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appendix, in which he gives certain prophecies by Fleming, Love, and Richard Brothers, the last of which has been long since falsified.

40. JOHN NICHOLSON of Belfast (1784-1816).

1. A Lecture and Sermon. [Acts xxiii. 12-16, and 2 Cor. v. 11.] pp. 31. Belfast, 1799. A. C. B. 2. Letters on the Extensive Jurisdiction of Presbyterian Churches, and on the failure of the late Overtures for a coalescence between the two Synods of Seceders in Ireland. Addressed to the Rev. John Rogers, M.A. 12mo, pp. 104. Belfast, M. C. D.

1810.

Mr. Nicholson was a Scotchman, born in 1761, and ordained at Larne about 1784, the first minister of the Secession congregation there. He taught a classical school at Blackcave, and had for one of his pupils Dr. M'Henry, the well-known poet and novelist, and Rev. George Hay, afterwards of Derry. He was installed in Berry Street, Belfast, on 20th August, 1799. Here he had for a pupil Rev. John Barnett, D.D., of Moneymore, and was one of the founders of the Brown Street Sunday-School. He died of fever, March 10, 1814. He was, says Mr. Porter of Larne, to whom I am indebted for this information, "a liberal-minded and accomplished man, an excellent Hebraist, and a firstrate classical scholar." (See Larne Reporter, June 27, 1874.)

41. JAMES CUMING of Ahoghill (1760-1809).

The Apostle Paul's Reasoning before Felix ascertained and applied. A Sermon preached at Ballymoney, November 12, 1800, on occasion of the ordination of the Rev. Benjamin Mitchell in that place. pp. 28. Belfast, 1800.

Mr. Cuming was ordained at Ahoghill on the 14th of October, 1760. His ordination sermon, preached at Ballymoney, is understood to be his only publication. He died on the 3d March, 1809. He was grand-uncle of the late Professor Gibson, D.D., of Belfast.

42. ANDREW MILLAR of Clogher (1773-1831).

Some Observations on the Practice of Sacrificing in general, with an application of them to the great sacrifice of Christ; being a Sermon preached in Lurgan on the 24th of June, 1800, at the opening of the General Synod of Ulster. [Heb. ix. 26.] 12mo, pp. 46. Dublin, 1800.

A. C. B.

The author of this discourse was originally a licentiate of the Letterkenny Presbytery, who was ordained as minister of Clogher on the 15th of June, 1773. In 1799 he acted as Moderator of the Synod of Ulster at Lurgan. The meeting of that year spent a portion of its time in ascertaining how far any of its members had connection with the recent rebellion, and it was found that much fewer of its members were implicated than was generally supposed. This seems to have been the only meeting of Synod attended by the Rev. Alexander Carson of Tubbermore, who afterwards withdrew from the Presbyterian Church, and obtained celebrity as an able polemic in connection with the Baptists. Mr. Millar, on retiring from office, preached his sermon on sacrifice, in which he sets forth with ability the atonement of Christ, and shows how it was prefigured in the sacrifices of the Old Testament. He died on the 11th of February, 1831, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. We append an extract.

THE GREAT SACRIFICE.

We stand on sacred ground. Our most devout attention is arrested by the most awful, the most astonishing object, that ever was displayed to the view of the world-THE CROSS OF CHRIST. We behold the Son of God offering that one great sacrifice which effectually completes the end of all that, by Divine appointment, had gone before, and supersedes the necessity of every other. We cannot pretend to fathom all the depths of Divine Wisdom in this amazing appointment. Angels look into it with superior, though still with limited success. Let us improve its blessings, and we may look forward to a period when we will also view it like angels.-Practice of Sacrificing, p. 30.

CONCLUSION.

