scraps from the tables of the guests, and the tea-leaves, were collected, and regularly distributed where they were known to be acceptable: nor did her active benevolence rest here; persons at a distance also, not only shared her sympathy, but received her help. One instance may be mentioned as illustrative of this. It was reported to her that a serious accident had befallen a lady on the road, about four miles off (who it was she knew not till she arrived on the spot). The surgeon was sent for from H, and though no delay had occurred in his going, Mrs. D. was there before him, with a supply of such things as she thought might be wanted, and which were indeed found to be absolutely necessary. So much affected were the lady and her family with such prompt and gratuitous kindness, that it was never forgotten by them.

Indeed it has been remarked that not only was Mrs. D. ever found where calamity had entered, but that she seemed to have the faculty of being in two places at once, for her motions were almost as rapid as her thoughts, and always seemed to keep pace with her benevolent wishes.

Self-denial too, was a conspicuous feature in her new characterone instance, out of many which might be mentioned, I shall relate. A person of high religious charac ter had, through inadvertence, as we may hope, and misapprehension, given an untrue account of a transaction in which they were mutually concerned, and which she had it in her power to clear up to her own advantage, but as it could not be done without throwing blame on the opposite party, she said, 'No; religion will suffer more from inconsistency being found in such a person than in me, therefore let the blame rest where it does.'

A character thus established both as to principle and practice could not fail of being known and re

spected in her own neighbourhood: nor was this all; for many of the families who used her house in travelling, even among the nobility, expressed the same sentiments towards her, and many more who loved her religion, esteemed her most highly, and treated her with a respect and familiarity quite unusual in classes so wide apart. But this only served to bring out her character to more advantage-for under the most encouraging circumstances of this kind, she never forgot herself. She knew that though there was Christian equality, there must be civil distinctions, and that these ought to be maintained. In this, her native good sense shewed itself, and still more her Christian humility.

For several years before her death disease crept into her frame, and was supposed to be increased by some heavy domestic trials. She bore up under her growing infirmities in a wonderful manner, till the last attack came which was commissioned to lay her low. She was then confined almost to her chamber for four monthsresigned and patient, deriving all her comfort from the promises of the gospel, in the full assurance that they would be established in her experience. Yet desirous of being restored to health, on account, especially, of two daughters, who from their painful circumstances were more particularly objects of solicitude. This was not, however, God's will for her. She had "fought a good fight, and finished her course." And a few weeks before her death, she was enabled to leave all that had troubled her in the hands of her heavenly Father, and to know no will but his.' Her end was peace, founded on the "Rock of Ages," and the consummation of that peace has doubtless been an entrance (we may hope an "abundant" entrance) into the joy of her Lord.

C. D.

A Trans-Atlantic, correspondent having favoured us with the following passages of the Primary Charge, recently delivered to the Clergy of his Diocese, by the Right Rev. JOHN INGLIS, D. D. BISHOP OF NOVA SCOTIA, we have much pleasure in laying them before our readers.-ED.

HIGH RESPONSIBILITY OF THE

SACRED OFFICE.

In adverting, as I shall have occasion to advert, to the duties of your office, and to the manner in which they ought to be discharged, you will not suppose that I regard you as more in need than myself of being excited to activity and zeal. Such are our weaknesses and imperfections, that every one of us requires to be put in remembrance, even of the most important duties that can engage the hearts, although we know them, and may be established in the truth of them, that whatever gift we have received from God may be stirred up.

You have an admirable epitome of all that is required from you in that solemn office of the church, by which, through God's assistance, you were set apart for the work of the ministry. That engaging service, and the portions of scripture on which it is grounded, contain at once the fullest and the plainest instruction in the nature, and consequences, and obligation of the duties that are laid upon you; and the most prevailing encouragement to the faithful and zealous discharge of them. The high dignity, the weighty importance, the solemn responsibility of the ministerial office, are there most beautifully and most forcibly illustrated; and the necessity for deeply serious views of such an office, are most strongly impressed.

