THE SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD, CONDUCTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. THERE is no point which it is of greater importance to keep constantly in view, in all our inquiries into matters of religion, than the precise line of distinction which separates the province of reason from that of revelation. The two are constantly in danger of being confounded, more especially by those who have been educated in a professedly Christian country, and under the influence, perhaps imperceptible, which a knowledge of divine truth, however superficial, exercises over all our opinions and judgments. So liable, indeed, are we to be modified in our sentiments by the peculiar circumstances amid which we are placed, that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to state from what precise source any particular opinion has been derived. Hence it not unfrequently happens, that we attribute to the pure native operations of reason, sentiments which we have acquired only in consequence of our acquaintance with the truths of revealed religion; and conversely also we sometimes imagine that the perverse deductions of our own unassisted reason are sanctioned by, or perhaps originate in, the dictates of inspiration. Of these two classes of errors, though the latter is attended with the worst practical consequences, the former is the more subtile and imperceptible in its influence. We have formed many of our religious opinions directly from our knowledge of revealed truth, and yet so familiar have we become with them, and so deeply convinced of their reality, that we are in danger of confounding them with the plainest and simplest deductions of human reason. They bear upon our minds with the force of independent axioms, until at length we conclude them to have reached us in consequence of the primary operations of our own minds. It is more difficult than is often imagined to separate between the conviction arising from our belief in the doctrines of Scripture, and the conviction arising from the simple exercise of our No. 4. Jan. 26, 1839.—1§d.] minds upon the evidence in favour of that truth of which we are become convinced. Thus, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is taught clearly in the pages of revelation, but it is also alleged to be ascertainable by the exercise of unassisted reason. Now, in reference to all those who have been familiar from infancy with the statements of the Bible, the difficulty is to calculate what amount of conviction, as to the soul's immortality, they have drawn from the one source, and what from the other. Do they believe the doctrine because nature has taught them to believe it, or is it not rather because the Bible has taught them? The proofs which have passed before the minds of the heathen unenlightened by the Gospel, have, with at least equal force, pressed themselves upon the attention of those who are blessed with the light of revelation; they have learned much upon the subject, no doubt, from the dictates of nature, but how much more have they learned from the lessons of Scripture! The danger lies in their confounding the teaching of the one with the teaching of the other; in attributing to reason what they have received solely from revelation; and, on the other hand, in endeavouring to make revelation responsible for what are purely and entirely the perverse judgments of unaided reason. In a sound condition of our intellectual and moral powers, reason and revelation must always be at one; but we are too prone to exalt the former at the expense of the latter. To keep the province of the one separate and distinct from the province of the other, is in fact one of the most difficult, but nevertheless one of the most important lessons which the theological student is called upon to learn. It is to ignorance and recklessness on this one point, that we would be inclined to attribute the greater part of the heresies which have distracted the Christian Church. We have been endowed by our Creator with [SECOND SERIES. VOL I. reason for the most valuable and necessary ends; | or into subsequent corruptions and interpolations but these ends, in reference to theology, are too little regarded. The Socinian entertains the most vague and extravagant views as to the illimitable extent to which reason can go, while the enthusiast, on the other hand, restricts it within too narrow bounds; and one of the most necessary points, we conceive, in the logical training of the speculative inquirer in theology, is to enable him to ascertain the precise and definite limits which bound the province within which the exercise of human reason must be strictly confined. As long as we investigate the evidence on which the truth of revelation rests, all is well; and even after having ascertained that there is sufficient evidence to prove that the alleged revelation has indeed come from God, reason may legitimately inquire what is the precise meaning of its contents, and the relative bearing of its parts upon each other, or, in other words, what is usually termed the analogy of faith. Here, however, we have reached the point at which reason must pause, and revelation assume the sole and undivided supremacy. The truth of the individual doctrines is founded not on their reasonableness, though that may be admitted as an additional evidence in their favour, but solely on the authority of Him from whom we have ascertained the revelation to have come. It is not necessary, as the Socinian would argue, that what the Bible teaches should be proved to be consistent with reason; this were to make the reason of man, feeble though it be, the arbiter and judge in matters which, from their very nature, must be regarded as beyond the limits of human investigation. Revelation presupposes man to be ignorant of those