This would contribute much to raise the standard; and in every part of the country there would be some two or three who would be looked up to by their brethren as thorough divines, able to give information and advice in cases of difficulty, and to direct the studies of their younger brethren. But now it seems to me that there are about three individuals who are generally looked up to by their Evangelical brethren in all questions of learning and research; - and these, though they have all great extent of reading, have on many points very erroneous notions, and fail especially in their views of the authority and meaning of the written word. Can it be doubted that much of the discordance between different classes of our brethren on some important points, arises merely from general ignorance of theology? Can it be doubted that many of the wild and fanciful things (I do not use the words indiscriminately) which have of late been written and said on the subject of prophecy, are to be ascribed to the same cause? And on both sides of the question we may observe low views of the inspiration of Scripture, and a miserable ignorance of the true principles of interpretation. Nor do I remember to have opened so much as one book, on either side of the question, in which this observation was not forced upon my mind. So that, I fear, a large majority of both parties are only in the way to be awfully wrong, on much more important points than those which they are discussing. You will render a most important service to the church at large by taking opportunity to expose the errors which are prevailing and increasing with regard to the exposition of Scripture.

I wish that I myself had less needed the remarks which you have made upon politics. Here I feel myself to have been very negligent of my duties. The fearful events which have lately taken place taught me this most forcibly. And I would hope, that what you have said on this important subject, will serve to convince others as well as myself, that we have not given to political events, and to the circumstances in which our country has been placed, that deep consideration, that place in our preaching and in our earnest prayers, which the exigency of the times required. Hence it is that multitudes of our brethren, on that vital question which has lately agitated the country, have been found in the ranks of the enemy. On that subject, indeed, I have long taken the same views with yourself: but I now perceive they have not been operative as they should have been, nor led me to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, and, above all, to pray, according to the necessities of the times in which we live. I fear, too, that many, who think and feel with us, still need to be roused into action and stirred up to earnest prayer. There is certainly a time and measure in which the ministers of the Gospel ought to interfere with every question; and we must hope and pray that recent events will awaken us to our duties, though it be in a most painful manner.

But in urging just and decided views upon all these subjects on the attention of the religious world, you will have much and various oppo

sition to encounter, and that (which is most painful of all) from your brethren. The church cannot remain in its present state. It must take higher ground, or it soon will sink to the miserable level of the world around it. Our Master reminds us that we are "the salt of the earth" but there is great danger that the salt shall lose its savour, and so be cast out and trampled under foot, as neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill. If we would warn and awaken our brethren, we must say very strong things; and then all their corruptions will rise up in arms against us. Our own corruptions too will be at work, and an invisible enemy will be lying in wait to stir them up, and then watch for our halting. Nevertheless I believe that, in order to discharge the office of a Christian reviewer, you must consider the command of God to the prophet as specially addressed to you: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew MY PEOPLE their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." It is a painful duty, and requires ten times more courage and resolution, than to defy the world and all its hosts. But the church must either suffer plainspeaking and rebuke, or it must suffer God's judgments; and if, under God's blessing, we might but in some measure save it from the latter, how gladly should we take upon ourselves the pain and reproach we must endure in bestowing the former! Speak then as knowing that faithful reproof is the truest love and kindness, and that our command to warn the righteous of their backslidings is as solemn and express, as that to warn the wicked from the error of his ways (Ez. iii. 17-21). In both cases our principle and motive should be zeal for God and love to the souls of men. We make war upon sin and iniquity wherever we find them, whether in the shape of open hostility to God and his anointed among the Canaanites, or in the shape of treason in the camp of Israel. It seems to me that one great point in which ministers fail at the present day is this, that when we trust that sinners are converted to God, our care and anxiety about them ends: but it has struck me often, in reading the Epistles of St. Paul, that, in many cases, when he heard of sinners being converted, his care and anxiety about them seemed to begin (Col.i. 9-13). We ought to feel much more anxious than we seem to feel, that believers should walk worthy of their vocation, and adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. And though our warfare is with the unconverted and rebellious world, we must not think that time or labour lost which is spent in stirring up our fellow-soldiers to do their duty. I hope and trust therefore that your work, under God's blessing, will assume such a character, that the people of God shall take more heed to their ways, as knowing that, whoever may wink at their carelessness, cowardice, or inconsistencies, the Christian Review will speak, in the fear of God, with a holy severity when need is, though always with earnest love. Especially I could wish that all the religious societies should feel this. They need some firm, impartial censor to watch over them- to warn them of their errors and their dangers. For if there be not something from without to

keep them up to a high and holy standard, they must decline and deteriorate more and more; for every human institution has in itself a principle of continual declension and decay.

Need I then add a word of brotherly exhortation, to work while it is called to-day? I have myself a deep impression that no religious periodical can, for any great length of time, keep up the tone and character which are desirable. For every such work is human, and therefore has in itself the same principle of decay which I have mentioned. I would not therefore propose to keep it up beyond a certain period-especially writing as you write, and as I trust you will continue to write. For the burthen is too great for an individual: you will write yourself to death, or write till you have exhausted yourself, and then though the principle and the spirit remain pure and unchanged, which I trust will always be the case, yet the execution will become feeble. You CANNOT, as you say, have help from man, or even ask it; for where will you find men like-minded with yourself? You must, I fear, for the most part, fight single-handed, or nearly so. You cannot unite with others without debasing your standard, or introducing sometimes incongruous mixtures into your work. Even if you should keep up to your present point, both as to principle and execution, the public will soon grow weary, and seek for something more agreeable to their low taste and low views. And I should think more good may be done by striking out from time to time something new, as Providence opens the way, and the Spirit of God directs you, than by enslaving yourself to a periodical publication of so many lines and pages.

