pride, or wounded honour. The allies agree to yield certain portions of what is nominally a part of the Ottoman empire, and why should not France agree to yield a part of Mehemet's rapacious conquests? There is no principle to quarrel about; the whole matter in dispute is merely the life-government of three pashalics; and for such a trifle as this, it were absurdity, wickedness, and madness to light up the conflagration of a European war. It seems to us that there is much to regret in what has already taken place in our precipitate invasion of Syria; and that the queen's muskets had better have remained in the Tower of London, and her bombshells and rockets in the arsenal of Woolwich, than to have been sent to the Levant, the former to put into the hands of lawless mountain Arabs whom we are stimulating to a sanguinary insurgency, and the latter to destroy peaceable towns and villages which have the misfortune to lie between the fires of the Egyptians and the allies. War, unhappily, we believe to be sometimes necessary or unavoidable; and in such cases we may lawfully and in faith pray for the blessing of God upon the arms of an injured nation; but we cannot persuade ourselves that in regard to the relations between the Sultan and his rebel subject, England, even though her interests may be remotely affected, had any moral right to interfere, further than by those powerful and peaceful weapons which she is well able to wield, and which constitute her effective strength far more than her fleets and armies. If anything could convince every well-intentioned Frenchman of the duty and necessity of restraining the ebullitions of popular passion, and uniting all political parties in one great patriotic phalanx, it would be the recurrence of another of those atrocious attempts to assassinate the sovereign which have reflected so much disgrace upon that fair but unhallowed land. We are not insensible to the taunt that England has lately witnessed an attempt at regicide; and that within the last few weeks two attempts have been made to fire her majesty's dockyards; but the unhappy man who shot at queen Victoria was found to be a lunatic, and the mystery which shrouds the origin of the conflagration at Devonport does not allow that we should assert it to have been the work of a political incendiary, and that at Sheerness is still under investigation but a wide distinction lies in this, that the six attempts against the life of Louis Philippe, ending with this of Darmé, have been avowed and gloried in as meritorious patriotic deeds, and the populace have been too ready to regard the traitors as heroes and martyrs; whereas in England even our very Chartists and Socialists profess to recoil from assassination as a political weapon. It is from this ruthless spirit, this combination, to use Voltaire's remark on his countrymen, of "monkey and tiger," and which was so strikingly evinced in the atrocities of the first revolution, and has never ceased to characterize popular disturbances in France, that Europe has constantly to dread some violent outbreak which may again summon the nations to arms. The allied armies suppressed it for a time by their occupation of Paris; but left to itself it soon brought on the second revolution; and but for the prudence and firmness of Louis Philippe, and the sober counsels of well-advised men, it would have precipitated revolutions anew, as often as any fantastic change came over the national spirit. And what reliance can be placed upon the principles or conduct of a people, the great mass of whom have been educated in blasphemous infidelity, and profess their disregard, their bitter scorn, of all the sanctions of religion? Their rulers may dread and deprecate war; and yet through popular inflammation, and the maddening stimulus of journalism, be precipitated into it. We do not think that it will be so in the present instance; but if, in the mercy of God, Europe escape that dire scourge, it will not owe its exemption to the good sense or good wishes of public opinion in France; or indeed to the wisdom of the British cabinet in entangling itself so much as it has done in the affairs of other nations. We Sir Moses Montefiore, having succeeded in procuring from the Pasha of Egypt the unconditional release of the accused Jews in Damascus, has arrived at Constantinople to plead the cause of his injured and barbarously tortured countrymen with the Sultan. shall rejoice if the burst of indignation, so loud throughout Europe, at the cruelties exercised towards the accused Jews at Damascus, is overruled by a merciful Providence for the benefit of the despised children of Abraham in every nation where they labour under oppression; and, we may add, shall in the issue tend to the improvement of their own character; for though we believe that the accusation of their murdering Christians, to mingle their blood with sacrificial oblations, is a mendacious calumny, yet nothing can .. be more degraded and superstitious than the great mass of the Jews in the East, and even in various parts of Europe. Despised, persecuted, and deprived in many countries of the right of possessing landed property, they have been urged into the most crooked and odious by-paths of filthy lucre;" and they are too often objects of just suspicion and reproach. The Jews in Poland, Russia, and