ing upon Plymouth rock, and the hills of Boston, ere we find them involved in an earnest struggle with Antinomians, Familists, Baptists, and Quakers.

But with all their faults, that first generation of New England ministers was a grand and noble one. They were not wholly exempt from the follies and prejudices of their age. In the school of Christ they made large attainments in that science of sciences, which teaches how sinful men may become new creatures, meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. And though they came out of the school of suffering ignorant of some lessons which they should there have learned, we cannot join in the strong invectives which have been uttered against them on account of their dulness of apprehension. However censurable the intolerance of the early Pilgrim Fathers may have been, we do not believe that the sectaries whom they drove away would have manifested a more liberal spirit, if the relative position of the parties had been changed. And on the other hand, we have little doubt that this very intolerance was overruled for good; that if New England in its infancy had been a common receptacle for the multiform sectarianism which was born in Britain during the Puritan age, its whole condition and history would have been widely different from what they actually became.

These holy men, if somewhat narrow in their views, had themselves enjoyed and knew how to appreciate liberal culture. They were scholars, and deeply read theologians, as well as popular preachers. To the precious faith of God's elect, they clung with the utmost tenacity. Upon the churches of New England they left the imprint of their character in lines so deep and broad, that it retained almost its original freshness long after the Wilsons, Cottons, and Hookers had been gathered to their fathers. Their memory deserves to be, and we are sure will be, fondly cherished, not only by those who are their children in the flesh and in the faith, but by all who reverence goodness, in every branch of the American Church. Whether they had the far-reaching designs, and the almost prophetic vision which have been sometimes ascribed to them, or not, they were at least the honoured instruments of Providence in opening a fountain, whose waters have already covered vast regions with wealth and beauty, so that the ages have, and will ever have, ample reason to rise up and call them blessed.

During the first century after the settlement of New England, the ministry and the membership of the churches were, in a remarkable degree, "joined together in the same mind, and the same judgment.' The large accessions to the population from abroad, in the main consisted of those who were homogeneous with the original Pilgrims, both in race and religion. And,

with the exception of the difficulties occasioned by Mrs Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and the Quakers, there was little to disturb the peace of the church. In all the pulpits throughout the length and breadth of the land, the doctrines of the cross were preached, in the form in which they are exhibited in the Confession_drawn up by the Cambridge Synod. Nowhere, in the whole Protestant world, would it be possible to find a church with whose clergy the ministry of New England would not favourably compare. Indeed, viewing them as a class, we do not believe their superior could be named for piety, intelligence, zeal, and success. A gradual change had been going on, no doubt, as the country grew in wealth and population; the effect of which was the relaxing, to some extent, of the extreme rigidity of the primitive Puritans, and also the development of the congregational element in the constitution and practice of the churches. But from the old scriptural faith of the Puritans, there does not appear to have been any serious departure.

The Puritan age of these churches may be said to have closed with that singular man-the glory and shame of New England, as we are tempted to call him-Cotton Mather. Living so near to the primitive times, and intimately acquainted with many of the men who had figured in them, he had the best opportunities for gathering up the precious fragments of history which were in danger of being irrecoverably lost. Providentially his taste and turn of mind exactly fitted him for the task. His Magnalia is in some sort an image of the man. Covered over with the oddest conceits and the most fantastic pedantry, it is yet full of inestimable treasures for the biographer and the historian. If it reveals the vast and multifarious reading of its author, it also abounds with most striking proofs of his intense credulity. But with all its defects, it is a noble tribute of his deep and overflowing affection for the land of his birth and his mother Church, and the reverent love which prompted him to preserve everything which might serve as an enduring memorial of the heroic virtues of his fathers. How lamentable that a man to whom New England is so much indebted should have had a chief hand in transactions which form the subject of one of the darkest and saddest chapters in her history. Cotton Mather seems to have had his heart fixed upon the presidency of Harvard College, and there certainly were not wanting grounds for the hope that he would be called to occupy it. Twice it was vacant, and twice another was chosen to fill the much coveted place. It was a bitter disappointment, and his exercises at the time, as set down in his diary, would be extremely amusing, if they did not so palpably betray the weakness of a man whom we have been ever accustomed to venerate for his

piety, his learning, and his "essays to do good" to his own and succeeding ages.

Even in Cotton Mather's day there were signs of spiritual declension in the churches. A religious coldness began to spread itself over the land, bringing the soil into the condition. best suited to nurture those germs of a so-called "liberal Christianity," which we are assured then existed. Some have pronounced this decay of vital piety to be the natural result of Independency; others have insisted that it was the immediate fruit of the "half-way covenant." But the churches of New England were not alone in their lukewarmness. During this very period the same spirit of slumber invaded the Episcopal and Dissenting Churches of England, and the Presbyterian in Scotland and Ulster; as if to demonstrate that no scheme of polity, and no mode of worship can effectually guard against declension. Various causes may have contributed to the result, yet one is tempted to regard the change as a kind of natural rebound from that intense excitement about matters pertaining to government and worship, by which these churches had been so long pervaded.

