too, that the very fulness of the public mind on the subject of religion, is a source of this craving after novelty? Religion is talked about, and dis cussed, in an easy, superficial, and unexperimental way, at every lecture, and at every tea-table, until it sates the mind with the sameness of its views, and then there is a desire after something novel, and the caterer for the religious public is forced to comply with the demand, and whatever is presented is admired, and embraced, and followed. But whatever be the cause-whether a superficial or a defective theology, a familiarity with phraseology, or an ignorance of letters, or merely a feverish love for hearing something new; whatever be the cause, we think the effects to be deplored, and that the religious public is now the great exciter to spiritual novelties, which the author of evil employs as the means of producing schism, and obstructing the progress of the Gospel--as the instrument for turning away the attention of sinners from the important message of salvation, and fixing it upon the temporary hallucinations of human intellect, about which we now contend as if essential to salvation, and to which the uninformed cling as if they were life-giving. Religion has its fever, as well as its fervour: and one is frequently mistaken for the other, and the fantastic forms raised by the influence of the deceived fancy, are often regarded as the emanations of truth. Religion has its imagination as well as its feeling; and frequently bodies forth the result of the former faculty as real and scriptural, while the author of dissension confers an imaginary importance upon them, and by engaging the attention of believers, diverts their minds from the realities of godliness, substituting the extremes for the moderation of religion, and intemperance for its sobriety. For in connexion with the love of novelty is the love of extremes; and the religious principle which is true under certain conditions and to a certain extent, is pushed to its very limits, and then made, in that exaggerated and unscriptural state, the one great truth of religion. One man sees the freeness of the Gospel, and he sees nothing but its freeness; and he overlooks its sanctifying influence, and he plunges into the dangerous abyss of Antinomianism. Another sees the holiness of the Gospel, and its suita. bleness to renovate our fallen nature, and in the glory of the pardon, he forgets the price paid, and borders on the presumption of Pelagius. One minister finds the sovereignty of God to be a scriptural truth, and he denies the responsibility of man, and occupies all his exhortations with warning against the use of the means of grace. Another sees the sufficiency of the Gospel scheme, and neglects its necessary limitation to such as believe, and declaims on the universality, not of redemption, but of pardon. This man, knowing that "Christ is made to us righteousness," limits his atonement to his example, and that man, reading that we are justified by his blood," denies the imputation of his merits, and declares that in his blood-shedding alone we are interested. There are a hundred other instances of this theological monimania that might be given, while each system, being a novelty, has its followers, who insist that all shall see the shield on their side, and overlook the want of harmony and beauty that they would introduce into the Gospel. It is to this feverish anxiety for novelty-this undistinguishing assimilation of what is offered this tendency to receive without examination what is striking, and to pursue to extremes what is new, that we ascribe most of the dissension, and strife, and separation, which mark the religious world. It is to this we trace the indiscriminate and absorbing study of prophecy, and the speculations that attend that study-it is to this the progress of the unscriptural view, to the propagation of which Mr. Erskine has lent his name, his talents, and his enthusiasm to this, the existence and prevalence of those views of the humanity of the Redeemer, which

tend to sap the very foundations of the Christian scheme, and with it all the hopes of Christian piety-to this, the reception, by persons calling themselves theologians, and holding themselves up as judges and instructors, of the lamentable series of errors and delusions that, commencing in self deception, will end, we fear, in imposture; and which has displayed itself in the disgusting phantasmagoria of miracle, and inspiration, and tongues. Could it have been expected that in a land of Bibles and ministers such errors could have prevailed-such errors could have had followers? if the state of the public mind on the subject of religion were not diseased, and the knowledge, though generally spread, were not superficial, shallow, and indistinct, would such systems be received, opposed equally to the sobriety of common sense, and the simplicity of Scripture truth?

