the universal public mind in our own country, on these great and vital questions, it would not therefore follow, that the testimony continually borne to them by Protestant Dissenters by their very existence, and by their known and constantly avowed sentiments, is either unnecessary or unimportant. By what means and agency has the public mind become thus enlightened, and public opinion thus corrected on these subjects? Has it not been by the claims advanced, and the discussions occasioned by men dissatisfied with the existing hierarchy? And although the union of the whole nation, if it were practicable in the same forms of worship, and in the belief of the same doctrines, might be in some respects desirable, certainly it would not be unattended with disadvantages, one of which would clearly be a state of things unfriendly to freedom, that parent and guardian of human improvement and happiness. And as Protestant Dissenters enjoy the honour of having contributed essentially to advance the principles of religious liberty, to the universal acknowledgment of Englishmen of all parties, so is their agency indispensible to maintain them in the supremacy they have reached. Is it impossible that intolerance should again rule the ascendant? Are there no germs of the principles of priestly domination discernible in the land? Is it an unheard of thing, that a nation should retrograde from liberty to slavery? And are there no tendencies in human nature and established hierarchies to the love and unjust exercise of power? And how are all these dangers to the cause of freedom and counteracting tendencies to be guarded against, but by the vigilance of those whose duty and interest equally demand for liberty their warmest affections and most energetic support. But Britain at this moment, in the providence of God, occupies a most commanding and influential station among the nations of the world. She is an example to the universe, of the blessings of freedom and toleration. Her eminence in arts, and arms, and commerce is the fruit of civil and religious liberty. It is impossible to peruse her history, or to compare it with that of other European nations, without the conviction forcing itself upon the mind, that her progress in liberty has been attended with a simultaneous advance in whatever is good and great. As having contributed their full share in securing her liberties, Protestant Dissenters are entitled to regard their cause as the cause of their country, their triumph as the triumph of their country. And to maintain that, when they secured toleration and repose for themselves, they promoted the greatness and happiness of their native land, which is at once the blessing, and the envy of the world. They have not indeed guided her counsels, or commanded her fleets and her armies, but they have preserved her liberties, when both her counsels and her armies were employed for their destruction. is, therefore, seriously to be regretted, that there should exist such weighty objections as seem to be entertained among our most influential Dissenters, to petition Parliament for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. The discussions arising out of the moving of this question in the two Houses of the Legislature, would bring the great subjects of toleration and constitutional liberty into prominent notice. The sentiments on these subjects of our Ministers of State and leading Parliamentary speakers, would thus be circulated through the nation and the world. This may be said to be effected in some measure by the debates on Catholic It emancipation. But the question if there had been no Quakers, Another point of view in which the cause of Protestant Dissent may be regarded as an invaluable blessing, is, that it secures in the community a numerous and efficient body of men unfettered by prejudice, and in the case of their ministers uncontrolled by superior ecclesiastical authority, prepared to co-operate in every undertaking of benevolence and philanthropy. In a recent number of the modest and candid Quarterly Review, in an article on the Present State of the Slave Trade, the writer adverts to the numerous petitions presented to the legislature, for the amelioration and speedy abolition of slavery in the West Indies. These petitions by no means meet the approbation of this gentleman; and when he would compress all his contempt and dislike of them into one brief expression, he describes them as manufactured in London, and forwarded into the country to be signed by all Quakers, Methodists, and Sectaries." He meant a reproach upon these classes of the community, but has in reality pronounced their eulogy, and has unconsciously borne his testimony to Quakers, Methodists, and Sectaries, as the free and prompt supporters of every effort to ameliorate the condition of mankind, as a blessing to their country and their species. For what are we to infer from his representation, true enough, no doubt, as to the parties most prompt to advocate the cause of the oppressed negroes, but that, the case, such objects have any relation with political interests or sentiments. Vague fears of some possible evil, springing from