The Congregationalists answer to the Independents of England, and are sympathetically, and to a great extent lineally, descendants of the Puritans. The American Presbyterians adopted the faith and discipline of the Kirk of Scotland. Both bodies have ever been accustomed to regard themselves as chief among the religious sects of the country, and as having a sort of patrimonial title over the public mind, to dictate belief, and to give advice to "the powers that be." The early and long-continued political ascendancy of the Congregationalists of New England disposed them especially to assert this right, till the rudeness of democracy finally silenced and drove them from the field. The Presbyterians have been somewhat more diffident on this point, though extensively influential. The two sects together are fairly entitled to great praise for their zeal and efficiency in promoting education in its lower and higher spheres, and in the general advancement of academical and theological learning. They have also taken a leading part in the great religious and benevolent societies of the age. These institutions may be said to owe their existence to them as prime movers, and they are principally under their guidance and control. Their clergy have generally been educated men-first, in academical learning, and next in a course of professional study; and a large number could always be found among them of eminent attainments. Heads of colleges, and the various corps of professors in literature and science, have been extensively selected from these denominations. In a word, the Presbyterian religion, including that of the Congregationalista-which has generally been of the same theological type may be said to have been the most influential religion of the country. They are far, however, from being the most numerous.

The ever-active and practical character of the American mind, aiming at productiveness and results, felt itself, as we imagine, somewhat trammelled by the Puritan and Presbyterian theology, and uncomfortable under the severities of its discipline. Hence that revulsion and important defection which started up, first in England, and afterwards in New England, in the form of the Unitarian body. We might trace it to Geneva, and find it forced into being by the same cause; and to Germany, and find it in the garb of a philosophy of a still looser character, and of a wider range.

These difficult theological problems, fermenting in the mind, have driven American divines from time to time into the philosophy of metaphysics for interpretation and relief. The successive mutations and different phases which this school of theology has passed through in America, from President Edwards downward, it would be difficult to represent. Suffice it to say, that a system has at last been formed, called the theology of the new school, which stands accused by the old of corrupting the true faith, and running into dangerous heresy. It is, doubtless, a very considerable modification, not to say a radical change, of the high Calvinistic system, bringing all men within the pale of salvability on certain contingencies or conditions. Of course, the very idea of contingency or condition in the way of salvation would throw a true Calvinist into spasms, and draw from him the most unanswerable argument of horresco referens. The advocates of this new system profess not to have changed their ground, but only to have introduced a theory to explain the difficulties of the old. Certainly they have made of the system a very practical affair, and adapted it well to American taste and habits. It encourages mankind to work as well as to believe. Let loose from the chains of predestination, and in accordance with this new light, the scheme has been set on foot in America of converting the world at once, and of forcing mankind to be saved, whether they would or nota very natural excess of such emancipation of the mind,

and of the overflowings of benevolence; although it might have been anticipated, that the power of the will, advocated by this new doctrine, and backed by the workings of human depravity, would be quite as likely to present obstacles as to furnish facilities to the immediate attainment of this end.

But the Presbyterians of the old school, not particularly desirous of having the whole world fall so soon upon their hands, or not ambitious of assuming so great an enterprise, preferred the easy chair of the old system; or else, peradventure, were deeply concerned, lest some should be saved who were not elected. But the seeds of the new doctrine had been sown, and had taken root extensively within these bounds, by the amalgamation of so many Congregationalists from New England, whence these pestilent errors were supposed to be derived. The contest, stoutly maintained for many years, resulted in May 1838 in a violent schism of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, dividing it into two nearly equal parts, both claiming the style, property, and public seminaries of the sect a question yet to be settled by the civil

courts.

This great and influential denomination, therefore, originally comprehending the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, now exists in three principal parts, not to speak of the Unitarians, who went off from the Congregationalists, still bearing the same name ecclesiastically, one being called orthodox, and the other as above; or of the Cumberland Presbyterians of the west, a numerous body, and a defection from the Presbyterian Church. The distinction of old and new school divides them theologically into two classes; and the agitation of these theological points seems likely to rend them into several parts in the final issue, as some of the new school have run far a-head of their masters, and enacted some very extravagant scenes in the American religious world.

