lidity of his grounds on other subjects. If he have none better than such as these, he has none that can stand the proof in the evil days that are at hand. Many persons have bewailed him, as having been for a time lost to the Evangelical party, and now hail with triumph the symptoms of his returning to their ranks. Both the sorrow and the joy are misplaced, for to neither party does he give any real strength. The leaders of these parties have been at different times the objects of imitation in Mr. M'Neile; and as he possesses great talents for popularity, he has been able to enunciate in a popular form all that he could gather from the master spirits with whom he was thrown into contact all, probably, that the populace could receive and understand. Vaughan's grand views of the purpose of God, stretching from eternity to eternity, and embracing the whole of time, are beyond the com prehension of the multitude: Way's keen and accurate discrimination of the various intricacies and bearings of prophecy, requires greater polish and exactness than can be found in ordinary minds the whole of the great scheme of truth, which was familiar to these master spirits, a vulgar mind cannot comprehend, but, in attempting to dilate upon its details, is bewildered in its mazes. In the writings against the manifestations we search in vain for any one original idea (unless the σiyarw be one): not one argument has been adduced, we believe, which may not be found in Middleton, Spinoza, Hume, and the older infidels, and has been thence transferred into the Record, or some of the periodical receptacles of indiscriminate abuse. When the case has been furnished by another, Mr. M'Neile can speak eloquently from his brief; but if his evidence break down, or even become embarrassed, he is non-plussed. As long as he followed Mr. Irving he was safe; but when he began to copy the Record, he failed. On Prophecy he had jumped to his conclusions on insufficient grounds, and then sought for arguments to justify his opinion: he has jumped to conclusions on spiritual gifts on equally insufficient grounds, and is now seeking for arguments to justify his present opinion. We say these things with affection and sorrow and may God take as much of them as is the very truth, and apply it to the heart and conscience of the Rev. Hugh M'Neile. Then shall we find him advocating a work, which he has preached as a doctrine, though he denies it as a fact; and what is still better, see him rejoicing in the refreshment which is poured upon the souls of those who have faith to receive God's returning favour to his church. And he will find, that the "more excellent way," so far from superseding the gifts, can only be attained through them, and is for their exercise.

THE ARK OF GOD IN THE TEMPLE OF DAGON.

MR. IRVING and his Church have been ejected from Babylon, and have found a refuge in the jaws of Antichrist. The readers of this Journal will have been long prepared for this event. A preacher who thinks only of the truth of God; who will preach Christ himself, and not doctrines about him; who is only anxious to tell what God has taught him, without any reference to its effect upon man; was sure at some period or other to get far more light than others into his own soul, and exhibit more than the rest would endure.

But if we regarded this occurrence as merely the ejection of a faithful minister from the Church of Scotland, we should not think it necessary to bring it prominently before our readers, a large proportion of whom belong to the Church of England, and most of whom are unacquainted with the peculiar circumstances which give to this occurrence the dignity of a sign of the times, and involve in it the most important consequences to the church universal.

The profoundest thinker of the age has characterised Mr. Irving as as "a mighty wrestler in the cause of spiritual religion and Gospel morality; in whom, more than in any other contemporary, I seem to see the spirit of Luther revived." (Aids to Reflection, p. 373.) And the ejection of this man will, we are persuaded, mark an era of far greater importance than the ejection of Luther from the Papacy. The Reformation properly began before the time of Luther, and he at first would certainly have shrunk from those decisive steps which the course of events at length forced upon him: the setting forth of truth was all he aimed at in his theses and first addresses, with no ulterior object. So has it been with Mr. Irving: he declared his convictions of truth according as God taught it him; and when Babylon had rejected it all, God delivered him and his flock at a single blow. The last truth to which Mr. Irving had been led, and for testifying to which he has been cast out, is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. For this great truth, which is in fact the peculiar doctrine of Christianity, the Reformers left no place: they admitted it as a doctrine, but drew their forms of confession and their rules of worship and discipline too strait for their doctrine. The Westminster divines mistook reverse of wrong for right; and they drew the Westminster Confession so loose as to admit almost every variety of doctrine; and it has been adopted by a variety of sects, who, agreeing in no one doctrine but that of the Trinity, find they can tack on to this confession any form of worship and discipline which pleases them best.

But this seems near its close: God is bringing out his own

doctrines, and making room for them in his church; and those forms and confessions which are too strait to receive them, or too loose to retain them, shall be burst and snapped asunder, like the green withs on the arms of Samson; and Mr. Irving may be the "mighty wrestler" empowered to do the deed. Let any thoughtful member of the Church of England mark the discrepancy between the breadth of the doctrines laid down or implied in her standards, and the narrow and precise forms which exclude their exercise. Her Canons, for instance, prohibit the improper use of prophesyings and exorcisms; but where is the provision now for their lawful exercise? The Homilies declare that the Holy Spirit doth always manifest himself by his fruitful gifts; but who dares admit them into the church? What is true of one church is true of all: not one of them has left place for the exercise of those gifts which were common in the Corinthian and Ephesian and all Apostolic churches. Mr. Irving has been ejected from the Church of Scotland for daring to allow them a place; and God will now clear a way for the reception of all his gifts, to gather and constitute an Apostolic church, to be set upon his holy hill of Zion.

