publications, "which," to use the language of the Society's address, "Without transgressing the rules of candour or courtesy, may distinguish be tween the laws of the Saviour's kingdom and those of the kingdoms of this world--and between the Christianity of the New Testament, and those counterfeit resemblances of it which have so long obtained among the nations of the earth." "The Committee," continues this document, "are not insensible that a most zealous advocacy of particular forms of ecclesiastical polity may exist where there is a total estrangement from the spirit of the gospel; it will therefore be their peculiar solicitude that all their publications be strongly characterized by the spirit and the language of genuine piety." The object, thus briefly though clearly defined, the pledge thus distinctly and very properly given, have, we are happy to say, been well promoted and redeemed in the first two numbers of the series now under review. The purport of the first is to assert and defend, as it does with considerable ability, that fundamental principle of nonconformity, the right and duty of exercising, in matters of religion, a private judgment, controlable neither by law, nor person in authority, but those of the Almighty Being who with the power, gave the inalienable right to exercise it. In enforcing and vindicating this right, the author of the tract on Free Inquiry settles, in the first place, the province of reason in reference to religion, which is to ascertain the evidences of revelation, and having attained, by such examination, the satisfactory and consolatory conclusion that the Bible is really what it professes to be," the Word of God," to ascertain, in the spirit of humble and prayerful disciples, willing to submit entirely to the tuition of the Great Teacher, what is the will of God which that word reveals to man. In urging such a course, the writer makes the necessary and obvious distinction between that which in such a revelation may be contrary to human reason, and that which is simply above it, points of difference which the opponents of the Christian religion have, with equal unfairness and subtlety, ever attempted to confound. We extract the passage, not by any means as the best in the tract, but as giving at once a fair sample of its author's style, and as best adapted to our limits. "It is necessary that we should distinguish between what is above reason, and what is contrary to it. The book which contains what is in itself absolutely contradictory, either cannot be divine, or the eontradictory part of it cannot be authentic But there is great danger, as authe experience shows, lest it should be too hastily concluded, that a particular statement or doctrine partakes of this quality. A contradiction and a mystery must be carefully distinguished; the former we cannot admit, the latter we may be required to believe. Were it to be said, for example, that body and soul in the human constitution are united, but they are not united, we should affirm a contradiction; but were we simply to state their union and co-operation, we should assert a mystery, though a fact. The truth of the assertion does not suffer by the mystery, for every conscious being must perceive that it is so; while no being whatever can explain the nature of the connexion, and the reciprocal sympathies by which they co-operate. We, therefore, repeat that the legitimate prohas revealed, and of faith, to receive it implicitly. There may be profundities in truth, which we cannot fathom, and prinbut it is no degradation to human reason ciples we cannot penetrate at present; that man should be a learner, - never in fact is he more exalted than when, instead of following the light of his own understanding, he opens it to the light of heaven "-- Essay I. p. 8. vince of reason is to ascertain what God Paganism and Popery are both judiciously referred to with this view, and every one acquainted with their history must be aware of the abundant illustrations it affords of the mischief of such a habit. The practical operations of the spirit earnestly commended to general adoption is then displayed, in its tendency to produce humility and confirmation of the faith, wherever it is accompanied by that spirit of devotion of which, as an indispensable adjunct, the author of this essay never loses sight. Reversing the melancholy portrait he had given of the evils resulting from an opposite system, he next judiciously exhibits sketch of the benefits conferred, and the evils checked, or prevented by the spirit of holy freedom in religious inquiry, taking his proofs from the history of the Reformation, Puritanism, and Non-conformity, the progress of biblical literature, and criticism, (of which he, in a very condensed form, gives an accurate and instructive view) and the operation of that spirit on benevolent and missionary enterprize. A sentence or two from this division of the tract deserves to be extracted, as a specimen of the tone in which the Society prosecutes its labours. a "It is surely with an ill grace that those who maintain a great principle in their contests with the church