YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

ACQUIRED BY EXCHANGE

HISTORY OF THE
ENGLISH CHUECH
AND O* TBE
PRINCIPAL BODIES
or
DISSENTERS, "WITH ABSWERS TO EACH.
FROM THE RESTORATION^ OF CHARLES II.
TO
A.D. 1800.

BY THE
REV. JOHNSON GRANT, M.A.
®f S>t. f o^n's College, (i^orti.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY.
1820.

PREFACE.

Xhi various testimonies of approbation with
which the two preceding Volumes of this Eccle
siastical History have been received, were, I
confess, sufficiently flattering to have stiraulated
my diligence to a less lingering execution of
the remainder. My reasons for delay need not
now be assigned : let it suffice to state, as one
advantage resulting frora the suspended labour,
that, on being resumed, it wore the freshness of
novelty, and allured the writer to alertness in
investigation. But while I seem thus to boast of compli
ments addressed to me, I must not conceal a
complaint with which they have been mingled,
that the dignity and utility of this History have
sustained considerable injury* by my detailed
notice of tbe Joannite sect, who might have
been left to expire in the socket of their own
fatuity.

IV PHEIACE.

Though willing to bow before the decision of
public opinion, and prepared to curtail, in any
new edition, my account ^ of. tljose maniacal
congregations, I am by no means satisfied, that
the sect was, or is, so extremely contemptible;
as has been represented. It will be remerabered,
tbat at the tirae when my second volume was
published, the Joannites could boast of five
crowded places of regular worship, in and near
the metropolis; many intelligent,' learned, and
respectable patrons, and 20,000 sealed adherents
in the North and West of England. Many
sects have been held formidable, not less in a
political than a religious vievv, both in this and
in othisr countries, who never were able to
muster the fourth part of such a force. Many
sects, and many religious systems, whose ulti
mate influence became extensive, struggled
iu their cradle, against less favourable aus
pices. Mahomet, in twelve years, had hardly
gained twelve disciples : nor had Methodism or
Quakierisni a mudb more propitious 6rigin. Be
sides, it was never the leading object of this
History, to consider sects only as politically
formidable. It is their religious errors which a^e

PHEFACE.

the main objects of our concern. It is their reli
gious opinions that our refutations strive to over
come. The commonalty are the people; and when
errors, how absurd soever, are propagated aud
received among them, argument must be tried to
restore the wholesome influence of truth. The
complainants, too, enjoy tbe advantage of pro
nouncing their decision, after the death of the
pretended prophetess, and the failure of her
chief predictions, had proved the delusion or ex
posed the imposition ; and thus made her adhe
rents ashamed of the public avowal of a confi
dence so very grievously disappointed. But
though these consummations of her ravings
might have been easily and were foreseen, it
was not so evident that the sect would have
taken the turn of silence : nor is it certain
that the imposture has in the minds of its
20,000 dupes, actually refuted itself. In fact^
the adverse fortunes of this heresy may be
traced to three causes, all of them contrary to
the probabilities of any previous calculation.
First, they possessed no preacher of combined
fervour and abilities, who might embody their
principles in glowing arid ingenious oratory, and
VOL. III. A

VI ^BEFACR

entwine them with the passbns of the eiitba^
sia»tic, or adapt theto to the reasoning intelli
gence of tbe consideratfe. They were a sect of
wirongbeadsj rather than enthusiasts ; and their
.preachers were mere drivellers. Notliing eottla
he more contem ptiblei, than the bunglijag^ dull,
prosing, vulgar, ungrammatical nonsense* ut-.
tered by Tozer and Turpin. Could tfeey hava
boasted a Whitfield or a Wesley, an Elias, Car
penter, a Rowland Hill, a Matthew Wilks,
who should have possessed the stense or the
eunning to have suppressed or softened tbe
more cevolting asnd bbsphenxDus parts.; cf th®
system ; to have iufuised elegance,, poeti-y, feelr
ing, and fervoiiir into the bymns ; and to have
brought! tbe treasures of a gl.o^ii'iiiig imagination
and inapasstoned mind, to bear on the peaceful
visi ©IIS of a millenniumi^ or the more beattdfic
gbwries of the invisible worid; in tbat caae,
neither tlie ieaAh of the prophetess, nor tl*e fai-
Mtg of her prefEcfions, woitld have checked the
wiMfijie pro^ss of the deludon. Had this »ect
even possessed the common prmJesnce of avoid
ing the opening of chapels altogetlier, aoud
corafitied t'hemselves to tb© mysterious seat
ing; the sigil trade might, to this hour, have

PBEFACB. vn
bi^ught gre&t gain to the craftsmen, while th*
dvpcry would have spread itself far and wide,
and silently mingled with the Establishment
and every sect. But by bringing their blas
phemies and fooleries to the test of preaching,
and tbat preaching poor, low, tame, flat, tmd
unattractive, they submitted thera to an in-
s:tnicted populace, who must haVe some speci-
ousiness of reason, some warmth of feeling, to
employ their' understandings and excite their
imaginations. The Joannites, in consequence,
were unable to bear up, publicly, against uni-
versial defisioa.
A second cause of the failure of this sect, was
want of sufficient opulence. Could they have
eaalisted thirty or forty Miss Townlys, instead
of one, they might bave erected splendid
chapels at the several watering-places, provided
theim witb able orators and delicious music,
snd bribed congregations, composied of a shoial
©f nominal churchmen and pseudo-dissenters,
wbo will not serve God for nought, but are
r^dy to lend conviction to the highest bidder.
Tbe wofiian elothed with tbe sun, was sup
ported in a comfortable Iwuse ; she bad green
A *2

