While we cannot conceive Protestantism from its very nature, assuming an organic union, we can easily perceive how, amidst all its diversity of sects, it shall exhibit a union far more real and vital than Popery can boast of. But we must hasten to present to our readers the glowing periods of our author. "Once more, the necessities of the times demand a common understanding and union amongst all Protestant Christians, and to check every Popish encroachment, and effectually to put it down. Again, I repeat the saying, Popery is no sort of Christianity, it is the Antichrist of the New Testament. There may be Christians, yea many sincere and earnest Christians, within the jurisdiction of the Papacy, but they are captives in Babylon, in slavish bondage to the Man of Sin. Popery, 1 say, is no Christian sect, but the Antichrist of the New Testament. It is the horrible power foretold in the book of prophecy, as destined to rise to tyrannize over, and to murder the saints of God. To treat with it is folly; to feed and pamper it is madness; to resist it with all the Christian armoury is a most sacred duty. No peace with Rome is the Protestant's motto. War against the Man of Sin is our calling,-war, uncompromising and eternal until Christ himself descend to destroy the monster-iniquity by the Spirit of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming. But how are Protestants effectually to wage this holy warfare, unless united? What chance of making head against the common foe, when the soldiers of the cross are at variance amongst themselves, about matters which, in the light of eternity, are no better than dust and rubbish, and on account of which they are not ashamed to hate with a pure heart fervently.' Is it for reasonable men to quarrel about straws, when the rafters of the house are burning? Is it ought else than insanity or something like judicial blindness to copy the example of those crazy Jews who were slaughtering one another on the streets of Jerusalem, at the very moment when the eagles of Titus were hovering around their walls, and his battering engines were thundering at their gates? We may rest assured, that the strongest, I had almost said the only support worth naming, which Papal Rome possesses in this country, arises from the sects and sectarianism of Protestant churches. Never would Popish conclave have ventured upon the present or any such aggressions had they not been encouraged by the senseless feuds and animosities of their hereditary opponents. Divide, and so you will secure imperial sway,' was the maxim of old republican Rome; and when one looks abroad upon the divisions and fermentations of this Protestant community, and sees how cordially sects and churches desert one another, one can scarcely help remarking, that the devil is still acting on the same principle, and has been doing the very work that Rome ecclesiastical would desire to see accomplished, in order that her end may be served. Methinks, my friends, that the time has far more than come for Protestant churches and Protestant individuals considering the question, whether it be not an incumbent duty to lay aside every thing in speech and behaviour which they know offends and vexes their neighbours.

"Might it not be expedient to try for a few years-say for one generation-the Apostle's more excellent way of charity, which beareth and believeth all things; which is not easily provoked, and which thinketh no evil? Is there not enough in the stealthy and insidious machinations of advancing Popery, and in the rising tide of infidel democracy, to occupy all Protestant and Christian patriots, that we can afford to bite and devour one another about nothing? We hear of an Evangelical Alliance, and have read some of the speeches which have been delivered at their meetings, If such an institution is to be any thing else than a gigantic hypocrisy, let its members be consistent in exemplifying elsewhere, and in the actual business of life, the graces they extol so highly. Moreover, let them prepare to do some work. They may now have the opportunity. If Popery. is aggression, let them show that Protestantism can be aggression too. If

Popes and Propaganda colleges can send forth their missionaries of Satanic delusion, what should hinder our Protestant churches, through the organization of their Evangelical Alliance, or any other more suitable way, to send forth their missionaries of Christ's Gospel, armed with the open Bible of God's most holy truth? The question is worthy of being entertained and discussed, whether this country could be engaged in a holier enterprize than in breaking the yoke of Continental Popery? If the Pope has thought fit to send a mission to us, why should not we reciprocate the favour by despatching a Protestant mission to him? If he has thought fit to intrude upon Protestant England, and professes to stand aghast because we resist the intrusion, surely we may expect, that without any opposition from him, Popish Spain, and priest-ridden Italy will be opened up to the heralds of the Protestant faith? Could such an arrangement be effected, I would not care, though for thirteen bishops we were favoured with the visit of thirteen hundred. But well do I know that Popery will be intolerant to the last, and they will shut the door against the Bible and the expounder of Bible truth to the very last. At any rate, however, the conjuncture seems to be most favourable for mooting the question, whether an assult can be made or no, on the strongholds of Continental superstition. Such an attack from Protestant England would be by far the most terrible danger with which the Papacy has ever been threatened. May God grant that the day may speedy draw nigh, when that hoary and bloodstained apostacy shall be destroyed by the Spirit of the Lord's mouth, and by the brightness of his coming."

