A CHARGE. REVEREND BRETHREN, To clerical, as to other professional men, their particular vocation suggests abundant matter for Introductory Discourse, even where novelty of connection and other impediments have yet allowed but few opportunities for the happiness of personal acquaintance. The wonders of creation; the fall of man; the promise of a Redeemer; the types of his Sacrifice; the succession of prophecies foretelling his advent; the appearance of our Lord in a human form; the marvellous operations which proved his Divine nature; his atoning death; his glorious resurrection; his implied doctrine of tri-une Godhead; his ascension; the predicted effusion of the Holy Spirit; the gift of tongues; the ordinary graces of the Holy Spirit; the propagation and increase of Christianity:-These are prominent parts in the extended series of revealed religion; and as they are all deeply interesting to us, we might enter at once on either of them as a topic fit for this solemn meeting. Among the articles of faith which distinguish and exalt Christianity, for the commencement of an episcopal address, at a primary visitation, the divinity of our Lord presents itself as a leading and proper subject. It is the doctrine on which, in secret, we daily meditate; the doctrine on which, in public, we earnestly dwell ; the efficacy of atonement and certainty of redemption. Why the Humanitarians are zealous in teaching misconstruction of those scriptural passages, which demonstrate the divine nature and the eternal pre-existence of our Lord, themselves best know. Undeniable, however, it is, that they do labour for that perilous end.* In proportion, therefore, to the assiduity employed by them in support of their cause, it is our province to counteract their designs, principally by inculcating the plain sense of Gospel truths; and partly also, when occasions like the present recur, by showing how much the Humanitarians are mistaken in some of their main positions. They affirm that the doctrine of our Lord's divine nature was not holden by Christians who lived antecedently to that period, when in the fourth century of our Christian æra the Nicene Fathers composed their creed: by which they would be understood to mean, that the doctrine originated in the articles settled by that confession of faith. This assertion is not more correct, than another which is sometimes made; viz. that Christianity became the prevailing religion in the Roman empire, because Constantine the Great embraced and favoured it by the publication of edicts. In each of these cases, the order of things is inverted. If we turn to the writings of Tertullian and Arnobius †, we shall see that before Constantine professed himself a convert, the Christian religion had been adopted by persons of all ranks and descriptions, except the priests, throughout the Roman empire. And on * Particularly their chief writers, Jones, Aspland, Belsham. + See Macknight's "Truth of the Gospel History,” p. 492. 494. 517. And, Seigneux de Correon's notes on Addison's Evidences of the Christian Religion, p. 219. 221, 222., translated by Dr. Purdy. examination of several works, derived from primitive Christians, we are justified in concluding that the Nicene Fathers made our Lord's divinity an article of faith, because that doctrine had long since been maintained, and in succession delivered down to them through all preceding centuries. They did not frame a new article ; they did but recognise and incorporate into their symbol an article already sanctioned by their Christian forefathers. When the Gospel was first preached to the heathen world, it was not an age of barbarous ignorance, but of high cultivation, so far as respected the knowledge of arts and sciences. In the cities which at that time were most celebrated, in Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Alexandria, Tarsus, Rome, existed persons of considerable credit for intellectual attainments. From these places emanated mental improvements, the energies of which were exerted with force through what might then be termed the civilised world. Thence resulted competency for the production of those numerous writings, in which the primitive Christians showed they had thoroughly considered and perfectly understood the grounds on which rested what they had embraced, and what they ably defended*, the Christian religion. The few volumes of their books remaining entire have long been obtainable, and come within the course of ecclesiastical study. That emphatical sentence of Justin Martyrt, concerning See "The authenticity, &c. of the New Testament," by Godfrey LESS, translated by R. KINGDOM.- p. 101. Justin Martyr. -p. 108. Tatian.—109. Irenæus.-117. Athenagoras.-122. Theophilus of Antioch. 125. Clemens of Alexandria. - 128. Tertullian. 151. Hippolytus. See also Jortin's "Remarks on Ecclesiastical History," vol. i. p. 84-95. In Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho. It is quoted by Jortin, in p. 17. “Discourses concerning the Truth of the Christian |