from him. Now, my beloved father, excuse me when I tell you that the good news of salvation is of such importance to me, that I have not room to tell you of battles or sieges, nor do I think them worth relating. Finally, beware lest any se duce you from the faith by the pride of reason, and the sophistry of wicked men, and remember these awful words of Christ, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels." Many are too much prejudiced to read the Bible, but they read the lives of professors. Let them see the holy gospel transcribed in our daily walk, so shall we adorn and recommend it to the world, and constrain them to say, Christianity is all divine. Give my kind love to all who love Jesus: so I bid adieu. (Signed) you all J. S. CURIOUS INCIDENT. HAVING had occasion, a few weeks ago, to travel some stages with the mail coach, and being disappointed of an inside seat, was reduced to the necessity of staying at home, or sitting beside the driver. As my business was somewhat urgent, the lat ter was chosen. In the last stage but one of my journey, a very humoursome fellow took the reins, forming a striking contrast with the poor sober animals he was doomed to lash up, from the moment he mounted, till he threw the whip from him at the stage's end. I remarked, and it was almost the only remark I made to him, that one of his horses seemed to be very much done up. "Which? which? Sir," said he, "is't that aff ane you mean? That's as gueed a servant as ever ran i the fore end of a coach: but this ane, (laying his whip on him with his usual severity), this ane is always done before the stage is half run: he has no bottom, Sir, he has no bottom." I happened that very night to be in company with two Rev. clergymen, each of whom seemed fully well to know his own value, and to set a price, or something like it, on his neighbours. Much of their conversation turned upon other ministers of their own connection, and I could not but wonder that they spoke with such freedom, and so slightly of their absent brethren. But what struck me most was the saying of one of them concerning a preacher whom both seemed to respect. “ Mr — is a good pious man, &c; but he has no bottom, Sir, he has no bottom." The saying of our driver immediately came into my mind, and Į could not help thinking he had dealt more honestly with his horse than these reverends had done with their brother. Fy upon such conduct: it ought to be houted from the world, loaded with all the disgrace of treacherous cowardice. It stands in direct opposition to many passages of holy writ; and among the rest, Matt, vii. 12. Phil. ii. 3. H. Review. A Word to the Wise; or, a Sum- | mary Essay in Vindication of the Presbyterian Form of Church Government, stated in contrast with the prominent peculiarities of Tabernacle Independents. By a PRESBYTERIAN. To which is added, Remarks on "Christian Liberality opposed to Bigotry: A Sermon, &c. by WILLIAM ORME." Edinburgh, Ogle & Co. 1818. pp. 88. calling of names, that is often to be met with in these pages. As far as relates to Presbytery, the author has borrowed from Brown of Gartmore, whose able reasoning he has often mutilated and disfigured, to make it pass for his own. We say able reasoning, for no difference of sentiment shall hinder us from giving "honour to whom honour is due;" and, were it not that Brown has indulged too much in many places, in a sort of Jesuitical special pleadTHE celebrated HOOKER, the ing, there is a large amount of "author of the Ecclesiastical Polity, controversial talent in his work in one of his replies to a Presby-on Presbytery. In the same class terian antagonist, has the follow-ing expression : "Your next consists of railing and reasons; to your railing I say nothing, to your reasoning I say what follows." If the railing were taken put of the "Word to the Wise,"ty of activity and diligence, to call little reasoning would be left; into the field authors and arguand that little, what has been re- ments never before employed; plied to once and again. The ar- were it not that, by a sort of Miguments, such as they are, are das touch, he has transformed epurely of high church origin; and very thing into an argument for as it has happened to us, to have Presbytery, and made authors perused all the jure divino wri- speak what they never meant, in tings of Catholics, English and support of the good old cause. Scotch Episcopals, we were at no Were it not, we say, that he seems loss to trace the connection: we too partial to his own inventions, scarcely expected to meet with all and appears to have sat down the virulence, the bitterness, the with a determination to find Pres we beg to include some of those letters on Synods, and the word xxλnoa, which appeared in successive numbers of the Christian Repository; the author of which has displayed an amazing quanti bytery everywhere, his papers are indicative of a strong inquiring mind.*. We are far from being disposed to undervalue any thing our bre*When we read the confident assertions of T. T. and the more ar rogant assumptions of this pamphlet, we began to dread that we had been dreaming for a good many years; and, in order to ascertain the truth, we turned over every passage in the New Testament, where the word Exxλŋσ occurred in any shape, as also the passages in the LXX. and their correspondent terms in the Hebrew Bible. We also had recourse to the Fathers, particularly Ignatius, on whom so much stress was laid; we endeavoured to divest ourselves of pre-conceived opinions, as far as was possible in such a case. We are sorry to have to say, that we are still as unconvinced as before; and have found no such powerful overwhelming arguments, as warrant so great confidence in these Gentlemen. We really place no reliance on such modes of conducting a proof, and find that a great deal of criticism is often employed to darken a subject that is otherwise plain. It is well known to critics, and those acquainted with the history of translations, that some biblical words and phrases were, by the way they were applied, diverted from their original meaning. The word ecclesia, re tained by the vulgate, seems to be of that sort; our early translators render it congregation; but the bishops and King James's Bible use church. All the versions of the south of Europe follow the same track; but those of the north, many, if not all of which, made great use of Luther's translation, use a word equivalent to congregation. This shews, that Luther did translate from the Hebrew, and not from the vulgate, as has been asserted by John Bellamy, the travestier of the Bible. in I. They are illiterate. This charge is brought forward