the East, know little, and heed less, of their own inspired Scriptures; they are bigoted Talmudists, and nothing can be more grovelling and demoralizing than their popular code of faith and conduct. Under a fear perhaps of exciting prejudice against them, and thus impeding the efforts made for their conversion, some of those who have laboured for their conversion to the faith of Christ, have been falsely tender in exhibiting the dark traits of their character. But these ought not to be concealed; for the more ignorant and depraved they are, the more pressing is the duty of endeavouring to enlighten and reform them; which can only be effectually done by their return to the God of their fathers, through his divine Son, their rejected Messiah. We ought however to add that the better educated among them are probably upon a moral level with their nominally Christian neighbours in the same station; but they are extensively tainted with infidelity, and adhere to Judaism only from national predilictions, and not on account of its divine origin. We will add a few miscellaneous notices. The sovereignty of the two islands of New Zealand has been ceded, by amicable arrangements with the chiefs, to the British crown. We trust that this measure will lead to the effectual protection of the natives from lawless Europeans, and afford favourable openings for the introduction of civilization and the blessings of the Gospel. The city of London has done itself honour, or rather has escaped disgrace, by the rejection of Alderman Harmer, the proprietor of the revolutionary and blasphemous Dispatch newspaper, from its civic chair; but it is melancholy to add that 2,294 liverymen voted on his side, a number exceeded only by 447 for the successful candidate. When we think of this, and remember that the Dispatch stands at the head of newspaper circulation, the regular sale being 60,000 copies, we cannot but feel alarmed at the signs of the times. An act recently passed, allowing the trustees of Grammar schools, with the consent of a court of equity, to add "other useful branches of literature and science to, or in lieu of, the Greek and Latin Languages." The Some convictions have taken place for the violation of the recent act for. bidding small-pox inoculation. objects of the Act are so wise and humane, that its provisions ought to be generally known, and the clergy would do well to instruct their parishioners upon the subject. We are glad to find that Mr. Stowell is about to appeal against the decision against him, for a libel on a Romanist priest. As the poor man who underwent the penance became deranged, his testimony could not be made use of; but presuming that the Manchester priest did not enjoin it, still the infliction of painful and degrading rigours and austerities by the Papal priesthood, and particularly of crawling upon the bare knees, as at Loch Dearg, is so notorious, that we should marvel, if we could marvel at anything in popery, that bishops and priests could depose upon oath to the contrary. It is of little consequence, as respects the question, whether Mr. Stowell can prove that the infliction at Manchester was prescribed, not voluntary; but he will be abundantly able to shew that to deny the custom is falsehood, and if upon oath perjury. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. A. K.; A. C. B.; M. J. M.; F. M. S.; An Anxious Warder; A. B.; A Lay Member of the Diocese of Chester; C. M.; Philadelphia; M. C.; Sacerdos ; Puritans; F. S.; and a Dissenting Minister, are under consideration. In reply to several correspondents, we think the design of the Parker Society, (the title seems far-fetched) for republishing valuable works of Church of England divines, truly excellent, and we wish success to it. The number of subscribers ought to amount to at least two thousand, to enable it to issue its books at so low a cost as to satisfy the public, accustomed of late to very cheap reprints. OPPIDANUS should write to the compilers of Mr. Withy's memoir, prefixed to his discourses. We know nothing of the facts ourselves. It undoubtedly was Dr. Page, not Dr. Carey, who was head master at Westminster School when Withy was there. In reply to DORCAS, we know of no Society "for the reception of discarded linen, clothes, &c., for the children of poor clergyinen ;" and though we lament to say the penury of too many clergymen is disgraceful to their flocks, so that even the gift of cast-off clothes, if it were not degrading, would be a benefit to their families; it would be insulting to form a society, or such a purpose. The laity ought to discharge their duty to their ministers in a far different manner, according to the command of God both in the Old and New Testament. We are sorry that the Rev. J. Carver's interesting, and as we think satisfactory, statement of the circumstances under which he administered the Lord's Supper to Courvoisier, was too late for our present Number. Our readers will find that the newspaper account contained some grave misstatements. We see nothing to retract in what we said of the Rev. F. M. Knollis's dicta, at page 272 of our Number for May; and we are sorry that he obliges us to recur to the subject, or to allude to him by name, as we extracted the passage only in reply to a correspondent who could not believe that any persons