The Baptists, according to the statistical accounts, would seem to be the most numerous sect of religionists in America; although we have never been able to see how it is made out. They seem to have a faculty for taking a census of themselves, which apparently exceeds their other modes of demonstration before the public. They are certainly not usually visible in the country in that proportion which these tables of enumeration would lead us to expect. It is to be considered, however, that all who baptise by immersion, are ranked in this class; and these sects are very numerous. Besides the two leading and principal denominations of Calvinistic and Freewill Baptists, there are many others which it would be difficult to characterise.

The great proselyting power of this body seems to be vested in the one idea of immersion, which has much argument in it with those who are religiously disposed, but not sufficiently enlightened to separate principle from mode, or to distinguish between a symbol and the thing signified. Hence the ignorant and the less conspicuous in the community are brought in to swell these numbers, which may account for the fact, that they are more numerous than they appear to the eye of common observation. It is, however, to be observed, that the census of religious sects in America is always made up from their own reports; and that large abatements are generally required as a balance for the exaggerations of that sectarian pride which gratifies itself in attempts to demonstrate a comparative importance. A minister's reputation in America depends much on the number of converts he is able to report; and the comparative importance of the different sects is measured by the same rule. Hence the great efforts in making converts, and the temptation to count them before they are well made; not, however, to detract from a reasonable amount of disinterested zeal and love for souls; and hence also the inducement to swell the general reckoning.

There is a numerous and active set of American Baptists, calling themselves Christians, commonly called Christ-ians, who are Unitarians, but a very ignorant and boisterous class, who may be heard preaching and praying at a great distance off. They flourish in the back-woods; and their converts are greatly addicted to apostacy, when the earlier excitements of their religious zeal are past. But their ministers baptise in great numbers, which are of course put down in the list of converts.

The Calvinistic Baptists of the United States are by far the most respectable, among whom is to be found President Wayland, of Brown University, the Robert Hall of America, and other divines of considerable eminence. This denomination has entered with zeal into the field of foreign missions, and has a Bible Society of its own, with the special object of protecting and propagating their own views as to the mode of baptism, in translations of the Scriptures into foreign languages-the genuine esprit du corps.

The Wesleyans are a notable sect all the world over, and have distinguished themselves greatly in America. In numbers they are next to the Baptists; but having suffered but little by schism, they may be set down as by far the strongest body in consideration of their unity and numerical integrity. The habits and doctrines of this sect are well known in England, whence they originated. The powerful and creative mind of their founder has cast the body into a mould, which exhibits the same features in all parts of the world, and endowed it with a spirit which breathes the same animation in every member. Dashing aside the overgrown excrescences, and ejecting the overcharged ingredients of the schools, John Wesley prescribed to his followers a plain, common-sense theology, which required little thinking, which might be comprehended by the feeblest intellect, and easily propagated by uneducated, but ardent and aspiring men. The disciplinary principles of the sect, as invented and established by the founder, are essentially democratic, like those of the Church of Rome, in the organisation of the popular mass; and, like papacy, monarchical and despotic in the organisation of the priesthood. It is exactly that state of society to which democracy seems every where to be tending,-the consolidation of the people under the despotic sway of their leaders.

"I think," says M. de Tocqueville," that the Catholic religion has erroneously been looked upon as the natural enemy of democracy. Among the various sects of Christians, Catholicism seems to me, on the contrary, to be one of those which are most favourable to equality of conditions. In the Catholic Church, the religious community is composed of only two elements, the priest and the people. The priest alone rises above the rank of his flock, and all below him are equal. On doctrinal points, the Catholic faith places all human capacities upon the same level. It subjects the wise and the ignorant, the man of genius and the vulgar crowd, to the details of the same creed; it imposes the same observances upon the rich and the needy; it inflicts the same austerities upon the strong and the weak; it listens to no compromise with mortal man; but, reducing all the human race to the same standard, it confounds all the distinctions of society at the foot of the same altar, even as they are confounded in the sight of God. If Catholicism predisposes the faithful to obedience, it certainly does not prepare them for inequality; but the contrary may be said of Protestantism, which generally tends to make men independent, more than to render them equal."

The disciplinary habits, the political opinions, and theological tenets, both of the Baptists and Wesleyans, are more congenial to American democracy, than those of the better educated and more accomplished religious sects. "Every religion," says the above-named author, "is to be found in juxtaposition to a political opinion which is connected with it by affinity. If the human

mind be left to follow its own bent, it will regulate the temporal and spiritual institutions of society upon one uniform principle; and man will endeavour, if I may use the expression, to harmonise the state in which he lives upon earth with the state he believes to await him

in heaven."

