intended merely for such, as have skill in applying general principles to an endless variety of occasions, but they are designed to be minute rules of conduct to every member of the household of faith whose brother may chance to trespass against him. Are the rules laid down in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew incomprehensible? If not, the mode of discipline there prescribed, is of divine right. The first and second steps there enjoined, no Christian man can disregard without sin. And no more can any Christian man disregard the third step there enjoined, without sin, "Tell it to the church." We are not concerned here, to discuss what is meant by the church, whether it is to be found within a Jesuit confessor's whispering box, or under a bishop's robe, or at the consistorial bench, or in a congregation of faithful men. Something our Saviour assuredly meant by the term church. He did not use it as a word without signification, and when he said of a brother's trespass, "Tell it to the church," he prescribed by divine right, the only lawful process of church discipline.

Do we desire to know, further, how the government of the church is to be conducted in the final result of trespass unrepented of? We are sufficiently instructed by divine authority, how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God. It is first to be tried, whether he will hear the church; which implies, that the church shall use endeavors to make him hear. Whether those endeavors are unavailing, who can decide with authority, except the church which made them? If he, then, neglect to hear the church, and the church hath so declared, he holds no longer a place in the household of faith. "Let him be unto thee, as a heathen man, and a publican." Here you have from the lips of Christ himself both the method and the limit of church government. Jesus Christ esteemed this specific and prescribed order of government to be sufficient. Who, then, shall make bold to interpose his daring discretion, and to new model the work of Christ; alleging "that all this will not fadge, until it be cunningly interpolished by some second hand, with crooks and emendations?"

And how this final and most awful exercise of church government was designed to be carried into effect, we learn by the example of the faithful brethren at Corinth, who obeyed the apostolic injunction: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan;

exclude him from the kingdom of Christ, which is his church, and pronounce him to be in the kingdom of Satan, the god of this world. This is to be done with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, the authority given by him in his own prescribed rule of discipline. And what less can all this be, than a definite mode of church government, and that by divine right? We quote again the language of Milton: "So exquisite and lively is the description, in portraying the state of the church, especially in those points where government seems to be most active, that God never intended to leave the government thereof to be patched afterwards, and varnished over with the devices, and embellishings of men's imagination."

We forbear to enlarge upon the inferences, which this conclusion invites us to draw. Some of them, we will briefly indicate.

We can without difficulty decide respecting the propriety of the use of canons, and standards and by-laws, in the government of the church. They may do good service by bringing into a condensed and compact form the great principles of the Bible. If they go beyond this, if they arrogate to themselves, any authority, or impose any commands not sustained by the distinct sanction of the Scriptures, they are usurpers. "The book, the book; yes, THE BOOK! There is but one book, that can rightfully bind the consciences of men. There is no legislative power in the church. Its laws are enacted in heaven, where the king of Zion holds his royal state. "Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."

Let it not be esteemed an evidence of illiberality, when we venture to say also, that it ought not to be considered a matter of indifference, what form of church government we adopt for ourselves, and propagate among our Christian brethren. The tendency to corruption is exceedingly strong. The pride and ambition of men's hearts, work towards their end by exceedingly subtle measures. No ark will bear us so safely through these floods, as the ark of which God has himself given us the model. What right have we to depart from the instructions of the Bible in this matter, more than in any other? We are settled in the conviction, that authorized church government is very definite as to its ends, and very simple as to its operation, and very limited as to its province. There is no great complicated system of ecclesiastical machinery portrayed in the Bible. A church is to

be provided with officers sufficient for the maintainance of its order and the celebration of its appointed worship and ordinances, and has authority to separate from itself those members who prove unworthy of its fellowship. Very little government is necessary. The legitimate end of discipline is, to reclaim the wanderer; or, if he will not be reclaimed, to clear the church from the dishonor of having fellowship with wicked members. Discipline is awful, because God's voice is in it; but it comprehends, by right, no penalty from human hands, no anathema upon the subject of it, no infamy upon his character as a man, no inquisition, no Smithfield. These are the appurtenances of a church government by human right, and all tend to defeat the divine end of discipline, by making churches of a peaceful temper shrink from administering discipline, and by hardening the subject of it whenever it is administered. God's system is always the wisest, and the most effectual; and when it shall come to be universally prevalent, and the church universal shall come to be armed with a living and internal energy, and adorned with a perfect external beauty, then shall she "look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."

THE LAST CHAPTER OF UNITARIANISM.