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The need of cultivating an unceasing spirit of devotion, and of spiritual affections and desires, is there emphatically enforced. The indispensable obligation to diligent study and complete knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, as the great treasury from whence every thing that is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,' may be brought forth, is displayed and enforced with an eloquence that reaches the heart. Conscious of the value of the instructions, which is so entirely within your reach, I have made it a custom to hort all whom I ordain, never to lose sight of the ordination service; and to devote at least one day in the year, the anniversary of their own ordination, to the solemn review of its obligations, with holy meditation and fervent prayer. I would hope that all my brethren in the ministry are sensible of the importance of such review, and that they will consider the present occasion as especially inviting us to it. And here again let me repeat my wish to be identified with yourselves, and assure you that I have not ventured upon this recommendation to you until I had first reviewed, with solemn seriousness, the obligations which were laid upon myself, when I received the authority by which you are now addressed.

IMPORTANCE OF CLERICAL EXAMPLE.

Personal holiness, and a godly example to others are among the primary requisites in the character of the Christian minister. Where these are wanting, even the solemnity of our office, and the authority with which it invests us, however great in themselves, will seldom be regarded by others. Nor can we

be surprised at this, although we must lament the disrespect that is thus improperly excited towards the commission we hold; which is not annulled, nor inherently weakened, by unworthiness in the officer who bears it. But the general proneness to this disrespect, however erroneous, should be used as an additional incentive to the acquisition of that soundness in the faith, that purity of heart, and that exemplary holiness, which ought, at all times, to distinguish the immediate servants of an unerring and infinitely pure and holy God. These can never be maintained if we cease to look up with humble confidence to the pattern of all righteousness; and we may assure ourselves, that unless such hope and confidence be continually cherished and upheld, the most diligent shepherd in our fold must encounter difficulties that will discourage his exertions, and diminish his usefulness. There are peculiarities in our situation which indispensably require the constant exercises of a most discreet and active zeal, with unceasing care to adorn our profession by the innocency of our lives. They require us to be well grounded ourselves, and to labour diligently that those also who are committed to our care should be firmly established in the faith, and in the sound principles of that apostolic branch of the church of Christ, in which we have received our commission. They unite with other considerations of universal importance, in exhibiting the necessity likewise of guarding most scrupulously against those partial views of the gospel and its doctrines, which lead to dangerous error, and for discouraging that proneness to departure from established truth, and to unrestrained diversity of opinion, which have been fruitful sources of party spirit, and eat, like a canker, into Christian love and unity.

IMPORTANCE OF RUBRICAL

REGULARITY.

In the discharge of your public duties, nothing can be more desirable than an immediate sense of the importance of every thing you utter. This, indeed, must be deeply felt by yourselves, if you wish it to be felt by those who hear you. Such feeling will encourage a love of propriety and consistency, even in

matters apparently of lower consequence, as well as in those of higher moment. In a regularly constituted church, there should be an uniformity of practice in all things. If this were rightly considered, we should not have to complain of the numerous instances of disregard to the plain directions of the rubric, which unhappily are very common, and perhaps to an extent, of which the persons themselves who disregard them, are unconscious. These may be thought unimportant, but it should be recollected that a neglect of any one authoritative direction naturally leads to carelessness and disregard of other injunctions, and these will surely extend from the minister to the congregation, who have their part to perform in the public service, and should be encouraged to a performance of it, by the uniform example, as well as advice of their spiritual teacher. It may be added, that every duty of our office will always be better performed, as it may be more in unison with the letter, as well as the spirit of the church's directions. It will not, therefore, be too much to hope, that every clergyman will frequently review all these directions for his guidance in the daily service, and in the other offices of the church.

THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH.

THE fall of man from original purity and righteousness, with all the awful consequences of that most appalling event; the total insufficiency of our own efforts for recovery; the consequent necessity

for reconciliation with God by virtue of such atonement, as none other than a divine Redeemer could effect; the fact of that stupendous atonement procuring pardon for sin, and the acceptance of the sin ner; the necessity for the guidance and assistance of the Holy Spirit, leading by divine grace to vital faith, and so producing real penitence of heart, and full amendment of life, and all the blessed fruits of godliness; aiding our infirmities; comforting and supporting us under the many trials of our