Hence, the political opinions of America having been before determined, those forms of religion best adapted to harmonise with them were likely to prevail most; and hence the religious democracy of the Baptists and Wesleyans has acquired to itself by far the greatest numbers. The ecclesiastical organisation of the Baptists is a pure democracy, the priests and the people being all upon the same level. The priest has no orders, except the democratic authority of his lay brothers and sisters-a state of things for which the poverty of language and former usages have not yet furnished a name. That power which elevates to this honour, can at any time and at will reduce to the original and common level.

Not so, however, the Wesleyan system. Nevertheless it is democratic, for the same reason that papacy is, and on the same principles; and like papacy in America, it always proves itself democratic. It is a singular fact, that the Roman Catholic Church in America is the most thoroughly democratic of all.

As the burnt child dreads the fire, so the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, having suffered more than any other from the jealousy and early legislation of American democracy, in consideration of the fact that she was originally the established Church of Great Britain in the colonies, has been extremely careful not to meddle with the politics of the country. It took a full half-century, from the data of the American revolution, for the Church to recover a comfortable state of existence, and begin to feel that her breath was her own. The reorganisation of her ecclesiastical polity, a thing apart from episcopacy proper, and which may be adapted to the state of society in any country at discretion, was a duty which necessarily devolved upon this Church after the establishment of American independence; and it was so prudently devised as to be adapted to the popular institutions of the country, as originally set up, not democratic, but republican. The American Episcopal Church, therefore, is properly and thoroughly republican in the construction and operation of its polity.

By a scrupulous avoidance of all intermeddling with the politics of the State, and a steady adherence to her own principles, the Episcopal Church has silently worked her way into a prominent rank among the religious denominations of the country; and though not as yet numerous, as compared with those already noticed, yet it is rapidly increasing in numbers, and growing in public favour. What she lacks in a numerical point of view, she enjoys in the respectability and wealth of her members. Her present relative position to the community and to other sects is peculiarly advantageous to herself. Compact in her organisation, consistent in her principles, unimpeachable as to the charge of meddling with politics, and aloof from the common religious agitations of the country, she is well prepared to endure the shock which the premature and forced attempts at moral and religious reformations have brought upon the American public, and to profit by it. Tired of the religious squabbles, and disgusted with the fanaticism, which have sprung up in so many quarters to interfere with civil rights, to disturb the public peace, and invade the domestic sanctuary, the more sober and reflecting, according as their relations in society will permit, are turning their eyes to the decent order and quietude of the Episcopal Church, as an inviting place of repose.

There are other Protestant denominations of Chris tians in America, of respectable character and of considerable importance, as the Reformed Dutch, the Lutheran Reformed, the Unitarians, Quakers, &c. &c.

The first of these are principally in the city and state of New York; the second in Pennsylvania; the third at Boston and vicinity; the fourth here and there, but more especially at Philadelphia, the city of William Penn. The et cæteras, including all the minor sects, are neither to be counted nor described.

The Roman Catholic Church bids fair to rise to importance in America. Thoroughly democratic as her members are, being composed, for the most part, of the lowest orders of European population, transplanted to the United States with a fixed and implacable aversion to every thing bearing the name and in the shape of monarchy, the priesthood are accustomed studiously to adapt themselves to this state of feeling, being content with that authority that is awarded to their office by their own communicants and members. Aware of the silent and insidious progress of papacy on American ground, certain of the more pugnacious Protestants have attacked the Roman Catholics furiously, and abused them so outrageously, that public sympathy has rather turned in their favour; shewing the importance of fighting the beast with suitable weapons and a skilful hand, and illustrating the truth of the maxim, that "discretion is the better part of valour."

JANSENISM. No. I.

"THE unity and antiquity of Romanism have been often contrasted by its partisans with the diversity and novelty of Protestantism. The topics supply the votary of papal superstition with fond occasions of exultation, triumph, and bravado. Romanism, according to its friends, is unchangeable as truth, and old as Christianity. Protestantism, according to its enemies, is fluctuating as falsehood, and modern as the Reformation. The Bishop of Meaux has detailed the pretended variations of Protestantism, and collected, with invidious industry, all its real or imaginary alterations. The religion of the Reformation, in the statements of this author, is characterised by mutability.'