of Rome, and make it the very chief weapon of their warfare, should disown and discountenance the very same principle, when it seems to run counter to their prejudices or to their practices. Why does the Protestant separate from the Catholic, but for the same general reason that leads the puritan to withdraw from the conformist? Can the principle of separation be good in one case, and bad in another? Will he who pleads for the right of private judgment in one case, refuse it in another? If the Episcopalian possess by nature the right to judge and decide upon the claims of the papal hierarchy, and if he deem them inconsistent with Scripture to resist the authority of that church; does not the nonconformist also possess the same indefeasible right to become a separatist; if he entertain a similar conviction with regard to the episcopal church which Protestantism has erected- to become a separatist, we say, without being branded a schismatic ? The true Protestant principle, then, all forms apart, is that for which we plead; and for their adherence to this principle, so salutary, so essential to true religion, to a religion so essential as founded in Scripture and conscience, the early puritans, and more especially the later nonconformists, are worthy of immortal renown. It is this spirit of inquiry in religion which they have so rigorously and so long maintained, that constitutes the preserving power by which the mind is saved from the Scylla of spiritual despotism on the one hand, and the Charybdis of sceptical licenti ousness on the other."--Essay I. p. 35. From the line of argument we have traced, and the few extracts given, we doubt not that our readers will be satisfied of the adaptation of the Essay on Free Inquiry, to usher in advantageously the series of Essays, which it is the intention of the Society to publish. The very title of the next, "Christ the only King of his Church," will naturally prepare them to expect, that the spirit inculcated in the first, has been brought into immediate action in the second number of the Library of Ecclesiastical Knowledge. The nature of the subject, and the manner in which it is discussed, alike preclude, however, the possibility of giving an analytical account of its contents, or conveying any thing like a correct idea of the very masterly manner in which the heterogeneous union of church and state is proved to be at once unscriptural, irrational, and injurious to the best interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. That single false step has, in our deliberate judgment, introduced more extensive and lasting evils into the church, than the most pestilent error that ever corrupted her doctrines. Many of these have long since become but the tales of other times, whilst, as physicians 66 have found to be the case in several contagious diseases, the virus of some is even now fast wearing itself out. But this capital error in church government is now, what it has been for fourteen hundred years, the bane of all that is pure, and animating, and spiritual in the religion of Jesus Christ, Entertaining these sentiments, we cannot but feel unfeigned delight at seeing them exhibited with the greatest clearness, force, and precision in the little tract, of but eight and forty pages, now lying before us. The absurdity of such an union of church and state as exists in this kingdom, with a temporal monarch at the head of a professedly spiritual church, whose kingdom is not of this world," is there shown in so pointed a manner, and so condensed a form, that every nonconformist, who is such upon principle, should put it into the hands of his children, as furnishing them with unanswerable reasons for the faith that is in them, in admitting no other, on earth, or in heaven, as king of the church, but Christ its founder, and its living and ever-present head. From it they will learn to be loyal and obedient servants to the king, as their temporal sovereign, whilst they shrink from the profanity and impiety of acknowledging even the "most religious and gracious king,' not only as "Defender of the Faith," but "over all persons and in all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil, within these his dominions supreme." We cannot, after such commendation, but give a specimen of the work so commended, though we have great difficulty in selecting, and are mainly influenced in our choice, by a wish to show, that where a vital principle is concerned, those who controul the Society's publications have none of that trimming, milk-and-water dispo sition, which-calling cowardice candour, and want of principle liberality-for the suaviter in modo would sacrifice the fortiter in re. "The utter unlawfulness of all attempts to share in Christ's throne, is demonstrated by the collision thus created, and the impossibility of assigning to each prince his proper place. We have, indeed, the established phrase, Church and State, as if the aspiring cardinal minister had induced all the world to approve his insolent language, 'ego et rex meus, I and my king,' first the church, and then the king. But this concordat with the pope is