The second discourse possesses even greater interest than the first, as it treats of the grand characteristic feature, of Popery, in modern times, viz. its alliance with liberalism. We extract the following

"And, brethren, let me ask you, who are the chief supporters and apologists of recent Popish aggressions? Who but the Atheistic Liberals of the day? You will find them either boldly maintaining the right of the Pope to do what he has done, or coldly standing aloof, or it may be, using the occasion to attack, with slander and malignant vituperation, the Established churches of the country, whilst they are so zealously,-aye, and let me add, with the angels of God in heaven, emitting their testimony against Babylon the Great, the mother of abominations. And I do not wonder at their conduct. I see its explanation in the words of my text, where the beast of Atheistic Liberalism is described as making the inhabitants of the world to worship the former Popish beast, whose deadly wound was healed. I do not wonder at their conduct, but I deeply bewail it, at least, in so far as it has been indicated by many individuals, and even communities, whom, as a Christian man, I am ready to love, and even to reverence. I can only pray, that they may be speedily delivered from this sad delusion; but it is my duty, at the same time, to warn all within the reach of my voice and influence, that we have not merely to fear the aggression of Popery, but these very aggressions stimulated and encouraged by the no less dangerous and insidious spirit of Atheistic Liberalism.

"I would call upon you, therefore, my brethren, to be aware of the forces and influences which are extant and operating around you, and to be prepared to meet them. Popery is putting forth all its strength, and bidding fair, unless God, in his mercy, prevent, not only to lift the head, but to acquire authority once more in our Protestant country. And its great strength lies in the Atheism of the age-its Atheistic indifferency-its Atheistic Liberalism-its worse than Atheistic feuds and jealousies amongst Christian men and Christian ministers, who ought to be at one. Of these things, I beseech you, beware, and shrink from the influence as you would from contact with hell-fire. On every proper occasion, protest against Popery, as being, in very deed, Babylon the Great, the foredoomed

enemy of God and man. Care not though men call you illiberal. Be faithful to God, and let your reputation for liberality shift for itself. Are you better than the redeemed in glory-the martyred multitudes of the saints in bliss, and does not this book tell you, that over the smoke of Babylon, burning, they raise the loud halleluiah of praise? Hold fast, I say, this your Protestant testimony, and be not ashamed of it. In the name of God proclaim and wage eternal war with Rome. Be not deluded and misled into the dream, that there is any thing else of equal moment which can or ought to intervene between you and this duty. O! it pains me to the heart, and fills me with astonishment and wonder, when I see, as I have been repeatedly compelled to do, the shibboleth of a wretched and timeserving voluntaryism thrust forward, and that too by Christian and Protestant men, with no other effect than to deaden their Protestant testimony, and deprive it of all its force. And more, especially, have I had to notice, the bitter and malignant assaults of these pretended Protestants on the Church of England. The madmen and fools! At this moment, I hesitate not to say, the Church of England, with all its faults, is the bulwark of Protestantism-the mighty breakwater raised up, in the good Providence of God, against the rising deluge of Popish impiety and superstition. Well does the Pope know that fact: well do his Cardinals and Councillors know it: well do the shrewd and politic men who are so busily at work in diffusing, both within and without its pale, their Popish influences, know it. Let that Church be subverted, and the way is open to Popish supremacy. It is the only enemy which Popery deems worth the fearing and indeed from whom Popery has any thing to fear. Let that Church be subverted, and Popery will make short work of all other opponents whatsoever. Sectaries and Nonconformists, and all the varieties and hues of dissent she will speedily trample down in this country, as she has done elsewhere, like the mire of the streets. I may be mistaken; God grant I may; but it is possible that some of us may live to see another illustration of the ancient adage-' Whom God seeks to destroy he first drives demented.'"

We cordially recommend these discourses of Mr. Cochrane, as admirably calculated to awaken the Christian Church to the present alarming aspects of Popery.

bride.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Presentation.-The Earl of Zetland has ceed the Rev. Mr. Caesar, translated to PanArchibald Fairlie, presented the Rev. Preacher of the Gospel, to the Church and Parish of South Ronaldshay, in the Presbytery of Kirkwall and Synod of Orkney, void by the death of the Rev. John Gerard, A.M., late minister thereof.

Clerical Presentation.-The Rev. Mr. Dewar, son of Principal Dewar, of Aberdeen, has received a Crown presentation, as helper and successor to the Rev. Mr, Nelson, of Auchtergaven.

