made the sinner feel himself discovered in the most obscure corner of every refuge of lies; and where his words took effect, they were "like nails fastened in a sure place," they aroused conscience, and their fibres, often, struck into the heart, and were rooted, there, for ever. Such was Baxter as a practical theologian. Much as we dislike his sentiments, on some of the doctrines of the gospel, and though we think his works are more calculated to convince than to convert the soul; though he speaks more of the vanity of the world, and the exceeding folly of sin, and the awful solemnity of man's situation as a sinner, than he does about the glory of Christ's person, or about his perfect righteousness, or his wonderful love, or the unsearchable riches of grace and glory, of which he is the treasury; and though, considered as the only books, describing the gospel, they would make but poorly furnished souls, yet, when viewed as the forerunners of Christ, as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, as the means of awakening carnal and secure souls to serious thought, the practical works of Richard Baxter have no equal.

It was, therefore, with lively pleasure that we saw, a selection from his practical writings, announced as one of the volumes of Mr Nelson's works of the British Puritans: And this satisfaction was enhanced when we ascertained that the volume consists of some of the choicest pieces that ever proceeded from Baxter's pen. Far different, however, were the feelings with which we read the prefatory memoir. We think Mr Nelson has heen, singularly, unfortunate in his selection of a biographer for Baxter, and, having been chosen to perform this work, we do not see how Dr Jenkyns could have well done it in a more injudicious manner: Allowing that he had intended, to damage the reputation, and lessen the influence of Baxter, to the uttermost, with a very large class of readers, we do not know any means by which that end could have been, more successfully, accomplished, than by bringing forward the doctrinal errors of that distinguished man with the offensive prominence he has given to them.

The memoir is divided into three parts-Baxter's Life-Baxter's Ministry and Baxter's Theology. It is written in a style, mid-way, between, the barely passable and the positively pleasant, and judging, solely, from this memoir, we should consider the author to be a spruce, smartish, writer, largely imbued with partizan feelings, with many pretensions to independence of mind, and having much to say in praise of originality, but who has few claims to profound self-sustained thought, and no claims whatever to the precious gift of invention, though he is so enamoured with its shadow, that he, frequently, speaks, as if he considered the novelty of a thought to be a matter of more importance than its truth.

We cannot conceive, upon what principle Dr Jenkyns has thought proper to separate his account of Baxter's ministry, from Baxter's life. Never, had a biographer less excuse for such an arrangement; for never was there a man whose ministry was, more thoroughly, identified with his life, than was the ministry of Richard Baxter. The arrangement is, however, a matter of minor importance, in a case where we are called upon, by a sense of duty, to prefer the grave and serious charge of putting forth unsound and even dangerous opinions. There are some things, in each of the first two sections, into which the memoir is divided, that are No. I. VOL. 1.

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unsatisfactory. We, merely, particularise, in the first section, the account which he gives of Baxter's disputations with the sectaries in the army. These sectaries he represents as "the first and noble disciples of religious liberty," and he reflects on Baxter's attempts to reclaim them. Now it would be easy to shew that the sectaries, were, at that time, the great enemies both of civil and religious liberty, that their sentiments were, not only, latitudinarian, but licentious, as any one may see who consults the catalogue of their opinions contained in the Gangrena of Edward's, published in the same year that Baxter joined the army. And, no man, competent to form an opinion, can doubt, that their conduct was the most influential of all the causes which led to the restoration of the Stuarts, to the British throne, and to the prolongation, of despotism in the State, and of persecution in the Church. Baxter was, better, acquainted, with the sectaries than Dr Jenkyns, and his deliberately expressed opinion, founded on experience, is entitled to more weight than the simple dictum of the writer of his memoir. But does Baxter, with all his candour, and all his anti-covenanting feelings, commend the sectaries? Let us hear a very small part of his description of them. "The poor Church of Christ," says he," the sober, sound, religious part, are like Christ that was crucified between two malefactors; the profane and formal persecutors on one hand, and the fanatick dividing sectaries on the other hand, have in all ages been grinding the spiritual seed as the corn is ground between the millstones; and though their sins have ruined themselves and us, and silenced so many hundreds of ministers, and scattered the flocks, and made us the hatred and scorn of the ungodly world, and a byword and a desolation in the earth, yet there are few of them that lament their sin, but justify themselves and their misdoings, and the penitent malefactor is unknown to us." And again," The sectaries chose out the most able, zealous ministers, to make the marks of their reproach, and obloquy, and all because they stood in the way of their designs, and hindered them in the propagation of their opinions. They set against these men, as the drunkards and swearers set against them, and much after the same manner; reviling them, and raising up false reports of them, and doing all to make them odious, and at last attempting to pull them all down; only they did it more profanely than the profane, in that they said Let the Lord be glorified, let the gospel be propagated; and abused and profaned scripture and the name of God, by entitling him to their faction and miscarriages." And, is it such men, Dr Jenkyns would, now, cannonize as the first and noble disciples of liberty? Men who were the open and embittered enemies of the gospel ministry, and who, by their licentious opinions and conduct, brought ruin on themselves, and silenced "so many hundreds of ministers ?" In vain, has history been written, for those who have contracted the habit, of winking, with the one eye, while perusing certain of its passages. But, on this point, it is vain to reason; for the apologists of the sectaries, like those of Mary Queen of Scots, have, from generation to generation, mistaken an image, framed by their own fancies, for a sober reality, and been so enraptured with the transcendent beauty, purity, and brightness, which, like a sacred halo, encircles the heads of their idols, emitting beams of incessant glory, which, transmute, all the dark facts of their history, into deeds of everlasting renown,

