sacerdotal absolution, in the private office for the Visitation of the Sick. As the blessed Apostles, in condescension to the similar prejudices of their own countrymen, permitted the Churches of Judea, to retain the ceremonial observances of the Mosaic law. If the cases are not exactly parallel, they so nearly correspond, that few will venture to deny to our reformers in this instance, the praise of that exalted charity, and that considerate attention to the pardonable frailties of human nature, which are of more value in the sight of God, than the highest attainments in mere knowledge or in mere faith. P. 21. In conclusion, it is justly argued, that though in no case is the absolution of the Church other than conditional, yet is it pregnant with spiritual comfort to those who by faith and repentance are its proper objects. An Appeal to the Society of Friends on behalf of Missions, by a Mem WE are induced to notice the little work whose title is first given,on one account, as a novel attempt to bring in the Friends, or Quakers, to co-operate with the members of Reformed Churches in general, in an object which ought to be dear to all Christians, and which it is a misfortune, and a scandal, they do not and cannot pursue with common united efforts. The Friends have already joined the Bible Societies; and, for our parts, we hail any union among Protestant communities upon solid principles, being convinced, that our dissent among ourselves upon points of minor importance, is the most specious argument of the Church of Rome against us, a triumph to infidelity, and a main obstacle to the extension of true religion. We shall not be thought wanting in respect and duty to the Church of England to which we are faithfully attached; but we are free to confess she has been too backward in endeavours to convert the heathen. Many causes, rather than reasons, may be assigned for this remissness, which has clung more or less to all the Reformed. In separating for conscience sake from the Church of Rome, they were obliged to maintain the great leading principle of private interpretation of the Scriptures, that each individual has a right to read the Bible and judge of its con tents for himself. This axiom is the only effectual guard against priestly tyranny and usurpation; and this we must continue to maintain in its simplicity, firmly and boldly, notwithstanding all the evils accompanying it, in order to avoid worse evils. In the great matter of the salvation of our souls, we will have no men, or set of men, say to us, You must take our word that such and such is the meaning of the Scriptures. On the contrary, it is our duty to compare the interpretation, however respectable the authority from which it is derived, with the original; and to search the Scriptures whether these things are so. We must not be startled at the consequences of this principle, that from erroneous judgment or bad passions many will desert the National Church, and form separate assemblies, pleading conscience; that others will use their liberty to reject Revelation altogether. These consequences we deplore; but they will not make us cast off the great principle of the Reformation. The Reformed Christian Church claims no authority, in any other communities; or except over members in communion with the respective Societies. Over others her only power is the power of persuasion. For the first century after the Church of England escaped from the Romish tyranny, she was wholly occupied in self-defence,-in maintaining her existence as a body politic, against the attacks of Roman Catholics on one hand, and of Puritans on the other ; in keeping with a steady foot the middle track between the abettors of absolute rule without law, and those who disparaged all human government in the discipline of the Church. During nearly a second succeeding century, England was torn by intestine wars between two factions-the Monarchical and the Republican; and this contest, like the Ecclesiastical, the good sense of the country brought to subside at last in the settlement of our present happy and moderate constitution, which acknowledges no jurisdiction in Church or State, but according to the law of the land. Yet the authority of the Church has perhaps been too much reduced. The Church has not within itself sufficient jurisdiction for useful and necessary purposes. We would have some jurisdiction in the Church competent by law to regulate and govern all matters of its internal polity, composed of known and responsible members, who might give an impulse and notoriety to that machinewhich now moves heavily under the greatest disadvantages. Over the Court of Chancery, the Court of Admiralty, officers preside appointed by Royal Commission, who, upon the whole, enjoy the confidence of the country in transacting the great concerns entrusted to them. The system of these Courts is not without abuses, but an useful power of government is lodged with them; for want of which the discipline of the Church is often neither vigorous nor consistent. In the important matter of Christian Missions there is, we believe, no jurisdiction within the Church of England for appointing the clergy to preach the Gospel in any heathen district. When clergymen have been sent out to America and India, it has been found necessary to pass particular Acts of Parliament for the purpose of making out a legal commission for the specific office. We cannot but think that it is very much in consequence of this inherent defect of authority in the National Church that independent Societies have sprung up, with self-appointed power, not of ordination to the ministry indeed, but of sending ministers once ordained to execute their office in certain spots. We do not blame these Societies, under all the circumstances, for this assumption of power; we believe that the individual members composing them are for the most part actuated by a pure zeal for the propagation of Christian Truth, and that many of them would be glad to act, if it could be done, under the superintendance and control of the Established Church. They must see that their efforts, now disjointed, would be much more effectual, if concentrated to one point; and that their funds would be more directly applied to the object for which they are intended, than now when frittered away in keeping up different secretaries and committees, with the printing of long correspondence and orations at public meetings, and all that complex and too theatrical machinery which is thought necessary to attract public attention. The propriety of union among Christians in "the system of sending