represent all pious non-episcopalians as being left to uncovenanted mercies, just like the heathen, or even in a worse condition; and we did not give his name, but only spoke of the author as an inexperienced bachelor of arts, who we hoped, "as he grows older and wiser, will learn to address Dissenters in a manner less dogmatical, and better calculated to win them from the error of their way." And here we might drop the matter; but as a great deal has been lately said about "uncovenanted mercies," and some among us seem to think they cannot rightly defend the Church of England, or oppose dissent, without borrowing the anti-Protestant weapons of the intolerant Church of Rome, we will add a few remarks : Mr. Knollis says, "Unfortunately for your argument, I all along most distinctly referred to salvation both of Dissenters and Churchmen through Christ, and Christ alone." Doubtless he did; he could not do otherwise; but how does this interfere with our statement ? And here lurks another instance of that "reserve" of which we have so often complained. He would cause it to be supposed, that because he said that those who are saved must be saved through Christ, he did not consign the church of Scotland and all non-episcopal communions to uncovenanted mercies. But the declaration, that those who are saved must be saved through Christ, does not touch the question. It was the very point of his argument (let our readers re-peruse the extract), that no Dissenter can be in covenant with God, or have any title to the promises of salvation. A Dissenter, he urged, is not a member of Christ's church; and "Christ has nowhere said that he will save out of his church;" assuredly then a Dissenter, if saved, must be saved by unpromised, uncovenanted mercy. Again, "Christ may save" a Dissenter; "but he does not positively say he will." Is not this consigning all Dissenters to uncovenanted mercy? And we may add, that it is presumptuous not only in the way of binding but also of loosing; for if God has not given any promise, what right has Mr. Knollis to hold out any possibility, however feeble, that a Dissenter may be saved? He should say more, or say less. We have supposed the term Dissenter, so far as refers to the present argument, to be equivalent in spirit to non-episcopalian; for, Mr. Knollis cannot mean that Christ has not promised salvation out of a national establishment. This would be to make the characteristic of the church of Christ that it is in alliance with the State;-a most absurd consequence. The sin of forsaking a pure and apostolical church is doubtless enhanced, where its ministrations are brought nigh to men's doors; but the essence of the schism is not that it is the State church, but that it is a portion of Christ's true church. Yet, says Mr. Knollis, "As to your idea about Scotland and the foreign reformed bodies of Christians, I never in the least alluded to either, nor need I do so now; it was of Dissenters in England that I was speaking." But if in speaking of Dissenters in England he so constructed his whole argument, that it necessarily applied equally to "Scotland and the Foreign Reformed Churches," we were not "false witnesses" because we so applied it. The expressions, “The Church" and "Dissenters," are equivocal; but will Mr. Knollis tell us whether in speaking of the former he did not necessarily shut out all non-episcopalians; so that Dr. Chalmers, for example, though belonging to an established church, is as much a dissenter from "The Church" as Dr. Watts or Dr. Doddridge? Or does he mean to say that he spoke of the Church and Dissenters only in regard to the English national establishment? If so, he is on the other horn of the dilemma; for then he excludes the Dissenter from all promise of salvation, not because he is not a member of Christ's catholic church, but because he dis approves of national establishments; so that in Scotland an Episcopalian would exclude himself from the promises of God by being a Dissenter. But this assuredly is not his intention. The truth is that he uses ambiguous terms; aud when we try to fix him to their meaning, he declines the test. He needs not, he says, allude to "Scotland or the Foreign churches." Most certainly be needs not: for what right has he to constitute himself an infallible judge? But he makes his readers allude to them; for say what he will his whole argument necessarily includes them; and he has not ventured to say that it does not. 66 It is more common than candid to wound all the Protestant churches through the sides of the Dissenters. Let Mr. Knollis tell us plainly what he means by "the church" out of which there is no promise of salvation," that, is no "covenant mercy;" and when he does so, we will leave any man to decide whether we are false accusers because we say that he includes Scotland and the reformed communions on the continent as well as English Dissenters;Dr. Chalmers, for example, as much as Dr. Watts and Dr. Doddridge. We abhor ambiguities. Let men enunciate what they imply. The church of Rome does so, and we respect her honesty, while we reprobate her unscriptural bigotry. As for the Dissenters, we leave both them and the members of non-episcopal national churches, to Him who searches the heart, though we do not think lightly of the absence of episcopacy: and still less of secession, where