As to the antiquity of Romanism, it may easily be shewn how unfounded are the assertions that are so boastingly made on this point; that Christianity existed even in our own country long before the supremacy of the see of Rome was heard of, or its false doctrines had obscured the light of Gospel-truth. Its unity is that which bears more directly upon the present subject; and how utterly false are the statements usually set forth by papists on this point, will clearly be perceived by a reference merely to those disputes which arose within the pale of the Romish Church during the latter part of the seventeenth and earlier part of the eighteenth centuries, in which the Jesuits and the Jansenists distinguished themselves by an avowal of opinions utterly at variance on some most vital doctrines. Not that such disputes were confined to the period here adverted to. The history of the papacy is the history of continual conflicts of opinion, on the part of persons who pretended that the Church was an infallible guide in matters of faith, and who consequently denounced the right of private judgment, and decreed it to be unsafe that the Scriptures should be freely circulated and universally read.

The rise of Jansenism, the alarm which it caused to its opponents, and the persecutions to which it led, form an important feature in the history of the Church of Rome. The doctrines espoused by the followers of Jansenius were utterly repugnant to their adversaries; and the Protestant reader can scarcely fail to derive instruction from an acquaintance with this great con

The Variations of Popery. By Samuel Edgar. 2d edition. Seeleys. 1838.-This work contains a vast fund of information relative to the Church of Rome.

troversy. He will perceive how unfounded is the assertion, that, amidst the jarring of Protestant sects, the Romish Church presents the beautiful spectacle of a city at unity within itself; that this unity is an evidence of its being built upon the true foundation; that its doctrines are to be embraced with implicit faith, its decrees to be regarded as infallible, and its requirements, however revolting to common sense, or the notion of a pure and spiritual religion, are yet to be attended to, and complied with, under pain of eternal damnation.

In presenting to our readers a brief sketch of Jansenism, it may be well, in the first place, to give some account of its illustrious founder, who testified, even while acknowledging, as we shall find, to its unlimited extent, the supremacy of the papal see, that he was under the influence of vital religion, and that God was pleased, amidst the darkness of popery, to enlighten, to a great extent, the eyes of his spiritual understanding, and to impress his heart with a sense of the value of the Gospel.

Cornelius Jansenius, who was called for a short season to fill the see of Ypres, was the son of John Otto, and born at Acquoy, near Leerdam in Holland, Oct. 28, 1585. His parents were strict Romanists. He studied first at Utrecht, and afterwards at Leyden, where he received the name of Jansen, or son of John, and which being Latinised, as was then customary among authors, he was usually called Jansenius. Naturally of a feeble constitution, he suffered much from hard study, and was consequently recommended to travel through France. He went to Paris, where he became intimately acquainted with M. du Vergier de Hauranne, afterwards Abbé of St. Cyran. Both had been students at Louvain (whether at the same time, however, is disputed); and now they applied closely to classical and philosophical learning, and soon became remarkable for their progress in theology. The health of Jansenius not improving, he accompanied his friend to Bayonne, and resided in his house six years. M. de Iauranne became canon of the cathedral, and Jansenius master of a newly-founded college. Their leisure time was devoted to the study of the Fathers, especially St. Augustin, whose views on the doctrines of grace appeared to them to be consistent with the word of God. An old-fashioned chair, fitted up with cushions, and a writing-desk, was long afterwards shewn as his study. In this he was accustomed to read, write, and sleep, as it generally formed his bed. His sleep was usually limited to four hours out of the twenty-four. After six years the two friends returned to Paris; and in 1617 Jansenius went to Louvain. Two years afterwards he obtained a doctor's degree, and was made director of the college of St. Pulcheria, which was completed under his inspection, and its rules drawn up by him. He visited the Spanish court in 1624, and also 1625, for the purpose of opposing the Jesuits, who had attempted to establish professorships of their own at Louvain, to grant degrees independent of the university. His mission was successful; to which the hatred of the Jesuits towards him may in no small measure be ascribed-a hatred which extended not only to himself, but to all who were supposed to have embraced his doctrines.

