seventh angel sounded, "there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Rev. xi. 15. "This refers," observes Dr M'Crie, "to the period of the Reformation from Popery, and includes, besides other things, the public state and actings of these kingdoms with reference to the religion of Jesus Christ. They had formerly been the kingdoms of Antichrist, not merely by having his ordinances set up in them, by the greater part of the people submitting to these, but by a public and national acknowledgement of his authority, and subjection to him. But they should now acknowledge, and submit to the Lord. Their kings had formerly given their power to the beast; but now they should withdraw it, and employ it on the side of the Lamb. See also Rev. xxi. 24, 26." Whatever weight may be allowed to these passages separately, in favour of what we now plead for-a national profession of religion-there is an impression gathered from them in their combination, which it is impossible for those who reverence the authority of Scripture to resist. The false glosses, and loose, though ingenious modes of interpretation, necessary to get rid of their plain and obvious meaning, would assist us, in like manner, to get rid of all the most important doctrines of Christianity.

It may appear singular to our readers, that Mr Marshall, while he has eulogized the works of the eminent ecclesiastical historian from whom we have been quoting, should have profited so little by his wisdom. It is indeed hardly credible, that he should have come forward with the charge against establishments, that they are unscriptural and Antichristian, if he had read the forcible and luminous exposition of the Scripture authority for such institutions, contained in the ap pendix to Dr M'Crie's two discourses on the "Unity of the Church," and in the "Statement" from which the foregoing extracts have 'been taken. Let Mr Marshall re-peruse these productions, which are rich in the general principles of the Scripture argument; and if 'they do not convince him of the expediency of establishments, in existing circumstances, they will at least reprove the presumption with which he has affirmed such institutions to be fundamentally unlawful, unscriptural, and Antichristian.

⚫ Statement of the difference, &c. page 140.

Note (D.)-Page 123.

To the travels of Dr Dwight we appeal, as our first authority, in corroboration of the statement we have made respecting the religious condition of America. For a very intelligent comment upon the facts of the following passage, we refer our readers to the November number of the Christian Instructor, where the extract is also given at length.

"If we look to facts," says Dr Dwight, "we shall find the same doctrine (the doctrine of the necessity of a legal provision for the Christian instruction of a nation) supported by illustrious evidence. In the year 1793 I was a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. There were then, if I remember accurately, 412 congregations belonging to this church within the United States. south of New England, and 209 congregations in Connecticut alone. To supply these Presbyterian congregations, there were 204 ministers. In Connecticut, there were in the year 1790 237,946 inhabitants, and in the States south of New England, 2,920,478. In the year 1798 there were belonging to the Presbyterian church 242 ministers, of whom 33 were without any charge, or in the language of New England, were not settled ministers. Two hundred and nine ministers, therefore, supplied, so far as they were supplied at all, the whole number of Presbyterian congregations south of New England. The number of congregations at that time cannot be ascertained, as the returns were in this respect imperfect. These ministers supported 290 congregations, 81 being what are called pluralities, and there were 142 vacancies returned. Five presbyteries made no return of the vacancies within their bounds. If we suppose the vacancies in these presbyteries to be 18, the number will be 160. This number will make the whole 430. With this monstrous train of vacancies there were 30 ministers still who were unsettled. It follows irresistibly, either that the congregations were so small as to be unable to support ministers, or so indifferent to religion as to be unwilling.

The number of vacancies in Connecticut, at that time, I am unable presently to ascertain. Twenty may perhaps be assumed as the probable number. There were then, at that time, within the State, 189 ministers.

In the year 1800, there were in Connecticut 251, 002 inhabitants,

and in the States south of New England, 4,033,775. The whole amount, according to this estimate, will stand thus

In Connecticut then, a sixteenth of the number of inhabitants form 209 congregations, and support 189 ministers. Of these congregations 20 were vacant, and five of the ministers were unsettled. In the States south of New England, sixteen times the number of inhabitants formed 430 congregations, of which 81 were pluralities, and 160 were vacant. The ministers supported and settled were 209. If these States maintained congregations, and were supplied with ministers in the same proportion as Connecticut, the whole number of congregations would be 3344, and the whole number of ministers settled and supported would be 3024. In this estimate we have a fair specimen of the natural consequences of establishing or neglecting to establish the public worship of God by the law of the land. In Connecticut every inhabitant who is not precluded by disease or inclination may hear the gospel, and celebrate the public worship of God every Sabbath day. In the States specified, it is not improbable that a number of people, several times as great as the census of Connecticut, have scarcely heard a sermon or a prayer in their lives."

