bly against the insinuations of their opponents then and detractors since. I have already stated my strong conviction that the work entitled "Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici; or, The Divine Right of Church Government," although bearing to be "By sundry Ministers of Christ within the City of London," if not directly the production of the Assembly, at least contains the answer prepared by them to the queries concerning the jus divinum proposed by the Parliament. A subsequent examination and comparison of this work with other kindred works by members of the Assembly, strongly confirms that opinion, which I would thus express :-The Jus Divinum of the city ministers appears to me to be both virtually and substantially the Assembly's Answer to the Parliament, containing actually that very Answer as prepared by them; but with such additional amplifications in statement and illustrations, by the city ministers themselves, as might both render it. more complete and fit for publication as a distinct work on the subject, and at the same time entitle them to publish it on their own responsibility. This work well deserves to be republished, with such explanatory notes as might adapt it to the present age; for the principles which it states and advocates have not yet been received as they ought,-as they must and will, before there can be a reign of righteousness and peace.

We have already made some remarks on the necessity for the existence of Creeds and Confessions, and the important purposes subserved by these subordinate standards; and we resume that view for the purpose of stating the inference to which it ought to lead. Since a Church cannot exist without some Confession, or mode of ascertaining that its members are agreed in their general conception of what they understand divine truth to mean; and since the successive rise of heretical opinions, and their successive refu

tation, necessarily tend to an enlargement of the Confession, and at the same time to an increasing development of the knowledge of divine truth, ought it not to follow that the various Confessions of separate Churches would have a constant tendency to approximate, till they should all blend in one harmonious Confession of one Church general? No one who has studied a Harmony of Protestant Confessions can hesitate to admit that this is a very possible, as it is a most desirable result. When, further, we rise to that spiritual element to which also our attention has been directed, we may anticipate an increasing degree of enlightenment in the Christian Church, bestowed by the Holy Spirit, in answer to the earnest prayers of sincere and humble faith, which will greatly tend to hasten forward and secure an amount of Christian unity in faith and love far beyond what has existed since the times of the apostles. Entertaining this pleasing idea, we might expect both that the latest Confession of Faith framed by a Protestant Church would be the most perfect, and also that it might form a basis of evangelical union to the whole Church. To some this may seem a startling, or even an extravagant idea. But let it be remembered, that owing to a peculiar series of unpropitious circumstances, the Westminster Assembly's Confession of Faith has never yet been adequately known to the Christian Churches.

By the Scottish alone was it fully received; and in consequence of the various events which have since befallen that Church, comparatively little attention has been paid to the Confession of Faith till recent times. It is now, we trust, in the process of becoming more known and better understood than formerly; and we feel assured that the more it is known and the better it is understood, the more highly will its great and varied excellences be estimated. This will tend, at the same time, to direct to it the attention of

other Churches; and we cannot help anticipating the degree of surprise which will be felt by many ingenuous minds, that they had remained so long unacquainted with a production of such remarkable value.

Such a result would be the realization of the great idea entertained by the leading members of the Westminster Assembly, and especially by the Scottish Commissionerswith whom, indeed, it originated. No narrow and limited object could satisfy the desires and anticipations of these enlightened and large-hearted men. With one comprehensive glance they surveyed the condition of Christendom and the world-marked its necessities, and contemplated the remedy. Thus they formed the great, and even sublime idea of a Protestant union throughout Christendom; not merely for the purpose of counterbalancing Popery, but in order to purify, strengthen, and unite all true Christian. Churches; so that, with combined energy and zeal, they might go forth, in glad compliance with the Redeemer's command, teaching all nations, and preaching the everlasting gospel to every creature under heaven. Such was the magnificent conception of men whom it has been too much the fashion to stigmatize as narrow-minded bigots. It is not in the heart of a bigot that a love able to embrace Christendom could be cherished,—it is not in the mind of a bigot that an idea of such moral sublimity could be conceived. It may be said, no doubt, that this idea was premature. Premature it was in one sense, for it could not be then realized; but the statement of it was not premature, for it was the statement of the grand result which ought to have been produced by the Reformation. In still another sense it was not premature, any more than it is premature to sow the seed in spring from which we expect to reap the autumnal harvest. The seed must be sown before the harvest can be produced,-the idea must be stated before it

can be realized. It must then be left to work its way into the mind of man,-to grow, and strengthen, and enlarge, till in due time it shall produce its fruit in its season.

May it not be hoped that the fruit-bearing season is at hand? A time of refreshing and revival has come; the lethargic sleep of a century has passed away; the awakening throb of Christian life is high and warm; and again, snapping her benumbing bands asunder, the Church is going forth on her heavenly mission with renewed energy and power. All things seem hastening forward to some mighty change or development. On all sides the elements. of evil are mustering with almost preternatural rapidity and strength. Popery has, to an unexpected degree, recovered from its deadly wound and its exhausted weakness, and is putting forth its destructive energies in every quarter of the world, especially in the high regions of political intrigue and diplomatic management. Numerous and startling are the coincidences which are appearing between the period of the Westminster Assembly and the present time. So strong are these, that they force upon a reflecting mind the thought that all human events move in revolving cycles, one age but producing a renewed aspect of the past. In England the dread aspect of Laudean Prelacy has re-appeared-called, indeed, by a new name, but displaying all the formidable characteristics of its predecessor-the same in its lofty pretensions, in its Popish tendencies, in its supercilious contempt of every other Church, and in its persecuting spirit. The Scottish Ecclesiastical Establishment has been rent asunder; its constitution has been changed, or rather subverted; and those who firmly maintained the principles of the Westminster Assembly have been constrained to separate from the State, in order to preserve their principles unimpaired. The true Presbyterian Church of Scotland is again

disestablished, as she has been in former times; but she is Free-free to maintain all those sacred principles bequeathed to her by reformers, and divines, and martyrsfree to offer to all other evangelical Churches the right hand of brotherly love and fellowship-free to engage with them in the formation of a great evangelical union, on the firm basis of sacred and eternal truth. Surely these concurring events are enough to constrain all who are able to comprehend them, to long for some sure rallying ground on which the defenders of religious truth and liberty may plant their standard. Such a rallying ground we think the Confession of Faith would afford, were its principles carefully considered and fully understood.

But revolving cycles, though similar, are not identical. Each has in itself some characteristics of a peculiar nature, and to that extent part of its characteristics may terminate in its own period, and part may survive and expand into the new revolving movement. Thus, while the course of human events is one of revolving cycles, one tends to produce another, and that to expand and perfect what it received, and also to transmit its own new influences to its successor, all combining to carry on the ripening and widening movements that make the world's history. The truth of this view may be seen by closely marking the characteristics of the conflict which shook the nations two hundred years ago, and that which has begun to shake them now. At the Reformation, the idea of separate and co-ordinate jurisdictions, civil and ecclesiastical, was introduced; but the supreme civil power wished to combine and possess both, and this gave rise to what has been called Erastianism. At first, however, the conflict was waged chiefly respecting uniformity in matters external, and submission to all civil decrees concerning rites, ceremonies, vestments, and common prayer. Subsequently, it related to a still more important