spontaneously and heartily to engage in the work of self-reformation. The sincere and upright in heart, however, ought not to be discouraged at the inattention and obstinacy of their brethren; for had this been the case in times past, no reformation had ever been effected. It becomes, therefore, the immediate duty and privilege of all that perceive and feel the necessity of the proposed reformation, to exert themselves by every scriptural means to promote it. Seeing the pernicious nature, and anti-scriptural effects of the present corruptions of Christianity, both upon professors and non-professors, in producing alienations amongst the former, in direct opposition to the law of Christ; and in casting almost insuperable obstacles in the way of the conversion of the latter;-the serious and upright of all parties, must feel conscientiously bound to endeavour, to the utmost of their power to effect a genuine and radical reformation; which, we presume, can only be effected by a sincere conformity to the original exhibition of our holy religion, the divinely authorized rule and standard of faith and practice. To such, therefore, we appeal ; and for the consideration of such alone, we have respectfully submitted the above queries.

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Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment,"-Paul, 1 Cor. i. 10.

"Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, I pray for them who shall believe on me through the word of my Apostles: that they may all be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me; that the world may know that you have sent me; and have loved them as you have loved me."-John xvii.

"In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."-Christ.

"From the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts."-Mal. iii. 7.

"Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues."-Rev. xviii. 4.

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He that testifies these things says, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus."

REFORMATION.

IN presenting a few plain reflections upon this topic, we shall at present consider the propriety of the call which has been made upon the religious communities in behalf of reformation. For if there really exists no just cause for such a demand; if religious society has no need of reformation, but is truly modelled after the divine pattern, and perfectly conformed to the requisitions of the Word of God, a call to reformation must be regarded as idle and impertinent.

When we speak of the reformation of religious communities, we

have reference of course to that of religious societies, as now constituted and organized. The question of individual and personal refor mation is a different one, though indeed intimitately connected, as the great end to be attained by any professed change in the polity of existing religious establishments, and their various methods of ministering the gospel of Christ. That there are individuals in all communities who are reformed in individual character, of which a freedom from party bigotry is one of the clearest marks, must be cheerfully admitted by every one. But this admission does not at all affect the question at issue, which is not, whether any one can attain to personal holiness and acceptance with God under the ministry of any of the different religious bodies; but whether any one of these bodies is so organized, and does so present to the world the gospel of Christ in its primitive simplicity and uncorrupted perfection, as to fulfil the divine purposes, and place the real enjoyment of Christianity within the reach of all.

It would seem, from the opposition which each party makes to the suggestions and views which we have felt it our duty to offer, that each one of them has decided this question in the affirmative, and in its own favour, so that all the parties into which the religious world is divided, do severally claim to be churches of Jesus Christ, and to have, as religious bodies, no need whatever of reformation. The Church of Rome urges her antiquity, her supremacy and infallibility. She boldly denounces and anathematizes all who are not of her communion, and demands an unqualified submission to all her traditions. The Church of England boasts the purity of her doctrines as contained in the thirty-nine articles; the authority of her clergy as the lineal descendants of the Apostles, and the excellency of her Liturgy which she almosts believes to have been composed by inspiration. The Presbyterian body claims to have the true scriptural ministry, and to have secured in her elect points of doctrine the very essence of all religious truth. To this claim, the Methodist community sets itself in opposition, and affirms that in her five cardinal points of Arminianism alone there is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But we need not adduce the opposing claims of Unitarians, of Baptists, of Quakers, Shakers, Independents, and what not; each one of which insists on its own perfections, and while it calls upon all others to reform, denies that any change is needed in itself. Each one is equally correct and infallible in its own estimation. Each one is intollerant of every other, in proportion of its own power to rule, although there is perhaps some difference here between the Protestants and the Catholics, as to the disposition they would seem inclined to make of their opposers; for while the former benevolently commit them to the care of Charity, the latter very impolitely send all their heretics to the very warmest place with which they are acquainted. Under such circumstances, it is not to be expected that any gious community, as such, will lend an ear to any direct proposition for reformation; for such a proposal at once implies a deficiency which it does not acknowledge, and is likely to be regarded as an

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insult, rather than a kindness. Yet one would think there could not be a stronger evidence of the need of reformation, than this morbid sensibility to criticism, and this overweening self-complacency or confidence which repels in advance every overture to a calm and considerate examination of matters of so much interest to the human race. Not that we regard it as proper that a religious body should be continually agitated by innovations, or that they should lightly change the views they have derived from sources entitled to their confidence, but every religious body should be ready to entertain the all-important question, which, under no circumstances can be inappropriate, whether or not it is in all respects fully conformed to the Christian standard, and is really presenting to the world the gospel of Christ in its original simplicity and purity. For this is a question which is by no means to be regarded as settled, because in former ages, a few eminent men framed these religious systems and induced different portions of the community to receive them as correct and perfect. It is a question which must be considered in all the light which the present age can throw around it, and decided by the aid of all the advancements which have been made in biblical knowledge, and an enlightened liberality.

