In confequence of the petition, an Act of Forbearance, as it was called, was propofed, in which it was faid that "as the powers refpecting religion, afcribed to the civil magiftrate in the confeffion of faith, and larger catechifm, as alfo in the national covenant of Scotland, and in the folemn league and covenant, has been, and still is, matter of doubtful difputation among good and faithful men, the Synod no longer make it. a term of minifterial or Christian communion, but will exercife forbearance with brethren, whatever their fentiments be upon this article." The fame committee which had drawn up this act of forbearance, propofed, alfo, a variety of alterations in the Formula which confifts of a lift of questions, put to all candidates for ordination refpecting their belief of the Scriptures, aflent to the confeffion of faith, &c. These two propofals, it is faid, much to the honour of the lay-seceders, excited fuch a strong oppofition among them, that the Affociate Synod judged it prudent to forbear from urging their Act of Forbearance, and from making any changes upon their Formula. At length a different plan occurred to the Affociate Synod. This was not to alter the Formula itself, but to put a preamble before it. It runs in these words "Whereas fome parts of the ftandard books of this Synod have been interpreted, as favouring compulfory measures in religion, the Synod hereby declare, that they do not require an approbation of any fuck principle from any candidate for licence or ordination: and whereas a controverfy has arifen among us, refpecting the nature and kind of the obligation of our folemn covenants on pofterity, whether it be entirely of the fame kind upon us, as upon our ancestors who fwore them, the Synod hereby declare, that while they hold the obligation of our covenants upon pofterity, they do not interfere with that controverfy which hath arifen refpecting the nature and kind of it, and recommend it to all their members to fupprefs that controversy as tending to gender strife rather than godly edifying." The avowed intention of the Address of the Affociate Synod (the first of the pamphlets before us) is to recommend this preamble, which it was thought would unite all parties. Accordingly the addrefs begins with bewailing the neceffity which conftrained their venerable predeceffors to fecede from the church of Scotland. They would not have withdrawn if they had been permitted to continue in the church without becoming, partakers of her fins. They hoped, and prayed, that the church would fee her errors, and return to that purity of administration, from which her courts had departed; but they have waited in vain. The church of Scotland has obftinately perfifted in her defection till at length. ΠΟ no probability remains that they can foon return to her communion. They then congratulate themfelves on account of the great unanimity which has prevailed among them, except in one mournful inftance (the divifion into Burghers and Antiburghers.) But at length, they fay, their fky is overcast with black clouds, which threatens, as fome think, to blaft the beauty, and deftroy the unity of the feceffion church. (for fo they are pleafed to defignate themselves.) They bewail the decrease of brotherly love, acknowlege that a fpirit of party has made its appearance, which is hoftile to peace; they also complain much, that their meafures have been mifrepresented. They know that the great body of the Chriftian people (their own hearers) are lovers of truth and peace, but they have been misinformed refpecting the principles and conduct of the Synod. They then proceed to ftate the particulars of their conduct for the inftruction of the Christian people and their own vindication. They are furprized, that fo fmall a matter as the alteration of the Formula fhould have produced any dread of innovation, as they fay it has been frequently altered before. They then reply to the affertions which, they say, have been made, that the preamble was devised to conceal defigns hoftile to the ftate. The appeal to their loyalty in their public prayers, and private life. The controverly in which they are involved refpects the power of the civil magiftrate, but, fay they, it is not a political, it is only an ecclefiaftical, difpute. The queftion is, whether the standard books of the Synod affirm that the magiftrate ought to interfere with the decifions of church courts, in matters which are purely ecclefiaftical, and to compel men to be of the religious profeffion of the state. The Synod have been too cautious to attempt to determine the meaning of their standards on thefe points; but they are not furprized, that many of their members are of opinion, that they give to the civil magistrate a power inconfiftent with their doctrine elsewhere, refpecting the headship of Chrift, and the liberties of confcience. They difclaim, in the strongest terms, all intolerant principles, which, they fay, have been uniformly difclaimed by every generation of feceders; though there are paffages in their ftandards, more particularly in the folemn league and covenant, which to fome of the prefent generation feem to countenance fuch principles: It is about the true meaning of thefe paffages, that controverfies have rifen among them; and it was to put an end to thofe controverfies, that the preamble was prefixed to the Formula, and that this authoritative address to their people was published. If there were nothing to bring the principles of the Asso ciated Synod under fufpicion, but the preamble to the Formula, and this addrefs to the people under their charge, truth compels us to say that they would be at least as much entitled to the confidence of the public, as the moft orthodox and legal of their predeceffors. Thinking, as we do, of that nefarious engagement, called the folemn league and covenant, which brought the virtuous Charles to the block, we are forry that the Affociated Synod has not renounced it wholly and explicitly; but if this was too bold a meafure to be hazarded, it was certainly proper to disclaim the authority of that fanguinary claufe, which obliges them to extirpate popery and prelacy from these kingdoms, and to bring to condign punishment all who fhall oppose the covenant. It is, however, ridiculous to declare that the folemn vows and engagements of ancestors are binding on their pofterity, and with the fame breath refuse to explain the nature of that obligation. Confidered by itself fuch language is, indeed, only ridiculous; but it deferves to be branded with an epithet of much greater infamy, when those who