The fame of Jansenius began now to spread. His works bore marks of deep research and profound thought: one of these, entitled Mars Gallicus, grievously offended the Cardinal Richelieu, who is supposed at that period to have been aiming at creating France into a patriarchate, and that he himself should be the first to fill the office. Jansenius, after no small

The history of this contest is to be found in many authors, who have either given a relation of the whole, or treated apart some of its most interesting branches. The writers that ought principally to be consulted on this subject are, Gerberon and Du Mas the former espousing the cause of the Jansenists, the latter favouring the Jesuits.-MOSHEIM, note.

opposition from the Jesuits, was consecrated bishop of Ypres on his birthday 1636. Advanced to this his honourable station, he endeavoured to adorn it to the utmost, and to perform its various functions. His time was spent as became one appointed not only to rule others, but to display in his life and conversation the power and beauty of the Gospel. His days were devoted to religious instruction, the affairs of his diocese, and deeds of charity and mercy; his nights to study and prayer. It was his earnest desire to reform the abuses too prevalent amongst his clergy; but he was intercepted in his career of usefulness. The plague broke out in Flanders, and was peculiarly fatal in the neighbourhood of Ypres; the inhabitants who were not seized with it fled in the most fearful alarm. The good bishop now testified the soundness of his principles. He ministered most sedulously to the sick and the dying, unappalled and without dismay. He was found ever ready to administer to bodily as well as to spiritual wants. It pleased God that he should himself fall a martyr to the malady. He died, after a very short illness, May 6th, 1638, and was buried in the cathedral of Ypres, his tomb being placed in the centre of the choir, and a monument, with a suitable inscription, erected to his memory.

The character of Jansenius has been thus drawn. "He was a man of remarkably abstemious and ascetic habits. Grace had entirely subdued his naturally warm temper, and had converted the impetuosity of a lion into the patience and gentleness of a lamb. He was a man of primitive integrity, fervent faith, and a solid understanding. His learning was not unworthy comparison with that of the doctors of the Christian Church, and his piety was worthy a successor of the apostles; yet the quality for which he was most peculiarly distinguished was Christian watchfulness and circumspection. His piety attained to its uncommon growth and depth, not so much from any superior brightness of Divine illumination, as by his peculiar assiduity in strictly attending to the light he had. Whilst at Bayonne both himself and M. de St. Cyran had been peculiarly struck with the character of Abraham. This great patriarch had neither the advantages

of the Christian, nor even of the Mosaic institution. The command he received from the Lord was, ' Walk before me, and be thou perfect.' Abraham obeyed the command, and became the father of the faithful, and the friend of God. Owing to a contemplation of this passage, both M. de St. Cyran and Jansenius were peculiarly attentive at all times to entertain a sense of the Divine presence, and to walk as before God. The immense plenitude of spiritual riches which afterwards distinguished these great men, was almost entirely accumulated by a constant watchfulness over their own spirits, and self-denial in what are termed little things."*

"To renew the heart by a thorough conversion from all creatures to the Creator; to enlighten the spiritual understanding by the study, not of human opinions, but of revealed truth,-these were the two grand objects of Jansenius and his friend. These were their motives in studying the works of men whose reputation for sanctity the Church had so long acknowledged. These ends, too, they thought mutually assisted each other. All that knowledge of religious truth which is really spiritually discerned must kindle divine love in the heart; and whenever divine love is kindled in the heart, the spiritual understanding will be open to the perception of divine truth. The word of God never separates genuine spiritual light from genuine spiritual heat. Hence, perhaps, it was, that they adopted their favourite motto, " Unde ardet, unde lucet." They only wished to be shining lights, from the heat by which they were burning lights.

"Perhaps it was the conformity of their minds, as well

See a Tour to Alet and La Grande Chartreuse by Dom. Claude Lancelot, &c., by Mary Ann Skimmelpenninck.

as a similar degree of growth in grace, which led them to view the writings of the Fathers in the same light. However this may be, at that period it was they mutually adopted that system, afterwards so well known under the name of Jansenism. With which of them it originated, would be difficult to decide. By the world it was ascribed to Jansenius, because it was first made public by his commentary on St. Austin." Y.

GOD'S INSPECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED:

A Sermon,

BY THE REV. EDW. HANSON, B.A. Curate of Thorney, Notts.

1 PET. iii. 12.

"The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his

ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." In some few verses preceding the text, St. Peter had been exhorting the Christian converts to be "all of one mind, having compassion one of another;" to love as brethren, to be pitiful and courteous; not to be quarrelling amongst themselves, "rendering evil for evil," and injury for injury, and "railing for railing;" but to follow the advice of Him who said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." He now proceeds to strengthen his exhortations, and to animate them to obedience, from the consideration that God inspects their conduct.

