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sor's journal is a kind of jesuitical register, such as Napoleon desired to have; which the commissioner of any vacant congregation may read; and which will af ford ample materials for ecclesiastical electioneering when some pulpit is to be supplied with a faithful guard of orthodoxy. A dull uniformity in the common place topics of sectarian theology may be immediately detected, and every one may see that mind and liberty wither together.-Let the reader judge for himself what the effects of this system of ecclesiastical creedmaking must be, especially when sustained by such mighty adjuvants, or nourished by such resources. As a member of Christ's Church, and as a minister of his gospel, I protest against such gigantic immoralities;immoralities, which, we are told, may, in some of their connexions, bring a man near, if not under, the guilt of LYING TO THE HOLY GHOST, and some who may stand in certain relations to him, under the charge of SUBORNATION OF PERJURY. How could ministers of Jesus Christ place such things near his holy altars?

CHAPTER III.

Subject continued. Cases stated.

ONLY one fact in illustration of the general subject has been stated in the preceding chapter. I wish there were no more. But I must proceed, and inquire after the circumstances of ministerial ordination. I shall state a case, which will bring the subject home to every man's bosom ; and to decide accurately and promptly on which, will require no great legal

acumen or philosophic subtlety. I shall not colour it too highly, nor substitute the visions of life for its realities. The subject under consideration seeks no advantage from the use of hyperbole.

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Á young man, of acknowledged talent and unfeigned piety, covets employment in the ministry, after having endured all those anxieties which that subject, as a matter of consultation between his own soul and the great head of the church, creates. His early history forms a train of providential circumstances of the most happy character. Every facility had been afforded to qualify him for the work. His believing parents had lent him to the Lord. He lived nigh the sanctuary; and, like Samuel, as he grew up, he was employed in its service, as opportunities occurred, or his own strength and buoyant feelings admitted. He cannot be charged with "habitual indiscretion," nor suspected of "a defect in sobriety in mind." His gifts, as far as he has been permitted to exercise them, have procured for him the esteem and confidence of all who know him; and effects have followed, which look very much like the Master's blessing shed upon his efforts-now evidently bespeaking him for himself. His lot has been cast in one of these voluntary associations, where he was known from his infancy, under whose eye his education had been conducted, and to whose old men and young men he had become firmly attached. His fathers were labourers in the same vineyard before him, and when they went to their rest, they left Elijah's mantle to their young Elisha. Now a call from the church demands his active services, and in the fulness of vigour and joy he prepares himself to obey.

Such is the case. tate to license or ordain such a "candidate for the holy ministry?" In ordaining him a presbytery would not contravene the scriptural statute"lay hands suddenly on no man," for he is a faithful man, and is "able to teach others also." The way to proceed is perfectly clear, for every thing is obtained which the scriptures call for. But a difficulty arises from another quarter, and about which the scriptures have said nothing. He imagines that the CREED of this voluntary association is a piece of mere human legislation, and he cannot consent to subscribe it as obligatory on his conscience. He can consistently acknowledge none but Jehovah to be the lord of his conscience. Ministers of the gospel he views as his brethren, whom he can dearly love; but refuses to know them as the directors of his faith. He judges of the peculiarities of his own social position, and labours, according to his ability, to produce there the greatest amount of spiritual effect; but he shrinks from a proposition, which constitutes his brethren at a distance, or his fathers, who have long since gone to the dead, and around whose sepulchres he has often walked, — his spirit saddened by his own melancholy recollections the overseers of his thoughts and duties. He thinks he must see the word of life with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, handle it with his own hands, and taste it with his own lips. He knows that he might keep all this a secret from the presbytery, within whose bounds his lot has been thrown, and never whisper to any one that his mind has wandered into an orbit so eccentric. But he is too ingenuous. He detests vows curtailed by mental reservation, ut

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tered with equivocal feelings, and hidden from unsuspicious presbyters, but seen by the heart-searching God. With a guileless heart and an open brow he confesses the whole, and respectfully, but firmly, claims his RIGHT: -a right which exists, wholly independent of the will of the church court at whose bar he stands, and the evidence of whose existence must be sought for in his own spiritual character and ministerial qualifications.

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What answer would the presbytery be apt to give him. "They would certainly reply," says Dr. M. "Your demand is very unreasonable. Our union is a VOLUNTARY one, for our mutual spiritual benefit. We have not solicited you to join us; and you cannot possibly have a right to force yourself into our body."

"But, brethren," meekly rejoins this troubled Apollos, "I am not forcing myself into your body. The bounds of my habitation have been fixed by the great arbiter of the universe. My lot has been cast among you without any reference to my consent. My father was your companion in ministerial labour. He taught me to love and revere you. Circumstances which I cannot control, and from whose influence I have no wish to escape, have led me to 'desire the office of a bishop as a good work,' to which, I am instructed in the scriptures, I must be ordained by 'the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.' No option is left to me, but to make my present application, and I humbly conceive that I may claim your compliance as my RIGHT. You can charge me with no crime, nor accuse me of any obliquity, saving, that, in obedience to the Lord's command, I refuse to call any man MASTER on earth.”

"Young man," hastily answers Dr. M. as moderator on the occasion,-"The whole world is before you. Go where you please. We cannot agree to receive you, unless you are willing to walk with us on our OWN PRINCIPLES. Such an answer as I have given you, 'would undoubtedly be deemed a proper one by every REASONABLE person.' If you 'complain that the society has persecuted and injured you,' no one will think you 'possessed of common sense.'”

The youthful applicant, finding that his feelings are made a matter of ecclesiastical sport, or of lordly altercation, and that himself has been scorned as a fool, retires abashed and confounded, saying within himself, Can these men be the servants of the meek and lowly Jesus?

He seeks another denomination. All are alike a series of voluntary associations, self-constituted lords of the "heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Petty sects have divided among them the inheritance of the saints. Cherishing the most ridiculous conceits, they have lifted up their banner against the moral empire of the Lord of hosts,—to which he has given one faith, one baptism, and one hope of a heavenly calling, -like the bramble anointed to reign over the trees of the wood. He may range through them all, until he meets the Racovian catechism itself, or some of its shreds, manufactured into an article of faith.

Alone in wonder lost he seems to stand,
A very stranger in his native land.

He throws himself upon the elemental principles of society, and appeals to the community at large, as he finds it composed of some who profess, and of some who do not profess christianity. The first must obey

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