make use of it fet themselves free from part of an undefined obligation which they acknowledge. Men who can abfolve themfelves from one oath may abfolve themselves from every oath of the fame nature; and it does not appear from the pamphlet before us, that the members of the Affociate Synod confider themselves as more strictly Bound by their own oaths, than they are by the oaths of their ancestors, which they have here dared to fet afide. The door which is thus opened for a breach of the most folemn engagements is very wide; and it certainly authorizes Dr. Porteous, more, perhaps, than his own reasonings, to affirm that the Burgher feceders " are advancing boldly in the paths of innovation; that they fet afide the confeffion of faith and catechifms of the church, and even thofe covenants which they used to confider as the Shibboleth of their party, as often as they come in their way, and seem to interrupt their progrefs." Such an inference would be fairly drawn from the principles which they have here avowed, respecting the obligation of oaths; but the learned writer draws it from other premises, Thefe premifes are, the Act of Forbearance already quoted; the alterations propofed to be made in the Formula; the known opinions of fome members of the Affociate Synod, refpecting establishments of religion; and the principles of democracy which are fuppofed to prevail among Diffenters from the established church. (To be continued.) Sermons Sermons preached at Laura Chapel, Bath, during the Seafon of Advent, 1799. By the Rev. Francis Randolph, Ď. Ď. Prebendary of Bristol, and Chaplain to His Royal Highnefs the Duke of York. 8vo. PP. 250. Rivingtons. London. 1800. "THE "HE Old Teftament is not contrary to the New; for both in "the Old and New Teftament, everlafting life is offered to "mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore they are not to be heard which "feign, that the old fathers did look only for tranfitory promises."* Such is the unerring chart by which the found and able divine, whofe work we feel the highest fatisfaction in recommending to the diftinguifhed patronage of the public, has fteered his courfe, with all the fuccefs which might be expected from the powers of a luminous mind employed in expounding and illuftrating the truth of God, and the fundamental principles of the Christian religion. They, indeed, who would exalt the revelation of Jefus, at the expence, and on the ruins of antecedent inftitutions, may not be faid to mistake the Antediluvian, the Patriarchal and the legal difpenfation, but also to weaken the authority of that gospel which they attempt to enforce. Because all these feveral religious fyftems had the fame divine original, and the fame specific object; all of them proceeded from the true Jehovah, who, in his heavenly wisdom, thought fit to unfold, by regular gradation, the wonders of redeeming goodness; fhadowing out by types and figures, by rites and ceremonies, what should afterwards be accomplished in that Divine Person, who was fent into the world to be the end of the law, and the fulness of the gospel. To eftablish thefe very important truths; to furnish the orthodox believer with arguments, which all the power of the adversary cannot gainfay nor refift; to trace the fyftem of redemption through the generations of the world, from the fall of human nature in the firft Adam, to its restora tion in the fecond; these are the objects, to the accomplishment of which the author of the difcourfes now under confideration, has devoted his fplendid profeffional talents-to the ftrength of folid argument, uniting all the fascinating graces of diction; combining elegance with erudition, and tafte with piety; and in language always impreffive and interefting, fometimes animated and fublime, preaching Jefus Chrift, the fame yesterday, and to day, and for ever. * Article vii. It It can scarcely have efcaped the obfervation of those, who by their ftudies and purfuits, or by their difpofition of mind, have been led to the investigation of the fubject, that from the moment when that virulent attack upon Chriftianity (the traces of which are written in characters of blood throughout the civilized world) had its commencement, the defenders and advocates of our holy religion have been more diligent to dif feminate and inculcate thofe tenets which are more especially the objects of faith. Affured, that while they had recourfe to this divine armoury for the weapons of their spiritual warfare, the efforts of their enemies would be vain and fruitless, they have wifely availed themselves of the advantageous pofition, which they were thus enabled to affume, and, entrenched within an impregnable bulwark, have triumphantly repelled the fury and malignity of their affailants. If ever, indeed, a time could have been found when the adoption of a contrary fymptom might have been tolerated, certainly the present hour is not fitted for the frigid ethics of Ariftotle, of Antoninus, or of Seneca, in "defence, and confirmation of the gofpel," once delivered to the faints. The adversaries of religion have aimed a deadly blow at her exiftence; her friends have not been deficient in vigilance or intrepidity. And among the diftinguifhed champions for the truth we feel a degree of conscious pride and pleasure in recording the name of Dr. Randolph; whofe admirable difcourfes on the connection and harmony between the gospel of Chrift, and the faith of Noah, of Abraham, of Mofes, bring with them fuch conviction, and assemble such a mass of evidence, from the visible world, from the records of inspiration, and from the comparison of ancient predictions with their fubfequent accomplifhment, that if by fome difaftrous event, we had been deprived at once of all the compofitions of the ancient fathers, divines, teachers, and apologifts, this one work, had it been preferved to mankind, would have been fufficient, under the authority of the Scriptures, to have ftemmed the torrent of infidelity, and to have established on an unfhaken bafis the truths which they who believe in Chrift hold most dear and facred. The Difcourfes are feven in number, delivered on the four Sundays in Advent, on Christmas Day, on the fucceeding Sunday, and on the first Sunday of the new Year: the whole forming a clear and connected fyftem of divinity, the parts of which mutually illuftrate and elucidate each other, fo as to embrace all which can be neceffary to the difcuffion of the most important of all fubjects, and to imprefs the ftamp of gospel truth, firmly and indelibly upon the mind. Of thefe, the first fermon (Hebrews |