one who is a priest only; and then, unless it be possible to enumerate points of difference as important as those we have now given, we shall be ready to allow some authority to the example.

'But the scribes and pharisees paid them,' it will be added; and in so doing they had the approbation of our Master. These ought ye to have done' (Matt. xxiii. 23). Doubtless, for the law was not yet abrogated; its precepts therefore were still binding. Besides, even though it were right that the chief teachers of the people should pay tithes previous to the destruction of the temple, it will be difficult to prove, from their example, that therefore now they ought to receive them. To take tenths and to pay tenths are phrases scarcely synony

mous.

16. To our own mind there is something eminently impious in these attempts to lay to the fatherhood of God' the iniquities and injustice of this system. To seize the last means of subsistence from the poor, whose claims to a part of the tithes of the country, founded either on the Mosaic or on old English law, are to the full as just as those of the church; to sue and imprison; to take priestly dues, like the sons of Eli, by force,' and all for the support of a religious faith which the sufferer believes the Bible has condemned, are practices in themselves sufficiently awful: but that they all should be perpetrated under the color of divine authority, and sanctioned by certain pretences to divine right, is to copy too closely the example of the servant of the prophet (2 Kings v. 22), to take God's name, not in vain only, but in violence; to commit sacrilege of the foulest kind; to prostitute the religion of peace to the purposes of cruelty and blood. Can it be a matter of surprise, that the offering of the Lord is abhorred' (1 Sam. ii. 12, &c.), or that the Protestant church is but hardly able to keep her ground against the encroachments of Rome? The truth is, that she is smitten;' her form, though not wholly destitute of life, is deathlike and powerless; and our fear is, that, unless her exactions speedily cease, she may be driven out from the presence of our Master,' and 'the leprosy' be commanded to 'cleave unto her and her seed even for ever.'

17. And while it is thus impossible to defend this iniquitous system from the books of the Old Testament, it is equally impossible to find even the semblance of an argument on its behalf in the commands or the spirit of the New; it is, on the contrary, expressly condemned as eminently inconsistent with equity and divine precept.' pp. 43-48.

The persecu

For the argument we must refer to the book. tion involved in the existence of a state church,' which is the subject of the fourth chapter, is well discussed. How just are the following remarks.

The liberty of toleration! Was ever heard so gross a contradiction of terms? Toleration is a mitigation of punishment, not a definition of liberty; and when that punishment is inflicted for conscientious views, the mitigation of it deserves no other thanks than are due to moderate persecution; and even these must be given, not to the

church, but to the people and the state. The working of the system may be lenient, but the system itself is unchanged. It is now what it has ever been; it retains the same offices, principles, and canons, and refuses to alter or repeal them. The toleration of Dissenters is the proof of its weakness, not of its love.'—p. 53.

The subtle and malignant working of persecution the author has traced with great acuteness, and shows that its spirit inheres in every secular establishment. This he practically illustrates in our own. We have already quoted so much, and there are so many admirable passages in this chapter, that we must refer our readers to it, merely presenting them with the syllabus. In the list of contents it stands thus.

Persecution, or the infliction of penalties for the conscientious profession of faith, and toleration, or mitigated persecution, defined.— Sinfulness of both.-First class of penalties involved in establishments: -Exclusion from the wealth and privileges of the endowed sect.-Second class of penalties:-Loss of influence, of character, and of consequent usefulness, on the part of the unendowed. Pleas in defence of such penalties examined.-Influence of this system on the GOVERNMENT.— On the liberties of the people.-On the stability of the ruling power. -Influence of the system on the CHURCH.-On its unity.-On its spirituality. On its success.-Pleas in defence of the continuance of the system examined.—The system shown to be inconsistent with-1. The example of Christ; 2. The peculiar sanctions and penalties of religion; 3. The nature of religion as a service of voluntary devotedness; 4. The fundamental principle of Christ's reign, which forbids the aid of the civil power.'-pp. viii., ix.

The fifth chapter treats of the office and duties of the civil ruler, which Mr. Angus thus concludes, and the quotation unfolds the course of the whole argument.

In reply, then, to the argument of the advocate of state churches, -that it is the duty of a Christian government to compel its subjects, or any portion of them, to support and diffuse what they do not believe, -it is merely asked, on what law is this duty founded? On the law of the just, or of the expedient, or of the scriptural,-laws essentially consistent, and fancied at variance only through the imperfection of our moral or intellectual faculties? Nature is against it; reason and prudence are against it; the precepts and example of the New Testament are against it. The clear and unanimous decision of them all is, that with religion the magistrate, as such, and in the exercise of the power with which as a magistrate he is invested, has no right to interfere. The regulation of the conduct of the subject is within his province; the regulation of the faith of his subject, founded, as it ever must be, on injustice and persecution, is beyond it.'-p. 177.

The last chapter contains a valuable summary of all the theo

ries of ecclesiastical establishments which have obtained and which have passed under the author's review. In it he likewise shows that voluntaryism does not imply that religion is not of national importance, but only that there must be no compulsion in diffusing it. Its principles are illustrated, its sufficiency maintained, objections to it are answered, and its prospects unfolded. There is one palpable hit which we are tempted to give and we have never been more tempted to transgress our limits than on the present occasion, but this shall suffice.