Vtn PREFACB.-

peas at a guinea a .quart, and a coach at com
mand to take airings in the Park ; but this, and
the superb outfit. for thc promised birth, ex-
bauSted the coffers of the Joannites. -
,:? But the extinguished honours of these be-;
retics are chiefly to be ascribed to their ac--.
knowledged want of artifice. They were an
infatuated, but an honest people. They tarried
the last trial of their principles into the arena
of full publicity; and, their expectations being'
bailed,, confessed tbat tbey bad no more to say ;
tbat tbey had no further claim on public atten
tion. But bad cunning presided over their
counsels, had they removed the Pythoness lat
terly to the far-famed Delamere Forest^ pro
nouncing that retirement to be the woman's flight-
into the wilderness; and had they succeeded, as
they might have easily done, in impo-sing a child
upon the world, it is difficult to ascertain the
extent to which their delusion might have
spread among the people. And since it was a
fairer conjecture that they should bave adopted
this stratagem, than pursued the course of sim
plicity which elided in their shame, they were
not, while they flourished, to be overlooked as

PHEFACE, ' IX
a. despicable sect, nor ought their blasphemies
to be left to refute themselves.
These remarks might vindicate my former
exposure of the Joannite errors, even were it
certain tbat thc shutting up of their chapels had
put a complete and final termination to this delu
sion. That this A\'ould not be the case, was plain
from the beginning; and it is doubtful whether
any single instance of recantation has taken
place; The fact is, that the great body of this
deluded people had been, se\'eral years before, dis
ciples of fhe prophet Brothers ; and transferred
their allegiance and credulity from that maniac,
on the failure of his predictions, to Joanna,
half maniac and half cunning woman. And all
of them still retain the same general principles,
ready to shift their object to Madame Krudner,
the Araerican Jemima Wilkinson, or any other
lunatic or impostor who may arise, and desire, if
not to be clothed with the sun, at least to bask in
the sunshine of comfortable idleness. Nay, the
greater number actually consider the death of
tbeir leader, as no more than a temporary sus
pension of the faculties, and firmly believe in
A 3

X PREFACE.
her speedy return to the earth in iwia-passing
power and splendour.
In 1818, on the fourth anniviersflry of bfer
death, a company of an hundred and fifty of
her ^berents asserabled ou Primrose Hill, in
full persuasion of her being at that time reani
mated. They repaired to the burying-ground
of St. John's Wood, and loudly deraanded ad
mittance; nor was it till a late boiur tbat they
were persuaded to disperse quietly to their
several homes.
The pertinacity of this sect in their opinions,
may be further evinced by reference to the
newspapers of October 1817, where a singular
narrative is given of thie assembling of a vast
uumber of these deluded people ; and of a sacri
fice and other mysteries celebrated on that oc
casion. Not having taken note of the precise
paper or date, I am not able to transcribe the ac
count. But the raost palpable and disgraceful
proof of the existence and the unsubdued hopes
of this sect is to be found in die epitaph in
scribed, (proh pudor!) on the tombstone of their
spiritual mother ; which, I am sorry to observe,
much to the discredit of those who have per-

PREFACE. Xi
mitted such a blasphemous record to be en-
gmven on stone in a Christian burying-ground,
lus found admission in the cemetery of St. John's
Wood Chapel. JOANNA SOUTHCOTE.
Rest, tiving wonder all thy days
To earth's and HB.K yen's bnkaftusbo gaz> :
Though sages vainly think they knov<r
Secrets which thou alone canst show ;
Yet God can tell, in what blest hour
Thou shalt return in greatkr.fowbb. Sabinaus.
The answei-s I have given to this sect in
my Second Volume, are intended as standing
replies to all future pretenders of the same
description who shall arise.
I conceived tliat I had already said enough
to obviate the charge of anachronian, which
has been prefened against me, for having in
troduced facts relative to the piesent state of
sects, under earlier reigns than that in which
they occurred. In answer to this accusa
tion, I now repeat, that the only way of ex
hibiting a fair view of tlie history and principles
of auy sect, in order to discuss its tenets, was
to bring all the facts together at once, ahd to
A 4

xii PREFACE. '
consider my accounts of their proceedings and
examination of their principles, as episodes,
from which I should return to the main thread
of tbe history. Had I taken up and laid down
the several sects, reign after reign, the chief
purpose of my work would have beeu utterly
frustrated. ,
I bave now, in this volume, completed my
original undertaking ; and if I were to consult
my own mental ease, rather than probable uti
lity, I should leave what rehiains to other bands
and other tiraes. For, great as I have found the
difficulty of arrangement, that of speaking the
whole truth, and of venturing unbiassed opi
nions, without respect to private friendship or
fear of offence, in regard to the last tweiity
years of the reign of George III. will prove to
me a difficulty much more embarrassing. To
canvass measures of the present day, to speak:
freely and boldly concerning men among whom
I live, and with whom, on both sides of disputed
questions,. I am in habits of strict intimacy, is
a matter of extreme delicacy. It is, in truth, a
dilemma of imperfection under which all history
labours, that if it be written during the recorded'

