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nearer, he seemed more cheerful; not a groan escaped, not any trace of pain, and he was frequently heard to say, "Lord Jesus, receive my soul!" His sufferings were soon over. The testimony of a Romish eyewitness shows that the spectators were deeply impressed: "Nothing in his life, we may well say, became him like the leaving of it."

The accounts which have come down to us of the effect produced even upon Catholic minds by his execution, the fact, too, that many suffered, like Rowland Taylor, in districts of the country where they were almost adored, shows to whom we are really indebted for the establishment of Protestantism in England. When Mary came to the throne, a feeble minority, and those chiefly among mechanics and merchants, favored the Reformation; when she yielded up the sceptre in death, her people were ready to dethrone her, from horror at her insane bigotry. No other English Parliament can ever be where her first Parliament was, ready to swear allegiance to Romish doctrine and ritual; no other English people can be so aroused to the horror of that Romish sway which hallowed the spot where the martyrs died for perpetual memorial. If Elizabeth found her Commons receiving with acclamation the proposal of a Protestant Church, it was because Mary had thrown away the opportunity of reconciling her people to her own faith; her gloom, her bigotry, her severity, her disregard even of Catholic counsel, when it tried to moderate her course, alienated the body of the nation from her Church as well as herself, and presents one of the finest morals upon the suicidal nature of persecution, as well as a noble illustration of that Providence which

"From evil still educes good, And better thence in infinite progression."

F. W. H.

ART. VI. HERESY IN ANDOVER SEMINARY.*

THE pamphlet whose title we have placed below is one of marked significance. We regard it as a decided omen, whether auspicious or not, whether of better or worse things to come, our readers can judge for themselves, but which, in a journal designed, like this, to note the varying aspects of theology, could not properly be overlooked. Its author is a divine of great purity and worth, and of long and devoted professional service. The person whose position and influence it tends espe cially to affect is an eminent and highly esteemed professor, and is among the most eloquent and effective preachers of his own or any other denomination. The Theological Seminary, for which it expresses deep concern, and whose interests it represents as being in jeopardy, is the oldest, most richly endowed, and in many respects most influential in our country. If to these considerations we add the relation it bears and the devotion it breathes to the cause of Christian truth and righteousness, that great and general cause which soars above and reaches beyond all the lines of demarcation between sects and subdivisions of sects, and which all holding the same Gospel alike profess to have at heart, we surely need offer no further reasons for the brief notice we now propose to take of the Remonstrance before us.

In order to a just comprehension of its purpose and bearings, it is necessary first to glance at some facts in the origin and history of the Institution to which it relates.

By an act of the Legislature passed in the year 1807, the Trustees of Phillips Academy, Andover, were authorized to hold funds for the establishment and support of a seminary for theological education. Previously, a portion of the resources of that Academy had been appropriated to aid theological students in pursuing their preparatory studies, as the custom then was, with some settled clergyman or college professor of divinity. This,

*A Remonstrance addressed to the Trustees of Phillips Academy, on the State of the Theological Seminary under their Care, September, 1849. By DANIEL DANA, D. D. Boston: Press of Crocker and Brewster. 1853. 8vo. pp. 24.

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among other circumstances, might naturally suggest that as a suitable stock on which to ingraft the new institution. The means requisite for its commencement, which from different sources in particular by the fostering munificence of Bartlett were afterwards largely and nobly increased, were forthwith obtained, and it soon went into successful operation. Its founders were, no doubt, actuated greatly, in their efforts for establishing it, by a strong sense of the need, then extensively felt, of more systematic and thorough preparation of young men for the duties of the sacred profession. . But they were also influenced in no small measure by apprehension of the spread in various parts of New England the eastern sections of Massachusetts especially of what they deemed rank heresy in the shape of Unitarianism. To secure their Seminary from this dreaded. foe, to preserve it untainted and unharmed by this as they believed soul-destroying error, they in the outset framed and adopted a Constitution and Statutes, which they regarded as an embodiment and safeguard of sound orthodoxy.

