แ Surely, the wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."-This sentiment of the Divine word is continually illustrated before our eyes. Human wickedness becomes the occasion, in the wonder-working providence of God, of a greater good than would otherwise have been realized; and all this without furnishing the least shadow of an excuse for the sin, or detracting at all from the guilt of the sinner. The sin of Joseph's brethren in selling him into Egypt was made the occasion of his subsequent exaltation and usefulness, and of the preservation of his father's house. The sin of Queen Elizabeth and her successors, in persecuting the Puritans, was made the occasion of the settlement of New England. Had not the court of Charles II. been wicked enough to shut up John Bunyan in prison, the world might never have been favored with Pilgrim's Progress, and the name and influence of the writer might long ago have been forgotten. And so in a thousand other instances. With out intending it, or thinking of it, men fulfill the purposes of God, and promote his glory. And even when they intend the contrary, their evil designs are overruled for the ad. vancement of Christ's kingdom. "Surely, the wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."

But what has all this to do with Mr. Coleman's " Apostolical and Primitive Church?" We will ex

The Apostolical and Primitive Church, Popular in its Government, and Simple in its Worship. By Lyman Coleman. With an Introductory Essay, by Dr. Augustus Neander, Professor of Theology in the University of Berlin. Second Edition. Boston: Gould, Ken

dall & Lincoln. 1844.

plain. Some four or five years ago, Mr. Coleman published his "Christian Antiquities"-a work of great learning, and of distinguished useful. ness. This contradicted, of course -as every such work of necessity must-the arrogant claims_and pretensions of high-church Epis copalians; and an addle-headed "Presbyter" of the Episcopal church undertook to reply to certain portions of it, affecting to treat it with scorn and contempt. And but for that miserable, spiteful reply, the book before us, we are assured, had never been written. To the "Presbyter" aforesaid we feel under no particular obligations; but we do rejoice that, in consequence of his interference, the thoughts of the learned author of the "Antiquities" were directed more specifically to the subject of the present volume. And more especially do we praise that overruling Prov idence, under whose guidance and blessing it has been given to the world.

Nor do we feel under obligations to arrogant Churchmen and Pusey. ites, for assailing our ecclesiastical constitution as they have done, and insisting that we have no proper churches or ministers among us. And yet we do not doubt that their opposition will be overruled for good. Indeed, we can see that it has been so already. It has aroused the friends of a popular church government, and led them to look again at the foundation on which they stand. It has been a means of reviving a too much neglected subject, and of drawing towards it a deeply interested attention.

The work before us is not one to be trifled with, either by friends or foes. It obviously is the result of deep and thorough research-of much patient labor and study. Not

satisfied with the means of investigation enjoyed in this country, when our author had resolved to canvass the subject, and had made considerable progress in the arrangement of his materials, he repaired to Germany, that he might have access to the extensive libraries, and confer with distinguished scholars, there. He had thus the best sources of information within his reach, and he certainly has made very good use of them. He has given us a vol. ume, at which the enemies of a pop ular church government may rail, but which they never will answera thesaurus of facts and testimonies, which should have a place in the libraries of all our young ministers.

Mr. Coleman commences with a summary view of the ground to be passed over, and the course of reasoning to be pursued. He next in quires into the constitution and gov. ernment of the Jewish synagogue, and shows that the primitive Christian churches were formed after the same model. In some instances, the assemblies of the early Christians were even called synagogues. "If there come into your assembly, ourayoji, a man with a gold ring," &c., James ii, 2. In regard to the connection between the early church and the synagogue, the testimony of Archbishop Whately is too important to be omitted.

"It is probable that one cause, humanly speaking, why we find in the Sacred Books less information concerning the Christian ministry and the constitution of church governments than we otherwise might have found, is that these institutions had less of novelty than some would at first sight suppose, and that many portions of them did not wholly originate with the Apostles. It appears highly probable,-I might say, morally certain, -that wherever a Jewish synagogue existed, that was brought, the whole, or the chief part of it,-to embrace the gospel, the apostles did not, there, so much form a Christian church (or congregation, ecclesia) as make an existing congregation Christian; by introducing the Christian sacraments and worship, and establishing whatever regulations were requisite for the newly-adopted faith; leaving the

No

Mr. Coleman's next chapter is on the independence of the primitive churches. He proceeds to show that the Apostles instituted no external form of union or confedera. tion between the churches. trace of any such confederation, whether diocesan or conventional, can be detected on the page of history. The newly planted churches enjoyed the fellowship of the Spirit, and they had intercourse and communion, one with another, in a great variety of ways. But each indi vidual church was a society purely voluntary, and was independent of all others, in the conduct of its worship, the admission of its members, the exercise of its discipline, the election of its officers, and the entire management of its affairs.

If this be so, it certainly is a very important fact; and that it really is so, is sustained by the authority, not merely of Congregationalists and Presbyterians, but of Episcopalians and Lutherans. "Every church," says Dr. Barrow, 66 was settled apart, so as independently and separately to manage its own concerns." "Every church," according to Dr. other church, with respect to its own Burton, 66 was independent of every internal regulations and laws."

