History of the Presbyterians in England. By the Rev. A.
H. Drysdale, M.A. (Publication Committee of the Presbyterian Church of England.)—Mr. Drysdale expresses the hope that though his book is a sectional, it may not be found to be a sectarian History. We may say at the outset that though the author ex- presses his convictions with boldness and candour, there is no evidence to be found in these pages that they have either warped his judgment or embittered his style. Indeed, whilst compelled to "travel over the smouldering ashes of controversies still far from extinct," Mr. Drysdale has succeeded admirably in his wise and generous endeavour " not unduly to stir their embers." The book is, in short, one which is marked by considerable historical research, as well as by a trenchant, though calm and temperate examination of the circumstances which have attended the rise, decline, and revival of Presbyterianism in England. The author contends that originally, and for more than a century--in fact, from 1550 to 1662—the Presbyterians repre- sented the party of reform within the Church of later Tudor and early Stuart times, and he holds that since their ejectment under the Uniformity Act of 1662, they, at all events, can claim to have co-operated with others in stimulating from without the .Anglican Church against her inherited tendencies to medieval -reaction or spiritual inertness. The terms " Puritan," " Pre- cisian," " Presbyterian," though not synonymous, were applied in the first instance to the same ecclesiastical party :- " The three words were in use within a few years of each other. Precisians, or precise folks, came first, introduced, apparently, by Archbishop Parker. Puritan, which soon out- stripped it in popular phraseology, had its origin from the same • quarter in 1564, and frequently recurs in the Archbishop's letters." Puritanism has been defined as the feeling of which Protestantism was the argument, and Mr. Drysdale quotes Pastor John Robinson, of Pilgrim Fathers renown, to prove that Presbyterianism was its -organised expression. " The Papists," says Robinson, " plant the ruling power of Christ in the Pope ; the Protestants in the Bishops ; the Puritans in the Presbytery ; we [i.e., the Inde- pondents] in the body of the congregation of the multitude called the Church." The primary watchword and essential characteristic of the Presbyterian theory of Church government is stated by Mr. Drysdale to be the recognition of every preaching Presbyter or Pastor of the flock as a true Bishop in the Scriptural sense of the term, with no higher order of Bishops or prelates over him by divine right or Apostolic institution. This, he contends, is Primi- tive Episcopacy ; these preaching and presiding Presbyters being
Bishops in the early and true sense, not Bishops of Bishops, but Bishops of the flock; not shepherds of shepherds, but shepherds of the sheep. This is the central position of the book, and starting from such a point of view, Mr. Drysdale traces the religious and ecclesiastical struggles of the Reformation period,—the develop- ment of a Presbyterian party within the Church in the reign of Elizabeth, the repressive measures of Archbishop Whitgift, the Mar-Prelate Controversy, the Hampton Court Conference, the Westminster Assembly, the Ejectment of 1662, and the rise of Arianism and its development into Unitarianism, amid the deadening and disintegrating influences of the last century. The revival of Presbyterianism in England began with the great Evangelical movement with which the names of Wesley and Whitfield are indissolubly linked. Its subsequent progress is briefly but clearly indicated, and the steps which led to the re- constituted " Presbyterian Church in England " in 1876 are also pointed out. It is enough to mention, if proof is wanted of the recent growth of Presbyterianism, that whereas in 1876 there were 270 congregations, with 50,000 members and an income of 4163,000, the returns for 1888 show 288 congregations, with 62,000 members and an income of 4200,000. Our space forbids the discussion of any of the controversial points raised by Mr. Drysdale, and we therefore need only add that this book is a vigorous, closely reasoned, and fairly comprehensive statement of the position, vicissitudes, and growth of that branch of the Christian Church which its author so ably represents.
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