a vulgar error of voluntaryism, but the promulgated opinion of many of her most devoted members. Bishop Warburton gives the following humorous illustration of her government: "The Rabbins make the great giant Gog or Magog contemporary with Noah, and convinced by his preaching. So that he was disposed to take the benefit of the ark. But here lay the distress-it by no means suited his dimensions. Therefore, as he could not enter in, he contented himself to ride it astride. Imagine now to yourself this illustrious Cavalier, mounted on his hackney, and see if it does not bring before you the Church, bestrid by some lumpish minister of the State, who turns and winds it at his pleasure. The only difference is, that Gog believed the preacher of righteousness and religion."

MADEIRA. Dr. Kalley, writing to a friend from Funchal, at the close of September, 1844, says: "Here we are afflicted,

He

for the Lord hath seen fit to allow Satan to stretch forth his hand against the persons and property of those that feared the Lord, and they are now in deep distress." [This Dr. Kalley belongs to, and defends the established principle in Scotland. and his friends have seized the property of the Rev. Dr. Brown, and other excellent Dissenters. Query-Does it now occur to him, we were surely guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us ?" He and his converts are only enjoying the benefit of his own compulsory principle in religion.]

SLAVERY IN AMERICA. We are happy to say that one of the first acts of the Legislative Assembly of Congress in the United States, has been to abolish the rule which disallows the reception of petitions against Slavery. The vote was one hundred and eighty to eighty; the majority was led by John Quincy Adams, the old and tried friend of freedom. Doubtless every expedient will be put in force to defeat the efforts of this noble patriot; but the cause of freedom is the cause of truth and righteousness, and it must ultimately succeed. Is not even the negro, a man and a brother?

WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?_"The true and grand idea of a Church, that is a society for the purpose of making men like Christ-earth like heaven-the kingdoms of this world the kingdom of Christ, is all lost; and men look upon it as an institution for religious instruction and religious worship, thus robbing it of its life and universality-making it an affair of clergy, not of people-preaching and ceremonies, not of living-of sundays and synagogues, instead of all days, and all places, houses, streets, town, and country."-Dr. Arnold.

BLACK GOWNS OR WHITE SURPLICES. The excitement produced in Exeter, by the proceedings of the bishop and his clergy, has not ceased. A great crowd assembled a few sabbaths ago after the close of service in the church, and hooted the young curate of St. Sidwell's, in that city, from the church to his residence. The unfortunate gentleman appeared dreadfully frightened, and the police were required to quell the tumult.

JUVENILE MISSIONARY HERALD.We are glad to learn that the Juvenile Missionary Herald, the little Magazine designed for the use of our young friends, and recently commenced by the Baptist Missionary Society, has already obtained a very large circulation. We hope that the expectations of its founders will not be ultimately disappointed.

HUNSLET. On Tuesday evening, Feb. 4th, a Public Tea Meeting was held in the Baptist Chapel, Hunslet, for the purpose of assisting to defray the expenses of the Sabbath School connected with that place of worship. About three hundred sat down to tea; after which, Mr. Williams, pastor of the place, was called to the chair, and interesting and effective speeches were delivered by Messrs. Turner, Finnie, Morgan, Fletcher, Jones, and Brown (Independent). Several beautiful pieces of music were tastefully performed by friends connected with the church and congregation, and all present seemed highly delighted and instructed by the whole proceedings of the evening.

GOLCAR.-Mr. John Ash having recently completed his studies at HortonCollege, Bradford, has accepted a cordial and unanimous invitation from the church at Golcar. He is expected to enter on his stated labours on the 2nd inst. May the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hands.

BAPTISMS. Bramley.-Twenty-nine persons have been baptized by Mr. Macpherson, during the year 1844. Two

others were added to the church on the 5th of Jan. and two on the 2nd of Feb. 1845. There are several inquirers.

Wainsgate. Mr. Smith from SlackLane, commenced his pastoral labours here on the first Sabbath in November last. Ten persons were baptized on the 27th of December, and received into the church on the first Sabbath in the new year.

Golcar. On February 13th, Mr. Ash baptized five persons at Golcar. Others, it is hoped and expected, will soon follow their example.

Leeds:

PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY J. HEATON, No. 7, Briggate;

To whom all communications for the Editors must be addressed, before the 15th of the month.

