WHEN Will Christians be wise enough to keep their differences among themselves, and to endeavour to settle them by the rule of the word of God? How long will it be ere the enemies of the cross of Christ be deprived of the opportunity of calumniating Christianity on the ground of the feuds and ungodliness which prevail among its professors? Shall woes be multiplied to the world, by the stumbling-blocks thrown in its way, by those who ought to remove them? These are questions which call for grave consideration from the reverend gentleman, who has been the subject of so much conversation of late, and also from many of his quondam friends. Let not our readers suppose that we mean to enter into the disgusting details of this unhappy business. We should be extremely sorry to stain our pages with them. Nor would we have noticed the subject at all had it been a private matter, either of civil or of ecclesiastical litigation. But as all London, and indeed Britain, has been filled with the scandal of this controversy, we feel called upon to express our deliberate, but painful opinion, and that without respect of persons.

For Mr. Fletcher we had long entertained much respect, as a zealous, laborious, and, as we believe, a successful minister of Christ. Towards the Associate Synod, though we object to its ecclesiastical constitution as unscriptural, we feel a high degree of affectionate regard, as a body of faithful and

useful christiana, who have done much to maintain the cause of Christ in Scotland. Dr. Dick we know only by his writings. These entitle him to the respect of the christian public; and both himself and his family we believe to be highly respectable. Unconnected, as we are, with all the parties, and knowing, as we do, the opinions generally entertained by the sober, pious, and impartial part of the community, the public expression of our opinion may, perhaps, at the present moment, not be without its use.

In the first place, then, it does not appear to us that Mr. A. Fletcher has satisfactorily accounted for the breaking off either of his first or second correspondence with Miss Dick. We do not say that he may not have been placed in difficult circumstances; but his attempt to show that the blame entirely attaches to the other party, and that his own conduct is defensible on christian or honourable principles, has not been, even in any tolerable degree, successful.

In the second place, the conduct of Dr. Dick, in making Mr. Fletcher's breach with his daughter matter of civil litigation, while he and Mr. F. were members of the same religious community, and therefore amenable to the common tribunal of their own brethren, is a violation of a clear and appropriate command of Christ, 1 Cor. vi. The legal measures never could tend to reconcile the parties, or counteract the evil; but have certainly laid the foundation of the unhappy, and to Dr. Dick's own family, the painful public disclosures which have taken place.

In the third place, we conceive that the Synod, as Mr. Fletcher's brethren, were fully justified in calling him to account for the fama or offence which he had occasioned, notwithstanding the legal compromise which had been made between the parties. Regard to their

reputation as a religious body, and to their professed principles, principles which Mr. F. held in common with them, required that he should give them satisfaction. The merits of the sentence which they pronounced is another affair. Mr. F. has not shown it to be inconsistent with their laws or forms of procedure. Had he gone to Scotland, and there met the business, we have little doubt that a bow to the moderator's reproof, which would scarcely have been heard of in London, would have settled the whole matter. He may affect to talk of being persecuted by his brethren; but we believe them, in this instance, to be guiltless of such conduct towards him.

On the subject of the Synod's calling for the Chancellor's interference to enforce their suspension, we rejoice that they have been nonsuited. It was clearly asking the civil authorities to carry into execution a sentence purely ecclesiastical. The hurry to adopt civil proceedings, and to precipitate measures to the last extremity, was unworthy of the wisdom and moderation of a religious society. It would have been better surely, for a time, to have suffered wrong, and been defrauded, as the apostle recommends.

The whole of this affair throws some light, especially to the people of England, on the nature and the forms of presbyterian procedure; and the issue will perhaps teach the Scots what they are to expect in regard to the progress of presbyterianism in this quarter of the island. The people in Albion Chapel appear to have known little about what they were doing, when they promised subjection to the Synod, and placed their meeting-house under its power. The Synod have now, we believe, obtained possession of its empty walls, together with its debts. It is very hard to be obliged to go four hundred miles to choose a minister, to give an explanation,

or to receive a reproof. Indepen. dents may congratulate themselves that they can do things quite as effectually nearer home, and with much less trouble and expense. We would recommend our Presbyterian friends to confine their authoritative decisions to the other side of the Tweed. On this side, they will find them treated with very little respect. We believe them to be as inconsistent with the liberties of Englishmen, as with the testimony of revelation.

