it was required that he should make a confession of his past guilt in the face of the congregation or church, accompanied with a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. As soon as he was admitted by the suffrages of the people, the pastor then on the part of himself and the body over which he exercised oversight, laid his hands on him publicly, and implored the pardon of his sin and acceptance before the Father. The remains of this practice are still to be traced in the canons of churches in connexion with Rome. Again, if a man in connexion with any Christian congregation, committed any known sin, he was arraigned before his brethren; and if found guilty was by the vote of his peers excluded from fellowship and communion, in accordance with the solemn injunction of St Paul; Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw your'selves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after 'the tradition which he received of us.' The people agreed to the sentence-the pastor pronounced or executed it. The writings of Clemens Romanus, Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Cyprian,* contain numerous allusions to these practices. Cyprian, in his treatises concerning the lapsed, and in his epistles, again and again, recurs to them. The lapsed, he said, 'were to plead 'their cause before the clergy and the whole church.'All 'things' (he declared) were debated in common amongst them;' and he adds, whoever was excommunicated, it was done by the 'divine suffrages of the people.' But as the church waxed strong in this world's goods, the rich could not bear the humiliation of public censure, and the clergy were not unwilling to add to their own power and wealth by a compromise of the ancient discipline. A new method also,' says Mosheim, referring to the fifth century, of proceeding with penitents was introduced into the Latin 'church. For the grievous offender, who had formerly been 'obliged to confess his guilt in the face of the congregation, was 'now delivered from this mortifying penalty, and obtained from Leo the Great a permission to confess his crimes privately to a 'priest appointed for that purpose.' Mosheim adds, by way of reflection, By this change of the ancient discipline one of the 'greatest restraints upon licentiousness, and the only remaining barrier of chastity, was entirely removed; and the actions of 'Christians were subject to no other scrutiny than that of the 'clergy; a change which was frequently convenient to the sinner and also advantageous in many respects to the sacred order.'

It is a circumstance that demands our notice, that the great Reformer was first stirred against the corruptions of the church

* See an Account of the Discipline of the Primitive Church, by Lord Chancellor King,

of Rome by a traffic in indulgencies-what he regarded as a violation of the sanctity of the confessional. The German priests had been accustomed to prescribe penance to those who confessed to them; but Tetzel, a Dominican monk commissioned by Pope Leo X., appeared in Germany, and offered for sale 'indulgences' absolving purchasers from all pains and penalties. There was no sin (and some he named) which he asserted he had not the power to remit. The indulgences were farmed; they were sold in the 'gross to the highest bidders, and were by them dispersed among the retail pedlars of pardons, who resorted to the public houses, 'exhibited their wares, and picked the pockets of the credulous.'* Tetzel boasted that his indulgences could ensure the forgiveness of an offender etiam si matrem Dei stupravisset.† Luther regarded this unholy traffic with indignation. He had looked upon the confessional as sacred, and had from his childhood been taught That the sacrament of penance as administered by the holy Roman Catholic is the only means by which Christians who have been guilty of mortal sin since their baptism can be reconciled to God.' Luther took his staff-repaired to Rome, and represented the scandal to the Pope. But Leo treated the son of the miner of Saxony with disdain, and dismissed him with a sneer: Brother Martin,' he said, is a very fine genius! Luther's spirit was moved. He returned to Saxony to muse and meditate upon the corruptions he had witnessed during his visit to the eternal city. He opened his Bible; re-examined the case; and then published the living truth-justification by faith in Christ only! Like Samuel, he had mistaken the voice of the Lord, and had repaired to the high-priest; but he returned to his place, having received a special and superior commission from God himself, who had heard him ejaculate with the fervor of an honest and good heart, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.' The gospel truth announced by Luther clove down the impieties of Leo, and annihilated the usurped power of the confessional, scattering satisfaction,' 'supererogation,' attrition,' &c., to the winds. Christ was restored to the pedestal from which he had been dethroned. The priest was no longer the 'mediator' between God and the people. The pardon vended by him was valueless, and came second hand, for the awakened world now were told, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' They were invited to go to him who in no wise' will cast out; and, without money and without price, were directed to wash at the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and be whole !+

* Blunt.

+ Maturin's Sermons on Popery.

Having now taught of faith in Christ, let us now teach touching good

Blessed be God for this glorious truth! In it shall we find the antagonist of the hideous system of ecclesiastical despotism we have faintly shadowed out. And blessed be God for giving the world a Luther to proclaim it. Luther! It may be that we are destined to see Popery start from the ground, like the dying chief, as light as if she felt no wound,' and shout out victory: but she will reel and stagger anon. The crimson tide, in the action, bursts from her side, where the arm of Luther planted the wound. Well hath Master Francis Quarles sung:

Welcome those gentle quills (whose e'er they be)
Whose meritorious labors shall set free
The true imprisoned dust of that renowned,
Thrice-famous Luther: let his head be crowned
With sacred immortality, and raised

Much rather to be wondered at than praised.
Let babes unborn, like fruitful plants bring forth
To after-days new monuments of his worth,
And time-outlasting name:

While men, made perfect in his well-known story,
May all turn patrons and protect his glory.'

Art. VII. 1. American Slavery as it is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. New York. 1839.

