that vast continent. At length, Dr. Tennison, archbishop of Canterbury, undertook the laudable design, applied to the crown, and obtained a charter, incorporating a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." Would the Rev. Mr. Hewitt, a presbyterian, have called this design laudible, had he held such views of it as those we are now considering? It may be added, that the charter speaks of atheism and infidelity; of Jewish and popish priests; not one word against the dissenters, and yet our author intimates, that to put them down was its real chief purpose. The first missionary to Carolina was the Rev. Samuel Thomas; and he was sent, says Hewitt, for the instruction of the Yamapee Indians; so that the promotion of the establishment was at least postponed. But the real truth is no such purpose ever was entertained by the society, and the imagination that it was rests on the simple fact of " the concurrence of events." The society was incorporated on the 16th June, 1701; and the Church was established in South Carolina on the 6th of May, 1703 or 1704, and therefore the one was instituted to bring about the other. This is the argument, and let it have all the weight to which it is entitled. Until a better is offered, I doubt not a unanimous verdict in favour of the society. OMNES. [THE following communication was received nearly a year since, but it came too late to be inserted previously to the period to which it refers; and it was therefore thought best to defer it to the present time.] TO THE EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. IF the following should be thought worthy of your pages, you will be pleased to make use of it. C. An Address, delivered on a Christmas Eve, in a Country Church dressed with Evergreens. Or the variety of imagery which the prophets used to prefigure the glorious era that should commence with the birth of Emmanuel and the future happiness and prosperity of his church, none are more beautiful and appropriate, than that presented by the evergreens of the forest. Bishop Horne says, "When the prophets have occasion to foretell the marvellous change to be effected in the moral world, under the evangelical dispensation, they frequently borrow their ideas from the history of that garden, in which innocence and felicity once dwelt together, and which they represent as again springing up and blooming in the wilderness: such joy and gladness, such thanksgiving and melody, are described as taking place at the restitution of all things, as were at their first creation, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy." How beautiful are the emblems of the Christian church contained in the 55th chapter of Isaiah!" All the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off." The brier and thorn may represent not only the dejected and forlor state of the Jewish church, during the few centuries which immediately preceded the Saviour's advent; but also the unfruitful works of heathen darkness. And the fir-tree and myrtle, that should come up instead thereof, may represent the flourishing and ever-during nature of Messiab's kingdom, which to the Jews was a most pleasing anticipation. It was also the general impression of the gentile world, at that period, that a mighty Deliverer and Prince should arise, who would restore that golden age which their poets and philosophers had frequently and beautifully described. The prophet in this chapter points to the omnipotence of God, who would infallibly accomplish his word, and bring about those glorious deliverances, which he had promised. He gives a most just and lively picture of the happy change to be produced in the world by the gospel. My friends, you may see around you the emblems which the prophet made use of to represent the glorious hour of redemption. Look upon them, and borrow of his rapture to exclaim, All the trees of the field do clap their hands. Instead of the thorn we behold the firtree; instead of the brier we behold the myrtle-tree. And, as you look on these emblems of salvation, may your hearts feel additional ardour, and your voices in sublimer strains echo the everlasting theme. In his representation of the glory that should come upon the church by the access of the gentiles, Isaiah says, in another place," the glory of Lebanon shall come upon thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious." When God, by his prophet, exhorted his church to trust in him; for her encouragement, he says, "I will plant in the wilderness, (that is, in the world,) the cedar, the myrtle, and the oil-tree. I will set in the desert the fir-tree and the pine, and the box-tree together; that they may see and know and consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." "By the cedar, we may understand the Jews, who were God's covenanted people; and by the myrtle, the pine, the fir, and the box, the different nations of the gentiles who are thus represented to be called by God the Saviour into his garden, the church, which he has purchased by his own blood." And may we not believe that the realities represented by the emblems which now beautify our walls, will soon be accomplished by his omnipotence and goodness; that as the box, the fir, and the pine are united, and wreath the pillars of this church; so will Jew and Gentile, Parthian and Mede, Assyrian and Persian, unite and form one church, under " the chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls." O glorious hour! when the church militant shall embrace the whole human race! when the garden of God shall be filled with trees of his own planting! The Psalmist, in speaking of the church, says, "thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the rivers." This is literally true of the Jewish nation or church, who, by the special guardianship of God, became powerful in Egypt, and were afterwards put into the possession of Palestine, a country bounded by the sea and by rivers. But the great excellency of the Psalmist's description consists in its being considered an emblem of the prosperity and glory of the Christian church. The Psalmist, with his prophetick eye, might have been looking down on that glorious hour when the ascending Saviour commissioned his disciples to preach his gospel to every creature; or on THAT when his religion shall triumph in every land; and the banners of the cross be hailed as the rallying point of nations when the cedar of Lebanon shall be as extensive as it is durable; when its shade and its fragrance shall refresh every fainting heart. What a glorious hour! when all the false fires of paganism shall be put out; when every idol, whether an image, or seated in the heart, shall be cast away, and, in its stead, shall be placed the genuine tablets of the gospel. The trees, that the sacred writers have made choice of as emblems of the prosperity of the church, are very significant likewise, on account of their continual verdure. Like other trees of the forest, they are not withered by winter. The northern blast has no power to rob them of their beauty and