IN the preceding numbers of this volume of our work, will be found a series of independent articles on American Unitarianism, which, taken together, will afford a complete historical view of the origin and progress of that heresy in New England. In the present article, we propose to conclude what we had to say upon the subject, by bringing down its records to the present time.

The first foundations of the celebrated theological school at Andover were laid by funds which had been originally destined to the use of Harvard College; but which the pious donor applied to a different purpose, when the perversion of that college from its original design and character became fully evident. The establishment of the Andover seminary, and the erection of the Park Street Church in Boston, were some of the first sea-walls which put a stop to the insidious and undermining progress of

Unitarianism, and reclaimed much of the soil it had washed away. From that time, a rapid change has been going on in eastern Massachusetts, tending to restore the purity and life of the primitive evangelical faith. Already has it become difficult to realize how complete was the sway of Unitarianism in this region less than thirty years ago. It seemed then to be almost a necessary qualification for civil office. It had nearly monopolized the legal profession. The wealth of the community was in its pockets. Almost every important pulpit was occupied by its champions. It had a sort of censorship of the press. In short, it managed every thing in its own way. Orthodoxy was almost unknown, and shockingly unfashionable; while Unitarianism claimed all the literature and refinement as its exclusive property.

How great is the change which has taken place in a singie generation! Unitarianism is still strong in numbers, wealth, and talent. But it has quite lost its once unrivalled preponderance. It has ceased to be formidable. It has become spiritless and languishing, and can never again be what it has been. Its haughty tone is lowered; and for some time past, it has worn an apologetic air, and has an aspect of extreme dissatisfaction with itself. The hue of health is changed to a hectic flush, the sure indication of incurable decline. Meanwhile the various evangelcal denominations have been steadily increasing in numbers and influence, till several of them have become nearly or quite as strong as Unitarianism ever was. They have been advancing, while it has remained comparatively stationary, and thus has mostly lost its relative importance.

In seeking for the causes of this change, it will be in vain to ascribe it to the growth of population and business. This of itself, would rather have helped to swell the resources of Unitarianism. The real cause of the change is to be found in the blessing of God upon religious controversy. Perhaps there has never been a more signal instance of the benefits of controversy, excepting the explosion of Arianism in the ancient church, and of popery in the North of Europe.

It is unnecessary here to repeat the results of the open disclosure of Unitarianism in 1815, after it had been working so long and so vigorously in concealment. We need not recapitulate the labors of Doctors Morse and Worcester, and the conductors of the "Panoplist" in putting an end to this scandalous game, the most

profitable that Unitarianism has ever played, and which it has always carried on wherever it has gained an establishment. There is no occasion to recite the world-renowned deeds of Professors Woods and Stuart in this great argument, nor to rehearse the powerful discussions by Doctors Griffin and Beecher in the pulpits of Boston. These, and many other men of might, who bravely bore up the standard of the truth in this hard-contested field, contended earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; and God was with them. The revival of religion bore a divine attestation to the truth as it is in Christ, and most powerfully conduced to effect a revolution in public sentiment.

But among the means which contributed the most to this result, we ascribe very high importance to the "Spirit of the Pilgrims," commenced at Boston, in 1828. This monthly magazine, ably conducted by Rev. Dr. Pond, at once produced a strong sensa tion. It was called into existence in consequence of the strenuous efforts of the Unitarians to retain that supremacy which they saw to be departing from them. The press teemed with their pamphlets, occasional and periodical, abounding in the most confident assertions of their liberality and illumination, and imputing to the orthodox the sourest bigotry and the most offensive sentiments. The misrepresentations of orthodoxy were so gross and incessant as to be intolerable; and a work which should boldly meet and expose these misrepresentations had become "a necessary of life." The first effect of the appearance of the "Spirit of the Pilgrims" was to raise a perfect polemical tempest. The controversial zeal of the Unitarians was roused to the utmost rage of desperation, and the whole face of the deep chafed and foamed with excitement. A very few years however, witnessed a remarkable change, which continues in great measure to this day.

Among other results of the publication of that magazine, we find that it brought out a great variety of facts as to the inglorious origin of American Unitarianism, having its rise in studied. concealment, the enemy sowing tares while men slept. This origin often reminds us of an expression in that hot thunderbolt against all false teachers, the epistle of Jude; "There are certain men crept in unawares.' It also reminds us of a comment on the passage by good old Thomas Fuller: "Crept in, shewing the slownesse of their pace, and the lownesse of their posture. The latter proceeding partly from their guiltinesse, not daring to go

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