of a more public kind of the children, to stimulate both children and parents."

Thus has this subject been set forth by holy men-men of name and authority in its importance, its urgency, and its likely results. In a very few sentences I shall now present the plan which I would recommend for adoption. 1st. Let there be, as I apprehend, in general, there is—a carefully kept register of the children baptized, with the names of the parents; their connection with the Church; whether both or only one in membership, and their address. 2nd. Let the pastor, or some one for him, say half yearly, call together the children so baptized, all above four years of age, classify them as they assemble, and catechise them-closing with an address, reminding them how in baptism they were given to the Lord, and what the Church of God expects of them. 3rd. Allot from twenty-five to fifty of these children to be looked after by a "female visitor," or "male visitor," as the case may be, half yearly to report at the catechetical meeting as to their attending their own church Sunday school, and their being placed under religious instruction through the week. 4th. That there shall be an annual tea meeting of the baptized children, with their parents, in which the duties, both of parents and children to their Lord and to the Church shall be enforced-reminding them of the hope and expectation of both pastors and people, that parents shall fulfil their vows to those children whom they have presented to the Lord, and that children shall, by God's grace, seek to grow up and realise all that their baptism implies.

If such a course could be adopted and vigorously carried out-which, indeed, can only be done by the members of the Church becoming willing and ardent coadjutors---we cannot but believe that the results would be most blessed. As it is now, our baptized children are introduced to no more privileges than others. The catechumen catechumen classes of the early Christians were, most assuredly,

classes conducted on behalf of the children and young people so dedicated by baptism to the instruction of the Church. What we propose, therefore, is simply a revival of these ancient catechumen classes, as far as they regarded the young. Such a system of training, backed by home and school culture, and all as related to baptism, would make this ordinance something more than a mere form; would make it a sheet-anchor of Church influence-a fulcrum on which to rest the lever of Christian truthwielded by a warm heart and spiritually-influenced arm, and by which young minds would be moved and elevated, and so be trained, by the help of God's Spirit, to lives of usefulness, both in the Church and the world.

For who can doubt, who knows human nature, the importance of a rallying point, and a Shibboleth cry ? "I must not forget my baptism,” ought to be, must be, more than ever, a sentiment instilled into all our young. We would thus bind upon our children the obligation which their baptism imposes upon them. As we have said, no such idea would we permit to be associated with baptism as regeneration, but we would educate according to its true nature, as introductory to the instruc

tion of the Church, and so as placing a serious obligation at once on parents and children, pastors and members.

to

Oh, what disastrous results churches, to families, and to myriads of the young, have flowed from a neglect of this duty! How vast the individual sin and misery; how grievous the domestic distraction and parental disappointment; how great the congregational impoverishment, and national loss, that have issued from this neglect! How loud and piercing the cry for reform! Can it, ought it, to be longer delayed? We have been as those who have been ashamed of our own practice of infant baptism. Yet, what a field for Christian philanthropy and consecrated zeal is presented by the baptized children of our churches-children

given to us by parental anxiety, preference, and choice! How long shall this field remain waste? how long be allowed to be overrun with briars and thorns? Are not its claims prior to all other fields, however urgent ? Does it not offer the richest prospect of yield to holy husbandry? In the name, then, of that Spirit who indited the injunction "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it;" in the name of Him who said-" Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven;" I appeal to ministers and churches, to take into their immediate consideration how best to discharge their obligations to their baptized children; and may God direct their counsels! Amen.

By the Reb. Thomas

If we look back to the reigns of Elizabeth and her immediate successors, we find a considerable number of Puritan ministers connected with the county of Northampton. They held the meetings of their associations, delivered the lectures, and maintained their principles, in most of the chief towns of the county. It was their prevailing opinion that the Protestant Church of England needed purifying from the remains of Popish superstition and Ritualistic practices; their habitual aim was to obtain a purer worship and discipline in the Church. But all their efforts failed, and hence, we see the poisonous fruit appear in all the Papal tendencies of the present day. After the Restoration of the second Charles, and the passing of the Act of Uniformity in violation of all the promises that had

Coleman, Ulverstone.

been made to them by the King, fortyeight ministers in Northamptonshire came out from the Church, and made a part of that noble band of the two thousand Bartholomew Confessors. Several of them remained in the county; preached to their former flocks as they had opportunity; and there are now in existence twelve of the oldest Independent Churches that trace their origin to the labours of these devoted men and during the subsequent two hundred years of their history, evangelical truth and piety have been preserved generally in the midst of them, and their influence has been diffused around them; while many eminent men have ministered to them. Other Churches have been formed at different periods since their day, so that there are now thirty-six churches of this order, and

an equal number that bear the name of Baptist Churches, while the Wesleyans have a considerable number of chapels, and rooms for preaching. Occasional services are also conducted by the ministers and members of the different Churches to some extent in the county, and of late a fresh agency has been employed by the Independents, under the designation of the "Northamptonshire Congregational County Mission."