Such, we venture to say, is no unfair picture of the surface of the religious world-such is, we fear, the external aspect it presents. Gloomy assuredly it is; but it is not by glossing over evils they can ever be remedied, nor by giving fair names to errors that their pernicious effects can be counteracted. We have honestly spoken our opinion, as we have formed it from no inattentive observation. But a very important part remains to be considered, and which would demand our attention to a greater extent than we can afford to bestow. We mean the practical bearing of all this upon the habits, and manners, and conversation of the religious world; on which subject we can afford space but to a very few observations, and can detail but the more prominent of the resulting evils. The first of these we shall remark is an impatience of all restraint, control, or even advice, which would tend to limit the eratic propensities, and to bound the excursive tendencies of the present day. The unholy and unscriptural assumptions of the Church of Rome produced at the Reformation on the natural mind its opposite error, and the sacred right of private judgment, was abused to the assertion of individual opinion and unchecked licentiousness of interpretation. Something similar has been produced in the present day by the emancipation from the bonds of formality which had fettered down the mind; and the elasticity of private judgment has, by its rebound, shaken off more than the restraints that limited its legitimate efforts. Opinions, original, or that seem to be so, captivate the ardent imagination, which is not allied sufficiently with learning or reasoning habits to detect the error, or confute the claim to originality, and every attempt to direct or to control is regarded as an infringement upon Christian liberty, as a return to the exploded claims of popery, and thus admonition is disregarded, the experience of the ministry neglected, and the youthful and inexperienced sent out to make discoveries in religion, without knowledge and without guide. Now we must give it as our deliberate opinion, that in religion, properly so called, there can be no discoveries; perhaps, by improvement in biblical criticism, information may be communicated on points of philology, and various readings may throw light on and improve our apprehensions of distinct passages; the course of time must necessarily affect our opinions on unfulfilled prophecy, and make us to appreciate better than we now do, what has been, and what is yet to be accomplished; but we cannot believe that in religion, in the system of salvation, in the manner of reconciliation to God, there can be discoveries, and we confess ourselves, like one of our correspondents, averse to the views that would assume such a character. The system that has supported in life, and sanctified the death of so many of God's people, cannot, we humbly conceive, be added to without risk, and we can never cease to warn our friends and readers of the danger of indulging the spirit that would censure what is old, and shake off what is authoritative.

This has necessarily engendered a separation between the pastor and his flock; except he submit either to lead or to be led in the wanderings of his congregation, they look coldly on him as ignorant of the truth, or indisposed to its reception, while he mourns over the eccentricities that too often impede his ministerial usefulness, and the high mindedness and presumption that mark the characters of those to whom he was himself, perhaps, the means of first introducing the Gospel. We know nothing more afflic. tive to a pious servant of God, than to find those among whom he has been labouring, and with apparent success, deserting his ministry, running with itching ears after every preacher of novelty and setter forth of strange things, and then sitting in judgment on him at whose feet they have hitherto sat, and assuming the office of censors when they should be learners.

Now this we cannot but think to be an awful sign of the times, and while we would not by a thought limit the free exercise of judgment, or prevent the congregation from bringing to the test of Scripture the doctrine and precepts of their pastor; and while we know that the sweetest.con, solation afforded to the pastor in the midst of his trials and responsibi lity, is to be found in the hope that many of his flock remember him, and his labours, and his infirmities at the throne of grace; we cannot but la ment the prevalence of the undisciplined impatience of control, the spirit not of examination but of judgment, not of love but of criticism, not of compassionate assurance that the treasure of the Gospel is placed yet in earthen vessels, which "accounts of them as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God," but the heady and high-minded offspring of presumption and ignorance, which runs when Christian knowledge would creep, and "rushes in where angels fear to tread." To our readers we would say with Christian love, that such is equally incon sistent with the spirit of the Gospel and of our church; that if they find cause to differ from their pastors, they should do it with caution, that they should examine with care, that they should suspect themselves to be in error rather than that men who have proved it to be equally their duty and their privilege to search after "souls as those who are to give an ac count of them" should forsake the truth, should fear that they may have gone too fast rather than their ministers have been slow. Oh, let them be cautious of severing the bond of ministerial confidence, without which ministerial usefulness may be despaired of!

It is with deep humility we feel ourselves compelled to address a word of admonition to our ministerial brethren, especially the younger portion of them; and we know how difficult and how delicate a task it is to give advice to them who are constituted advisers, and to whose talents and zeal we look with admiration and hope. But we do trust that our motives will be appreciated as they should be, and that though our judgment may be questioned, our Christian affection will be excused. We do not address them on their earnestness in the discharge of their parochial duties, for we know that they have brought seriousness and feeling to the task; we do not address them on the responsibility of the office they have undertaken, for we trust that many, very many, have entered the ministry duly im pressed with the dignity and the importance of the charge; we do not call upon them to separate themselves from "a naughty world," or to estimate

• We have heard, and believe, that one of the most eminent pastors of the present day has been visited by a young female of his congregation, and warned of the ignorance of the Gospel displayed in his sermons; and that some of his hearers, from a conviction of bis errors, had instituted prayer-meetings to supplicate for their minister's conversion.

the worth of immortal souls, for we believe and trust that the general walk of the clergy is consistent, and their ministry is duly valued, but we would beseech them to sober mindedness, to "let their moderation be known among all men." It is as possible to betray a want of moderation in religion as in politics, and the result of it must be so much the more injurious, as the subject is the more important. While the active and busy mind of man is ever urging truth to its limits, and substituting extremes for moderation; it is the duty of the pastor of the flock to see and observe and restrain the wanderings; to exhibit in his discourses and his conduct, the mild and equable tenor of a Christian walk, tempered with that discretion which can estimate the differences, and weigh the comparative value of doctrines and duties. In a time of religious agitation, it is natural for the undisciplined mind, either to seize upon one subject, and through the medium it forms around it to survey the entire gospel, or else to occupy one truth, and push it to extremes; and the pastor who knows rightly "to divide the word of truth," must always look with suspicion upon the effects of such a spirit. It is true, that to do this will demand discrimination, will call for judgment, will require an acquaintance with books as well as habits of reflection, but the scribe is not fitted to direct the opinions of his people, whose mind is not so furnished, that he can "bring from his treasury things new and things old." If these habits were more cultivated, and the stores of ancient learning more and more soberly explored, we do not think that the sad scenes occasionally witnessed would have taken place, a congregation led astray by its pastor, the ministration of a minister limited to the development of peculiar views of prophecy, or opinions subversive of all that the church has inculcated, embraced without hesitation, or inquiry; and Antinomianism and Popery,' the delusion of the fanatic and the lifeless rationalism of the Socinian, would not claim adherence and support from the clergy of the Established Church.

