cond thoughts we think that we can select a spirited passage towards the end that will bear to be detached from the rest.

"It is necessary, my beloved, that I should remind you of the anomalous position which as a church you now occupy. Roman Catholics are anxious to disclaim the persecuting doctrines of their ancestors-they have it not in their power to convene a general council for this purpose, but they have done all that a branch church connected with a parent association can accomplish in order to free themselves from the odious charge brought against them-they have given you their solemn appeal to Almighty God on the subject, as well as their most energetic denunciations of the principles imputed to them. The Secession Church of Scotland have for many years past been in the habit of requiring from their ministers at their ordination, subscription to the Westminster Confession, with the following qualification, viz. "It being always understood that you are not required to approve of any thing in these books (the Westminster Confession and the two Catechisms) which teaches or may be supposed to teach, compulsion or persecuting and intolerant principles in religion." The Covenanters, who used to be looked down upon by the Synod of Ulster as a set of the most narrow-minded, intolerant bigots, have, in the explanation and defence of their terms of communion, disclaimed the persecuting tenets embodied in the Confession; or have at least in that official document shown their willingness to put upon those tenets a sense as nearly as possible coincident with modern views of religious freedom. It may be fairly doubted whether the mitigated statements made by the Covenanters in this authoritative exposition of the standards of original Presbyterianism, are strictly in accordance with historical facts, but no matter their fathers were wrong, they do not adopt the errors of their fathers, though they may have lacked the courage to put their disclaimer into a direct form; but here, my beloved, is the Synod of Ulster, which, while the Seceders of Scotland, the Covenanters, and even the much abused Irish Papists themselves, are all anxious to escape from the misdeeds of other times, deliberately passes a resolution forcing every ministerial candidate in its communion to record his adhesion to doctrines fit only for the middle ages, without so much as the liberty

if

of protesting against a single doctrinal item, if it can only be shown to have been held by the Westminster divines, although these very divines themselves refused to subscribe their own work. Every other religious community is trying to disengage itself from the trammels of a bigotted antiquity, but here are you, my beloved, apparently made to leap back two centuries, and like a parcel of wooden images in the hands of a puppet master, to perform every variety of "fantastic tricks" in the sight of "high heaven," at the bidding of a politico-religious dictator, by committing yourselves, without limitation, to principles which that dictator himself lately denounced with all the fury of zealotism, when party objects were to be attained by their exclusive ascription to the poor Papists of this country; but which principles that individual can not only digest, but thrust upon others as terms of ministerial fellowship, when they are warranted by the "Imprimatur" of the Westminster divines! Submit, then, to your passive bondage, my beloved, if you will; but let me tell you that the intelligent Laity will occupy that independent post, which like craven-hearted cowards you have thus basely deserted." p. 70, 71. p.7

REVIEW.

Brief Notes on the Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Compiled by W. BRUCE, D. D., Belfast, pp. 180.

THE public are indebted to the venerable compiler of this little volume, for presenting to them so useful a collection of Notes on the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. It is indeed, as in the advertisement it is stated to be, the pith and marrow of the most eminent critics. Without possessing that copiousness of criticism which the scholar might desire, it is calculated to elucidate many difficult passages of Scripture, and may be used by the unlearned reader as an interesting and important auxiliary in his study of the historical books of the New Testament. We would particularly recommend it to parents and Sunday-school teachers, as presenting a brief and comprehensive commentary on those portions of the Bible to which the attention of children is first drawn. The explanations which it contains will tend to simplify what is difficult, and illustrate what is obscure, and thus greatly assist young persons in understanding what they read.

REVIEW.

The Use and Abuse of Creeds and Confessions of Faith, with Strictures on the Westminster Confession. By the Rev. JAMES CARLILE, Dublin, pp. 102.

THIS 'pamphlet contains the substance of a speech which the author had intended to deliver at an adjourned meeting of the General Synod held at Cookstown in August last; but which he was prevented from laying before the meeting, by the frequent and unreasonable interruptions of Dr. Cooke. We do not regret, however, in this instance, the unjust and dictatorial conduct of Dr. C. for it has given us Mr. Carlile's objections to Creeds, and his views of the Westminster Confession in a fuller and more authentic form than they could have appeared in the columns of a newspaper. We regard this as a valuable pamphlet, inasmuch as it sets forth the opinions of a Trinitarian, a Calvinist, and a distinguished minister of the Synod of Ulster, respecting creeds in general, and the Westminster Confession in particular. There are many who might be disposed to disregard the assertions of Unitarians; let such persons attend to Mr. Carlile's speech, and we think they must be convinced that the Synodical junto who forced this confession on the Presbyterians of Ulster, were setting at nought the Word of God- -were trenching on the liberty of the people-and were opposing the doctrines of Scripture.

