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character and attributes of God; of the character, work, and offices of Christ; of the Holy Spirit; of the character and wants of man in relation to God and the Christian scheme; of what man was before the fall, of what he is since, and of the change required in him as a preparation for holy and useful living on earth, and for happiness in heaven; of the future states of reward and punishment; and of sundry other doctrines prominently revealed in Scripture, and practically important. should be distinctly declarative of all the positive institutions that are peculiar to Christianity, such as the consecration of a seventh part of time to religious and holy purposes; the Christian ministry and its appropriate offices; the sacraments; private, family, and public worship; private and public reading, teaching, and studying of the Scriptures; matrimony and its laws; family and civil commonwealths, with the peculiar rights and powers of each, &c. The moral, perpetual, and universal obligations of the Decalogue, in all its parts and bearings, should have a distinct recognition; as well also the obligation of all parts of holy Scripture, strictly and purely moral, and of universal application. The two great and comprehensive laws of Christ, on love to God and love to man, should be made prominent.

It may easily be seen, that the Church of Christ, as an organized society, bound together in covenant with God and with each other for private and public good, for the maintenance and propagation of Christian principles, and for the grand enterprise intrusted to her of subjugating the world to Jesus Christ, of "teaching all nations, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," would be defective without some public and distinct recognitions, as particular and comprehensive as these. These fundamental and grand principles should be set forth, as "line upon line, and precept upon precept." They should be a part of common and universal education, public and private. Else, from the known depravity of man, the church would decline, and Christianity become a nullity, as to its hal

lowing and efficacious influences in renovating human character and human society.

Secondly, ought a creed, or confession of faith, to be simply declarative, or should it go into proof and exposition? It will be apparent, that for the most common and popular uses of a creed, it cannot conveniently go far beyond the province of declaration. The proof and exposition more properly belong to the offices of public and private instruction. Indeed, a creed, strictly and properly, is nothing more than a declaration, or profession, involving an appeal for proof and explanation to the record, on which it is founded. It may be proper and expedient for the church in her supervisory offices to construct, authorize, and publish such manuals of proof and exposition to accompany creeds, as may be needful to guide, assist, and perfect her members and the public generally in the study and knowledge of the Scriptures. But these can hardly be regarded as properly component parts of a creed, or confession of faith.

Thirdly, should a creed be catholic, or sectarian? Of. course, I use these words, catholic and sectarian, in the most catholic and enlarged sense, unless in application to the latter such a pretension should seem to be a contradiction in terms. There is something so narrow, so contracted, and so obnoxious to catholic feeling in the term sectarian, that one can hardly conceive of its having a very liberal signification. Both the word and its suggestions, it must be confessed, are alike unwholesome. And if I and my readers are agreed in this, we shall also agree, without the trouble of argument, that a creed ought not to be sectarian. It is the most unsuitable, most unbecoming place for the introduction of such a leaven, that can be imagined. It is the pest of individuals, the pest of society, and the very poison of a creed. Nothing can be more offensive anywhere; in a public and common declaration of faith in God's word, it is loathsome—it is a profanation of the most sacred things -a prostitution of that which is holy, and which ought to be kept holy, to the unhallowed ends of unhallowed ambition, or of some morbid and extravagant sentiment.

Let every Christian sect enjoy their own sectarian peculiarities; it is their right so long as it suits them. Let them be incorporated and stand out in their chosen manuals ; to this there can be no objection. But for the honour of religion and the edification of the church, let them not appear in so holy and sacred a composition, as a solemn public confession of faith, declarative of the great and catholic principles of Christianity, ought to be. form and terms of a common creed, as seems to me, ought to be as pure from such an ingredient, as the terms and form of a common and public prayer. It should be properly a devotional composition, calculated, whenever read or heard to assist devotion-to abstract the mind entirely from the regions and atmosphere of controversy, and to bring it in immediate contact with those fundamental and prominent truths of revelation, which are so obvious, as to commend themselves to every mind, that is openly and honestly disposed to receive and cherish what God has spoken.