just as clouds are, sometimes, converted, by the sun, into a more magnificent drapery for his own pavilion; and here is Dr Jenkyns again with the old slang" the first and noble disciples of liberty of conscience."

But it is chiefly to Dr Jenkyns' account of Baxter as a theologian that we wish to call attention. And we may begin by stating, that, we conceive Dr Jenkyns has taken up an erroneous idea, of the true character, and distinctive excellence, of Baxter. "In fact," says he, "it is his theology that constitutes his individuality in history. By Baxter every divine means " Baxter's Theology;" as by Melancthon one means the "Communes Loci ;" and by Calvin the "Institutes," so, by Baxter, the theological reader means "the Aphorisms on Justification," and the devotional reader means "the Saint's Rest, or the Reformed Pastor." Now, we submit, that this is incorrect; and that, Baxter's individuality, in history, consists not in high theological attainments, but in his wonderful power as a pastor, a preacher, and a practical writer; and though, by Baxter, Dr Jenkyns may understand the Aphorisms on Justification, because these are the grand treasury of Baxterian errors, yet we suppose that in this there are few, except men of questionable orthodoxy, who will agree with him.

We, also, think that he ascribes, by far too high a place, to Baxter as a theologian. As a writer on theology, he places him above all his contemporaries, except Dr Owen, and in striking the balance, between Baxter and Owen, he allows the scale, rather, to incline to the side of the former. Now this appears to us to be simply ridiculous. Baxter was the pastor of the period-he surpassed all others, in ministerial diligence, and efficiency; but to place him, as a divine, on a level with Charnock, or Howe, or Usher, not to speak of Owen, is to claim for him a status to which he is not entitled, and which shews that his biographer, is, either, incapable of estimating the merits of men so illustrious, or, that he has certain sympathies with Baxter, by which he is, unconsciously, entangled and ensnared. A theologian, properly, signifies one who is conversant with the knowledge of God, and an eminent theologian is one who excels in this knowledge. But, in this sense, it cannot be said that skill in theology was the distinctive feature of Baxter's mind. If we might be allowed to transfer a learned word, from the pages of Dr Jenkyns to our own, we would say, that Baxter surpassed all others in the "anthropology" of redemption. It was not so much about what God was, and what God had done, that he discoursed, as about what man should do, by way of improving the revelations of the divine character and ways. And if, we confine the term theology to the special revelation of the plan of mercy, Baxter was not distinguished for the exhibition of the scheme of gospel truth; for holding forth the glory of the Saviour in his person, offices and work; or for shewing, how all the attributes of God, shine in Christ's face, with the fullest splendour, and in the sweetest harmony. His aim, was, not so much, to exhibit truth, as to lead the mind to act on truth already known. His Aphorisms on Justification, his Discussions about Redemption, his Conversations about Liberty, all indicate the same propensity; for these are all efforts to reconcile God's scheme with man's nature. Thus, take Baxter's works as a whole, theology, or the exhibition of God, and of divine truth, is not their distinctive feature. It was in the humanity,

rather the theology of redemption, that he was eminent. It was of man, his sin, his misery, the solemnity of his situation, and the infinite motives that press on him to work out his own salvation; it was on these topics that he loved to discourse; to these, the strength of his mind was constantly directed, and the things of God are introduced, not so much to influence man to act, as things about which man ought to act by virtue of his innate ability.

If, instead of the more extended meaning of the word theology, we confine it to the systematising of divine truth, to the classifying of it according to general principles, then Baxter's scheme of "Trichotomising," or of arranging all truths in a threefold view, because there are three persons in the Godhead, this scheme, shews that he was singularly destitute of the principle of generalisation, without which, no amount of study, could have made him a scientific theologian. We think we have, now, shewn that Dr Jenkyns, in claiming for Baxter the first place among the theologians of that age, has, justly, subjected himself to the charge of incompetency, either in capacity, or in candour.

