the highest importance; and that such a confounding of all distinctions between the governing and the governed, the rulers and the ruled, as modern Independents contend for, would have been justly deemed a dangerous interference with the orderly arrangements of infinite wisdom, and an unwarrantable substitution of human authority for that of God.

Nor is our author less positive in asserting, that "each of the congregational churches of the New Testament. . . . contained within itself all the authority and power requisite to the management of its own affairs, and admitted no authority foreign to itself, under any form whatsoever."-(Vol. i. p. 57.) To wield supreme authority in ordering whatever pertained to the discipline of Christ's house, all the male and female members of each particular In · dependent church, were, according to our author's method of interpreting New Testament usage, alike entitled. That such was the primitive practice, he has not thought it necessary to attempt to prove; although, if his ecclesiastical hypothesis be correct, we must confess our utter inability to vindicate Paul's consistency in exhorting the Thessalonians and other early Christians, "to know them which were over them in the Lord" (Thes. v. 12); language which would have been perfectly meaningless, had "all the authority and power requisite" for their spiritual government been equally shared by all. And as, in our author's judgment, the whole of the church members without exception, were alike competent to occupy, at one and the same time, the most incompatible positions, and to discharge the most anomalous and conflicting functions, it is with him a summary process to conclude, that no case of difficulty could arise to justify

extra-congregational" interposition. He accordingly affirms, "that the apostles never gave any directions which could possibly lead the churches to infer, that other means than those divinely instituted in each church would be needful to set things in order;" and he immediately adds:"The idea of church supervision by the delegates, or representatives, or officers of the churches in any district, province, or nation, never meets us in any of the apostolic writings. Synods, councils, conferences, extra-congregational presbyteries, having authority over any number of churches, have neither place nor sanction in the practice of apostolic times."-(Vol. i. pp. 58, 59.)

To this formidable expurgatory index, the case of the celebrated council of Jerusalem, of whose proceedings an account is given in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, supplies, as he alleges, no exception. Presbyterians have been accustomed to maintain, that the council of apostles

and elders there referred to, was a primitive example of a delegated or representative synodical assembly; and that the "decrees" which were promulgated at the close of its deliberations, were really sent forth as authoritative decisions, and intended to be applicable not merely to the Christians at Antioch, but to the general or universal church. But in opposition to this conclusion, Mr Fletcher affirms, with as much confidence as he could well have done had he been a contemporary witness, and personally mixed up with the transaction,"that this much-vaunted council was nothing more than a meeting of the Independent church at Jerusalem, held for the purpose of satisfying the inquiries of the Independent church at Antioch, respecting a matter of fact, in which both churches were concerned."-(Vol. i. p. 62.)

Now, before we can admit our author's mode of settling the question at issue, as at all satisfactory, we should like to know from what special source, inaccessible to Presbyterians, he obtained his proof, that there was only one church or congregation of the faithful at Jerusalem. We should like to know where he found it stated, that a large converted population-consisting of the five hundred brethren who were the witnesses of Christ's resurrection-of the three thousand souls who were joined to the church on the day of Pentecost-of the five thousand men who embraced the gospel after one of Peter's sermons-besides the rapidly increasing numbers "who were added daily to the church," formed not more than one worshipping assembly. We should like to know further, what trace he has discovered, in any quarter of Jerusalem, of the existence of an 66 upper room," where a Christian church of upwards of twenty thousand adults, including women, could be conveniently and safely brought together. And we should like to know finally, what grounds he has for affirming, that "the inquiries" of the Christians of Antioch were actually debated and solved by any such multitudinous and unwieldy assemblage. These are difficulties with which our author has not condescended to grapple. We could easily have posed him with others, but these may serve as a specimen. In the absence, therefore, of every vestige of evidence to support his affirmation, we are bound to believe, that-instead of only one overgrown and unmanageable church, misnamed by him as "Independent,"-there must have been a number of distinct Christian churches or congregations in Jerusalem. We believe also that each of those distinct churches or congregations had its teaching eldership, and "helps for government," to whom the important duties of instruction and superintendence were confided. We

believe further, that those several distinct churches or congregations of the faithful, constituted in the aggregate "the church which was at Jerusalem." And we believe lastly, that as the business of watching over its spiritual interests appears, from the records of the council to which allusion has been made, to have devolved on the apostles and elders collectively, there is no alternative but to conclude, that its government conld not have been "Independent," but Presbyterian.