Lastly, ought slight deviations from assent to each and every several item of a creed, that has numerous and minute ramifications, to be regarded as worthy of disciplinary notice? This is a very important and practical question-a question which, perhaps, has made more disturbance in the Christian world than any other-a question, which has armed the papal inquisition with terrific powers-and which in all ages and countries disposes a like disposition to tyrannize over the church of God. It is a practice on the affirmative of this question, which has to a great extent brought creeds into disrepute-into absolute contempt. It is mistaking the legitimate design of a creed, and perverting it to the purposes of unholy ambition.

I will not say, that there is no measure of deviation from a conventional and prescribed form of Christian doctrine, that should be visited with the admonitions and corrective efforts of disciplinary authority; but the lessons of past, and I may add, of present experience, ought to advise those, who are set to guard" the form of sound words" in the church of Christ, that deviation may be

suspected where there is none; that the degree may be aggravated by a misunderstanding; that it is often innonocent when it is supposed to be injurious, or venial when it is pronounced to be criminal; and that in all cases of slight deviation, it is more easily corrected by kindness, by forbearance, and by gentleness, than by inquisitorial severity. Doubtless, it is expedient, and more favourable to harmony of purpose, and efficiency of combined enterprise, that a comfortable uniformity in the recognition and acceptance of the cardinal doctrines of Christianity should characterize those, who are associated under the same Christian denomination. But the theory is entirely false, that there can be no Christian fellowship, no harmony of general design, no concert of action, no union in the grand enterprise. of converting sinners and evangelizing the world, without an exact uniformity of speculation and belief in regard to the minor details and more unimportant specifications of a common creed. So far is this from being true, that something like the very opposite can be demonstrated in every Christian's personal experience, and by bright and most cheering constellations of facts and events, which at this moment lie thickly clustering and splendidly effulgent on the map of the religious world.

With those who approve of these institutions, and take an interest in them—which generally characterizes the American community-I might allude to the experiments and proofs of the age in which we live, as developed in the Bible, Tract, Sunday School, Temperance, and various other societies, religious and humane, on the public platforms of which Christians of all creeds and of all sects have met together, shaken hands, reciprocated the kindest and holiest charities, prayed together, pledged union, been happy, and, as they have confessed, more happy than ever before, by the discovery, in the experience of actual contact, that it is the cardinal principles of Christianity, and not the minor details of secta.rian creeds, which constitute the ground of Christian fellowship-which bind men to each other and to God. I have no concern but that this appeal, and to other facts of

the same class, will be perfectly convincing-that it will be overwhelming against the opposite theory; because I have the heart, the affections, the charities of every Christian on my side. What Christian in encounteringas who has not encountered-a Christian of another sect, differing very widely as was supposed-the very name of which, perhaps, from the prejudices of education, had been unpleasant-but meeting together providentially, both parties courteous to each other in their manners, speaking kindly on topics where they differed, reciprocating affection on those in which they agreed, sympathizing on the grand principles of a common religion, uniting perhaps in the worship of a common Father through a common Mediator and Redeemer-what Christian, I ask, in such an interview and by such intercourse, has not felt the kindlings of a fraternal and holy affection, and at last found out, that he did not love such a brother, or confide in him the less, because they differed; but that he actually loved him the more on that very account, found more pleasure in his society, and was more happy, because he had providentially discovered, that his previous impressions were wrong and unnecessary; and that it is the image of Christ, beaming out from the mind, in the action of the affections, that constitutes the element of Christian union, and not any particular shapes and modes of speculative opinion ?— We have here laid open before us a principle, which has numberless bearings, and which is always the same in all relations and conditions. Christians, on becoming acquainted and in the exercise of charity, where kindness of manners is properly exemplified, actually love one another more under different, than under the same shades of opinion. The philosophy of this I have nothing to do with; it is the fact which I wish to develope.

man

It is, however, doubtless an elementary principle of Christian affection-the same in God and the same in -the same in Him who came down from heaven, in love for those who differed from him, to reconcile them by kindness, and to enjoy their gratitude and confidence ; the same, when he bears with their imperfections and