ART X.-BAPTIST NOEL ON CHURCH AND STATE.

Essay on the Union of Church and State. By BAPTIST WRIOTHESLEY NOEL, M. A. Pp. 442. 1849. New-York: Harper & Brothers.

"THE Union of the Churches with the State is doomed," says Baptist Noel, and there seems to be good ground for the assertion. In Germany the separation has already been decreed; in France it has nearly been secured, and in Rome, the "Head of the Church" is no longer head of the State. But the struggle in England has for us more interest than any other. There this Union, unhallowed as it is, has been most securely founded: under it, or rather in spite of it, Christian men and Christian ministers have exhibited the loftiest virtues of the Christian character; and even the Union itself has been sanctified to many minds by the exalted holiness and pre-eminent services of many of the sons of the English Church. But the "corrupt tree," notwithstanding,. has borne its corrupt fruit; eyes that have been long blinded are beginning to see; and the sturdy English mind appears to be in a fair way to rid itself of the prejudices of ages, and apprehend the truth in regard to the Union of Church and State. Still, we do not see any indications (as some of our contemporaries do) of an immediate result. Sir Culling Eardley gives it as his opinion (letter of Jan. 4th) that "the public mind is not ripe for the separation of Church and State." "I wish," says he, "that I could believe it were otherwise; but I hold it to be next to impossible, that while the ministry of the Establishment continues to have a hold upon large congregations, the endowment of that ministry should be opposed by those who avail themselves of it." But the secession of Baptist Noel is an instance, and a most prominent one, of opposition to the endowment on the part of one who had enjoyed, or at least might have looked forward to, its highest advantages. The phenomenon is a remarkable one. With commanding popular talents, with an unstained reputation, a man of rank, education, and influence, and, more than all, the acknowledged leader of the Evangelical party in the Church of England, he has abandoned his position, his friends, his admirers, and his prospects, on the ground of conscience, and of conscience alone. Bitter as are the reproaches which his quondam friends are heaping upon him, not one of them has breathed a syllable of imputation upon his motives. All parties, high church and low, Puseyite and Evangelical, unite in testifying to his unimpeachable rectitude.

A remarkable feature of the case is, that "Mr. Noel is the first minister that has seceded from the Establishment on the question of union with the State. Others have left its communion on account of the corruptions which they found in it; but Mr. Noel seceded because he conceived the Union itself to be unscriptural, impolitic, and absurd. They left because they found evil fruit on what they conceived to be a good tree; but Mr. Noel left because the tree itself is corrupt. Other seceders retired on matters of detail; but he went forth in obedience to principle." It is this which has excited the ire of his evangelical friends so strongly. The Record speaks of his "weakness,” his "oscillation,” his "want of sound and sober judgment," &c.; and sums up its

opinion of his new book as follows:-"On the whole, we must describe the book as composed of, 1. An argument from Scripture, which is nearly the weakest we have ever seen. 2. An argument from history, which is grotesquely inapplicable and irrelevant. 3. The usual criticisms on the questionable points in our liturgy, urged strongly and warmly, but not effectively, because all appearance of impartiality is wanting. 4. Some most exaggerated statements, as to the mischiefs of Establishments and the excellencies of free churches. While, 5. The bulk of the volume is made up of one huge fallacy." But we must forbear further remark upon Mr. Noel's secession, and give our readers some account of his book, which Messrs. Harpers have reprinted in a handsome duodecimo. In a brief preface, Mr. Noel testifies to the piety and excellence of many of the upholders of the Establishment, and begs forgiveness for any inadvertences or exaggerations in his work. The Introduction fixes the position, that the lawfulness of the union between Church and State must be determined by "reference to the Word of God;" and, after defining the words, "Church," "State," and "Union," lays down the question to be discussed in the following terms, namely:

"Whether it is the will of Christ, as deducible from the word of God, that the Christian congregations of this country should receive the salaries of their pastors from the State, and be consequently placed under its superintendence ?"-P. 20.

The work is then divided into two parts, of which the FIRST treats of the "Principles of the Union between the Church and the State," and the SECOND, of "the Effects of the Union." The first chapter of Part I. exhibits certain general considerations which condemn the Union. First, the constitution of the State unfits it for authority over the Church;-its members are neither pious, nor united. His picture of the British Parliament would be thought a caricature, if an American had drawn it:

"The three things which introduce men into the legislature are rank, wealth, and superior capacity. The House of Lords is composed, without reference to character, of those who inherit rank and wealth. The descendants of able statesmen, of brave generals, of clever lawyers, or of successful money-makers; they are hereditary legislators, whatever may be their lack of intellect, their contempt for the Gospel, or their disregard of morals."-P. 23.

