articles, and not pretend to be wiser than our forefathers. But, says the student, it will not do for me to subscribe any human proposition, unless I am positively convinced of its truth-for me to say it is so, merely because I do not know that it is not so, does not comport with my ideas of propriety. I cannot say it is so, until I am convinced of it. But cannot you believe this on the faith of all the Synods, ministers, churches, and good men, that have existed since the reformation? The student answers: The doctrine is either found in the Bible, or it is not. If it is not there, I ought not to assent to it, although all other men believe it; and if it is there, I must see it before I can subscribe to it. To the correctness of my belief of the Bible, I am answerable to God, and I may not trifle on this subject, so as to pin my faith on another man's sleeve, or profess to believe that God's word speaks thus and thus, merely because the church or any number of men declare that it does so speak.

We proceed now to the remaining resolutions of the Board of Superintendants, in declaring their final decision in the case of L. B. Van Dyck. It is strange how, in the transactions of men, the attempt to put on appearances contrary to the reality, defeats its own end. The Board would fain have it believed that their rejection of this young man was not a matter of choice, but a matter of necessity, arising from his misfortune in not conforming to the standards, and therefore, after declaring that, "whereas he has given a high degree of satisfaction to the Board by the praiseworthy candour manifested on the topics on which his mind was not settled, and the attention paid to his studies, and that it is regarded as exceedingly desirable that the way should be opened for his admission into the ministry of our Church," they resolve "that he be advised to continue in the Institution, and pay a particular attention to the subjects alluded to;" and also, that a special meeting of the Board might be called, when his mind should become settled on those subjects. That the different members of the Board had all of them the same views in agreeing to this resolution does not appear to me probable; it is impossible, however, to discriminate between them, as heir debates are not recorded in their proceedings, and they

did not permit the presence of witnesses: Doubtless some of the Board viewed the whole of the proceedings as they ought to be viewed-unjust to the student, impolitic as it respected the Seminary, and disgraceful to the Church. The majority on the question of his rejection, may have been composed of different individuals from those who carried the subsequent resolutions. Be that as it may, some fear is betrayed in the latter resolutions, either of the imputation of injustice done to the student, or of danger to the interests of the theological school, from the establishment of a precedent like this, viz. the rejection of a student for doubting on unimportant articles in the Confession of Faith. The student must, therefore, be advised to remain in the seminary, and pay particular attention to the points on which he doubted. Could the Board be serious in professing to believe that the student would remain there? What was there to induce him to remain? Was it supposed that a young man of his intelligence could fail to see the spirit with which the proceedings against him had been carried on? Could he have failed to discern that from the time Dr. Milledoler demanded his first paper, which he had withdrawn, to the time he went into the hands of the committee, appointed by the Board, and from the time that committee delivered him up, until his case was finally decided by the Board, he had been treated as a criminal on trial for some serious misdemeanour; and the advice now with so much apparent kindness proffered to him, was nothing more or less than an attempt to incarcerate him in the Theological Hall, and there have his intellects and his faith hammered into due shape on the anvil of the professor of didactic theology; or of being humbled into an acquiescence with the dogmas of the school; and of being made use of as a beacon to warn all subsequent students to make the submission of their judgment to the teachings of the school in due time, on pain of like imprisonment and disgrace. The Board, at their second meeting in November, declare that their resolutions at the first meeting must be understood as instructing Mr. Van Dyck to remain in the seminary until his mind should be finally settled, and made correct; and in their circular they denounce him

as guilty of disorderly and unchristian conduct, in escaping from the place of his incarceration, without the permission of those who committed him to his prison. And the Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church, (at that time, certainly not yet, disavowed,) treated his departure from New-Brunswick as an "escape from discipline."

