246 Review of Books. The HISTORY of the REVIVAL and PROGRESS of INDEPENDENCY in ENGLAND, since the period of the Reformation; with an Introduction, containing an Account of the Development of the Principles of Independency in the Age of Christ and his Apostles, and of the gradual departure of the Church into antichristian Error, until the time of the Reformation. By JOSEPH FLETCHER, editor of "Select Works, and Memoir of the late Dr. Fletcher," author of "Six Views of Infidelity," &c. Foolscap 8vo. pp. 304. Price 1s. 6d. John Snow. FROM the period when Mr. Fletcher announced his purpose of becoming the historian of Congregational, or Independent, "Church Principles," we have been looking forward with more than ordinary interest to the appearance of his first volume. The responsibility attaching to such an undertaking in these times, is great beyond expression; our author, too, though well trained, is but young in years; and thousands of acute minds are watching all the literary and ecclesiastical movements of Nonconformists with a severe and scrutinizing eye. Fletcher's first volume, and we say at once, that there may be no mistake, that our anxieties are greatly relieved. The reputation of the author and of the Independents are in safe keeping; and posterity, we doubt not, will feel and acknowledge the debt of obligation under which they have been laid by this vigorous effort of a youthful and enterprising pen. We have now seen and read Mr. The plan adopted by the writer appears to us to be equally judicious and effective, so far, at least, as it is laid open in the present volume. We have, in BooK FIRST, the development of the principles of Independency in the age of Christ and his apostles. Here, after some most pertinent preliminary explanations, we are led on to the contemplation of "Individual Independency,' "Congregational Independency," "Independency considered Internally," "Externally," and in its aggregate form; and then it is cleared from various misconceptions. The scriptural defence of Congregationalism, in this part of the volume, we reckon to be very able and satisfactory; it is calm, logical, catholic; but withal eminently fitted to lay open the mind of the Spirit. "In the following work," observes the author, "an attempt will be made to place human history in its true position. An tiquity, however hoary, will not be permitted to lend any sanction to error; the want of antiquity will not be allowed to rob any principle of authority, if found in the Divine word. The merely human teacher, be he pope or priest, council or synod, will be placed on a level with every other teacher not inspired. The so-called catholicity of the church, in sentiments that are true, will be no more esteemed a proof of their truth, than the same catholicity in sentiments that are false. These things, which are to be believed and practised in the name of Christianity, are irrespective of human opinions, single or accumulated, of one age or of another. The only authority to which we dare submit our conscience, and to whose bidding we are willing to yield our souls, is that which exhibits Divine credentials. When the stupendous alternative of final bliss or woe depends upon the complexion of our faith and practice, who or what will step for one moment between us and the authority that speaks IN THE NAME OF GOD?" Our author, we think, estimates aright the position which the question of church government occupies in relation to the Christian scheme: "Let it be understood, then," observes Mr. F., "that these principles (that is, of church organization,) form only a portion of Christianity, as revealed from heaven,-that portion which is intended to subserve the spiritual and practical uses of the remainder. They constitute a shield for the defence of the liberties of Christian men, and at the same time, a vehicle for the diffusion of Christian doctrine. In themselves, and by themselves, apart from other principles, they are of little or no consideratiou. When there is no vital piety in an individual, the principle of personal independency has nothing to defend worthy of the name. When the spirit of vital godliness does not animate a professedly Christian congregation, the principle of congregational independency will not become a substitute for it, will not tend to edification, will not evangelize, will not effect any manner of work. When the churches or congregations are not those of "the faithful," the principle of aggregate independency will not by itself supply the defect, or conduce to union, sympathy, and co-operation. These principles are revealed as those by which Christian men are to be shielded and benefited in all the operations of genuine piety. It is taken for granted that other principles also are in operation, which these are intended only to subserve." In our author's second book, which is devoted to the consideration of the "Gradual departure of the church into antichristian error, until the time of the Reformation," we have five chapters: 1. The starting point of post-apostolic history. 