Luther. A little further, and you may become a Protestant! Erastian. No danger. I can be pious in the church as you can be out of it.

Luther. And may not I be at least as pious out of it as you can be in it, according to your own definition of piety; or have we not both agreed that the ratio of piety is the ratio of conformity to the revealed will of God?

Erastian. We have; but we have not agreed in that part of the revealed will of God that commands separation from the Church of Rome.

Luther. We have not debated that point. Let us first decide this one. You sought to ensnare me through a concession which I made for the sake of the living and the dead; but you did not understand my concession, or else you have assumed a false principle in reasoning.-Your hypothesis is, that I might be pious, virtuous and happy by living in accordance with the knowledge of my ancestors, rather than by living in accordance with my own. This is both a common and a pernicious error; and I verily believe that millions are deluded by it into the idolatry of the Pope; who, were it not for it, might have saved themselves and their posterity from the worst tyranny ever usurped over man. Why, sir, I could as rationally expect to live upon the food that my forefathers eat, as to be approved by God for living as they lived, or in conformity to their knowledge. Indeed no man can be justified to-day by living in accordance with the knowledge that he had yesterday. As soon shall the adult man live upon the milk of the infant man, as any Christian please God or enjoy spiritual life by living this year according to the measure of his knowledge last year. Every man that continues in the Greek Church or Roman Church one hour after he sees its errors, because, as he alleges, many good people have lived and died in it, sins against reason, against conscience, and against God, according to a thousand decisions on other subjects by the most learned casuists in Rome or Constantinople.

Erastian. You would have us perpetually changing in order to our perfection. The perfection of mutability! What a glorious perfection is the perfection of Protestanism!

Luther. Jesus Christ himself grew in knowledge; and we are commanded to grow in grace, even in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. Certainly as the brain grows the heart should grow; and the outward man should be proportioned to the inner. But this is not the question. Should we now, enlightened as we are, conform to the requisition of a church which has been degenerating every hour for a thousand years, because she was once pure, or because our fathers lived and died in her embraces ?

Erastian. I do not believe in this awful degeneracy, and therefore I cannot answer such questions.

Luther. But you believe in continuing in a church after we are convinced of its errors, because our good ancestors died in it; and you argue the possibility of our piety in a corrupt church, from the fact of their alleged piety, who lived in better times, with other views, and under less opportunities of information than have been vouchsafed to us.

Erastian. I admit that the church may be in need of reformation of manners, and that we should attempt that as often as there is need; bnt I do not believe that the church ever errs in doctrine, and therefore I cannot accord to any person the right of changing a single point of doctrine.

Luther. Yes, I know that you assume this mysterious paradox, that a person may have a most excellent and perfect constitution, and yet be sick every day of his life; and hence the ease in swallowing the dogma that the church may be infallibly sound in doctrine and excessively depraved in practice. But let me tell you this is not the point on which you assailed me. Stick to that point. Remember you would have me live and die in the church because my father died in it, and make me pious by what he knew, instead of obeying the light which God has given me.

Erastian. Of this, at a more convenient season, we may converse again. At present adieu!

NATURAL THEOLOGY.

A. C.

Does it mean the religion which men in a state of nature adopt? Does it mean the religion of the uncivilized barbarian? Assuredly not; for this would lead at once to all the cruel absurdities of heathenism. Does it mean the religion which reason suggests, without any instruction or guide beyond the exercise of its own innate powers? If so, then it would be strictly no religion whatever. There have been some cases, though few, where men have come to years of maturity without any communication with their fellowbeings; and in every instance they are found not only destitute of every thing like religion, but apparently destitute of language, and degraded to a condition scarcely above the brutes. A far more extensive set of observations in the case of the deaf and dumb, have established the fact, that there is no spontaneous religion-no idea of the being of a God, of a future state, or any other religious doctrine in the mind of man, until he is instructed. And this conclusion, settled as it is, on careful inquiry, and unopposed by a single instance on the other side, ought to put down the phrase "religion of nature" as an utter absurdity. The truth is, there is no such thing.-Bishop Hopkins Christianity Vindicated.

"WHEREIN DO YOU EXCEL?"

THIS is such a common sense sort of question, that every one expects to hear it who professes any thing different from others. If a person proposes to himself any object superior to those objects which the many propose to themselves, he cannot think of accomplishing it unless by doing more than others. Does a student desire to excel his companions in science? He must read more, think more, labour more than they. Does any one propose to himself more learning, more wealth, more fame, more honour than fall to the lot of the many? and will he not feel and think that he must make greater exertions than others, and use means correspondent to the end proposed? This is common sense.

In religion is it otherwise? Does a person profess religion? Then all the world expect a difference, not only from himself in days that are past, but from all who do not not profess religion. But in no department in society is this expectation more correctly founded, more general, than in reference to those who profess to be reformers in religion. Envy and jealousy, and the zeal of those who feel themselves rivalled in such attempts, will lead them to exclaim, " In what do these reformers excel? Excellence, they say, they profess; but in what, and how far?"

But we professors of reformation were not induced to this course because others will goad us with the question, Wherein do you excel? but because we saw that personal, family, and social reformation were indispensable, and have set out in this great and holy enterprize. Brethren, we must excel-we must do more than others. A Christian is one of rare excellence. He is one that greatly excels all other men. His model casts a shade over all the excellence of the heathen world. As the stars become invisible when the sun lifts his glowing face above the horizon, so all the excellence of the Pagan world is unworthy of admiration in the presence of the Sun of Righteousness. More, then, much more will be expected from us Christians, than from those who never had before them a model of perfect excellence.

