day be not sufficient for the natural activity of thy mindby collecting thy tythes-by gaming or drinking—by fox · hunting or place-hunting, thou mightest be much more innocently and safely employed than in writing pamphlets in defence of mother church."

We are serious with the reverend divine; and he would do well to attend to our advice; for, however he might fail on all other subjects to gain our notice, if he will dare to argue, and to quote scripture in favour of the divine insti tution of his order-if he will employ himself in shoring and propping up a crazy and a tottering edifice, which time has devoted to destruction, we shall make it our business to. obstruct the gentleman in his pious labour; for when the man, who, because he cannot, from principle, sit under the vicar of Sutterton, yet, nevertheless, is content to support him by the sweat of his brow, is reprobated as guilty of the sin of schism; and that, by this very vicar! silence, in our estimation, becomes censurable, and forbearance a crime!!

Our personal acquaintance among the clergy is (as our readers will think much to our credit) extremely small-we know nothing of the vicar of Sutterton, except from the work before us and that is sufficient; consequently, no observation we have made must be taken in a personal light. Whether this Mr. Hutton be an honest bigot, or a priestly hypocrite, is to us at present unknown, and will, most likely, ever continue so, unless the reverend gentleman should be desirous of cultivating our acquaintance, or should feel it bis duty to pay us a visit, to acknowledge the friendly advice we have given him, the first time he comes to London.

The pamphlet we are about to examine was handed to us by a correspondent at Boston, residing, most likely, in the vicarage or rectory of the reverend writer, and we do hope our friend will make it his business to hand this review among as many of the deluded followers of the Rev. George Hutton as possible; or, what would be still better, if the reverend gentlemen himself were to circulate the review among his flock :-this would be fair-it would be manly-it would show that the writer is serious, and that he really imagines his church is founded on scripture. authority. For ourselves, so serious are we in the business, that if, when this meets the eye of the Vicar of Suitertou (as meet his eye it will), he will give us his word to act upon our suggestion, he shall be furnished with 50 copies gratis, of the present number, for the purpose of distributing among his parishioners,

Before we go immediately to the contents of the pamphlet before us, we stop to observe, that it purports to be addressed to the inhabitants of the parishes of Sutterton, Algarkirk, and Fosdyke, by their friend and minister, GEORGE HUTTON; and we are well aware that country folks, unused to the bustling intercourse by which the seve ral ranks of society are associated together in cur great city, but too generally pay especial deference and regard to the character and calling of their pastor. Indeed this is so far true, that it is no unusual thing in the country to observe that the parish priest will even draw attention from the parish beadle, or the parish barber; whereas, in London, the habits and notions of people are so different, that if some learned bishop and some notorious pickpocket were to pass through one of our principal streets at the same time, we would venture to predict that the latter would attract the general gaze. We mention this, because we observe the writer is determined to take all the advantage to his argument which his calling can give, and we fear that may be no small degree, considering who he addresses himself to. The work is also written in the way of dialogue, a mode of writing by which much may be made to favour any purpose that it is desirous to carry: the dialogue is between a Minister of the Church of England and his Parishioner, who is to be convinced that the Church of England is the only true church, and that a separation from her communion is a crying sin. This parishioner is of course a mere man of straw, made for no other purpose than to give force to the arguments of his minister; he is aptly and significantly enough named John, and the poor stupid fellow's ignorance is actually instanced by the minister as confirming the necessity of a learned and well-educated clergy to instruct the people.

Here then we observe the country reader, with the notions and feelings we just now described as belonging to him, with a dialogue in his hand, addressed to him by his minister, and a dialogue too between a minister of the church of England and his parishioner. He at once identifies himself with the parishioner, whilst, in the minister, he recognizes the Reverend George Hutton, D. D. Vicar of Sutterton, Rector of Algarkirk and Fosdyke, and late Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford. How imposing -how truly terrific such a string of titles against a simple John!

Qur readers will think we dwell too long upon this matter-the fact is, there is not an argument in the book likely'

to have half the weight, which the titles and profession of the writer will have upon those to whom he addresses himself. And could we bat convince the inhabitants of Sutterton, Algarkirk, and Fosdyke, of the real truth-that the dialogue is only between a George and a John, we are confident there is not a ploughman in either of the three pa-. rishes that would be kept from incurring the sin of schism, separating from the established church, by any thing which the pamphlet itself contains.