Then followed the great awakening under the ministry of Whitefield, Edwards, and other honoured men. Thousands were aroused and awoke to newness of life, and probably their number would have been greatly increased, but for the pernicious influence of some of those taking part in the movement, whose fiery zeal carried them into the wildest extravagance. Davenport and his followers were precisely the men to render the evangelistic labours of Whitefield and others perfectly nugatory with a large class of minds, and to deepen the slumbers of those who remained asleep. The awakening may be said to have introduced a sort of formative age, to which can be traced the existing divisions among the Congregationalists of New England. The lack of spiritual life in many churches prepared the way for the Arminianism which ultimately ripened into the Socinianism that has so long reigned over the most ancient seats of Puritanism. At this same period the so-called New England theology had its origin-that theology which claims the great Edwards as its founder, but was subsequently developed by Bellamy, Hopkins, West, Benton, Emmons, and others. These are considered by many as the great names of New England, as the men who have rendered inestimable service to theological science. One of their ardent admirers in portraying the "characteristics of New England theology declares that "it is more scriptural than the Apostles' Creed, or than the Nicene Creed, than the theology of Luther and Melancthon, of Knapp and Tholuck, than that of Leighton, Butler, and Magee, than that of Symington and Chalmers, or

than that of Calvin and Turretin." When we ask, what are the improvements introduced into theology by these great and good men, who were at work upon it for more than half a century, we are told by one occupying a high and responsible position, and who should be a most competent authority, that they consist of these three principles, "that sin consists in choice, that our natural power equals, and that it limits, our duty." We honour the memory of the authors before named, and have no doubt they were, in the pastoral spheres in which they laboured, good ministers of Jesus Christ. But we think that the improvements ascribed to them are only new modes of stating old errors. Have they added anything to the power of the pulpit in those portions of the church in which they have obtained? Are those ministers who take special pains to indoctrinate their hearers in the radical principles-that sin consists in sinning, and that a man's ability is the measure of his obligation, more successful in winning souls to Christ and in edifying saints, than are those who adhere to the old faith of Augustin, Calvin, and the Puritans? Our exhausted limits forbid our giving an extended reply to these questions, and we shall only say, that the Annals of the Pulpit in our own and other lands authorise us to return for answer a decisive No.

We again heartily commend these delightful volumes to all our readers, who, if they adopt our advice, will become as impatient as ourselves for the early appearance of those which remain behind.

Scriptural Examina

ART. II.-The Doctrine of Baptisms.
tion of the Questions respecting: I. The Translation of
Baptizo. II. The mode of Baptism. III. The subjects of
Baptism. By GEORGE D. ARMSTRONG, D.D., Pastor of the
Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Va. New York: Charles
Scribner. 1857.

WITH great pleasure do we hail the appearance of "The Doctrine of Baptisms," from the pen of Dr Armstrong of Norfolk, Va. In our opinion, this subject of Baptism is one of the most important that can occupy the attention of our divines and scholars. And, indeed, if we understand the signs of the times, it will yet occupy more attention than it has done hitherto. This work of Dr Armstrong seems to be well calculated to do good in and out of our church; and with pleasure do we commend it to those who have a desire to examine this subject

carefully and thoroughly, as well calculated to aid them in their researches. We are pleased with his mode of discussing the subject, and with the general arrangement of the work; the mechanical execution of which is also such as to make it an attractive volume. We hope it will be widely circulated.

But our present object is not to review, or give an outline of, this work of Dr Armstrong. We take the present as a favourable opportunity for expressing our surprise that, whilst so many writers have, with ability, discussed the mode and subjects of baptism and the Baptist arguments, comparatively little attention is drawn to the neglect of household baptism in our own church, and to the mode of remedying that evil. We are constantly erecting barriers to prevent the inroads of enemies outside of our fortress, and at the same time we give comparatively little attention to the work of destruction that is going on within.

An able practical treatise on the neglect of infant baptism, its causes and cure, would be timely, and would, we are persuaded, do great good in our church. We will take this opportunity of presenting a few of our own thoughts on this subject, simply designed to awaken the attention of brethren to its importance.

Baptism is one of the only two sacraments of the New Testament dispensation. It is a holy ordinance, and was instituted by the King and Head of the Church himself. In his word, not only does he give us to understand the nature and object of this ordinance, but he has also designated the persons for whom baptism was designed. Since, then, he has instructed his church as to those who are the subjects of this ordinance, it most certainly is incumbent on the church to execute his commands, and baptise all included in the commission. If this duty be neglected, then indeed will a very heavy responsibility rest on the church itself.

The Presbyterian Church has always held not only to believers' baptism, but also to the baptism of their offspring. And hence, it has not been without interest, that we have read lamentations over neglect of infant baptism, and exhortations to the churches thereon, year after year, in the Narrative issued by our Assembly. It has been painful also to know the charge to be made by Baptist ministers and members, again and again, that infant baptism is rapidly losing ground; that Pedobaptist churches are much more anxious to have this doctrine in their Confessions of Faith, than practically conformed to by their members; and that the members are gradually, but most certainly, becoming Anti-pedobaptist, both in sentiment and practice. This charge has been made privately and publicly, both in the pulpit and through the press. And not only so