No agriculturalist, unless insane, ever expects to reap a harvest without first sowing his seed; and he naturally expects his crop to correspond in kind, to the seed which he deposits in the soil. But before he can enter upon the process of sowing, he has to break up the ground, and by ploughing and harrowing, to prepare it for the reception of the grain, and frequently to prosecute his labours amidst many discouragements, from the fickle and unfavourable state of the elements; and when he has done all this, he has to wait for its germination and advancement to maturity, before he can gather the precious produce into his garner. His expectations may even then be in some measure disappointed; the genial sunshine and the softening showers may have been too partial, the blight may have fallen upon the unfolding ear, or his soil may prove unproductive; and from these, or other causes, his crop may be scanty, and his joys may be checked in their first rising. Should his toils prove successful, with what pure pleasure does he shout "the harvest home!" and should he meet with inauspicious casualties, and realize but partial success, yet these do not deter him from renewed and persevering efforts; he repeats the process of culture with untiring diligence, holding it, notwithstanding casual disappointments, a general maxim and natural law, that "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bearing his sheaves with him."

This furnishes at once an example and an encouragement to the christian. He is called of God not merely for his own sal

VOL. II. ENLARGED SERIES.

vation, but to be a blessing to others, not only by an example of piety, but by his efforts. He is to live for the good of the human race, and especially for the benefit of his own country; all mankind are his brotherhood, and should share his benevolent sympathies and labours, but his own land presents the first and strongest claims. His field is the world, but charity begins at home, and while he seeks to send out a redeeming influence to the extreme limits of the globe, he should regard his native soil as the spot which he is more immediately to cultivate. The world is at present little else than a wilderness, infested with thorns and briers; but who can say that we have not plenty of these at home, and abundance of waste ground to be broken up, and reclaimed from the curse of ignorance, and social, political, and ecclesiastical viciousness?

Let the christian regard himself, then, as a labourer for God, and while he seeks to waft, as on the wings of heaven, the blessings of knowledge and happiness over the whole face of the moral creation, let him exert his noblest and most hallowed efforts to bless his native land. The mental soil of the mass of our country's population is covered with a thick crust of ignorance and prejudice, the dark deposit of centuries of neglect and misrule, and which priestcraft has carefully cemented, and the iron hoof of ecclesiastical oppression has hardened with its tread. And who will disturb it, who will drive the plough-share of a cleaving energy through this dense crustation, and turn up the precious soil beneath, and cast into it the seed of political, moral, and ecclesi

D

astical truth, if Dissenting christians do not? Baptists, especially, should consider it a part of their high vocation, holding, as they do, a portion of truth discarded by every other section of the community. They have ever been regarded, and justly, as the warm-hearted friends of civil and religious liberty. Let them show themselves, at this crisis of their nation's history, worthy of the reputation they have earned, and the high trust committed to them by Divine Providence; by girding themselves to contend with every error, and to spread thickly around them those great truths which contain the germinant principles of life and happiness to man, which, once inserted in his mind, will transform the social and moral wilderness, and make it rejoice and blossom as the

rose.

In thus seeking to upturn the soil and sow the seeds of truth, we must reckon on difficulties, and make up our minds to much mortification and self-denial. We shall find ourselves in very different circumstances from those good, easy, and respectable Dissenters, who are disposed to let things quietly take their course, who loll back in the cushioned chair, look out at the window and watch the clouds, and rub their hands with self-congratulation that they have not to encounter the ele ments, who are so very kind and gentlemanly that they would on no account offend the feelings of a Tory or a Churchman, by coming into collision with his prejudices. We must dispense with all such sickly charity and sentimental selfishness, aud prepare ourselves for hardness, for arduous, self-denying, and persevering toil. Before we can clear the way for truth, and gain it free course, we must inevitably come into conflict with error, and especially with that standing and enormous national falsehood an Established Church. This monstrous and gigantic evil, which poisons the fountains of legislation, taints

the very core of social happiness, and stands in our way and thwarts us at every step in our efforts to evangelize the country, must be manfully encountered, and annihilated to its last fragment. Never can truth, either political or religious, have free and unobstructed course till this is effected. And are we to expect it will destroy itself, or perish without effort? Shall we be supinely content to see it stride over our liberties, trample on our rights, and tread continually on our toes, and yet strike no blow, and launch at it no weapon? What is to weaken and destroy it but truth, the progress and ultimate power of correct opinion? Then

let us do what we can to spread the sentiments of truth. Let us all, and the young especially, upon whom may devolve the more arduous part of the struggle, acquaint ourselves with the question of the age, look at it on all sides, survey it in every shape, that we may be prepared to acquit ourselves with honour.

