good;-but the excommunicated | Fallen! Fallen! Fallen! rising Christian often walks with as bold a front, as uncowed an eye and unblushing face, as though no stain had spread upon his soul and polluted the temple of the Spirit. The reason of this is found in the religious darkness of society. The change, which has occurred in the relations of the being, whom they recognise as the same flesh and blood, is not perceived. The link that bound him to the throne of God, was never seen, and now that it is severed and he is left adrift upon an ocean where ruin is inevitable, he seems to ride as securely and sit as calmly as before. Nor do Christians seem to feel the solemn import of this sentence. When the thread of life is cut and we stand as mourners around the sober bier, the cry of anguish rises amidst our falling tears, and we seem to realize that a loved being is severed from us and the objects once dear to him. We can see the workings of disease, watch the slow ravages of decline, and dial down the moment when the mysterious union of body and spirit, which constitutes a man, is broken for ever on earth, and we fear, tremble, and weep through the progress; but we are too carnal, too little lifted up in the contemplation of things spiritual, too unpractised in the high gift of looking familiarly at the unseen and eternal, to watch the steps of a spirit's fall, to see, one by one, the tendrils of a Saviour's love torn from it, and its pure essence encroached upon by the rank and rankling parasites of sin, till it sinks into the blackness of darkness and is severed for ever from God. Were our vision clearer, could we gaze with a steadier and less clouded eye upon the spiritual process of a soul's excision from God, and see him in the dreadful lapse, passing from the bright and joyous realms of day, to the gloomy and wailful regions of eternal night, and hear, through all the bright hosts of the pure, that appalling cry, around him-methinks we would regard the unhappy subject of discipline with a far different interest, and betray in our demeanor towards him a feeling widely unlike that careless indifference too often manifested, and scarcely reminds even the apostate of his fall. And herein is a great error—an indication of an unwholesome state of the church. Would that disciples could see it! 'Tis spiritual darkness even in the temple of the Spirit; and this is paradoxical; yet it is true. We need reformation here-reformation in the views and feelings which we entertain towards the unhappy subjects of church discipline; and to reach it we must turn us to the Word look away from the earth, purify our hearts, abstract our minds, and raise ourselves to the height of a pure and spiritual vision. Then, and not till then, will we be enabled properly to appreciate the import of a sentence, and better qualified either to give or receive it, for its main consequences are all in the unseen world, and spiritual. It imposes no civil disability upon any one-it inflicts no corporeal punishment upon any one, (that is, among Protestants)—and, unfortunately, it attaches, in the estimation of the world, and very often in that of Christians, but a very slight and short-lived disgrace to its subject. Its bearings and consequences are almost wholly spiritual, and are only to be discerned by the medium of the word, and with an eye made single or achromatic by the truth. It is only thus that we can realize the solemn process of severing the apostate from the church and delivering him over to Satan. In thus presenting to the reader a few general remarks upon the import of a sentence of excommunication, and the general want there is of a proper spiritual discernment of its consequences, we have taken for granted several points, which some indeed have denied -to wit, that there is in the church prohibit us from judging in all cases, the power to inflict this punishment, for this would make the Saviour and that it is a solemn duty resting contradict himself. In the 15th verse upon each congregation to exercise it of this same chapter, and while for its own peace and good order. 66 addressing the same audience, he says, come to you in sheep's clothing, but The injunction of our Saviour," Beware of false prophets which Judge not that ye be not judged," Matth. vii. 1. and kindred precepts, both by Paul and James, are construed by some into a general prohibition against all judical, and consequently executive power, by the church; for as judgment must precede execution, where there is no power to pronounce the sentence, there can evidently be no infliction of the penalty. The passages referred to, occur in Rom. ii. 1; xiv. 3-13; 1 Cor. iv. 3-5; and James iv. 11, 12, and some include the parable of the Wheat and Tares, recorded in the 13th chapter of Matthew. Adverting to these, in the order of their statement, we shall find that they are all inapplicable to the case we are considering, and not only were not designed to give, but really do not furnish us with, a rule for church action. The precept of our Saviour was given evidently before a Christian church was ever organized; and as he had not as yet gathered about him in any very definite form an ecclesia or assembly, we can scarcely presume that he intended, so early, to give, even prospcetively, rules for the government and regulation of such a body, afterwards to be organized. He was evidently addressing the disciples as individuals, and not as an organized body, and giving a rule for the regulation of their feelings and practices towards one another, in their usual social intercourse. It does not say, Judge not a brother disciple; but the precept is broad and universal-ingenious turn of the Apostle, an Judge not" any, whether friend or foe, disciple or alien. 