The argument by which George attempts to convince, John of the necessity of union with the church of England is, first, by proving from scripture, what we certainly believe with him to be true, that Jesus designed to establish a church-that he ordained and appointed his apostles to the ministration and superintendence of it-and that the church. was an organized and compacted body of men, yielding obedience to Jesus as its governor and head. Secondly, by employing the old musty and fribbling argument of the Catholics, about apostolic succession in favour of the priesthood of the church of England, its ceremonies and rites. Then comes the conclusion, drawn in a strain not the least triumphant :

"Founded then as the church (understand, reader, the man means the church of England) is upon a rock which, as St Paul tells us, (1 Cor. x. 4) is Jesus Christ himself; established at first under the ministration and superintendence of the apostles, with a promise of continuance unto the end of the world; and subjected by them to the controul of bishops as their successors, and to the ministration of priests and deacons, with a provision for the regular and constant succession of this ministry; most plain is it to see, that other foundation than this can no man lay.' (1 Cor. iii. 11). Not less plain is it to see, that they who separate themselves from this church so instituted, from this order of things so established, separate themselves from the body of Christ, and by consequence from him the divine head of that body; they in effect declare, we will not have this man to reign over us;' (Luke xix. 14) we will not be his disciples.'-p. 9.

Stop a minute, George! Your argument tells for nothing-it will convince nobody but the simpleton John, unless you prove three things:-first, that Jesus ordained any priesthood or ministry to which there was to be a constant and regular succession to the end of time: second, that yourself, and the other gentlemen of your craft, have regularly, and by succession, descended from the priesthood so ordained: aud, thirdly, that no pride-no rapacityno ignorance--no intolerance-go worldly-mindedness-no time-serving spirit-no abject submission to princes—no

truckling to statesmen-bas induced your order to rob the church of Christ of its free and primitive constitution; to substitute the laws of man for the laws of God; to abuse, insult, and oppress the servants of Jesus; to build up ceremonies and ordinances, which the Son of God came to destroy, and to present to us religion otherwise than it appears in the scriptures. All this you must do, George, or you do nothing in behalf of your church.

In defence of the succession of the ministry from the apostles, the writer seems miserably at a shift for scripture texts, which he strews about in great plenty on other occasions. Jesus, he observes, appointed his apostles to the ministration and superintendence of the church, "and promised that he would be with them always, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. xxviii. 20); "that is (says George), with them, and with those whom they should ordain and send in like manner, and so on, in succession, to the end of time."

A pretty satire this upon the fellowship of the learned writer! Must we, plain, unlettered men, inform a graduate of St. Magdalen, that the word rendered "world" in the verse just quoted should be translated age, and the true sense of the passage will be, that Jesus, who had promised his apostles and immediate disciples the gift of the Spirit to assist them in their ministry, and as a testimony to the world of the truth of their mission, here promises,. finally, that he would be with them even to the end of the Jewish age, the time when miraculons powers ceased? The history, of the Acts of the Apostles furnishes abundant evidence of the manner in which the promise of Jesus was verified. Now, unless the writer seans to assert that the ministers of his church do actually possess the airaculous gifts of the Spirit, of course the passage on which he rests will avail him nothing.

Observing that the apostles were special characters, appointed by Jesus to teach his religion to the world, and arrange and organize the Christian churches, the writer wishes it to appear that they ordained and appointed bishops to be their successors in the government of the churches, as well as priests and deacons to preach the word, and to minister in various holy offices, and those bishops ordained their successors, in like manner, by the imposition of hands." The imposition of hands indeed!"

We must, however, differ from the writer; and we confidently assort, that there is no proof, or shadow of evidence, of the apostes appointing any successors to

themselves; it was not necessary that they should do so, because the object of the ministration of the apostles was answered in their own day and generation; they were to be witnesses of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and to be the instruments of making that fact known in the world. This they did, and to preserve that fact, and the consequences it was intended to produce, they established churches, and united the whole mass of believers into one body, which body is uniformly considered in the New Testament as the depository of the facts on which the Christian religion rests-as the pillar and ground of the truth-and the medium by which Christianity was to be presented to after-ages-thus Paul, addressing himself to the church of Ephesus, observes that they were "raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that, in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus."

The only instance we have upon authentic record of a successor being appointed to any one of the apostles is in the case of Judas, which happily bears us out in what we have advanced. At the commencement of the ministry of the apostles, after the resurrection of their master, it was thought necessary to appoint one to take part of the apostleship, from which Judas, by transgression, fell. Peter accordingly recommended (Acts i. 21) "that of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day which he was taken up from us must one be ordained, to be a witness with us of his resurrection." It is a prevalent notion among the clergy, and a favourite one with the author of the dialogue under consideration, that the apostles of their own authority appointed and ordained the elders of the different churches, He tells us that Paul "had ordained Timothy first bishop of the church of Ephesus," and that Titus was also ordained by the apostle, 'first bishop of the church of Crete.' All the facts however of the appointment of officers in the church are against the hypothesis, and show that the power of appointment rested where last of all priests would wish it to rest--with the people. In the instance of appointing an apostle to supply the place of Judas, did the other aposdes, though vested with authority, presume of their own will to appoint the individual to office? The answer is in the simple narrative itself-Peter stood in the midst of the disciples (the number of the names together were about a

VOL. IV.