their grandeur. When the surrounding shrubbery is leafless, by contrast they shoot out their branches, tinged with a livelier green, and waving with increased majesty. It is this that makes them most appropriate emblems of the church of God the Saviour, which has stood from the foundation of the world, and, like them, will for ever flourish. But of all the trees of the forest, the cedar is the most celebrated in scripture, and is therefore the most apt emblem of the durability and final triumph of the church. "It shoots out its branches at a distance from the ground. Its branches are large and at a distance from one another. It is always green, and its gum has different effects attributed to it. Its wood is incorruptible, beautiful, fragrant, and solid." Without the joyful anticipations which the gospel yields; what a waste, what a desert would this world be! And have we a proper sense of our own unworthiness and guilt, and do we feel the absolute necessity of the Saviour's merits to reconcile us to God? What amazing sufferings did he endure to purchase dignity for our fallen nature! What a privilege that we are not only permitted to recline under cool shades and beside sweet fountains here; but, to the faithful and the pious worshipper, he points to a paradise above, where the tear of sorrow shall for ever be wiped away, and where every sigh shall be for ever hushed. And now, my friends, how proper that we should plant within the church the sign that she will be everlasting and that she shall not be cut off. Did the church of old, from anticipation of her future splendour by the coming of Messias, beautify the sanctuary with the fir-tree the pine-tree and the box-tree; and shall we, who, by testimonies most sure, can look back and see some of her predicted glories fulfilled, refrain from beautifying his temple and the church we love? In directing your minds to the uses which prophecy has made of these emblems, and to the recollections, which, as memorials, they should produce in us, much pious joy, in the confirmation of our faith and strengthening of our hope, should appear. Here are emblematically displayed the beauty, the prosperity, and happiness of the church. When the devout Christian looks upon them, he can see, by anticipation, the glorious hour when the religion of the Saviour shall extend throughout the world; "when every nation and tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father." By faith in the promises of God, with David he will exclaim, "Let the field be joyful and all that is in it, then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord." ation TO THE EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. THE following judicious remarks upon the apostolical rite of Confirmation, with a quotation from Mr. Ostervald, are extracted from a discourse on the parable of the ten virgins, by Benjamin Colman, D. D., formerly pastor of the society in Brattle street, Boston. They are deserving the serious attention, not only of the members of the EpisIcopal Church, but, also, of our dissenting brethren, among whom the author was a distinguished minister. "The confession of the name of Christ is, after all, very lame, and will be so, till the discipline, which Christ has ordained, be restored, and the rite of Confirmation be recovered to its first use and solemnity. The reason why the one is dwindled into a useless name is because the other is lost. There is a discipline which our Saviour has instituted, which should be to his church for ever a sacred and inviolable order. The honour of religion and the safety of souls call for it. The first and grand defect in church order seems to me to be the abuse, or the total want of a regular recognition of the baptismal vow, by those that have been baptized in infancy, as they grow up. If this were strictly attended, so would the exercise of a severe watch, in all likelihood, continue, and the administration of just censures would follow upon occasion. But a false step being made here, runs us into great confusion and disorder. Your external profession or confession of the faith is very imperfect, without a publick serious declaration of it in the face of the congre gation, at the demand of your pastors, when you come to years of discretion. It is not enough that you have been baptized and had a Christian education, and have given your attendance on the publick worship of Christ from your infancy; but now you are to say that you stand to your baptism and take that vow upon you, and confirm and ratify all that was done by your parents in the solemn devoting you to God from the womb. This is the most explicit act of confessing Christ, that is done by a Christian, ordinarily, in his whole life. And while we neglect it, we give the adversary of infant baptism a great advantage to glory against us. For as an excellent person says in this case,the baptismal engagement is a personal thing in which every body should act and answer for himself. When children are baptized they know nothing of what is done to them; it is, therefore, absolutely necessary, that when they come to years of reason they should become members of the church out of knowledge and choice. is no novelty, innovation, or unnecessary solemnity, as some call every thing which does not agree with the custom of their country or church, but it is an imitation of the ancient and apostolical order, and an establishment altogether suited to the nature of the Christian religion.' This would be, indeed a regular profession, whereas the want of some such order makes it miserably halt, and cripples discipline. This would very much perfect our stated worship of God, and through grace qualify many the more for, and introduce them to the Lord's table, and to the font of baptism for their seed." Colman's Discourses, pp. 37-39. Boston edition, 1747. This It may be proper to observe that the "excellent person," quoted by Dr. Colman, was the celebrated J. F. Ostervald, pastor of a church in Neufchatel, and author of many valuable books. One of these, entitled, "The grounds and principles of the Christian religion, explained in a catechetical discourse for the instruction of young people," contains the Confirmation service as formerly used by the ministers of Neufchatel and Vallangin, and which is, in substance, the same with that of the Episcopal church in this country. The ceremony of Confirmation, says Mr. Ostervald, "proceeds from a custom ever since the time of the apostles, and in the primitive church, of laying hands on those who were baptized;" and although he thinks it ought not to be observed now with the expectation of receiving miraculous gifts, yet he declares it absolutely necessary that "children, arrived to years of discretion, should be brought to take upon them the vow made at their baptism."Ostervald's Catechism, p. 320, London edition, 1726. FOR THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. EXTRACT FROM THE MESSIAH. Translated from the original German of Klopstock. "TWAS then I waited for the birth sublime S. |