On the other hand, it must be equally conceded, that the deeptoned piety, and even candour, of Baxter must tend to rescue the character of others, with whom he was partially connected, from the least imputation of impiety, which might otherwise be affixed to their memory. In short, whilst we see and feel the monstrous and disgraceful mixture, which the extra ordinary religious character of those times has exhibited in the wondering and indelible page of history; still it cannot but be considered on all sides as a bungJing conclusion, that the Puritan character was essentially severed from every thing wise and just and good; and a yet more bungling one, that a strong zeal for religious reformation and sound scriptural instruction must always be attended with the same pernicious consequences. That such has been the use made of the history of these times, we are well aware: the more correct in conduct have sneered, and the infidel has openly triumphed. "Pudet hæc opprobria, Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse re felli," Christianity has been wounded through the sides of Puritanism; and faith and faction have been studiously associated together. Hence arises the necessity, not for the sake of Puritanism, but of our common Christianity, to trace the excesses before us to some adequate cause, which may account for the obliquities, in so many respects, of men, many of them both good and wise; and may acquit Religion herself from having been the moving spring of so much mischief. "Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum?" This cause, then, we consider to have been, as stated by us at the opening of the present article, neither less nor more than an overbearing, uncontrolable party-spirit. This spirit, in the times we speak of, through a variety of concurrent causes, never, we trust, to meet again, raised the minds even of many religious and well thinking men, to a species of positive intoxication. Every care had been taken by misjudging politicians, particularly by the ill-starred and never-tobe-forgotten Archbishop Laud, to inflame that spirit to its highest pitch; and almost to force upon the opposite party, by his conduct towards them, a feeling, in correspondence with his own, of haughty self-approbation and utter contempt of all differing sentiments and systems. He, with others like him, seemed determined that those who were not of his party should differ from him, till indeed they did differ, and resolved that they should hate him, till at length they did hate him. He insisted upon it that they were enemies to the state, till at length they became enemies to the state, and overwhelmed him and the state too in one common overthrow. Intemperate zeal and overweening self-confidence became thus the very law of religion, and by a sad and most mischievous perversion of vision, men saw, understood, approved nothing but just their own opinion: their imaginations became perfectly on fire; and the judgment of each person seemed to have become the dupe of a more ignoble power. That such a state of mind as this was of the most irregular and perverted nature, was quite clear from Not the results which followed. all the vehemence of a St. Bernard, not all the tyranny of high-commissioned Protestant prelates, not the stern severity of a Knox, or the petulance of a Laud, could have more than matched the forceful political phrenzy which seized the Puritan victims of this lawless passion. Perverted in that most valuable of all mental endowments, a sound principle of judgment, they went forth preaching the Gospel with cannon and bayonet; having at once, according to their own favourite quotation, "the praises of God in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand." Convinced that they were right, and all else wrong, they overlooked the obvious and immutable truth, that Christian principles are not to be enforced by temporal violence; and they gladly took advantage of the political quarrel, for advancing their religious claims by the means of secular and carnal warfare. If after such a delineation, but too correct, the interesting question be still reiterated-namely, How far these men, so employed and so perverted, could still be at heart men of piety and accepted of God-we can surely be expected to say little more in direct solution of it, than to appeal to the darkness and uncertainty of all human decisions; and then to take refuge in the assurance, that a day is coming when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, and when, after every due and necessary allowance, the Lord who is a God of judgment, will weigh all actions and all hearts. All we can at present say more, is this, that such men could not, quoad hæc, as far as these practices were concerned, be Christian men; since the very spirit of Christ and his Gospel would lead decidedly to a different conduct, and would teach as plainly as words can do, that "His Kingdom," and the means of its promulgation, are not of this world." How far sins arising from imperfect vision and infirmity of judgment, will be excused, or rather remitted, for the Redeemer's sake, at the great day, we must leave that day to determine. But it must strike every candid observer of those times, that there was a remarkable spirit of true piety strongly and unaccountably connected, on both sides, with the excesses which were also common to both. And when those, who were pleased to call themselves Orthodox, shall have cleared up the apparent inconsistency in their own many excellent acts, and words, and works of devotion, with the intolerance of their other proceedings, it will then be time for them to go to their Puritan opponents, and, with humbled feelings of their own, meekly to say, "Let me pull out the mote, or the beam, out of thine eye." That besides the vehemence of party-feeling, which perhaps never raged with greater fury, there were also certain opinions, or intellectual principles, to which, when so inflamed, something of the mischief must be traced, it would be wrong indeed to deny. On the part of royalty, the high notions of arbitrary power, both in civil and