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Presbyteries' Proceedings.

PRESBYTERY OF LONDON.

THIS Reverend Court held its ordinary monthly meeting at 16, Exeter Hall, and was constituted with praise, reading of the Scriptures, and prayer by the Rev. James Hamilton, Moderator, p.t.

Commissions were given in, read, and sustained, in favour of Messrs. James Nisbet and Charles Vertue, the former to represent the kirk session at Hampstead, and the latter to represent the kirk session at Chelsea, in this Presbytery during the currency of the year ending May, 1849.

A communication was read from the Treasurer of the Home Mission Committee to the effect that said Committee had made a grant from their funds in favour of the congregation at Westminster. A letter was read, addressed to the Moderator and brethren of the London Presbytery, wherein Mr. Macaulay resigned his charge of the congregation at Edwardstreet, Wardour-street, into the hands of the Presbytery.* It was agreed that said letter should lie on the table of the Presbytery till next ordinary meeting, and that the kirk session and congregation at Edward-street, Wardour-street, be summoned to appear for their interest at next meeting of Presbytery, when the subject will be finally disposed of.

Professor Campbell was appointed to preach at Edward-street Church next Lord's Day forenoon, and then and there to serve the edict after sermon and before pronouncing the blessing.

It being represented on behalf of the Committee now in the course of formation with a view to promote emigration to Otago, that this colony is provided with a Free Church ministry and an orthodox Presbyterian educational staff, it was moved by Mr. James Hamilton, seconded by Mr. Weir, and agreed to unanimously,―That, without pronouncing

* Mr. M. stated that the congregation had been disappointed as to getting a suitable place of worship, and as to other circumstances, by which he was formerly induced to withdraw his resignation; and also that he was unable to continue this charge in addition to other duties in which he believed he could at present be more useful to the Church. A circular, describing what has been done as to procuring a place of worship in the Leicestersquare district, will be issued, after the next meeting of Presbytery, to those who have taken interest in the undertaking.

opinion on the secular advantages of the settlement, but having full confidence in the judgment and honourable character of the gentlemen in London and Edinburgh concerned in promoting it, the Presbytery cordially urge on the notice of those of their members and friends who may propose to emigrate the superior Christian and educational advantages of this colony.

It was agreed that it might be for edification, if the brethren were occasionally to hold conferences on the state of religion in their respective congregations; and, at the request of the Court, one of the members gave an account of several very interesting cases which had occurred in the course of his ministry during the last twelve months.

Mr. Samuel Huston, Student of Divinity, having been called, delivered two discourses, which were sustained as parts of his trials.

Mr. Macaulay gave notice that, at next meeting, he would move the propriety of the Presbytery being summoned to hold its monthly meeting at three o'clock, p.m., as formerly.

The Presbytery adjourned to meet in this place on the second Tuesday of August, at two o'clock, p.m., and the sederunt was closed with prayer.

PRESBYTERY OF CUMBERLAND.

THE Presbytery of Cumberland met at Brampton, on Tuesday, the 11th of July. Mr. Burns' year of office having expired, Dr. Brown was elected Moderator for the ensuing year. The Presbytery proceeded to revise a copy of the "Directory for the Practice and Forms of Procedure," sent down by a Committee of Synod for this purpose, and suggested a few alterations, which the Clerk was instructed to communicate to the Convener of that Committee.

Received statistical reports from several congregations, and authorized the Moderator to attest the answers given by three congregations to the questions contained in the schedule issued by the Home Mission Committee.

Appointed Dr. Brown and Mr. Wm. Gordon, Ministers, and Messrs. R. Barbour, of Manchester, and Hugh Armstrong, Elders, to represent this Presbytery in any meetings of Commission that may be held prior to next Synod.

Notice was given of an overture to be submitted at next meeting of Presbytery, urging the Synod to adopt measures to

promote a union between the "Presbyterian Church in England," and the four Presbyteries in England, at present connected with the "United Presbyterian Church," with a view to consolidate the Evangelical Presbyterian interest in this country, and to give it more of an English national character.

Appointed next meeting of Presbytery to be held at Maryport, on the 10th of October next.

PRESBYTERY OF BERWICK.

THIS Court met at Berwick-upon-Tweed on the 30th of May last. Mr. Stewart,

of Norham, preached an able sermon from John iv. 31-38. In the absence of the Moderator, he constituted the court

thanks of the Presbytery to Dr. Dill, which were appropriately and feelingly acknowledged by him.