JBEFACE. xm
events, the writer is subject to unavoidable
leanings and prejudices; and if delayed till the
time of these mental warpings be past, the in
telligence can only be gathered on the authority
of biassed relaters. When tbe season of perfect
candour arrives, that of strict authenticity is
gone, I shall endeavour to discharge my task
witb as scrupulous a fidelity, as, under the cir
cumstances alluded to, I cau. comraand. The
reraaining Chapter, with Indexes, Chronological
Tables, and one or two useful Appendixes, will
forra a thin additional volume. J. G.
15, St. James's Place, Hampitead Road,
21st March 1820.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIII.
I'HE REIGN Oi^ CHAEUCS II.
I- Rbstoration of Charles II. — II. Character of the
Times.— i-III. IlestoFatk)n of Episcopacy. — IV. Con-
|«Kn% with the Ptesbyt^ianB, and the King's mode
rate Declaration. — V. Conference at tlie Savoy, for
new-modelling the Liturgy. — VL Parliament. Burn
ing of the Cov^iant.r— VII. Corporatipn Act. — VIII.
Convocation. Alterations In the Liturgy. — IX. Act
of Uniformity : Remarks on tbe ejected Ministers. —
X. Declaration in favour of Liberty of Conscience. —
XL Sheldon, Archbishop.— XII. TJie Clergy rclin-
quish the Power of taxing diemselves in Convocation.
— XIII. Conventicle and similar Acts.— XIV. Plot
attributed to the Catholics, and consequent Acts of
Parliaraent. — XV. Othcr Causes of Odium against tjic
Catholics. Plan for uniting the Chui?ch at>d Noncon
formists. — - XVI. Declaration in favour of granting
Liberty towards the Dissenters, opposed by Paniament.
—XVII. Test Act— XVIII. Sancroft, Archbishop.
— XIX. Duke of York sent beyoad seas. — XX.
JDeaths of RusseU and Sydney. — XXI. Death ot
Charles: and Character. — XXII. History of the
Liturgy. — XXIII. Acts of Parliament. — XXl\'.
Leamed Divines. — XXV. Miscellaneous Matters. —
xxvi. Presbyterians: their History; and Examin
ation of their Tenets. Page 1— 6,'J

CHAPTER XIV.
THE EKION or J.AMES II.
I. Contradictory Promises and Conduct of .Tamps. —
IL Remark on the Power of dispen.siag witli the Test.

xn - CONTENTS.
—III. The King courts the Dissenters, in order to fa
vour the Catholics. — IV. Court of Ecclesiastical Com
mission. — V. Attempts to introduce Catholics into the
Univenaties. — VI. The Nonconformists see the Designs,
and reject the Protection of James. — VII. The Church
Party call in the Interference of the Prince of Orange.
—VIII. The Bishops are imprisoned for refusing to
read the new Declaration of Indulgence. — IX. The
Prince of Orange declines to sanction the Suspension of
the Test. — X. 'Universal Odium against the Kirig. 
XI. His Abdication and Charalcter. — XII. ActS of
ParKdnrtent. — XIII. Learned Divines. — XIV. Mis
cellaneous Matters. Page 64—75

CHAPTER XV.
THK JIEIGN OF WILLIAM AND MAEY.
I. Battle of the Boyne, and Reduction of the Irish Ca
tholics. — IL Sta<;e of Parties : Passive Obedience and
Non -resistance. — III. Temper of thc Bishops and
Clergy in taking the Oath of Allegiance. — IV. Non
jurors : New Bishops : TiUotson, Primate : High and
Low Church. — ^V. Bill of Comprehension and Synod
for altering the Liturgy, both rendered abortive.— VI.
Toleration Act. — VII. Arguments respecting Non-
resistance. — VIII. Character of TiUotson : Tennison,
Primate.— IX. Trial of Bishop Watson- for Simony!
— X. Burnet assailed by the Tories. — XL Deaths of
, James IL and William. — XIL Acts of Parliament.
^XIII. Learned Divines. — XIV. Miscellaneous
Matters : Society for propagating Christianity in fo
reign Parts. Page 76-99

CHAPTER XVI.
HIE REIGN OF ANNE.
I. State of religious rar.tie.s.-II. Convocation. The
Lower Iiousc disavows Presbyleruuiism. ~ III. Bill

CONTEXTS. XVW
against occasional Conformity. — IV. Debate on the
Quesdon, Whether the Church was in Danger. —
V. Trial of Dr. Sacheverell. — VL Controversy be
tween Atterbury and Hoadly. — VIL Convocation in
quires into the State of Religion. — VIIL Whistorfs
Arian Work. — IX. Fleetwood's Preface bumt- —
X. Queen Anne's Bounty. — XI. Fifty Churches
built. — XIL Stateof Preaching.— XIII. Ireland and
Scotland. — XIV. Acts of Parliament. — XV. Leai-ned
and pious Divines. Page 100 — 115

CHAPTER XVII.
THE EKIGN OF GEOEGE I.
. Rebellion in favour of the Pretender. — II. Clarice's
Book on the Trinity. — TII. Bangorian Controversy :
Nonjurors. — IV. Bill for Relief of Dissenters. —
V. Plot agmnst the Government : Atterbury. — VL
Profaneness: Hell-fire Club. — VII. Coiiins: answered
by Bentley : Chubb. — VIII. Attempt to reconcile the
Engli^ and Galilean Churches. — -IX. Quakers released
from Oath: Dissenters. — X. Leamed Divines. — XL
Acts of Parliament. — XIL Whiston on Arianism ;
History of the Arians. — XIII. Statement and Refu
tation of their Principles. Pago 116 — 166

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE EEIGN OF GF.OECF, ».
. Tranquillity of the EnglLsh Church. — II. Licentious
ness of Manners : Drinking ; Gaming ; Dishonesty ;
the Drama; Novels. — III. Infidehty. — IV. Infidel
Writers: Hobbes, Collins, Woolston, Tindal. — V.
Hume, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke. — VI. Replies: Wai-
burton, Leland, Lardner, Doddridge, Gibson, Sher
lock, Seeker, West, Lord Lyttelton. — VTI. Differences
among Churchmen : Warburton and Law; Middleton
and Dodwell. — VIIL Societv for Reformation of