religious matters, was fearfully matched against that antagonist principle of the Puritans, that each person might do, and even lay under an obligation to do, whatever was suggested to his mind, by a species of Divine appointment. Each was in its way forceful and tyrannical. The divines on each side assumed their principles, and urged on the laity to act accordingly. It was the fortune of Cromwell to proceed steadily and consistently upon the principles which had been infused into him, and then to be abused and vilified by those who had been instrumental in infusing them. He had however, we are bold to say, the merit of being wiser than his teachers; and his dauntless enthusiasm took a turn which seemed to have been expected by no party-that of a mild and almost equal toleration of all peaceful and safe religious opinions. Abating this, however, which was much to his credit, or to the credit of his government, he was the man to stand forth with all the mischiev ous and enthusiastic opinions of his party about him, and to exhibit the wild effects to which such opinions naturally tend. Did he read his Bible? It was in search of a political directory, for which it was never intended; except as far as it teaches men to "fear God and honour the king." Did he pray, and that fervently? It was with that dangerous and mistaken im pression, that he was to look for an immediate answer to his prayers by sudden impulse or temporal success. Did he believe in the allavailing efficacy of Christ for salvation? It was still with the notion that he died but for a part of mankind, and that the body of his elect were a select and secluded number, to whom the inheritance was given, and who were through much triumph, rather than through much tribulation, to enter into the kingdom of heaven." Did he, as he often was known to do, preach? It was still under the notion of immediate inspiration, and in express denial of that great principle of the Christian church, by which she has always set apart a supply of faithful and qualified men particularly or dained for this purpose. The most allowable of all assumptions then current, was yet, perhaps, at utter variance with all the possibilities of human nature; namely, That we should necessarily have, in every instance, "a converted ministry" and that all were to be stripped of their office, but persons considered to be of that class-a principle which, if carried out to all its bearings, would lead to all kinds of confusion. These are a few of the opinions to which, when blown up by the wind of party feeling and popular clamour, we do not hesitate to ascribe much of the conduct which marked those times. And if opinions of this nature, variously modified, were mixed up in the writings of such men as Owen, Godwyn, Manton, &c. with the most profound knowledge of Scripture, and the most astonishing practical application of it to all classes of mankind, and all the varied feelings and workings of the human heart; still we cannot allow their intellectual attainments to be any excuse for, much less recommendation of, such dangerous impressions as those above-mention ed: and we must still see, in such professed disciples of the Calvinian School, principles which would at once have been disowned by their founder, and which would also, if again united to a strong and fervent spirit of party, be productive of similar mischiefs, should means and opportunities concur to the purpose. One grand and important deduction from the foregoing remarks, and indeed that for which, amongst others, they were made, is the absurdity of likening the present times to those of the Puritans, or of charging on any particular set of modern religionists, the plan or the capability of such disastrous proceedings. There is happily much of the Bible, much of prayer, much of preaching, and most unhappily much also even of dissension, in the present day: but where is the body of religionists, like the Puritans of old, claiming the right of the sword in virtue of their faith, expecting immediate answers to prayer, and indulging in the various other dangerous opinions which belonged to those times? Calumny, we know, is ready to affix them alike on every man more religious or righteous than his neighbour; and now that the Bible and king. killing have been associated in the person of Cromwell, it is obvious for every one who is indifferent to the dictates of the former to charge on its followers the guilt of the latter. It is this, to which all the modern invectives against modern Puritans amount-You are religious; therefore you are a Cromwell in disguise: you love your Bible; therefore you hate your king: you believe in King Jesus; therefore you are ready to renounce king George.-Vulgar and flippant in the extreme, stale and flat, unprofitable and most unholy are the invectives now launched against operative piety, as if it were necessarily operative rebellion: whilst, on the other hand, we would venture to say, that the present times have just that similarity to Puritan times, in regard to religious feeling, which the predestination of a Beveridge or a Hooker bad to are not now found amongst the Predestinarians, the friends or preachers of the Bible. And when the reformers of the present day "shall come in like a flood," which God forbid they should, the godly, as they are sneeringly called, we feel well assured, are those who will be foremost to "lift up," or to follow, "the standard against them." At the same time we are very far from declining to offer a parting admonition both against those opinions which were once connected with so wide and baneful a mischief, and, more especially, that party spirit which gave them at once their direction and their point. Strong dogmatism in reli that of a Cartwright or a Hugh Peters. We believe that religious men are now, for the most part, justly to be marked for their high political orthodoxy: or if diversity of political opinion exists amongst them, we believe it to be that which will ever exist in a free country, and marks no particular class of religious doctrines. That the same diversity of political feeling exists