2. The first postapostolic age; or, the age of independency. 3. The second post-apostolic age; or, the age of innovation. 4. The third post-apostolic age; or, the age of subversion. 5. The fourth post-apostolic age; or, the age of despotism. There is great boldness in the whole of the Author's plan; but it is the boldness which scripture, reason, and fact inspire. The Independents have never before had equal justice done to them, but we thoroughly believe that it will be difficult to deprive them of the position which is here assigned to them. We shall have other opportunities of noticing this work in its future progress. Meanwhile, we think that the Dissenters will act unworthy of themselves if they do not vigorously promote the circulation of a work which ought to be in the hands of the poorest member in all our churches. The HISTORY of the CHURCH of CHRIST. By the late Rev. JOSEPH MILNER, A.M., with Additions and Corrections, by the late Rev. ISAAC MILNER, D.D., F.R.S., Dean of Carlisle, and President of Queen's College, Cambridge. A New Edition, Revised and Corrected throughout. By the Rev. THOMAS GRANTHAM, B.D., Rector of Bramberwith Botolph, in the County of Sussex, some time Fellow and Tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Rt. Hon. and Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Kildare. 4 Vols. 8vo. or lose sight of great defects in the discovery of real or supposed excellences. But making all due allowance for a most catholic credulity, often to be detected in the pages of Milner, we cannot but regard his history as an invaluable treasury of most important information upon all that pertains to the preservation of the true faith in seasons of wide departure from the truth of God. The spirit and piety of the work are beyond all praise; and no Christian can rise up from the perusal of it without feeling that his heart has been improved, and his devotional feelings elevated to a higher pitch. The present edition will be welcomed by all the admirers of the work. In external attractiveness it far excels all its predecessors; but this is not its only or its chief recommendation. It has been carried through a rigid process of correction; and many very serious defects which disfigured former editions have been entirely excluded. These corrections have been mainly confined to the portion of the work executed by Joseph Milner; though in that part of it which belongs to Dr. Milner some serious blunders have been detected and removed. We welcome this beautiful edition of Milner with unfeigned delight; and doubt not that it will find its way into many libraries and private hands where hitherto it has been but little known. No pains have been spared to render the work deserving of the patronage which it has so long and so justly realized. Whatever other church histories we might be disposed to consult for objects never contemplated by Milner, we could never consent to part with this admirable record of the depressions and triumphs of the faith once delivered unto the saints. ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY-NINE LETTERS from the Rev. JOHN NEWTON, late Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, to the Rev. WILLIAM BULL, of Newport Pagnell. Written during a Period of Thirty-two years; from 1773 to 1805. 12mo, pp. 320. Hamilton, Adams, and Co. We are almost disposed to find fault with our revered friend, Mr. Bull, for so long Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Whatever may be the excellences defects of Milner's Church History, it has long since taken the position of a standard work in the department of sacred literature, to which it belongs. And assuredly it is entitled to be regarded as a work of great piety, and of no inconsiderable research; the laudable object of the author being to thread out the course of the true body of the faithful through all the ages of super-holding back this rich and beautiful collecstition and darkness, which succeeded to the bright era of apostolic light and purity. To some happy extent the excellent and learned authors have accomplished their purpose; though it must be admitted that in the attempts to trace the stream of genuine saintship, there has occasionally been displayed an exuberance of that charity which thinketh no evil, and a tendency to tion of Newton's letters, in which it will be seen that the inmost soul of the author is laid open to his friend. The late Mr. Bull, to whom the letters were addressed, was a man of very original parts, and associated with a circle of men greatly distinguished in their day. A correspondence with such a man from the pen of Newton, whose talent for letter-writing was proverbially remark able, could not be expected, in any sense, to be common-place. In examining these letters, we find that in this impression we have not been mistaken; for they indicate, in