In the limits to which this paper must be confined, we shall present a brief view of the early struggles of the Churches, the holy zeal displayed under their trials, the gradual increase in the number of churches, recent improvements, erection of chapels and school rooms, and the efforts now making in village evangelization. Our space will not allow us to give particulars of every Church; the aim will be to give a concise and general view of the whole.

1. THE EARLY STRUGGLES OF THE

CHURCHES.

There are records of trials and sufferings, with supports and deliverances, which are of a remarkable and somewhat romantic nature. One of the Independent Churches dates from the days of the Commonwealth, 1654, when a greater degree of liberty was enjoyed for the worship of God, and the formation of Christian Churches, than had been known for many ages before. John Beverley, a Puritan minister, who had embraced Independent principles of Church government, went to preach the gospel at Rothwell, a populous village about four miles from Kettering, and there he formed a Church in accordance with these principles. But his devoted and successful services were soon brought to a close, for he was removed by death in the year 1658. The second pastor of this Church, a Mr. Browning, was an ejected minister, and he suffered imprisonment at Northampton, under the Conventicle Act, for preaching the Gospel of Christ;

from thence he wrote letters to his people, which are remarkable for the strong consolation and joy they express, and for the suitable and impressive counsels they give. The members of the Church passed through a great fight of afflictions, so as scarcely to be able to have any communion together for some months. The minister ejected from the Church at Kettering, Mr. John Maidwell, remained in the town, and administered the ordinances of the Gospel to the members of his former flock, who came out from the Church with him. But he suffered persecution, and frequently escaped from his adversaries with difficulty and in disguise. It is said that he was once cast into prison; but he was banished from his home for a time, under the operation of the "Five Mile Act." Valuable letters, that he wrote to his people during this separation from them, are preserved in the records of the Church.

The Churches of Market Harborough and Ashley were founded by the eminent Matthew Clarke, who was ejected from the living of Narborough, in Leicestershire. He suffered imprisonment in Leicester gaol at three different times, under the persecuting acts passed against them; and when the "Five Mile Act" passed, he had to retire to a lone house in Leicester Forest until the storm had abated. Another devoted servant of God, who came out from the Church, was a Mr. Shuttlewood, who-afterwards kept an academy for training young men for the ministry of the Gospel, at Sulby Hall -formed two Independent Churches in this county, viz., at Welford, and at Creaton. He had many trials to endure: once he was imprisoned, repeatedly was he informed against, taken before the magistrates, fined, and his goods and cattle taken away. His meeting house was approached by a long alley, in which some of his friends were stationed to watch when their enemies were approaching, so that timely notice

might be given for the minister and his hearers to escape by the windows into the fields around. Sometimes they had to meet in the pastures during the darkness and damps of the night. Preaching in a neighbouring village he was seized by a notorious persecutor and profane swearer; warrants were issued to distrain upon him for twenty pounds, upon the owner of the house where he preached for twenty pounds, and five shillings each on the hearers. His own house was entered by informers when he was conducting divine service, and a warrant was obtained to distrain upon him for forty pounds, when seven of his milch cows were taken and sold. His labours and sufferings so affected his constitution as to bring him to a premature grave. Another minister has a justice of peace entering the place while he is engaged in divine worship; he pleads before the magistrates that he was praying, not preaching; they declare that his praying was preaching, and they double his fine. There is another who is cast into Northampton gaol, where he is confined for six months, only for praying with a sick person.

II.-DIVINE

SUPPORTS RECEIVED, AND HOLY ZEAL DISPLAYED UNDER TRIALS.

These were days to try the spirits of ministers and people, and to test their principles. We are ready to ask with deep interest, How were these things borne? and what was the course they pursued? In one case, when they had to state that a sore persecution and scattering lay upon them, that they scarcely got together, much less obtained Church meetings, we find this proceeding afterwards condemned by the Church, and they spend a night in prayer to God to humble themselves before Him. Their pastor from his prison writes: "The cup of affliction for the Gospel is sweeter the deeper, a stronger cordial the nearer the bottom. I tell you if you knew what some of

VOL IV.-NEW SERIES.