Commissioners to the Commission of Synod were then appointed for the current year, Messrs. Robert M'Clelland and James Stewart, Ministers, and Messrs. John Pringle and John Lyle, Elders.

Ordered up the Session Records for examination at the next ordinary meeting in August, which was appointed to be holden at Tweedmouth, on the last Tuesday of the month at twelve o'clock noon. Mr. Watson to preach. Sederunt closed with prayer.

and presided, pro tem. Dr. Edward M. THE JUSTIFYING RIGHTEOUSNESS Dill, from Ireland, being present, was associated.

The Presbytery heard statements in reference to the circumstances, prospects, and wishes of the congregation at Lowick, by Mr. John Pringle, Senior Elder, and by the Rev. Mr. Fraser, who is officiating there. A request was also made that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper be dispensed to the congregation during the ensuing month, and one of the members of Presbytery appointed to dispense the same. Appointed that that holy ordinance be dispensed there on the fourth Sabbath (25th) of June. Mr. Murdoch to preside.

Dr. Edward M. Dill favoured the Presbytery with an eloquent and impressive address on the present religious state of the south and west of Ireland particularly, and on the opening which, in the mercy and judgment of God, is now offered for the preaching of the Gospel in these parts, and more especially within the bounds where the Irish schools have been in operation.

It was moved, seconded, and unanimously agreed to, that the thanks of the Presbytery be cordially tendered, through the Moderator, to Doctor Dill; that the Presbytery direct the sessions and congregations to give to this highly-important object their serious consideration; recommend that their prayers and aid be afforded liberally, and appoint a Committee to arrange locally for the reception of the deputations about to visit England on this behalf, and that Messrs. Murdoch and M'Clelland, Ministers, and Mr. John Lyle, Elder, be this Committee, with power to add to their numbers. The Moderator accordingly tendered the

OF CHRIST.

So

CHRIST has two natures in one person, plain to be distinguished, impossible to be divided. Unto each of these natures a righteousness belongeth, and each righteousness is essential to that nature. that one may as easily cause the nature to be extinct, as to separate its justice or righteousness from it. Of these righteousnesses therefore we are not made partakers, so as that they, or any of them, should be put upon us, that we might be made just and live thereby. Besides these, there is a righteousness which Christ has, as these two natures are joined in one. And this is not the righteousness of the Godhead as distinguished from the manhood; nor the righteousness of the manhood, as distinguished from the Godhead; but a righteousness which standeth in the union of both natures, and may properly be called the righteousness that is essential to his being prepared of God to the capacity of the mediatory office which he was to be intrusted with. If he parts with his first righteousness, he parts with his Godhead; if he parts with his second righteousness, he parts with the purity of his manhood; if he parts with his third, he parts with that perfection which capacitates him for the office of mediation.

He has therefore another righteousness, which standeth in performance, or obedience to a revealed will; and that is it that he puts upon sinners, and that by which their sins are covered, wherefore he saith, "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (Rom. v. 19.)-The Pilgrim's Progress.

THE MILLENNIUM.*

A VIEW of the future history of the world has of late years been much pressed upon the Christian Church by some estimable men, which is formed by an admixture of the plain promises of the Word of God with certain interpretations of these symbolical prophecies, which, I confess, seems to me to endanger the whole fabric of Christianity. This view is, that previous to Christ's coming to judgment, there is to be a millennium, or thousand years, at the commencement of which Christ will come, and during which he will dwell personally, that is, bodily, on the earth when his saints that have died shall be raised from the dead, and reign with him, while other men shall be living in their natural bodies upon the earth along with them; that there will be an apostasy after this millennium, and then the day of judgment: and some who hold this view, place the conflagration of the heavens and the earth previous to the millennium ; while others, I believe, postpone it till the day of judgment.