truths which it unfolds, and shall he notwithstanding dare to exalt reason so extravagantly as to imagine it, in point of fact, superior in authority to the dictates of inspiration? No, by no means. It is in condescension to the feebleness and inadequacy of human reason, that a revelation has been imparted at all, and ever recollecting that what we do not understand is far from being, on that account, necessarily untrue, let us bow implicitly to the simple statements of that Being whose understanding is infinite.' No little injury has been done to the cause of Christianity by the extravagant adulators of human reason. Under the delusive idea, that by depriving the religion of the Bible of all that was peculiar, and by endeavouring to reduce it to a perfect consistency and harmony with what are imagined to be the necessary truths taught by nature, they have furnished the infidel with powerful, and we fear too effective, weapons, wherewith to destroy the whole Christian system. The result, accordingly, has been such as might have been anticipated. Bolingbroke, Tindal, Collins, and many others of the same school, have directed their whole efforts to show that there is nothing in Christianity which was not previously revealed to us in the religion of nature; and if any mysteries are recorded, they are merely resolvable into the figurative phraseology in which the author wrote, of the record itself. Thus it is, that under the guise of friendship have the deadliest blows been struck at all that is vital in the Christianity of the Bible; and that, too, arising from no other cause than the injudicious conduct of its real friends. It is not in Germany alone that this spirit of rationalism has been diffusing its withering influence; in Britain, also, has such a spirit been gradually gaining ground. The consistency of revelation with reason is, no doubt, when properly conducted, a powerful argument in its favour; but there is a point in the argument beyond which we dare not go, and the exact position of which, it is absolutely necessary for us previously to ascertain. It was an investigation of this kind that gave rise to one of the most valuable works on mental science that has ever appeared-the immortal essay of Locke on the Human Understanding. "Were it fair to trouble thee with the history of this essay," says the author in his Epistle to the reader, "I should tell thee, that five or six friends meeting at my chamber, and discoursing on a subject very remote from this, found themselves quickly at a stand, by the difficulties that rose on every side. After we had a while puzzled ourselves, without coming any nearer a resolution of those doubts which perplexed us, it came into my thoughts that we took a wrong course, and that before we set ourselves upon inquiries of that nature, it was necessary to examine our own abilities, and see what object our understandings were or were not fitted to deal with." It were well for the cause of Christianity, and well for the cause of science in general, that the example of Locke were more frequently followed, and the fact rendered familiar to our minds, that there is a point where reason ends, and implicit faith in revelation must begin. The human mind has not previously discovered all that the Bible unfolds to us, otherwise what necessity for the Bible at all? If, then, there be truths peculiar to the Christian system, there is no necessity for the slightest anxiety on the part of the defenders of Christianity to reconcile any apparent inconsistency between these peculiar Christian truths and the principles of reason. strong presumptive argument, it is true, may be founded on the fact which, in most instances, can be shown by analogy, that what is peculiar in Christianity is not contrary to reason. Such an argument, however, can never amount to more than a presumption in its favour; and though it may be powerful enough to silence the cavils of objectors, it adds little to the direct force of the Christian evidence. A The essential and primary elements of all religious truth may be learned by the pure efforts of reason unaided by revelation, and all revealed religion, in fact, proceeds on the existence of that class of truths which is included under the term Natural Religion. But to assert this, is just tantamount to the assertion that the Scriptures are accommodated to the nature of the beings to whom they are addressed. This is not all, however, began to preach repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus I can nei that may be said in reference to their value. They state, no doubt, what is addressed to our reason, and what proceeds on the supposition that there are some truths which unassisted reason has discovered; but they do more, for they state, and in this their peculiar excellence consists, many truths which the reason of man hath not discovered, and by its most strenuous and sustained exertions never could discover. And the danger is, that in deference to a certain class of sceptics and unbelievers,"I do not know what is the matter; but by those new these peculiarities of the Christian system should sermons, I find we are all to be lost now. either be entirely overlooked, or attempted to be ther eat, drink, nor sleep; I do not know what is to so modified as to suit the caprice of those who, become of me." Here is an interesting era in the life while they profess an adherence to the doctrines of of a bearer of good tidings. The first token of awakenrevelation, are all the while still more devoted ad- ing among his hearers from the death of trespasses and mirers of human reason. All systems of religion, sins-the first consciousness of want or of holy fear. even the most degrading, are founded to some With what anxiety must the faithful pastor, who looks extent on natural religion, or, in other words, on