even amongst Dissenters, we will venture to assert; and we believe it is a calumny, which not only the more pious and scriptural amongst them, but almost all, if not all of them, would indignantly repel, that they see any thing whatever in the Scripture which would warrant the use of the sword in matters of religious opinion, let it be remembered, gion. That there will ever be a measure of party-feeling ready to move itself in the breasts of those who are in a different party from their neighbours, is perfectly credible, and the contrary impossible, But opinion, the opinion and doctrine we believe of all classes, as bodies of men, are decidedly op posed to the opinions which were afloat in Cromwell's days. As to a political establishment, the idol of the old Puritans, the Dissenters now, for the most part, disclaim it on principle. Aud as to religious enthusiasm, we question if a man would readily be found, since Huntingdon died, who would profess to expect to find the loaf of bread on his table in the morning which he prayed for over night; and if there are any very high Predestinarians in the present day, and they are but few, we believe they must be looked for principally amongst the most loyal, the most unoffending, and the most passively obedient members of the religious community. What becomes then of the charge "prepared by Satan to be cast hereafter upon reformation and godliness," as if these men were necessarily connected with rebellion and bloodshed? There are reformers indeed, who perhaps thirst for blood: but, thank God, these has been frequently akin to confusion and every evil work. Dogmatism on free will and free grace has been equally pregnant with peril: and when we remember that the Puritans of England, and Cromwell at their head, were de cidedly Calvinists, we cannot forget, on the other hand, that the turbulent Remonstrants of Holland held an opposite dogma, and that Archbishop Laud was a high-toned systematic Arminian. therefore, let Christians attend more We say, to the cultivation of a Christian spirit, and less to a wordy war about party opinions: and whilst we say nothing against the bounden duty of taking our doctrines from the Bible properly understood, and the Bible alone, let us take heed, more than all, that from the Bible and the Bible alone we draw our unfailing standard of conduct and feeling. It is, in a word, against partyfeeling, whether connected with this or with that outward form of doctrine, that we would warn our readers, and, if it might hear us, our country at large. We deprecate, in the highest possible degree, those nefarious attempts made in the present day, by some divines of all classes, to prove the exist ence, and to promote the spirit of a religious schism amongst our. selves, adverse to the existing or ders in church and state. That no such adverse schismat present widely exists, we feel perfectly confident. That, amongst other causes, the British and Foreign Bible Society has been the happy means of removing it to a greater distance than ever, we have good grounds to hope. That there is a general spirit of mutual charity amongst all the various religious denominations in this country, we rejoice to believe, and even to think we see it growing amongst us. Nor do we conceive that some vehemence of speculative discussion is necessarily connected with feelings of personal dislike, or unchristian temper. Very far would we be from saying, that even to represent the distribution of the Bible, according to certain methods, as technically irregular, and therefore so to abstain from it, is to be deemed an indica tion of lurking violence or secret antipathy. But with all these abatements we are constrained to say, there is a party feeling afloat, of which even now we should do well to be on our guard. We have been told even now, of certain lists handed about, marked with O. for Or thodox and P. for Puritan. We have seen infinite pains taken in some quarters to persuade others to become discontented with the existing orders of things, by assuring them that they are so, and when they strongly deny it, still again insisting upon it they are so, and must be so, and shall be so. We have heard of great and loud charges mutually hurled of schismatical guilt and we must say it, though with sorrow, there is not a pious pastor of a flock in this country, far or near, large or small, public or retired, but his ungodly sheep shall have warrant enough every month or week or day, from innumerable publications, to call him Methodist, enthusiastic Puritan, and hypocrite; and these warrants sometimes issued on high authority, and under dignified names. On such party prepos sessions, not ouly are too many publications conducted, but we are also free to add; too many preferments pointedly dispensed. We could say more to humble and to warn-to humble us in the sight of every right-judging man, friend or foe-to warn-but we forbear. We may have said already too much for our readers' patience. We conclude with an hearty farewell to the worthy gentleman who has given us such large and handsome entertainment; and when the descendant and namesake of the illustrious Protector shall have put a little method into his arrange. meut, beginnings and endings to his sentences, and something of spirit to his style; instead of endless and most tedious repetition, both of words and ideas; together with a few et ceteras, absolutely necessary to cause a book to be read; we can truly say, he will furnish the means to many more of very curious and edifying reflection; and will stand fair with the world, however his great ancestor may stand, as a man who can see the dif ference between right and wrong, and really prefer Christianity to its opposites, in whatever class, without deserving the charge of deeplaid hypocrisy, or gaining the im putation of un-reasoning absurdity, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE, &c. &c. GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication:-The Private Correspondence of Charles Tal bot, Duke of Shrewsbury, by Archdeacon Coxe;-Phrenology, by Sir G. Mackenzie;-An Account of the Dis |