intercourse and partial communion; but in a way becoming the New Testament Zeru-babel, The Disperser of Confusion. When he rends the heavens and comes down to do things which we looked not for, the mountains shall flow down at his presence *." Those separations which have been of most ancient date, and which threatened to last for ever, shall yield to his power: "The everlasting mountains shall be scattered, the perpetual hills shall bow," before him whose "ways are everlasting." If there shall be one that has reared its head above all the rest, and makes a more formidable resistance, it also shall crumble down and disappear: "Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain ‡. Then shall the mountain on which the house of God is built be established on the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And he will rebuke and repress the envious risings of its proudest rival. "A hill of God is the hill of Bashan, a high hill is the hill of Bashan. But why lift ye up yourselves, ye high hills? This (Zion) is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever §."

May God fulfil these promises in due time; and unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

* Isa. lxiv. 1. † Hab. iii. 6. Zech. iv. 7. § Ps. lxviii. 15, 16.

APPENDIX.

A Short View of the Plan of Religious Reformation and Union adopted originally by the Secession.

THE Bible is the great repository of divine truth, and standard of what is to be believed and practised in religion. It is the duty of the church to bring forth the sacred treasure, to circulate it, and to preserve any part of it from being lost, debased, or deteriorated. Ever since the completing of the canon of Scripture, it has been the work of Christians, individually and as associated, to make profession of "the faith once delivered to the saints," and "earnestly to contend" for it, in opposition to all attempts to destroy its purity or defeat its influence. That society whose religious profession is not founded on and conformable to the Scriptures, can have no claim to be considered as "the house of the living God." But while the matter, as well as the ground, of the church's profession is properly speaking divine, the acts and modes of professing and maintaining it are necessarily human. When false and corrupt views of Christianity become general, it is necessary that confessions of the truth in opposition to them be embodied

manet.

in formal and written documents, which may be known and read by all men. Vox emissa perit: litera scripta It is not enough that Christians confess their faith individually: to comply with divine commands, to answer to their character as church members, and the better to gain the ends in view, it is requisite that they make a joint and common confession. When the truths contained in the word of God have been explicitly stated and declared, in opposition to existing errors, by the proper authority in a church, an approbation of such statements and declarations may be required, as a test of soundness in the faith and of Christian fidelity, without any unwarrantable imposition on conscience, or the most distant reflection on the perfection of Scripture. The same arguments which justify the use of creeds and confessions will also justify particular declarations or testimonies directed against errors and corruptions prevailing in churches which still retain scriptural formularies. Those who allow the former cannot consistently condemn the latter. It is not sufficient to entitle persons to the character of faithful witnesses of Christ, that they profess a general adherence to the Bible or a sound confession of faith, provided they refuse or decline to direct and apply these seasonably against present evils. It might as well be said that the soldier has acquitted himself well in a battle, because he had excellent armour lying in a magazine, or a sword hanging by his side, although he never brought forth the armour nor drew his sword from its scabbard. The means alluded to are the unsheathing of the sword and the wielding of the armour of the church. So far from setting aside the authority of Scripture, they are necessary for keeping a sense of it alive on the spirits of men, and for declaring the joint views and animating the combined endeav

ours of those who adhere to it. By explaining and applying a rule, we do not add to it, nor do we detract from its authority.

True religion, intrinsically considered, is neither variable nor local. Christianity is the same now that it was eighteen hundred years ago; it is the same in America or Otaheite as in Britain. But this is not inconsistent with varieties in the profession made of it in different ages and countries. The attack is not always made on it from the same quarter, nor directed against the same point. This must regulate the faithful contendings of the church; and accordingly her testimony, though ever substantially the same, has been greatly diversified in respect of its form and direction; just as a river, in its long-continued course, assumes different appearances, winds in several directions, and is seen running sometimes in a narrower and at other times in a more extensive channel. In the New Testament we meet with frequent references to the circumstances in which the churches were placed among the adherents of Judaism or of Pagan idolatry, as serving to point out and determine the peculiar duties, dangers, and temptations of Christians. The instructions, warnings, and reproofs, contained in the epistles which the apostles addressed primarily to certain churches and individuals, bear directly on their respective circumstances, and are intermingled with numerous references to facts on which they were founded. Certain classes of false teachers and evil workers are specified; and individuals are mentioned by name, both those who had deserved well of the church by their faithfulness and important services, and those who, by their opposition to the gospel and propagating of false doctrine, had incurred public censure or justly exposed themselves to it. In the letters sent to the seven Asian churches,

our Lord intimates that he took notice and judged of the conduct of each according to its particular and local circumstances, and not merely in reference to duties and trials common to all. "I know thy works, and where thou dwellest." The church of Ephesus is praised because she "could not bear them that were evil," had tried and convicted certain persons who "said they were apostles and were not," and had testified her hatred to "the deeds of the Nicolaitans." While the church of Pergamos is blamed for retaining in her communion "them that held the doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans," she is commended by Christ, because she had " held fast his name and not denied his faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was his faithful martyr, who was slain among them." There are peculiar obligations which Christians are subjected to by their birth and lot in the world; and then, and then only, can they be said to act a faithful part, when they endeavour to discharge their duty in all its extent according to their actual and relative situation. So far is it from being true, in this respect, that a religious profession ought to be disencumbered of all localities or references to the facts of a particular period or country, that, on the contrary, its due and seasonable application to these is a test of its faithfulness.

At the happy era of the Reformation, many of the grosser corruptions which had grown during the long continued defection which had preceded, were removed in several countries: and in some of these, particularly in Scotland, religion was settled on a Scriptural basis and in great purity. Had reformation been at its height in all the protestant churches, or had that which was attained in some of them been placed beyond the danger of being changed or relinquished, there would have been no need for testimo