natural channels as marked out by the finger of Providence, and filled by the Spirit of God? As well might we attempt to give an artificial outline to the flames upon the altar, and seek to fix them in one unvarying shape.

The inconveniences of being tied up to such a ritual were curiously illustrated during the struggle between James II. and the Prince of Orange. Though the body of the clergy favored the side of William and Mary, they were obliged to follow the liturgy, which the Archbishop, engrossed as he was by political duties, had not time to alter. The poor ministers had to keep on praying for their most dread and sovereign liege-lord, King James, that "God would confound the devices of his enemies." This was hard, both on them and the public: on them, as being forced to pray against their own wishes; and on the public, because the nation would have been ruined, if their prayers had been accepted.* During the American Revolution, it came to pass, that nearly every Episcopal meeting-house in the colonies was closed. Their ministers, inclined as they were to principles of monarchy, both in Church and State, could not vary from the prescribed forms of prayer: and the people, filled

* Life and Times of Dr Edmund Calamy. I. 201.

VOL. I. 15

with the spirit of liberty, could not endure the petitions for king George, which those unalterable forms required.

No one form of prayer can be ample enough to express all the wants of the Church. It was well said by one good man ;—“ If I had a prayer-book which contained all my wants, it would be so large, that I should be obliged to carry it about on a wheel-barrow! "

In other parts of worship, such as singing the praises of God, and the preaching of his Word, our fathers had little that was peculiar to themselves. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, they regarded as signs or emblems of the highest spiritual truths. In administering the sacraments, they used a plainness and simplicity, agreeable to the Scriptural patterns, and such as showed that they were but signs. A pompous and imposing ceremonial tends to confine the mind of the worshiper to the sacrament, as if it might have some virtue or saving efficacy in itself. But the more simple celebration constrains the worshiper to feel that these sacred things, after all, are only signs; and thus the soul is led to look through them, and beyond them to that which is signified. Such observance is the most spiritual, and is best

adapted to secure the great ends of the sacraments of grace and life.

Thus have we briefly surveyed the outlines of that godly discipline, which our fathers modeled after the pattern in the mount. The lapse of two centuries has suggested no material improvement, no closer approach to the primitive and apostolical plan. This building of God goes bravely on. Founded on the Rock of Ages, it lifts apace its rising walls, and heightens all its towers, standing in massive and enduring strength.

And when the millennial sun shall rise in cloudless glory, the fair fabric shall front the rejoicing East. Its gold, and silver, and precious stones shall reflect in mild radiance the intenser blaze of the ascending orb. Each stately pillar and graceful arch shall glow with the living light of heaven. From its open gates of lucid pearl shall burst the choral songs, which tell that God,-God in the fullness of his bliss,-is there.

CHAPTER VII.

The merits of Congregationalism. Paul's defence of himself against the charge of heresy. Application of it to the Puritans. Restoration of Christ's kingship in the Church. John Cook quoted. Recapitulation. Subject divided. I. Antiquity of the Congregational way. Study of antiquity. Excessive deference paid to the old Ecclesiastical writers. Uncertainty of Patristical traditions, illustrated by more recent instances. Remnants of the earliest fathers characterized. Retort of Irish convert. King Jamie's maxim. Luther's estimate of the "fathers." Lord Bacon's estimate. King James again. The sacred writers the best church antiquarians. John Wilkes' retort. Luther's retort. John Cotton's opinion. His opinion sanctioned by candid Romanists. What if we had lived in the third century? Connecticut ministers. II. Catholicism. What it is. S. Mather. Dr. Owen. J. Cotton. Protestation of Puritans. Two divines. Open communion, the Congregational practice. I. Mather Cambridge Platform. J. Cotton. Gov. Winslow. John Higginson. Jonathan Mitchell. Massachusetts pastors to John Dury. Variety in unity preferable to mere uniformity. III. Spirituality. Congregationalism congenial to the "free spirit" of the gospel. Spirit and forms. Milton: Barrowe. Conder. Practical tendencies of Congregationalism, Promotes liberality. Cherishes public spirit. Favorable to liberty. Excites free inquiry. John Robinson. John Norton. J. Winslow. J. Cotton. Relation of Church and State. "The wisest of the best." Failures and successes of the Puritans.

THE apostle Paul was once pleading in his own defence before Felix. It was a critical hour, and his life hung upon the event. The Jewish priests, by their hired advocate, Tertullus, had

charged the Apostle as being a mover of sedition against the imperial authority, and as being a ringleader, or literally a front-rank man, of the sect of the Nazarenes. On these grounds, they demanded that he should be adjudged to death.

The Apostle, in his reply, first disposed of the unfounded charge of sedition. He then proceeded to discuss the accusation, that he was a prominent leader among the Nazarenes, which was one of the earliest names by which the followers of Jesus were known. "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." While he thus frankly owns himself to be a Nazarene, he makes the acknowledgment in such . a way as to take off all culpability from the fact. For he alledges, that, as a Nazarene, he worships none other than the God of his fathers; and this was a privilege which had been secured to the Jews by several of the edicts and charters of the Roman emperors. He was thus entitled to the protection of the law. He not only affirms that he was a worshiper of the God of Abraham, but that he believed the whole canon of the Jewish Scriptures; and, like the mass of that people, had a firm hope of a general resurrection.

The invidious name of sect or heresy, which the high-church party among the Jews applied