kingdoms strove to procure both civil and religious liberty; and though for a time both seemed lost, yet the result was, the complete gaining and establishing of the former by the Revolution of 1688, and the full settlement of the British constitution. In the modern struggle religious liberty has yet to be asserted, defended, and secured, and that, too, against a power in many respects more formidable than any that has hitherto been encountered by the Christian Church-the power of abstract law, in what is assumed to be a free country, and in which religious toleration is understood to be maintained. Hence, whatever even seems to oppose the decision of courts of law, must expect to be overwhelmed with reproach and contumely, as if human law were infallible, and whatever opposed it were necessarily wildly and intolerably wrong. The Erastianism of human law is Erastianism in its most pernicious and terrible aspect; and if triumphant, can end in nothing but the entire destruction of religious liberty, and consequently of true religion itself. Its direct aim is the abolition of spiritual courts; for that is no court where not merely its decisions can be reviewed and reversed by one of a different character, but where the judges themselves can be punished for their conscientious judgments. And since the Lord Jesus Christ instituted a government in his Church, the loss of spiritual courts is the loss of that government, and necessarily the loss of direct union with the Head and King of the Church, which is, in other words, the loss of spiritual life and true religion.

The cycle in which we live displays much of the impress of its predecessor, and has also duties, advantages, and perils of its own. It is now too late to cherish the hope of at length accomplishing the Christian enterprise for which the Westminster Assembly met together, and of realizing the great idea which filled the minds of its most eminent Christian patriots? We will not think so. What was premature then, may be ripe for fulfilment now. wide diffusion of knowledge, the rapid communication of thought and action from clime to clime, and the very progress of events in the world's history, have rendered many a mighty undertaking of easy achievement now, which, two centuries ago, was utterly impossible. And what was then won furnishes a vantage-ground on which the struggle may

The

be more propitiously waged. Civil liberty and religious toleration are citadels, not certainly impregnable, but not easily to be reduced. It is equally the duty and the inte rest of all who value these to unite in their defence; for the loss of them to one class of British citizens, or to one Church in Britain, would issue in the loss of them to all. Let but the attempt be made, in the spirit of sincerity, and faith, and prayer, and there may now be realized a Protestant, or rather a Presbyterian Union, embracing the world. We say a Presbyterian Union, for it is a melancholy fact that Prelatic Protestantism is now but another name for all that is essentially Popish; so that the hope of the Christian world for resisting Popery and Infidelity must now be placed in a Presbyterian Union.

And the errors which prevented the success of the Westminster Assembly may be to us beacons, both warning from danger and guiding on to safety. In their case, political influence and intrigue formed one baneful element of deadly power. Let all political influence be distrusted and avoided, and let political intrigue be utterly unknown in all our religious deliberations. In times of trouble and alarm, "Trust not in princes, nor in the sons of men," with its divine counterpart, "Trust in the Lord, and stay yourselves upon your God," should be the watchword and reply of all true Christian Churches. Dissensions among brethren, groundless jealousies, and misconstructions, and want of openness and candor, were grievously pernicious to the Westminster Assembly. If the Presbyterians and the Independents could have banished the spirit of dissension, expelled all petty jealousy, and laid their hearts open to each other in godly simplicity and sincerity, all the uniformity that was really necessary might have been easily obtained. Their errors have been traced and noted, not from any pleasure in such a task, but that they may now be understood and shunned. And if all truly evangelical Christians, whether they be Presbyterians, or Independents, or Baptists, or Methodists, or Episcopalians, such as some that could be named, would but give full scope to their already existing and strong principles and feelings of faith and hope and love, there could be little difficulty in framing such a Christian Union,-term it Presbyterian or Evangelical, so that it be truly scriptural,—as might be able, by

the blessing and the help of God, to stem and bear back the growing and portentous tide of Popery and Infidelity, that threaten, with their proud waves, once more to overwhelm the world.

Has not the time for this great Evangelical and Scriptural Union come? It is impossible for any one to look abroad upon the general aspect of the world with even a hasty glance, without perceiving indications of an almost universal preparation for some great event. The nations of the earth are still-not in peace, but, like wearied combatants, resting on their arms a brief breathing-space, that, with recovered strength and quickened animosity, they may spring anew to the mortal struggle. During this fallacious repose there has been, and there is, an exertion of the most intense and restless activity, by principles the most fiercely hostile, for the acquisition of partizans. Despotism and democracy, superstition and infidelity, have alike been mustering their powers and calling forth their energies, less apparently for mutual destruction, according to their wont and nature, than in order to form an unnatural coalition and conspiracy against the very existence of free, pure, and spiritual Christianity. Nor, in one point of view, has Christianity been recently lying supine and dormant. Many a noble enterprise for the extension of the Gospel at home and abroad has been planned and executed; and the great doctrines of saving truth have been clearly explained and boldly proclaimed, with earnest warmth and uncompromising faithfulness. A time of refreshing also has come from the presence of the Lord,—a spirit of revival has been poured forth upon the thirsty Church, and the hearts of Christian brethren have learned to melt and blend with a generous and rejoicing sympathy, to which they had too long been strangers. Can all these things be beheld and passed lightly over as leading to nothing, and portending nothing? That were little short of blind infatuation. What they do fully portend it were presumptuous to say; but it is not difficult to say for what they form an unprecedented preparation. What now prevents a world-wide Evangelical and Scriptural Union? "All things are prepared, come to the marriage." "If ye love ME, love one another." "Because He laid down his life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for the

brethren." Had these been fully the principles and rules of conduct of the Westminster Assembly, its great idea might have been realized. Let them be those that animate and guide all Churches now. They have been felt in our great unions for prayer; they should be felt by all who are preparing to commemorate the meeting of the Westminster Assembly. And if they be, then may we not only accomplish the object of its Solemn League and Covenant, and realize its great idea of a general Evangelical Union; but we may also, if such be the will of our Divine Head and King, be mightily instrumental in promoting the universal propagation of the Gospel, and drawing down from above the fulfilled answer to that sacred prayer in which we all unite,-THY KINGDOM COME: THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

APPENDIX.

I.

(See page 108.)

EVERY person must be aware, that one of the charges most frequently and vehemently urged against the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, is that of its being possessed by such a bigoted and proselytizing spirit as led it to attempt, by undue means, to force its own system upon England during the troubled period of the civil war. In the hope of showing the utter groundlessness of that accusation, and of repelling it at once and for ever, I have resolved to append to this work the following important document, which contains a distinct statement, by the Scottish commissioners, of the views and desires entertained by the Church and State of Scotland before the civil war had begun. The paper was written by Alexander Henderson, towards the close of the year 1640, and given in by the Scottish commissioners to the Lords of the Treaty, as they were termed, in the beginning of 1641, when the business of negotiation had been transferred from Ripon to London. It was printed and published about the same time, that it might be so fairly before the community as to enable all whom it concerned to know precisely what it was that Scotland wished and recommended, and to prevent, if possible, all calumnious misrepresentation. Certainly the publication of such a document tended, of itself, to bind the Scottish commissioners, and consequently the Scottish Church and kingdom, whom they represented, from making any attempt to force their own system upon England, even if they had been afterwards inclined; since it put it in the power of the English Church and Parliament to appeal immediately to this public declaration. There is no doubt that it both prepared the mind of England for the calling of the Westminster Assembly, about two years and a half afterwards, and contributed to prevent, for a time, the rise of any considerable degree of jealousy in the ecclesiastical proceedings that followed, till the harmony that had prevailed was destroyed by the Independent and Erastian controversies. Prelatic writers make no mention of this important document, and consequently indulge in the most violent accusations against the Church of Scotland for presuming