to the language in which these volumes are written. I trust, however, it will be found to be in general correct and perspicuous. More indeed than this, the reader cannot reasonably expect, for the character of the work will scarcely admit of ornament:

"Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri."

But, to pass from the work and its author, compiler or editor, as the reader shall be pleased to call him, to what is of more serious consequence, the subject of which it treats.

The perusal of these volumes may perhaps, in some measure, gratify the reader's curiosity, but it cannot fail to be at the expense of exciting his serious regret; for he must here observe how busy the enemy has been in sowing tares among the wheat;-he must behold a melancholy illustration of the 19th article of the Church of England, in the errors of many societies; and, what is more, he must even remark some, who call themselves Christians, cutting and carving our religion, to make it more grateful to unbelievers.

He who strives to reconcile differing parties, and to ameliorate opposite interests,

deserves well of his fellow-creatures. Yet, "let God be true, but every man a liar." Let us not, in our eagerness to conciliate, abandon a single article of "the faith once delivered to the saints," aware that such conduct would involve us in guilt of the deepest dye, while we should not thereby attain the object for which that guilt was incurred; for, as Christianity enjoins and requires holiness of heart and life, it will ever be opposed and rejected by the carnal mind that is enmity against God, and by the evil heart of unbelief.

Besides, it is not, perhaps, so much because of our doctrines, as of our divisions, that infidels reject and despise our religion. Beholding the numberless divisions and contentions that have in all ages prevailed among professing Christians, they reject Christianity itself, and view it merely as an apple of discord;-as a Babel, or, as "a beast with many heads and horns all pushing at one another." Fix on any period of the Christian Church ;-look into the ecclesiastical history of that period, and what will you find it to be? Little more, I suspect, than the history of the struggles of different sects and parties to overturn the sys

tems of others, in order to build up their own. And, whether the rent be reaching nearer to the foundation, or we of the present day be more disposed, than those who have gone before us, to keep "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," I shall not now venture to say; but, from the data here laid before the reader, shall leave him to judge for himself.

It seems reasonable to expect, that they who bear the same name,-whose hopes are built upon the same foundation,-who are led by the same spirit,-who are opposed by the same enemies, and interested in the same promises, would look upon each other with mutual complacence,—would love as brethren,-would bear each other's burdens, and so fulfil their Master's law, and copy his example. But, is such the character of professing Christians in the present day? Alas! instead of this, a mistaken zeal for his honour, or a blind attachment to their respective peculiarities, fills them on all sides with animosities against their fellow-disciples; splits them into a thousand parties; gives rise to fierce and endless contentions, and makes them so earnest for their own peculiarities, and

so prejudiced against those of others, that the love, which is the discriminating characteristic of his religion, is scarcely to be found amongst them, in such a degree of exercise, as to satisfy even candid observers, whether they bear his mark or not.

Hence it is that unbelievers keep aloof from the belief and profession of Christianity; and, through these divisions and dissensions, are the name and doctrine of Christ still blasphemed among Jews and Pagans, among Turks and Infidels. And yet, I know not, that such "stumblingblocks" have been more numerous, or more prominent, in any country, of late years, than in our own; or, that religious discord raises her head higher any where, at this day, than in Scotland, and among ourselves, where she has had the boldness, I may say the effrontery, to show herself. even in the formation of an association, in which unanimity, harmony, and co-operation, among all Protestants at least, might surely be expected, and if found, would be no great virtue; and where party-work, division, or discord, cannot fail to be condemned.*

* The want of room prevented my giving, as was proposed, a list and some account of the various societies and as

C

"Pudet hæc opprobria nobis

"Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli."

Among the other visible ill effects of our religious divisions and party distinctions, effects too numerous for me to recount at present, "we may reasonably reckon as a very considerable one," one," says good Mr. Nelson, "the great decay of the spirit and life of devotion; for, while men are so deeply concerned for their several schemes, and pursue them with the vigour of their minds, and the bent of their affections, the solid and substantial part of religion is apt to evaporate; and 'charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which, whosoever liveth, is counted dead before God,' is but too frequently made a sacrifice to those differences that divide us."

Admitting then, that the subject is not exclusively painful; that our differences of opinion on the subject of religion are in many instances innocent, and, for some purposes, even useful;-allowing that they

sociations for propagating and promoting the knowledge of Christianity, both at home and abroad. With most of these, however, the generality of readers are, I trust, more or less acquainted; suffice it therefore only to remark here, that two Bible Societies have very lately been formed in this place.