of persecution still gather, and drive them before its fury, to forsake their native land. And these were the consequences which soon followed the enactments of the imperious daughter of Henry on the British throne.

It would be an unthankful, as it is a very uninviting work, to record all the bitter sufferings and privations which were endured by faithful men of God during the reign of this otherwise illustrious Princess, or even to allude to them. Bitter, indeed, and deeply mingled, were the ingredients which were put into the cups of not a few of the most eminent servants of Christ in those days, and the very dregs of the same the "excellent of the earth" were compelled to drink. The spirit of Po- | pery had infused itself into the Protestantism of those times, and from that prolific source of evil sprang all the deadly strifes and sorrows which fell to the lot of many. The Court of High Commission was instituted; the Star Chamber followed: and beneath their oppressive and vindictive operation, the most innocent, upright, and holy of the land could not escape. Fines and imprisonments were the order of the day. Evil counsellors encouraged them. The queen would have it SO. Her courtiers and ministers, with but few exceptions, and, unhappily, some of the bishops among them, whom she had raised to power, but who ought to have felt more their responsibility to Christ their Lord, were the too willing instruments of carrying into effect her unrighteous purposes. The principles of the Reformation were kept in abeyance. The theory of a human head to the church was carried out to perfection, and dreadful was the havoc made amongst all that was pure, and lovely, and of good report, among professed brethren. The good were depressed, the bad were exalted. In proportion as individuals were solicitous to maintain

"a conscience void of offence" in all things, to render to their earthly sovereign her due, and to their heavenly Ruler his, did they become obnoxious to the powers that were, and were sought out, and hunted down, or coustrained to appear before a tribunal which they could not acknowledge, and answer for deeds which were only in unison with heaven's righteous and eternal laws Many pined away, and died of the cruel treatment to which they were subjected. Some were excessively mulcted of their earthly possessions, and "took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and more enduring substance." Others "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings," and were made the "offscouring of all things," by being compelled, as the expiation of their alleged crimes, to stand in some public place, exposed to the insults and scorn of all that passed by. Oh! who can ever think of the sufferings of such men as Cartwright, Barrowe, Greenwood, Penry, and hundreds more, whose only accusation was that they were the advocates of spirituality of worship, and simplicity of constitution in the Church of Christ, without weeping, with unfeigned lamentation, over the perversion of authority, and the departure from the principles of equity, truth, and love, which such proceedings displayed? Assuredly, had He been on earth who rebuked the two disciples who would have called down fire from heaven on those that followed not with them, He would have said, in accents of sternest anger, to the abettors of such unrighteous doings, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." But there was nothing to restrain or check them. The queen, the council, and the bishops, had their own way. And though the visible structure of the Church of England was then set up, and, as its advocates affirm, carried to perfection, they must admit, as we think

observes an intelligent writer of the present day, "been common men, how easily might they have escaped the fetters and dungeons, and various forms of martyrdom, which they endured. It was only to do what thousands of others did; it was only to make conscience bend to authority and custom. They might in one moment have professed to believe what they did not believe, and promise to do what God had forbidden, and then they might have been quiet in their own homes, and many of them might have been earls, and dukes, and dignitaries in Church and State. But these holy men acted from higher principles. These daring spirits, trained in the fires of persecution, were not afraid of death. Cæsar, at the summit of his power, with all his victorious legions, could not have subdued their more than Roman heroism. He might have hewed them limb from limb, but every one of them would have died a conqueror. Had those men bowed before the storm that beat upon them, what would the world have been in the nineteenth century? Shrouded in moral and political darkness. So far as we can judge, the pre-eminent advantages of this age are owing, under God, chiefly to the spirit of the Puritans. And what was the secret of their energy? They acted not merely for the present moment, as too many of us do, but for hereafter. They acted for God, for posterity, for eternity."

