don is not the only blessing, that the gospel was intended to communicate to us. No; it will be conceded, that there was once a necessity for the doctrines and precepts of Jesus; for the testimonials of divine love in the work of redemption; for the thrilling exhibitions of judgment and eternity, to enlighten the darkness which enveloped the human family; to arrest the attention of the thoughtless and disobedient; to penetrate the heart of sin; to call into existence, and to mature those christian virtues, by which only the sinner can be prepared for the everlasting enjoyment of God in heaven. And has the time come, or do we soberly believe, that it will come, in which these healing influences may safely be withdrawn from the world? Has the occasion ceased, on account of some great revolution in human nature, for continuing the ministrations of the word, or for urging the motives of the gospel, with all their force and all their divine authority? Shall we now be able to lead mankind from the pollutions of earth to the purity of beaven, by the light of reason, or philosophy, or education? If any maintain the affirmative of this question, we say, let them give the example, one solitary example, which shows, that such a change has actually been effected by instrumentalities like these; let them tell us, if they can, how they will form sinful man for heaven, if they blot out the Sun of Righteousness; if they throw aside christianity as a former dispensation, or, what is just the same thing, deny that it was intended for ourselves.

But there is still another view to be taken of this part of the subject. Christianity, it will not be denied, was originally adapted to mankind, as being in a condition of suffering. It was intended to sustain the spirit, amidst the calamities of life, by such consolations and hopes as could be derived from no other source. And who will maintain, that the world has become so free from calamity, that there is now such exemption from pain, and sorrow, and disappointment, and agonizing bereavement, that we no longer need the peculiar consolations or hopes of the gospel? The argument we are now pressing, is this. If man continues a sinner, there must be just the same reason now, that ever there was, for the gracious dispensation which provides for his pardon; for his emancipation from unholy passions, and for his comfort in the hour of affliction. The occasion for christianity remaining, how can we avoid the conclusion, that the same immutable Being who at first brought it into existence, will continue it on; till it shall have accomplished its great work in bringing this whole world to the obedience of Christ?

But we have said enough, perhaps, to show, that the gospel, in its nature, its authority and its application to mankind, is now the e, that it was in the beginning, and, that it will continue the same

nd of the world. We cannot consent, however, to close this

article without urging one or two practical conclusions, which seem to us to follow from the position we have illustrated.

1. If the gospel has the same authority and the same application to us which it had to those to whom it was immediately addressed, then, all the articles of our religious faith, and all the rules of our life, and all the grounds of our hope, are to be taken, not from the lights of learning and philosophy, not from the opinions of men, but from the plain instructions of the new testament. The reason is, the plan of salvation, which is here revealed, is fixed and immutable. It does not change with the fluctuations of society; it does not, like systems of government or philosophy, wax old and obsolete, and then pass away. Christianity, while any thing, is every thing; when it becomes refined, modified, relaxed, it ceases to exist, except as a thing of antiquity, to be classed with the exploded systems of other times. There is, there can be, no middle ground between taking the gospel in all its original authority, as containing the only ground of pardon, the only means of sanctification, and the only passport to heaven for mankind, and absolute infidelity. If the sinner expects to be saved on the ground of the gospel, all the conversion, and all the penitence, and all the holiness of character which were necessary when Peter or Paul preached, are now necessary for him, without the least modification or abatement. Equally true is it, that there ever has been, is now, and will continue to be to the end of the world, one and the same standard of christian character. Every iota of self-denial, of devotion to Christ, of willingness to labor and suffer in his cause, which were requisite in the days of the apostles and martyrs, are fully requisite at the present day, and requisite in the case of every disciple. There is no change in the covenant which God has made with man; no abatement in the claims of the divine law; no letting down in the qualifications for heaven.

Our Lord gave such authority to the apostles, as the teachers of christianity, that he says, "whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained." You, he tells them, in effect, are commissioned, and shall be assisted by the Holy Ghost, to make known the terms according to which men shall be hardened or condemned,-saved or lost; and be assured I will ratify all, that ye shall appropriately do, in the execution of this commission, at the day of judgment. We have the assurance, then, from the Lord Jesus Christ, that the destinies of all will depend upon their receiving or rejecting his gospel, as it was originally made known by the apostles.

2. If the gospel continues the same that it has been, in its power, its influence and its application to the human condition, then we must depend upon this as the instrument of raising mankind from their moral degradation, to truth, and virtue, and happiness. All

former schemes of religion or philosophy, introduced for this important purpose, were found wholly inadequate. The world slept on in sin and spiritual death, notwithstanding every devise of buman wisdom to improve its condition. Sages taught and philosophers exerted their best skill, but the fountains of corruption were not purified. The troubled waters flowed on, and spiritual desolation overspread the earth. But when the Sun of Righteousness arose, with healing in his beams,-when the great doctrine of Jesus Christ, and him crucified, was promulgated, a wonderful revolution was effected; and by the continued operation of the same cause, truth, liberty, science and virtue, together with hopes and consolations, such as the world cannot give, have, to a wide extent, blest the habitation of man. If christianity remains unchanged, in respect to its power and healing influences, may we not look to it, still, as the great, nay, as the only antidote for human guilt and human woes? Substitutes may be tried, as indeed they often have been; statesmen may devise new forms of government; men of speculation may offer splendid theories of improvement; learning may strive to purify and ennoble. by her unassisted efforts; but if the experience of six thousand years can be relied on, we must, after all, turn again to the gospel, and acknowledge, that here only is the power to heal, to sanctify, and to save.