a branch of Christ's church is established in a nation; but as the establishment is not "the church," we see no substantial difference between affirming that though a Baxter, or Owen, or Henry may possibly be saved, "Christ does not positively promise that they shall, because his promises are left to the church, and that only;" and they were not members of it; and affirming the same of "Scotland and the foreign reformed bodies of Christians." The error arises from an unscriptural and anti-Anglican notion of “the church," from which, and the blessed promises made to it, Mr. Knollis's argument excludes many who will not be found excluded at the last day. We believe that Christ's holy catholic church includes all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; though they do not all form one visible communion upon earth. We are much obliged to Mr. Knollis for sending us his sermon preached at the Bishop of Peterborough's Visitation, and "published in deference to the opinions and wishes of a few personal friends of the author," (we are glad that it was not by desire of the bishop and clergy) in which we shall find, be says, "rather a proof against my being an Oxford Tract man." But for this disclaimer we should have inferred just the contrary; and we would fain know in what important matters the writer differs from the divines alluded to. The title is," The Church her own Revivalist;" and we gladly state that the discourse contains much good advice respecting regularity in following out the rubrical directions of the church, and giving effect to her offices by zeal, diligence, and faithfulness, in order to promote the glory of God and the salvation of men; but the more important matters are so mixed up with,and overwhelmed by, exhortations about church ornaments, and prescribed dresses, and the exact ceremonial of how "the holy elements" are to be placed on the Lord's table, and the utility of preaching in a surplice and so forth, that the attention of the reader is fixed far more upon "mint, anise, and cummin," than upon "the weightier matters of the law." We think that many of Mr. Knollis's reverend hearers, when urged to "return to the old path," and to make "the church her own revivalist," must have been vexed and ashamed to have had their attention diverted to such doleful lamentations as "In how many parishes are hoods and cassocks quite unknown, and the academical cap almost in all!" By all means let us have everything in due order; but the claims of square caps above shovel-hats or round hats have mighty little to do with a revival of piety. Even good advice, such as that about catechising and godly discipline, is degraded by the juxta-position. The way in which the church must become her own revivalist is by the revival of her scriptural doctrines, wherever they have lapsed into desuetude, and by carrying out her system in the true spirit of the Protestant Reformation. We will insert the Secretary of the Hibernian Society's letter on the employment of Romanist Teachers, but our opinion remains unchanged. THE THE parable of the wicked husbandmen was addressed by our Lord to the Jewish rulers during His last visit to Jerusalem, and within a few days of His crucifixion. He was now about to witness before Pilate that "good confession;" to proclaim Himself the Messiah before the Jewish council; and then to offer Himself up upon the sacrifice and service of our faith. And desiring to add the evidence of prophecy fulfilled, to the many other evidences which His death and resurrection should furnish, He, in the parable before us, foretels to the Jewish rulers the awful crime which, within a few days, they would perpetrate, in the murder of their long expected and anxiously desired Messiah; and forewarns them of the awful judgments which they should draw down, by this blasphemous act, upon their own devoted heads. : The first verse of this parable, when stripped of the veil of metaphor, informs us that God has established upon earth a church, endowed with many and great privileges; blessed with all necessary means of grace and helps to holiness and a reference to Scripture history confirms this. We there find it to have been the uniform plan of God's moral government to select a peculiar people, who should be the depository of His promises, and the guardian and witness of His unity, and of the other great truths of religion, in the midst of a heathen or apostate world. The Jews, in their day, were chosen by the free and sovereign grace of God to this high office, and gifted with suitable privileges. To them pertained the adoption and glory, the giving of the law and the promises to them were committed the oracles of God: theirs were the fathers: and of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. Nor were their temporal mercies less than their spiritual. God brought them out of the house of bondage with a mighty hand and stretched-out arm. He led them through the deep as through a wilderness; and the angel of His presence guided and guarded them, in a pillar of fire by night, and of a cloud by day. He fed them with bread from heaven, and with water out of the stony rock did He satisfy them. He cast out the nations before them, and slew even kings for their sake. He divided CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 36. 4 X |
