hope that the standard of religion will be elevated by any other means.

VII. Creeds, Confessions of Faith, and Systems of Theology.

Though this obstacle is of a character somewhat similar to that with which we commenced this chapter, it is believed to be so far distinguished from it as to require a separate consideration. It may be feared that this will prove the most formidable of all the obstacles to the reunion of the church, as these creeds constitute the very walls of partition that divide the church. The creeds, and in some instances the confessions of faith, are formally proposed to applicants for church membership, and their assent thereto required as an indispensable term of their reception. Books containing systems of theology, Bibles with commentaries in support of those systems, creeds, and confessions of faith, are scattered in each sect, more or less throughout the families of which they are composed; and the children drink in with their mother's milk a veneration and attachment to the creed of their parents. How then, it is asked, can there be any hope of removing this obstacle?

We admit that here is presented a serious difficulty, which it may require time and patience to remove; but that it is insuperable we are not willing to believe. Independently of the consideration that God loves the truth, and has power over the human heart to impress the truth upon it, our hope is that the effort is to be made upon Christians, who admit the Bible to be from God, and acknowledge it their duty to render obedience to all its requirements; that we shall be addressing ourselves

to ministers of the gospel and others, who are capable of understanding and appreciating the claims of the inspired writings, as infinitely superior to any human production, how wise soever may have been the author, or however wise or numerous may have been its advocates and adherents. However venerable any human writings may be, even in the eyes of those who have long been in the habit of referring to them as standards, they are still but the work of men, fallible men, and cannot stand in opposition to the word of God, which is the only standard of religious faith and practice. If the church was constituted by its head one and indivisible, and if the existing divisions are in violation of its constitutional unity; if these points are incontrovertibly proved, then, as soon as it shall be perceived that creeds or any other work of man stands as a barrier against the reunion of the church, charity forbids us to assume that Christians will be too stubborn to consent to the removal of the obstacle.

Every creed is under the control of the denomination which has adopted it, and may be modified or surrendered at its will. So may every thing except the Bible. This alone is sacred, being the word and work of God himself. If this be lost all is lost; if this be preserved all is safe; whatever else is changed or abandoned. The true doctrine of the unity of the church being considered and examined, will be found to be at variance with the lawfulness of any creed, not embracing all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. To convince the generality of intelligent Christians of this truth, is an attainable object, and well worth a few years of thought and effort. And it may be found amidst the changes which are now going on with such rapidity in the world, that sooner than we now dare to hope, creeds may be so

modified as to exclude only the fundamental errorist. Then, to keep out the irreligious man, who may profess a sound faith but deny the same in his practice, must be `entrusted, as it must be under every form of administering the church, to a faithful ministry, and a watchful discipline, upon the principles of the Bible.

CHAPTER V.

THE FACILITIES

OR ENCOURAGEMENTS

TO REUNION.

The staleness of religious controversy. — Experience for 200 years of the evils of division. The union of several denominations actually formed of late for various benevolent purposes. The harmonious faith of Christians on essential doctrines, evidenced by the publications of the American Tract Society. - The alarm manifested by the advocates of sect. The alarm manifested by the enemies of religion. Late publications, &c. evidencing that the principle of union is at work in the hearts of Christians. -The diffusion of useful knowledge. Prophecy.

HAVING considered the obstacles standing or supposed to stand in the way of the reunion of the church, and having shown that none of them are insuperable, let us next inquire whether there be not at the present time favourable circumstances and indications, which ought to be regarded as encouraging to the friends of union, and facilitating the accomplishment of the work before them.

1. As the spirit of controversy is one of the great causes of division, it is certainly encouraging to observe, that religious controversy has become so stale, as not to command the universal attention and excite the intense interest which it has in time past. Although there is not, perhaps in the generality of Christians, any decrease of attachment to the peculiarities of their own sect, that attachment can no longer be secured by the interest felt in religious controversy. The truth is, the topics of discussion are exhausted. All the points of difficulty presented in the Bible have already been again and again examined and argued out, so that it seems almost impracticable to present any new subjects of dispute, and novelty is indispensable to command sufficient interest even to insure the reading of what may be written. Besides, a considerable proportion of intelligent Christians find so much of active labour to perform, that they have neither time nor inclination to read on subjects of controversy. For these reasons it is that the discussions on theological subtleties and practical differences, which fill some of the columns of our religious periodicals, are uniformly passed over by perhaps more than half of their readers. Neither the dispute between the old school and the new school, however zealously conducted; nor the apparently new aspect which that controversy may have assumed in the subtle discussions between Taylor and his antagonists, nor the still more recent " Act and Testimony" of the dissenters from the Presbyterian church, suffice to awaken a general interest in the Christian community. The battle is interesting to few except the combatants; while the many turn away in disgust or grief from the spectacle. And the more the form of these profitless janglings shall be multiplied, the