should come to a firm and conscientious conviction, that certain parts of it were wrong, but were still willing, nevertheless, to abide by it as their confession of faith? And such cases will often happen. The history of all churches will answer this question. Let the history of the Greek, Roman, English, Scottish, and Genevan churches answer. These unhappy men must be persecuted for conscience sake, and their names cast out as evil. Thus did Calvin himself: and while, as yet, the unhallowed thunders of Rome had not done murmurring round his head, he is drawing the cord of spiritual tyranny round the people of Geneva, and violently squaring down every man's conscience to his own views. But the objector will say, Ah, Calvin was right, and, therefore, might resort to such measures. Yes-yesCalvin was right, and his object was to force every one to be right also, or he would serve them as he did Servetus.

A reference to the authority and practice of the church of Scotland, so highly sanctified, in the view of some persons, gives no relief to my fears, and reflects no happy light on our future destinies. Rather may heaven deliver us from following in the rocky paths that church has trod: and I will only say, she is most eulogized by those who know the least about her, and, on no account, is a model for us to follow. It is true, that neither a pope nor a monarch has been her head, but that has not always prevented her from being a hydra, and a haughty invader of the rights of conscience. She has felt the influence of an aristocracy as dark and foggy, as bleak and barren, as her rugged mountains and leafless hills.

I am not ignorant of the merits of the church of Scotland. They can boast of great and illustrious men, whose names will be among the brightest ornaments of literature, and whose usefulness and fame, as ministers of Christ, have rarely been surpassed in modern Europe. Nor do I deny the merits of their doctrine or discipline, as comprehending a noble body of theoretical and practical wisdom. May we be able to copy their excellencies, and shun their defects.

It would be presumption in me, gentlemen, to undertake to suggest a course of conduct to you in the present juncture of affairs; and useless to attempt to conjecture what course you

will pursue. That a new comet has appeared on our horizon, whose motions are rapid, and aspects malign, I thing you will not deny; since every eye can see it without a telescope. It matters not whether you say you are Hopkinsians or not; you may, indeed, say, that you are not; for, as I have repeatedly said, I have seen but few persons, in my day, who chose to adopt that title. The strain of doctrine in which I myself believe I know, perfectly well, neither was derived directly or indirectly from Hopkins, and it is very probable you can safely say as much. Our licentiates are accused of heresy, and driven from places where there had been flattering prospects of speedy and agreeable settlements, under cruel and unjust imputations ; and the Synod of Philadelphia has raised the cry of heresy against the whole strain of doctrine.

Far be it from me to wish to abridge the right of individuals, or of public bodies, of promoting the scheme of doctrine they approve of; or of opposing, by just argumentation, what they dislike. And I know too well your liberality of sentiment, and magnanimity of soul, not to be sensible that you take equal pleasure in receiving and giving charitable and Christian indulgence. There is a pleasure in this mutual forbearance which infinitely transcends the gratification of the stern bigot while he binds the conscience, the lord of our actions—and fetters the tongue, the glory of our frame.

But as I little expected to hear the heaviest and last censure of the church hurled at the sentiments which, from my soul, I believe to be the eternal truth of God, so, neither do I believe that you, gentlemen, can hear the awful reverberation of these thunders, though rolling at a distance, without inward horror and astonishment. I presume you will not dissent from me in the opinion, that it is a time of darkness and mourning. The language of prophecy represents the fall of states, nations, and churches, by the darkening of the luminaries of heaven. I do not say that this church has fallen, but I say that a third part of the stars of heaven are eclipsed; and if this spirit of intolerance and persecution shall prevail, and maintain her ground in this church, her fall is near.

I have neither said, nor conceded by implication, that the

strain of doctrine commonly styled Hopkinsian differs, in any material point, from our confession of faith; although the Synod of Philadelphia express an ardent hope, that "the time may never come when those doctrines, and our confession of faith, shall be considered as one and the same thing;" but I do say, and I do feel an irresistible conviction of its truth, that to expect a perfect coincidence of opinion in every article and idea of this, or any other confession of faith or creed, of equal extent and particularity, from any considerable number of people, is to expect an impossibility. Such expectations, if serious, can be the offspring of nothing but ignorance or prejudice. To require such a coincidence, as a term of admittance or continuance in the church, would be madness, and would not fail of consequences the most deleterious to the whole body. Unities of that kind are not to be expected, unless the days shall return when men are willing to sell their consciences to the mother of harlots, for the privilege of drinking the cup of her abominations; or, unless the morning shall break forth when creeds, confessions of faith, formularies, and liturgies, some more and some less excellent, but all imperfect, shall vanish before the sun of righteousness, in the glory of the latter day.