The only passage in Scripture on which the expectation of a millennium, or thousand years of spiritual prosperity, is founded, is in Rev. xx. 1-10:-" And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and

after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first

From a tract just published, "The First and Second Advent, with a view of the Mil

lennium." By James Carlile, D.D., of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin. J. Johnstone, Edinburgh.

resurrection: on such the second death
hath no power, but they shall be priests of
him a thousand years.
God and of Christ, and shall reign with
And when the
thousand years are expired, Satan shall
be loosed out of his prison, and shall go
out to deceive the nations which are in
the four quarters of the earth, Gog and
the number of whom is as the sand of the
Magog, to gather them together to battle:

sea.

of the earth, and compassed the camp of And they went up on the breadth the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into beast and the false prophet are, and shall the lake of fire and brimstone, where the be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

It is very extraordinary, that round this solitary symbolical announcement of a thousand years, during which Satan is to be bound in the bottomless pit, have been congregated almost every promise of external glory contained either in the Old or New Testament, and a period of blessedness has thus been held up, during the present transitory, imperfect, sinful state of man, which has to a fearful extent been made to obscure the great promise to which the faith of the Church has been directed in all ages, and on which the hope of every individual member of the Church rests; namely, the eternal separation of the righteous from the wicked, the destruction of Satan, the abolition of death, and the everlasting peace and joy of all God's people in the presence of God, and the restitution of second coming of Christ to judgment. all things-all to be effected by the

On this passage I would observe:1. That the events predicted in it, whatever they may be, are to be previous to the coming of Christ for judgment, beimmediately follows as part of the same cause the account of the day of judgment vision, with its essential characteristics, the destruction of Satan, the sitting of the Son of man on his throne, the judging of the righteous and the wicked, the passing away of the heavens and the earth, the rising of a new heaven and earth, the eternal blessedness of those who were written in the Lamb's book of life, and the eternal banishment of the wicked to outer darkness and torment. The events, then, symbolized in this prophecy, belong to our present imperfect condition, and therefore they cannot be propounded as

promises that is, as objects of faith; nor ought they ever to be confounded with that event which, throughout the whole of Scripture, is held out as the great object of the faith and hope of the Church -the second coming of Christ, and the literal resurrection of all the dead.

by means of these. This is confirmed, by the armies of heaven following on white horses: for the armies of heaven seem to point at the messengers of Christ-the preachers of his Gospel-the soldiers of the cross; and it is also confirmed by the sharp sword--that is, the Word of Godgoing out of his month, and by other parts of the description; so that we are probably to understand by it a wide diffusion of the Gospel by the ordinary means, but with extraordinary power of the Spirit, previous to the binding of Satan.

nothing whatever is said of Christ's coming. But immediately before it, there is a description of a personage who can be no other than the Redeemer, going forth on a white horse, to smite and subdue the nations, followed by the armies of heaven on white horses. Now, 2. It is to be remembered, that this if the first white horse symbolized the passage is a symbolical vision, and that, victorious progress of Christianity in the before we can decipher it, we must ascer- primitive age, we must, I think, undertain what the symbols import;—what is stand this of a similar going forth of meant, for example, by an angel binding Christ-namely, by his doctrine and Satan and sealing him up in the bottom-law, and of his conquering and reigning less pit; what is meant by the term of a thousand years, whether it is literally a thousand years, or whether, according to the usual reading of time in these prophecies, in which every day stands for a year, it is 365,000 years; what is meant by thrones, and who are they that sat on them; what is meant by the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and what is meant by their living and reigning with Christ; what is meant by the dead, and the rest of the dead; what is meant by a first, and, as the term implies, by a second resurrection; what is meant by the second death, and also the implied first death; what is meant by Satan being loosed again, and what by the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog; what is meant by the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, and what by the fire that comes down from heaven to destroy Gog and Magog. The essential characters of the events pointed at in these symbols, their being good or evil, are sufficiently distinct; but when an attempt is made, by means of the symbols, to ascertain more exactly what, and where, and when, and how the events will be, then the symbols must be interpreted; and the interpretation of every one of them requires research, and is involved in doubt and uncertainty. And it does appear to me to be rash and hazardous in the extreme, to involve the very essentials of Christianity, the very cardinal points of its doctrine, in the obscurity and uncertainty of such inquiries. Keep these symbolical prophecies apart from the plain declarations of Scripture presented to our faith, and the revelation of God's purposes is clear as light-a child may understand and believe it; intermingle these prophecies with the plain declarations of Scripture, and the whole instantly becomes vague, indistinct, and dubious.

3. In this account of the millennium,

4. The leading event in this prophecy of the millennium, on which the others seem to depend, is the binding up of Satan for a thousand years. The binding of Satan seems to point to the restraining or removing of that influence which he has hitherto exercised over the affairs of men-that system of delusion by which he has led the whole world captive at his will. And what might be the effect of the removing of such a powerful stimulant and guide to evil, and of leaving men to meet the offer of mercy in the Gospel simply under the influence of their own natural alienation from God, we cannot clearly anticipate; but it would probably be a more cordial and extensive reception of the Gospel than has ever yet been witnessed.