But while you continue your present labours, or when you shall find reason to exchange them for others which promise to advance the same good cause, be assured that one brother will endeavour to help you with his prayers. And though he is, as it were, thrust aside as useless and worthless, yet as he has been honoured of God to endure the reproach and bitter enmity of man, in standing up for the same truth of God abroad, in the face of an unthankful and apostate nation, you will believe it is with no common sympathy that I subscribe myself Your affectionate Brother in the Lord,

Blackford, June 12th, 1829.

A. S. THELWALL.

P. S. One hint I would add respecting the conduct of your work, which is suggested by your notice of a German religious periodical, the "Evangelische Kirchen Zeitung," in your first number for this year. Could you not take all our English periodicals in turn, the principal of them at least, both religious and irreligious, and give a brief review of each, exposing, where it is needful, the false and dangerous principles on which they are conducted? You will say I am urging you to take very high ground, and to set up yourself as supreme judge and censor general: but the very title of your work does the

same thing. THE CHRISTIAN REVIEW! The very name sets you upon an eminence, a pinnacle exalted above every thing here upon earth, in the church and in the world. I trust it is the providence of God which has forced you into so high a station, and not any selfexalting disposition of your own. Therefore you must endeavour to write up to your title, and trust that the God of all grace will enable you to do so only remembering that, when he is pleased to give the word, you must be more willing to be cast down and thrown aside, than ever you were to be exalted. And thus with true Christian humility you may hold the highest station, and reprove and rebuke the whole world.

Our readers will perceive by the above letter, that if some are apprehensive of our going too far, others are calling upon us to go farther, and to take higher ground.

We feel that the work on which we have entered calls for a constant exercise of discrimination; whether in speaking of the great body of the dissenters, of our brother clergymen, of religious societies, or of periodicals. There are certain considerations, which perhaps it will always be well for us to keep in view: first, that our object is to assail existing evils; not bodies or individuals, any farther than as they identify themselves with those evils: secondly, that all our strictures upon abuses in the church must be made in the presence and hearing of the church's bitter enemies, to whom we would not give any needless advantage: thirdly, that we must endeavour, not only to destroy, but to build up; not only to attack prevailing errors, but to revive forgotten doctrines: and, fourthly, that there are evils, in the world also, to be assailed; and in fact it was with this feeling on our mind that we entered on our work,—namely, that one of the church's greatest omissions in the present day, was the not attacking, as it ought, those evils in the world, but allowing it, by a sort of truce, or tacit compact, to take its own course. However, that we may not be misunderstood, let this be added; that so far as we see our way clear, it is our wish to attack evil of every kind, wherever and in whatever shape it shews itself. When we first drew the sword, we threw away the scabbard; nor have we looked for it since.

There is much in our dear brother's letter, which calls for an expression of humilty on our part,-were it not that such expressions generally mean nothing. To stand upon an eminence in the exercise of a general censorship, and for so doing to be made the object of general indignation and abhorrence, this is a situation which naturally tends to engender pride; yet the only spirit in which it can for a moment be occupied in safety, is that of true humbleness of mind. If a man so situated

wished to be thought humble, there would be but one way of gaining his end, namely, by coming down for in such a situation, few will be found to give him credit for any thing but arrogance and self-conceit. We do not as yet feel, however, that we have altogether attained to this ground. Our plans are not fixed; our way has hardly opened before us.-Let our readers give us the benefit of their prayers; that we may neither attempt what lies beyond us, through presumption; nor abandon whatever work may be given us to do, through hypocrisy and counterfeit humility.

Whether we are led to proceed, or to stay our hand, "It is the LORD, let him do what seemeth him good."

ROGERS ON THE FAITH AND DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. THE SEVENTEENTH ARTICLE.

OUR attention has lately been directed to an old work on the Thirty-nine Articles, by Thomas Rogers. The book, which is in small quarto, is entitled, "The Faith, Doctrine, and Religion, professed and protected in the Realm of England, and Dominions of the same, expressed in Thirty-nine Articles." The edition which we have before us, is dated Cambridge, 1681; but the author signs the preface, in which he speaks of himself as an old man, "At Horninger near St. Edmunds Bury in Suffolk the eleventh of March, anno 1607," that is, only three years after the convocation of the bishops and clergy in which the Articles were confirmed and ratified. The work being both scarce and interesting, we give a short account of it.

The following is the author's plan. Having given the article under consideration, in English, he subjoins the substance of it in distinct propositions, numbered, so as to correspond with figures, which he places, for the sake of reference, in the answering clauses of the article itself. Each proposition is then taken separately, and demonstrated by texts of Scripture, which he entitles "The proof from God's word." At the close of this proof he generally refers to the confessions of other Protestant churches, setting forth the same doctrine: and then proceeds. to give "The errours, and adversaries unto these truths," particularizing the chief heresies, ancient and modern, each under its proper head and as his statements are supported by references and often by quotations, the book is valuable, if it were only on this account, that it shews what a body of error and falsehood forms part and parcel of Popery. Here we have