not so easily arranged. Before Christ's royal authority in religion had been affected by state interference, there was no difficulty; but ever since, it has been of precedence belongs. At one time the a tormenting question, to whom the right state is omnipotent, at another the Chur: h; now the now the king takes the lead, and now the priest; here religion yields and cringes, as a slave to state dictation, becoming a mere political tool, but there she treads on the necks of kings, and compels them to do deeds at which piety blushes and humanity shudders To the church of Rome may be applied what was said of rity slily as a fox, but when armed with one of her popes, She crept into autho power, she ruled fiercely as a lion, till at length she was hated cordially as a dog."" -No. II. p. 28. An "In other countries, however, and in other times, kings being at hand to watch for their own rights, priests have been compelled to succumb. The state has enthroned itself in the church, which has become an instrument of political influence, while even mitred lords have vented their mortified pride, by biting a chain which they cannot break. archdeacon has written what he calls rather be entitled Cæsaris Triumphi, Gravamina Ecclesiæ, but what should which reminds us of the lamentations prophetically recorded in the Apocalypse. With a pen dipped in tears, this writer complains, that the present convocation of the clergy, is the mere ghost of the ancient council of the Church of England, who now pays for her nominal elevation, by her real depression; for all the sectaries have powers and liberties which the state denies to none, but to its own endowed church. Methodists can hold their conferences, Presbyterians their synods, Independents their assobut no sooner has the Church of England ciations, and Catholics their chapters; taken the trouble of opening the convocation, than her pastors are told by the head of their church, to go home and feed the few sheep in the wilderness. Ever since the clergy gave up the right of taxing themselves, their convocation has been an object of jealousy, or alarm, or hatred, or contempt, to princes and their ministers; and ever since her spiritual guides and instructors durst dispute the theological wisdom of Anne, their female head, they have been suffered to do no business, on the presumption that if they should do any thing, they would do mischief. In the Church of Christ, a woman is not suffered to speak; but in the Church of England, a woman would suffer no one else to speak Thus an attempt to snatch at power that belongs not to it, and to domineer over its fellow servants, has terminated in wresting from the state church, all power to manage its own affairs, and, in this respect, reduced it confessedly below the sectaries whom it professes to despise or to condemn. The convocation is now merged in the parliament, where a number of lay gentlemen, any one of whom would confess he was no theologian, and if asked to settle a religious question would reply; non nostrum est tantus componere lites' determine all the theological questions in our land. So a collection of ciphers makes a vast sum; five or six hundred individual non-theologians become the highest theological authority upon the earth, determine what petitions, to a word, all the congregations of Christ need to offer up to heaven, how much of their property the faithful should consecrate in the church, and what new bishopricks the interests of Christianity require to be erected in the earth. The church complains, indeed, that the state behaves rather arbitrarily, but it tells her, in reply, 'You invited us to come here and rule, we do not mean to remain and obey.' So terminates every attempt to grasp at undue power. The domestic tyrant over an intellectual wife and children come of age, loses the sway of the heart, which the kind husband, the gentle parent, will enjoy till the last gasp of his vital breath. "In the ecclesiastical courts, the bishops and spiritual persons, as they are called, whenever they do but touch upon temporal matters, or administer more than spiritual chastisement for the good of the sonl, are set at defiance by a lay chancellor and judges, who, acting for the king, rule as sovereign lords. Before the people, bishops plead for episcopal power, as essential to the good government of the church; in the senate, they complain of their utter inability to punish transgressors, and own that the most profligate clergymen retain the cure of souls, with the emoluments of office, in spite of their diocesans, who find that the crosier is no match for the sceptre, since the bishop himself may be ruined by the chicanery of priests, and the expenses of church courts. Dissenters, without the cost or oppression of an episcopacy, can promptly rid themselves of grievous wolves, who have crept in under the guise of shepherds; but after that the people's liberties have been sacrificed, and property squandered, to create lord bishops, these gravely tell us they have no power to drive out the wolf, or rescue the miserable flock. The head of the diocese is the slave of his dean, who