but his friend was actually pushed off the path, by these meek clamourers for religious freedom---these who cry out so loudly about the intolerance of the Church! Charming commentary upon their own principles! Quite as clever as the ingenious cry of "Stop thief”! except that the thief was original, and these are only imitators! What says "Common Sense" to this? It spoke by the looks, and even by the words and acts, of several intelligent and respectable Wesleyans there present, as well as by the contempt and indignation of Churchmen. We say Wesleyans! for the fact of this outrage proceeding from one of their congregations strengthens the evidence, that the evils of schism will be always the same in kind, though they may differ in degree. On more than one occasion we have admitted their moderation, as compared with other dissenters. The professions of Wesley in favor of the Church are also notoriously contradictory to the practices here exhibited. If even in this body separation from the Church produces such fruit, what rancour, intolerance, and persecution must spring from dissent in its most rabid forms! That many respectable members of the Wesleyan body loathe such proceedings and are ashamed of them, we doubt not. But disgust alone will not place them in safety, nor acquit them in the sight of Divine justice or of "Common Sense." From that, which their heart condemns, let their judgment withdraw them. Let them come out from the evil of schism which generates strife, and come back to the Church, wherein is "unity of Spirit and the bond of peace." even But, to return to the narrative, the power of these would-be persecutors was not equal to their malice; otherwise they would have created confusion and perhaps riot, in which they might have suffered. But their miserable screech, was drowned in the grateful chant of the assembled multitudes, which arose like the sound of many waters, filling the air with the Harmony of Glory and Praise. Nothing could be heard of the sectarian disturbers, but a stifled squeal, telling their defeat and failure, their shame and disgrace, It drew down from the Vicar remarks, which he would willingly have spared, and in which he pointed out the glaring proofs they had given, that in leaving the true church, men left "unity of Spirit and the bond of peace," to embrace a system pregnant with division and strife, hatred and illwill, turbulence and bigotry. "Common Sense"! consider these things and learn the difference between the pure and tried metal of the Church, and the counterfeit brass of Dissent. We have plenty more such facts old and new. The dissenters begin the assault and challenge us to the field. They will find we are not in want of arms, though reluctant to use them. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We are not responsible for the opinions or statements of Correspondents. Our friends must not be angry with us for not using their communications. We have so much matter that we have not at present room. To Baxter. It is not candid to censure us as indiscriminately attacking all dissenters. We have said again and again, that we distinguish between the conscientious and factious dissenter. Many of the former we know are disgusted with the practices of the latter. But the only way to escape the disgrace of their acts is publicly to disavow, and come out from among them. Though we admit that many individual dissenters are not responsible for the evils we condemn, yet we contend that the system of dissent is; and that it is as much identified with them as a tree with its fruit. Zenas' suggestions are good but his Letter is not of sufficiently general interest for our pages. We thank "Operative" for his hint about Painter's "Journal of the Working Classes." We shall look into it; the plan seems good, and it is very cheap. Correspondents are requested to address their Communications (pre-paid) to the Rev. W. N. Molesworth, 2, Ardwick Green, Manchester. London:-Messrs. Rivingtons. Rochdale:-Printed and Sold by T. Holden; S. Ashworth; and all Booksellers. Fine Sense, and Exalted Sense, are not half so useful as CHURCH HISTORY. (CHAP. I.-continued from page 67.) Having stated the circumstances under which the five books of Moses were written, we may proceed with the account which those books give of the Church during the period mentioned at the head of this Chapter. God, we find, appears in person; Himself regulating and ordering all proceedings of any importance connected with religion, and even with the temporal and social condition of man. This might, at least with respect to religion, have been fairly presumed, even though it had not been expressly declared, from the circumstances already alluded to in the writing and publishing of the Pentateuch; and also from the very necessity of the case. But it is nevertheless expressly mentioned, and with quite as much stress, as the brevity and object of the narrative could lead us to expect. At the first God created all things, and Man with them. Adam Yet then had not yielded himself to the delusion and servitude of sin. He was innocent, pure, and upright. The helpmate, whom the Lord miraculously provided for him, was like him in these respects. They enjoyed the fruits of innocence and uprightness. God blessed them, and all creation; saw that all was good, and crowned all with happiness. The peace and joy of Heaven dwelt upon earth. The garden of Eden; was a type and more than a type of Heaven. The God of Heaven was there, in His visible Glory; shedding the pure delights of innocence and holiness on favoured man. even in Paradise, there were ordinances, and a trial of their faith, and obedience. God set apart one day out of seven-to be blessed and kept Holy -to be especially dedicated to the memory, praise, and adoration, of Him, who had employed six days in Creation, and had rested from His gracious work on the seventh. That this was what Moses meant by "Blessing and sanctifying" the seventh day none can doubt, who considers, that these words were addressed to men accustomed so to understand the phrase. Not that a Jew would of necessity conclude that the seventh day was to be so kept in all the peculiar forms of their Law; but he would understand that some similar observance of that day, suited the state of the Church at the time, was ordained by the Great Lord of the Church from the very beginning. We do not however profess to enter upon controversial questions. We affirm that ordinances there were— and that those ordinances were of God's appointment. The other remarkable ordinance of God related to those good and necessary things, which he had placed in the Paradise given into man's charge. It freely gave him for food and pleasure all the trees of the Garden save one. That one, the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", it was God's ordinance, that man should not use. The penalty of disobe dience was also distinctly declared-"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen. II., 17.) No reason is given for this prohibition. Man is to observe it upon the same ground, as that upon which humble obedience to 'every ordinance of God is due. It is God's will; and faith in God demands obedience. The consequences of disobedience are too well known. Our guilty Parents were expelled Paradise-the curse upon the earth was pronounced-the sentence of death had gone forth. But mercy tempered justice, or we had not been born to read the warning. The voice of prophecy was recorded in the Church of God. She became the witness and keeper of God's truth and mercy. In her, and by her chosen sons, was preserved and handed down the blessed promise of the Redeemer, as it dimly shone in the distance and shed its ray of hope upon the dark scene of man's fall and corruption. The seed that should "bruise the serpent's head" (Gen., III., 15) was revealed, and the infant Church entered upon its period of weakness and labour and sorrow, till, by the atoning blood of Christ and through faith in Him, it should work out salvation and be conducted to that Heaven of which Paradise was a type. There was then but one family; of one faith, and obedient to one Lord. That Lord of the Church ordered all things in it. No man presumed to question His ordinances, or to set up any supposed right of private judgment. Satan alone had disputed and defied the ordinances of God-No man had so far presumed, as to set up his reason and devices against his maker. The first schism-the first setting up of man's judgment, or rather pride and passion, against God's ordinances, bad for its Author--Cain. He and Abel his brother both came to make an offering to God; Cain, as a tiller of the ground offered his fruits; Abel, as a keeper of sheep, the firstlings |