THE history of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, from the accession of the House of Stuart down till the period of Disestablishment, may be divided into three periods, of nearly a century each. The first of these, covering the seventeenth century, is the period in which Presbyterianism first appears, and, in spite of persecution and opposition, secures for itself a footing in the country: the second, coinciding with the eighteenth century, is a time of religious declension-declension in doctrinal purity, in zeal, and in usefulness: the third, or nineteenth century, is a period of revival and recovery, characterised by growth in orthodoxy, in activity, and in every symptom of spiritual life. It is only the first and second of these periods which are illustrated in these volumes. The thoughtful reader who travels carefully over the ground to which he has been introduced here, can scarcely fail to observe, as he passes along, the evidence furnished in support of the following facts:

1. That during the whole of the seventeenth century, there was no discernible taint of false doctrine in the teaching of the ministers whom we regard as the fathers and founders of the Church. Most of them were ministers or licentiates of the Church of Scotland, who brought with them here the doctrine, worship, and ecclesiastical government that John Knox had planted, and which the Stuarts were attempting to drive out of their native country; and their ambition was to sow in Ireland the good seed which had already taken root in Scottish soil. In Blair of Bangor, or in Patrick Adair of Cairncastle, in John Livingstone, or in Michael Bruce

of Killinchy, one would have as much difficulty in finding a single speck of heresy as in Andrew Melville or in George Gillespie, in John Calvin or in Martin

Luther.

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2. Those who were licensed or ordained in Scotland had already accepted the formularies of the Scottish Church the Scots Confession, or the Westminster Confession after its adoption; and when they came over to Ireland they were not required to accept it again. Others, like Francis Iredell (see ch. xvii.), who were educated at home, were publicly called upon at their ordination to assent to the Westminster Confession; but such cases were so few, that the officiating ministers appear to have acted from their own sense of what was right in requiring the candidate to give the people some satisfactory evidence of his soundness in the faith, rather than from obedience to any ecclesiastical law then in existence. It is quite certain that subscription was not at that time essential to entrance into the ministry; and the probability is, that if error had not made its appearance, subscription would never have been required. Creeds do not create error: it is the existence of error that produces creeds. If there is no danger, men never think of precautions. Creeds only come into existence when danger, arising from error, is at the door.

3. The first thing that produced the alarm was the astounding fact, then just discovered, that Thomas Emlyn (see ch. xv.) had been preaching in Dublin for ten or eleven years, and yet during that time did not hold the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ. In 1702 the Arianism of Emlyn was detected, and he ceased to be pastor of Wood Street Congregation. In 1703, he was tried in the civil courts and condemned to imprisonment. It was full time to take precautions. What had occurred already in Dublin might at any time occur in the North. The Synod of 1705 agreed unanimously that all already licensed should subscribe the Westminster Confession prior to their ordination, and that all candidates in future should subscribe

before being licensed. To that resolution the whole Synod agreed unanimously: all who joined the Synod subsequently entered under that rule, and of course united themselves to a subscribing body. Any man who did not approve of this principle, it is quite manifest, ought not to have sought ordination in the Presbyterian Church; but having sought ordination in a subscribing body, he should loyally have adhered to its principles, or if he discovered that its principles did not suit him, he should have voluntarily withdrawn. However this may be, it is clear enough that it was the appearance of serious error in one minister tha prompted the Church to adopt the practice of requiring subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, as the best means that they could think of for securing that the future ministers of the Church should be sound in the faith. If they could have thought of any better means of attaining the grand object in view, they were not so wedded to subscription as to choose it in preference to the better plan. But they chose subscription as on the whole the best means for effecting the purpose, and after the experience of one hundred and seventy years, we cannot say that they were wrong.

4. Heresy or religious error is the device of Satan for corrupting the truth of God and destroying its effects upon the opinions, feelings, conduct, character, and eternal destinies of men. The evil heart is the engine through which the unseen enemy works; but there are, of course, outward instrumentalities by which error recommends itself to the minds and hearts of men, so as eventually to have the will, the conviction, and even the misguided conscience, upon its side. One of the most potent of these instrumentalities in the case of the Presbyterian ministers of Ireland was the defective and erroneous teaching of the Universities. It was specially from the University of Glasgow that the Presbyterian clergy, with few exceptions, derived their philosophical and theological training. Simson and Leechman, and I fear I must add Hutcheson too, corrupted the fountains of knowledge, and Scotland, as one may gather from

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