more than all others, proves the benign effects of foreign missions upon the churches and the countries by which they are sustained. Those persons who are the most zealous and munificent in evangelizing the heathen are the most liberal patrons of all domestic institutions. And what adds peculiar force to this consideration is, that before the condition of the heathen world aroused the sympathies of these very Christians, they scarcely gave any thing to objects of charity.

What a rich commentary does this specimen of facts furnish upon a large class of Scripture passages. "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." "The liberal soul shall be made fat and he

:

that watereth, shall be watered also himself."

:

"He which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly and he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully." "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you: that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." "Being enriched in every thing, to all bountifulness."

The 58th chapter of Isaiah is chiefly devoted to the advantages of beneficence.

The Lord considers himself even the debtor to all those whom his own grace disposes to acts of mercy and charity. "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord: and that which he hath given, will he pay him again."

There is something in the very nature of the missionary enterprise, which is adapted to produce the most salutary effect upon the churches. It is pre-eminently conducive to the greatest developement of those principles which constitute the chief attributes of Christian character. The world is the object of benevolence-the whole world in all its magnitude and misery-the rebellious, self-ruined world for which Christ died, and which is to be reconciled to him by human agency. What love, what zeal, what liberality, what self-denial, and faith, and prayer, are not demanded in this stupendous undertaking! The heart which it enlists must be greatly improved, whatever may have been its previous excellence; for there is no other subject which searches it so thoroughly-dispossessing it of its narrow, selfish policy, and filling its enlarged capacities with the Christ-like spirit of universal brotherhood. He who does not realise these happy effects of the work of missions upon his own character, has reason to question his sincere devotedness to this work.

He whose soul, spirit, and body are unreservedly consecrated to the extension of the Saviour's kingdom, must necessarily exhibit a striking resemblance to him to whom his spirit is allied in such powerful sympathy. What a blessing, then, must missions be to the churches, and the countries in which they are situated! How could it be otherwise than that those whose best principles and mightiest energies had been

OLIVER CROMWELL'S OPINIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 301

summoned, and in a measure adapted to the project of a world's conversion, would exert the most benign influence upon every domestic institution and object of benevolence? The very qualifications which prepare them for evangelizing the world, dispose them to become proportionately useful at home.

This, then, would be my objection to limiting the Gospel to my native land, even if the salvation of my countrymen were my exclusive duty. How doubly mistaken are the brethren who have spoken; first, in magnifying each one his own country above all the world besides; and secondly, in endeavouring to render this country an Eden, while the richest influences promised to disinterestedness and liberality are all forfeited and all withheld.

At the close of this speech, the meeting was adjourned until the following day.

OLIVER CROMWELL'S OPINIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN

MINISTRY.

As the public mind at the present time is much engaged with controversies relating to a valid and orderly ministry, it may interest some to know what opinions were advocated by the foremost man of his age, who, at the time they were penned, had with him, by order of parliament, two of the most celebrated divines of the Independent body, Mr. Joseph Caryl, and Mr. John Owen. After Cromwell had gained a signal victory over the Scotch adherents of Charles II., at Dunbar, he advanced in the beginning of September, 1650, upon Leith and Edinburgh, and occupied, without resistance, the city and suburbs. At his approach, the Presbyterian ministers of Edinburgh, left their churches and their homes, and fled to the castle, which still held out in favour of Charles, against the forces of the Lord-general. As the citizens were deprived of the services of their ministers, Cromwell ordered Colonel Whalley to send a trumpet, and inform the governor of the castle, that the ministers might return to the discharge of their duties, that they should have full liberty to preach, and that none in the army should molest them.

Dundas, the governor, replied, that—

'Though the ministers of Edinburgh are ready to be spent in their Master's service, and to refuse no suffering, so they may fulfil their ministerie with joy ; yet, perceiving the persecution to be personall, by the practice of your party upon the ministers of Christ ...... and finding nothing expressed, whereby to build any security for their persons, while they are there, and for their return hither; they are resolved to reserve themselves for better times, and to wait upon him who hath hidden his face for a while from the sons of Jacob."