almost every page of the pamphlet is varied in all the possible shapes, and an immense number of changes is rung upon it. When examined, however, it turns out to be a mere facility of calling names—a convenient mode of knocking on the head, without the trouble of reasoning on the subject: it would be fruitless to attempt to answer where no distinct charge is substantiated. We might urge in our turn that we know many who have had the opportunity of attending gram mar schools, colleges, lectures, &c. who were never the wiser for what they might have learned there. The days when learning was confined within the cloistered walls of a college are now over; and the facilities for improvement, even to mechanics, are so great, that we can find many of that useful class of people, who are not behind those who can shew the testimonials of all those different professors they have attended; we had almost said, this was the alone evidence they can give of their having been in an Univer sity. We are certainly no advocates for a man attempting to teach what he himself does not know; yet it seems the head and front of these people's offending is, that, in this Presbyterian country, they get an audience to listen to them. This we really cannot help; neither (such is our perverseness) are we sorry for it. We are, for our part, so much in love with liberty of conscience, that we would not infringe it even for the sake of preventing a man from teaching, what we had some doubts of his capacity for. We are aware of the importance of the learned languages, et ego in Arcadia; but we are not, even so much in love with them as to believe, that a man of plain understanding much scriptural knowledge-a good store of general reading and a ready facility of expressing himself, might not be as capable to edify a few plain people, as one who had spent twelve or sixteen years, learning to construe, parse and translate a Latin poet; and who might be able to hammer out a barbarous translation of an ode of Horace; a passage in Cicero, Tacitus, or Livy; or even a portion of Homer, or Xenophon. Let the reader consult the Remains of H. K. White, the Lives of Paley, Bishops Watson and Porteous, Dr C. Buchanan, &c. and he will see enough to convince him, that one may toil at Cambridge thirty years, in the studies prescribed by alma mater, and be no fitter to take the " care of souls" than if he had never set his foot within the Sylvis Academicis. It is, perhaps, in some respects, o therwise in Scotland; but is it not true? is it not what many a◄ mong themselves lament, that the attendance on the divinity lectures is almost fallen into disuse? that the greater number of divinity students attend little, if any time, at these lectures? A professor of divinity, a worthy man, once said, "They might as well send their exercises by post to the sacrist, and let him read them." The fact is, that a week, or a fortnight, is set apart, about the Christmas vacation, and is all that can be allowed by those that keep schools, or teach in gentlemen's families: and a great proportion of divinity students in the country do so. Unless there be some charm in passing a few hours in a college, or in the parlour of a divinity professor, we really can see no superiority that can be acquired in this way; and are at a loss to know on what account such vantage ground is taken over the poor Independents. We have read Dr Knox's Account of the Practices of English Universities; we have some knowledge of the routine of Scotch ones; and are not able to perceive, why a man must be necessarily learned, because he was once at college. Independents maintain that there is no impropriety in men who have talents, zeal, and oppor tunity, using these in certain cases when they are approved by the church, for the edification of the | people of God, or the conversion of sinners. They smile at the distinction that some have made, in allowing ordinary church-members to speak from a question, but not from a passage of Scripture. They do allow in their church meetings any brother, who has any thing to communicate, to speak, even from a portion of Scripture; and they would ask, What law do they break? impossible for a Presbyterian to prove from the New Testament that distinction between clergymen and laymen, which is the foundation of his argument. Let him do so, the matter is finished: till then, all the italics, notes of admiration, and such like apparatus, are good for nothing. But the Independents beg leave to protest against the idea, that every man in every case is called to preach the gospel. We put a parallel case: the covenanters main It is 11. They are unordained, uncommissioned, unsent, &c.-Now, to make short work with this question, which the author has made long work with; we beg leave to place it on its true foundation. We wish to take no undue advantage; but after much attention to this subject, we really find that the question has only two faces. The doctrine of apostolical succession maintained by Bellarmine, Brett, Daubeney, &c.; also by Sage, Calden, Skinner, Glegg, Drummond, &c. must be admitted, or it must be rejected. If admitted, the Presbyterian is as far from the point as his humbler Iudependent brethren can be. His authority is equally disputed as theirs : they stand on the same level. We give up any pretence to be successors of the apostles, otherwise than in teaching the same doctrine, and exercising the same discipline: we claim no indelible character: and we humbly beg leave to say, that this Presbyterian has abandoned the principles maintained by his covenanted forefathers, who strenuously denied that power could be communicated through an antichris-tained that in cases where the matian church, and by an idolatrous gistrate did not do his duty, evepriesthood. The fact is, what ry man had a right to put to his good will it do him? If he think hand, and remedy their want of that it will do him any, he is en- fidelity. The high church, the tirely welcome to it. mere passive obedient men, averred that they were enemies to all magistracy; that they considered every man in his own case to be judge, jury and executioner. Nothing could be more unfair, except the inferences drawn by a Presbyterian. Indeed, were his theory admitted, to use the words of Dr Campbell, "there would not remain the slightest evidence To suppose that Independents have no ordination, no order, no regular plan of sending out preachers, or settling business, would be too gross an insult to him to insinuate that he means to say so; he knows the contrary, and we are not to give him credit for ignorance, to prevent him from being debited with dishonesty. |