tered by an increasing number of the established clergy, cannot admit a doubt, even on the retrospect of a very few years. This happy omen, whatever become of Dissent, every Christian mind must feel disposed most heartily to hail. "Christ is preached: I therein rejoice; yea, and will rejoice." It is, however, worthy of a question, how far, in the present condition and aims of the body of orthodox Dissenters, the purer exhibition of the Gospel, which is thus happily gaining ground in the Establishment, will tend to produce a reabsorption of those who are now viewed as separate from its communion. submitted to the verdict of an increasing number of individuals, who are qualified to form a judgment on its merits. The voice of public opinion, properly so called, is irresistible. Nothing but time is wanting to render it triumphant. Though it may long seem to be unheard, or disregarded, amid the din of party interest, or the absorbing selfishness of private ambition, it must ultimately prevail. Though the Church of England should not be actually subverted, nor her many thrones crumbled into dust by national convulsions, (which God forbid!) it is not chimerical to suppose that, at some period, perhaps not very distant, she may feel herself, in the progress of knowledge and public opinion, compelled at least to reform some of her more gross and palpable abuses, and to hearken to that voice which, as it is the lawful monitor of the state, claims to be also that of the church itself, and which, though it never burst in a storm upon her head, may be perpetually heard, at intervals, in powerful and steady murmurs, like distant thunder, in her horizon. It is not too much, moreover, to suppose, that those doctrines which, fermenting, centuries ago, amid the dregs of Popery, effected her separation from that corrupt community, may ultimately conduce to her still further reform, and in culcate, at length, the painful lesson, that Christ's kingdom is not of this world. But whatever be the ultimate bearing which a return to the practical exhibition of those doctrines, which sealed her independence of the triple crown, and confirmed her dissent from the Papal hierarchy, may have upon her own destiny, it is not irrelevant to suggest the inquiry, what effect this is likely to produce on the interests of Nonconformity? That the great leading doctrines of the Reformation are adminis This result, which, to some may appear a mere imagination, has been regarded, by persons whose judgment is entitled to respect, as far from improbable. The episcopal church possesses all the weight and recommendation of secular power and dignity; her clergy, taken in the mass, are the most learned body of men in the world, and their exertions in the cause of biblical literature are monuments of her fame, more imperishable than brass; and, stimulated as they have been, by the splendid rewards she has suspended over the heads of her sons, are such as no other Christian community can boast. The administration of the system, as it appears to the public view, is entirely in its favour; disencumbered of the obvious puerilities of Popery, and adapted to blend the emotions of piety with those of sentiment and taste, and to appeal to the eye, the ear, and the heart of man, as a sensitive being. Even our own immortal Milton, all antiprelatical as he was, it is evident, by no means felt insensible to "The high embowed roof, In service high, and anthem clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, And bring all heaven before mine eyes." : These subsidiaries to devotional sentiment, if such they be, are not peculiar to any establishment, Papal or Protestant, Episcopal or Presbyterian, and would equally harmonize even with the congregational discipline, though they are not all at our disposal. It is obvious, however, that we are far enough removed, in general, from duly appreciating those accessories to our system, which are easily within our power. Let any person, possessing the slightest ear for cadences and music, enter many of our congregations, even in the metropolis, which, it were reasonable to expect, would not be deficient in the example of decency and order in public worship, and he can scarcely fail to be sensible of a disturbance, if not a shock, to his devotional feelings. The leader of the psalmody, instead of being, as he ought, if possible, a man of some pretence to common education, not unfrequently cannot read a line, without doing violence to the sense of the author by his improper emphasis, and to the taste of the audience by the viciousness of his pronunciation; and we should, moreover, be sometimes ready to imagine that the ne plus ultra of psalmody consisted in affected grimace and vociferation. That will be a more prosperous period of the church, when those who boast of a purer form, and a more rational worship, shall be more alive to the importance of things which are too often, in the present day, neglected as secondaries, but which, there is no doubt, as they frequently exist, have the effect of repelling many from coming in contact with Dissent, and, which is of far higher consequence, have a direct tendency in many minds to injure NEW SERIES, No. 13. devotion, and to mar the beauty of holiness. But, to return from this digression, there are circumstances which, viewed in connection with the increasing energies and piety of the national clergy, look with a more ominous aspect on the interests of Nonconformity, and are to be regarded as at once the symptoms and the cause of internal weakness, not to say the precursors of decline. Have not parents too much neglected to imbue the minds of their children with the