An overt act of impolicy, in one of the highest judicatories of the church, whatever might be its nature and tendency, cannot be viewed but with concern by every benevolent mind, however disinterested or remote. But to such as are deeply interested in the welfare of the church; to such as desire nothing more sincerely than its purity and prosperity, its peace and edification, it must cause emotions of deep regret and solicitude. But when the nature of the measure is such that its impolicy is forgotten in its injustice and cruelty; when we turn from the generous sensibility of the disinterested spectator; from the painful sensations of those whose chief enjoyment arises from the peace and prosperity of the church, what esti. mate are we to form of the feelings of those who are the victims of this measure, and in a moment to be prostrated by this rigorous sentence? We will suppose him a young man just engaged in the sacred work of the ministry; and engaged with all his heart, and all his talents, to promote the truth, according

to his best views, and to preach the gospel as the instrument of turning souls to righteousness. But suddenly be is accused of preaching heresy, and the accusation brought home, and his condemnation rendered irretrievable by the majestic voice of an entire Synod. To these circumstances add the rage and triumph of his enemies; the disappointment, sorrow, and anguish of his friends; the interest that will be awakened in his favour, by those that can feel pity and commiseration; the arrows of malignity, that will pursue him as a heretic, apostate, hypocrite, and deceiver. What are we to think of such a situation?

Or we will suppose him among the venerable Fathers whose whitened locks and bending form show that his labours are nearly past; and that he is about to appear before the Chief Shepherd. He is condemned as an heretic, and must abjure the doctrines he has preached for many years, and of the correctness of which he has not a remaining doubt, or must go to his grave, not from the portals of the church on earth, in which he has long and successfully laboured; but as an outcast a vagrant, a leprous amputated member, too corrupt to be preserved or healed, must drop into a solitary grave, to rest in disgraceful oblivion, or to live in the execrations and calumnies of remembrance.

And when I consider what numbers in the visible communion of this church are thoroughly and conscientiously imbued in this strain of doctrine, thus rashly condemned; when I reflect on the spirit of toleration and Christian liberty so gloriously risen on the present age, like a phoenix from the ashes of former times, but now abused and insulted before the sun; when I consider the immense and venerable body of clergy to the north and east deeply implicated in this act, and condemned by this sentence; when I know that these have been the doctrines of revivals, sanctioned by the spirit of God in the conversion of thousands of souls, I shudder in view of this act-I tremble for its consequences-I fear for its perpetrators.

Gentlemen, you surely will not differ with me when I assert, that if God has ever made bare his arm for the salvation of souls, through the instrumentality of truth, it has been under the preach

ing of these doctrines. If, since our forefathers first touched these western shores, a blessing has descended from the Redeemer's throne to his church in this new world, it has been under the ministration of these truths. I leave it, therefore, for all mankind to judge, how far the condemnation of these doctrines may be considered as "fighting against God."

If an act so contrary to the liberal and charitable dictates of religious toleration, which has broke forth with splendour on the present age, and with so much honour and felicity to the church of Christ, shall incur the just contempt and reproaches of men, how much more dreadful will be His displeasure, before whom all nations are as nothing, when those who aspire to the blessings of his covenant, dare to affix the seal of their impious curse on those doctrines on which he has fixed the seal of his high and unchangeable approbation.

Merciful God! in the day of thy visitations, O remember not our iniquities against us, for thou knowest we are but dust!

To put the best face on things they will bear, and the most favourable construction that apathy itself can propose, or the most calm, unsullied, and charitable mind can think possible, let us suppose that none of the violent consequences anticipated will follow these gloomy indications of intolerance and persecution; let us suppose that this act of the Philadelphia Synod, and these collateral measures, to keep a certain strain of preaching, and certain men, out of the great capitals, Philadelphia and New-York, are merely designed as present and local remedies; let it be supposed that men of standing and established views, though holding this strain of doctrine, will never be molested, or an attempt made to drive them from their stations-what then? Is this a complete salvo for all that appears ;—a soporific on which the friend of evangelical truth can slumber on in security? What will be the amount of this? And whither does this index of hope point, as the end of all troubles? It points, gentlemen, to this: that henceforth no minister or licentiate is to gain admittance into any Presbyterian vacancy unless he can be chopped down perfectly into the three-square shape; nor is any one to remain there, unless stretched or clipped to the due length of the iron bedstead; especially if in, or near,