for the work of the Spirit, watch for such a token of those religious sentiments and feelings which are quickening into life! With what fresh courage and zeal inherent in the constitution of every mind. But must be go on to repeat his offers of salvation,-how from these Christianity stands separate and apart; much more frequent and hopeful will be his prayers! and the exhibition of its peculiarities, as contradis- Mr Berridge was surrounded by those who were not tinguished from every other system of religious doc- taught as he was, and from the peculiarity of his opitrine, forms a most important branch of the Chris- nions and experience, he might have questioned his tian evidences. This argument skilfully conducted understanding of Scripture. But in the same week with poor Sarah came two or three more, on a like would tend to destroy the force of the infidel maxim which is too often assumed as the shibbo- errand, which so confirmed him in the truth, that he leth of a self-styled liberal party-that all religions resolved from that time to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Having changed his prinare alike. The counterfeit, we admit, may resemble the true coin in one point-that they are both ciples and manner of preaching, he destroyed his old sermons. All things became new to him. He was of them coins, but in every other point they are diametrically opposed. Between truth and false- led soon afterwards, by a casual circumstance, to venture for the first time to preach extempore. His stock hood in the eyes of God there is and must ever be of new compositions being small, when he was asked a great gulph fixed; and though man may imto preach what was termed a club sermon in his neighpiously dare to approximate the two, and even to mistake the one for the other, the eye of Omni-bourhood, and finding that several of his own people science discerns between them an inconceivable, an infinite distance. A false religion, whether recorded in the Koran of the Mahometan, or the Shaster of the Brahmin, may contain many truths which in themselves are far from unimportant, but the fact that it is a false in opposition to the true religion, is enough to render its services, however scrupulously observed, unacceptable in the sight of Him who is "just and true in all his ways," as well as "holy in all his works." THE LABOURS OF THE REV. JOHN BERRIDGE, VICAR OF EVERTON. From the History of Revivals of Religion.' By the Author of the Memoir of the Rev. M. Bruen.' THE Rev. John Berridge, who was born at Kingston in 1716, had reached his thirty-ninth year before he came to entertain any clear views of the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel. He had "lived proudly on faith and works for salvation," as he himself stated in the quaint and characteristic inscription which he prepared for his own tombstone, till the year 1754; and preached, as might be expected, with no visible effect, at Stapleford, near Cambridge, for several years. It was not, however, till three years after his first awakening, that his heart was fully interested in divine truth. He had then been for a full year Vicar of Everton, where he would follow him there, before whom he was reluctant to repeat a recent discourse, he was drawn to adventure this unwonted achievement in the presence of many of the clergy. After struggling with embarrassment in the beginning, he was enabled to overcome it, and spoke with so much freedom that he was greatly encouraged; and from that time felt a liberty and readiness in preaching which proved of the greatest service to his ministrations in after life. He was surrounded by a wide district, in which he perceived that the gospel, as he had now received it, was neither preached nor understood. He pitied the darkness which so universally prevailed, and felt constrained to devote himself to the service of his Divine Master in a wider field than the bounds of his own parish presented. He was well aware, not only of the bodily labour which the functions of an itinerating preacher would entail on him, but also of the obloquy and persecution which would attend a practice so contrary to the rules of the Established Church. But he was impelled by a sense of duty too powerful to be controlled by worldly motives; and, having counted the cost, he took his resolution piously, strenuously, and perseveringly. Whereever he found an opportunity for spreading the light of the Gospel, he did not hesitate to present himself; and where churches were not accessible to him, he addressed his hearers in dwelling-houses, in barns, or in the open air. * A Sermon before a Meeting of the Clergy. and threats; but heed them not. Bind the Lord's The counties of Cambridge, Essex, Hertford, Bedford, and Huntingdon, were the principal scenes of his labours, and in this circuit he preached, on an average, from ten to twelve sermons a-week, and not unfre- the prudent Peter's, who will beg, entreat, and beseech quently rode on horseback a hundred miles. He you to avoid irregularity. Give them the same anrented places for worship, maintained lay preachers, swer that Christ gave Peter, they savour of the and travelled at his own expense,-charges which his things which be of men.'