Christ's prisoners enjoyed in their gaols, you would not fear their condition, but long for it; and I am persuaded, could their enemies conceive of their comforts, in mere vexation of heart they would stay their persecution. My brethren, keep your ground; the Scripture is your law; God is your king. Your principles are sober, your practices are peaceful, your obedience to superiors known in all those things wherein your obedience is required. If men have nothing against you but in the matters of your God, rejoice and triumph in all your persecutions."

Another in his exile writes: "Since I heard of the great distress you are in, it cannot but much affect and afflict me; and the rather, because my present dangers and sufferings add to yours, which makes the burden heavier to us both. But if our God, who directs, helps us to cast our burden on Him, he will sustain it, and us under it, as at present He doth, blessed be His name." He afterwards gives directions as to the purity of their worship their spirit towards one another, their sitting loose to the world-giving up themselves entirely to God, giving all diligence in their Christian course, seeking to attain joy and peace in believing. The spirit of patient perseverance appears in many of the members of the Churches, who frequently travelled considerable distances to obtain the opportunity of worshipping God, in the way that they believed was most in accordance with His word, hearing the Gospel from its faithful ministers, and having the special ordinances, the Saviour appointed, administered in their purity.

When Mr. Shuttlewood was removed by death, those that had been benefited by his ministry, were for several years as sheep without a shepherd; but they journeyed to Harborough, and Kettering, and some of them went as far as Bedworth, in Warwickshire, a distance of twenty miles, to attend the

K

ministry of Mr. Julius Saunders, in the record of whose Church there are several notices of persons entering into communion with them from Welford and its vicinity. Such was the love these servants of Christ had for the ministry of the Gospel, that in the dark mornings of the winter season, they would travel half the distance by the light of a lantern, when they left it till their return in the evening, when it was again lighted to conduct them home.

The pastor writes of one of their female members from these parts: "Elizabeth Ridgly, of Hazlebeech, Northamptonshire, joined this Church, 1687. She was a diligent saint, who came to our Church meetings seventeen long miles, twelve times in the year, and that on foot." It is considered that the distance was more than twenty miles. There were similar instances in the Church at Rothwell, under the ministry of Mr. Davis, whose labours to spread the Gospel extended for many miles, and who employed many of his members in evangelistic efforts. This was considered at that time as very irregular, and it brought upon him the censures of his brethren. But the means thus employed to spread the knowledge of divine truth, appeared to receive the sanction of the Great Head of the Church, so that many were added to the people. If those that censured had wisely imitated, the Gospel might have been more extensively known.

It is not necessary to travel such distances, as those to which we have referred, to attend the ministry of the Gospel in the present day; but the practice of taking short journeys to attend a central place of worship, which in our remembrance rather extensively prevailed, has of late years greatly declined. Small Churches have been formed in some of the villages, which cannot be efficiently maintained, and we believe that it would have been better for the cause of Christ, and the welfare of the people, if the former

practice had been continued, of a connection with the nearest Church that could maintain an efficient ministry, while occasional services were sustained for the preaching of the Gospel in the places around. The number of small Churches is not the strength, but the weakness, we will not say of Independency merely, but of any system of Church government in the land.

The pastors of the Churches that immediately succeeded the ejected ministers in the principal places, proved to be men of high attainments and eminent piety, so that peace and prosperity were enjoyed amongst them. As evidence of the state of the ministry, and of the Churches, when they had been in existence for seventy or eighty years, we may quote the following testimony-In the year 1735, attempts were made to remove Dr. Doddridge from Northampton to Nottingham. Dr. David Jennings of London presented a number of reasons to prevail on him not to make the change, and he asks, "whether it be not a matter of great importance to preserve the flourishing state of the dissenting interest in Northamptonshire, the glory of our cause in England? Messrs. Some and Norris are both growing old, and Mr. Saunders' ill state of health renders his life very precarious. Should therefore Dr. Doddridge leave that county, how soon might the face of things be sadly altered there?" He further asks, "whether so much of the life and power of godliness is ordinarily found among a corporation, magistrates, and occasional Conformists, as among those plain Christians with whom you now reside? and are not the most serious Christians our best and most comfortable friends?"

In the year 1741, Job Orton, who had spent much time in Northamptonshire in his connection with Doddridge,

writing to a young minister, who thought he had not been kindly treated by some congregation in this county,