XV^•5^ COXTEK^T*.
Mam]ers.^-IX. Society fw propagating the Cto^pel in
foreign Parts ? and: ^sJety for promotine Christian
Hnowledgp. — ^X. Rainei'sHospitaJ'; MagdaleHe; A»y-
Jam.— XL Acts of PariJaaaent rdating to Cofl^es;
te Quakers, Jews, M^*ria^s, Sje.— 'XH- I-earne4:; Di
vines.— XIIL LeaifnedDis8enters.^XIV. Metho*rfs:
History.— XY. Statement and Refutation «f their Te-
»et*.— XVI. Moravians.— XVII. HHtchiiMDnianR.-^
XVIIL Swedenbfift'gians. Page lf67-— S08

CHAPTER XIX.
THE KEIGN OF GBOllGfE HI. Tff THE YEAE 1800.
Auspicious Termination of tMs History.— II. Procla
mation for the Encouragement of Piety.— III. ^i"^'*
first Speech in Parliament to the sarae Effect. — IV.
Policy with regard to the Catholics. — V. Arch<Jeaedn
Blackburne'^s Works on Confessions of Faith. — VI. As
sociation for Release from Subscription to the Thirty-
nine Articles. — VII. Reasons ibr the Rejection of tne
Petition to tliat Effect. — VIII, Unsuccessful Bill
against dormant Claims of the Church. — IX. Bills re
lating to Subscription. — X. Socinians: Statement and
Refutation of their Tenets.! — XL Indulgenee to the Ca-
t>hoIics in America and at Home. — XII. Similar Con
cessions made to Dissenters, — XIIL Alarm excifed :
Protestant Associations, — XIV. Lord G. Gordon's
Mob, — XV, Infidel and immoral Writers: Chesterfield,
Hume, Gibbon, Priestley. — XVI. Profanation of tbe
Sabbath.— XVIL ' Sunday Schools: Mr, Raikes.—
XVIII, Miss More and Blagdbn Controversy. — XIX.
Methodist Sunday Schools,-^XX. Mrs, Trimmer and:
other Writers on Sabbatii Education, — XXl, Episco-,
pacy in America, — XXII. Corporation and Test Aets.
— XXIII, New Proclamation,* respeeting Piety and
Morals,— XXIV. Slave Trade,— XXV. Kind's Ill
ness and Recovery. — XXVI. Corporation and Test
Acts.— XXVII, Lenity to Catholic Dissenters, —
XXVIII. French Revolution : Exertions of the
Clergy. — XXIX, Corporation and Test Acts. —

CONTENTS. x:i.V
XXX. Heterogeneous Nature of the Dissenters. —
XXXI. Price's Sermon, and Burke's Reflections. —
XXXII. Paine's Rights of Man.— XXXIIL Riots
in Birminghain : Expatriation of Dr, Priestley. —
XXXIV. A^ttempts of the Unitarians, — XXXV.
London Corresponding Society, and Second Part of
the Rights of Man. — XXXVL French Emigrants. —
XXXVII. Paine's Age of Reason, and Bishop of
LlandaTs Apology.— XXXVIII. Infidel Societies,
—XXXIX. David Williams, and Theophilanthro-
plsm. — XL. Bishop of London's Lectures : Hannah
More's Cheap Repository, and other Labours of Zeal.
Page 309—442

HISTOEY

OF THE

ENGLISH CHURCH AND SECTS.

CHAPTER XIII.
llHE REION OF CHARLES II.

Contents*
I. Restoration of Charles II. — II. Character of the
Times. — 111. Restoration of Episcopacy. — IV. Con
ference with the Presbyterians, and the King's mode
rate Declaration. — V. Conference at the Savoy, for
new-mode/ling the Liturgy. — VI. Parliament. Burn
ing of the Covenant.— -Vll. Corporation Act. — VIIT.
Convocation. Alterations in the Liturgy. — IX, Act
of Uniformity: Remarks on the ejected Ministers.—
X, Declaration in favour of Liherty of Conscience.— •
XL Sheldon, Archbishop. — XII. The Clergy relin
quish the Power of taxing themselves in Convocation.—
XIII. Conventicle and similar Acts. — XIV, Plot
attributed to the Catholics, and consequent Acts of Par
liament. — XV. Other Causes of Odium against tht
Catholics. Plan for uniting the Church and Noncon-
Voi, III. B

2 THE REIGN OF [\7th Cent.
formists.— XVI. Declaration in favour of granting
LibMy towards the Dissenters, opposed hy Parliament.
—XVII. Test Act.— XVIU. Sancroft, Arclibishop.
—XIX. Duke of York sent beyond seas. — XX.
Deaths of RusseU and Sydney.— XXl. Death of
Charles: and Character.— XXU. History of the
Liturgy.— XXIU. Acts of Parliament.— XXIV.
Leamed Divines. — XXV. Miscellaneous Matters. —
XXVI. Presbyterians : their History ; and Examin
ation of their Tenets.
I. Richard Cromwell was found deficient in
those talents which might qualify him for hold
ing the reins of government as Protector. In
dolence, irresolution, and general incapacity,
debased hi« constitutional good nature : and as
the spark of ambition had not been transmitted
from sire to son, he was well content to with
draw into a private station. At this juncture
the restoration of Charles the Second needs
only to be mentioned, for the sake of connect
ing the narrative. Monk, in effecting this
ineasure, cajoled the Presbyterian parliament
and party: whom a vain imagination, that the
treaty of the Isle of Wight would be adhered
to, persuaded to sanction it with their concur
rence. Thes^ were at this time possessed of
full power, in the church, the university, and
the army; and. were in vain warned by the In
dependents, now divided and broken by the