Induction at Panbride.-On Thursday the 27th February, the Presbytery of Arbroath met in the Parish Church of Panbride, and proceeded with the settlement of the Rev. James Caesar, as minister of that Church and

Ardrossan New Church.-On Wednesday last, the 5th March, this church, with s portion of the old parish of Ardrossan, was erected by a decree of the Court of Teinds, into a new parish, to be called the New Parish of Ardrossan. The presentation has already been given to the Rev. James Mackay, A.M., who, having received a unanimous call from the people, has been officiating among them, for some time past, with eminent suc

1. The Ten Years Conflict; being the History of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland. By ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D. Blackie & Son.

2. "Ten Years of the Church" of Scotland, from 1833 till 1843, with Historical Retrospect from 1560. By JAMES BRYCE, D.D. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London.

We have omitted till the final moment, any reference to the legacy which the retiring party left on the Table of the Assembly. Their "Protest" may be compared to another billet' of incendiary purpose; at least it was not the fault perhaps of those who left it, certainly not that of their historian, if it should not, like Althea's brand, fire the house over the head of the residuary legatees. That we have survived the fate of Meleager, and are left alive after an attempt so fitted to do execution, seems to excite the historian's special wonder.

accurate reasoner,

It seems the Protest was never yet answered," from which we are invited to the logical conclusion, that this was because it admitted of none, or because they with whom it was left were helplessly consciencestruck. The Establishment have thus practically confessed," says our "that the Protest is unanswerable. This is a fact which intelligent on-lookers have already noted, and to which an impartial posterity will not fail to point, as the virtual admission of the Establishment itself, that it is not the true Church of Scotland." We do not remark on the wisdom of answering the Protest of men who were, or shortly were to be, no more to the Church of Scotland than the Society of Moravians. In the warmth of its courtesy, and in the tender hour of

R

its regrets, the Assembly undertook, perhaps very unnecessarily, to treat this document as they would the protests of brethren still within the Church. That hour passed away; perhaps that courteous warmth had somewhat abated for certain sufficient reasons, before the intention could be fulfilled. The alleged necessity of "greater care and fuller leisure," complimented at once the importance of the subject, and excused the imperfect labours of a breathless Committee that had sat down to their attempt in heat and hurry; and by the time the August Commission sat, the preparations (whatever they were) of the protest-answering Committee were utterly lost to any remaining end of interest or utility. The brethren who had first loosed themselves, were long ago formally released, and were lost to all ties and all responsibility that the Assembly could controul; and it would have been much the same, in the circumstances, to respond to a call from a new or foreign denomination of Christians, "to answer for itself" to them, on the disputed points of regimen and discipline. If this does not satisfy our friends that another motive than incapacity, or strickenness of conscience, might be found for the neglect of their Protest, and the failure of a quorum-commission, when its answers were prepared, Dr. Bryce will give them another, which we reckon a sufficiently good one, that this Protest contained matter which ought to warn off the lovers of peace within the Church, from renewing their own differences, or from treading on the insidious embers of extinguished fires. In other "conflicts" we believe it is not usual to send any needless flourish of warlike intonation after those who have left the field, or to give them the pleasure in their turn, of seeing their conquerors falling together by the ears, on the head of the taunts that they have shouted behind them in their retreat. If it be inferred from this view of the case, that some inches might be wanting, within the Establishment, of common ground on which all its members could meet to answer such matters as are contained in the Protest, it is, we believe, very true, and perfectly natural. That many were left in the Church, with whom we do not deem it necessary to signify our agreement at all points, who think of patronage in some sort as a grievance, who reckon the "Scotch Benefices Act" a measure of relief in so far as it ascertains the Church's power to protect the people, but would like a still more popular settlement; who do not reckon the "Independence principle" to have received such an exponent in the course of the judicial transactions in which the Church was implicated, as they hold infallible; who will neither take their notions of the Headship from Dr. Bryce, nor the exposition of their principles from his Book-is to admit a distinction of position which they are perfectly entitled to occupy. And in answering the Free Church Protest, what they would admit, and what they would oppose, might tend to some debate with their other brethren. But what is this, but to own the breadth of that 'vantage-ground which the Protestors in their folly have circumduced to a sectarian pin-fold? They are of the precious liberties of the Church, to be in circumstances to seek her constitutional reformation, hand in hand with those who are bound to protect her, and to prosecute any just plea, with all the aids that even the wishes and necessities of the people may contribute,—wishes and