&c. Neither do we believe it. The doctrine was much older than they. From the days of Constantine, an undefined opinion had prevailed, that the magistrate, had a duty to perform in promoting the purity of religion, and the peace of the church, which few at this day are willing to concede to him At the time of the Westminster Assembly, the magistrate claimed such a power; and attempts were often made to excite prejudices against the Presbyterians, for going as far as they did, in devestimg him of it..

No; Rutherford, Henderson and Gillespie would have been unwilling to send the constable after such men as Usher and Owen. Men are tolerant or intolerant, not according to their principles, but according to their temper. The Latitudinarian whether politician or ecclesiastic, may regard all religious opinions with equal indifference, and boast loudly of his liberality; and yet, perceiving that religious uniformity would promote some interest of his own, he might be cruelly intolerant towards all who should presume to differ from the popular standard of opinion.---Still it is true, that the Westminster Confession of faith was to receive the sanction of Parliament and become the law of the land. Of course, all dissent from its principles, was to be prevented by some kind of civil coercion. This, its framers weil knew--and so does every one who is acquainted with the history of the times.

The writer gives about one half of our quotation from Hetherington omitting the part on which our remarks were founded, and then adds: "We leave unnoticed the absurd caricature of our Ohio friend, as to the meaning of the above extract." Of course, we leave" this unnoticed.

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He disputes the correctness of our statement in reference to the high estimation in which the "Sons of Oil," was held. His language is, "At no time would it have been hazardous for a Reformed Presbyterian, to have differed with the views of that author as is alleged by our good brother it would have been for years. We speak on this advisedly. It is more than forty years since we read that pamphlet. It is believed it avowed no error in principle, and its details were thrown out as matters of speculation. It was a Juvenile production of a learned, talented and inquisitive young man. * * * The author in less than a year after its publication to his friends, expressed his regret of the publication of his speculations, among other reasons, because "they were not sustained by the deeds of his church." On this extract we remark:--

1. If the pamphlet contained "no error in principle," it may be difficult for some people to see how it could contain unsustained speculations whose publication was a matter of regret.

2. The writer's statement has two handles. If the pamphlet contained "no error in principle," it must be "sound doctrine to teach that it belongs to the civil magistrate to suffer none to administer ordinances, but those duly warranted by ecclesiastical authority, and that it is his duty, to add his civil ratification or sanction to church deeds thereby, giving them the force of civil laws; but if those "details were thrown out as matters of speculation" then all this may be very unsound doctrine.

3. We were not prepared to hear that the respectable author "threw

out matters of speculation," in a publication which was to be extensively read, and was read by hundreds who took it to be "founded on the law and the testimony"--which was to have, and has had, an extensive influence in moulding the faith, the practice, and the consciences of his fellow-christians.

4. The writer ought not to have spoken so slightingly of the "Sons of Oil." There are not a few who can say it is not "forty years" since they read it. It was published in 1803. But it was between the years 1807 and 1810, at least three years after, as we are told, its publication was regretted by its author, that we first heard of it. It was then, by Reformed Presbyterians of our acquaintance, regarded as an exposition of their principles of high authority. It was lent by them to others, with that peculiar kind of pleasure, with which a man always puts into the hands of others, a book which he regards as a masterly defence of his favorite principles. And---"we speak advisedly"---it is only about seventeen years since it was, by a respectable Reformed Presbyterian minister, put into the hands of an individual to indoctrinate and establish him in the principles of his church.

5. We take the liberty to inform the writer that in the passages which we quoted, the pamphlet does not contain the speculations of Dr. Wylie at all, but gives, in an abridged form, the "speculations" of Gillespie in his work entitled "Aaron's rod blossoming." That the reader may judge for himself of the truth of this statement, we shall in a few instances give the two in parallel columns.

G. GILLESPIE.

DR. WYLIE. "He [the magistrate] "Distinguish the directive part, and the cohath no directive pow-ereive part. The directive part in the coner about any thing ec- servation and purgation of religion doth belong to the ministers and ruling officers of the church," page 264

clesiastical.