and paying persons to preach" among the heathen, is thus enforced even among the Friends, or Quakers, by the author of the Appeal. "It behoves us seriously to consider, both individually and collectively, those scruples which have hitherto prevented us from uniting with our fellow-Christians. Is it because we think they are not rightly called to the great work of declaring among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ, that we refrain from coming forward with our substance, to help on their way those servants of the crucified Redeemer? Where shall we find a spirit of Christian benevolence more genuine, of faith more fervid, than is pourtrayed in the following lines, written by the wife of a Missionary, when on the eve of embarking for a distant land:- My heart often sinks within me when I think of living among a people, whose tender mercies are cruel. But when I reflect upon their miserable state, as destitute of the Gospel, and that it is easy for our Heavenly Father to protect us in the midst of danger, I feel willing to go, and live and die among them; and it is our daily prayer that it may please God to enable us to continue in that savage country. Farewell to refined Christian society! farewell to the privileges and conveniences of civilized life! We shall enjoy these comforts no more; but Burmah will be a good place to grow in grace, to live near to God and be prepared to die.' ters.") P. 11. (Judson's Let The author then gives to the Missionaries of the Moravians, or United Brethren, that tribute of just praise, which must now always attend the mention of their Society, whether we regard their early and complete devotion to the cause of propagating the Gospel, or the patient perseverance of their humble but judicious efforts, crowned, as they have been by Providence with unequalled success. "They seek not wealth or ease or honours. The candidates for these it is vain to seek on the Missionary list. They may not, per haps, believe in every little particular as ourselves; but shall that form a barrier to our extending to them the right hand of fellowship? Instead of dwelling on the few points of difference between us, let us attend only to those great fundamentals in which all these disciples of the Lord Jesus alike believe. We all believe in the fall of man, in his depravity by nature, in his utter inability to help or extricate himself from the thraldom and yoke of sin, in his recovery and redemption through the mediatorial Sacrifice of Jesus Christ." P. 20. This short, but impressive tract (perhaps more impressive because it is short) concludes with extracts from the accounts of Missionaries of different Protestant Societies, exemplifying the effects of Christian doctrine upon individual heathens in their conversion and amendment of life, and particularly the wonder and gladness with which they received the new and comfortable tidings of pardon and redemption for the sins of men, accomplished by a Divine Saviour, that great and fundamental article of our faith, the sure hope of the dying. "What shall we say, then, to these glorious truths? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. My dear friends, if these blessed effects are produced through the instrumentality of Missionary exertion (and that they are produced none of us can deny) on what scriptural ground can we refuse our hearty co-operation and support ?" P. 52. The enthusiast sees nothing but the sunshine of this picture, but there are dark shades in it. "The Letters on Missions," first published in 1794, show some of the real difficulties attending attempts to spread Christianity. "I had gone (says the author) to Sierra Leone with the hope of doing something towards the establishment of a mission to the natives after a residence of fourteen months, I returned to England, from a conviction that I could not effect my purpose. This requires explanation. I could not persuade myself to take a sickly, delicate woman, and young children, and place them in an African wood, where I must leave them for one half of my time, while I was engaged in rambling from village to village. Had I considered this point well, I had never gone to Sierra Leone; but misled of my partial attachments, I hoped what I wished rather than what I had reason to expect. If my readers are curious to know whether I did nothing in Africa as a Missionary, I am sorry that a regard for truth obliges me to answer, nothing but preach one single sermon by means of an interpreter. The truth is, I felt I had acted precipitately; I charged myself with folly and vanity; I lamented having left my parish in England, and having placed myself in a situation to which I began to think Divine Providence had never called me. My spirits were broken; sleep and appetite forsook me, and my health suffered infinitely more from the exercises of my mind, than it did from the influence of climate and from disease." Preface, P. 7. This candid avowal does great credit to the writer: the confession must have cost him, some pangs, and it is of consequence, inasmuch as being given voluntarily against himself, it is evidence of his own sincerity as well as of the reality of the facts related. Accordingly the present Editor states, with great probability, that this publication "was eminently instrumental in first kindling and extending the flame of Missionary zeal, that has since that period spread so widely through our country,' It thus begins: "Fathers and brethren in the Gospel ministry, from the pulpit and from the press, we frequently hear loud calls on Christians to respect the interests of their several Churches, one while we of the Establishment turn the attention of our brethren to the alarming progress of Dissenters, and exhort each other to a skilful opposition against seetaries. Another while Dissenters rouse the languid zeal of their peo-' ple, descanting on the excellence of their own modes of faith and wor ship, and indulging vehement invective against the avarice, the sloth, and the lordliness of Episcopalians. We talk of the interests of the Establishment, the Dissenting cause, the Baptist and Independent interest, the Methodist cause, and the like, until we lose sight of the Christian cause, the common interests of mankind, and the diligent, peaceable service of our Master. Thus do we forsake the sublime of religion, sink into the meanness of partizans, and inspire our flocks with a fierce sectarian zeal. While the ministers of Christ sleep and indulge their ease; while they sacrifice to the Graces and Muses while they aspire to the reputation of polite learning, or profound |