\7th Cent.l chahles ii. 3
ambition of Fleetwood, against trusting their
new allies *.
II. Beams of cheerfulness now burst through
those clouds of austerity which had so lono-
overshadowed the realm : but with the sunshine
retumed the wantonness of pleasure : — enthu
siasm gave way to debauchery : and the English
people were transformed, from severe religion
ists, or canting fanatics, into a nation of livers
without God in the world. Ia this general pro
fligacy, the royalists took the lead. Abhorring
the morose deportment and scripture-quoting
• The whole Presbyterian body, however, were not the
dupes of this deception. We have already stated that their
leaders held a correspondence with the Protestant clergy in
France, by whicii the way was opened for the monarch's ac
cession to the throne. A letter of Baxter's bas been preserved
by his biographer, commenting on the sentiments of these
foreign ministers; and the following extract will serve to show
at once his prophetic sagacity, and highly commendable disin
terestedness : " These divines knew nothing of the state of
things in England. They pray for the succes's of my labours,
while they are persuading me to put an end to these labours,
by setting up the prelates who will silence me, and many hun
dreds more. They persuade me to that which will separate
me from my flock ; and then pray that I may be a blessing to
them : yet I am for restoring^ the King, that when we are si
lenced, and our ministry is at an end, and some of us lie in
prisons, we may there, and in that condition, have peace of
conscience! in. the discbarge of our duty, and the exercise of
fjiith, patience, and charity in our sufferings." Life, p. 2#
p. 216,
B 2

4 THE REIGN OF [l7th Cent,
phraseology, which had characterized the re
publican party, tbey threw off all restraints of
decency, and set at nought even rational reli
gion. Charles himself, restored without liinit-
atioii or control, and arriving from a licen
tious country, Ijecame the votary and patron of
dissipation : and as a poisoned fountain trans
mits the bitterness of its waters to every stream
and rivulet which it supplies, his example com
municated its pernicious influence successively
to the nobility, gentry, and common people.
The character of the court is the character of
the country at large: highly then does it ever
behove a monarch, the arbiter of fashion, to
keep in fashion pure religion and sound mora
lity*! Ill, The ordinances of the Long Parliament
being all of theni deemed utterly null for want of
the royal confirmation, episcopacy was held to
be still the established religion, and the Common
Prayer Book the rule of worship sanctioned by
the legislature. For this reason, without any
formal act or proclamation, religious matters at
once glided silently into their wonted channel.
* Although we cannot, with Neale, deem it a subject of
high boasting, that a play had not been acted in England for
twenty years, we will heartily join in deploring that profli
gacy which introduced obscene comedies, and a state of
morals in which intoxicated clergymen were eyery week taken
into custody by the watch.

17 th Cent.'] CHARLES ii. 5
The Liturgy, which, with high-strained, liberal
panegyric, Mr. Hume terms ** a decent service,
and not without beauty," was restored in the
chapel royal and other places ; the ejected clergy
once more took possession of their benefices;
though, wherever the regular ex-incumbent was
dead, the Presbyterian occupant was confirmed
in his possession : the heads and fellows of col
leges were in like manner reinstated : and thus
was prepared the way for supplying the vacant
dignities in cathedrals. As only nine bishops
were remaming at the Restoration, an apprehen
sion was entertained that the body might become
extinct; and measures were therefore hastened
for supplying the vacancies, though a difficulty
in form presented itself, throijgh the abolition
of deans and chapters. Seven bishops were
consecrated in Westminster Abbey, in Decem
ber 1660; and four more in the January fol
lowing : four or five sees being still kept open,
for the chief Presbyterian divines, in encou
ragement and expectation of their conformity*.
JV. When the leading Presbyterians, Calamy,
* Juxon, now superannuated, was removed to Canterbury,
Frewen to York, and Duppa to Winchester. The new con
secrations were those of Sheldon, Henchman, and Morley, to
London, Sarum, and Worcester. ,
In Scotland, likewise, Charles sought to abolish Presbyte
rianism ; whieh, he used to observe, was not a religion fit for
a gentleman. JB 3

6 THERKIGN-OF [nth Ce0-
Reynolds, Spurstpw, Hall, Manton, and Case,
had waited upon the King at Breda, and solicited
indulgence in matters which they deemed un
lawful or indifferent, he signified a desire of
conceding various points, but referred them
finally to the Parliament. And on being en
treated to expunge some portions of the Liturgy
from the devotions of bis private chapel, he re
plied, that since he sought not the abridgment
of their liberty, he begged he might bear
no more of their interference with Aw*. Nei
ther would he lend an ear to their remonstrance
against the use of the surplice. But while he
thus prudently avoided making proraises which
he could not perform, we cannot pass uncen
sured that act of odious hypocrisy, with
which he attempted to deceive his visitors.
When he knew thera to be within hearing, he
prayed aloud to heaven, rendering thanks that
be was a,- covenanted king. The stratagem, it
seems, succeeded ; for Case lifted up his hands;
and blessed God that they had a praying sove
reign. These men, excepting HaU, immediately on
the restoration, were enrolled in the list of
royal chaplains : a vain distinction, though in
tended to show a tolerant spirit : for, not more
than four of them, and these only once, were
permitted to preach at court. In the mean
* Neale, vol. ii. p, 552.