Again :

"The House of Commons is composed of the eldest sons of peers, of baronets and squires, of naval captains and of colonels in the army, of lawyers, of aldermen, of bankers, of merchants and manufacturers, of stockbrokers and railroad directors; and what is there in their education and pursuits to qualify them to be rulers of the Churches of Christ, to sit in judgment upon creeds and canons, or to determine for all the Christians of the land the election of their pastors and the administration of church discipline ?"-P. 25.

The second section shows that the parental relation (under the analogy of which Churchmen are so fond of exhibiting the blessings of the Union) cannot possibly subsist between the State and the Church. The third section collects from history a long catalogue of crimes and abuses directly resulting from the Union. The remaining sections of this chapter show that the Union is condemned by the Law of Moses, by the Prophecies of the Old Testament, and by the spirit and express declarations of the New. After examining the

passages usually cited in favour of the Union, and showing their inapplicability, he deduces from our Lord's conversation with Pilate the strongest argument against the system.

"To defend himself from the charge of rivalry to the Roman emperor, it was necessary to inform Pilate that his dominion would be so entirely spiritual that it never could interfere with the rights of the emperor. And of this he did convince Pilate by saying, 'My kingdom is not of this world. This was therefore the legitimate meaning of his words; and in them he has solemnly taught us, that his dominion is entirely and forever distinct from secular dominion; that he rules over men's hearts and consciences; that he will ever establish and maintain his rule without the aid of the tax-gatherer and the soldier; that he employs no coercion, and will never resort to military force.

"But the union in England, being intended to advance his dominion by maintaining his ministers, seeks that end by the taxation of the realm for the support of his ministers, and then employs force to sustain that taxation. Christ declared to Pilate that his dominion should never be maintained by taxation and by force, and the churches of England declare that it shall be so maintained. He pronounced his kingdom to be purely spiritual, they declare that it shall be spiritual and secular; and their decision is in flagrant opposition to his will."-Pp. 103, 104.

The second chapter shows that the chief elements of the Establishment, namely, the support of Christian pastors by the State; the supremacy of the State in spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction; the right of patronage, by which pastors may be, and are, appointed to churches without reference either to their personal fitness or to the will of the people; and the law of coercion, by which the support of pastors is made compulsory,-are utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with the principles of the New Testament and the wellbeing of the churches.

"The support of the first of these principles of the union involves Anglican Christians in the guilt of a selfish and covetous disregard of positive duty. Their allowance of the State supremacy is infidelity to Christ, their King and Head. The third principle which they support is destructive of their spiritual welfare; and the fourth renders them schismatical toward their dissenting brethren, and uncharitable to every other recusant. All these four principles are unscriptural, corrupt, and noxious; and by placing the churches of Christ under the influence of men of the world, hinder their free action, destroy their spirituality, and perpetuate their corruptions."Pp. 183, 184.

The SECOND part of the work, as we have said, treats of the "Effects of the Union of Church and State." Under the head of "Effects on Persons," it is shown that the Union tends to make bishops worldly, ambitious, and proud; and to introduce incapable and even ungodly men into the service of the Church as pastors, and to corrupt the better minded. Here is a sad picture ::

"The result of this system is too apparent in the undisguised worldliness of of the clergy, who, by their presence at the ball and the race-course, by their assimany duity in hunting and shooting, by their ignorance of the Scriptures, and their ministerial incapacity, do much dishonour to the religion of which they are professedly ministers."-P. 20.

"But what are the pastors of the Anglican Churches in fact? I grieve to write it. There are men among them of great virtues, to whom I gladly do homage. I know and love many faithful, energetic, and sincere servants of Christ; but when these exceptions are subtracted, what are the rest? I grieve to write it. Chosen by peers and squires, by colleges and church corporations, by chancellors and State-made prelates, many are made pastors by a corrupt favouritism, many are allured to an uncongenial employment by the income which it offers them, and many embrace the profession

of a pastor because they are too dull, inert, or timid, for any other. They have scarcely any theological training, they are pledged to all the errors in the prayerbook, and all the abuses sanctioned by the union. They dread reforms, they are servile to patrons, they are intolerant to dissenters: their zeal is crippled by State restrictions, and their indolence tempted by unbounded liberty to indulge it. Severed from the body of the people by their birth, by their early education, by their college life, by their aristocratical association, by their zeal for their ecclesiastical prerogatives, they have little popular influence. Lawyers, men of science, and editors of newspapers do not listen to them; Chartists and Socialists dislike and despise them; they scarcely touch the operative millions; they make few converts among the devotees of fashion; and under their leadership the Christian army is inert, timid, and unsuccessful.”—P. 222.

