sal prevalence-the only one of the proscribed ceremonies which has returned into use. Our fathers would not allow of a prayer at a funeral in any case whatever. Of course it will be understood that they objected to this, and to most of the ceremonies which they forbade, that they were associated in the minds of the common people with gross superstitions; prayers on account of death not being distinguished from prayers for the dead. The Parliament enjoined the use of the Directory and forbade the use of the Com. mon Prayer Book by fines and penalties. But their injunction was never fully complied with, and the Prayer Book was used in some places, secretly or privately, until the restoration of the Monarchy and the establishment of the Episcopal discipline. The Presbyterians in endeavoring to force uniformity were severe and oppressive, imitating the vice of those whom they had deposed and censured, and they deserve to be reproached though they are dead, and could not do what they desired to do. The King forbade the use of the Directory and enjoined that of the Liturgy.

The Presbyterian party in the Assembly and among the ministry then applied all their force, not only to establish their discipline as of divine right, but also to resist the principle of toleration, and to urge the most oppressive measures against the abounding sectaries. They displayed all that was evil in the spirit of deposed Prelacy or Episcopacy. Their petition to Parliament against toleration failed. Their discipline was established only in London and in Lancashire, and twenty years afterwards they were made to realize by their own endurance how galling was the yoke they would have laid on others. The Assembly was divided by fierce dissensions.

In the intervals of their discordant debates the Assembly were engaged in preparing Articles of Religion, or a Confession of Faith; which passed in the Assembly only by a majority, and not unanimously in Parliament. As the document went from their hands to the Parliament for examination, it embraced matters of church discipline which are still printed with it, but these the Parliament laid aside and never sanctioned. These articles of church discipline are wholly omitted in both the Catechisms which were formed from the Confession of Faith. The Shorter Catechism was printed first; the Larger, being an amplification, explanation, or commentary, fortified with marginal references to Scripture, came

afterwards. Parliament authorised both of them. The King was willing to license the Shorter on certain conditions of peace, which were not realized. At this time the Assembly ought to have dissolved, for their work was done. On this supposition the Scots' Commissioners took their leave, considering that they had accomplished all which circumstances allowed, but deeply lamenting that their darling Presbyterianism and the severe terms of their Solemn Covenant could not be rigidly enforced on account of the fury of sectarism, and the lowering clouds which were darkening over civil order, peace, religion and virtue. But the Assembly never was dissolved: it dwindled away by degrees and died, having continued in the form of a Committee for examining ministers. In this way the whole period covered by the Assembly, from its first meeting to its decease, was five years, six months, and twenty-two days-having had 1163 sessions.

It is by its Catechisms that this famous Assembly has kept itself in remembrance. Honored and venerated as they have been and are by millions of Christians as sound exponents of great Scripture truths, we who cannot receive them are forced to suppose that they are received only for "substance of doctrine;" that those who adopt them think they rest upon a Christian basis, and can reconcile them in a manner satisfactory to themselves. Let those who love them have them; let those who understand them expound them. One thought always presents itself to our mind as we peruse them. We speak of course of the high Calvinism-the technical divinity of the fall, the decrees, free grace, election etc.— which is mingled in with the sound Christian instruction. If it be necessary for the child to learn these questions and answers, why did not the Saviour pursue this method with his discipleswhy are not the Scriptures catechisms in themselves? Some abstruse proposition is laid down, which no child can understand, and then Scripture quotations are adduced in its support. Would it not be better to make the language of Scripture to express all the needful propositions of faith, and then if a commentary is needed, let it follow, not lead. Let God's word come before man's, and then creeds will be harmless.

In reviewing the labors and designs of a council thus assembled and for such a purpose, we are led to reflect upon its results, to

measure its purpose by its issues, and to define its position as to character and influence amid the great agencies which have operated upon the civilized world. It is difficult to judge impartially of any occurrence in that age when, as religion was in fashion, hypocrisy was not easily distinguishable from it. The sessions of the Assembly were interspersed with frequent days of fasting and lamentation, and were begun, continued and ended with preaching, exhortation and prayer. How far this incessant appeal to and exercise of the religious sentiment tended to affect the Assembly for good or evil, is a question which it requires much knowledge to decide and much time to weigh. We will not enter upon it. The relative character of such an Assembly is to be estimated rather by the aspect which it wears when compared with similar Conventions which had preceded it, than by any modern estimate; we are to search for any improvement which it made upon what had gone before, rather than to cast back upon it the light of two subsequent centuries. Thus estimated, it is far otherwise than ignoble. With all its weak points and great failures, it still marks an era in human history and mental progress, and it marks this era well.