such efforts, to the prejudice of "things as they are," rob their hearts of a cordial and generous sympathy in many of the noble institutions of the day. They are surmises, which those who feel their influence are reluctant to avow. The objects proposed to their favour and cooperation are too unquestionably excellent to be openly opposed. The Sectaries are already alive, zealous, and active in promoting them. It would bring the venerable establishment, and its zealous friend, into suspicion, should they be found openly hostile to the spirit of the age and the progress of improvement. Under the influence of such general feelings as these, of which the individual called into action by them may not be always distinctly conscious, multitudes of excellent members of the Established Church are induced to co-operate in institutions, the objects of which they no doubt most cordially approve, but in which the apprehensions and prejudices of their party would forbid their active efforts, did not the activity of the Sectaries "provoke them to jealousy." Then the question occurs, where would be the general and energetic movements of our age and country, in numerous most vitally important undertakings of benevolence, but for Protestant Dissenters? Their activity forbids the repose of those who would otherwise have too calmly acquiesced in the continuance of abuses and evils, of ignorance and slavery. Nor is it in benevolent undertakings merely, in efforts to move the public mind and the legislature of the country in a course of enlightened and beneficial improvement only, that Protestant Dissenters communicate a wholesome excitement to their countrymen of the Established Church. May a Dissenter venture to hint, that the clergy are more active, assiduous, and decorous, than there is reason to fear many of them would be, were there no dissenting ministers with whom they might be otherwise brought into a disadvantageous comparison? Is there no reason to believe that the ecclesiastical hierarchy owes much of that exemplary moderation which is now so much her honour and advantage, to her collision with inquisitive sectaries, and dissatisfied separatists? And there is some reason to suppose that the grand fundamental principle of dissent, or that the establishment of the religion of Christ, in any peculiar form by the secular authority, is in principle unscriptural, impolitic, and unjust, has opened in some degree upon the minds of men in influential stations. This is a position that has long been maintained, and we are bold to believe unanswerably, by dissenting writers. Episcopalians, on both sides the Atlantic, are now moving this question. The period may arrive, when, to statesmen of enlightened views, it will appear as absurd to reward men because they are of a particular sect, as it now does to persecute them because they are of another; when they will be at last convinced a man is none the better statesman, patriot, or legislator, because he is an Episcopalian, nor the worse because he is an Independent. And should that period of the prevalence of just, and calm, and simple reason dawn on the world, it will owe a debt of gratitude to Protestant Dissenters, as long the faithful though unheeded witnesses truth and justice. In one word, the Church, with Dissenters to excite, to check, to moderate her, is one thing; deprived of this real though unacknowledged advantage, she would present a different of aspect, just as on the Continent the Roman Catholic religion is not the same scene where she has Protestants to encounter, that she is where she reigns in unmolested ignorance and security. But though the cause of Protestant dissent, identified as it is with the cause of human freedom, operates directly to defend and promote those principles that are most friendly to the present welfare of mankind, yet it has higher praise. It is its connexion with the religion of Christ that constitutes its highest value. That religion, purely spiritual as it is, cannot, notwithstanding, be maintained in the world, but through the medium of some forms. It exists, at present, under a great variety of modes of administration; and under them all doubtless does, in a greater or less degree, exert its influence, and dispense its blessings. So essentially pure and excellent is the religion of Christ, so powerfully benign and remedial are its effects, that no power or ingenuity of corruption that has hitherto been employed to obscure and pervert it, has been able entirely to counteract its blessed tendencies. Under the very worst forms, its blessed spirit and precepts have benefited mankind. How mournful the reflection, that its nature should have been so obscured, its tendencies so counteracted as they have been. But it was left, in the providence of God, to human administration. Man injures whatever he touches; he communicates his imperfections and his passions to every thing he is engaged in. Even Christianity has been spoiled by men, as far as it was possible for them to corrupt it. There was in it, indeed, an indescructible energy of goodness they could never entirely eradicate. Nothing is more plain than that some forms of