out pastoral superintendence, without any appearance of religion, and, perhaps, without common morality. And the churches of Christ and his ministers are the state's agents in thus violating Christ's commands." pp. 194, 195. In the following passage our readers will find that Mr. Noel perceives clearly the tendency of infant baptism to introduce into the churches of Christ persons "ignorant of the gospel and unconcerned about their salvation, and to confound believers and unbelievers in one undistinguishable mass :"-" a fatal amalgamation," which he laments that evangelical ministers, as well as others, are agents in accomplishing. "The Lord Jesus Christ having claimed from all believers to express their faith in him before the world, without which confession their cowardice would prove them to be no believers, required them to be baptized, baptism being the appointed mode of professing their faith. Repentance and faith are, therefore, the essential prerequisites to baptism: and if the infants of believers are to be baptized, as is generally believed, it must be on the supposition that God accepts them as penitent believers, through the faith and the prayer of their parents. But the practice of the establishment is to baptize all the children of the several parishes without any inquiry into the faith of the parents, or any rational prospect that they will receive a religious education. By the sixty-eighth canon, a minister who refuses to baptize any child who is brought to him to the church for that purpose, is liable to suspension for three months. Thus, though parents and sponsors are alike ungodly, and general experience proves that their children will grow up ungodly too, the Anglican minister must baptize them, and thank God that he has regenerated them with his Holy Spirit. Through this church law the conditions of baptism are generally violated, the ends of it are frustrated, and the nature of it is forgotten. The baptized millions of England having made no profession of faith, for they were baptized without their consent, baptized atheists, deists, and profligates, dishonour the Christian name; and the churches of Christ which ought to be composed of saints and faithful brethren, as the churches of Rome and Corinth, of Thessalonica, Philippi, and Colosse, were, are churches of persons ignorant of the gospel, and unconcerned about their salvation. They ought to be separate from the world; but they are the world: converted persons and uncon verted, believers and unbelievers, are confounded in one undistinguishable mass; and evangelical ministers are agents in accomplisuing the fatal amalgamation. "Next comes the ceremony of confirmation. At the baptism of an intant the minister, by order of the state, directs sponsors to bring the child to be confirmed 'so soon as he can say the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten commandstructed in the church catechism.' Those conments, in the vulgar tongue, and is further inditions being fulfilled, the minister must forward all the children of the parish to the bishop, with his certificate of fitness for the rite. And child can say the creed, &c., the bishop is being thus certified by the minister that the ordered by the state to say of the whole crowd of children who there and then profess to take upon themselves the baptismal vows, that God has 'vouchsafed to regenerate them by water and the Holy Ghost, and has given unto them forgiveness of their sins.' "After confirmation, each person not convicted of heresy or immorality has a legal right to attend the Lord's supper at his parish church. By 1 Edward VI., cap. 1, The minister shall not, without a lawful cause, deny the same (the sacrament) to any person that will devoutly and humbly desire it.' To have been at a card party on the previous Monday, at a ball on Tuesday, at the race-course on Wednesday, and at the theatre on Thursday, to have spent Friday in talking scandal, and to have devoted Saturday to some irreligious novel, would be no legal disqualification for the reception of the Lord's supper on the following Sunday. No proofs of a worldly temper, no indolent selfindulgence, and no neglect of prayer, would affect the parishioner's statutory right to force his way to the Lord's table. The minister is obliged by law to administer to him the ordinance, the church is forced by law to receive him into communion with them. None but believers are invited by our Lord to his table, and the churches are commanded to separate themselves from evil men: but the statute interposes, and both the minister and the church must admit all who will to the sacred feast." pp. 461–464. The contrast between the character istics and tendencies of that baptism which is inculcated by the English established church, and that which the New Testament prescribes, is one of the topics on which Mr. Noel is most full and explicit. Again and again he reminds his readers, that in the New other errors, each evangelical minister of the church of England is compelled, by the thirtyword of God; and, by the Act of Uniformity, sixth canon, to pronounce not contrary to the he must make himself a party to all this delusive instruction, every time that he baptises an infant or an adult, teaches the children of his parish the church catechism, or buries the corpse of an ungodly parishioner. "The foregoing errors are thus perpetuated in the Anglican churches: for no man can re maintaining