-Heed them not. fortune, inherited from his father, and his income, from "When you preach at night, go to bed as soon as his preferment, enabled him to bear. He spent his possible, that the family be not kept up, and that you ample fortune, indeed, in the service of religion; and may rise early. When breakfast and morning family his resources were so exhausted in his old age, that his prayers are over, go away directly, that the house friend Mr Romaine preached a sermon in his behalf, in may be at liberty. If you would do work for the which he interceded "for the support of two preach- Lord, as you seem designed, you must venture for ers and their horses, and several local preachers, and the Lord. The Christian's motto is Trust and for the rents of several barns in which they preached." go forward, though the sea is before you. Do then Those among whom he scattered the seed of the word as Paul did,-give up thyself to the Lord; work and were chiefly a poor population of husbandmen, who confer not with flesh and blood, and the Lord be with lived truly by the sweat of their brow. This may thee." serve to explain why they were unable to do much in supporting the gospel among themselves. This was a method of conveying religious truth which had been rendered at that period common by the success of Whitefield and Wesley. It was peculiarly appropriate to the necessities of England at the time, the parishes being occupied by beneficed clergymen, many of them pluralists, who were strangers to evangelical truth. Mr Venn seems to have been, for a long time, the only enlightened pastor within the acquaintance of Berridge, if we except Mr Hicks of Wrestlingworth, his neighbour, who was among the first fruits of his itinerating labours, and became a very useful man, and a companion with him in his religious travels. It was not till the year after he began to itinerate, that Mr Berridge was led to preach in the open air. He says in a letter, "On Monday se'ennight Mr Hicks accompanied me to Meldred. On the way we called at a farm- | house. After dinner I went into the yard, and seeing near a hundred and fifty people, I called for a table, and preached for the first time in the open air. We then went to Meldred, where I preached in a field to about four thousand people. In the morning at five, Mr Hicks preached in the same field to about one thousand. Here the presence of the Lord was wonderfully among us; and I trust, beside many that were slightly wounded, near thirty received heartfelt conviction." It is evident that there must have been a great excitement in the country, when four thousand people were so easily assembled on the evening of a working day in a not very populous campaign district, and one thousand so very early as five in the morning. His numerous itinerants went out from him with such apostolic instructions as these,-" Never preach in working hours; that would raise a clamour. Where you preach at night, preach also in the morning; but be not longer than an hour in the whole morning service, and conclude before six. Morning preaching will show whether the evening took effect, by raising them up early to hear. These instructions, which are copied from a letter to one of his subordinates, were to regulate their manners; and with regard to the matter of their preachings, we find such as the following: When you state your commission, begin with laying open the innumerable corruptions of the hearts of your audience; Moses will lend you a knife which may be often whetted at his grindstone. Lay open the universal sinfulness of nature,-the darkness of the mind,-the frowardness of the will, the fretfulness of the temper, and the earthliness and sensuality of the affections. Speak of the evil of sin in its nature-its rebellion against God as our sovereign-ingratitude to God as our benefactor-and contempt both of his authority and love. Declare the evil of sin in its effects-bringing on all our sickness, pains and sorrows all the evils we feel, and all the evils we fear-all inundations, and fires, and famines, and pestilences— all brawls, and quarrels, and fightings, and wars, with death to close these present sorrows, and hell afterwards to receive all that die in sin. "Lay open the spirituality of the law, and its extent, reaching to every thought, word, and action, and declaring every transgression (whether of omission or commission) deserving of death. Declare man's utter helplessness to change his nature, or to make his peace. Pardon and holiness must come from the Saviour. Acquaint them with the searching eye of God, watching us continually, spying out every thought, word, and action, noting them down in the book of his remembrance, and bringing every secret thing into judgment, whether it be good or evil. 66 When your hearers are deeply affected with these things, preach Christ. Lay open the Saviour's almighty power, to soften the hard heart, and give it repentance to bring pardon to the broken heart, a spirit of prayer to the prayerless heart, holiness to the filthy heart, and faith to the unbelieving heart. Let them know, that all the treasures of grace are lodged in Jesus Christ, for the use of the poor needy sinner, and that he is full of love as well as power-turns no beggar from his gate, but receives all comers kindly-loves to bless them, and bestows all his blessings tithe-free. Farmers and country people chop at that. Here you must wave the Gospel flag, and magnify the Saviour supremely. Speak it plainly, that his blood can wash away the foulest sins, and his grace subdue the stoutest corruptions. Exhort the people to seek his grace, to seek it directly, seek it diligently, seek it constantly; and acquaint them, that all who thus seek shall assuredly find the salvation of God." Of his own preaching, it has been said, that "when he explained the nature, end, and use of the law, he was very awful and affecting." "And now," to adopt his own words, "I dealt with my hearers in a very different manner from what I used to do. I told them very plainly, that they were the children of wrath, and under the curse of God, though they knew it not, and that none but Jesus Christ could deliver them from that curse. I told them, if they had ever broken the law of God once in thought, word, or deed, no future good behaviour could make any atonement for past miscarriages. For, if I keep all God's laws to-day, this is no amends for breaking them yesterday; if