privileges of the clergy. A mystic theology was introduced, along with practices of severe fleshly mortification and gloomy discipline. After various persecutions, which were often blessed to the declining Church as a means of purification, Christianity was at last taken under the protection of the Roman government, by Constantine the Great, early in the fourth century, and the time of peace and external prosperity which succeeded, accelerated the decay of the Church's spirituality. Persecution was revived by Julian the Apostate; but under several of the subsequent emperors the bishops and clergy acquired increasing authority. The Bishop of Rome already surpassed all other ecclesiastics in opulence, magnificence, and authority. With the decline of Scripture knowledge and secular learning, superstition acquired fresh power; Monachism was introduced; convents and monks sprang up in all directions, and the relics of saints were sought after, and regarded with veneration; the clergy practised celibacy, and the people worshipped images. In the fourth century the errors of Arius were discussed and condemned; but these only diverted for a time into another direction the progressive decline of religious truth. Christianity, which had been introduced among the Goths in the fourth century, was disseminated among the other Teutonic nations in the west and north of Europe, and subjected to its authority, during the seventh and eighth centuries, the rude warriors who founded new kingdoms on the ruins of the Western Empire. Meanwhile a new power rose in Arabia, early in the seventh century, which arrested the progress of Christianity in Asia and Africa. This was the system of Mahomet, which has ever since held sway over a large portion of the human race. This eastern prophet constructed a system fitted not only to attract the Orientals by its sensualism, but to seduce both Jews and Christians, whose method of worship he pretended to have received a Divine commission to reform. The terror of the arms of Mahomet was greatly more instrumental than the persuasiveness of his doctrines in the extension of his system, which spread with extraordinary rapidity, not only in the lifetime of the false prophet, but under the direction of his fanatical successors.

In the meantime, the Roman pontiffs were making steady progress towards universal dominion throughout Europe. Ecclesiastical orders were multiplied, and the Church swarmed with Franciscans, Dominicans, and other priests, who, however diversified in their habits and occupations, were all united in preying upon the people, and in exalting the power and opulence of the church. The deepest spiritual gloom settled down upon the Church during this period, which was only dissipated by the light of the Reformation. The Bible was at length disentombed from the dust of centuries. Luther was raised up to preach the long-forgotten doctrine of justification by faith, the doctrine, as he proclaimed it, of a standing or a falling Church. The mind of Europe was awakened from the long sleep of the middle ages. A spirit of free inquiry was evoked. And with the liberated Gospel

of Christ, there went forth the civilizing influence of literature, science, and art, which had been obscured or perverted during the darkness of the middle ages. The amelioration of the condition of society, the spread of knowledge, the progress of discovery, the growth of the arts and manufactures, received their first impulse from the great event of the Reformation, and have all prospered and extended under the benign light of the Gospel, both in the old and new worlds.

Although the spread of the Gospel has long been retarded by the natural enmity and infidelity of mankind, by the hatred and persecution of the abettors of superstition, and, above all, by the inconsistencies and divisions of the Protestant churches, it has never been altogether arrested; and during the present century its progress has been accelerated as it never was since the apostolic age, by means of missionary zeal and liberality at home, and missionary devotedness abroad. The standard of the cross may now be said to have been planted in all lands, and the cry from every country to which the Christian missionary has extended his noble enterprise is, "Come over and help us." The time is evidently approaching when, in fulfilment of ancient prediction, the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Towards this end the desires and prayers, the labours and liberalities of Christians, of every name, holding the Head, are tending; and the more they unite in hastening on the consummation of the object for which their glorious Redeemer appeared upon earth, the more are they attracted towards each other by the charities and sympathies of a common faith and a common hope. One of the most delightful of the Christian manifestations of the present age is this tendency of all who hold the truth as it is in Jesus, not indeed to arrange themselves under the same ecclesiastical order-although some pleasing instances of this have recently occurred, and more are in prospect-but towards harmonizing co-operation in the objects of Christian philanthropy, friendly recognition of the great and outstanding doctrines in which they are agreed, and the exercise of forbearance on points of difference, "forbearing one another in love." This is pre-eminently a hopeful disposition, and one which every friend of religious truth should strive to exemplify in his conduct and promote by his prayers; remembering that in the visible union of the followers of Christ consists that testimony to the divinity of his mission, without which they can never look for the general reception of his religion by an unbelieving world. The churches of Christ, whilst maintaining their distinctive peculiarities, have too often forgotten that remarkable prayer of their common Founder, in the prospect of leaving his disciples in the world-" Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be ONE; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."