5. By the reviving of the souls or spirits (for nothing is said of the bodies, be it remembered) of those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and who had not worshipped the beast, nor received his mark upon their foreheads or on their hands, we may perhaps understand the revival of the principles and faithfulness of the martyrs of the primitive age, and of the age of the Reformation-the manifestation of a similar zeal and faithfulness by the people of God; and their reigning with Christ may signify their being raised to influence and honour in consequence of their union

with Christ, their obedience to his law, and their upholding and defending it.

6. But a resurrection is spoken of-a first resurrection, implying a second. This, it has been hastily inferred, must be a literal resurrection of the bodies of part of the saints at the millennium, and called the first resurrection with reference to the final resurrection of saints and sinners at the day of judgment. But no hint is given in the promises, on which our hopes are to be fixed, of any other resurrection than "the resurrection of the last day." Two resurrections are spoken of in Scripture-a spiritual resurrection from the death of trespasses and sins, and the resurrection of the body, which may be called a first and second resurrection. But what is more directly to the point is, that the most graphic description of a resurrection to be found in prophecy certainly does not signify a literal resurrection of the body, but a political and spiritual resurrection of the Jewish nation from its state of dissolution, dismemberment, and corruption. (Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14.) As, then, there is a first and second resurrection of the Jewish nation, one that has already taken place, and another that is yet future, may not this first resurrection be the first raising up of the world from that state of confusion and spiritual death in which it has been lying since the fall, to some measure of peace and order, and subjection to the will of God, which would be effected by the general diffusion and reception of the Gospel, and the withdrawing of Satan's influence? To this period may belong many of the prophecies of the Old Testament, such as the knowledge of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea; the King of Zion ruling the nations with a rod of iron; the kingdoms of the world becoming the kingdoms of our God and his Church; all flesh seeing the salvation of God; the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and their being held in reverence and honour for the sake of him who was their kinsman according to the flesh. It does not appear that in that universal kingdom of the Redeemer, spoken of in these prophecies, the whole world is to be really converted. A rod of iron is not the sceptre with which Christ governs his people, nor does dashing men in pieces convert them. And then, there are plain indications that the subjection of many will be a feigned subjection-that all are not to be spiritually brought under his rule. But all opposition may be sub

dued, the law of Christ may be universally acknowledged, the laws of the kingdoms of the world may be founded on the law of God, and administered in accordance with it; wars may cease to the ends of the earth, and the whole structure and practices of society tend to the repression of evil, and the encouragement of good. And thus may there be to the world, even during its present imperfect state, what the apostle calls, in reference to the conversion of the Jews, "a life from the dead."

7. By "the rest of the dead" must be meant all besides the martyrs and faithful confessors, namely, those who rejected and opposed the Gospel; and, by their living not again may be meant, that this spirit of opposition to Christ, and rejection of his truth, will be extinct, or at least dormant, during the thousand years of the withdrawing of Satan's influence.

8. By the loosing of Satan must be understood his again being left at liberty to try men's profession of subjection to Christ, by temptation; when, it would appear, that he will succeed in exposing the hypocrisy of some, and exciting the enmity of others, till he shall collect a multitude like the sand of the sea, and engage them in a new and desperate effort to banish the dominion of Christ from the earth. And it would farther appear that he will prosecute his project by reviving the same mystery of iniquity, which had begun to work in the apostles' days, and setting up the same Man of Sin, whose former coming was after Satan. For the Apostle Paul tells us that that wicked one the Lord is to consume by the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. (2 Thess. ii. 8-11.) That delusion may not have been eradicated, but only quelled and subdued for a time, and forced to hide itself; and Satan, again let loose upon the world, might find nothing better suited to effect his infernal purposes than reviving the old superstitions-the worship of the queen of heaven, and the establishment of an apostate Church under a temporal head. We have seen, in England, how that superstition could be smouldered up

made by public opinion to hide itself for two centuries, so as scarcely to betray its existence, and yet with what suddenness and intensity it could break forth, when a favourable opportunity seemed to be offered to it.

So the mystery of iniquity may lie dormant for a time. The clergy of the

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