But in reference to our fellows in this age of apostacy, there are various points in which we must excel, else we shall fall short of our standard of religion and morality. Our standard is the Bible. Theirs is the Bible as explained and set forth at Rome, at Westminster, at Geneva, or at Cambridge-that is, the Bible lowered down in its tone of religion and morality to suit courts and worldly sanctuaries. Every body who can think correctly, must know that a perfect sectary is a very imperfect Christian. We want much more than the liturgy, or the books of discipline framed by the sons of hierarchies, to bring us up to the Christian Standard-the Bible alone.

Brethren of the reformation, we want more knowledge of the Scriptures, more faith, more zeal, more liberality, a higher and a purer morality, more disconformity to this vain and foolish worldwe want the devotedness to God which distinguished the first Christians. To these points we intend to call your attention in the present volume. We shall be explicit-we shall speak out. The Lord's cause demands it. It is not a reformation in theory, in name, in profession; but in reality, for which we contend. We shall lose our labour if we fail in the end proposed.

In the first place, then, (and we can only now suggest it) every reformer must read and study, and even commit the Scriptures to memory, more than other professors-more than he has done formerly-He must have the word of Christ dwelling in his heart -he must be able to bring out of the treasury things new and old.

There is nothing more distressing to an intelligent and benevolent mind, than the prevailing ignorance of the Living Oracles. Fathers, mothers, and children are, in innumerable instances, almost alike ignorant of the Word of Life. In travelling a hundred miles one cannot find, sometimes, a single family that altogether can repeat a single epistle or two chapters of Old Testament or New. We repeat it, this must not be so amongst the disciples. We must either renounce our profession, or reform. Every Christian family ought to be a nursery for Christ. Moses and all the Prophets, as well as all the Apostles, concur in admonishing us in this affair.

We may, in our next number, submit to our readers a plan of improvement in this business. The reformation we plead calls for more knowledge of God's word and will-of his precepts and his promises; for more prayer-more abstraction from the world-more devotion to God-more purity, and more consecration of ourselves to the Lord, than appear in any sect in Christendom. On these we must be-we shall be, most explicit. A. C.

TRUE RELIGION.

RELIGION is the only couch on which the man of advanced years, fatigued with the journey of life, harrassed with its cares, and sick of its delusive and unsatisfying enjoyments, can rest the weary soul. The repose it affords obliterates all past disappointments, consigns to oblivion the follies of his youth; robs death of his terrors, transforming him into a messenger of peace.

It subdues the strong passions of the soul, allays all fear of evil, and sheds a holy, hallowed, lasting peace within. It creates new scenes of pleasing contemplation, to employ and refresh the soul; new "joys which satisfy and sanctify the mind," fills him with love to the most lovely of all beings-love never to be disappointed. It

kindles a hope full of immortality, and sheds a halo of increasing glory round the scenes, and joys, and worlds, and ages yet to come. Religion fills that aching void within the human heart, which nothing else can fill; all now is peace within, peace with himself, with God, and all mankind. It not only allays the ceaseless cravings of the flesh, but renders him unutterably blessed-filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

His soul committed to the care of one "too wise to err, too good to be unkind," is kept by the power of God" through all the chequered scenes of life and death secure," till purified, transformed, and fitted for a higher sphere, he receives an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away; there he shall dwell for ever in the presence of his God; where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore.

Monthly Record of Passing Events.

0.

On the Continent political events of startling magnitude and importance continue to transpire. A few weeks ago the Capital of Austria was the scene of an insurrection, which ended in the defeat of the Imperial army, and the flight of the Emperor. The success of the people however seemed but short lived. Vienna had soon to succumb to the superior physical force of the soldiery, and dearly for a time did its citizens pay for their rebellion. But a turn has now taken in the affairs of the Austrian people. Their aged and imbecile monarch has abdicated in favour of his youthful nephew, Francis Joseph, who, in his inaugural proclamation, declares himself convinced of the necessity and the value of free institutions, and predicts, that "on the basis of true liberty, on the basis of the equality of rights of all our people, and the equality of all citizens before the law, and on the basis of their equally partaking in the representation and legislation, the country will rise to its ancient grandeur." The "paternal despotism" of Austria is then now no more, and Francis Joseph I ascends the throne as a constitutional sovereign.

Scarcely less remarkable is the new move of the King of Prussia. Frederick William has offered to his subjects a constitution, which embraces universal delegated suffrage, equal electoral districts, no property qualification, and triennial parliaments. All aristocratic privileges are abolished, and the liberty of all religious creeds, and associations guaranteed. The Constitution is to be submitted for revision to the new Chambers, which are summoned for the 26th of February. Truly we live in remarkable times!

At length it has come to the Pope's turn to fly. Since the assassination of M. Rossi he had been a close prisoner in his palace; but in the end he managed to effect his escape by stratagem and disguise. On the 24th of November he left the Quirinal with the Count de Spaur, disguised as his servant, and mounted the box of his carriage alongside the coachman. On arriving at the Count's residence, he took off the livery suit, and dressed himself in the usual costume of the Count's chaplain. Passports had been previously obtained, post horses were soon procured, and the Count and his supposed chaplain cleared the gates of Rome, crossed the frontier in safety, and arrived at Gaeta, a large town, the first in the Neapolitan territory. Here his Holiness at present remains. awaiting no