66 But while the rule is universal as to its application, it is restricted in its scope. It applies properly to our conduct towards all men, but not in reference to all matters. It does not When we examine the other passages in their context, we shall find them all, in a measure, subject to similar restrictions to the one on which we have been animadverting. The 2nd of Romans, indeed, is not a precept against judging at all, but an argumentum ad hominem, whereby he proves the Gentile inexcusable upon the score of ignorance, for in judging another he shows himself acquainted with the guilt of actions; and consequently, by his own decision, must be condemned himself, when, with his Yet as these mys teries had been specially revealed to him by the Lord, and were therefore best known to himself, none but the Lord and his own conscience could judge of his faithfulness in proclaiming them. It was a small matter, therefore, to Paul, that he should be eyes open to their true nature, he still given them milk only, and not meat perpetrates them. The inexcusable had taught them the first principles sin is not in judging another, but in of Christ only, and not the more diffidoing the things which his own judg-cult doctrines of the gospel. And thus ment has decided, in the case of ano- arraigned, and for this offence, it ther, to be wrong. Slightly different seems the Corinthians were disposed is the case found in the 14th of Ro- to think lightly of Paul, and discard mans, where the Apostle is reproving him from their confidence as a spiritboth Jews and Gentiles for judging ual instructor. This was deeply disone another in matters of opinion- tressing to Paul, and led him to a refor, says he, (verse 5) "One man monstrance, in which he aims to place esteemeth (KRINEI, thinketh) one day both himself and his cause towards more holy than another: another the disciples at Corinth in their true esteemeth, or thinketh, every day light. After denying all claim to hualike" and in reference to matters man wisdom, and on the authority of of this kind, he continues, verse 13, Job and David, proving it to be but "Let us not, therefore, judge one vanity, he confesses himself but a another any more." We would by servant of Christ and a steward of the no means attempt to weaken the force mysteries of God; and that in respect and authority of this injunction. On to these, it is required of him by his the contrary, we regret that it has master, Christ, that he be faithful in not been efficient to restrain that ty- dispensing them. rannical exercise of judgment which has made opinions heresy, and raised up in the chair of a charity which thinketh no evil-which suffers long and is kind-a bigotry that frowns upon every free effort of the mind, even when legitimately exercised upon the word of God, as the begin-condemned by human judgment, in a ning of schism, and smites to silence the first whispers for reformation, as blasphemy against its own assumed infallibility. In the 4th chapter of 1st Corin-rity of the church, but of Christ-thians, we have the Apostle Paul repudiating the judgment of his Corinthian brethren concerning him, and claiming for himself the right of exemption till the Lord come; but this, as Dr. Macnight very justly says, "is one of those general expressions of which there are a number in scripture, which must be limited by the subject to which they are applied." The context, therefore, must be considered, before we can ascertain the extent to which the Apostle denied the judgment of the Corinthians. From the preceding chapters, it appears that some false teacher had represented the Apostle either as ignorant or unfaithful, because he had case where the unassisted human reason was so vain and incompetent. He feels himself in the relation of a superior, acting not under the autho teaching no lesson which they had with such a tribunal in the Christian church. The only position we have yet to examine is that which fortifies itself behind the parable of the wheat and tares. A brief examination of this shall close the present number. It will be observed that there are two sowers, the Son of man and the devil two seeds, the good and the bad, the wheat and the tares-but only one field. This field is declared to be, not the church, but the world. Whatever, therefore, is said about the eradication of the tares, is applicable church discipline, but was intended, in the series of parables with which it is found connected, as a lesson upon the true relation the church, while in the world, sustains to it. There was The passage in the 4th chapter of James, verse 11, next claims our attention. This epistle was addressed to the twelve tribes in the dispersion -to those Jews who, from the times of the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivity, had been sojourners among the Gentiles, and through whom God in his providence had extended some knowledge of his being and attributes, even to the lands of darkest Paganism. Many of these "devout men of every nation under heaven"—were present at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and had taken with them, into the lands of their dispersion, the know-to the world, but not to the church. ledge of Christ and him crucified. It does not, then, touch the case of These are the persons, then, the Apostle is addressing; and in the passage before us, it is plain that, like our Saviour on the Mount, he is speaking to them as individuals, and giving them a precept for their go-to