17th Cent.] charles ii. 7
time, the Presbyterian leaders were not unani
mous. Calamy, Reynolds, Ashe, Bates, and
Manton, felt inclined to proceed still further in
unison with the court: but Seaman, Jenkins,
and others, thought that too many concessions
had been made; and urged the propriety of
retracting. Charles wished that indulgences
should be extended to the Nonconformists,
partly because they had been serviceable in re
storing him to the throne, but principally be
cause he hoped to protect and favour the Ro
man Catholics, under the shelter of a general
toleration. That body having offered him
eg 100,000, if he would abolish the penal sta
tutes against them ; he evinced his disposition
to espouse their interests, by a clause in the
declaration of Breda, wherein liberty was pro
mised to tender consciences, and a general par
don offered, subject only to exceptions to be
afterwards made in the Parliament*. But even
the most enlightened and moderate Presbyte
rians were, on this head, influenced by illi
beral sentiments; and have mainly to thank
their own narrow policy for the subsequent
withdrawing of the King's good-will towards
their body. When Baxter deprecated, in the
royal presence, the toleration of Papists and
Socinians, Charles replied angrily, that the
* Kennet's Chron. p. 352.
B 4

¦> -^i^

8 THE REioN OF [17th Cent.
Presbyterians were a monopolizing party, whose
only aim was to set up themselves. This inci
pient disgust was encouraged by the bench ot
bishops, who deemed a church without unity in
externals to be a solecism ; while they regarded
diocesan episcopacy as of vital importance, and
preferred an open separation to an internal
schism. A conference, however, was held at Sion
College, with Calamy, Reynolds, and five other
Presbyterian leaders, with a view to discover
to what extent they would yield, or rather, tQ
keep them in play for the present: and a declar
ration, drawn up by the episcopal, and amended
by the Presbyterian party, was published in th§
name of the King as supreme head of the church,.
In this instrument a variety of wise regulations,
were proppsed, for securing a learned and zeal-.
ous body of ministers ; for the appointment of
suffragans in extensive dioceses; fpr the due
administration of confirmation and the Lord's,
Supper ; and for the correction of scandalous,
offences by representations of churchwardens,;
to be made to the rural deans : but as it was,
likewise projected that the Liturgy should be
new-modelled by divines of both persuasions;
that kneeling at the Sacrament, the cross in
baptism, the ring in marriage, the surplice in
the reading-desk, the oath of canonical obe
dience, and subscription to the Thirty-nine
Articles, were ^11 to be considered as optional,

I7th Cent.] ghaules ii, g
and that Usher's wild scheme for healing the
former differences, by a mixture of Presby terian
synods and mock episcopal presidencies, should,
with some alterations, be revived* ; we need not
wonder that the declaration was never carried
into effect, and that the entire scheme should
prove abortive. Such will ever be the result
of an idle endeavour to amalgamate substances
having no affinity. An union like that project
ed could only have been accomplished on the
ba«is of mutual lukewarmness ; or of slumber-r
ing lukewarmness in the one party, and keen
circumvention in the other. But general luke
warmness is a greater evil than schism ; as a
sound body having an amputated limb is pre
ferable to an enfeebled constitution. And in
the latter case, where the truth is held with
culpable remissness, and error supported with
warmth ; whatever liberality may be boastr
ed of on either side, the destruction of the in
different contracting party is certain.
No doubt there were Gallios belonging to
both parties; Presbyterians, who cared little
what opinions prevailed, provided they enjoyed
their benefices in tranquillity; and Episcopa
lians, who regarding religion only as an appen
dage to the state, and union as desirable at
any pricey secretly complimented themselves
» Baxter, p, 243.

10 THE KEIGN OF [17<A Cent.
on their liberal and moderate sentiments.
Among these latter was originally numbered
Lord Clarendon : but he speedily joined the
bishops, though with similar worldly-minded
views ; that bench being found needful for pro
moting his ambitious desire of marrying bis
daughter to the Duke of York.
Reynolds, on the strength of the royal dei-
claration, accepted the bishopric of Norwich,
Calamy, however, refused the tender of that of
Litchfield, till the declaration should pass into
a law : until which ratification Manton, Bates,
and Bowles likewise postponed their acceptance
of proffered dignities.
Baxter alone*, wholly declined the see of
Hereford, on scruples which no parliamentary
enactment could disperse.
1661. V. Considerable moderation having
been displayed on both sides in the assembly at
Sion College, a hope was still entertained of
new-modelling the Liturgy, so as to adapt it to
the fancies of bodies so heterogeneous as the
Episcopalian and Presbyterian divines. A se
cond conference was accordingly held at the
Savoy, at which a larger number of both these
parties were present. Here the Nonconforraists
demanded an omission of all responses and si
milar divisions in the Litany ; an abolition of
• Neale, vol. il, p. 584. Collier. Fuller. Heylin.

17 th Cent.] charles ii. 1 1
saints' days; an introduction of extemporaneous
prayer; a change as to several of the epistles
and gospels, which, remaining in the old ver
sion, contained various errors ; the lengthening
ofthe collects; the ejection of the Apocrypha; a
removal from the baptismal office, of the word
regenerated, as applied to all baptized persons ;
and a similar rejection of the giving of thanks for
brethren taken by God to himself, as embracing
all alike who were interred ; both these phrases
being held incompatible with the Commination.
They would have theLiturgy be more particular,
and the Catechism more explicit. They con
sented to give up the Assembly's Catechisra, for
the Thirty-nine Articles somewhat altered ; and
they wound up their expectations with the old
request, that the cross, ring, surplice, and kneel
ing at the Sacrament, should be left indifferent.
On the contrary the church commissioners
maintained that Usher's scheme was at variance
with bis other writings; that bishops already
performed ordination with the assistance of
presbyters; that if ministers desired alterations in
the devotional service, they might exercise their
own gifts in the prayer preceding the .sermon ;
that it was expedient to retain a certain num
ber of holydays for the reasonable recreation of
the labouring classes ; that the surplice was a
decent emblem of that purity which became
the ministers of God ; that its high antiquity

