of God into the reception, love and practice of all divine truth, now and for evermore.

I. We believe in one, supreme, and self-existent God, who is lovethe Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor of all things-the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and the Judge of the whole earth-whose every attribute and perfection is but a modification of his infinite and unchanging goodness-of his impartial, unbounded and adorable loveand whose unending benevolence and almighty power are unceasingly directed to produce, ultimately, the greatest possible good of his intelligent creation.*

II. We believe in one Lord, the "Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time"-who is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world— being the promised Seed of the woman, and descended also from Abraham, to whom the promise was made. We believe this Mediator to be the Son of the living God, the Saviour of the world, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, who has revealed unto us the will of his Father, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We also believe that God endued this, his Son and Messenger, plenteously with all good gifts; gave him all power necessary to execute his mission, and communicated to him the Spirit without measure, that through him, (as he is the way, the truth, the resurrection, and the life,) the whole human family (for all die in Adam, or the earthly nature) might finally be ransomed from the grave, saved (not IN but) FROM sin, delivered from misery, and be raised to power, incorruption, HOLINESS, glory, and be crowned with immortal LIFE (not death) and unspeakable felicity in the resurrection-for as all die in Adam, even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. We further believe that when Jesus has thus seen of the travail of his soul and is satisfied, he will deliver up the kingdom to God, his Father, and be himself subject unto the Father, that God may be all in all.†

III. We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,

Wishing to be as brief as possible, we must beg your labour to examine the follow. ing, among many other passages of scripture which might be quoted, to prove the foregoing, and further declare our views respecting our heavenly Father. Please to consult them. Deut. vi. 4; Psalm lxxxv. 10, and cxlvii. 5; Isa. xlv. 21, 22; Mal. ii. 10, and iii. 6; Mark xii. 29; John iv. 24; Acts xvii. 24-28; 1 Cor. viii. 4-6; Eph. i. 11; 1 Tim. ii. 4, 5; 1 John iv. 8, 16.

+ PROOFS.-Isaiah liii. 11; Matt. i. 21; John i. 45; iii. 34, 35; vi. 37-39, and xvii. 2, 3; Rom. xiv. 7-9; 1 Cor. vii. 6, and xv.; Eph. i. 9, 10; Philip. ii. 10, 11; Colos. i. 14-20; 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6; 2 Tim. i. 10; Heb. i. 2, 3, and ii. 14; 1 John ii. 1, 2, iv. 14, and v. 10, 11.

and receive their doctrines as the rule of our faith, and their precepts as the guide of our practice. We believe them to contain a revelation of the character, will, and attributes of God, our heavenly Parent -of the mission, life, doctrines, and precepts of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour-and of the duty and final destination of man. Believing them to be thus profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the servant of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works, and whoso that properly readeth them become wise unto salvation, we do most devoutly believe that every promise and every threatening made in them, and relating to a period yet future, will be fully performed and completely fulfilled, to the honour, glory and praise of God, and to the benefit, satisfaction, and final salvation of man. We do not, therefore, believe that the Law (or threatenings) is against the gospel (or promises)-for the promises were first made unto Abraham, and the law was given to Moses four hundred and thirty years afterward, not to annul, but to confirm the promises. Therefore will all chastisement but tend to produce the blessings promised for all the nations, families, and kindreds of the earth, in Christ, the chosen seed.

Disavowing, however, and protesting against all merely human authority in matters of religious belief-from that of the greatest council or highest dignitary, down to the humblest layman—and rejecting the binding force of all man-made creeds and confessions of faith, we acknowledge the Bible as our only creed, and claim for ourselves, what we freely grant to others, the privilege of reading and construing it, under divine aid, according to the teachings of our understandings and the dictates of our consciences.*

IV. We believe that man, in his intellectual or spiritual nature, is the offspring of God-that, even when a sinner, he is authorized and commanded to call God his Father in heaven, and to pray to him for the forgiveness of his sins-that, though a backsliding child, yet he is called on to return to the practice of righteousness, because God is "married unto" him-and that though mankind are, by creation, the children of God, yet they may, in a more peculiar manner, become characteristically the children of their Father which is in heaven, by imitating his impartial goodness and universal perfections. We believe that man is a moral agent, and as such an accountable being, -that he will certainly be punished for every crime he commits, and rewarded for every virtuous act he performs. We also believe that

* PROOFS.-Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, and xxviii. 14, compared with Acts iii. 25, 26; and Gal. iii. 15–22; Num. xxiii. 19, compared with Isa. lv. 8-13, and Heb. xii. 5-14; 2 Cor. iii. 17; and 1 Cor. vii. 23; Luke xii. 57; John xii. 48, and 1 Thess. v. 21.

man was, by his Maker, "made subject to vanity," gifted with limited powers and faculties, and is, therefore, a finite being, capable of performing finite actions only-actions deserving none other than finite rewards and finite punishments. But, as man is the offspring of God, who has given us this life as a free gift, (it being unearned and unpurchased by our exercise of faith, works, or other conditions,) so we contend that the immortal, incorruptible, or endless life of holiness and enjoyment, which will be conferred on all mankind in the resurrection, will also be the free, unpurchased gift of our heavenly Parent. Believing thus, we contend that man's real and highest interest is to be virtuous; inasmuch as virtue and happiness, on the one hand, and vice and misery, on the other hand, are as inseparably connected as cause and effect; so that without a firm reliance on God and obedience to his commandments there can be no real happiness-or, in other words, "follow after peace with all men; and holiness, without which no man shall see [i. e. enjoy] the Lord.”*

V. Respecting the divine laws and precepts given for the obedience of man, we believe they all may be summed up in this: "Love God supremely, your neighbour as yourself" that " love is the fulfilling of the law"-that "in [not merely by] keeping the commandments there is great reward”—that all the penalties of God's law are designed to promote its fulfilment, and not its violation—to secure the reformation and obedience of its transgressors, and not their endless misery and disobedience and that being framed by unbounded wisdom, with a perfect foresight of all its operations, and armed with almighty power, not one jot or tittle shall ever depart from it until it receives the endless, voluntary and happy obedience of every intelligent being in the universe.†

* PROOFS.-Gen. ii. 7, Num. xvi. 22, Mal. ii. 10, and Heb. xii. 9, compared with Luke xi. 2, 4; Jerem. iii. 14, and James iii. 9; Matt. v. 43-48; Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7; Prov. xi. 21, xvi. 5, and Rom. ii. 5-13, Titus iii. 3-8, and Rom. viii. 19-24; Rom. xi. 6, compared with 29-36; Isa. lvii. 20, 21, and Gal. v. 22; 1 Cor. xv.

+ PROOFS.-ROM. xiii. 10; James i. 25; Ps. lxxxix. 31-34; Isa. i. 5, 6; Prov. iii. 11, 12; Ps. cvii. Ps. cxix. 67, 71, and Heb. xii. 11; Rom. viii. 7–13; Matt. v. 17, 18.

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