sufficient encouragement to obey the command, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and if any thing can warm an Englishman's heart into a desire to obey this parting injunction of the Saviour, it is the comparison of England as it is now, with England as it was during the prevalence of the Druidical, the Roman, the Saxon, or the Danish superstition. Some of these superstitions he might have expected to receive as his sure inheritance, and just in proportion as he values the gospel in comparison with them, should his gratitude rise to prompt him to send its blessings to other nations, who may be shackled by superstitions even more oppressive than those of his ances

tors.

In a summary of the causes that contributed to the rapid spread of Christianity over the Island, the dissatisfaction which the inhabitants felt with their own religion should be mentioned as a prominent one. This religion had nothing in it that was connected very closely with their history, their institutions, and manners; and though they had succeeded in establishing it in preference to the other superstitions of the country, yet absent as they were from those sacred places in their native land, which were regarded with reverence, they lost all the influence of local associations. When the missionaries presented themselves before the council which Edwin, king of Northumberland, had assembled to determine whether they would accept the new religion, Coifi, the chief priest, said among other things,For my part, I will assert what I certainly know, that that which we have hitherto held is good for nothing.'

Political reasons likewise had their influence. France had received the Christian religion, and before the two nations had become the 'natural enemies of each other,' the kings of the Heptarchy were anxious to contract alliances with the VOL. VII. No. 7.

47

sovereigns of that country; which they could the more easily do by accepting the Christian religion. The missionaries were under the protection of some of these very sovereigns, and by them recommended to the notice and the hospitality of the English.

The forms of worship introduced were well adapted to make a deep impression on the minds of a rude and ignorant people-'a people standing in as much need of rites and ceremonies, and tangible forms and a visible dispensation, as the Jews themselves when the law was given.'

Another cause was the power which they claimed of working miracles, and which was attested by evidence deemed abundantly sufficient in those ages of credulity.

The easy terms of conversion should likewise be mentioned. All that was required at first was a willingness to receive baptism. Augustine is said to have baptized ten thousand in a day; commanding the people by a crier confidently to enter the river two by two, and in the name of the Trinity to baptize one another by turns.

Another cause was found in the character of the missionaries themselves. They were the prime spirits of the age,' deeply versed in all the learning of those times, trained to act in concert in the prosecution of their schemes, accustomed to subordinate their feelings to their judgment, and therefore not liable to be hurried away by a blind zeal ; men of lofty minds and strict virtue, yet nevertheless often led to adopt unjustifiable means for the attainment of valuable ends.

Besides the hopes of the gospel, it was recommended to the accept ance of the people by its immediate effects. It taught the peasantry the duty of obedience to their rulers, and therefore was acceptable to the nobility, while it inculcated upon them the duties of humanity, and the expectation of equal and retributive

justice beyond the grave; and was thus recommended to the inferior classes. The useful arts were introduced; children were instructed in the rudiments of knowledge; agriculture and manufactures were prosecuted with more skill and success, and thus the means of subsistence and comfort were increased. These causes, some of which are peculiar and some of common occurrence, will account for the rapid spread of the gospel among the Anglo-Saxons. The British Chris tians, and especially the Welsh, claiming that they had a purer faith, viewed with jealousy this success of the Roman missionaries, and refused to have any communion with them or their converts. One of their chief bards, Taliesin, is said to have urged his countrymen to resist their encroachments, in the following spirited lines,translated by a later poet.

Wo be to that priest yborn,
That will not clearly weed his corn,
And preach his charge among:
Wo be to that shepheard (I say)
That will not watch his fold alway,

As to him doth belong :
Wo be to him that doth not keep
From Romish wolves his sheep,

With staff and weapon strong.

The ministers of the Roman Church, however, soon succeeded in placing the whole Island under their power, and they proved, according to the fears of the bard, to be wolves not sparing the flock.

Those who are accustomed to contemplate the papal system only in the abuses and corruptions that sprang up under it, can hardly believe,what nevertheless appears true, that the foundations of its enormous power were laid with the benevolent design, on the part of some of its most efficient agents, of promoting the happiness of mankind. Could the magnificent scheme of Hildebrand have been realized, all Christendom would have been placed under the patriarchal authority of the pope, who, as the vicar of Christ, in

conjunction with a council of prelates, annually assembled at Rome, would have composed those difficulties which sprung up between kings: thus producing a perpetual peace, co-extensive with the progress of the gospel. In establishing this system in England, they had to contend, as elsewhere, with that love of liberty which is inherent in human nature, and with that love of power on the part of the rulers of the nation,which would prompt them to resist every encroachment. These two antagonist passions they contrived to enlist into their own service, by persuading rulers that their power would be increased by the added sanctions of the church, while they persuaded subjects that they could be protected from the abuse of that power only by the interposition of their spiritual authority. Sitting as umpires in all disputes involving the rights of princes and their subjects, they so well improved their opportunities that every decision went either directly or indirectly to swell their own power up to the enormous size of their pretensions. The kings, indeed, some of them, made a vigorous resistance; but they found that the sceptre was a feeble force against the crosier, in the hands of a proud primate like Dunstan or Becket. From the time of Edwy the Saxon, husband of the beautiful and unfortunate Elgiva, so well known for her sufferings and her fate, down to the time when John, for himself, his heirs, and successors, swore liege homage to that see