"He hath no power) "I further explain myself by that common in, but only about ec-distinction, that there are two sorts of things clesiastical concerns. that belong to the church, things inward, and Every act of his con- things outward &c. This external--administracerning religion should tion of the magistrate in reference to religion be essentially and for- is twofold. 1. Corrective by external punishmally civil." ments. 2. Auxiliary by external benefits &c.

The magistrate watcheth over the outward business of the church not only by troubling those persons and punishing those sins which trouble the Israel of God; but by administering such things as are necessary for the wellbeing and comfortable subsistence of the church, and for that end, doth convocate Synods pro re nata [mark, ecclesiastical Synods] (beside the ordinary and set meetings and presideth therein (if he please) in external order, though not in the Synodical debates and resolutions: He addeth his civil sanction to the Synodical results, if he find nothing therein which may hurt peace or justice in the Common-wealth." page 261.--2.

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"He ought to use evry "For the general I hold with the large Conlawful endeavor to pro-fession of faith of the church of Scotland Art. mote purity, unity and 25. Moreover to kings, princes, rulers and reformation in the magistrates, we affirm that chiefly and most church. Doing so, he principally the conservation and the purgawill suffer none to ad-tion of the religion appertains; so that not on-minister ordinances but ly they are appointed for civil policy, but also those duly warranted for the maintainance of the true religion and by ecelesiastical au- for suppressing of idolatry and superstition thority."

whatever."

* is neither to adThe magistrate minister word nor sacraments, nor churchdiscipline &c. but he is to take care that all these things be done by those whom God hath called thereunto 259-63.

"He hath a right to "But the coercive part in compelling the judge of the decrees of obstinate and the unruly, to submit to the ecclesiastical assem- Presbyterial or Synodical sentence, belongs to blies, whether they are the magistrate. Not as if the magistrate had agreeable to the law of nothing to do but to be an executioner of the as if he were God, the supreme law pleasure of church officers, or of the land &c. by a blind and implicit faith to constrain all Before he gives his men to stand to their determination. God sanction to any church forbid. The magistrate must have his full deed he must bring it liberty to judge of that which he is to compel to this sacred touch-men to do' &c. page 264.

stone; if it agrees therewith, he ought to ratify it, if not, he has not only a right to reject it,' but he is also bound to stamp his negative upon it.

This ratification of it is solely civil and similar to his sanctioning

of civil ordinances.

It is not our object to show that Dr. Wylie borrowed ideas from another, for this all men may lawfully do.

But Gillespie was a leading member of the Westminster Assembly. The work from which we quote, was written during the sittings of the Assembly, in defence of the views of the Presbyterians. On all the subjects which he touches, is he not to be regarded as the expo-And from the exact agree nent of the principles of the Assembly? ment between Dr. Wylie and him, must not Dr. Wylie be regarded as having given in his "Sons of Oil," a correct interpretation of the Confession on the circa sacra question, as it originally came from the hands of the Assembly? So he thought at the time surely, and so many others have thought.

The truth who does not know it?-is, that the Westminster Assembly sat in an age when the prevailing sentiment was that there must by all means be uniformity in religion, and when none dreamt.

of any other state of things than a legal connection between church and state. To have denied to the civil magistrate the power given him by the Assembly, would have been regarded as an attempt to deprive him of his just and legal authority, and as arising from a too great indifference to the purity of religion. Would it not be passing strange if nothing should be found in the confession of faith as it came from their hands, which cannot be entirely approved in this age and country? Is it not indeed rather surprizing that there should be so little? Were they gods and not men that they should be, in all things, wiser than their generation?

The conclusion is,---and but for the sake of it our remarks would not have been extended to this length---that some change is necessary in those clauses which treat of the magistrate's power circa sacra; and can any be supposed to desire union very ardently, or to deprecate schism very sincerely if they would rather there should be no union, and no schism healed, than give up a few clauses in a document, which, to far the greater number of christians carry an unsound meaning, and about the meaning of which, those who would impose a sound meaning on them, differ widely among themselves, and from their former selves?