It would indeed be strange, if, while the human mind has been gradually emancipating itself from the shackles of ancient superstitions, and while the scriptures of truth have been so diligently and so universally disseminated, and so carefully and critically studied, that no imperfection should have been discovered in former views, and that no more just and enlarged understanding of the divine plan of salvation should have been attained. This would be contrary to every thing known of the human mind, and would be to deny to it in religious science, that power of progression which is conceded to it in every other department of human knowledge. Nay, it would be even to discredit history, and to close the eyes against the most obvious facts-such, for instance, as the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, an event which forms an epoch in the annals of Protestantism, and which indirectly exposes the folly of the exclusive claims of particular denominations, and the necessity for which we pleaded, of a review of the basis on which each of the Protestant communities rests, and of such a reformation on the part of all, that all may unite upon the true foundation laid by Christ and his Apostles. We are not unaware that we are living under what is termed "The Protestant Reformation," and that all the communities in opposition to Romanism are styled The Reformed Churches." Nor are we unmindful that they glory in this designation, under which they have so earnestly and so successfully contended against the usurpations of Rome. It is perfectly natural, indeed, that they should be tenacious of this epithet, reformed," and that they should reject with disdain the call now made upon them, if they suppose it to imply that they are not yet reformed, and that all their boasted distinction as to purity of faith and practice is merely a delusion. Having been themselves, as they conceive, the reformers of the world by way of eminence, they cannot endure that a few

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humble and obscure individuals should call upon them to be themselves reformed. But they greatly mistake the nature of the overture made to them, if they thus imagine that no credit is awarded to them for reformation, or that their arduous struggles for purity of doctrine and for the Word of God, are regarded with indifference. It would indeed argue but little sense, and still less religion, for any one to repudiate, or even to fail to venerate the leading principles and doctrines of the Protestant reformation. But even if such persons could be found amongst our ranks, as there are in all communities, when in movement, individuals whose zeal is proportioned to their ignorance rather than to their knowledge, and is fired by the baser passions of our nature, rather than by the embers of the altar of divine love, and who rush into those extremes in which alone they find the elements of a discord congenial to their turbulent dispositions, yet the community to which such persons may happen to attach themselves, is no more accountable for their course than human nature itself or human society at large. Still the errors of such factionists are often charged upon the community upon which they have fastened, and afford in all cases a plausible pretext to those who seek occasion to discredit it, and to overthrow principles which they conceive to be adverse to their own favourite opinions.

When, however, it may be conceded that the Protestant communities are in fact reformed, it does by no means follow that they are not still in need of reformation. If they would consider for a moment that reformation is, in the nature of things, gradual and progressive, they would not be guilty of the error of supposing their title of " Reformed," to be an absolute when it is only a relative expression. In imagining themselves wholly reformed because the epithet "reformed" is applied to them, they think that their respective founders attained at once to the whole truth in divine things, and handed down systems of faith and ecclesiastical polity so perfect as to admit of no change in all succeeding time. Yet they must know that they cannot all be right, and one would suppose it scarcely possible they could be ignorant of the fact that they themselves have really changed in many points under the plastic influence of changing times and society, and that they are no longer what they were in the days of yore.

The innovating independance of the human mind for ever struggles successfully with the despotism of spiritual legitimacy; and civilization, refinement, science, and art form a holy alliance too powerful to permit the tyranny of empire in the free government of human aspirations and progress. It was not to be expected that any mind, however acute, could, when first aroused from the lethargy of ages, comprehend at a glance the whole system of divine truth; nor that any community would at once, in all respects, carry out into practice even the principles which they professed to have adopted. For not only is the discovery of truth progressive, but conformity to it also; and while all due honour is to be paid to the illustrious men who maintained Protestant principles against the power of Popery, and to those communities which have continued to adhere to these prin

ciples, neither the one nor the other are to be regarded as having attained perfection. And where there is not an entire conformity to the accredited standard of divine truth, there is of necessity demanded a progress,—a change-which, in the case of organized communities, is but another word for reformation.

The proposition, then, which is really made to the religious communities of the day, is, not to disparage or neglect the labours and learning of the eminent and pious of any age, or to renounce the leading doctrines of Protestantism, established as they are upon the incontrovertible evidence of Holy Writ; but to advance in Christian knowledge; to make larger discoveries of divine truth; to carry out principles which remain disregarded in their own standards—in short, to co-operate in the good and glorious work of restoring a pure primitive Christianity in form and spirit, in principle and practice. No one who is familiar with the New Testament can for a moment be persuaded that any religious body does now present to the world such an exhibition of Christianity, and surely no one who loves God, and feels for the condition of his own race, should be offended at any overture for the attainment of so desirable an object.

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.-No. IV.

WE have advanced to the sixth proposition of the projected basis, viz.,—

"The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner."

To this proposition the evangelical of all theories will, I presume, very cordially accede. They may, indeed, differ as to the mode of spiritual operations; but as to the fact of a holy spiritual influence, through the gospel, on the thoughts, desires, and volitions of the human heart, there is no consistent believer or student of the Bible can doubt. That the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit act, each an efficient part, in the grand drama of man's redemption and salvation, there is no lack of evidence in the inspired writings.

Of the Father, as the primeval cause and origin of the whole scheme of man's redemption, to the Spirit's work as the sanctifier and comforter of his people, are all the arrangements, dispensations, and instrumentalities of the new as well as of the old creation-of the spiritual as well as of the physical universe-of the temporal as well as of the eternal relations of all existences that compose his intellectual and moral dominions.

The grand agent by whom all things are created, upheld, and managed, is the Son of God. Redemption and preservation are his great work. True, in all this "the Father worketh in concert with him" for as he said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work"“Whatsoever works the Son personally performs, the same also doeth the Father." The Holy Spirit is the perfecter, the sanctifier, the consummator of all divine counsels, purposes, and designs.