him in the matter, it being true of him, as it assuredly was of Chauncey and some of the wisest theologians of that day, that he was tinctured not a little with "that good old Arminianism,' which to its other excellencies has generally added a love of "good old steady times."

mean,'

Nor can we wonder in the least, that he should have opposed with all his might the "itinerating ministers," that mischievous sect, "who," in the words of our author, " either having no charge of their own, or without special call forsaking their proper fields of labor, went wherever they could find or force a way among the churches, spreading, as they went, denunciation, calumny, contention, spiritual pride, and confusion. I do not "adds Mr. Bacon, "such men as Wheelock, Pomeroy, Bellamy, and Edwards himself, who went where they were invited, and calculated [we protest against this use of the word] to demean themselves everywhere with Christain courtesy and propriety, and whose preaching, wherever they went, was much better than the preaching of Mr. Whitefield, for every purpose but popular excitement." Both in this description of the itinerants, and in his just distinction between them and the venerable men he designates, we cordially acquiesce.

The same spirit, that actuated Davenport in calumniating Mr. Noyes, and which afterwards tempted Mr. Brainerd to say of his immediate successor, the pious and humble and accomplished Whittelsey, "He has no more grace than this chair," did not fail to pursue Dr. Dana. It met, however, as we have intimated a far abler and more effectual resistance than it found from the "elder Arminian, Mr. Noyes ;" and the issue, after many troubles, was a peaceful return as a hearer to the bosom of that church, who had seven years before "signified to him their will that he should retire from his pastoral labors." Into the history of the opinions and ministry of Dr. Dana we shall not enter. They are familiarly known to many who yet survive. We can just recall his "most peculiar features," as he sat in extreme old age among the Fellows of Yale College on a commencement Day. We might have inferred from his mournful countenance, that he had been no stranger to care; but whatever were his trials or the "disturbing influences" to which he had been exposed, he always preserved, says his biographer, the respect of his own people and of the community. His dismission from his pastoral charge took place in 1805; and in March, 1806, the Rev. Moses Stuart, who has now for nearly

thirty years filled the professorship of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover, was ordained as his successor; to whom upon his removal thither, though a vacancy intervened of two years, succeeded in 1812 the Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor. This gentleman in 1822 exchanged his ministry of the First Church for the Professorship of Didactic Theology in Yale College, and has since been known to the religious community, both for praise and blame, by evil report and good report, as the Father of "the New-Haven Divinity." In common with many other of "the high places of the earth," his professorial chair has not been to him an undisturbed repose, neither, as we have seen, was the pulpit he exchanged for it a bed of roses to some of his predecessors. But it is not of the nature of things earthly, and least of all of controversial Theology, to give perfect peace to those who engage in them. Mr. Bacon adverts respectfully to the buffetings, to which Professor Taylor in maintaining some of his speculations has been exposed. That they have come to him from a better source, than that to which the apostle Paul distinctly ascribes his― (see 2 Cor. xii. 7) must be charitably believed; and we will venture to express our trust, that both to them who inflict and to them who suffer, and yet more to the great common cause of truth, they may issue in good.

In reviewing the history, civil and ecclesiastic, which is presented in these discourses, many reflections occur to the thoughtful reader, but none so readily to us as that of the bitterness of theological controversy, and of the impolicy, as well as wickedness, of all attempts at ecclesiastical usurpation. Even in Mr. Davenport's day, the dispute as to the exclusive claims of church members to hold civil trusts and to elect magistratesa claim which in these days would be dismissed in a moment as utterly preposterous-was agitated with such acrimony, and the result was so unsatisfactory, that it tempted that venerable man to complain, that "In New Haven Colony, Christ's interest was miserably lost!" and disposed him at threescore years and ten to exchange that favored scene of his ministry, where he was honored and cherished for another, to which he was comparatively a stranger. And when, coming down to a later day, we see consociation after consociation assembling in solemn conclave as at Brandford, the ministers leaving their own studies and flocks, where they might have been better employed,

to "deal with," as they termed it, and if possible, depose poor Mr. Robbins, and rob Brandford people of a pastor whom they loved and all because he chose to exercise his own ministry, as was his right, in his own way; when we consider the transactions at Wallingford, of which the same Mr. Dana, to whom we have just referred as the Rev. Dr. James Dana, was in his youth the object; and there find the council called to ordain him encountered, the same day and in the same place, by a consociation met on purpose to prevent it; and mark the unhappy issue of the stormy ordination, dividing the town, alienating brethren, producing divisions in other churches and even in the commonwealth; with the arts moreover and disgraceful practices of some individuals of those councils to effect their favorite projects; *—when, in fine, we observe all this, we perceive nothing wanting to settle within us the conviction of the odious nature of ecclesiastical tyranny, and are forced to the belief, that of all communities of men consociations, such as bore sway and flourished in New England in days happily gone by, are the least likely to bless the churches. It is recorded in relation to this, or a similar contest, that an impartial spectator, disgusted by such minglings of earthly passion with the affairs of religion, thus plainly rebuked the parties; "gentlemen! you seem to be serving God as if the Devil was in you."

