were peculiarly distinguished, not only from the world, but from the members of many of the churches around them. We beseech you then to bear with us while, in the spirit of Christian affection, we point out some of those things wherein some have gone aside from the good old way of their fathers; and we entreat you to give to the subject that serious and solemn attention, which its importance so loudly demands. One of the distinguishing features of the early Presbyterian churches was their watchful, scrupulous attention.to the sanctification of the Sabbath. Our forefathers, founding their practice on the word of God, were deeply impressed with the sacredness of that only holy day, recognized in the practice of the New Testament churches. They felt the duty of remembering the Sabbath, as explained by our Lord, to be imperative, and that the commandment admitted of no laxity of interpretation. They were accustomed to tell their children of the judgments of God," inflicted upon those who remembered not the Sabbath day to keep it holy ;* to show them that the habitual violation of the law respecting it, was one of those sins which provoked the Lord to pour forth his vengeance on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; and to impress upon their households the duty of abstaining even from the appearance of encroaching on the hallowed rest of the Lord's day. Their precepts they enforced by example; and they would not leave their own houses, except to go to their places of public worship, or to perform some work of necessity or of mercy: while at home, they employed the day in devotional exercise, and in communicating or receiving religious instruction. .* * Numbers xv. 32-36. But we lament to say, that this careful, conscientious observance of the Sabbath has, to a great extent, been abandoned in the Province of Ulster. We are grieved to learn that Presbyterians, as well as persons of other religious denominations, are to be seen on the Lord's day strolling about the fields and high-ways for amusement, or clustering together at the corners of the streets, and, in some instances, engaged in worldly pursuits; that many of the members of our congregations in the country, or in smaller towns, are seen hastening into dram-shops during the interval of public worship, instead of endeavouring by private meditation, or by godly converse, to fix on their memories and hearts the important truths which have just been delivered to them; that in our large towns the news-rooms are filled, during many hours of the Sabbath, with persons employed, like the idolatrous Athenians, in telling and in hearing some new thing; thus publicly declaring that the Sabbath is their own, and that they regard not the commandment and authority of the great and dreadful God; that many others there are, who are in the habit of entertaining their friends on the Lord's day, or of undertaking journeys for the prosecution of their worldly business, to the destruction of their own souls, and the ensnaring of the souls of others; thus in various ways insulting the glorious majesty of God, by "doing their own ways, and finding their own pleasure, and speaking their own words, instead of counting the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable.” -Isa. lviii. 13. Now, we cannot expect the blessing of God upon our churches or families, so long as such contempt of his authority is harboured amongst us. We beseech you, therefore, brethren, as many as have thus sinned, to repent, and do the first works. The sanctification of the Sabbath is inseparably connected with the welfare and advancement of religion amongst you; and the violation or neglect of this holy day has ever been found to be an inlet to all wickedness. Another of those duties, by the observance of which our forefathers was distinguished, was family worship. The time is, perhaps, scarcely yet past the memory of living individuals, when no head of a family, calling himself a Presbyterian, omitted this duty. Almost as regularly as successive mornings rose upon our fathers, the voice of praise and prayer was heard in their dwellings; and no evening was permitted to close upon them without a repetition of the same sacred and most honourable exercise. Need we tell you how lamentable a disregard of this most |