J 2 the reign Of [\7thCent
was shown by St. Chrysostom, in one of his
homilies ; and that it received a sanction from
several passages in the Revelations (ch, iii. 4, 5),
They affirmed that Christ himself kept the
feast of dedication, a festival of human ap
pointment ; that the sign of the cross had been
always used " in immortali lavacro*;" that
kneeling was an ancient and decent usage ; and
that the high antiquity of liturgies in the
church is indisputable, To the demand that
the answers of the people should be confined to
" Amen," they replied, that djssepters say more
in their psalms and hymns ; if then in poetry,
why not in prosePr— if in th,e psalms of Hop
kins, why not in those of David ?— and if in a
psalter, why not in a litany? That Scripture
contained all which is needful for salvation,
they deemed no more an objection to the Apor
crypha than to preaching. To read the com
munion service at the communion table, was
maintained to be an ancient custom ; and " let
ancient customs be observed, unless reason de?
mands their abolition," was the golden rule of
the Council of Nice.
They could see no real advantage in com-
proiriise and comprehension. What had the
former alternate preaching of regular incum.-
bents and puritanical lecturers ever effected,
but the sowing of perpetual dissensions iu
* TertuUian de Coron. and Minuc, Fel.

l7th Ce7lt.] CHARLES II. 13
every parish ; the aspersion of the characters
and defeating of the usefulness of regular pas
tors ; and a distraction of the people's minds
with different winds of doctrine, till they knew
not what to believe? In truth, it was cer
tain, that whatever concessions might be made,
so long as the love of novelty, the pride of
argumentation, the passion for holding forth,
and the zeal for proselytizing, continued to be
principles in the human heart, no concession
would ever abolish sects in religion ; while the
Church of England, by departing from her an
cient practice, would only compromise her dig
nity, and forfeit her title to due reverence. Yet,
since some fondly conceived that all parties,
tired of dissension and disturbance, were now
eager to coalesce; and that to concede the minor
points of difference to the Presbyterian minis
ters, would afford them a plausible excuse for,
maintaining harmony without violating their
principles ; they would not object to a revision
of the Liturgy, and would even give up the
ceremonies, if any shadow of objection could
be brought forward, on the score of their sin
fulness or impropriety. Their antagonists,
however, refused to accept this challenge, since
admitting them to be neither sinful nor im-
proper, they deemed it sufficient to show that a
positive obligation should not be imposed, with
respect to things indifferent. On this question,
which was in fact the point at issue, as the par-

14 The reign of [ifth Cent,
ties could come to no agreement, the confer
ence, like the former, terminated in mutuaj
dissatisfaction*.
• Some trifling alterations in the Prayer Book wej-e, how
ever, resolved on, which only served to evince how little fault
was to be found with it. Thus, " because they promise tbem
both by their sureties," was substituted in the Catechism for
" yes, they promise tbem," &c. It were to be wished, that
the emendators had rather directed their attention to the ob
scure meaning of this answer, arising from the different nouns
to which • they' and '. them' refer ; and to other grammatical
inaccuracies in the sentence, which destroy perspicuity and per
plex the young mind. The whole answer ought to run thus :
' Because they promose both repentance and faith by their
godfathers and godmothers : a promise which the infants them
selves, when they come to age, are bound to perform.'
Collier's Records, p. II9. Calamy's Life of Baxter, p, l64.
To Baxter's miniate quibbling, and retiring to metaphysical
distinctions, the breaking off of this conference was chiefly
owing, - Even Neale allows him to have been too eager, and
tenacious of his own opinions to a fault. Vol, ii. p. 666.
K, Chron. p. 505. Among the church commissioners were
Sheldon, Morley, Pearson, and Hfeylin: names of ecclesias
tical celebrity. TiUotson, then a young man, was present as
an auditor, introduced by the Presbyterian party. Neale
highly extols him, as might- be expected from such a partizan;
yet this is the very TiUotson of whom Whitfield afterwards
assertedi, that he^knew no more of Christianity than Mahomet.
The several forms of prayer for the 30th of January and
29th of May, with those to be used at sea, were at this period
introduced: while apocryphal lessons were increased iu num
ber, tbough not allowed on Sundays.
Neale, vol, ii. Hist, of Nonconf. 1708.
Sheldon, in this conference, insisted that the malcontents
should bring foBward all their objections at once : " well know-
4