Having satisfied himself, on what we cannot help thinking insufficient grounds, that Independency was the ecclesiastical model prescribed by Christ and his apostles, our author next attempts to prove, that "the first post-apostolic age," extending from the 80th to the 167th year of the Christian era, was also emphatically the age of Independency. With this view, he exultingly appeals to such of the earlier fathers as he deems most entitled to the deference of Independents, and especially that of Clemens Romanus. But without following Mr Fletcher minutely through this portion of his labours, we would take the liberty to quote from the above-named father a passage, which seems to have escaped our author's attention, and which will be found to indicate as little sympathy with the pretensions of Independency as any Presbyterian could wish. In an epistle to the Corinthians, who had rebelled against their spiritual office-bearers, and who had so far outraged primitive church order as to depose them from their functions, Clemens thus warmly but justly remonstrates :"Look to soldiers who fight under their officers. With what regularity, meekness, and submission they execute their orders? All are not pretors, nor rulers of thousands, or of hundreds, fifties, or smaller companies; but every one, in his own rank, does what is commanded by the king and rulers. The high cannot subsist without the low, nor the low without the high. There is a certain variety, and it proves beneficial. You, then, who have laid the foundation of this insurrection, return to the obedience of your Presbyters, and bending the knees of your hearts, be instructed to repentance. Laying aside the haughty arrogance of your tongues, learn subjection; for it is better with a good reputation to be esteemed little in the flock of Christ, than, appearing more eminent in our own eyes, to be deprived of that hope which he hath given us." Such are the words of Clemens; and if the overlooked testimony of which they are cxpressive, be a specimen of "the earliest postapostolic witnesses for Independency," we may, without any invidious emotions, make Mr Fletcher and the system he espouses, welcome to such patristic help.

According to Mr Fletcher, the subsequent post-apostolic ages" were those of innovation, subversion, and despotism; the last of which was succeeded by the first glimmerings in England of Independent light and liberty. That Independency had either a local habitation or a name in England, in the earlier ages of Christianity, he does not venture to maintain. So far from hazarding even a conjecture that it was coeval with the introduction of the Christian religion into Britain, he is reluctantly forced to admit, that, "Whatever may have been the progress of religious freedom before and after the period of the Reformation, the principles of Independency never met with any systematic advocacy until the reign of Elizabeth. . . . In fact, up to the period here specified, there was no intelligent recognition of the system of Congregational Independency as scripturally provided, and therefore as suited to all the possible circumstances of the Christian church."-Vol. II. pp. 56, 57. The earliest acknowledged propounder of Independent tenets in England was the notorious Robert Browne, for whose melancholy backslidings Mr Fletcher labours hard to discover something like a plausible apology. But in despite of the fact, that the hidden treasure of Independency lay utterly concealed from the view of his countrymen until it was first brought to light by Browne, towards the close of the sixteenth century, our author styles his work, "A History of the Revival of Independency in England." In our humble judgment, a history of its discovery" would have been the only truthful and unexceptionable description of his effort.

66

*

The novel principles of Independency promulgated by Browne were speedily imbibed by others, who, like Barrowe and Greenwood, were fitted to do greater credit to the system. While these excellent men gave full proof of the sincerity of their convictions, by the sacrifices which they made and the sufferings which they endured, Neal, a less partial Independent historian than our author, states, that Browne, having been driven into exile, "formed a church at Middleburgh, in Zealand, according to his own model. But when this handful of people were delivered from the bishops, their oppressors, they crumbled into parties among themselves; insomuch, that being weary of his office, he returned to England in the year 1589, and, having renounced his principles of separation, became rector of a church in Northamptonshire. Here he lived an idle and

It is perhaps improper to rank Greenwood as an Independent; for he stated "his conviction, that every congregation of Christ ought to be governed by that presbytery which Christ appointed, -namely, pastor, teacher, and elder."

dissolute life, according to Fuller, far from that Sabbatarian strictness that, his followers aspired after. He had a wife with whom he did not live, and a church in which he never preached. At length, being poor, and proud, and very passionate, he struck the constable of his parish for de manding a rate of him; and, being beloved by nobody, the officer summoned him before Sir Roland St John, a neighbouring justice, who committed him to jail, where he fell sick and died, in the year 1630, in the eighty-first year of his age." *

Such was the wayward and discreditable career of Browne. But Barrowe and Greenwood were found faithful unto death. They were executed at Tyburn, on the 6th of April 1593; and in a few weeks their execution was followed by that of John Penry, -of whose labours, and protestations, and sufferings, our author gives an interesting detail. These brutal murders for conscience sake-by which the sympathies of all, who had not been bereft of the common feelings of humanity, were powerfully excited-led to a change of tactics on the part of Queen Elizabeth and her hierarchical advisers, Banishment was resorted to as a substitute for these horrible inflictions; and several of the Independent separatists, who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the ruling powers-with Francis Johnson and Henry Ainsworth at their head sought and obtained a temporary asylum in Holland. At Amsterdam an Independent church, consisting of English exiles, was speedily or ganized; and Johnson and Ainsworth haying been associated in the pastorate," issued, in 1602, a joint confession, illustrative of their principles. From this document it appears, that, whatever its general claims to public attention may have been, its compilers were as complete strangers to just and enlightened views of religious liberty, as either their Episcopal persecutors or their fellow-sufferers in tribulation, the much-abused Presbyterians.