"The Constitution [and we here quote from the Remonstrance of Dr. Dana, who, as a Trustee of the Institution from its beginning, and as having been intimately associated with its Founders, might well speak with some assurance] provides that every Professor in the Seminary shall be a man of sound and orthodox principles, according to the system of doctrines denominated the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism. Every Professor must, on the day of his inauguration, publicly make and subscribe a solemn declaration of his faith in Divine Revelation, and in the doctrines of the Assembly's Catechism. He must solemnly promise to defend and inculcate the Christian faith as thus expressed, in opposition to all contrary doctrines and heresies. He must repeat the declaration and promise at the close of every five years; and should he refuse this, or should he teach or embrace any of the proscribed heresies or errors, he shall be forthwith removed from office. Such, as you well know, are the provisions of the Constitution. The Associ ate Statutes are in perfect accordance. They provide, indeed, an additional Creed, but a Creed in entire harmony with the Catechism, and nowise designed to supersede or invalidate it. Such was the design of the venerable Founders of the Seminary, a design, not only easily understood, but impossible to be misunderstood. If there are words in the English language which

can make any thing plain, the Founders have made plain and undeniable their intention that the doctrines of the Assembly's Catechism, which they viewed as the doctrines of the Bible that these and no other doctrines should be maintained, defended, and propagated through the instrumentality of their Seminary."

Now it is plainly stated and strongly argued in the Remonstrance, that this Constitution has not had its legitimate influence, and not been conformed to in fact and spirit by some of the teachers holding office under it. It is distinctly declared, that a minority only of the preachers who have recently gone forth from their care have upheld the doctrines of the cross, and the distinctive principles of the Andover creed, and that this minority is steadily decreasing; also, that doctrinal "collisions so termed between different Professors have been well known by the students, as well as others, to exist, and that such differences have been carried into the chapel pulpit; and it is more than hinted, that the conservative influence of a former Theological Professor was to a great extent supplanted, in the formation of doctrinal views among the students, by that of another Professor, more popular, brilliant, and radical. As regards the position of Professor Park, it is stated in the following terms:

"The present Professor of Christian Theology has, agrecably to the Constitution, solemnly declared and subscribed his assent to the doctrines of the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and solemnly engaged to teach them, to the exclusion of all opposing doctrines and errors. That Catechism recognizes the doctrine of original sin. Is it consistent in the Professor to hold and teach that our nature is not sinful, and that original sin is not sin ? What though it be admitted, in the case of infants, that they need atonement and regeneration, in order to enter heaven? Are not atonement and regeneration, where there is no sin, obviously supernumerary and absurd? The Catechism recognizes a Regeneration, involving a real renovation by the Holy Spirit, and a restoration of the divine image. Is it consist ent to hold and teach that Regeneration consists in a change in the balance of the susceptibilities; or in a change from sinful action to holy action; or even in a change from a nature [not sinful] inclining to sinful acts, to a nature [not holy] inclining to holy acts?

"The Catechism brings distinctly to view a covenant made by God with Adam, the father of the race; a covenant including all

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his posterity. Can it be consistent, in a Professor who has taken the Catechism as his creed, to explode the doctrine, by teaching that there is no evidence of any covenant of works between God and Adam, as the father of the race; or with Adam, including his posterity? The Catechism declares an Atonement, such as involves a full satisfaction made by the Redeemer to the offended law and justice of God. It speaks of Christ as 'undergoing the wrath of God,' (meaning, the manifestations of his wrath,) and the cursed death of the cross.' With what consistency can a Professor, who has declared his adhesion to the Catechism, maintain that it cannot be said that Christ's passive obedience frees us from punishment; and that, in the case of the penitent, the demands of the law are evaded or waived? In fine, the Catechism declares most explicitly, that we are justified by the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, and received by faith. Where, then, is the consistency of maintaining that Christ needed obedience for himself, and could not perform a work of supererogation for others; that if Christ obeyed the law for us, we need not obey it ourselves, for that the law does not require two obediences; neither, in this case, is there any grace in our pardon; that Christ's obedience being imputed to us, involves a double absurdity, &c. If, in one sentence, or rather the limb of a sentence in the Catechism, there is found a double absurdity, what a mass of absurdities must be chargeable on the whole system. Yet the Professor has solemnly received it as his creed."

The views here attributed to Professor Park are, we think, fairly drawn from his published writings, and from what is generally understood to be the tenor of his preaching and instruction. At the delivery and on a careful reading of his Convention Sermon, there seemed to us to be in it a pervading vein of thought and tone of feeling, widely varying from both the letter and spirit of the Constitution under which he holds office. Beneath the brilliant rhetoric, the glowing imagery, and the stirring train of sentiment, we conceived-if we did not actually discern—a mind far from at ease, in view of the harsher features and rigid requirements of the system of theological teaching to which it was obliged to conform. When he spoke of "a confession of faith, over which, in my deliberate perusal, I stagger and am at my wit's end," a feeling nearly akin to sympathy rose within us, heightened not a little by the fear that the words might too truly picture the author's frequent official experience.