We need not despair of final success. Magna est veritas et prevalebit. Truth is mighty and must prevail. Yes, its victory may be long delayed, but it will ultimately triumph. The more speedy, steady, and determined are our efforts, the sooner will come their coronation. In thus endeavouring to redeem the mental and moral soil of our country, we may be permitted only to break the surface, or at most to cast in the seed of a new and better order of things; but others, who come after us, will see it spring up, and will gather the fruits of a glorious harvest. The seed of truth can never perish; wherever it goes it carries vitality with it, and sooner or later it will put forth "the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear." Our labour, therefore, will not be in vain, and if we reap not in this world, yet, "sowing to the spirit," we shall "gather fruit unto life eternal." Worcester. GULIELMUS.

you and other excellent brethren adhere to such churches through the influence of wrong, though we trust unconscious, prepossessions; and far be it from us, liable as we ourselves are to prejudice, to censure harshly in you, prepossessions which appropriate from five to eight millions per annum of national property, to pulpits from which all pious ministers in the nation but those of a sect are excluded, while the openly ungodly of that sect cannot be refused;-prepossessions which require the monarch, whether converted or unconverted, a Charles the Second perhaps, or a George the Fourth, to profess himself the Head of your Church, and the Defender of a Faith which, in works, he denies; prepossessions, the principle of which endows diverse forms of religion, and is now proposing to further endow a popish college;-prepossessions which even send the constable and the search-warrant into our dwellings to procure support for your ministrations. We would so endure these hardships, and so expostulate with you, as to convince you that a system necessitating so obvious a sin against christian equality, must itself be a sinful sys

tem.

I have before me a sermon preached at Christ Church, Bradford, Yorkshire, by the Rev. W. P. Hutton, B.A. from Isaiah xlix. 23. "And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers;" from which he deduces as his topic, "The duty of rulers as involved in their spiritual relation to the people." He acknowledges that nothing can be found in the New Testament in favour of Establishments, hence he seeks his argument from prophecies of the Old, clothed in the language of an abrogated œconomy. The following considerations shew that a literal application of this prophecy is utterly unscriptural. 1st. In foretelling the things of the kingdom of God, the prophets always employ illustrations taken from the Jewish economy; if we, therefore, interpret kings here in the most literal sense, we must not only introduce civil force into christianity, but sacrifices and priests themselves, in direct contravention to the Epistle to the Hebrews, indeed to the whole New Testament, which assures us "that there is now but one eternal High Priest, and that by one offering he hath perfected for ever those that are sanctified." 2ndly. If, indeed, it be intended that kings shall aid the spread of the church, a course is open to them for doing so, consistently with a religion which abjures force, namely, the mighty influence of example in high station. A devout, just, and humble monarch, would effect infinitely more by his example for the spread of spiritual religion, than by employing all his standing

army, his courts of justice and police, to ensure the payment of tithes, &c. to any sect of christians, or to all sects together. It is, therefore, utterly unnecessary, to fulfil a literal interpretation of this text, that kings should "nurse" the church in the arms of civil force. It seems, indeed, surprising that any spiritually minded man can think it possible to "nurse" spiritual religion, by the physical force of law! Civil force and civil emoluments and honours, are the only inducements which Governments, as such, can offer; and so far are these from conducing even to social integrity and goodness, that it is a constant difficulty to find upright men even for civil posts. No servants need so much watching, none are so generally suspected, as those who receive the pay of the State; checks of all kinds are devised to keep them diligent and honest. How absurd, then, to suppose that princes can "nurse" piety in the officers of the christian church, by the very means which corrupt the virtue of the officers of state. But 4thly. If we look to the context, we see at once what treachery it would be to the beauty, and the meaning too, of inspired poetry, to turn its natural figures into gross literalities: in the 22nd verse, we should find God as a man, literally "lifting up his hand," setting up a literal "standard;" the Gentiles literally "carrying christians on their arms and shoulders," the kings and queens (not "Heads of the church"), literally "bowing their faces to the earth," and literally "licking the dust of christians' feet!! To such a profane burlesque of sacred poetry we are driven, by the system which finds the sword of civil power, instead of the sword of the Spirit, in the figures of prophecy, and which is not ashamed to wield it against those who have done nothing worthy of death or bonds.