2. The Limitations of Human Responsibility. By FRANCIS WayLAND, President of Brown University, U.S. London: Hodson. THESE two publications of the American press, issued within

a few leagues of each other, under the same government, and by authors professing the same religion, constitute one of the greatest anomalies which the versatile history of man can furnish. The first is a simple relation of facts, descriptive of the actual condition of society; plain unvarnished tales witnessed or told by men whose veracity is unimpeachable, and whose names, attached to the facts, defy contradiction. The second is written by a divine of high character and standing, and expresses

works also. Seeing that we have by faith apprehended Christ by whom thou art justified, go now love God and thy neighbours. Pray to God-give him thanks-preach him-praise-confess him. Be good to thy neighbourhelp him-do thy duty by him. These are truly good works, flowing as they do from that faith and joy conceived in the heart by reason of our forgiveness of sins through Christ." Luther on Galatians ii. 16.

his deliberate sentiments in regard to this state of society; what he thinks of it, what he feels towards it, and how he proposes to deal with it. The feelings created by the two publications are as opposite as the poles. The details of the first make one's blood boil at the atrocious cruelties which beings in the human form are capable of inflicting; while the reasoning of the other instantly transports us to the frigid zone. The author of the latter appears to be a pure intellectual abstraction, a mere automaton, without nerves or sensibilities of any kind. A more finished specimen of cold-blooded indifference to the wrongs and miseries of his fellow creatures we never expect to witness. We learn from it how a man may immure himself in his study or incase himself in prejudices, until he ceases to sympathize with active life, or to feel one generous emotion in his heart.

It is not our intention to harrow the feelings of our readers by any extracts from the first publication. Such relations were copiously made when it was necessary to arouse British feeling upon the subject; but that happily is not now required. Our notice will be chiefly confined to the elaborate treatise of Professor Wayland on the Limitation of Human Responsibility, a work written with great caution. The publication of such a work, if the information of travellers may be depended on, was not uncalled for in reference to some striking characteristics of American society and manners; but, we conceive, it can have but a very limited application to the social condition of other portions of the globe. Where else, for example, could the following description, by any possibility, have any adaptation.

It seems to be frequently taken for granted, that all duties belong to all men; that matters of right recognize no distinction either of age, or sex, or civil office, or ecclesiastical function; that all men, and all women, and all children, are equally responsible for all possible things; that there is no peculiar and special duty assigned to a magistrate or legislator, a people or a clergyman; but that every man, woman, and child, is responsible for the discharge of every possible duty, and that every human being may urge this responsibility upon every other human being, under penalty of the infinite displeasure of the eternal God.'-Wayland, p. 12.

To the author's statement of the nature of his subject, and, indeed, to a considerable portion of his reasoning in the earlier chapters of the work, we yield our free assent. There is much just discrimination, and clear and consecutive reasoning, expressed in language appropriate and dignified. Our only objection to this part of the work is an apprehension that the parties to whom the advice is applicable will not take the benefit of it. Though at the utmost remove from the intention of the author, we cannot help fearing, that in society it will not be the bold and

restless innovator, nor in religion the wild and visionary enthusiast, that will avail themselves of his labors. Such men are usually as far removed from reasoning, as they are from the restraints of authority and law. A larger and more willing class of admirers will be the supine and selfish; men who are on the look-out for opiates and apologies for cupidity and sloth. If we lived in such a busy and energetic world, that the zealous in religion, and the philanthropists in society, were constantly pushing their efforts in improper directions, and overstepping the bounds of prudence, there might be some apology for such a strain of admonition. A wise man once said, Whatsoever thy hand 'findeth to do, do it with all thy might; and a more recent authority exhorts us to be zealously affected always in a good 'thing. Exhortations like these seem to be much more adapted to the present aspect of the church and of the world. It would be in perfect good keeping for the advocate of a state-enslaved church, with its located cures pinioned to a geographical space, and its signals on each side of this enclosure warning off intruders, to employ himself in constructing grooves and rail-roads for Christian effort; but for the president of the oldest academy of the most democratic of all the sects, and in the most republican of all governments, to be thus employed, is a singular page in the history of modern times. The politics of the country, the history and habits of the people, their independent religious training, are all at the antipodes to the restraints and formalities which obtain in older and more formal states of society.

It is admitted that there is sometimes an eccentricity in minds of ardent temperament, apt to turn into extremes, which the cool and calculating will be sure to condemn. In the present imperfect state of our nature, men seldom take a strong hold on any great object without falling into excess. Enthusiasm seems almost inseparable from earnestness. It is in the nature of zeal kindled in behalf of great objects, to burst the trammels of ordinary thought and action. The calm reason, the single idea of right, the principle of pure love, such as it exists in God, serene and 'unimpassioned-these divine impulses seldom of themselves carry men through great enterprises. Human passions insensibly mix with higher influences. Religion and freedom have 'evermore made their way through struggles and storms. Es'tablished evils naturally oppose an iron front to reform; and the 'spirit of reform, gathering new vehemence from opposition, 'pours itself forth in passionate efforts.' The history of American freedom furnishes many illustrious examples of indomitable energy-this moral heroism; while it furnishes at the same time. the most hopeful indication of the triumphant issue of their present struggle, in comparison with which their subjection to a foreign power was but as the green withs on the limbs of Sampson.