An ap

every king who had a contest with the church found that though he might in some instances gain the object, yet the gain would not compensate him for what he lost. peal to past custom, or acts of parliament, even the statute premunire, which rendered it penal to procure from the pope any instrument in diminution of the rights of the crown, were of small avail against a body that held the keys of death and hell, and by their excommunication could

inflict a curse which cut them off from the one and consigned them to the other; or by their interdict might spread desolation over the whole kingdom. Mr. Southey gives the following account of an interdict that was laid during the reign of John.

"The Bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester, were now charged to lay the kingdom under an interdict, unless the King would admit the Primate, and recall the exiled monks of Canterbury. When they waited upon him and announced the alternative, he swore by God's teeth, that if any one dared interdict his territories, he would send them and all their clergy packing to Rome, and confiscate all their property and if he found any subjects of the Pope, he would put out their eyes, slit their noses, and in that condition despatch them to his Holiness. They retired trembling from his presence; but after waiting some weeks, in hope that some change might take place, in a mind as fickle as it was depraved, they obeyed their spiritual master, pronounced a sentence of interdict, and fled the realm; the Bishops of Bath and Hereford acting with them. Even now, when the ceremonials of worship have been too much abridged, and the public influences of religion grievously lessened by the disuse of all its discipline, and of too many of its forms, . . . even now, it may be understood what an effect must have been produced upon the feelings of the people, when all the rites of a church, whose policy it was to blend its institutions with the whole business of private life, were suddenly suspended; ... no bell heard, no taper lighted, no service performed, no church open; only baptism was permitted, and confession and the sacrament for the dying. The dead were either interred in unhallowed ground, without the presence of a priest, or any religious ceremony, ... or they were kept unburied, till the infliction, which affected every family in its tenderest and holiest feelings, should be removed. Some little mitigation was allowed, lest human nature should have rebelled against so intolerable a tyranny. The people, therefore were called to prayers and sermon on the Sunday, in the churchyards, and marriages were performed at the churchdoor." pp. 269-271.

[To be continued.]

THIS Gazetteer is intended for a reference-book on the subject of Missions. It has been compiled, the author tells us, with great labour. "Besides devoting all his leisure to it for about three years, he has occasionally employed assistants to forward and perfect the work.” A very large portion of the annual reports and missionary publications, which have been issued since about the commencement of the present century, were read, and references made to them, as a preparatory step, -a labour which, with the alphabetical list of missionaries at the end of the volume, occupied the time of a female assistant for nearly two years. The result is, that a mass of missionary information, which could not be readily come at elsewhere, is here brought together in a small compass.

The plan of the author is, to give a general account of the various heathen countries, and a more particular account of their missionary stations, as he meets with them in their alphabetical order.

Of the execution of the plan we will only remark, after a slight examination, that if the author had given us a more elaborate and philosophical view of the great masses of mankind embraced in his 'general articles,'-if he had made us more intimately acquainted with the character of their political and religious systems, their antiquities, prejudices, philosophy, literature,

modes of life, &c. so that we should have seen distinctly the nature of

the ground to be occupied by the missionary; and if he had at the same time reduced his minor articles to a more concise, statistic form, he would have increased the value of his work as a book of reference, and added something to its literary merit.

It is an evil to which all gazetteers, in some degree, are liable, that the world is never stationary: every change renders them incomplete, and makes a new edition necessary.

Considering, therefore, the changes that are constantly produced by the missionary operations of the age, the Missionary Gazetteer must have a greater run,' we fear, than the author can expect, or the state of things will call for new editions oftener than the shelves of the booksellers will be ready to receive them. This, however, is obviously an objection to the nature of the work rather than to its execution.

FRANCIS S. WIGGINS proposes to publish by subscriptiou, the Rise, History, and Progress of Methodism in North America; by John Potts, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Trenton, N. J." "The proposed work is a concise and condensed history of Methodism in this country, from its rise to the present time, comprising an account of its introduction and establishment-the annual increase and occasional declension in its membership -the most important changes and improvements that have been made, from time to time, in its ecclesiastical polity -extraordinary revivals of religion, with the most striking incidents that have attended them-sketches of the character of those preachers who have died in the travelling connexion-a general view of the present state and prospects of Methodism, &c. &c."