If we are ever to realize our fond anticipations of a future age, when liberty, and knowledge, and peace shall bless the world, the glorious revolution must be effected by the same great cause which has hitherto done all that has been done for the essential improvement of mankind. And these views suggest another observation.

3. If christianity remains unchanged in its nature, its power, and its application to mankind, then, for precisely the same reason it was propagated among the heathen nations, at the time of the apostles, it ought now to be propagated among the heathen nations. Are there not millions of the human family as ignorant, as degraded and as lost to virtue and heaven, at the present day, as were the inhabitants of Greece and Rome, when Paul, with his associates, went forth among them in the character of christian missionaries? And if these holy men, who, it must be confessed, were competent judges in the case, being guided by the Holy Spirit, deemed it necessary, that the gospel should be communicated to those who were then ignorant of it, will any man say, that the same gospel should not be communicated to those who are ignorant of it now? This argument, in favor of the most vigorous efforts to propagate the gospel among all who are destitute of it, seems quite irresistible. The Son of God, at the expense of his own blood, has provided a great antidote for the guilt and woes of man,-the christian religion. This he has fitted to the condition of all nations, and all ages; He has left the work of extending it to human efforts

and instrumentalities; and he has commanded his followers to preach it to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. His early followers, too, have shown by their example, how the command is to be understood, and how executed. They went forth, at every hazard, and with a zeal which nothing could extinguish, to the great work. of evangelizing the world. We are under the same dispensation,are the subjects of the same kingdom,-possess the same gospel, -are surrounded by multitudes of the same species, and in the same condition with those to whom the apostles preached. Why, then, why are not we under the same obligations to engage in the same work?

4. If the gospel, or the religion of Christ has the same authority, and the same application to mankind which it originally had, then we now need, as at the beginning, not only the same order of men, but men of the same qualifications to declare it to others. The institution of the MINISTRY, according to the pattern given us by Paul and his associates, was at first incorporated with the gospel itself; it became a part of it. By the preaching of this gospel, it pleased God to save them that believe. Here, then, there is no alteration, no improvement, no device of man to supersede God's appointment. In the first age of the church, those who were called to the sacred office were so taught, and guided, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, as to become models for the ministry in all future times; models, in respect both to the matter and manner of preaching; models, too, in faith, in purity, in self-denial, in consecration to Christ, and in holy zeal in promoting his cause. Yes; ministers now, being called essentially to the same work,-that of communicating the unchanging gospel of Christ to a perishing world, ought to be such as were their elder brethren, the apostles. They ought to preach, not only the same truths, but to preach them in the same plain, earnest and affectionate manner.

In respect to ministerial labors, the new testament model is to be kept constantly in view; the pattern there given is to be imitated. For the purpose of winning souls to Christ, not new measures, but those which are plainly scriptural, and which are as old as christianity itself, are always to be pursued. Yes; in a concern so great and momentous,-one in which God's wisdom has fixed the means and instrumentalities, it becomes us to resist the spirit of innovation, and to watch, with a jealous eye, all mere human expedients to hasten forward the Redeemer's kingdom. To the ministers of Christ, we say, Brethren, having just the same work to do, and just the same means to employ in doing it, that the apostles had, and they having acted under the sanction of Heaven, why should we not imitate them in respect to the course and manner of our ministrations? Till we shall be willing to do this;-till

we shall depend less upon our own wisdom, and our own devices, and be humble enough to abide by the method of building up the kingdom of Christ which the new testament recommends, both by precept and example, we can have no reasonable expectation of witnessing, on any extensive scale, the triumphs of that kingdom. Impressed as we are, with the oneness, the unchangeableness, and the perpetuity of the gospel of Christ, we solemnly declare, we know of nothing more to be guarded against,-nothing, that will more certainly prevent its success in the world, than attempts at improvement, either in respect to its great doctrines, its ordinances, or the manner of bringing mankind under its influence.

5. The gospel continuing the same in its authority, and in its application to mankind, it is not only the duty of ministers to preach it, but of the people to receive it, just as it was originally given. They should desire only those for religious teachers, who inculcate the doctrines of the new testament without change, and without accommodation to the feelings or the wishes of men. They should judge of religious teachers, not according to any popular standard, not according to their success in gaining followers, or producing excitement, but according to their conformity to the apostolic models. They should desire men to watch for their souls who are content to abide by him of Tarsus, who won so many souls to Christ, almost two thousand years ago.

ART. III. THE PURITAN.

THE PURITAN: A series of Essays, critical, moral and miscellaneous. By Jous OLDBUG, Esq., in two Volumes. Boston: Perkins & Marvin. Philadelphia: Henry Perkins. 1836. pp. 516.

THE old adage, that it takes every thing to make a world, admits, like a favorite text of scripture in the hands of certain divines, of several applications. It is generally used with reference either to the actual or to the necessary state of things in human society; and being thus applied. contains an evident and important truth. The world of human society comprise a variety of characters and conditions, which it is not easy for the skill or industry of man to delineate. Nor can such a diversity ever be done away. Men must forever differ in their habits of thinking and feeling, in their tastes, and in their occupations. One must be and do, what another cannot, or will not be and do, or one of the great purposes of the social economy is frustrated. It is only in moral character, the possession of true holiness, that there can ever be any thing like a desirable equality among men.

It is equally true, and the truth is of equal importance, that it must take every thing to make and keep a world like ours, what it ought to be. We mean, that the methods by which men are to