history of the great founders of Dissent, to endeavour to inspire them with reverence for their piety, their disinterestedness, their endurance of persecutions, necessities, imprisonments, for Christ's sake, and for the truth? Many who attend the now half-deserted places where these master-spirits laboured, have barely heard of their very names. The neglect of inculcating the motives from which they acted, at an age when the conscience is tender, and the mind still ingenuous and unsophisticated, has left the junior branches of dissenting families open, at a more mature period, to the full impression of the brilliant visions, the emoluments, and advantages which are always, more or less, connected with an established religion; and, in consequence, many have forsaken the discipline of their forefathers. The inertness or poverty of mind which has been manifested by some of the descendants of these great men; their repugnance against fairly meeting the objections of youthful inquirers after truth, at a period of life when error was not rivetted, has contributed its share, in many instances, to prejudice young persons of some taste and cultivation against evangelical Christianity; and as such minds are not apt to be imposed on, with the multitude, by mere dogmatism and assertion, C in an age, too, when every thing is investigated, and it has been found that there is no bye-road to truth, these have too often been disposed to identify the idea of evangelical religion with ignorance, or narrowness of mind. The consequence has been, that not a few persons of superior intellect have, at different times, betaken themselves either to the plausible refuge of the Arian heresy, the floating and variable scepticism of which may be called Ario-Socinianism, changing and tossed about with divers winds of doctrine; or to the more definite and tangible infidelity of Socinianism itself. It is a fact, little creditable to the orthodox, and surely not a necessary evil, that those congregations which have lamentably departed from the faith once delivered to the saints, and which constitute, it is to be feared, a component part of the mystical body of the infidel Antichrist, monopolize a very large proportion of the spirit of investigation-the intelligence which is to be found in the Dissenting body in general. Their opinions, however unscriptural and erroneous, have, it must be granted, considerably employed the activity of their minds. Among the evangelical, the claim of the Gospel to the dominion of the heart, with its whole range of feelings and emotions, has always been distinctly and justly allowed; but its equal demand to erect its throne, and keep up an active and pervading movement over the still nobler empire of the understanding, seems far from having been so generally and practically considered. In this respect, we have wofully degenerated from our forefathers. We are quite another race. Whatever be our zeal, it is not, in a literal sense, at all events, according to knowledge. Imagine a survey to be made of all the families in many of our largest congregations, and the younger part, the hope and flower of our dissent, to be interrogated, not merely, Why do you separate from the Establishment? but, Why do you profess to believe the Christian faith? why do you derive your opinions from the Bible?-why do you receive the scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the word of God? What would be the reply?—Tell it not in Gath! This neglect of training the higher faculties of our nature to the service of Christianity, is, it will scarcely be denied, a striking feature of the religious economy of the southern, as distinguished from the northern, part of Britain; and it is much to be lamented. The immediate consequence is, a strong appetite for excitement, with an impatience of scriptural discussion and research; a repugnance of whatever challenges a firmer grasp of the whole intellectual man; and not far distant in the train must follow, of necessity, the depreciation of sacred litera ture-the corruption of pulpit eloquence-a drowsy content with what is common-place, or, at best, a demand for flourishing and airy sketches, filled up with gaudy colouring-a strain extravagant or fanciful, like some specimens of the ornamental style in music, more grateful to the vulgar ear than the severe beauty, the deep and solemn harmony of the Handelian chorus-a preference of what is showy and superficial, to what is solid-a mere nominal Dis spiritual and divine; but real Dissent can only subsist in the atmosphere of intelligence. In no other can it move, or have its being. It can only stand on the basis of free inquiry, solid information, and diligent research after truth. If these be wanting, however extensive be the surface it seems to occupy, it will in reality prove but an empty name; its adherents will be merely accidental; and a new episcopal edifice, rearing its towered and stately head in the neighbourhood of its more humble sanctuary, may at once desolate it, as the crowned dragon, in the Apocalypse, (pardon the simile,) drew away in his train a third part of the stars of heaven. I shall not at present trespass farther on your patience with these desultory remarks, but remain, Your very sincere Friend, ON THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. (To the Editors.) GENTLEMEN,-I have lately had occasion to peruse several treatises on the subject of the Abrahamic Covenant, in its connection with the baptism of infants; and as many thoughts have thereby been excited, which will probably, like numbers of their predecessors, quickly perish; I am desirous of embodying a few of them in your pages, both