be no war of extermination waged vernment in reference to one another. by the church upon these. tares, the The character of the precept is also wicked of the earth; they were to restricted by its terms. It is speaking be borne with until the great harvest, against a brother, contrary to the when the Lord would send forth his law. The ninth commandment says, strong reapers, the destroying angels, "Thou shalt not bear false witness and they should be gathered together against thy neighbour ;" and the 19th and bound for the burning. Every chapter of Leviticus, and 16th verse, effort to extend the kingdom of God the law speaketh on this wise, "Thou by the sword, by the strong arm of shalt not go up and down as a tale- power, and to subdue the rebellion bearer among thy people; neither of the nations by wars of conquest or shalt thou stand against the blood of extermination, has been a violation thy neighbour: I am the Lord. Thou of this principle; but those lawful shalt not hate thy brother in thine and laudable exertions which indiviheart." Concurrent with this is the dual congregations or churches are law of love, as more fully enforced in making, and have ever made, to the New Testament. The precept, maintain their purity, and preserve then, is not against the legitimate themselves from reproach, come no exercise of church authority, but that way under the condemnation of this unlawful judgment assumed over parable. It was designed to regulate, men's motives and consciences, which not the conduct of the church towards is too often claimed in sectarian as- its members, but towards the world, sumptions, and which cannot be too a part of which they are themselves forcibly rebuked. It would be as declared, equally with the tares, to reasonable to say that the Mosaic occupy. enactments against censorious and malicious judging in the law, abrogated all judicial authority in that dispensation, as that the passages we have been considering are inconsistent We have thus briefly noticed the principal passages relied upon by those who would weaken the arm of the church in maintaining its own purity against the corruptions of the world, and attempted to show, that while they do impose restrictions upon a licentious and unbridled use of authority, both on the part of individuals and churches in the exercise of a censorious and illegal judgment, they by no means teach the false doctrine of no judgment at all; but, on the contrary, by the specification of particular inhibitions, leave the inference, that in other matters, judgment is allowable. We shall attempt, in another number, to show that impartial and prompt discipline is among the most solemn duties of the church, and enter upon an inquiry into the proper method of administering it. W. K. P. LETTERS FROM EUROPE. PARIS, July 14, 1847. MY DEAR CLARINDA-While tradition and poetry assign to Leicester an origin older than the New Testament, authentic record only assumes for it a foundation anterior to the invasion of the island by the Romans. Antiquaries derive its ancient name, Ratae, from the Celtic Rath," a cleared space," a Latinized form of a British term. It paid a regular stipend to the Roman government while possessed by its soldiery and occupied as a Roman camp. It finally became a walled town, with gates and bulwarks, a seat of temples, a forum, and princely dwellings, with tesselated pavements. As early as 658 a cathedral and bishop's palace are said to have been founded in this city. From the invasion of the Saxons down to the times of Edmund Ironsides, 1016, and during the Norman conquest it was the theatre of numerous conflicts, of triumphs, and defeats. An Abbey was founded here in 1137, by Robert Bossu, the second Norman Earl of Leicester. Assem blies of Barons and Parliaments were here occasionally convened, connected with various important events-such as the obtaining of Magna Charta, and the framing statutes against the Lollards and other heretics, down to 1414.-This, too, was the seat of the famous " Parliament of Bats," wearing staves and bludgeons, instead of swords and weapons of war. Here Richard III. had his last sleep on the night before the fatal battle of Aug. 22, 1485. Here Cardinal Wolsey died in the Abbey in 1530. Here, in 1556, Thomas Moore was burnt to death for denying that the bread and wine used in "the sacrament" were the real body and blood of Christ. Here, too, one Mother Cook" was burned for being a witch, not long after the unfortunate Thomas Moore; and as late as July, 1616, nine other poor women were burned under the charge of witchcraft. 66 Some of the Leicester has had the honor of being often visited by English Kings. Queen Anne, consort of James I. Prince Henry, Charles I. visited it; but for these visits, the last, indeed, being a visitation, it paid a large price in the blood of its citizens. Puritanism was every where active. Leicester Puritans led jack-asses before the altars of the churches in ridicule of the ordinance of baptism about the middle of the 17th century. Many other important incidents, political and ecclesiastical, are related in the details of the history of this venerable city, of which I cannot now speak particularly. I spent three days in Leicester, but being much fatigued with our protracted meetings in Nottingham, I was able to deliver but two lectures during my sojourn. They were both heard by large and attentive auditories, in one of its most spacious halls. Meantime I was curious to visit some ancient celebrated spots. Amongst these were the celebrated Abbey and its beautiful gardens above alluded to, made more interesting to me by |