We stand now at a most critical period; at the turning point, in fact, in all the typical histories; at the conclusion of the wilderness wanderings of one class, and the entry into their rest; at the commencement of wilderness persecution and endurance of every kind for another party. The forty years' probation of the church is now expiring, and the church of God is about to enter upon her inheritance: and the man who shall make the world like a wilderness, the Saul who shall hunt David to the wilderness, the impersonation of the dragon who shall persecute the seed of the woman, is about to arise. Preparation for both these states is now begun: the ark is separated from the high place, and the Philistines boast of their victory. But what is the high place without it? Ichabod may be inscribed on its walls; and though the congregations may offer formal worship, as at Gibeah and Shiloh, the name thereof shall be called Bamah (Ezek. xx. 29; Psal. lxxviii. 60; Jer. vii. 12; xxvi. 6).

The ark in the temple of Dagon is the type which explains what is now going on; and considerations like the above, which we can only thus hastily glance at, induce us to attach more than its seeming importance to the ejection of Mr. Irving and his Church, from the Church of Scotland. It is profitable to bring before our minds the circumstances which led to this event, and to mark the way in which God had been preparing Mr. Irving for the important part which he seems designed to take in fulfilling the purpose of God.

When this gentleman first arrived in London, he was deeply infected with the intellectual pride of his countrymen,

and

imagined that by setting forth the truths of Christianity in the forms of the schools, rather than in the forms of the Spirit, he might induce the philosophers and men of science to become Christians. The notion was erroneous, because, although the plan were to be accomplished, yet in that case Christianity would only be received as a science; and although it might furnish food for the mind, the affections and tastes would remain unmoved. In his Orations, and other sermons preached at that period, there are phrases quite as loose and objectionable as any which have occurred in his later works; but they excited little wrath, as they did not arraign the practices of men, nor carry home conviction of error to their consciences; while the church was crowded to suffocation with grandees of all classes, peers and peeresses, lawyers, metaphysicians, philosophers of every grade, and members of literary and scientific societies. During all this outward shew, however, there is no ground to believe that a single soul was effectually turned to God.

Mr. Irving was next brought to discourse on the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, during the preparation of his church for the celebration of that ordinance; and he was led to preach upon the mystery of the Trinity, the impossibility of an incarnation of Deity, without it, and its application to the elements commemorating the risen Saviour, and the wine of the Spirit, and the kingdom. He at that time had no more knowledge of the subject than every well-taught minister usually acquires at college but in watering others he was watered himself: the preciousness of the doctrine was brought with power to his own soul, and symptoms of spiritual life began to be manifested in the midst of his flock; so that a considerable number of intelligent young men applied for admission to the table of the Lord.

About this period of his ministry the Scotch Church in Regent Square was built; and amongst the first subjects to which he directed the attention of his hearers was that of the coming kingdom of the Lord, shewing that the locality of heaven was on this earth. This doctrine excited some clamour amongst the Society people, who had been falsely prophesying that the conversion of the world and the introduction of the Millennium was reducible to a sum in the Rule of Three; and that, if only a given amount of money could be obtained, preachers could be hired, and Bibles and tracts printed, sufficient for the whole work, without the interference of Christ in person at all. Mr. Irving had had the elements of the mechanical arrangement of the Apocalypse explained to him by Mr. Frere, who knew no more of the subject; and an application of the Committee of the Continental Society to preach their anniversary sermon afforded a fit opportunity for Mr. Irving to put forth the light which he had himself just obtained.

On the occasion of another celebration of the Sacrament he was again induced to turn his attention to the meaning of the sacred elements, and the benefits which accrue to the faithful thereby: and the doctrine of the human nature assumed by the Son of God, and his work in that nature, was necessarily treated of. A foolish heretic coming into the church, and hearing something which he did not understand, raised the cry of heresy against Mr. Irving. This was caught at readily by the radical schismatics, who, while they were unable to refute, were mortally offended at, the doctrine of the kingdom of Christ, and the present vicegerency of all earthly kings: and as it was more easy to rail than to argue, and as abuse is a more rapid outlet for ill temper than cool discussion, they have never allowed the din of heresy to be silenced from that time. The next doctrine which was opened up was that of Baptism, in the course of which the right and privilege of the Christian church to possess all the gifts and manifestations of the Holy Ghost with which it was endowed at Pentecost was declared. The last doctrine which he was brought to see, and which is the essence of the Christian life, is the absolute holiness necessary for all who aspire to be the bride of the Lamb: which has been insisted upon, and shewn to be possible, through the indwelling of the person of the Holy Ghost in all his holiness, love, and power. This was not to be borne any longer: doctrines were bad enough; but when it was held and maintained that men might not continue in sin; that the Calvinists could not get to heaven by believing certain propositions about justification and sanctification and election and final perseverance, while they continued in a course of slander, wrath, malice, backbiting, and defamation, it was high time to get rid of such a fellow from the earth; but, fortunately, not having the power YET to do this, they only did all they could, which was to get rid of him out of the kirk.

Time does not allow of our going more at length into the subject: suffice it to say, that the sentence of deposition by the presbytery was passed on Wednesday the 2d of May ;-that the Sacrament had been appointed for the Sunday following: that, consequently, Thursday was the fast, which is always considered part of the ordinance;-that the ordinance was therefore interrupted by the notice being served on Mr. Irving on Thursday evening;-that on Friday morning the elders and deacons assembled, with Mr. Irving, in prayer, that the Lord would direct them to find a place in which the church might still celebrate the sacrament; that they then went out different ways in search, trusting to the Lord to guide their steps in whatever direction He should please ;-that all the chapels of all the professing Christians in London, where they applied, were refused them; that the only place which was offered was the Ball