Triennial Convention. Some measures have already been taken for the purpose.

THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. -The private meetings of the General Assembly, lately held in Edinburgh, were brought to a close by a singularly inappropriate and absurd condemnation of the voluntary principle, from Dr. M'Farlane, the Moderator. "Not content," says the Scotsman Newspaper, "with asserting the right of the Free church over the Establishment to bear the name of the church of Scotland,' (a dispute in which we have no inclination to interfere), Dr. M'Farlane proceeds to remind his brethren that their maintenance of the establishment principle exalts them above all other Dissenting bodies, not only in scriptural purity, but in ecclesiastical status, and to warn them, with great urgency and solemnity, against descending from their high estate, and becoming as one of the ( sects.' 'Nothing,' says he, 'can be more injurious to us as a church of Christ, or more unsuited to the present time, than to forget the peculiarities of our character, and to settle down into the state of one of the orthodox or evangelical denominations of Scotland.' Now, what is the 'peculiarity of character,' which Dr. M'Farlane declares to exalt and dignify him over his brother Dissenters? It is neither more nor less than this-that while the other Dissenters will not take the state money, Dr. M'Farlane is willing to take it, and cannot get it. The Dissenters will not ask the state money; Dr. M'Farlane does ask it, and is refused and rebuffed. The 'orthodox or evangelical denominations of Scotland' deny to the magistrate the power to decide as to religious truth; Dr. M'Farlane ascribes that power to the magistrate, and the decision is given against him. Really, it is difficult to see the superior dignity of Dr. M'Farlane's position, as compared with those into whose 'state' he is so afraid of settling down..

BAPTIST COLLEGE, BRISTOL.-The annual meeting of the friends and subscribers of the above college, was held in Bristol on Wednesday, June 25th. In the morning essays were read in Broadmead chapel by two of the students,-one by Mr. David Evans, on the Evidences of a Future State of Existence, derivable from the mental and moral constitution of man; the other, by Mr. Thomas Holman, on the Doctrine of Purgatory. The students were then addressed briefly but very faithfully by Mr. J. E. Giles, of Leeds, on the labours of a minister, as calling for sympathy with those committed to his charge, mingled with earnestness and fidelity. The friends then met in the vestry to transact the business of the society, and to receive the reports of the gentlemen by whom the examination of the students had been conducted. These

reports were satisfactory. A strong and unabated interest in the welfare of the college was manifested, and the highest satisfaction was expressed at the appointment of Mr. P. W. Gotch, as the successor of Mr. E. Huxtable in the office of classical and mathematical tutor to the college.

CREWKERNE.-On Lord's-day, July 6th, eleven persons were added to the Baptist Church in this town, by baptism; five of whom were males, and six females. The congregation was unusually large, and consisted of many respectable persons of "the Establishment." Contrary to the usual practice, the candidates were baptized before the sermon. This is found to be an improvement upon the old custom, as it enables the minister to preach with greater vigour, the candidates to hear with greater pleasure, and the congregation to listen with greater seriousness and attention, to what is advanced. In the afternoon, after a word of exhortation from the pastor to the newly received members, the ordinance of the Lord's supper was administered by the Rev. Thos. Pottenger of Bradford, who also preached to an overflowing congregation in the evening. The Baptist interest in this town is, at present, in a very pleasing state. Sixteen

have already been baptized and received this year, and several more are expected to follow their example before its close. May they all prove members of the body of Christ, and citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.

HUNSLET. We regret to hear that Mr. Williams, pastor of the Baptist church at Hunslet, has just sent in his resignation, having received a call to the pastoral office, from the 1st church at Walsall.

HAWORTH. Lord's-day, July 6th, two sermons were preached at Horkin-Stone, Haworth, by Mr. Whitaker of Cullingworth. The sum of £13. 9s. 72d. was collected on behalf of the Sabbath-schools.

BAPTISMS. Haworth.-July 6th, three persons were baptized at Hall-Green.

Filkins, Oxfordshire.-At Filkins, Oxfordshire, after addresses by two of the candidates, and by the administrator, Mr. R. Breeze, Lechlade, Gloucestershire, three individuals put on Christ by baptisin.

MARRIAGES. On the 15th of June, at the Baptist Chapel, Greek-Street, Stockport, by the Rev. John Russell, Mr. Josh. Higham of Cheadle, to Susannah, youngest daughter of Mr. Isaac Cheetham, farmer, Bramall.

On the 29th of June, at the same place, Mr. John Cope to Miss Ellen Johnson, both of Stockport.