every paragraph, that they were written to a man of deep thought, of masculine piety, and of steady and ardent friendship. Never has Mr. Newton been seen to greater advantage than in these letters. They are truly among the best compositions of the kind we have ever read; full of the marrow of vital godliness; eminently suited to these times; and withal so illuminated by a sprightly cheerfulness, that the reader, having begun to peruse them, cannot lay them aside till he has reached the last of them. We believe they will be a blessing to very many; and that our respected friend Mr. Bull will have abundant reason to conclude, that he has done right in not withholding so precious a boon from the eye of the public. HISTORY of the SOCIETY for PROMOTING FEMALE EDUCATION in the EAST. Established in the year 1834. Foolscap 8vo, pp. 300. Edward Suter, Cheapside. With deep interest, and with hearty approval, have we watched the rise and progress of this institution, which, in twelve short years, has accomplished, by God's blessing, an amount of good deserving of distinct and grateful record. "Few persons," observes Mr. Noel, in his admirable preface to this volume, "can read without satisfaction the following short history of the operations of the Society for promoting Female Education in the East, which describes much Christian benevolence, employed wisely to save numbers who were equally miserable and helpless." The originator of this society, Mr. Abeel, is now numbered with the dead. Miss Carter, one of its most approved agents, soon "withered in the burning valley of the Ganges." Mrs. Dean, another of its labourers, has sunk in the bloom of youth. Mademoiselle Talbot "was likewise too early carried, amidst the regrets of her friends, to an Indian grave." Miss Thornton still lives, to rejoice in the advanc ing work. Miss Grant, of Singapore, can still say of her mission: "It is my pleasant work, and my comfort; never did teacher and pupils love each other more. The dear China girls are more and more interesting to me. They are dear children, and it is most animating to hear them speak, and to see the consistency of their conduct with their words; so that I cannot but feel with intense delight that my labour is not in vain in the Lord." To Miss Aldersey, who is now at Ningpo, too much honour, can scarcely be awarded for her steady, earnest, and successful labours in this great and good work. She says, with nothing short of a moral heroism, considering her many and great sacrifices, "I find myself in precisely the situation I would be in, and have no desire or intention ever to leave Ningpo." Cordially as the Christian Church in its various sections have responded to the call of this Institution, it has never as yet realized the support it deserves. We commend it earnestly to all the friends of the perishing heathen; we commend it especially to the warm support of the Christian women of England. The MISCELLANEOUS WORKS of the Right Honourable SIR JAMES MACINTOSH, In 3 vols., 8vo. to Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Altogether, Sir James Macintosh was one of the most remarkable men of his age. His college life, when Robert Hall and he were wont to indulge in many a lofty and refined speculation, gave promise of his future brilliant career. The class of studies to which he addicted himself in early years became the favourite pursuit of his subsequent life; from which he was only diverted by his prefessional duties in the east, his parliamentary engagements at home, and the frequent seizures of indisposition by which he was painfully exercised, through the greater part of his public life. How much his dyspeptic habit interfered with close and continuous application literary pursuits, can only be properly estimated by those who associated much with him, and knew the full amount of suffering which he endured. With our knowledge of facts, we have been greatly disposed to call in question the justice of some of his strictures upon himself, as we have found him complaining of his indolence, his want of settled purpose, and his failure in accomplishing some of the noblest undertakings of his life. How could any man rise superior to the adverse influence of an habitually-disturbed state of the animal functions? Our wonder is not that he did so little, but that he was enabled to accomplish so much. Irrespective of his valuable contribution to the history of our country, there is enough, in the three volumes before us, to place him in the first rank of those who have enhanced and adorned the literature of Great Britain. We have, first, his "Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy, chiefly during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries; second, bis essay "On the Philosophical Genius of Lord Bacon and Mr. Lock;" third, his "Discourse of the "" | But the two departments in which the vigour and genius of his mind were displayed to greater advantage, were