Hence, one would suppose, that the privilege allowed Mr. Van Dyck to remain in the theological hall, was not given with so kind an intent as the honeyed words introduced into the resolutions would seem to indicate to the careless observer. The truth seems to be, that the honey was intended for the public to keep their temper sweet under the attempt to abuse their common sense, while it was calculated that the bitter part of the potion could not fail to be tasted by the student, and if he proved refractory in drinking it to the dregs, occasion would be afforded of accusing him of contumacy; and if he should quietly swallow it down, why then a signal triumph would be obtained over that freedom of religious inquiry, which had been so presumptuously claimed by this strange student. Then a complete end would be seen of all religious speculations, which had given so much trouble to the professors of didactic theology, and had given so much alarm to some of the members of the Board, and other ministers of our church, who value their opinions very highly for their orthodoxy. The truth is, and the writer has no reason for concealing it, that long before the final examination of Mr. Van Dyck, it was said by the knowing ones in the Church, that he was too much of a speculative turn of mind; and it is said, that he has even been advised by some well meaning people, that never were guilty of too much speculation themselves, that he had better turn his mind more to practical matters. And there is very little doubt that Mr. Van Dyck's speculations have been the means of much of the persecution he has endured while in the seminary, and after he made his escape from it. As this supposed crime is, in my mind, a virtue, and as there is, in my belief, a radical error existing on this point in our church, I must be permitted, in some subsequent pages, to make a few remarks tending to place the subject in its proper light.

SECTION IV.

Subsequent proceedings.-Mr. Van Dyck leaves the School at New Brunswick.-Is licensed in the Presbyterian Church.Members of the Board enraged.-Ridiculous affectation.Second meeting of the board.-Outrageous resolutions.— Remarks.-Call of extra synod.-Their resolutions.-Close of the narrative.

O love destroying, cursed Bigotry!

Cursed in heaven, but cursed more in hell!
Religion's most abhorr'd.

The infidel who turned his impious war
Against the walls of Zion, on the rock
Of ages built, and higher than the clouds,
Sinned, and had his due reward; but she
Within her walls sinned more; of Ignorance
Begot, her daughter Persecution walked
The earth from age to age, and drank the blood
Of God's peculiar children-and was drunk;
And in her drunkenness dreamed of doing good.

Course of Time.

THAT the members of the Board, when they rejected the young student for no other crime than doubting unimportant doctrines, "unreduced [and unreducible] to practice," dreamed they were doing good, may be believed by most of my readers; and that in their subsequent persecution, after they became drunk with party zeal and anger, they continued to "dream of doing good," will be credited by some, who are not ignorant of the nature and fruits of bigotry and intolerance.

When the Board advised the student to remain in the Seminary, aware that he, at least, would consider the advice, though couched in the form of a request, to be intended, in fact, as a command, must have been morally certain that he would not submit to the sentence. He, unwilling for a single day to submit, or even appear to acquiesce, in so palpable an usurpation of power, and such an attempt to coerce him in his religious faith, instantly left New Brunswick, and without delay,

E

resolved to seek in another church, for a license to serve his Master, in that business of life, to which he had devoted himself, and all that he had. His mind was naturally led to the Presbytery of Columbia, within whose territorial bounds, he was born and bred, and then had his home. To bring his case properly before them, it seemed to him necessary to have some documents, to show his standing in the Seminary where he had received his theological education, and some other statement than his own, of the proceedings of the Board. It could not be expected, that the professors of the school should give him a certificate of his standing there, after the Board had resolved, that he should be refused a Professoral Certificate; and even an unofficial statement, by the two professors, who were not teachers of didactic theology, would have been hazardous in them, and perhaps not very profitable to the student. He was furnished, indeed, with the final resolution of the Board, which, while it gave a satisfactory attestation to his candour, and attention to his studies, at the same time stated, that he had been rejected by them, for not being willing to subscribe the entire standards, because his mind was unsettled on several important doctrines. What these important doctrines were, the resolution did not state. It seemed, then, very desirable, that he should be prepared to show the Presbytery what those important doctrines were, in order to enable them to judge of their importance. Application was accordingly made to a prominent member of the Board, who was present at the meeting, and well acquainted with Mr. Van Dyck, for a statement in writing, to be exhibited to the Presbytery, declaring the reasons of the rejection of Mr. Van Dyck, by the Board. This request was refused, on the ground that such a certificate would properly come from the Clerk of the Board of Superintendants. Application was then made to the Clerk; and he, after consulting with his friends, refused to give a copy of the proceedings, because the board had not authorizd him to give one! Thus circumstanced, the harassed student had no alternative left, but to submit to the Presbytery a copy of the papers he had delivered to Dr. Milledoler, and the resolution of the Board; and to rest on his own character, for credit with