that every statement of the prayer-book is agreeable to the word of God. "Whatever errors there may be in the prayer-book or the articles, each Anglican minister has the greatest possible temptations to persuade himself and others that they are truths. His peace, his income, his position in society, his friendships, and the maintenance of his family, all depend on his avowing his belief that the prayer-book contains in it nothing repugnant to the scriptures, and that there is nothing in any one of the thirty-nine articles which is erroneous." pp. 418-421. Testament "baptism is a profession of faith in Christ;"-that "repentance and faith were always in the apostolic churches required in those who were admitted to baptism ;"-that "by faith they became disciples of Christ, and then by baptism professed to be his disciples, and were united to his churches ;"-that "baptism was always administered to those who were believ-main a minister of the establishment, without ed to be regenerate, never to the unregenerate with a view to their regeneration it was the uniform of Christ put upon those who had enlisted as his soldiers." On the other hand, he now sees clearly and maintains boldly that "the prayer-book teaches that baptism regenerates; and requiring the Anglican ministers to baptize all the children of the country, declares of these millions of children baptized in all the parishes of England and Wales, that they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit." We have often viewed with astonishment and pity the efforts of pious ministers of the church of England to persuade themselves that the formularies of their church will bear some other interpretation than that which the anti-evangelical portion of the clergy contend is their true meaning, and which seems to us to be taught by the phraseology employed, as clearly as words can teach it. Mr. Noel candidly adverts to his own painful experience on this subject, and be reduced to penury, to be without employto the predicament in which many conscientious men still remain. "I once laboured hard to convince myself that our reformers did not and could not mean "When any pastor finds out the errors of the prayer-book, or the unscriptural character of the duties imposed upon him, he may withdraw from the establishment; but by that step he would necessarily expose himself and his family to great suffering. According to the maxim of the ecclesiastical law, 'Once a priest, always a priest.' He may be prosecuted in the Court of Arches for officiating in any diocese without the license of the bishop, even after he has seceded as Mr. Shore has recently been under these circumstances prosecuted by the bishop of Exeter. But if he be spared this persecution, it is only to be esteemed by many of his former friends a schismatic, to be shunned as an apostate, to become a bye-word and a proverb, to lose his position in society, to ment and without prospects. "Few men have the courage to plunge into such an abyss of trouble, and, therefore they must adjust their belief to their circumstances as best they may. To expose the errors of the prayer-book, or to renounce unscriptural practices, is out of the question. In either case, a minister would be at once suspended or deprived. What must he then do? First, he may make desperate efforts, by exclusively reading on one side, and, by living solely with ardent conformists, to persuade himself that all the statements of the prayer-book are true, and all the requirements of the state are scriptural. Should this effort fail, and should the errors of the prayer-book force themselves upon him, his next attempt must be to conceal his dis sentient opinions by absolute silence on the subject. But this is a fearful course for a minister of Christ. Was he not placed by Christ in the church as a witness for the truth? Is not concealment of the truth at once an infidelity to Christ, and a wrong to the world? His silence prevents the overthrow of error, and confirms others in mischievous delusion. Besides, in his circumstances concealment is falsehood; for he has subscribed to the truth of the prayer-book, and only on that condition is he allowed to retain his living: so that the effect of his silence is to induce the people, the clergy, and the bishop, to think that he maintains the prayer-book to be wholly consonant to scripture. Silence, too, is almost impossible. Occasions must arise when to say nothing would be equivalent to an avowal of dissent from the prayer-book; and in such an emergency he would be strongly tempted to defend himself from the suspicions of zealous conformists by professions not entirely sincere. To avoid this pain, however, there is another course which the pious Anglican pastor may take. He may exaggerate the importance of the union, extol 'the church' as the purest and best in the world, persuade himself that it is the chief bulwark of protestantism; he may fill up his time and thoughts with the duties of his ministry, and may resolve not to read, speak, or think on those disputed topics. Thus he may strive to hide out the errors of the prayer-book, and avoid every conclusion respecting the legal fetters of his ministry, shielding himself under the thought that many excellent men do all that he is called to do; and that matters so trifling ought not to endanger an institution so venerable and so necessary. "Symptoms of this state of mind are, I think, common." pp. 