To this communication, Cromwell himself replied the same day, in a letter, in which he states

"The kindness offered to the ministers with you, was done with ingenuitie, thinking it might have been met with the like; but I am satisfied to tell those with you,

that if their Master's service (as they call it) were chiefly in their eye, imagination of suffering would not have caused such a return.... The ministers in England are supported, and have liberty to preach the Gospell, though not to raile, nor under pretence thereof to overstep the civill power, or debase it as they please. No man has been troubled in England, or Ireland, for preaching the Gospell; nor has any minister been molested in Scotland, since the coming of the army hither. The speaking truth becomes the ministers of Christ. When ministers pretend to a glorious reformation, and lay the foundation thereof, in getting to themselves worldly power, and can make worldly mixtures to accomplish the same, such as their late engagement with their king, and hope, by him, to carry on their designe, may know, that the Zion promised, and hoped for, will not be built with such untempered mortar.... They seem to comfort themselves with being the sons of Jacob, from whom they say, God hath hid his face for a time, yet, it's no wonder, when the Lord hath lifted up his hand so eminently against a family, as he hath done so often against this, and men will not see his hand, if the Lord hide his face from such, putting them to shame, both for it and their hatred at his people, as it is this day. When they purely trust to the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, which is powerful to bring down strong holds, and every imagination that exalts itself, which alone is able to square and fit the stones of the new Jerusalem; then, and not before, and by that means, and none other, shall Jerusalem, (which is to be the praise of the whole earth,) the city of God, be built, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel."

To this a reply was sent immediately, in which the charge of persecution is reiterated, and they go on to say, "that it savours not of ingenuitie to promise liberty of preaching the Gospel, and to limit the preachers thereof, that they must not speak against the sins and enormities of civil powers, since their commission carryeth them to speak the word of the Lord unto, and to reprove the sins of persons of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest." They then add, and this is the remark which called forth Cromwell's opinion in general on the nature of the ministry, "But they are sorry, that they have just cause to regrete, that men of meer civill place, and employment, should usurp the calling and employment of the ministry, to the scandall of the reformed kirks, and particularly in Scotland, contrary to the government and discipline therein established."

The correspondence, which had been sufficiently quick for one day, was resumed again by an extraordinary letter from Cromwell, dated September 12th, 1650, which is too long to be transcribed at length, and, therefore, we only quote that portion which relates to the ministry:

"They," (the ministers,)" must give more leave henceforwards, for Christ will have it so, will they, nil they; and they must have patience to have the truth of their doctrines and sayings tryed by the sure touchstone of the word of God. And if there be a liberty and duty of triall, there is a liberty of judgment also for them that may and ought to try; which, if so, they must give others leave to say and think, that they can appeall to equall judges, who have been the truest fulfillers of the most real and equitable ends of the covenant. But if these gentlemen who do assume to themselves to be the infallible expositors of the covenant, as they do too much to their auditories of the Scriptures, counting a different sense and judgment from their breach of covenant and heresy: no marvell they judge of others so authoritatively and severely. But we have not so learned Christ. We look at ministers as helpers

of, not lords over the faith of God's people. I appeale to their consciences, whether any trying their doctrines and dissenting shall not incurre the censure of sectary; and what is this but to deny Christians their liberty, and assume the infallible chayre? What doeth he, whom we would not be likened unto, doe more than this? In the second place, it is affirmed, that the ministers of the Gospel have been imprisoned, deprived of their benefices, sequestered, forced to flye from their dwellings, and bitterly threatened for their faithfull declaring the will of God, &c., and that they have been limitted, that they might not speak against the sins and enormities of the civill powers; that to impose the name of rayling upon such faithful freedom was the old practice of malignants against the preachers of the Gospel, &c. If the civill authority, or that part of it which continued faithful to their trust, true to the ends of the covenant, did, in answer to their consciences, turn out a tyrant, in a way which the Christians of after times will mention with honour, and all tyrants in the world looke at with feare; and many thousands of saints in England rejoice to think of it, and have received from the hand of God a liberty from the fear of like usurpations, and have cast off him who trod in his father's steps, doing mischiefe as farre as he was able, whom you have received like fire into your bosome, of which God will, I trust, in time make you sensible; if ministers rayling at the civill power, calling them murderers, and the like, for doing this, have been dealt with as you mention; will this be found a personal persecution? or is sin so, because they say so? They that acted this great businesse have given a reason of their faith in that action, and some here are ready further to doe so against all gainsayers. But it will be found, that these reprovers do not only make themselves the judges and determiners of sin, that so they may reprove; but they also took liberty to stirre up the people to blood and armes, and would have brought a warre upon England, as hath been upon Scotland, had not God prevented it. And if such severity as hath been expressed toward them, be worthy of the name of personall persecution, lett all uninterested men judge whether the calling of this practice rayling be to be paralleled with the malignant imputation upon the ministers for speaking against the popish innovations in the prelates' time, and the tyrannical and wicked practice then on foot. Let your consciences minde you. The Roman emperors in Christ's and his apostles' times were usurpers and intruders upon the Jewish state; yet what footstep have ye either of our blessed Saviour's so much as willingness to the dividing of an inheritance or medling in that kind. This was not practised by the church since our Saviour's time, till Antichrist assuming the infallible chaire, and all that he called the church to be under him, practised this authoritatively over civill governors.

