the bloody persecutions of the saints. Happy had it been for the interests of pure religion-the spirituul kingdom of Godif kings and governments, as such, had never attempted to befriend the churches of Christ. Their wounds are less dangerous than their kisses; and their hatred is less to be dreaded than their love.

The apostolic churches zealously maintained the Redeemer's sole royalty in religion; and whilst they bowed to his authority they acknowledged no other. One was their master, even

Christ; and all they were brethren.

How different from the primitive churches, in this particular, is the Church of England. Other Protestant communities indeed have departed widely from this part of the apostolic model, but it has gone further than them all. It stands in closest union with the state, receives its constitution from the civil authorities of the land, and is compelled to submit to every alteration and modification of its doctrines and ceremonies, however opposed to the laws of Christ, which the civil authorities choose to make. Its doctrines, discipline, modes of worship-all are determined by parliament, with the sanction of the sovereign; thus constituting men of all religions, and men of no religion, the governing authority in a pretended church of Christ. It is equitable and just that the English church should be thus under the government of the state. Dependence involves subjection. And if a religious community choose to depend on the state for support, that community must be content, in return, to be governed by the state. If the Episcopal church stoops so low as to become a state pensioner, she must cease to be free; and give up for her worldly emoluments and honours, the rights of conscience, and her independence as a church. A large number of our brethren of the Scottish Kirk, though slow and unwilling to learn, have at length been taught this valuable truth; and preferring the supremacy of Christ, and the testimony of a good conscience, to the trappings of state patronage, and the endowments of state honour, have severed the unholy alliance between religion and the world, and are now rejoicing in the freedom" wherewith Christ hath made us free."

The scriptural model, we conceive, is copied in that form of church government termed Independent. We prefer the ancient

term to the modern and, to our view, an unmeaning oneCongregational. To speak of a congregational church, is to speak of a church church; because the word congregation infers what we understand by a church. Amongst the Independents every church is complete within itself; endowed with full rights and honours with regard to members and officers; competent to the regulation of its own affairs; and independent of all authority but that of Christ. Our sole authority in matters of religion is the will of Christ contained in his word-interpreted, not by creeds, and catechisms, and confessions of faith, but by each individual believer for himself, in prayerful dependence on the promised teaching of the Spirit of truth, and with a becoming impression of our responsibility for the views we hold to the judgment of God. Whatever Christ has deemed important to the faith, the constitution, and the discipline of his churches, we believe will be found in the New Testament. We are not at liberty to make laws for ourselves; but to ascertain and to execute the laws of Christ, without external dictation or control. If differences of opinion arise, our sole appeal is to the oracles of God; just as the first churches appealed to the inspired men who wrote those oracles. We search the scriptures for principles and precepts in every case of doctrine and of discipline; assured that, if the will of Christ cannot be found in the scriptures, we shall search in vain for it in every other quarter. We never think of applying, either to popes, or cardinals, or councils-to bishops, or convocations-to conferences, or synods, or general assemblies-and least of all, to sovereigns or parliaments, to know what doctrines we must believe, what forms or modes of worship we must adopt, or what language we must employ when presenting supplication to God. We neither ask their decision, nor will we submit to it, if it is attempted to be imposed upon us. We can afford to smile at the decisions of such authorities, as they contradict and subvert one another. We sincerely pity those communities which submit to such a yoke, and are bound in such fetters. We rejoice, with "a glad heart and free," in the sacred liberty that we enjoy. And believing that liberty to be the gift of Christ, we firmly resist every attempt to entangle us with the yoke of bondage.

Let it not be supposed, however, that while we plead for the

They are

independency of our churches, we object to their intercommunion-that we contend for a state of things, in which one christian church shall have no sympathy, no connexion, no intercourse with another. Far from it. The apostolic churches were independent, but they cherished a feeling of sympathy with each other; there was an unity of spirit, and oneness of faith, which bound them to each other in the holiest ties. Each church was complete in itself; but all were connected by the bond of common principles, and mutual affection. So it is among the independent churches of the present day. "distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea." And although some of the churches may have come much below the apostolic standard, excluding other churches from their sympathies and aid, our principles are not to be charged with the crime. It is one of the forms which human selfishness assumes; and the blame lies with those in whose hands the system has thus been abused, not with the system itself. Our avowed principle is that we are independent, but not isolated, churches. Each church is one of a multitude of the same faith, order, and worship, all exerting a powerful moral influence on one another, and capable of uniting their wisdom, and counsels, and prayers, and contributions, and efforts for the advancement of the common good. "We being many are one bread."