On one or two points more we shall briefly express our feelings. The style and manner of Mr. Fletcher's Appeal to the Public, we think ill calculated to redeem his reputation. It is vain, declamatory, abusive, and irreligious in its tone, from beginning to end. From its division into numerous chapters, and the use of poetical mottos, it might be thought a novel or romance. It is not the production of a person whose soul has been softened and afflicted by the calamities which have befallen him. The sanctified use of the visitation has, we fear, yet to come. When that shall arrive, we have no doubt the author will appear before the public in a different manner, and may perhaps do something to wipe away the mass of reproach, which, we faithfully assure him, he has brought on the cause of Christ.

From a late resolution, published in the morning papers, it appears that the congregation at Albion Chapel, and Mr. Fletcher, have renounced the authority of the Synod, and have retired to another place of meeting. From this it is inferred that Mr. Fletcher has become an Independent. An Independent, any body has the power of becoming when he pleases. But if by this expression is understood that Mr. F. has adopted the religious principles of that bodythat his accession will be hailed by it as an acquisition-that its ministers will, under present circum

stances, take part with him against his former friends, and rejoice to number him among their associates we protest against all such inferences. No man ought to leave one religious communion, while under its dicipline, to connect himself with another. An honourable secession is necessary to an honourable and comfortable junction. We love our brethren of the same faith and order; but they are Independents from principle and choice, not from necessity and accommodation. We most sincerely pity Mr. Fletcher, we pray for him, and would gladly help him if we could; but regard to the cause of truth requires that we should publicly express the opinions and views which we entertain of the affairs brought before the public; this we have done with pain, but with the most sincere good will toward all the parties concerned.

The Moral Government of God in the Dispensation of the Gospel vindicated; in Observations on the System of Theology, taught by the Rev. Dr. Hawker, Vicar of Charles, Plymouth. By Isaiah Birt. Price 1s. 6d. London. Westley.

IT is to be deeply lamented, that men of education and piety, who have once appeared as the sober and intelligent, if not eminently distinguished and powerful, advo cates of the truth as it is in Jesus," should not only desert almost every opinion connected with their earlier and better days; but should also be able to carry into their mental aberrations, an influence derived from their former character, which can give currency, even among some truly serious persons, to dogmas utterly at variance with divine revelation-in a style, too, which wages war with every rule of correct composition -a style so barbarous, as to create a suspicion, either that the intel

lectual powers of the writers have sustained a material injury; or that, hopeless of persuading the intelligent, they address only the feebler and more illiterate of their species; or that they intend to hoax the Christian community, and expose its weakness to the derision of the world, by a profane attempt, to ascertain the extent of its gullibility in matters of everlasting moment, by men who have scarcely any claim upon the attention of mankind, except from the hardihood of their assertions, or the multitude and grotesque combinations of their words.

It is not for us to say, or even to conjecture, what has been the mental process by which Dr. Hawker has receded from his former recorded opinions-how he has contrived to alienate himself from almost the whole Christian world, and to reason himself into a conscientious abstinence from all those exertions, which the sound and evangelical part of the community are making to spread the pure word of God among all nationsin what way he reconciles himself with being the head of a small party, the religion of whom, with a few honourable exceptions, seems to consist in a lazy indifference to the salvation of the heathen, and in arraigning, and mercilessly condemning those more Christians, who cheerfully devote their time, and a considerable portion of their property, for the alleviation of human misery. The Doctor's supremacy, however, is but recently attained: for we can assure his admirers, that, except in the accidental circumstance of a classical education, and, perhaps, in the talent of bold and startling assertion, he stood second to the late W. Huntingdon, that Cobbett of the church. Hunting

active

don, we presume, felt and believed nearly as the Doctor does; but his ingenuity of textual applications-his acute reasoning, though from false premises-and his vigorous idiomatical English style throw all that we have seen of Pierce, Vaughan, Babb, and Hawker, into the deepest shade.

About the few of our elder divines, who embraced, or leaned towards Antinomianism, there was often a manliness of conception, and a tone of reasoning, which contrast, much to their advantage, with the puerile feebleness of its present advocates. They, indeed, sometimes resorted to the subtleties of metaphysics, and took refuge from the assaults of scriptural truth, among the dialectics of the schools; but never seem to have been so sadly bewildered as the few who now shroud themselves and their notions in a chaos of phrases, which, if reduced to or der, would mean absolutely nothing; or would be found to contain a meaning, from which even the good and mistaken men themselves would-if they clearly perceived the nature and consequences of their own antichristian statements

start back with horror. On minds, which have been trained to general habits of correct thinking; on those, especially, which have been accustomed to hear a sound and regular exposition of the Bible-these modern attempts can produce no seriously bad effect. The works of these writers would, in the hands of such persons, carry along with them their own refutation. But there are others just emerging from spiritual darkness-so ill informed, as to be easily deceived by bold assertion, supported by a misapplied

servations were written before the publication of the Eclectic for December, and at so great a distance from the metropolis, as to preclude the possibility of the writer's obtaining any knowledge of that article. EDITORS

NEW SERIES, No. 1.

text of Scripture-of so ardent a temperament, as to spring forward to conclusions, without cautiously examining whether there be any logical steps which fairly lead to them; and for these, and such as these, the work of Mr. Birt is admirably adapted. His calm, judicious, simple, powerful reasoning may well arrest the attention, and fix the opinions of those honest minds, which are in search of truth, and which stand in danger of yielding up their judgments to the teachers of Antinomianism.