Leeds:

PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY J. HEATON, No. 7, Briggate;

To whom all communications for the Editors mus be addressed, before the 15th of the month.

Brethren,

You cannot as Christians, or as Protestants, refuse to own the importance of the present crisis. The leader of the Whigs, and the leader of the Tories,-the one tacitly, the other openly,-proclaim their wish to endow the Roman Catholic priesthood. They have partially done it. They have already agreed to employ the national funds, i. e. money which we all are compelled to pay, in teaching young men the supremacy and infallibility of the pope, the celibacy of the clergy, auricular confession, the power of priests to absolve from sin, apostolical succession, the worship of the Virgin Mary, the invocation of saints, purgatory, prayers for the dead, transubstantiation, the saving efficacy of sacraments, &c. &c. We believe all these things to be gross errors and superstitions, equally offensive to God, and degrading to the human mind; yet these are the errors which we must pay to propagate, at the penalty of the seizure of our goods. We must pay for their being taught (in Maynooth) to hundreds and thousands, for the express purpose of being by them inculcated upon the ignorant and credulous multitude. But who is to blame for this? Brethren, WE are; WE, the sincere christian electors of England, are the real culprits! We returned to Parliament the men who have done this. We returned them, knowing that they held principles which required them to do it. We knew they were Establishment-men. We knew they maintained the obligation of Government to establish and support a religion for the country.

Shall we say in excuse, we did not see whither that principle might lead them; we did not think they could have gone so

VOL. II.-ENLARGED SERIES.

far? We should have seen and thought. Pious Dissenters and Pious Church people were both to blame here; the former, indeed, most so. We Dissenters well knew, that the Establishment principle, to be consistent, must endow all the creeds of all good subjects equally. We saw the leader of the political party to which we naturally belong, scoff at the sacred voluntary principle; we saw the chief liberal review advocate in round terms taking the Irish priests into Government pay; yet we, to return a liberal member, perhaps not even a thorough freetrader, overlooked his Establishment-principles, and sent to Parliament a man who could not be a consistent legislator and refuse popery its share of Government support. Sir R. Peel had assuredly the best of the argument with the men we sent to Parliament. We might have done otherwise; we might have stood by our principles. We might have said, "the greatest national evil in our eyes, is a 'National Establishment.' We see in it an awful sin against God and his Son, as well as a fertile source of political corruption and disquietude; and we will no longer share in sending to Parliament men to uphold it. Let our political and commercial party be defeated if they will, but we will bear our testimony against God's holy ark being touched by the profane hands of worldly Governments; we will vote only for men who pledge themselves to seek the repeal of every Act of Parliament on the Statutebook, which touches religion. We will vote only for consistent anti-monopolists." So we might have reasoned, but so we did We preferred our party to our God, and he is punishing us for our folly. The poll-books of our country, and what is

not.

1

far more, the Registry of Heaven itself record, that we voted for liberal worldly politics, and for freedom in trade, but also for the slavery of God's kingdom to the kingdoms of this world, and monopoly in religion !!

But surely our pious brethren of the State-church were also to blame. The note of warning had been sounded in your ears; you had seen, or might have seen, the necessary tendency of the Establishment-principle. You saw that principle supporting all religions under the same Government on the continent: you saw it supporting Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, Popery, and even Idolatry under the British government; ought you not, then, to have seen what must be the result, when seven millions of loyal, though oppressed Catholic subjects were ready to dismember the empire, on account of their unequal treatment. If party predilections blinded Dissenters, did not pecuniary interest, and the pride of political privileges, as well as party spirit, blind pious Churchmen ? Yes, brethren, God, we think, holds you responsible as well as us, for sending Establishment-men to Parliament. You are now in the same position as the advocates of slavery are. John Newton, before the question was discussed, could, after his conversion, be captain in a slaver, and be comparatively guiltless. What would now be his guilt in doing the same thing, after good men have discussed the question so fully? It is on this ground, that we consider the wickedness of the Americans in upholding slavery, to be inexcusable and intolerable. Now, brethren, are you not in a like position? The tree is known by its fruits; the stock by which Juggernaut and Popery, idol-sacrifices and transubstantiation are nourished alike, cannot be the true vine. The sinfulness of the Establishment-principle has not only been shown in argument, but God in his providence, has covered it with shame, as the reckless supporter of errors the most flagrant, and superstitions the most base. He has shown it to be a mere political device in the hands of statesmen, to convert the priesthood, or the clergy of a country, into their most effective police. Formerly the Church trampled on the Crown. Rulers take good care now it shall do that no more. They strip the Church of the vesture worn by Christ himself, and his apostles-the vesture furnished by those pious persons, who "ministered to them of their substance" they clothe it in the livery of the State, and then await the service of shame, gratitude, and self-interest. Brethren, you are responsible at the present day for seeing this; you cannot now send Establishment

men to Parliament and be guiltless of endowing the Roman Catholic clergy. You were not guiltless at the last election.

