that he is more capable than others, of presenting to the public the memorials of his departed friend, yet there may be substantial reasons why the additional information he possesses should be furnished to the public. The memoir of the life, ministry, and writings of the Rev. Rowland Hill, by Mr. Jones, a Scotch Baptist, does not contain, by any means, a just representation of Mr. Hill's life and character. Had Mr. Jones personally known the departed minister, he would surely have omitted many of the unkind and unjustifiable reflections which his book contains. He was a stranger to Mr. Hill's private character, and very little acquainted with him as a public man, and therefore could not be qualified for the duty he sought to discharge. It is evident that, in the view of Mr. Jones, the great defect in Mr. Hill's character consisted in his being an Episcopalian, and not a Scotch Baptist; this was "the head and front of his offending." And although it may be the privilege of this biographer to see his own opinions of church government clearly revealed in the New Testament, yet he should remember that others, whose names have been held in long and deserved reputation, hold sentiments widely different from his own. In addition to the

authorities referred to in several parts of the ensuing pages, the remarks of Lord Bacon may be given: "I, for my part, do confess, that in revolving the Scriptures, I could never find any such thing; (one form of discipline for all churches,) but that God had left the like liberty to the church government as he had done to the civil government; to be varied according to time, and place, and accidents, which nevertheless his high and divine providence doth order and dispose."

These were precisely the views of Mr. Hill. He acknowledged and mourned over the defects which he discovered in the Establishment of our country, but still felt it his duty not entirely to leave her communion. But this, says Mr. Jones, was "glaring inconsistency, and can only be resolved into his total unacquaintedness with the nature, constitution, laws, and discipline of the churches of Christ, as laid down in the New Testament."* And Mr. Hill's attachment to the church was the cause, according to the wonderful discovery of Mr. Jones, why he was the subject of fear and trembling in "the valley of the shadow of death," and was forsaken by the Lord, "when heart and flesh were failing." *Jones's Life, p. 38.

"We see him," remarks Mr. Jones, "all his lifetime trammelled with antichristian abominations, -not following the Lord fully, so as to take part with Christ's despised disciples, but halting between two opinions, on matters of vital interest to Christianity,-labouring to uphold a system, against which the vials of the wrath of Heaven are pouring out. In the very nature of things, this must darken his evidences of personal interest in the Saviour!!"*

Leaving, however, the biographical sketch by Mr. Jones, it will be necessary to shew that "the Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill," by Mr. Sidney, does not render another account of the excellent minister altogether unnecessary. He has, doubtless, exercised considerable discretion in the selection of the valuable materials presented to the public, but he has remained silent on some points as to which additional information is required. Such silence has probably been produced by a desire not unnecessarily to expose the wanderings of his beloved friend from the straight line of ecclesiastical discipline, and by his own private and conscientious views upon that particular subject.

That a clerical biographer should feel it his * Jones's Life, p. 314.

duty strongly to remonstrate against all infringe ment of church rules, is perfectly in character. The writer does not feel himself called upon either to justify or condemn those irregularities of which Mr. Sidney complains; but he deems it a duty to state those special and extraordinary circumstances, which induced Mr. Hill to pursue that course of usefulness which he deemed most for the glory of God, and the good of his cause.

If it can be shewn that there were sufficient means within the Church fully to diffuse the Gospel among our perishing countrymen, and that, to accomplish this important object, there was no necessity to go beyond its prescribed boundaries, then it must be admitted that a clergyman was not justified in his violation of its discipline: but what was the actual state of the Establishment? When Romaine commenced a special meeting, to "pray for the peace of the Church, and for all orders and degrees of its ministers," ne was accustomed to mention the names of all the pious clergy he knew, in his weekly supplications: at that time the names he was able to include in his prayer did not exceed eight in the whole kingdom."* The question, *Life of Romaine, p. 32.

then, may be solemnly put, Did not such times justify Wesley, Whitefield, and Hill in departing from the strict rules of the Church to which they were affectionately attached?

Now, the opinions we entertain upon this point will materially influence our minds, not only in the matter we furnish to the public in detailing the history of an irregular clergyman, but in the conclusions we draw from the statements we make. Our opinions may be most conscientiously given, and yet they may, in the view of persons equally conscientious, be considered partial and inaccurate. Without attempting to justify all the proceedings of the holy men who were the instruments of reviving religion in this country in the reign of George the Second and his successor, yet the writer admits that he peruses their histories with great admiration and delight. He would apply to them the words of Milton, when referring to the Reformation:-"When I recall to mind at last, after so many dark ages, wherein the huge overshadowing train of error had almost swept all the stars out of the firmament of the church, how the bright and blessed Reformation (by Divine power) struck through the black and settled night of ignorance, methinks a sovereign