One other reflection is suggested by this history of a consolatory nature, which might be expressed in the words of the wise Preacher of three thousand years ago. "Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." Mr. Bacon says more briefly, and offers the axiom as the result of the increased acquaintance his studies had given him with the men, the opinions, and the conflicts of former times, that "The Golden age is not in the past but in the future."

We conclude this article with quoting, though not quite adopting the paragraph, in which he illustrates this sentiment,

*This account of the proceedings at Wallingford is taken from Dr. Trumbull's History already quoted; and who closes a chapter of nearly fifty pages, exclusively devoted to this controversy, by the following candid testimony to the character of Mr. Dana, which, coming from one of different religious sentiments, is entitled to much respect. "It is but just to observe of Mr. Dana, that he was a scholar and a gentleman, and a man of very general information, of hospitality, and irreproachable morals." Trumbull, Vol. ii. p. 526.

and with renewing our acknowledgments to him and to Mr. Kingsley for the satisfaction their discourses have afforded us. We should add that the appendixes to both their works contain many interesting and valuable documents, which the curious reader will peruse with pleasure.

6

"The world is always full of a certain sort of conservatism,' which places the golden age not indeed so far back as the heathen poets placed it, but just far enough back to make it a constant motive to despondency. You can always find men, who seem to think that the golden age was somewhere from fifty to two hundred years ago, and that ever since that indefinite point in the past, the world, and the Church too, has been degenerating. They are not ordinarily very well read in history, but they have a strong impression, that in those good old times everything was very nearly as it should be. That was the age of orthodox theology; that was the age of revivals without new measures; that was the age of tranquillity in the Churches; that was the age of sound principles in politics; that was the age of good morals. But alas for us! we are fallen upon the most evil days and evil times' that ever mortals lived in. This class of 'conservatives' has been in the world ever since the deluge; and always they have held the same language, like the hypochondriac, who on every day in the year was better than he was yesterday, but worse than he was the day before.' Against such feelings, so discouraging to faith and to benevolence so dishonorable to the gospel and to its author, the careful and minute survey of past ages is well fitted to guard us.

6

"The truth is, that of all the ages since New England was planted, we live in the best age, the age in which it is the greatest privilege to live. The self-styled conservatives of this age are scared at 'new divinity.' So was Dr. Dana, in his day, scared at the new divinity' of Bellamy and Hopkins. They are scared and scandalized at new measures.' So was Mr. Noyes, in his day, scared at the 'new measures' of Davenport and Tennent. They are scared at women's preaching, taking it for an omen that the world is getting old and crazy, as if there had been in other ages no Mrs. Hutchinson, no Deborah Wilson, no Mary Fisher. They are scared at itinerant agitators, who broach strange and disorganizing doctrines respecting churches and ministers, laws and magistrates; as if some doctrine had been invented more radically destructive than were the doctrines, or had been published in terms more abusive than were the manners, of George Fox and his emissaries. Undoubtedly this age has its evils, its perils, its downward tendencies. It is eminently an age of progress, and therefore of excitement and change. It is an

age in which the great art of printing is beginning to manifest its energy in the diffusion of knowledge and the excitement of bold inquiry; and therefore it is an age when all opinions walk abroad in quest of proselytes. It is an age of liberty, and therefore of the perils incidental to liberty. It is an age of peace and enterprise, and therefore of prosperity, and of all the perils incidental to prosperity. It is an age of great plans and high endeavors for the promotion of human happiness; and therefore it is an age in which daring but ill balanced minds are moved to attempt impracticable things, or to aim at practicable ends by impracticable measures. But so long as we have liberty, civil, intellectual, and religious; so long as we have enterprise and prosperity; so long as the public heart is warm with solicitude for human happiness; so long we must make up our minds to encounter something of error and extravagance; and our duty is not to complain or despair, but to be thankful that we live in times so auspicious, and to do what we can in patience and love, to guide the erring and check the extravagant."- pp. 285, 287.

F. P.

ART. V.-Selections from German Literature, by B. B. EdWARDS and E. A. PARK, Professors in the Theological Seminary, Andover. 1839.

BEFORE we enter upon a critical examination of this work we would observe that we are able to judge but imperfectly of its merits as a translation, as the originals from which the selections have been made, are not before us. The Translators say they have attempted a medium between a free and a literal version, as being best suited to the "nature of the undertaking." The method seems to us judicious; and so far as our memory serves us, and a general impression made by the perusal of the work may be relied on, we think the translation entitled to credit and praise; though there are passages in it with regard to which we should have wished to consult the original, in order to be satisfied as to the precise meaning of the German authors.

We think it not improbable that the title of the work, Selections from German Literature, may disappoint some, who would take it to be a collection of such articles as are commonly found to be interesting to the general reader, whether by pro