for my own advantage, and in order to direct the attention of your readers to this, certainly not unimportant, subject. The evidence on which infant baptism rests is, the various indications contained in the New Testament, that it was practised in the times of the Apostles, confirmed by the custom of the church from the earliest period, and by that of circumcision, as enjoined in the covenant made by God with Abraham. As the scriptural evidence for this practice is not so direct and positive as might be desired; those who have endeavoured to strengthen it by its analogy with circumcision, have naturally encountered the opposition of the Baptists, who have aimed to weaken or destroy this analogy; that the rite may be reduced to its direct evidence, over which they conceive themselves to have an easy triumph. The purpose of the few observations I shall have to make, will be to show that their objections are inapplicable to the case, and by this means to re-establish the argu ment. 1. The Scripture testifies "that Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness;" and the Apostle Paul argues, that "he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, being uncircumcised." Now the Baptists, if I understand them aright, allow that circumcision was to Abraham himself "a seal of the righteousness by faith," but not to Isaac, or Ishmael, or the household of Abraham. This proceeds, I think, on a misapprehension of the case. Circumcision was certainly, as they argue, intended, in part, to keep distinct the family of Abraham, till the promised seed should be born from it; and in furtherance of this design, the land of Canaan was given as an inheritance. But that circumcision had a larger and spiritual signification, is manifest, from all those passages of Scripture which speak of the circumcision of the heart, and especially from Romans ii. 28, 29. "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God." Whoever looks at the Old Testament dispensation, or surveys the works of nature, will see that nothing is more common than for God to effect, by one provision, distinct and different purposes. The ancient sacrifices were, at the same time, intended spiritually to prefigure the one great sacrifice, and to have a direct ritual operation, in separating the Jews from the heathens, and in maintaining their civil polity. And thus, several of the organs of the human body are made to answer distinct and different purposes; whilst the light gladdens our eyes, it conveys both warmth and animation to every living creature. Is it wonderful then, that circumcision should have both a spiritual and temporal purpose, or that, as the dispensations of God reach their perfection, the spiritual should receive a fuller development, and the temporal remain attached to the earth to which it belongs? as the turbid torrent which breaks from the mountain, deposits in successive valleys its native impurities, and then rolls to the ocean a transparent stream, in the fulness of majesty and beauty. Is it asked then, how circumcision could be the seal of the righteousness of faith to the infant Isaac, as well as to the aged believer? We may readily answer, that as a seal of justification, and a sign of sanctification, it spoke the same language to both. To each it declared that Abraham had obtained justification by faith, and that all his generations could obtain it in no other way; and to each it also declared, that this was not to be a barren and unproductive faith, but one which produced "circumcision of the heart." a 2. It is objected, that the covenant of grace was not peculiar to Abraham, but was the same to Adam and Noah; that it was not made originally with Abraham, nor was he the judicial head in any of its engagements. All this may be true, and yet the consequence intended to be drawn from it does not follow. The covenant of grace was, indeed, given in paradise. It was intimated in the first promise, typified by the first sacrifice, embodied and manifested in the covenant made with Abraham, ratified and perfected in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Natural reason, as well as Scripture, proves that it was universal to the human race. As the infant died, by his connection with the first transgression, so his immortal part was rescued, by that covenant, from the consequences of transgression; and as man, universally, derived from the fall a corrupted nature, so was he, on that account, made the subject of a dispensation of mercy. The covenant of grace, therefore, was as accessible to Adam, and Noah, and Job, as it was to Abraham; and the father of the faithful received it, not as a solitary or family blessing, but as a rich deposit, in trust for the common benefit of all the human race. It was given to him, that in him all the families of the earth might be blessed; and before the coming of the promised seed, the ABRAHAMIC COVENANT stood in the centre of this benighted world, like a beacon on an eminence, to guide its miserable inhahitants to safety and peace. Nor does the continuance of this covenant to believers and their offspring, in any way prejudice those who are afar off. The grace which is given to them, shines equally on all around, and it is given them for the purpose of speaking peace to them that are afar off, as well as to those that are nigh. The Apostle Peter, with all his attachment to the covenant of promise, found at last, that it was no exclusive privilege, and confessed, that "of a truth God was no respecter of persons, but that, in every nation, he that feared him, and worked righteousness, was accepted of him." The Abrahamic Covenant manifested, moreover, the manner, as |