66

"The subordinate government of each particular church," says Riddle, was vested in itself; that is to say, the whole body elected its ministers and officers, and was consulted respecting all matters of importance. All churches were independent of each other, but were united by the bonds of holy charity, sympathy, and friendship." Dean Waddington, speaking of the church es in the first century, says, " Every church was essentially independent of every other. The churches, thus constituted and regulated, formed a sort of federative body of independent religious communities, dispersed through the greater part of the Roman empire, in continual communication, and in constant harmony with each other." Similar views are also expressed by Archbishop Whately: "Though there was one Lord, one faith, one baptism for all these churches, yet they were each a distinct, independent community on earth, united by the common principles on which they were found ed by their mutual agreement, affection and respect; but not having any one recognized head on earth, or acknowledging any sovereignty of one of these societies over others."

The writers here quoted are all of them learned Episcopalians of England. Similar testimonies to almost any extent might be adduced from the Lutheran ecclesiastical historians of Germany. Indeed, all candid and competent witnesses unite in testifying to the independence of the apostolical churches.

In the next chapter, which is the fourth, our author shows that the churches exercised the right of election, not only in the age of the Apostles, and in their immediate presence, but for long ages after ward. Indeed, this relic of the early, popular form of church government remained, when nearly every other vestige of it had passed away. The right of choosing their

own ministers and other ecclesiastical officers, was one of the last which the people would surrender, or which the hierarchy was able to wrest from them. "During the first century," says Waddington, "on the death of a president, or bishop, or pastor, the choice of a successor devolved on the members of the society. In this election, the people had an equal share; and it is clear that their right in the matter was not barely testimonial, but judicial and elective." Mosheim, in his history of the second century, says, "One president or bishop presided over each church, who was created by the common suffrage of the whole people." According to Cyprian, it was an apostolic usage, preserved by a divine authority in his day, and observed throughout the churches of Africa, that a pastor should be chosen publicly, in the presence of the people; and that by their decision, thus publicly expressed, the candidate should be adjudged worthy to fill the vacant office, whether of deacon, presbyter, or bishop.

The right of electing their own church officers, so dear to the people, and regarded by them as their natural inheritance, was not wrested from them at once, but was filched away by slow and imperceptible degrees. Under pretense of preventing popular disorders and tumults, it was gradually restricted, and encumbered with embarrassing conditions, till at length, after the lapse of some five or six hundred years, the traces of it were scarcely visible. Thus, in the language of our author, "the government of the church, from a pure democracy, had changed, first into an ambitious aristocracy, and then into a more oppressive oligarchy, which directed its assaults against that most sacred principle both of civil and religious liberty-the right of every corporate body to choose its own teachers and rulers. This extinction of religious

freedom was not effected in the church universally at the same time, nor in every place by the same means. Oppressed by violence, overreached by stratagem, or awed into submission by superstition, the churches severally yielded the contest, at different and somewhat distant intervals."

The subject of the fifth chapter is the discipline of the primitive churches. This, says Mr. Coleman, "was administered by each body of believers collectively; and continued to be under their control, until the third or fourth century. About this period, the simple and effective discipline of the primitive church was exchanged for a complicated and oppressive system of penance, administered by the clergy."

That the right to administer ecclesiastical discipline was originally vested in the church, Mr. Coleman argues from the Scriptures; from the early Fathers; from the authority of modern ecclesiastical writers; and from the fact, that the entire government of the church was vested in the body itself.

In the age immediately succeed ing that of the Apostles, we find the churches exercising the right, not only of excluding offending members, but of deposing and excluding unworthy ministers. The church at Corinth had deposed some of their presbyters, which was the occasion of Clement's writing to them his first epistle from Rome. In writing to the Philippians, Polycarp refers to the case of a presbyter, who had been excluded by that church. At a later period, we read of two bishops in Spain, who had been deposed by their churches for idolatry. Origen, in his commentary on Matthew, speaks of the conviction of an offender before the whole church, as the customary mode of trial. The Roman Catholic historian, Du Pin, asserts that the discipline of offen. ders, in the third century, was administered by the church, as it had VOL. IV.

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been from the beginning. Planck affirms that, so late as the middle of the third century, the members of the church still exercised their original right of controlling the proceedings of the church, both in the exclusion of offenders, and in the restitution of penitents.

"From about the middle of the fourth century," says our author, "the bishops assumed the control of the whole penal jurisdiction of the laity, opening and shutinflicting sentence of excommunication, ting at pleasure the doors of the church, and prescribing, at their discretion, the austerities of penance; and again ab solving the penitents, and restoring them to the church by their own arbitrary power. The people, accordingly, no longer having any part in the trial of offenses, ceased to watch for the purity of the church, connived at offenses, and concealed the offender; not caring to interfere with the prerogatives of the bishop, in which they had no further interest. The speedy and sad corruption of the church was but the natural consequence of this loose and arbitrary discipline. Nor can it be doubted, that this was one efficient cause of that degeneracy which succeeded." p. 116.

The almost total neglect of disci. pline in churches where the power vests in the priesthood, and not in the people, is apparent in our own times. For example, in the Lutheran church in Germany, according to the testimony of a devout minister of that body, " persons of abandoned character, known to be such, and the most notorious slaves of lust, are publicly and indiscriminately received to the sacrament of the Lord's supper." And in the church of England, the state of things is not at all better. The following is the testimony of the Tractarians on this point; and they will not be suspected of exaggeration.

"Every church warden in every parish in England, is called upon once a year to attend the visitation of his archdeacon. At this time oaths are tendered to him respecting his different duties; and among other things he swears, that he will present to the archdeacon the names of all such inhabitants of his parish as are leading notoriously immoral lives. This oath is regularly taken once a year by every church warden in every parish in