OBSERVATIONS

IN just reading that beautiful passage in the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah, and the second verse, "A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind," &c. it occurred to me, whether the Holy Ghost did not intend by the use of the comparative word "as," to remind the church of God, for whose benefit all Scripture was written by his immediate inspiration, (both the words and the matter of it, 1 Tim. iii. 16.) that all comparisons introduced in the Bible to set off the excellency of Jesus fall, and must fall, infinitely short of an adequate description of his personal and mediatorial glories, whose

earthly conflicts; and preparing us for eternal rest and happiness, by sanctification of the whole heart and affections, are subjects that may well engage our thoughts, and prompt our exertions, for they might exhaust the eloquence of angels. These things, therefore, brethren, teach and exhort; and in teaching them, gladly avail yourselves of the powerful assistance of the church, who in her appointed services impressively reminds us of all the leading facts and doctrines of the gospel.

ON ISAIAH xxxii. 2.

name is wonderful, whose grandeur no tongue can utter, no eye has seen, no ear heard, no heart can conceive. Is not one great design of all comparisons to shew, that no comparison can be made; Jesus is above all comparison: his beauties, glory, and fulness beggar all description, exceed the power of all language, the extent of all imagination. May you and I reader, be sensible of the riches of his grace, and allured by the grandeur of his Person, triumph in the mysteries of his cross, and be filled with all the fulness of his love.

R. L.

G.

The Apostolicity of Trinitarianism, or, the Testimony of History, to the positive antiquity, and to the Apostolical inculcation of the Doctrines of the Trinity. By George Stanley Faber, B. D. Master of Sherburn Hospital, Durham, and Prebendary of Salisbury. In 2 vols. pp. lx. and 870. London, Rivingtons, 1832.

THIS is a very interesting and able work. Like all the other writings of the learned author, it indicates deep research and close thinking, and must be considered as a valuable addition to our stores of theological knowledge. No

candid reader can fail to admit that Mr. Faber has established THE FACT, which it is the great object of his work to prove;-viz. that the doctrine of the Trinity is no modern invention, but that it may be traced upwards through early antiquity, in the writings of the primitive fathers, as the generally received doctrine of the church, till we reach the very confines of apostolic times.

It is the unsupported assertion of the Socinian school, and has been confidently maintained in the writings of Mr. Lindsey, of Dr. Priestley, and more recently of Dr. Channing, that the peculiar doctrines of the Divinity of Christ, and of the personality of the Holy Spirit, were the inventions of the dark ages; having originated somewhere between the years 500 and 1400 of the Christian æra, when Christianity shed but a faint ray, and when the diseased fancy the diseased fancy teemed with prodigies and unnatural creations.' (Channing's Discourses, p. 22, Liverpool, edit. 1829.) This allegation is

con

tradicted by the clearest historical evidence; and has been so often disproved by an examination of the writings of the primitive fathers,

OCTOBER 1832.

and of the declarations of early councils, that it is truly surprising that any respectable author on the Socinian side of the question, can venture to repeat the statement. Bishop Bull, in his great work, The Defence of the Nicene Faith,' and in his two shorter treatises,

The Judgment of the Catholic Church,' and his Primitive and Apostolical Tradition,' has adduced incontrovertible proofs of the antiquity of the doctrines usually denominated Trinitarian: Bishop Horsley in his Tracts in controversy with Dr. Priestley upon the Historical Question of the belief of the first ages in our Lord's Divinity,' fairly drove his opponents out of the field; and recently, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, Dr. Burton, in his valuable work, entitled, Testimonies of the Antenicene Fathers, to the Divinity of Christ,' has left nothing to be desired by those who wish distinctly to be informed on the individual opinions of the earlier ecclesiastical writers respecting the nature and character of our Lord. These writers having, apparently, settled the question of primitive belief, where, it may be asked, was the necessity for Mr. Faber's work? We will give the reply in his own words: My object,' says he, is to ascertain, on the ordinary legiti mate principles of historical evidence, not what the individual Ante-nicene fathers themselves believed, as to the nature of God and of Christ; but what was maintained and taught by the entire primitive church, up to the very apostolic age, and on the basis of avowed apostolic derivation.' (p. lv.) In establishing the historical fact, that the doctrine of the Trinity was an article of faith in the early church, Mr. Faber commences his discussion chronologically at the first Council of Nice, A. D. 325; 3 D