• Voluntaryism has not yet evangelized the people, and therefore it cannot evangelize them, is no conclusive reasoning; much less conclusive than the following,-the established church has not yet evangelized the people, and therefore it cannot evangelize them; much less conclusive, because she has had longer time to do it, and because whatever has been done by dissent has been done, for the most part, in spite of the church, while all that has been done by the church has been done with the help and co-operation of Dissenters. And besides (2), even if voluntaryism cannot diffuse religion, it can never thence be proved that therefore the government ought to diffuse it, unless it be first shown, that to diffuse it is essential to the existence of civil society, or that the postponement of the primary ends of government to the secondary, and the introduction of distinctions that involve in. justice and persecution, are consistent with the precepts of Scripture and the conclusions of a comprehensive and enlightened experience. From what has been said in preceding chapters it will be seen that this .cannot be shown. The endowment of religion is not essential to the being of a government, and therefore no reasons of necessity can be urged in its behalf; nor is it essential to its well-being; but, on the contrary, injures alike the commonwealth and the church, making the one suspected, secular, feeble, and, by its injustice, alienating the minds of the subject from the laws and constitution of the other. So that, were it true that voluntaryism is incompetent to secure the ends for which God designed it,-were the history of the primitive church, and of the universal diffusion of the gospel in early ages without an establishment, a pure fiction,-and the success of the same principle in America even more questioned than it is,-still the present system, which makes men hostile to the government without making them friendly to religion, must be earnestly and justly condemned.'

-pp. 187, 188.

The notes and illustrations are very happily selected, and confirm the argument, which had they been inserted in the body of the work might have encumbered it.

Mr. Taylor's essay takes a different route to that of his predecessor, but arrives at the same conclusions. There is sufficient difference between the two to prove the writer of each to be an independent thinker. We have read them with equal satisfaction, and yet we should undoubtedly have concurred with the

VOL. VII.

E

adjudicators in their award to each. Mr. Angus undertook a higher task than Mr. Taylor, and has handled topics of great importance with the power of a master, which did not come within the scope of Mr. Taylor's design. The plan embraces seven chapters, and a copious appendix of illustrative notes. The following are the subjects, which are discussed with great ability.

Whether the idea of civil government involves a right to 'legislate upon matters of religion?

Whether civil interference with religion is sanctioned or 'permitted by Christianity?

The idea of an established church.

The tendency of ecclesiastical establishments.

The actual operation of religious establishments.

The supposed efficiency of the territorial distribution of an 'establishment.

The voluntary principle and its results.'

We think Mr. Taylor peculiarly happy in his reply to Dr. Chalmers on the subject of free trade as applied in its principles to the propagation of the gospel, and should have been glad to quote this portion of his concluding chapter, but our space forbids.

6

There are two persons of eminence-Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Gladstone-to whom we earnestly recommend the perusal of these volumes, and whom we challenge to the task of answering them. The occupation is every way worthy of their acknowledged talents, and we respectfully and in all seriousness invite them to. undertake it. Let the great argument' be discussed in a Christian temper and with a supreme regard to the authority of God's holy word, and we care not what strength of intellect or depth of erudition be arrayed on behalf of our opponents. Time may be required for the working out of our principles into the practical faith of our countrymen, but we have no fear of the issue, and can calmly await its arrival.

Art. IV. Antipopopriestian: or, an Attempt to liberate and purify Christianity from Popery, Politikirkality, and Priestrule. By JOHN ROGERS. Vol. I. Popery. London. 8vo,, pp. 362.

IN

N most cases it is a matter of less difficulty to bring men to the approval of a good purpose, than to bring them into a cordial agreement with regard to the best means of prosecuting it. The end is generally much more simple than the means; and to diminish complexity, is to lessen the occasion for those differences which are ever arising from diversities of taste,

capacity, and culture. Little mischief, however, would arise from this source, compared with what is now found to result from it, if men could learn to divest themselves of a certain notion of infallibility which is always more or less connecting itself with their own conceptions on the points in dispute. All admit, in general terms, the wisdom of endeavouring to adapt instruction to the peculiar mental habits of the instructed; but each, at the same time, is prone to regard that mode of teaching as intrinsically the best, which is found to be best adapted to his own particular aptitudes and tastes. The ministry of reconciliation has been committed to 'sons of thunder,' and to sons of consolation;' but it rarely happens that those who hang with devout interest on the lips of the one of these classes of teachers, are sufficiently aware that the utterances of the other are the work of the same inspiration, and adapted to the same end. No man needs be told that the varieties in human character are almost endless, but from this fact it must follow that the gospel would not be well administered if it were not expounded and applied in a manner embracing a corresponding diversity of adaptation. The preaching of Paul, of Apollos, and of Cephas, had their respective characteristics, but all were good, each having its fitness to move both the intellect and the heart in the instance of the classes to whose condition of mind their own consecrated powers had been wisely adjusted. The earth sends forth its abundance, not as the effect of any one influence, but as the result of sunshine and showers, of cold and heat; and the processes of the moral and spiritual world are carried on by a similar variety of means.

These thoughts have been suggested by the book before us. It is not in many respects a book to our taste; it embraces, nevertheless, much that is valuable, and the very parts which we might be disposed to note as faults, may occur to others as excellencies, and be the means of attracting attention to the subject, and of awakening interest about it. The preface or introduction alone is a curiosity. It extends to nearly sixty pages, and touches upon something like that number of different subjects. Popery, the churches of England and Ireland, Wesleyanism, Owenism, Simonianism, Infidelity, Atheism, all come in for their share of our author's criticism and rebuke. With these discoursings we have also much about the author himself--his judgment of his own religious character, his ideas concerning the utility of his work, his determination not to mince the matter,' his solicitude, at the same time, to avoid giving unnecessary pain, his description of a good wife, concluding with an account of his 'friend the author of a new chemical theory, but one which from the want of its being adequately tested, cannot be said to be either right or wrong. How this budget of matters