66

In the

39th article of the Confession referred to, they allow princes and magistrates "to suppress and root out, by their authority, all false ministries, voluntary religions, and counterfeit worship of God; and to enforce all their subjects, whether ecclesiastical or civil, to do their duties to God and men." The doctrine of the lawfulness of religious coercion was characteristic of the age.. But, as if our author felt startled for the first time at the idea of its applicability to the founders of English Independency, he, with not a little simplicity, remarks," It is singular to find this so long maintained by the early Independents; more especially, as it is so much at variance with their other *Neal's "History of the Puritans," Vol. I. pp.

302, 303-Toulmin's edition.

opinions, and as they had suffered so much in consequence of it in every period of their history, and even at the very moment when the Confession was written."-- Vol. II. p. 221.

66

The internal working of the Independent polity at Amsterdam, does not seem to have been such as was calculated to induce gainsayers, among other denominations, to become enamoured with the system. While Mr Fletcher acknowledges that “the church at Amsterdam was not long at peace," he considers it necessary to advert, in the fol lowing apologetic terms, to the cause of its disruption :-"In the excess of charity," he states, some parties had been admitted to fellowship who proved to have been unworthy of it, and their exclusion afterwards gave occasion to animosity and debate." (Vol. II. p. 222.) Into the details of this unseemly discussion, with which the father and brother of Johnson were unhappily mixed up, our limited space forbids us to enter. These jarrings from within, were speedily followed by a furious onslaught from without, by the well-known Henry Jacob, who subsequently "became a convert to the views which he then sought to oppose." The remainder of Mr Fletcher's second volume is taken up with extracts from Johnson's rejoinder to Jacob's attack; with an account of the fondly cherished. hopes, destined to be disappointed, with which the accession of the Scottish James to the English throne had inspired the Independent, as well as the Presbyterian, sufferers for religious nonconformity; and with a narrative of the earlier portion of the life and labours of John Robinson, until a year or two after his escape to the Low Countries, in the year 1608; whom our author, with what consistency he knows best, delights to single out from the midst of all other competitors, as "the Father of the modern Independents."(Vol. II. p. 249.)

In taking leave of Mr Fletcher for the present, we can truly state, that our remarks have been dictated by no unkindly feeling. We have found fault with his keen Independent partisanship; but we can believe him to have been actuated by conscientious scruples. We shall be glad, if the remainder of his history be less open to animadversion than the volumes standing at the head of this article; and if he be found discerning traces of Christ's image beyond the pale of Independency, and in quarters where its claims to divine authority are considered defective. In the prepara-tion of the volumes which have passed under our review, he has discovered com→ mendable research, and the power of em÷: bodying his ideas in language well adapted. for historical description. And if with

these qualities, he brings to the concluding portion of his task, a spirit in unison with that which led to the formation of the "Evangelical Alliance" (whose praiseworthy efforts to mollify religious asperities, we regret to learn, from his preface, have failed to find favour in his sight), none shall more heartily rejoice than we. Should such be the case, we shall be far more ready to do justice to his conversion to the cause of christian charity, than we have been to remind him, that there are good men of other religious persuasions who have consciences as well as Independents.

i

THE MYSTERY of the GENTILE DISPENSATION, and the Work of the Messiah. By RIDLEY H. HERSCHELL. 12mo. Pp.

319,

London: Aylott & Jones.

Two separate treatises, which had previ ously appeared in a periodical work, are here republished in a distinct volume. The first contains the author's views of the Apostle's language (Eph. iii. 1-11) respecting the mystery made known to him by revelation. Our translation would seem to countenance the idea, that the mystery is, "that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel;" but Mr Herschell holds, that it is impossible that this could be the mystery alluded to," in as much as the participation by the Gentiles in the spiritual blessings of Israel had been revealed from the beginning. The commonly received explanation, that the Apostle refers to the admission of Gentiles into the church of God without submitting to Jewish rites, the author rejects also, on the ground, that a revelation on this subject Irving previously been granted to Peter, no new one was needed in the case of Paul. His own view is briefly expressed in the following words :-

"This present dispensation, of an elect church, anointed to be kings and priests, and called out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,' I believe to be the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began * * The ancient proplets gave no hint of any such intermediate dispensation, between the coming of Christ and the accomplishment of that deliverance which his coming was to effect. They tell us, indeed, that the Re deemer was to be despised and rejected of men * * *9 but they never give us to understand that this general rejection was to last for many centuries, and that during this period God was to gather out the church of the first-born'- the Bride, the Lamb's wife.""