Dr. Hawker fearlessly asserts, that his own writings" are in perfect harmony with the Gospel of Christ and his Apostles." The modesty of Mr. Birt forbids his taking such high ground; but plac ing himself on the defensive, he endeavours to show, that he and his evangelical brethren are subject to the Doctor's censures, solely because he (Dr. H.) entertains and promulgates a defective and contracted system of theology." "Within the circumference of that system," says Mr. B., " from my regard to revealed truth, my respect for the honours of righteousness, my loyalty to God my Saviour, and my concern for the salvation of my fellow-men, I cannot suffer myself to be circumscribed." The author attempts, we think successfully, to show,-Sect. 2. That the Doctor's system of theology is defectiva. Sect. 3. That his statement of justification is defective.-Sect. 4. That he is defective in his statements on the ministry of the Gospel.-Sect. 5. That he is defective in his exhibitions of the Christian character and duties.Sect. 6. That he is defective on the Kingly Office of our Lord Jesus Christ.-And, Sect. 7. That he is defective on the honour due to the divine Father.

Extracts from a work so short, and of so small a price, are unnecessary. It is written in a fine spirit; and it deals in no malevo

G

lent insinuations, but meets the questions at issue, upon their own merits, with fairness; it never garbles a passage, and, by reducing it to a meaning foreign from the intention of an opponent, triumphing over a shadow of its own production; it charges upon the Doctor no unworthy motives, but makes a direct appeal" to the word and testimony," upon which, without the parade of criticism, it reasons with critical exactness. The work, let it be remembered, is not written for the deep divine, or the admirer of abstract and metaphysical theology; but for the humble Christian, and the student of the Scriptures.

The work of Mr. Cottle, on the Plymouth Antinomians, which was noticed in this Magazine about twelve months since, may be liable to some plausible objections. The author is, indeed, a man of too much integrity to have presented any unfair statement before the world. His name and character

are a sufficient guarantee for the truth of all the facts which he has recorded; and he submits his reasonings, of course, to the judgments of his readers. Yet, though the passages quoted from their pulpit addresses, might be fair subjects of reprehension, they may have been the unpremeditated and hurried expressions of the moment, the exceptions, rather than the rule, of their general preaching-Verum ubi plura nitent, &c. or they may have been preceded and followed by other and more scriptural language, which would partially or entirely neutralize the evil of particular sentences. In this work, however, the writer refers to the Doctor's publications; and every reader may, for himself, judge of the fairness with which Mr. Birt has treated him. Upon the whole, we do most conscientiously and warmly recommend this pamphlet, to the attention of the Christian public.

REVIEW.

A Sermon preached at Friends' Meeting House, Burlington, New Jersey, on the 10th of the Fifth Month, 1822. By George Withy. Philadelphia, 1822. A DisA Discourse delivered at the Anniversary of the New York Female Auxiliary Bible Society. By M. Bruen.-New York, 1823. -A Discourse delivered before the New England Society of the City and State of New York, Dec. 22, 1822, in Commemoration of the Plymouth Colony. By P. M. Whelpley. New York, 1823.-Charity at Home, a Sermon preached for the Benefit of the United Domestic Missionary Society, New York. By John H. Rice, D. D. Professor of Christian Theology in the Theological Seminary in Virginia. New York, 1824.

IN noticing American works in our pages, it shall be more our object to furnish our readers with extracts, than to write elaborate criticisms. Few of the works in this department can be seen by the body of our readers, it must therefore be more gratifying to them to hear our transatlantic brethren speak in their own tongue and manner than to listen to us. The first of the above discourses is by a friend; and as a Quaker's sermon in print is rather a curiosity, we are sure our readers will be gratified with the following extract. We need scarcely inform them that there is no text prefixed to the discourse.

"The church of Christ, the true and mystical church, of which Christ Jesus is the head, is, I believe, composed of living members, scattered up and down among all the families of the earth. I have no idea, neither have we as a religious society,