S.

A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF PSALMODY DOWN TO THE TIME OF WATTS.

[Concluding Paper.]

The singing of psalms, as we observed in our last paper, was a test of attachment to the principles of the reformation. Persons of all ranks sung psalms not only in the temples, but in their families; no gentleman of the reformed religion would sit down to his table without singing a psalm; and they made it a special part of their morning and evening worship. The rage of the popish clergy at this practice was not to be wondered at ; but their mode of opposition was more remarkable than the alarm. It was represented to the French king that the church was in danger, and that the magistrate was going to be deposed.

The Lutherans were raising sedition, though they always sang psalms for the king's majesty and the prosperity of the kingdom first. Psalm singing was prohibited. But force and violence were not the only methods resorted to: profane songs were encouraged. Catullus and Tibullus were brought into the field against David and Asaph. With instinctive sagacity the Cardinal of Loraine knew who were the best allies of his cause. The profaneness of those wanton poets, which he procured to be translated and sung in court, was less to be feared than " psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs;" and old obscenities were forced upon the public as the "authorised version." The following is a genuine instance of papistical influence, as well as papistical integrity. The cardinal persuaded the patroness of the "Holy Song Book," Diana de Poictiers, who was fond of singing psalms, and a heretical reader of the bible, to discountenance the revived taste, by finding fault with the Psalms of David, and recommending Horace. The lady would have a French bible, and the cardinal finding one on her table, immediately crossed himself, beat his breast, and otherwise so well acted his part, that having thrown the bible down and condemned it, he remonstrated with the fair penitent, that it was a kind of reading not adapted for her sex, containing dangerous matters; if she was uneasy in her mind she should hear two masses instead of one, and rest contented with her pater-nosters and her primer, which were not only devotional, but ornamented with beautiful drawings from the most exquisite pencils of France. The reader will find the story in Mr. D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature;" a most delightful author, whose creed, however, may perhaps be found in the blank leaf between the Old and New Testaments.

If psalm singing had had fair play in France, it is certain, says one, that Popery would have been driven out of it. No wonder, therefore, that it was one of the first things struck at in the beginning of reformation. The Popish clergy omitted no endeavour to deprive Protestants of the consolation of this service by several edicts; some of which forbad it in private, others in public, when the sacrament passed by, or at the time of any procession. But, at length, when the project of destroying the reformers was ripe for execution, they got it universally prohibited, and an arrest of council in the year 1661, which

subjected the singers of psalms, either in public or private, to the penalty of five hundred livres; their psalm-books were burned by the common hangman, and several were whipped and imprisoned for praising God in that way. Numberless criminal processes were issued against the violators of these injunctions, "who treated the order as Daniel did the decree, which forbad him to pray to his God." A Protestant minister, in 1663, having published a defence of the practice, the book was ordered to be burned, the author banished for a year, and rendered incapable of exercising his ministry; the publisher was banished for two years, fined five hundred livres, and neither he nor his family were to keep a shop any more. The decree was strictly executed. But notwithstanding the severity of these edicts, vast numbers continued to sing psalms, both in their houses and elsewhere. When an artizan of the town of Castres, Upper Languedoc, was shown the declaration against singing psalms, he wrote under it the first verse of the thirtyfourth psalm with his own hand. I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth." One very striking instance is recorded. When the news was brought to the people of Orange that they were abandoned to the French, and were to leave their habitations and country, they resolved to part with a psalm; and judging it to be the last liberty they should have of assembling in the church, thither they all repaired in crowds, and, melting into tears, the minister who preached that day, gave out the fifty-first psalm, to be sung kneeling; sing they would, though they were interrupted by a great many sighs, and sobs, and tears. As the persecution increased, the rigorous execution of these prohibitions was redoubled.

The infectious phrenzy of sacred song, says Warton, soon reached England, at the very critical point of time when it had just embraced the Reformation. Wyatt and Surrey (our first blank-verse writer), had before this period translated some psalms into verse, but Sternhold's version was the first introduced into the Church of England. He had received a collegiate education. He retained his office, as groom of the robes, in the court of Edward VI.

Hopkins was a clergyman and schoolmaster in Suffolk, and this is all we know of him. The fifty-one psalms versified by him were printed in 1549.