UNITY OF THE PROTESTANT CONFESSIONS.

THE following extracts from the Confessions of Faith of the Reformed Churches, exhibit their essential unity in the fundamental doctrines of Divine truth:

God-eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite who is wholly wise, and a most plentiful well-spring of all good things.-Art. 1.

CONFESSION OF FRANCE.-1559. We believe and acknowledge one only God, who is one only and simple essence, spiritual, eternal, invisible, immutable, infinite, incomprehensible, unspeakable, almighty, most wise, good, just, and merciful. -Art. 1.

All manner of expressing God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in an outward form, is utterly unlawful; as also, all other images devised or made by man, to the use of religion.

All religious worship ought to be given to God alone: from whom all goodness, health, and grace, ought to be both asked and looked for, as from the very author and giver of the same, and from none other.

The name of God is to be used with all reverence and holy respect, and therefore, all vain and rash swearing is utterly to be condemned.-Arts. 2 and 10.

LATTER CONFESSION OF HELVETIA.-1566. We believe and teach, that God is one in essence or nature, subsisting by himself, FIRST CONFESSION OF SCOTLAND.-1560. all-sufficient in himself, invisible, without We confess and acknowledge one only a body, infinite, eternal, the creator of all God, to whom only we must cleave, whom things, both visible and invisible-the only we must serve, whom only we must chiefest good, living, quickening, and pre-worship, and in whom only we must put serving all things, almighty, and exceeding our trust; who is eternal, infinite, unmeawise, gentle and merciful, just and true.- surable, incomprehensible, omnipotent, inChap. 3. visible.

And because God is an invisible spirit, and an incomprehensible essence, he cannot, therefore, by any art or image, be expressed.-Chap. 4.

CONFESSION OF IRELAND.-1615.

There is one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible.

Our duty towards God is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength, to worship him, and to give him thanks, to put our whole trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy name and his Word, and to serve him truly, all the days of our life.

By whom we confess and believe all things in heaven and earth, as well visible as invisible, to have been created, to be retained in their being, and to be ruled and guided by his inscrutable providence, to such end as his eternal wisdom, goodness, and justice, hath appointed to the manifestation of his glory.—Art. 1. CONFESSION OF FAITH AGREED UPON BY

THE ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES AT WEST-
MINSTER, APPROVED BY THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE KIRK OF SCOTLAND,
1647, AND RATIFIED BY ACTS OF PARLIA-
MENT, 1649 AND 1690.

There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, In all our necessities we ought to have most wise, most holy, most free, most abrecourse to God by prayer; assuring our-solute, working all things according to the selves, that whatsoever we ask of the Father, in the name of his Son, our only mediator and intercessor, Christ Jesus, and according to his will, he will undoubtedly grant it.

We ought to prepare our hearts before we pray, and understand the things that we ask when we pray; that both our hearts and voices may together sound in the ears of God's majesty.

counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and withal most just and terrible in his judgments-hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.

God hath all life, glory, goodness, bless[edness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath

When Almighty God smiteth us with affliction, or some great calamity hangeth over us, or any other weighty cause so requireth, it is our duty to humble our-made, not deriving any glory from them, selves in fasting, to bewail our sins with a sorrowful heart, and to addict ourselves to earnest prayer, that it might please God to turn his wrath from us, or supply us with such graces as we greatly stand in need of.

but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them: he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom, are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them, what