can forbid the bishop to make the episcopal throne what it is designed for, the chair from which the church is instructed and fed; for from the phrase of teaching with autho rity, e cathedra, the very name of cathedral arose. Bishops, by a strange perversion of forms and rights, may be set at defiance by a prebendary, who will preach what his right reverend father abhors." -pp 29-31. With this extract we close our review of the first efforts of this important Society; yet, ere we do so, we cannot but earnestly urge our readers to support it, to the utmost extent of their power, by their subscriptions and their influence. The Congregational Dissenters have long, and in our opinion justly, suffered under the imputation of not affording sufficient encouragement to literature, when consecrated on the altar of religion. The pens of the best writers among the Independents, Baptists, and other Trinitarian Dissenters, who agree in the essentials of our common faith, both amongst their ministers and laymen, are, we have reason to believe, engaged, or about to be engaged, in carrying into execution the laudable designs of this * "It is said, that an evangelical bishop lately succeeded in obtaining the pulpit of the cathedral, to prevent the occupants of some of the stalls from preaching another gospel, by taking from his pocket the peculiar charter, which gave to the head of that diocese the right of preaching in the cathedral whenever he pleased.' Society. Whilst they cheerfully devote their talents to place the principles of the nonconformists in a proper light in the face of a world, which has perhaps as often misunderstood, as wilfully misre presented them, shame were it on nonconformity itself, if they wanted that support which such an undertaking, particularly at its outset, cannot but require. LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, WITH SHORT NOTICES. Memoirs of the Controversy respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses, 1 John, v. 7. Including Notices of the principal Writers on both sides of the Discussion. By Criticus, 12mo. Holdsworth and Ball. THE papers which appeared in our Magazine last year on the subject of this interesting controversy, are now printed together in this volume. The writer has made considerable additions to various parts, to render the memoirs more complete. Those who feel interested in the literary or critical history of this controversy, will probably be gratified with having, in this condensed form an account of many rare and expensive books in which it has been carried on. DR. LARDNER'S CABINET CYCLO PEDIA. 1. History of Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott; in two volumes, vol. i. 2. The History of Maritime and Inland Discovery; in two volumes, vol. i. 3. Domestic Economy; vol. i. WE have been exceedingly gratified with this commencement of a series of works on science and art, and the various branches of useful literature, under the superintendance of Dr. Lardner. As the order of the day is the communication of knowledge in the most compendious and intelligible form, it must be a great satisfaction to find such works conducted by men of superior attainments, and whose public characters are a pledge that the works shall contain nothing injurious to the interests of religion or morality. It would be absurd in us to criticise the History of Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott. What he is capable of, all the world knows. It is enough to say, that this account of his native country is worthy of him, and cannot fail to interest even those who are well acquainted with the history of Scotland. Maritime and Inland Discovery" affords evidence of considerable research, and abounds with valuable inin the arts of brewing, distilling, wineformation. We are not deeply skilled making, or baking; but, considered as a view of the application of the science of chemistry to these arts, we were greatly pleased with many parts of the volume on Domestic Economy. We strongly recommend the Cabinet Cyclopædia to our readers. Answer to Mr. Henry Drummond's Defence of the Heretical Doctrine promulgated by Mr. Irving, respecting the Person and Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his denial of Original Sin, and of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness. By J. A. Haldane. London: Hamilton and Co. 12mo. 3s. 6d. WE have not been inattentive to the monstrous doctrines and absurdities which have been for some time propagated around us, though we have not said much on the subject in our pages. Unless we had devoted to it more time than we could spare, and more room than our scanty limits admit, without excluding other important matter, we could not have done justice to it, while a superficial discussion might have done more harm than good. We the less regret this, as the matter has been taken up by those who are capable of doing ample justice to it. We some time ago noticed a pamphlet by Mr. James Haldane, of Edinburgh, on Mr. Irving's doctrine, the sinful humanity of our Lord. We have now to notice a volume by the same gentleman, on the same subject, and |