Afterwards he says,

"To complete the picture, it is only necessary to add, the number of churches, in all places where there is an establishment, keeps full pace with the population. Every inhabitant, also, who enters a church finds a seat."

After stating that an examination of the religious state of Massachusetts would have given a result not essentially different, he concludes the letter with these important observations.

"In happy conformity to this estimate, and the scheme here supported, has been the prevalence of religion in these two states. It is doubted whether there is a collection of ministers in the world,

whose labours have been more prosperous, or under whose preaching a greater proportion of those who heard them have become the subjects of real piety. I know of no country in which revivals of religion have been so frequent, or in proportion to the number of inhabitants so extensive as in these states. God, therefore, may be considered as having thus far manifested his own approbation of the system. If at the same time we advert to the peace, the good order, the general distribution of justice, the universal existence of schools, the universal enjoyment of the education they communicate, and the extension of superior education, it will be difficult for a sober man not to perceive that the smiles of Heaven have regularly accompanied this system from its commencement to the present time. I need not, however, have gone any farther for the illustration of this subject, than to a comparison of the states of Rhode-Island and Connecticut. The former of these, independently of Providence, Newport, and two or three other small towns, is in all these important particulars, a mere contrast to the latter. Yet these states were planted by colonies from the same nation, lie in the same climate, and are separated merely by a meridianal line. A sober man who knows them both, can hardly hesitate, whatever may have been his original opinion concerning this subject, to believe that a legislature is bound to establish the public worship of God."

The following passage from the British Review, shews still more distinctly the inadequacy of the means of religious instruction provided in the States of America, compared with the number of the population. Out of eight millions, the computed amount of the inhabitants of America, five millions, it is stated, on the authority of the calculations of the Rev. Mr Beecher, are destitute of competent religious instruction.

"All our readers are fully aware that in the United States of Ameica there is no established church: but we are perfectly convinced, that were they familiar with the real situation of that extensive country, in regard to the means of Christian knowledge, they would not approve of the experiment of which these federated Republics have set the first example, of leaving that important concern to the discretion or caprice of the multitude. In some of the States, it is left entirely to the option of the people whether they shall have clergymen and churches at all; or whether, with the name of Christians, they shall live like the rudest islander in the Pacific Ocean; and it gives us pain to remark, that in

the Southern parts of the Union, the Sabbath is never sanctified by a large majority of the inhabitants, and the rites of our most holy faith are scarcely ever practised. In the Northern States, indeed, there is more attention paid to the ordinances of religion than in the South. A tax for the support of a certain number of ministers and chapels, is levied in all the New-England States, the amount of which is divided among the several denominations of Christians, according to the number of churches which they keep open for public worship. It cannot fail to be observed that, in as much as this tax is compulsatory, it recognizes the principle upon which establishments are founded; namely, a power in the government to provide for religious instruction and public worship; and, which is completely at variance with the maxim maintained by Mr. Warden, [the writer whose work was under review] that 'religion is one of the natural wants of the human mind, and, in an enlightened age, requires no aid from the civil magistrate. Laissez nous faire' is a good rule for practical men who preside over manufacturing and commercial industry; but, in reference to those grand institutions which are calculated to form the public mind, and to implant moral principles to preserve the purity of our faith, and to keep the soul true to its great Author, we deem it somewhat more prudent to be guided by experience, than by any abstract theory of political economy. We are borne out in this opinion too by the real condition of the United States in the matter of religion, that natural want of the human mind," which, agreeably to the received views of their political science, will be plentifully supplied according to the demand: for we find in Mr. Warden's own pages a statement, founded upon some investigations and calculations entered into by the Rev. Mr. Beecher, which affords the melancholy intelligence, that, out of eight millions, the computed amount of the American people, five millions of persons are destitute of competent religious instruction. Setting out upon the assumption that there ought to be a clergyman for every thousand souls, (the proportion in Great Britain and Ireland is one minister to eight or nine hundred souls,) Mr. Beecher assures us, that in Massachusetts there is a deficiency of one hundred and seventy-eight competent religious teachers. In Marne, not more than one half of the population is supplied with religious instruction. In New Hampshire the deficiency is one third. Vermont is nearly in the same situation. In the western parts of Rhode Island, embracing a territory of fifty miles in length, and thirty in breadth, and including one half of the population, there is but one regularly educated minister, and but ten in the other parts. In

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