I behave peaceably to my neighbour this day, it is no satisfaction for having broken his head yesterday. So that, if once a sinner, nothing but the blood of Jesus can cleanse me from sin." Jesus was a name on which he dwelt with peculiar emphasis and delight. With what melting affection would he extol the bleeding Lamb! How would his eyes stream when he pointed to His agonizing sufferings! How would they sparkle when he displayed the exceeding riches of His grace! And what a reverential grandeur marked his countenance, when he anticipated His glorious appearing ! "Nor was he less attentive to the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit in the application of redemption. No minister could with more judgment detect the human heart in all its subtile machinations, or with greater accuracy describe progressive religion in the Communion with God was what he much enforced in the latter stages of his ministry. It was, indeed, his own meat and drink, and the banquet from which he never appeared to rise." soul. We have taken pains to collect these short notices, which are all that can be now obtained, of his method of preaching, that those who desire like precious fruits may go and do likewise. "As to his usefulness, we learn from more sources of information than one, that he was in the first year visited by a thousand persons under serious impressions; and it has been computed that, under his own and the joint ministry of Mr Hicks, about four thousand were awakened to a concern for their souls in the space of twelve months. Incredible as this history of his success may appear, it comes authenticated through a channel so highly respectable, that to refuse our belief would be unpardonably illiberal. "This work was at first accompanied with bodily convulsions, and other external effects, on some of the hearers, very unaccountable to us; a circumstance, however, not altogether unusual when God begins to sound a general alarm in the consciences of men, as appears from what took place in New England, Scotland, North Wales, and other countries. But those effects soon subsided, as did these, and the interests of religion were promoted more quietly and gradually. "As his labours were prosperous, so they were opposed: It could not be grateful to the prince of darkness to behold his kingdom so warmly attacked, and his subjects in such numbers deserting his standard. Hence he stirred up all his strength, and a furious per secution ensued. No opposition was too violent-no names were too opprobrious-no treatment was too barbarous. Some of his followers were roughly hardled, and their property destroyed. Gentry, clergy, and magistrates became one band, and employed every engine to check his progress, and to prevent him from preaching. The old devil' was the only name by which he was distinguished among them between twenty and thirty years. But none of these things moved him; he had counted the cost. The clamours of the multitude had no more effect upon his mind, in the regular discharge of his duty, than the barking of the cur has on the moon in her imperial revolutions. Vengeance was not his. The only revenge he sought was their salvation; and when they needed any good office, his hand was the first to render it." "He loved the world that hated him; the tear He dropt upon his Bible was sincere. Assailed by scandal, and the tongue of strife, His only answer was a blameless life. And he that forged, and he that threw the dart, Had each a brother's interest in his heart."-COWPER. He was indeed a man of extraordinary benevolence -his ear, his heart, his purse were ever open to hear the tale of pity, to sympathize, and to relieve. On the Sabbath his congregation was collected from various parishes, and considerable distances. He had always a stable or field for their horses, and a cold collation for strangers. In itinerating, so far from being a burden to the poor, they were generally gainers by his visits in a pecuniary way. Besides the expenditure of all his income, even his family plate was melted to support itinerant preaching. Above all his other virtues, he wore the garment of humility, and his language was remarkable for simplicity and spirituality, accompanied with a natural vein of wit and pleasantry. He was himself what he called his friend Rowland Hill, 66 a Comet." In an extensive and eccentric orbit he was found shining and producing a lively sensation, then passing away, yet re turning again at his appointed time, with the same brilliancy and the same impression as before. ON THE DESECRATION OF THE LORD'S DAY BY THE RUNNING OF THE ROYAL MAIL. Ir seems almost to be taken for granted, that the desecration of the Lord's day, by the running of the Royal Mail, and the delivery of letters and parcels connected ence; and so far has custom prevailed, that many now therewith, are justified on grounds of public convenisupport and sanction the practices complained of, through a forgetfulness of the evils which they involve, who, we are assured, will also abstain from so doing, when reminded of their sinfulness. In We, therefore, desire to put it to your serious consideration, whether it is right that the Mail should run, and letters and parcels be delivered, on the Lord's day. Can it be right? Do we not thereby openly and systematically violate the command of Him who has said, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy?" stead of a day of holy rest to all, is it not thus made a day of labour to multitudes; namely, to coachmen, guards, book-keepers, porters, ostlers, inn-keepers, waiters, post-masters, letter-carriers, and others? Are not they thereby shut out from the privileges of the Lord's day, and prevented from worshipping God both in their families and in the congregation? Are not the cattle also deprived of that rest which a merciful |