But, brethren, another election cannot be far off; possibly it may occur this year; it must occur within two or three years. Are you prepared to do your duty, if Dissenters will do their's? If they will sacrifice party to principle, will you do the same? The sacrifice will not be small on the part of Dissenters; Whigs and Freetraders will load them with reproach, for being consistent liberals, and consistent anti-monopolists; for advocating religious as well as civil freedom, and opposing not only Commercial but also Religious monopoly. We have always believed it far more wicked for our Government to endow Religion with tithes, church-rates, &c. than to endow Landlords with cornlaws, and WestIndian merchants with differential duties; yet in practice we have sacrificed the greater to the less. If we reverse our conduct, if we require our Whigs and Freetraders to be consistent, or refuse them our votes, and find better men, we must expect they will be incensed against us. If, then, we will encounter obloquy in the cause of truth, will you also? Will your ministers consent to be as dependent as Christ himself was, and as those christian ministers were who conquered the Paganism of Rome? Will you shew, that you esteem them "so highly in love for their work's sake," as to indemnify them for loss in renouncing Act of Parliament support, and casting themselves, like the Free Church of Scotland, on their flocks? Will you, in a word, practically repudiate the principle which, unless repudiated now, will infallibly, in a short time, fully endow Popery, and every form of Dissent which will take the money of the tax-gatherer? Remember, that though truth flourishes by its own inherent and divine vigour, error once endowed never dies. Men will always be found to defend any creed for certain gain. But for State interference, all Europe would have become Protestant at the Reformation. Popery, endowed and armed by civil power, destroyed rising Protestantism in Austria, Spain, Italy, &c. and has stood its ground ever since, strong in the State, and in the power of its might. Next election will be the time, if ever, when God will expect every English christian to do his duty. No mere Church-of-England members can fight this battle,-THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE NOW IS, TO ENDOW ALL SECTS OR NONE!

I am, brethren,

Yours in our common Lord,

A FELLOW-CHRISTIAN.

The history of Du Veil, D. D. illustrates the force of divine truth upon the mind of a conscientious man. He was one of those who seek after knowledge as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure. He was a foreigner by birth, but an Englishman by adoption; and in his religious professions he passed through many changes, being first a Jew, then a Romanist, afterwards a Protestant, and, last of all, a Baptist.

This learned man deserves a place in the temple of Baptist Worthies. He was a native of France, born in the province of Lorraine, and in the city of Metz. Both his parents were members of the Jewish religion, boasting of their descent from the nation which God had highly honoured above any other; and so anxious for the welfare of their son, that they taught him according to the most perfect law of the fathers, and brought him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He profited in the Jews' religion above many of his equals in his own nation, and gave promise of great usefulness amongst his countrymen and fellow believers. The path to distinction was before him. Friends and kindred smiled upon him. Talents and education fitted him to be a guide and teacher of others. The highest honours of the Jewish church seemed within his reach, and waited to place the crown of glory on his head. These hopes, however, turned out fallacious to his parents, and caused them no small degree of pain and vexation; for, in early life, their son publicly renounced Judaism, and avowed himself a convert to the christian faith. A careful examination of the Old Testament prophecies, in connexion with the facts of the New, resulted in the full conviction, that Jesus was the Messiah who had brought in a better covenant, and established it on better promises. Giving up the religion of his ancestors, was an unpardonable sin in the opinion of his father, who became so enraged that he rushed upon his son with a drawn sword, and would have taken away his life, but for the interposition of friends who were present.

Du Veil now proposed himself as a member of the Roman Catholic Church, in which his superior abilities and education soon opened the way for his elevation; first as a canon of St. Augustine, afterwards as prior of St. Ambrose at Melun, and, last of all, as professor of divinity in the University of Anjou. In this community he shone like a star of the first magnitude, both as a preacher and as a writer. In the latter capacity, he published A. D.