What, then, is the deliverance which Christ's coming was to effect, and which has not yet been effected? According to our author, it is the deliverance of the nation of Israel from the unbelief, exile, and degradation, under which they now remain, and their restoration to the favour of God in the land of their fathers. As this interpretation infers the doctrine of the premillennial advent of Christ, the author enters at some length on the exposition and defence of that doctrine.

The second treatise, which occupies more than four-fifths of the volume, presents and argues for the same view of the millennial state, as exhibiting the crowning work of the Messiah; but it contains also much interesting discussion on the foregoing parts of the Saviour's great work. The arguments and illustrations employed, bear particularly on the state of mind prevailing among the author's countrymen, the unbelieving Hebrews, respecting the promised Messiah.

We have not space to enter upon any course of reasoning in regard to the prophetical views indicated above. Whatever may be thought of these, no Christian, we think, can read the book before us without interest and pleasure. It is refreshing to enter with a Christian Hebrew on the exposition of evangelical truth. The education, habits, and even prejudices, if we will call them so, of the Hebrew mind, lead it to regard most passages of Scripture in a light more or less novel to the Gentile; and particularly to us in this part of the world," where the customs and style of thought are so different from those in connexion with which the Bible was written. This consideration, combined with the pious and excellent spirit, as well as the superior powers of thought and composition manifested by the author, lends a peculiar value to the work before us.

ascribed to their agrestes et sylvestres fratres of Maynooth, as well as of the swaggering egotism for which certain unamiable Americans have been rather distinguished. But rambling though the book be, it suggests much forcible argument, and supplies many telling illustrations, in the Popish controversy; and we don't wonder at the immense circulation it has obtained. The disclosures which the author, on his own authority, and from personal observation or experience, makes of the horrors of the confessional, and the mysterious ramifications of Jesuitism, especially in America, should sound a trumpet of alarm among the friends of virtue and civil freedom every where. We observe numerous mistakes in the printing of this fourth edition.

A NEW and COMPLETE CONCORDANCE of the HOLY SCRIPTURES, on the BASIS of CRUDEN. Edited by JOHN EADIE, LL.D., Professor of Biblical Literature, &c. &c. With an Introduction by the Rev. DAVID KING, LL.D. Eleventh Edition.

London: Griffen & Co.

THE preparation of this Concordance, as is set forth in the preface, was undertaken with the view of "reducing Cruden's work as much as possible in its dimensions, so as to render it less cumbrous and less costly, without materially impairing its actual usefulness." The fact that the book has run through eleven editions in little more than half as many years, attests how well the plan has been appreciated. For all the purposes of a Concordance, the reduced form of Cruden's great work will be found as useful as the original; while its smaller bulk renders it much more convenient as "manual" of biblical reference, not only when carried in the traveller's trunk, but also when lying in the minister's vestry, or on the student's library table.

a

ments. There are elders, but without districts or a communion roll! There are managers, but with no complete set of books, and no proper record of their deeds! These things ought not so to be. It is not wonderful that, in many cases, confusion is the consequence. The wonder rather is, that, in so many instances, matters move on so smoothly as they do.

Book-keeping is useful in the church as well as in the mercantile world. And not only so, but uniformity-the same system throughout the same body is highly desirable. To meet this exigency and supply this important desideratum, Mr Robertson of Glasgow, with no small care, and after much consultation, prepared a complete set of church-books, including Communicant's Roll-Elder's District Book - Baptismal which have been previously noticed in this Register and Certificate Book, &c. &c., Magazine. Their utility at once became apparent, and many of them are in general use. But if, in some cases, we have not seen their worth, our English Congregational friends have not been so blind. They resolved to have Church Records, and, instead of pursuing an independent course, what have they done? Precisely thus. They have not made a number of separate books, but have contented themselves with one, and in this one they have substantially incorporated a number of Mr Robertson's forms! 'Tis true they have added some others for purposes peculiar to themselves; but some of the leading features of their book are borrowed with the coolest effrontery from those of our Glasgow friend. Now the Scripture saith, "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him." In the absence of severer castigation, which we are not the proper authority to administer, we hereby tender to our friends the word of rebuke. Why do they make no reference to the prior publication? If they approved of any or all of the forms in question, why not respectfully ask them? To use them without leave or acknowledgment, if not pilfering, is, if we are not mistaken, piracy; and this is a serious offence thing too common. in the eye of law. Literary piracy is a One half of the world There of literature preys upon the other. are land-sharks as well as water-sharks. They greedily pick up a profitable idea, and present it to the world as their own. Some piracies are doubtless more gross and glaring than others. We find, in the present day, some of the inferior cheap periodicals pirating wholesale. We have heard of cases, such as the well-known one of the "Science of Etiquette," decided some years ago in the Court of Queen's Bench, where the borrowing of some phrases, and espe