S. Converse, of New-Haven, has just completed an edition of the works of Andrew Fuller, in eight volumes 8vo, This edition includes the Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Pearce, which was omitted in the English editions. The Life of Fuller is published in a separate volume, in a style corresponding with his works,

Great exertions are making by the Synod of Kentucky for the endowment of the Centre College, which is by the late charter made subject to the control

of that body. Several agents have been appointed to obtain funds, one of whom goes to England, and others to different parts of the United States. This college, if we are not deceived, has peculiar claims to patronage. If the great mass of population which is filling up the south-western States is ever to be supplied with well-educated, settled ministers, they must be raised up on the spot. But this can hardly be expected in the present state of things while the few and feeble colleges that exist there are generally subject to legislative influence, and some of them of a decidedly irreligious and pernicious character. "The Synod," says a printed document, "has long been impressed with the great importance of having a literary institution under its care and direction, regulated and conducted upon such principles as are calculated to bring forth an adequate supply of able ministers of the New Testament, for the rapidly increasing population of Western America. Over the schools, public and private, which have here been instituted, and which are now in operation, the church has no efficient influence or control. Her youth who have been placed within the walls of these institutions for the purpose of acquiring an education preparatory to the study of theology, have generally been corrupted in their principles and morals, and have declined her service. The Synod knows of no remedy for this evil, and

no method so well calculated to furnish the church an asylum and a nursery for her sons destined for the holy ministry, as the institution of a college according to Bible principles, and to be under the control and direction of the friends of religion. For the attainment of this object, the Synod has made more attempts than one, but always failed until the present time."

Of the efforts here alluded to we have a brief sketch in the following extract from the New-York Observer. "At an early day in the history of Kentucky, Presbyterians of the west united their efforts in the formation of a college for the education of their children, and for training youth for the gospel ministry. About the same time, an institution was erected in Lexington under the patronage of the State. After a few years it was proposed to unite the two institutions, and accordingly, upon common and equal ground, their funds and efforts were combined in the formation at Lexington, of what was called the Transylvania Seminary. This state of things continued until 1817, when the legislature, without any restoration of the funds which had been deposited, (consisting of more than $7,000, besides 6,000 acres of land,) ejected the Presbyterians from the Board, and put the institution into other hands. From considerations of peace, &c. they did not sue for their rights, though the case is believed to have been even a stronger one than that of the Dartmouth Board at Hanover, but projected the plan of a new college, to be situated at Danville, thirty miles south of Lexington, and the former seat of government. The citizens of this village were to endow this institution in union with the Synod of Kentucky; but when the charter was asked of the general assembly of Kentucky, it was so mutilated by that body, and the college put so directly under their control, that the Synod declined to accept it.

The people of Danville, under this imperfect instrument, nursed a small institution into life for several years, with very laudable efforts, but inadequate means. Two years since, the Presbyterians again projected a plan for a college; a union with the people of Danville was effected, and the legislature of the State, feeling unable or unwilling to assist the Centre or Danville College, agreed to confer inde

pendent privileges on that institution if the Presbyterians would endow it; withdrawing at the same time two thousand dollars, which was the only gift bestowed on it by the State at any time. In these circumstances, the people of Danville transfer their institution from a State control, which has extended to it no essential aid, to the care and patronage of the Synod of Kentucky. It is now, therefore the child of the church. Without the co-operation of the Christians and friends of letters in the East, however, this institution must perish, and with it one of the fondest hopes of the western church, while the prospects of the State will be unspeakably affected."

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS.-From the second quarterly number, for the current year, which completes the ninth volume of this work, and which has just left the press, we select the articles which follow:

Morality of the Greek and Roman Philosophers.-A Latin discourse obtained the prize in the academy of Leyden, in 1823, on the question, Whether and to what extent the philosophers (Greek and Roman) founded morality upon the existence and attributes of the Divinity? Leyden, 1824. pp. 137. 4to.

The author determined to consult, in his researches, no other than the writers of antiquity, and to cite them only in their original texts. The following is the result of his investigations. The ancient Greek poets are not always explicit on the relation between God and man; and the whole of them wandered in the darkness of polytheism. Nevertheless, they taught the existence of God, and even of an original or supreme deity-the chastisement of vice, and the recompense of virtue, in a future life. Among the philosophers, Pythagoras insisted much upon the connexion between God and man, in establishing, upon the system of the metempsychosis, the reward of the good and the punishment of the wicked. Socrates discovered the origin of justice in the divine will. He maintained that the gods have a love for men, and inferred from their justice and their universal knowledge that they would punish the wicked. Plato taught the existence of one God, who formed the world by a thought of his intelligence, and he affirmed the immortality of the