281-283. "The evangelical minister of an Anglican church is thus placed in a miserable position. He must not preach Christ in private houses, nor enter into any neighbouring parish where an ungodly minister is leading the people to destruction; he must baptize the infants of ungodly persons; he must teach his parishioners, against all observation, that these infants are members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven; he must take unregenerate young persons at the age of fifteen or sixteen to be pronounced regenerate by the bishop; he must admit all sorts of persons to the Lord's table, though they are not invited by Christ; and must finally, when they die, express his thanks to God that they are taken to glory, when he has every reason to think that they are lost for ever. Although the ministers of proprietary chapels are not placed under this legal compulsion to desecrate Christ's ordinances, yet, by adhering to the establishment, they sanction and support the whole system; and must be responsible for that corrupt union of the church and the world through which Christ is dishonoured and souls are ruined." pp. 468, 469. The awful responsibility of evangelical men who remain in the establishment as upholding a system by which multitudes are led to perdition, and the spread of true religion is impeded, is set forth impressively. "The union of the church with the state," it is shown, 66 authorizes the blind to lead the blind, the dead to be bishops of the dead;" and the question is solemnly asked, "Ought they who see the enormous evil to perpetuate it by remaining within the establishment?" "The union checks the progress of religion in the country by placing the Anglican churches under the ecclesiastical government of worldly politicians assembled in parliament, including Roman catholics and unitarians, who control them in spiritual things, determine the mode in which their pastors are to be chosen, perpetuate their false doctrine, and prevent the exercise of discipline;" "by giving undefined and arbitrary power over the churches to prelates, who, being the nominees of politicians, must be often as worldly as their patrons ;"-"by giving to worldly patrons the right of naming the pastors of the churches ;"-" by investing these worldly nominees of worldly patrons with exclusive spiritual jurisdiction, under the bishops in their respective parishes;"-" by leading to a common belief that Anglican pastors are mercenary;"-" by checking the activity of the Anglican churches ;" and "by perpetuating schism." "Those," says Mr. Noel, "who uphold this corrupt and paralysing system, beneath which worldliness must luxuriate and spirituality - must die, by which the churches are corrupted and the whole nation injured, are answerable for the consequences." It is nothing worthy to be called an abstract of the work which we have now presented to our readers, but merely specimens of its more prominent parts. The volume is one which all who have opportunity to do so will find it advantageous to obtain and study, as its intrinsic qualities, independently of the interesting circumstances under which it appears, entitle it to respectful attention. This it will receive, we doubt not, from many in the higher circles who have never before considered the subject with any seriousness. style in which it is written is admirably adapted to promote its efficiency. It is so calm, so dignified, so simple, so devoid of everything likely to excite prejudice, so suitable to the character of a man of God announcing his conscientious con The victions on a subject of paramount importance, that instead of offering any critical remarks we are prompted to present our humble thanksgivings to Him who is the source of all spiritual good, for enabling his servant to discharge so well the onerous duty which had devolved upon him. May that heavenly Patron on whom he has had the courage to cast himself-his only patron now-watch over his course, direct his steps, and strengthen his heart! The determination of Mr. Noel to spend some time in retirement before he enters on public engagements is one which commends itself to our judgment. In that retirement may heavenly illumination be imparted, to preserve him from every error which would be detrimental to his future usefulness, and to prepare him to render many eminent services to that comprehensive church of which he has long been, and of which he still is, an esteemed member! BRIEF NOTICES. are very valuable and useful; and altogether to discontinue either would be most undesirable. It has, therefore, seemed best to the committee, under these circumstances, for the future to combine both books, publishing all the strictly denominational intelligence hitherto given in the Calendar for current reference, and in the Year-Book for permanent record in one manual." The intention thus announced is now realized, and a highly respectable compendium of conChurch-gregational statistics is the result. It includes The Congregational Year-Book, for 1848, with a Calendar for 1849; containing the Proceedings of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, and its Confederate Societies for that year. Together with Sup plementary Information, respecting the Associations, Ministers, New Chapels, Schools, and Publications, of the Congregational Body throughout the United Kingdom. London: Published for the Congregational Union, by Jackson and Walford, 