As it seems to be the opinion of some recent writers, that those sections in the Westminster Confession of faith, which treat of the power of the civil magistrate circa sacra, contain a profundity of meaning, which cannot be measured except by such as are in possession of some peculiar skill---some rare competency," which has fallen to the lot of few besides themselves, it may be proper to lay before the reader some farther extracts to show how those sections were understood and explained before it became necessary, in deference to a more correct public sentiment, to seek out a more acceptable meaning. Mr. David Dickson lived in the days of the Westminster Assembly, was Professor of Divinity, first at Glasgow, and afterwards at Edinburgh, and the associate of Henderson, Cant &c. His work entitled "Truth's Victory over Error," which, as his biographer says, 'breaks the truths of the confesion small & prepares them for the meanest capacities," was deservedly popular in its day; from which, as well as from his position in the Church of Scotland, we may reasonably infer that it contained nothing greatly variant from the prevailing sentiments of his brethren and of the age. The following extracts show how he understood the 23 chapter:

Quest. "Is it the duty of the civil magistrate to take order, that all blasphemies, and heresies be suppressed, all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered and observed; all abuses in worship and discipline reformed, all idolaters, gainsayers, and other obstinate dissenters, be obliged and forced to quit their tenets and opinions, and conform themselves to the true worship and service of God according Yes; Isai" &c.

to his law?

"Well then, do not the Quakers and other Sectaries err, who judge it Anti-christian, and the practice of the church of Rome, that the civil supreme magistrate, with the assistance of the church and her censures, should, by his coactive power, force and oblige all his subjects to a reformation of religion and to a conformity to the true worship, sound doctrine and discipline of the church?

Yes."

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He then proceeds to give reasons by which the "error" of the "Sectaries" may be confuted, and concludes thus: "And though it be the sinful practice of the Church of Rome, to force men and womeǹ to be of their religion; which is superstitious and idolatrous; yet it is not so to others who have the true religion among them. And though our blessed Savior and his Apostles, did not use such means for propagating the Gospel, reserving the glory of conquering of souls to himself, and the power of his Spirit; yet [he] has taught nothing to the contrary, but that kings and magistrates whom he has made nursing fathers to his church, may, according to the laudable example of the good kings of Judah, improve their power for reformation, and maintainance of his own religion. And though religion has been much advanced by suffering, yet it will not infer, that a christian prince hath not power to reform his own subjects, or to extirpate and heretics." blasphemers

Quest "Hath the civil magistrate power to call Synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be Yes." &c. according to the mind of God? "Well then, do not the Papists err who maintain, that the judgment and care of religion doth not belong to the civil magistrate? Yes."

We do not wish to have a Confession of faith of which the foregoing is a just and honest exposition---not even with foot-notes to neutralize its meaning. That is, we are not in favor of holding forth any document as the confession of our fath, which contains one thing in the text, and another, in the comment.

Yet Dickson was not an Erastian. Far from it. He was as zealous against Erastianism as Gillespie or Hetherington. Following in the footsteps of this last writer, some seem to suppose that when they have shewn that the Westminster Confession of faith, as it came from the hands of its framers, contained no "taint of Erastianism," they have done all that is necessary to prove that its doctrine on the circa sacra question is sound. Just as if when one has proved that the Leopard is not black, it must necessarily follow that he is white.

Convention of Reformed Churches.---While we write, this body is probably in session. Its object, as our readers know, is to endeavor to effect an organic union among the churches represented in it. The object is a good one, if it can be accomplished without burdening the United Church with terms of communion which have little or no influence on christian practice, and which would only be so many obstacles in the way of farther union among evangelical churches. We have full confidence in our delegates that they will not consent to any terms of union which would require us solemnly to profess our belief in matters of doubtful disputation. This would be purchasing

union at rather too dear a rate.

It is most probable that no plan of union will be definitively settled at this time. But the idea should not therefore be hastily abandoned. Time should be allowed for the parties to be sure they fully understand one another, and for all concerned to examine leisurely the questions involved. Time and patience will often accomplish what otherwise would be hopeless.