As holidays and anniversaries tend to supersede the Sabbath—as human mediators tend to supersede the only mediator Christ Jesus-as tradition tends to supersede the Bible, so Mr. Carlile shows that this Confession, being of human origin, tends to supersede the Scriptures of Truth. Men seem to cling to it because it is the creed of their fathers-the creed of Presbyterians of the olden time:'-but while we may read with interest the creeds and the writings of our venerated ancestors, we should look beyond their opinions, which may in some things be erroneous, to the teachings of God's Holy Spirit, which must in every thing be true.

The adopting of this creed trenches, too, on the liberty of the people, because it robs them of the right of private judgment in the interpretation of Scripture, which the Reformers advocated and practised, and it binds the

ministers to that view of the Gospel which the Westminster Divines entertained. Nay, it goes farther; it compels every individual member of every congregation to profess the same belief; and it appears from Mr. Carlile that in the new code of discipline it will be imperatively required that every communicant shall subscribe this creed. We know indeed that already many ministers require from parents who present children for baptism an expression of their belief in the confession and a sacred promise before God that they will educate their children in the same.

But we have said that this creed also opposes the teachings of Scripture. We are sorry that we cannot extract those portions of the book before us, which expose the doctrines of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost being of one substance of the Son being eternally begotten-of God's having passed by a multitude of mankind to the praise of his glorious justice of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the power of absolution being lodged in the hands of church officers. These doctrines we have noticed again and again, but we regret that we cannot lay before our readers the important admissions of Mr. Carlile on the subject.-We desire to reserve the little space that we have, to give our author's opinions respecting the creation of the world, and contrast his interesting and enlightened views with those laid down in the Confession. It is stated,

"

"IV. 1. It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good."- West. Conf. iv. 1.

On this passage, Mr. Carlile has the following remarks: "Here it is asserted, referring to the First Chapter of the Book of Genesis, that God created the world, and all things therein, visible and invisible, in six days; which six days, according to the ordinary chronology, occurred about 5,800 years ago. This era, therefore, is here set forth as that which is in the book of Genesis designated "the beginning," in which God is declared to have made the heavens and the earth. Now, I can see no foundation whatever for such doctrine in the word of God. The first chapter of the Book of Genesis says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." When that beginning was, it does not determine. It might be 6,000, or it might be 6,000,000, or it might be 600,000,000 of years from the present time. The narrative then proceeds to tell us, that the Earth was without form, and void;" that darkness was upon the face of the deep ;" and that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." It does not tell us

when it came into that condition, nor how long it remained in it; but it goes on to say, that when the earth was in that condition, God said, "Let there be light; and there was light: and the evening and the morning were the first day"—that is, that evening or morning, or complete revolution of the earth on its axis, on which he caused the light to shine upon the world, constituted the first of those six days, the different operations of which he is describing. 'It is well known, that, in the investigation that has of late years been made into the structure of the earth's surface, and also of the distances of the heavenly bodies, facts have been elicited, totally inconsistent with the universe having been first brought into existence about 6,000 years ago; and infidels would be very ready to avail themselves of these facts to assail the Scripture, if it had really taught what the compilers of the Confession of Faith would represent it as teaching. But when I look to the word of God itself, I admire and adore that superintending wisdom which prevented Moses from countenancing such a doctrine. It stands altogether clear of it. Whatever geologists may discover respecting the antiquity of this globe of earth, and the revolutions that have taken place upon it, Revelation stands untouched-it leaves room for them all; although it furnishes no information respecting them, further than a brief description of the condition in which the last of these revolutions prior to the creation of man, left it. Any man has it in his power to judge for himself in this matter. Let him take a piece of marble, in which there are shells manifestly embodied, forming part of the solid stone. Let him enquire where that marble was found, and he may perhaps ascertain that it was from some mountain far inland, some hundreds, perhaps thousands of feet beneath the surface of the ground. If all things were created out of nothing during the six days' work described in the book of Genesis, when was there opportunity for the formation and growth of such shells, and for their being taken to a distance from the sea in which they must have been produced, and now imbedded in solid stone? All this manifestly could not take place during the brief space that the waters covered the earth at the deluge.

"The Bible has nothing to fear from the closest examination of natural objects, provided it be permitted to speak its own language; but it has every thing to fear from its mistaken friends, substituting their own views of its statements, for its infallible dictates. The good men who compiled the Confession of Faith, fell into the common error of the day, in supposing that by the word beginning" was meant the six days of putting the earth into its present order; and I am persuaded that the time is not far distant, when their notions will appear to be as inconsistent with the truth of things, as the old doctrine that the earth remains fixed, while the sun, moon and stars revolve round it; and that to exclude any man from the church of God, because he could not subscribe such a doctrine, will appear to indicate as deplorable ignorance and fanatical persecution, as the imprisoning Galileo for believing that the earth revolved round the sun. I do not, however, ask credence to any theory of geology, or even to any geological facts; all I ask is, that Christianity be not committed to statements unauthorised by Scripture, which may be, and in my opinion, already have been, demonstrated to be false."