If this consideration could be deeply impressed upon the heart, it alone would be a powerful motive for men to lead a godly and virtuous life, and a strong inducement to abstain from all vicious and immoral courses. For what can be so much desired as the fatirely dependent; who can dispose of us vour of the Almighty, on whom we are enaccording to his good pleasure and wisdom; "whose favour is life, and whose loving kindness is better than life?" He can preserve us from all evil, both of body and soul, and make us finally and eternally happy beyond all that we can ask or think; for " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." On the other hand, what is so much to be dreaded as the Almighty's displeasure? If we offend him by disregarding his authority, by transgressing his laws, by presumptuously daring to lead an ungodly and wicked life,-who, or what, can save us from his just anger, or turn from us his fiery indignation? If we do not in words, we do in fact say with Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice?" or, with the prosperous

wicked of whom Job speaks, "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?" What! if we are thus against him, will he not be against us? and has he not power to "destroy both body and soul in hell?"

These are awful and important truthstruths irrevocable, and which are deducible from the words of the text. By God's help, then, we will endeavour to illustrate their meaning, and from thence draw some inferences for the regulation of our future conduct.

First, then, David declares, and St. Peter quotes his words, "that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous." But the righteous, who are they? We will endeavour to point out, clearly and distinctly, who they are that are designated by that character. We may see many very respectable people around us, free from those vices and immoralities which disgrace and pollute man, the noblest of God's creation; they may be kind and charitable to their poorer brethren, courteous and friendly to their equals, and civil and obedient to their superiors, yet they may not be righteous: they may attend regularly at the house of God, and constantly partake of his ordinances, -yet they may not have that love to God in their hearts which he demands, nor that faith in Jesus Christ which is requisite for their justification, nor possess the Holy Spirit of Christ; and if they "have not the Spirit of Christ, they are none of his." It may only be a desire of standing well in the opinion of their fellow-men, and to be thought what is called decent in religion, which induces them to abstain from vice, and to do all these things; or perhaps they have no disposition, no inclination for those pleasures and pursuits which many similarly situated in life with themselves continually follow. The truly righteous man is not such an one as these. He is one whose whole delight is in the Lord God of his salvation; one who feels his deplorable, and "wretched, and miserable," and lost state by nature; one who is humbled with a sense of his own unworthiness, and with the knowledge that he has no power in himself to save himself; therefore, utterly disclaiming any fancied righteousness of his own, he comes to Christ, acknowledging himself, like St. Paul," the chief of sinners;' he looks for salvation solely through the blood of Jesus, and through his righteousness; and by the help and co-operation of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which he knows has been promised to every one who will ask for it, and which was poured out for that purpose, he endeavours to "walk in all the commandments of the Lord blameless"-to serve God in spirit and in truth, with a pure heart and mind; and in order to do this, he prays God,

through Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, to enable him to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts." And to whatever height in holiness he may attain, he does not arrogate to himself the praise, but humbly confesses, with St. Paul, that it is "by the grace of God he is what he is." Of such an one God approves :

it is upon such an one that the eyes of the Lord are fixed with approbation and delight. We must not suppose, however, when we read that God's eyes are over the righteous, that he has eyes, ears, and other bodily parts as we have. God is an infinite spirit, diffused through all space, and filling heaven and earth with his presence. Our apostolic Church declares that he is "everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness." But the Scripture writers used these expressions in condescension to our capacities, and to speak after the manner of men, that we might the more easily comprehend them. Thus, "the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous" means God's perfect knowledge of them; there is no action, no word, no thought, of which he is ignorant. Indeed, there is nothing in all nature which is concealed from his knowledge. "The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts;" and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews affirms, "all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

It is

The text, however, implies that the righteous are the peculiar objects of his care and attention. As our eyes and thoughts are chiefly turned and fixed upon things which we most esteem, so the eyes of the Lord are particularly directed to the righteous; he views them as worthy of his love. true that they are exposed equally like other men to want and to woe, to danger and temptations, to troubles and afflictions; but in all these he watches over them for their good; and if any or all of these misfortunes come upon them, they know that they are sent for some good purpose; and if they will place implicit confidence in him, he will supply their wants, and protect them in danger, and support them in trouble, and with their temptations make a way for them to escape, that they may be able to bear them. Thus he is "a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress; a refuge from the storm, and shadow from the heat;" and we are told that "the Lord careth for the righteous, that he loveth them, and beholdeth the upright with plea sure."

Secondly, "His ears are open unto their prayers." This signifies that he is pleased with the humble and devout addresses of