In the subsequent sections, the destructive effects of the Union upon the curates, upon the members of the Church, and upon the dissenting bodies, are set forth at length, but our space will allow us only to quote the following sad description of the state of the members of the Church:

"On the whole, it is most melancholy to contrast what the Anglican churches ought to be with what they are. They ought to be composed of 'saints and faithful brethren,' under the superintendence of able and faithful pastors. They ought to be 'the salt of the earth and the light of the world;' 'epistles of Christ known and read of all men;' the soldiers of truth clothed in a divine panoply, and earnestly contending for the faith; each separate member an evangelist to his neighbours, and all together aiming at the conquest of the whole nation for Christ.

"But they are a confused mass of believers and unbelievers, allowing strangers to impose upon them multitudes of ungodly pastors, who bring a spiritual blight upon them, and whose ministry they nevertheless support. The Scriptural discipline, which is essential to the purity and vigour of Christian churches, they have wholly abandoned. For the plague-stricken multitudes round them they do almost nothing. If the pastors are often exclusive and schismatical, so are some of them. They associate freely, both at their own tables and at the Lord's table, with his enemies, from whom they ought to separate; and live in almost total separation from his nonconformist followers, with whom they ought to be united. Few are evangelists to the poor; few teach in Sunday-schools, and of these few scarcely any are educated men. They see round them whole villages degraded by ignorance and vice, and suffer them to live and die untaught and unwarned. Family and personal religion languishes. Few heads of families expound the Scriptures to their children and servants, or pray with them, except by the repetitions of a book. Trained in so heartless a manner, the children of religious parents frequently relapse into total worldliness; and the world recruits its forces from those who ought to have become the servants of the Redeemer. Upon the masses of the working class, the myriads of fashion, and the whole army of scientific and literary men, Anglican Christians make scarcely any impression, while a latent and wide infidelity is making unchecked ravages among them. In this Laodicean lukewarmness the churches ought to repent, to meet for discussion and mutual exhortation; should unitedly and fervently supplicate the gift of the Holy Spirit, and begin to labour for the conversion of sinners and their own spiritual improvement. But except to go through the Sunday services they never meet as churches; they have no brotherly association, no social prayer, no acts of humiliation, no effort for spiritual revival."-Pp. 234–236.

And the following, in regard to Dissenters :

"Let us now recapitulate the evils which the Union inflicts upon Dissenters. By exalting a rival denomination it necessarily depresses them, and by branding them as schismatics shuts them out from the society and sympathy of their fellow-Christians. It impedes their efforts to instruct the ignorant; it allures the children of their wealthier members to desert them, and thus impoverishes their ministers, their schools, their colleges, and their missions; it deprives them of their share of advantage from the ecclesiastical property of the nation; it forces them, by the payment of church-rates, to support an ecclesiastical system which they condemn; and, by

compelling them to seek a political remedy for a great political grievance, it exposes them to the censure and dislike of their fellow-Christians, as a turbulent political party, who merit the severest reprehension."-P. 243.

Under the somewhat odd title of the "Influence of the Union upon Things,” the second chapter shows, in several sections, that the Establishment does not materially increase the number of ministers, while it greatly hinders their judicious distribution through the land; that its revenues are so unequally distributed as to make a part of the clergy rich, and the majority poor,—“ the Right Reverend Dives in the bishop's palace, and Lazarus in orders at the gate, doctored by dogs, and comforted by crumbs;"--that it destroys both doctrine and discipline, and throws stumbling-blocks in the way of the gospel ; that it promotes heresies and schisms; that it embarrasses the government; and that it supports the corrupt establishments of the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches in other countries in Europe. The account given in this chapter of the immoralities that are practised with impunity, and the heresies that are preached without rebuke, by ministers of the Established Church, is absolutely fearful.

After a brief discussion of the best "means of promoting a revival of religion throughout the country," the work concludes with a stirring appeal to all true men, in the Establishment and out of it, to claim, in the name of Christ, the Christian liberty of the British Churches. God grant that the appeal may be successful.

We have no space for extended comment upon the work, as it only reached our hands when our last pages were going to press. It bears the mark of great haste, is in many places badly written, and abounds in repetitions. But it is a store-house of facts on this great question, and, coming as it does from one who has long held high place in the Church, its general statements cannot be disputed. Time only can tell its effects upon the public mind of England. As yet Mr. Noel's example of secession does not appear to have been followed by a single member of his congregation, or by any other clergyman; nevertheless, it is possible, and we think probable, that it may lead, in connexion with other events, to some modification in the practical working of the system of the Establishment. Petitions from various quarters, including the congregation of St. John's chapel, asking for such modifications, have already been presented to the Queen. In the mean time, may we express the hope that the day is approaching when the Wesleyans in England will be found united, as one man, with their dissenting brethren, in earnest efforts for the overthrow of the monstrous fabric of corruption, upon which, as it seems to us, they have too long looked with forbearance, if not with complacency!