But we must have done, and we would conclude this survey, unpleasant as it has indeed been, by stating our firm conviction, that evils such as we have attempted to pourtray, do exist; that ministers, evangelical ministers, share in, and therefore promote the general excitement: and that it is more especially the duty of those who profess to make the book of God their standard, to counteract and control the general tendency. To these three evils connected with the general profession of religion, laxity of practice, impa- › tience of restraint, and an excited love of novelty, may all the anomalies, and all the inconsistencies be traced, that disfigure the religious world, and mark it as partaking more largely of a worldly spirit, than its language and its claims would intimate. Oh! let the friends of their country, and their God, look at these things; they are spoken in the spirit of seriousness, they should be examined in a spirit of humility, they should be met in a spirit of

• Our readers may be startled at the charge of Popery, but really from some opinions set forth and advocated in sermons and religious periodicals, we think its existence in the Established Church, and among some of the highest professors, is not matter merely of surmise. We allude more especially to the speculations on the Church and the Bible contained in the latter numbers of a work particularly devoted to prophetical inquiry, speculations that we had hoped were confined to the Vatican, or the Popish Propaganda. The claim to miraculous powers, which in our ignorance we had supposed to have been a mark of the "beast," has been revived too by the same school; and if we have been rightly informed, the opus operatum of one sacrament, and the corporeal change in the elements of the other, have found advocates among the Evangelical clergy. Can we wonder that Mr. Spencer sought refuge in Popery ?

VOL. XI.

M

prayer. Such evils are naturally, perhaps necessarily connected with the spread of religious knowledge, and the general adoption of opinions more scriptural than those of the world. Satan, who is much more busy in plotting, than we in counteracting his schemes, converts the very exertions of the people of God into the materials for erecting his citadel, and introduces himself under the garb of piety. The sceptic, or the infidel, or the blasphemer does his work but imperfectly, while the worldly-minded professor, the contentious divine, the sower of religious strife, and religious contention, more effectually prevent or impede the extension and the power of religion, than hordes of open foes. Let the people of God feel convinced of this; let them unite to meet the danger; let their prayer without ceasing ascend to the Great Head of the Church to purge and purify his people; let their walk be consistent, their charity active, their zeal fervent; in a day of change, let them support the established institutions, but not their faults; in a day of religious enthusiasm, let them advocate scriptural inquiry, but not sully it by presumption. So may they hand down to their children and their children's children, the enjoyment of those blessings that Providence hath given to their keeping, purified from worldly alloy, and worldly stain.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

ON PROPHECY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

When I heard that there was to be a paper in the CHRISTIAN EXAMINER, on the subject of the 1260 days, from so able an author, and so good a reasoner, as Mr. Faber, I did expect, that in that paper would be found every thing that could be said on his side of the question; and if possible, there would be a satisfactory reply to the article I furnished you in a former Number. I have been disappointed, in finding that Mr. Faber's paper is not a reply to any of the arguments advanced against his system, but merely a repetition of those reasons, upon which he held his opinion, which he had published many years ago. Now, Mr. Maitland had read and considered Mr. Faber's opinion, and the arguments by which he supported it, and in his "Enquiry" had given his reasons for dissenting from him. I had considered Mr. Faber's arguments in his "Sacred Calender," and it was from thinking them unsatisfactory, that I was forced to give up the opinion on the subject which I had long held as a prophetical axiom. I am not aware, that Mr. Faber has ever answered Mr. Maitland's "Enquiry," which has led many persons to reconsider the subject, and change their opinions; and I should suppose he never saw the article in the CHRISTIAN EXAMINER, which probably led "a very excellent Irish clergyman, to request him to state in the CHRISTIAN EXAMINER, the grounds on which he believed the 1260 days of the Apocalypse to be not 1260 literal days, but 1260 mystical days, or 1260 years." As, however, I think the subject important, I shall, with your permission, make some remarks on Mr. Faber's argument, as given in your Number for December, 1830. He begins by what he considers a proof of the abstract admissibility of interpreting days as years. Now, I admit the "abstract admissibility," though I deny the force of the argument which he uses. He says, "The existence of