Such were the men, such their doings, such their sufferings, in the cause of human liberty, Divine truth, and "the great salvation." How much do we owe them! How affectionately and reverently should we think of them! "Other men have laboured, and we enter into their labours." There is not a Dissenter nor a Churchman in the present day but is indebted to them. Let us be willing to confess our obligations, and to render honour where honour is due. They bequeathed a

legacy to the church and to the world, of which, as Englishmen and Protestants, we may all justly be proud,-a legacy of suffering "for conscience sake," of faith, of prayer, of principle, and of bright example. The nearer we can resemble them, and the more assiduously we tread in their steps, the better will it be for our own souls, and for the gospel of Christ in the world; and the farther shall we verge from Rome, and from all sympathy with Puseyite or Papal infection of the church of God. These are not the times for the Puritans to be forgotten, or for their principles to be cast into oblivion. Their spirit cultivated now, their vigilant solicitude awake and active at the present time, would do more to secure the ark of God, and the institutes of his worship, pure from the innovations of men, than all the protests of ecclesiastical rulers, or the enactments of all the civil powers that be. We want only the mind of those renowned heroes of our British Israel to whom we have now referred (and they existed at that day both within and without the Establishment), to promote the more rapid progress of spiritual piety, of Christian union, and of evangelical charity among us; and then the emissaries of Rome would return to the centre of their despotism unladen with spoils, and the interests of Protestant truth, and of the church of the Redeemer in our land, would be uninjured and secure. The spirit of the glorious Puritans, which was one of indomitable opposition to Rome, and no compromise with her; the principles for which they suffered, and for which many of them died, would raise up among us a host of defenders and warriors, against which all the assaults of the Papacy would be but as the touch of an insect's wing against a wall of brass, or as the harmless waves which dash and die upon the shore. Then might we sing, nor fear to have our song of triumph turned into the wail of defeat, "The

Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."

"Then let our souls in Zion dwell,

Nor fear the wrath of Rome and hell;
His arms embrace this happy ground,
Like brazen bulwarks built around.

"God is our shield, and God our sun: Swift as the fleeting moments run, On us he sheds new beams of grace, And we reflect his brightest praise."

570

M. C.

Now, we affirm, that Christianity and Apostolical Christianity consist in more than these, and that they have a distinct existence independent of the minds that receive them. Clear and palpable as this distinction is, and recognised even by Mr. Morell himself, it is almost instantly disregarded, and his whole philosophy of religion is based on the implicit denial of this obvious fact.

He defines Christianity subjectively, as "that form of religion in which we are conscious of absolute dependence and perfect moral freedom being harmonized by love to God." It is somewhat remarkable that, in framing a definition of Christianity, he did not think of going to the only book that authoritatively describes its nature. And it is still more remarkable, that he has given us a definition which really does not define it at all. We have, in fact, scarcely a single peculiar element of Christianity brought out in this definition. Was not Adam in Paradise conscious of absolute dependence and perfect moral freedom, harmonized by love to God? Are not the angels in

How, then, can that be a proper definition of Christianity as a subjective state of the human soul, which, without altering a single term, expresses things so different? Must not the subjective state of an angel, and that of a soul redeemed by the blood of Christ, and living by faith on the Son of God, be essentially different? Yet this difference is completely merged in the definition. He overlooks the cardinal fact, that the substratum of the Christian consciousness is a sense of sin; and its essence that peculiar attitude which the soul assumes towards Jesus Christ, expressed by the one word, faith.

He then defines Christianity objectively, as "that religion which rests upon the consciousness of the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ." We are puzzled with the terms of this definition. What does he mean by "the redemption of the world?" The phrase has a definite meaning in the Bible, and in the language of evangelical Christendom; but we look in vain for this, or, indeed, any distinct meaning of it, in the work before us. We are charily told that its “nature and extent cannot be decided in a general definition." Again: what is meant by a consciousness of this redemption? Does it mean what old-fashioned people call faith? If not, what exactly does it mean? We are forced to say, that there is a sort of cuttle-fish obscurity