"The way to fulfill your ministry with joy is to preach the Gospel; which I wish some who take pleasure in reproofs at adventure, do not forget too much to doe. "Thirdly, you say you have just come to regreat that men of civill imployments should usurp the calling and imployment of the ministry, to the scandal of the reformed kirks.

"Are you troubled that Christ is preached? Is preaching so inclusive in your function? Doeth it scandalize the reformed kirks, and Scotland in particular? Is it against the covenant? Away with the covenant if this be so. I thought the covenant and these could have been willing that any should speak good of the name of Christ; if not, it is no covenant of God's approveing, nor the kirks you mention, in so much the spouse of Christ. Where do you find in the Scripture a ground to warrant such an assertion, that preaching is included in your function? Tho' an approbation from men hath order in it, and may doe well, yet he that hath no better warrant than that, hath none at all. I hope, he that ascended up on high may give his gifts to whom he please; and if those gifts be the seall of mission, be not envious though Eldad and Medad prophesie. You know who bids us covet earnestly

the best gifts, but chiefly that we may prophesie; which the apostle explains there, to be speaking to instruction, and edification, and comfort; which the instructed, edified, and comforted can best tell the energie and effect of: if such evidence be, I say again, take heed you envy not for your own sakes, lest you be guilty of a greater fault than Moses reproved in Joshua for envying for his sake. Indeed, you erre through the mistake of the Scriptures: approbation is an act of conveniency in respect of order, not of necessity to give faculty to preach the Gospel. Your pretended fear, least error should step in, is like the man that would keep all the wine out of the country, least men should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousie, to deny a man the liberty he hath by nature, upon a supposition that he may abuse it; when he doeth abuse it, judge. If a man speak foolishly ye suffer him gladly, because ye are wise; if erroniously, the truth more appears by your conviction; stop such a man's mouth with sound words, that cannot be gainsaid: if blasphemously, or to the disturbance of the publick peace, let the civil magistrate punish him; if truly, rejoice in the truth. And if you will call our speakings toge ther since we came into Scotland, to provoke one another to love and good works, to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance from dead works; to charity and love towards you, to pray and mourn for you, and for the bitter returns to, and incredulity of our professions of love to you; of the truth of which we have made our solemne and humble appeales to the Lord our God, which he hath heard and born witness to; if these things be scandalous to the kirk, and against the covenant, because done by men of civill callings, we rejoice in them, notwithstanding what you say."*

These extracts are all the passages that relate to the ministry. Should any reader wish to peruse the entire documents, they are to be found in a scarce tract, printed at Edinburgh, 1650, entitled, "Several Letters and Passages between his Excellency the Lord-General Cromwell and the Governor of Edinburgh Castle and the Ministers there, since his Excellency's entrance into Edinburgh;" which is reprinted in Thurlow's Collection of State Papers, fol. vol. i. pp. 158-163.

IS SHAKSPEARE A FIT AUTHOR FOR THE CHRISTIAN'S PERUSAL?

WITHOUT Wishing either to court or to decline a controversy on this subject, I would rather, having called attention to it, invite the opinion of others respecting it. It is a far more momentous one than perhaps appears to many at the first sight; and with the extension of academical and collegiate instruction, is likely to become even more so. The question, as I would wish to propound it, is one of ethics rather

* Hume the historian says, that "Cromwell having been so successful in the war of the sword, took up the pen against the Scottish ecclesiastics. He wrote them some polemical letters, in which he maintained the chief points of the Independent theology." In a note he adds, that "This letter is the best of Cromwell's wretched compositions that remains:" but Mr. Orme, in his life of Dr. Owen, says, “ From the phraseology I strongly suspect it to have been the production of Owen's pen." If so, the opinions expressed deserve still more the attention of our churches.