church order are more accordant with the nature of the Chris tian religion, more adapted to harmonize with and promote its designs than others. And before we can ascertain what modes are most congenial with its nature and design, by the test of experience, we may discover that point by a much easier and more certain rule of judgment--by their accordance with the appointments of the New Testament. He who planned our religion knew how it would operate-what forms would best preserve its purity, and promote its designs. Ages must elapse before the test of experience could exist; and even then men would be most incompetent judges in a case so complex, and demanding a knowledge of events and their causes more than human. We have a more sure word of prophecy, to which, in this case, we do well that we take heed. Now Protestant Dissenters appeal to scripture-they demand that all forms and principles of church government be submitted to the test of scripture, and are fearless of the result of a scriptural investigation. Not but that also they think that the freedom, the simplicity, and the universal adaptation of their mode of church government prove it to be more accordant with a kingdom not of this world, than forms in which human policy, power, and wealth, are too conspicuous. Nor can it be doubted, that, as the world rolls on, and the purposes of God unfold themselves, as Christianity prevails and extends in the world, there will be a return to a purer Christianity, in a purer form. It is not the inventions of men, not their errors and systems, but the religion of Christ purified from these things, that is to endure, prevail, and triumph. And Protestant Dissenters are maintaining a cause allied to pure, scriptural Christianity, and destined both to advance and to participate her triumphs. Let, then, Protestant Dissenters be true to their principles-let them but be the honour of those principles, as those principles are their honour, and they will then enjoy the satisfaction of serving the cause of truth and of liberty of promoting the welfare of men and the honour of God-of contributing both to the purity and the prevalence of Christianity. They are called sectarics; but their cause is too sacred, too catholic, to merit the reproach; and they are unworthy to be its advocates whom that unmerited stigma can detach from its interests and support. ་་་་་་་་་་ SAUL. MISCELLANEA BIBLICA. No. IV. The Prediction concerning Immanuel. Isaiah vii. 10—16. 10. And Jehovah spoke again to Ahaz, saying: 11. " Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah, thy God; Make deep thy demand unto Hades, or high to the region above." 12. And Ahaz said: "I will not ask; and I will not make trial of Jehovah." 13. And he said: Hear, now, O house of David; Is it too little for you to weary out That you would weary out also my 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold the virgin conceiveth, and beareth a son, And calleth his name Immanuel. 15. Cream and honey shall he eat, unto ) מעלה שאלה .11 .Ver hades"-" unto the regions above," well known nouns with local.Ver. 12. DIN, "make trial of." The general import of the term is, to put to the proof, whether for a good or evil purpose. Our English word, tempt, had formerly the same ambiguous import, which it has now lost, uniformly conveying the idea of seduction to evil. To make trial of," or some equivalent phrase, gives the signification of the Hebrew in this and many places. Gen. xxii. 1; Deut. iv. 34 and xxviii. 56; Dan. i. 12, &c. It is usually rendered in the Septuagint by Tapas.-Ver. 13. □ ydn, "too little." The comparative signification of this phrase has been generally overlooked by translators, but was observed by Symmachus, who renders it avraрkes-Ver. 14. ¡, "therefore," i. e. rebus sic stantibus. "Since matters are so, that you obstinately reject any divine overture, Jehovah will prosecute his purposes without further regard to you personally." The verbs, "conceiveth, &c." are emphatically in the present tense; the last, being an aorist, takes the time of the leading verb.-Ver. 15. cream." Such is the signification of the term, according to the opinion of the best orientalists. It is allowed, on all hands, that its root must be sought in the Arabic; and that the Arabs have long been accustomed to make butter, is well known. (Har ,חמאה 66 μη εκ Till he knoweth to refuse what is evil mer's Obs.) But for butter, they and choose what is good. 16. But before the boy shall know To refuse what is evil and choose what is good, The region shall be forsaken, By the presence of whose two kings thou art distressed." To the above literal rendering of this interesting passage I will add a few notes, chiefly on points in which it differs from previous translators, and then submit a general illustration of the whole. use other terms, never this. (Boch. Hieroz. Part I. lib. 2. cap. 45.) I hazard a conjecture, that means milk, fresh and warm as drawn from the animal; (Castell's Lex. in) though, without further research, I would not venture to introduce so novel an interpretation into the version.-n. For the import of prefixed to infinitives, see the Lexicons. The |