We feel the force of this fact when we ask the question, in what respects did the Westminster Assembly of Divines differ from the old Councils under a Paganized Christianity in the times of the Papacy, or from the Convocations of the Episcopal Church? The difference is remarkable, and when we acknowledge it, we perceive that the Assembly advanced by at least one onward step. In the Assembly holy Scripture was the only acknowledged authority; there was the statute-book to which all appeals were made, and from which no appeal might be made. We hear nothing in the Assembly about man's decrees, about Fathers, Saints or Councils. No Bishops overawed it with their mitres, no King swayed over it his royal sceptre, no priestly prerogative controlled or moved it. And again, no penalties reaching to the life, calling in the stake or the gibbet, waited upon its decisions. God's truth and man's heart were the parties which they would bring together, and the Scripture, the medium which God had appointed, was the only medium. which they would use. They narrowed the controversy between ecclesiastical power and man's conscience to the terms of the covenant-intended to be interpreted by sound scholarship, and a

faith rather excessive than defective in its compliance. Here was a mighty distance in the march back to truth which had been lamentably departed from. So much then of praise, of gratefully yielded praise to those who were called "the godly and famous divines.” Yet that Assembly endeavored to fix the faith of others according to their own, upon formularies which were not divine, but human, faulty, and above all, wholly needless. Herein they failed and were frustrated. Such an Assembly, let it be called by whatever authority it may, in divided Christendom, is necessarily formed of picked men, of men chosen in reference to the opinions which they are known to hold; and when they meet, it is not at all to rectify those opinions, but to strengthen them and to urge them upon others. Such is human nature. Dissent is excluded from the Assembly, or overpowered if it appears. The majority rules, and the majority was in existence before the Assembly, and the Assembly only gives it power. It is the last place in this world to learn the truth or to learn to love the truth. It is only from the calm review of its proceedings by a disinterested mind, that correct principles or holy purposes can be gathered.

For how futile have all attempts to fix the faith of a multitude even of Christian believers been proved always to be, under all circumstances! Let the authority which takes such a measure in hand be what it may, a bar of iron or a form of words, it must and will be resisted. God has not given man the power over another's spirit. Why will not men learn this truth, which is now fortified by so many testimonies? The great lesson which that Assembly of Divines, with all other Assemblies and Councils, seems to us to teach, is the sole authority of the Scriptures-their supreme excellence-together with the liberty of conscience. In spite of all the efforts which have been made through long ages to resist the truths embraced in that lesson, they have been advancing their credentials and winning their triumph. The Assembly made their attestation in confining the terms of faith to the Scriptures; but they have been discomfited, because they sought to make a creed. We take one step beyond them, and we believe that it is in attestation of the same truths when we say, that we will have no creed of man's making while we have one from God. Let those have them who wish for them; as for us, we discard them, we deny them all.

G. E. E.

NOTICES OF THE LATE REV. DAVID DAMON.

THERE are conditions under which sudden death is not to be dreaded. To a good man it is the opening of the gate of life. It should have no bitterness, save in the breaking of those ties which bind human affections to a suffering world. To him who lives well a sudden departure is no evil. He is ready always. Wherever there are high principles, pure affections, and a filial and trusting piety, there is the very spirit of heaven-its peace, love and joy-and what need of more preparation?

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An eminent clergyman, being once asked what he should do if he knew that he had but a single week to live, answered, “ Exactly what I am doing now." He answered well. He answered well. He was doing what every wise and good man would wish to be found doing, when the angel of death,-to him the angel of mercy,- comes to summon him to his Father's house. He was doing his duty; and what else should he do? Should he turn aside from his labor, because he had but another week to work? Should he relax his efforts, when he was so near the end of his race and the crown of his rejoicing? No; at whatever hour "the Son of Man cometh," he would gladly be found watching at his post, faithful to his trust, ready for all things, and fearing nothing. He needs no warning of the approach of death. For what is it to him but an intenser life-the celestial birth, the consummation of his being? It is the breaking open of his prison-house, to give the soul its freedom. There is no death. Christ" hath abolished" it. Our souls refuse to recognize it; our instinct is, to live on forever. That event in every man's history which we call a death, is but the rising of the soul out of the ruins of a mortal body, when it is no longer fit for its dwelling-place. Death and the resurrection are one. And to a good man, come when and how it may, this event is not an evil. It requires no special preparation. Whenever God pleases to call him away, then is the best time for him to go. What need of a slow, wasting sickness, saddened over by the gathering and darkling death-shadow, to warn a soul that is always girt and ready for the last journey? What can be better, than for a man, in whom the spirit of heaven dwells, to be summoned instantly to heaven from the strenuous activity of an earnest and dutiful life?