In connection with the above observations we just observe 5thly, how futile it is to appeal to the commendations bestowed on the pious kings of Judah, not only for their care of the public worship, but also for their getting the people taught. Jewish kings were bound to do this as God's acknowledged vicegerents. God claimed for himself the temporal monarchy of Israel. He charged the people with sin in wishing for an earthly king at all "when God was their king:" he tolerated a king only on condition of his being faithful to himself as the real Sovereign; hence it was the obvious duty of the king, as God's viceroy or deputy, to see that priests, levites, and people, fulfilled their respective duties to his and their supreme Monarch, in whose name alone he reigned. A similar case can never occur again, except God should take the royal charge of

a particular nation, and prescribe, as he did for the Jews, its civil and even social regulations."

By a few, the 13th of Romans has been cited in behalf of the Ruler's right to levy taxes for religion. We reply, nor can we be refuted, to cite this passage is to beg the whole question in dispute. "Render to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due," &c. The whole question being, Is tribute due to the civil ruler for christian purposes? No one questions his right to it for civil purposes; but we have shewn, in a preceding article, that to pay him ecclesiastical taxes is to "render unto Cæsar the things that are God's." With a Nero

on the throne of the Roman empire, it would demand some credulity to believe, that Paul conceived of his right to lay taxes in the name of Christ, to lay them especially on christians holding one opinion, for the ease of those who hold another !!

The second point I must reserve for a second letter.

Believe me, dear Sir, with sincere esteem for your christian character, and sincere wonder that you can belong to a compulsory church,

Yours in our common Lord,

A FELLOW-CHRISTIAN.

In the year 1685, James II. seemed firmly seated upon the throne of England. His government aimed at despotism in the state, and popery in the church. Liberty and Nonconformity were hunted down by the monarch and his ministers. Property and life were not safe. It was the reign of terror. Protestantism was in danger.

The Duke of Monmouth was an illegitimate son of Charles II., but a great favourite with the people of England. James looked upon him as a rival and a foe. He was now an exile in Holland. With the avowed intention of putting down tyranny and popery in his fatherland, he fitted out a fleet in the year 1685, landed in the West of England, and was, at last, defeated in a battle fought on Sedge-Moor. Monmouth was taken and beheaded. Scores of prisoners were hanged without the form of a trial. Revenge was sweet to James. When military executions had ceased, Judge Jefferies entered upon what has been fitly called his bloody campaign in the West. Hume says, he "wantoned in cruelty, and set out with a savage joy as to a full harvest of death and destruction." He opened his dreadful commission at Dorchester, and sentenced eighty men to death, and two hundred to lesser punishments. Great numbers were executed at Exeter, Taunton, and Wells. Juries were packed and overruled. "The whole country was strewed with human heads and limbs." "And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him, was death." Two hundred and fifty fell by the hands of justice, so-called, besides those butchered by the soldiers. History has, therefore, rightly named him "bloody and inhuman Jefferies." Among the Baptists put to death, on this

dismal occasion, were the two brothers, Benjamin and William Hewling. Noble says, "they were the only sons of Mr. William Hewling, a Turkey merchant, of good fortune, in London, who, happily for himself, died before them." After his death, the children were trained up under the eye of their affectionate mother, who was a daughter of the venerable W. Kif. fin; and there is undoubted proof, that both the sons were brought to the knowledge of the truth in early life. William Hewling was in his twentieth year, and Benjamin, in his twenty-first; the former came over from Holland with the duke, and the latter joined him soon after he landed. "They took up arms," said their grandfather, "in defence of English liberties, and the Protestant religion."

Immediately after the defeat on SedgeMoor, the Hewlings retraced their steps to the coast, and put to sea in the hope of escaping to Holland, but the winds and waves fought against them, and drove them back to land. Every thing dear to them was now at stake they were surrounded with dangers-the storm raged at sea, captivity and death awaited them on shore. After surmounting the perils of the deep, and climbing over dangerous rocks, they reached the land which swarmed with soldiers, searching after those who fled from the field of battle. Finding the door of hope shut against them, and unwilling to fall into the hands of men who took away human life for sixpence a-day, they went to the house of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, and surrendered themselves prisoners. They were removed thence to Exeter jail, from this by sea to London, and after three weeks' confinement in Newgate, where they were laden