1672, a Commentary on the Gospels of Mark and Luke, containing a literal exposition of the text, and an able defence of the doctrines and discipline of the Romish Church. This book placed him among the first class of theologians, and gave his friends such unbounded satisfaction, that they requested him to write a piece against the French Protestants. He undertook the task, and finished it by avowing himself a convert to the faith he wished to have destroyed. Up to this time he had been a stranger to the Protestant religion, beyond what he had seen of it through the medium of Jewish or Romish prejudices; but now having received an official appointment to examine its grounds, principles, and defences, he soon made the discovery, that Popery was a compound of errors, a master-piece of human policy, inconsistent with the right of private judgment, and at variance with the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures; therefore he gave up all his offices and emoluments in connexion with it, and entered the Protestant Church. Knowing full well that such a change in his opinions would expose him to the tender mercies of the bishops, and place his life or liberty in danger, he sought refuge in Holland, and there made a public renunciation of the Romish faith, A. D. 1677.

Du Veil now came over to England, and was introduced to some of the leading men in the Established Church-such as Stillingfleet, Tillotson, Patrick, and Compton-who received him with all readiness of mind, and rejoiced over him as an illustrious convert to their communion. Having obtained testimonials from some of the bishops and principal divines, he was admitted to holy orders, and made both chaplain and tutor in a family of distinetion. In the year 1678, he began the revision of his Commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark; and soon afterwards published an exposition of Solomon's Song, which he dedicated to Sir J. Williamson, President of the Royal Society. Many of the English clergy, and of the Reformed Churches abroad, were so pleased with this work that they sent him letters of thanks, and urged him to go forward in expounding other parts of the sacred writings. Encouraged by these flattering testimonials, he published, A.D. 1680, an Exposition of the Minor Prophets, and dedicated it to the Lord Chancellor. Dr. Compton, then Bishop of London, was one of his patrons, and wishing to afford him every facility within his power for biblical researches, gave him free access to his library. Here

Se

he first met with the writings of the English Baptists, which he read with the utmost attention, carefully examining the points of difference between them and other Protestants, and weighing the arguments they brought forward in justification of their faith and practice. The result was, a full conviction that the Baptists were right, and that the love and majesty of truth required him to join their communion. This, however, could not be done without sacrifices. Bishops smiled upon him. Nobles ministered to his wants. He was a member of the church patronized by the State, and of which the Monarch was called the head and defender. vered from that connexion, he had no means of support unless Providence appeared on his behalf; for he was almost sure to lose the friendship of Churchmen on his becoming a Non-Conformist, and a Baptist. However, he conferred not with flesh and blood. He was not disobedient to Him that spoke from heaven. He counted the cost. To every objection that rose up in his mind he pleaded the voice of conscience, the claims of truth, and the law of the New Testament. He believed, and therefore was baptized. By following this course he secured the testimony of conscience, but lost all his emoluments and church friends except Dr. Tillotson. At the time under consideration, one of the maid servants of the Bishop of London was a Baptist, and much derided by the rest of the domestics for her peculiar notions; she hearing by some means of the change which had taken place in Du Veil's opinions, introduced him to Hansard Knollys; soon after which he was baptized by John Gosnald, a popular minister in London. Having found out the truth of

believers' baptism he wished others to embrace it, and for this purpose he published his Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles, which contains an able defence of the principles and the practice of the Baptists. He sent a copy of this work to the celebrated Claude, Minister of the Reformed Church in France, who acknowledged the gift in a letter full of affection and of commendations. For a short time he was the Pastor of a small Baptist Church, in Grace-Church-Street, London, but owing to his imperfect knowledge of the English language, he was never an acceptable preacher; therefore he relinquished the pastoral office, and maintained himself partly by the practice of medicine, and partly by teaching the French language, while the Baptists raised him a sum of money every year towards his support. Two of his pupils became celebrated men, Matthew Henry,* author of the well-known Commentary, and Harley, who was chosen several times Speaker of the House of Commons, and afterwards made Earl of Oxford.

The writer has never seen any account of the death of our Worthy; but judging from the manner of his life, we may conclude that his end was peace, and his reward a crown of glory. In his religious opinions he passed through many changes, but his sincerity and earnestness were raised above suspicion by the sacrifices he made in the service of God, and as an offering to great principles. He did not make a gain of godliness. Higher motives governed his actions. He contended for the faith once delivered to the saints, and counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.

T. P.

The ministry of John the Baptist, formed an intermediate link between the old and new dispensations,-partaking partly of the austerities of the one, and partly of the freedom and joy of the other.

After the manner of the Jews, the disciples of John fasted oft, and the disciples of Jesus not observing such abstinence, occasioned surprise, and was urged as an inconsistency. In vindication of his own conduct and that of his disciples, our

Lord, with great force and propriety, refers the objectors to John's testimony respecting him (John iii. 29); "and Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them ?" "John," as if he had said, "introduced me to my church under the character of a bridegroom, and to enjoin or practice fasting during a nuptial season, would be altogether incongruous and inconsistent." Having thus