18, St. Paul's yard. 8vo., pp. xxvi., 270, In the Report of the Congregational Union adopted at its annual meeting last May, it was stated that experience did not seem to sanction the continued publication of two yearly manuals-both a Calendar and a Year-Book "The sale of the former," it was said, "always insufficient to cover its cost, has this last year been most seriously lessened by competition; and that of the latter being much less than the committee had hoped to realize; while the extent of the book, in proportion to its price, is so great, that only a very extensive sale could bring it near to self-support. Yet both books matter of the same character as that contained in our own Baptist Manual, with much information of a cast similar to that given every December in the Supplement to the Baptist Magazine, and in addition, articles not to he found in either of our publications, such as addresses delivered and papers read at the public meetings of the Congregational Union. Our independent brethren are, in some respects, wiser than their baptist neighbours: they do not starve their union, and their union is, therefore, able to give to their workmen the hire of which they are worthy. The secretaries having salaries amounting to two hundred a year, with some assistance from a clerk, they are enabled to present their friends in return with a valuable collection of well edited documents, such as it would be vain to expect gratuitous secretaries to furnish. Sermons for Sabbath Evenings, by Ministers of the Free Church of Scotland. With Introductory Remarks by HUGH MILLER. Edinburgh and London: J. Johnstone. pp. 352. Why these should be described as sermons for sabbath evenings, is not apparent. Their subjects are varied, and are as seasonable at one period of the week or day as at another. As specimens of the ordinary pulpit efforts of some of the most eminent men in the Free Church of Scotland, and we may add, of some of the most popular preachers of the present day, they are peculiarly interesting. introduction by Hugh Miller is a well written essay on the importance of preaching, the superiority of its claims to those of all other ministerial duties, and the necessity of much previous study in order that it may be generally effective. The The piety, good sense, and ingenuity, displayed in this small production, combined with its neat appearance, render it an eligible present for any person of any class. Palestine and Part of Egypt, with the Countries adjacent, the Route of the Israelites through the Wilderness, and the Division of Canaan among the Tribes, and the Holy Land in the time of our Saviour, being a Geographical Illustration of the Sacred Scriptures for the Use of Schools and Families. By WILLIAM MARTIN. London: Darton and Clark. This sheet, the size of which is three feet two inches by two feet, contains first, a large clear map of Palestine and Egypt, adapted to the Old Testament scriptures, and referring at every place to the principal events which occurred there; and secondly, two maps on a very much smaller scale, one of Palestine in New Testament days, and the other of the lands mentioned in the book of Acts and the Epistles. Exhibiting so much on one sheet, it is very convenient for suspension in a study or breakfast parlour. RECENT PUBLICATIONS Approved. It should be understood that insertion in this list is not a mere announcement: it expresses approbation of the works enumerated, not of course extending to every particular, but an approbation of their general character and tendency.] The Closet and the Church. A Book for Ministera, by T. BINNEY. London: Jackson, 18mo., pp. 60. The Service of Song in the House of the Lord, by T. BINNEY. Third Thousand. London: 18mo., PP. 82. Price 28. Recreations, Physical and Mental, Lawful and Unlawful. A Lecture by the Rev. THOMAS AVELING. London: Snow. 24mo, pp. 59. Memoir of Isabel Hood, by the late Rev. JOHN MACDONALD, of the Free Church Mission, Calcutta. With an Introductory Notice, by HUGH MILLER. London: Johnstone. 16mo., pp. 104. A Memoir of Annie McDonald Christie, a Selftaught Cottager. Chiefly in her own words, with Extracts from her Letters and Meditations; to which is now added, a Brief Notice of her Grandsons, John and Alexander Bethune, by the Rev. J. BRODIE, Manimail. London: Johnstone. 16mo., pp. 160. The History of a Family; or, Religion our best Support. With an Illustration by John Absolon. 18mo., pp. 156. London: Grant and Griffith. Sceptical Doubts Examined. A Series of Dialogues, adapted to the Juvenile and Popular Mind, by A Medical Practitioner. Edinburgh: Oliphant. 16mo., pp. 150. A Summary of the Principal Evidences for the Truth and Divine Origin of the Christian Revelation. Designed chiefly for the Use of Young Persons, by BEILBY PORTEUS, D.D., late Bishop of London. London: Johnstone. 32mo., pp. 132. The Heir of Glory, by RANDALL H. BALLANTYNE, Author of "Child's Ark," &c. London: Johnstone. 32mo., pp. 31. Gleanings from Many Fields. London: Johnstone. 32mo., pp. 222. Cloth, gilt. Prize Essay. The Claims of the Sabbath on the Working Classes, by JAMES CRAIG. With an Introductory Notice, by Rev. Professor SYMINGTEN, D.D. London: Houlston and Stoneman. 18mo., pp. 36. School Music, comprehending "The Child's Own Tune-Book," for Sunday Schools. Arranged for Three Voices, by GEORGE HOGARTH, Esq., author of the "History of Music," &c, and Edited by JOHN CURWEN. London: Ward and Co. |