metaphysics and historical research. His Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy, his Review of the Causes of the Revolution of 1688, and his Fragment of English History, abundantly verify this statement: and prove, beyond all contradiction, that he was a profound thinker, a man of vast knowledge, and a thorough advocate of constitutional liberty and enlightened government. Our reminiscences of Sir James Macintosh, from personal intercourse, are such as can never be effaced from the memory or the heart. His was not the affectation but the reality of intellectual power. A GLIMPSE of HEAVEN; or, The Home of the Just. A Sermon occasioned by the death of the Rev. GEORGE COLLISON, of Hackney; preached in Bethnal Green Meeting, on the 14th February, 1847, by JOSIAH VINEY. Jackson and Walford. Law of Nature and Nations ;" fourth, his ( speaking anything strictly common-place. "Life of Sir Thomas More;" fifth, his "Refutation of the Claim on behalf of King Charles I. to the authorship of the EIKON BASIAIKH;" sixth, his " Memoir of the Affairs of Holland, A.D., 1667-1686;" seventh, his "Review of the Causes of the Revolution of 1688;" eighth, his "Account of the Partition of Poland;" ninth, his "Sketch of the Administration and Fall of Shuensee ;" tenth, his ،، Statement of the Case of Donna Maria da Gloria, as a Claimant to the Crown of Portugal;" eleventh, his "Character of Charles First, Marquis Cornwallis;" twelfth, his "Character of the Right Hon. George Canning;" thirteenth, his "Preface to a Reprint of the Edinburgh Review' of 1755;" fourteenth, his " 'Critique on the Writings of Machiavel;" fifteenth, his "Review of Mr. Godwin's Lives of Edward and John Philips;'" sixteenth, his "Review of 'Rogers's Poems ;' seventeenth, his "Review of Madame de Staël's' De L'Allemagne;' eighteenth, his "Discourses read at the Opening of the Literary Society of Bombay;" nineteenth, his "Vindicia Galicæ;" twentieth, his " Speech in Defence of Jean Peltier, accused of a Libel on the First Consul of France;" twenty-first, his "Charge delivered to the Grand Jury of the Island of Bombay on the 20th July, 1811:" twentysecond, his "Speech on the Annexation of Genoa to the Kingdom of Sardinia, delivered in the House of Commons, April 27, 1815;" twenty-third, his " Speech on moving for a Committee to Inquire into the State of the Criminal Law, delivered in the House of Commons, March 2, 1819;" twenty-fourth, his "Speech on Mr. Brougham's motion for an Address to the Crown, with reference to the Trial and Condemnation of the Rev. John Smith, of Demerara, delivered in the House of Commons, June 1, 1824 ;" twenty-fifth, his "Speech in presenting a Petition from the Merchants of London, for the Recognition of the Independent States, established in the Countries of America, formerly subject to Spain, delivered in the House of Commons, June 15, 1824 ;" twenty-sixth, his "Speech on the Civil Government of Canada, delivered in the House of Commons, May 2, 1828;" twenty-seventh, his "Speech on moving for Papers relative to the Affairs of Portugal, delivered in the House of Commons, June 1, 1829;" and, last, his "Speech on the Second Reading of the Bill to Amend the Representation of the People of England and Wales, delivered in the House of Commons, July 4, 1831." We cannot look at any one of these articles without feeling that we are in fellowship with a master-spirit. Sir James Macintosh was incapable of writing or The practice of seizing on circumstances which have a tendency to render the minds of a congregation susceptible of impression, is one that no skilful and zealous Christian minister will overlook. And hence when a member, distinguished by his position, piety, and uniform consistency, is sum moned from the place of conflict and trial on earth, to the "home of the just" in heaven, the event, fraught as it is in itself with warning and instruction, and fitted at the same time to invest the appeals of the pulpit with increased solemnity and power, will be welcomed and improved by the Christian pastor as an agency, which no human sagacity could command, lending its aid towards the accomplishment of the great work of the ministry. On this ground we feel that Mr. Viney has acted the part of "a wise master builder," in presenting to his own people, and to the Christian church at large, the very admirable discourse now before us. The theme, which he has selected, was peculiarly fitted to the mournful occasion, and is treated in a manner that cannot fail to render the discourse especially welcome to those who have set their "affection on things above," or are weeping over the memory of relatives and friends, who have fallen asleep in Jesus. It is true, there is no parade of the vain philosophy of the day, nor any affectation of the pomp of elaborate argument in this discourse; but distinguished as it is by the force of truth, and not unfrequently by eloquent and beautiful descriptions of "the Home of the Just," |