Let us, now, consider the account which he gives of Baxter's theology. His opinions were, in many things, similar to what has, recently, been known in this country, as the " New Theology." He held the doctrine of universal redemption, in harmony with personal election-maintained that in justification it is not the righteousness of Christ, but his own faith that is imputed to the sinner; and, in fine, he asserted, that every sinner exerts a distinct agency, of his own, in producing his conversion. The statement, which Dr Jenkyns gives of Baxter's errors is very ample, and, in our opinion, it was wholly uncalled for, and will be a drawback upon the influence, and the usefulness, of Baxter's writings. In putting forth a detailed life of Baxter, a full account of his opinions would have been indispensable; but this was, wholly, uncalled for, in any prefatory notice to his practical writings. And the full account of Baxter's errors, which is here given, will have a tendency to lower his authority, and diminish his reputation, and influence, with many, who have, hitherto, admired his holy ardour, as a practical writer, in happy ignorance of his doctrinal de

viations.

The novel sentiments, put forth by Baxter, exposed him to much, and, in our opinion, well-deserved opposition in his own day. Dr Jenkyns, shews a most intense fellow-feeling with Baxter, under the chastisement which his ill-regulated ingenuity brought upon him, and is so zealous, in his defence, as somewhat to outrun discretion, and convey the idea, in despite of one, that in apologising for Baxter, he was thinking chiefly of himself. It was enough for the writer of this brief memoir to have stated the erroneous opinions of Baxter; and it is but justice to say, that Dr Jenkyns has not introduced any formal defence of the several articles of Baxter's heresy. He appears, however, to have been unable to keep from interposing, here, and there, excusatory notes. For example, he states that Baxter's sentiments, about universal redemption, were the same as those entertained by the French Calvinists, and especially by Camero, Amyraldus, and Dallaeus,”—a statement which, in so far as it includes the French Calvinists, generally, is incorrect. The very worst among Baxter's errors was the opinion, that faith, and not Christ's righteousness,

is imputed to the believer, as the material cause of his salvation. Dr Jenkyns apologises, for this opinion, by a statement to the effect, that the majority of Calvinistic divines in that age maintained, that believers, in consequence of the imputation of Christ's righteousness, are freed from all obligation to obey the law as a rule of life. This assertion is, altogether, unwarranted and calumnious. That a section, of Calvinists, held this opinion, and were thence called Antinomians, is a fact, but the Westminster Confession of Faith, published about the same year with Baxter's Aphorisms on Justification, is a proof, that, if Dr Jenkyns be not indebted for this fact to his imagination, it will be difficult to claim for it a more respectable paternity. To shew the consistency of universal redemption, with a limited and special application, Dr Jenkyns thus argues: "Theologians," says he, "who believe in a general, believe also in a special providence. What is special providence but the application of the principles and means of general providence to special cases? In the same manner, a theologian may admit universal redemption and special redemption, since special redemption is only the application of the benefits and provisions of general redemption to particular cases." This, is one, of those fallacious ingenuities, by which smart men are, often, imposed upon. A very little reflection might have convinced Dr Jenkyns, that there is no analogy between universal providence, and universal redemption. The providence of God, by the works of creation and the occurrences of life, is revealed to all kindreds and all classes of men. And, secondly, universal providence is universally applied, whenever providence ceases to be applied it ceases to exist. But redemption is not revealed to all mankind, neither is it universally applied, and, therefore, to whatever universal redemption may be likened, it bears no resemblance to the providence of God. Let Dr Jenkyns discover a providence that extends to all, and yet influences only a few; and, then, he will have something resembling a redemption that was purchased for all, while it is applied only to some; but, though he travel through immensity, he will find, as few traces, of such a providence, in the universe, as there are traces of universal redemption in the Holy Scriptures.

Not content, however, with side wind apologies, Dr Jenkyns has put forth a general defence of Baxter, which we consider the worst thing in his memoir, and which, we can regard in no other light, than as a wholesale apology for all kinds of heretics, now in existence, or that may afterwards arise. "The God of mind," says he, "like the God of nature, is the God of variety. In variety there must necessarily be a series and a collection of individualities; for where there is no distinctive individuality there can be no variety, but only uniformity. . . . . Why, then, should theologians wish to destroy the beautiful variety in the intellectual system? Who has given them authority to interfere with this variety? Who are they themselves that claim this right to interfere? Have they any divine right to differ from a man like Baxter which a man like Baxter has not to differ from them?" In writing the above passage we should hope that the author did not attach a definite idea to his words. His mind was in a liberal vein, and he did not take time to weigh his expressions in the balance of the sanctuary. It is, however, by his expressions that every writer must be judged; and as we do not mean to blink the