whole family took it. Besides, divers garrisons thereabouts, as Beleek and Ballyshannon, took the covenant; which kept the ministers two days at their usual work. They then returned, accompanied with Sir William Cole and the strength of his own troop, together with the other two troops, toward Derry; wherein one of the ministers stayed per vices,' and the other in the country for a little time. Mr. Adair being in Derry, colonel Mervyn came usually to hear; and thereafter proposed his scruples, upon some evil considerations, upon the fourth article of the covenant, which were answered; yet he did not seem satisfied at that time. But, within a few days, he wrote to Mr. Adair to come to Ramelton, where the rendezvous of his whole regiment was to be, and he with them would enter into covenant. This appointment Mr. Adair kept, where colonel Mervyn, with the whole officers, solemnly declared their satisfaction in the covenant, and entered into it which while they were doing, the soldiers who had taken it before cried out, Welcome, welcome, colonel !' From this Mr. Adair returned with colonel Mervyn to Derry, being entertained with no small courtesy, and protestations of forwardness for the covenant thereafter.

"The ministers, to close the work at Derry, did celebrate the Lord's supper publicly in the great church, where the altar was removed to give place to the Lord's table, and God appeared most sensibly and comfortably in that administration, by the power of his Spirit on ministers and people. All things were done with as much order as was possible in such a case. No scandalous or unknown person was admitted, and the gravest gentlemen in the town and regiments attended the tables. After this work the ministers, accompanied by special friends, came to the water-side to captain Lawson's house, where kneeling down they commended the people to God. They came that night to Ballycastle, near Newtonlimavady, where were numbers of people waiting on them to take the covenant, which accordingly was administered to them. From that they came to Coleraine, where Sir Robert Stewart, meeting them with general-major Munroe, did the next day publicly enter into the covenant, together with some few others who had delayed it till that time. So also did Sir William Cole at Carrickfergus, in his passage for England. "From this, the ministers returned to the congregations

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of Antrim and Down, where the covenant had been before administered; partly confirming the people who had entered into it already; partly administering it to some who had not taken it before, among whom was the Lord of Ards. Thereafter they did administer the communion [Sabbath, June 23,] in Newtonards, Holywood, and Ballywalter, in which three places Mr. Adair, Mr. Weir, and Mr. Hamilton (who all this time had staid in these parts,) did divide themselves for this work. Mr. McClelland, [minister of Kirkcudbright,] being then come to the country by commission, did also join in celebrating the communion, and those who were ministers in the army and country concurred. About this time, upon a supplication from many in Belfast to the presbytery for erecting a session there, it was recommended to Mr. Adair to perform it; which was accordingly done in July."

This lengthened though interesting detail exhibits with great clearness the manner in which the Solemn League and Covenant was taken in Ulster. In this country it had, strictly speaking, no legal authority, having never received the sanction of the Irish parliament; nor was its adoption the public and authoritative act of the nation. Owing, perhaps, to this circumstance, it was tendered with unexampled forbearance and circumspection. Whatever may have been the intolerance with which, it is alleged, it was elsewhere enforced, no such charge can justly be preferred against those who administered it in Ireland. It is scarcely possible to conceive how a public engagement could be proposed with greater caution, or pressed with less constraint. Its terms were clearly and carefully explained; the people were not only afforded due time for deliberation, but were recommended to use great circumspection; objections were fairly met and fully answered; the utmost indulgence was shown to those who opposed it; and, ininstead of its being imposed on all indiscriminately, no persons were permitted to enter into it until they under stood its nature and obligations; and those who had been ensnared into the black oath were previously required to profess their repentance, and solemnly to abjure that unconstitutional engagement. vas

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The covenant produced the same effects in Ulster which it had already done in the other parts of the empire. "It ascertained and united the friends of civil and religious

liberty, and inspired them with fresh confidence in the arduous struggle in which they were engaged. It diffused extensively through the province a strong feeling of attachment to the presbyterian cause. It opened the way for the introduction of the Presbyterian church into districts where it had been previously opposed; and facilitated its re-establishment in places where it had been violently overthrown. But what was of still higher moment, the covenant revived the cause of true religion and piety, which had lamentably declined under the iron sway of the prelates, and amidst the distractions and discouragements of intestine war. From this period may be dated the commencement of the SECOND REFORMATION with which this province has been favoured; a reformation discernible, not only in the rapid increase of churches, and of faithful and zealous ministers. but still more unequivocally manifested in the improving manners and habits of society, and in the growing attention of the people to religious duties and ordinances.

AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSIONS ABRIDGED.

NO. X.

The

Now, Lord, my groaning testifies that I am displeased with myself; but thou art light and pleasure, and art loved and desired, that I may blush for myself, and throw away my. self, and choose thee; and neither attempt to please thee, nor myself, but by depending on thee. For when I am wicked, this is nothing else but to confess that I am displeased with myself; and when godly, this is nothing else but to confess that thou affordest that gift to me. confessions of my past evils,, which thou hast forgiven, changing my mind by faith and thy baptism, when they are read and heard, excite the heart, that it sink not in despair, but may watch in the love of thy mercy, and the sweetness of thy grace, by which the weak is made strong, who, by it, is brought to feel his own weakness. But what advantage will result from my confessing, as I now propose, not what I was, but what I now am? I will discover myself to such as will rejoice over me for what is good, and will pray, for and sympathize with me in re

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gard to what is evil, more secure as I am, through thy mercy, than my innocence. I am a little child, but my Father always lives, and is my sufficient guardian. What temptations I can or cannot resist, I know not. But my hope is this, that thou art faithful, that thou dost not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but with the temptation also makest a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it.* Lord, I love thee; thou hast smitten my heart with thy Word, and I have loved thee. But what do I love, when I love thee? not the heavens and the earth, nor any created beauty. They cry aloud, we are not God, he made us. Where shall I find thee, but in thyself above me? Too late did I love thee, thou PRIMEVAL Beauty. Thou calledst aloud, and overcamest my deafness. Thou shonest and dispelledst my darkness. Thou wast fragrant, and I panted after thee. I tasted, and hungered and thirsted after thee: thou touchedst me, and I was inflamed into thy peace. When I shall stick wholly to thee, I shall no more have pain and fatigue, and my whole life shall live full of thee. But now because thou supportedst him whom thou fillest, because I am not full of thee, I am a burden to myself. My wholesome griefs and pernicious pleasures contend together, and I know not on which side the victory stands. Woe is me! Thou art my physician, I am sick. Thou art merciful, I am wretched. All my hope lies in thy immense mercy. Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt. Thou commandest us to keep from the lust of the flesh, from the lust of the eyes, and from the pride of life. And what thou commandest, thou hast given me. Yet there still live in my memory the images of evils, to which I had been habituated, and they occur to me even in sleep. Is not thy hand, O God, able to heal all the diseases of my soul, and to sanctify even the hours of rest? I would rejoice with trembling in what thou hast given me, and mourn over that which is imperfect, and hope that thou wilt perfect thy mercies, when death shall be swallowed up in victory.

There is another evil of the day, and I wish the day may be sufficient for it, We refresh the continual ruins of the body by food, till this corruptible shall put on incurrup

1 Cor. x.

tion. Thou hast taught me to use aliment as medicine. But while I am passing from the uneasiness of hunger to the rest of satiety, in the very passage the snare of concupiscence is laid for me; and the bounds of innocence are not easily defined, and a pretence for indulgence is made on that very account. These temptations I daily endeavour to resist, and I call on thy right hand for my salvation, and make known to thee my agitations of soul, because I am not yet clear on this subject. I hear my God, "let not your heart be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness."* The latter is far from me, let it not approach me; the former sometimes steals upon me, keep it at a distance from me. Who is there, Lord, that is perfectly temperate? Whoever he be, let him magnify thy name. But I am not he, I am a sinful man. However I magnify thy name, and he who overcame the world and numbers me among the weak members of his body, intercedes for my sins.

In regard to the enticement of smells, I am not solici. tous. When they are absent, I want them not: when present 1 do not refuse them, content to be without them entirely. So I think; but such is my miserable darkness, that I must not easily credit myself, because, what is within generally lies hid, till experience evidence it. The only hope, the only confidence, the only firm promise, is thy mercy.

The pleasures of the ear have deeper hold on me. I find, even while I am charmed with sacred melody, I am led astray at times by the luxury of sensations, and offend, not knowing at the time, but afterwards I discover it. Sometimes guarding against this fallacy, I err in the other extreme, and could wish all the melody of David's Psalms were removed from my ears and those of the church, and think it safer to imitate the plan of Athana sius, bishop of Alexandria, who directed a method of repeating the psalms more resembling pronunciation than music. But when I remember my tears of affection at my conversion, under the melody of thy church, with which I am still affected, I again acknowledge the utility of the custom. Thus do I fluctuate between the danger of pleasure, and the experience of utility, and am more

• Luke xxi.