17th Cent.] CHARLES ii. 15
VI. The Parliament succeeding the Conven
tion, contained not more than fifty members
ing," says Bishop Burnet, " that their number would excite a
general outcry against the objectors, as persons never to be
satisfied." But would they not appear more captious in start
ing objection after objection ? The truth is, the church com
missioners rested on the defensive ; they were satisfied with
the Liturgy as it stood : the Nonconformists had demanded
the conference j and it was their part to state their scruples in
the first instance. They represented as sinful eight several
regulations relative to the devotional service ; but their ob
jections were frivolous, saving perhaps only one, which scru
pled at the giving of thanks to God for having taken the soul
of every buried person to himself ; and at all men's being
committed to the ground io sure aud steadfast trust. Yet it. is
not for mole-eyed man to determine who sleeps, and who
sleeps not, in trust : and the awful moment of dissolution
ought surely to be, with survivors, a moment of charitable
construction, however it may please the Almighty to deal wilh
transgressors. The vain words of man bind not up the right
hand of God. Baxter composed a new service, which he
termed the reformed Liturgy, not to supersede the old one,
but to leave the clergy an option between both. It was re
jected, as going beyond the royal commission : but who does
not see, tbat witb tbe optional kneeling and surplice, this
service would have been, in every parish, a badge and livery
of dissension ; arming father against son, and husband against
wife ; and as one party happened to be in greater strength,
making the other and weaker an astonishment, and a hissing,
a by-word, and a curse ? Exquisite Christianity ! A complaint
bad been made as to the unsettled use of the words, * curate',
?priest,' and 'minister,' in the rubrics; accompanied by a
proposal for using the latter term only on all occasions : but
.curate was stated to be the person having the cure of souls j
and minister to be common to the two orders ; while priest
Was necessarily prefixed to those parts of the service, which a

16 i-iiE iiEioN 6f [17 th Cent-
attached to the Presbyterian interests; so suc
cessfully had Lord Clarendon laboured to secure
a great majority of royalists. The King de
clared in his sfieech that he valued hilnself upon
keeping his word ; but the Cihancellor stimulated
him to the suppression of those seditious
preachers, who were in the habit of teaching
the people, " that St. Paul, in biddijig thfem
stand in their liberty, commanded them to
iitand to their arms." The bishops were now
restored to their seats in the House of Lords ;
deacon could not perform. Rejection was also the deserved
fa^e of the request for changing Sunday into the term Lord's
d^y. It is the mere cant of scrupulosity to call in questjofl
an unscriptural name, which carries with it no heathenish
associations. A single unbroken prayfer, it had been urged,
was highly preferable to an endless number of desultory
collects, repeatedly informing God of his own attributes.
Again : the form of the " Confession" was too general : toO
little stress was laid upon original sin ; and some prayers were
too presumptuous forfrail creatures to offer. But the ehurch
commissioners replied, that a beautiful connexion may be
traced throughout all the prayers in the Liturgy : that short
collects serve to aid languid devotion, and finely imitate the
ejaculatory forms of Scripture : that to recount the attributes
of God was profitable for the supplicants ; not to mention
the example of David, who in tbe 136th Psalm magnified
the divine mercy not less than twenty-six times ; that the
general scope of the Confession constituted its excellence,
by including all cases of ofl'ence ; while details were proper
only for the closet ; that original sin is acknowledged in many
parts of the service ; and that the Lord'-s prayef set the ex«r
ample of praying indefinitely for grace to perform the will of
God, and to be dellveied from all evil.

l7fh'Cent.] charles ii. 17
and their right of patronage, which had been
seized by the Presbyterians, was restored. The
covenant was directed to be burnt by the com
mon hangman. Other acts of this parliament
will be introduced in their proper place.'
VIL The Corporation Act was now passed :
which rendered it necessary that all candidates
for any department of the civil magistracy,
should abjure the covenant, take the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy, and, within one year
after coming into office, receive the sacrament
according to the rites of the English church.
Although the insurrection of the fifth monarchy
men had been publicly disavowed by the Inde
pendents, Anabaptists, and Quakers, it afforded
occasion to the Commons to bring in a bill, de
claring the unlawfulness of taking arms again&t
the king on any account. Thus were confirmed
the doctrines of passive obedience and non-re
sistance ; and thus did the legislature err in
stretching a sound political maxim to those ex
treme and extraordinary cases, which an indefi
nite outline should leave to provide for them
selves. VIII. It has been insinuated that the bishops^
at the Savoy conference, only proposed to learn
what the Presbyterians would demand, with
a view to exclude them more effectually from
the pale of the establishment*. With what
* Complete Hist, p, 252.
VOL. HI. C

i^ THE liEiGN 0* 117th Cent.
truth this chaVge is urged will be rendered
apparent by referring to the proceedings of
the subsequent conv6cation% in which six
htindred alterations were introduced into the
service-bobk ; many df them expressly intended
fo satisfy the scriiples of the NoflcOnforini^ts.
SCich were', the Orders that thd lessofls should be
no longer sung; thdt the reading of the Apo
crypha ofl Sundays should bfe Abolished; that
, the explanation of kneeling at the sacrament,
ihti'bdiiced in King Edvvard's Liturgy, aiid ex
punged from that of Elizabeth, shbUld be re
stored; that many collects should be altered;
that iu the office for Christmas, the words,
" this day," should be changed intb, " at this
time ;" ahd that to the rubric, '* noti'e ^Itall come
to the cottmunion until they liavfe been con-
fii-nied," should be subjoined, "or be ready and
desirous to be confirmed," With the same vie\v,
the rubric on confession aiid absolution iii the
Order for visiting the Sifck, vvas altered; and in
the Communion for the Sick, the ininister was
directed to delivfcf the sacrament, not to such as
desired it, but to as many as he judged expe
dient; in the Burial service, the obnoxious
words, " in sure and certain hope of resurrec
tion to eterpal life," were softened by introdu-
citigtheartiple"th'e" befdte "resurrection;" and
the phrase of " God's taking unto himself the

17th Cent.] charles ii. ly
soul of our dear brother here departed," was
qualified by a rubric of exclusion, directing
that that service should not be read oyer per
sons uubiiptized, excommunicated, or dying- by
their own hands'. Other changes on this occasion
introduced into the Liturgy are recorded under
a different section. Let it suffice to remark, that
the two anniversaries of the martyred and th^
restored Charles are worthy of being sacredly
observed so long as it shall continue expedient
to blend religion with loyalty, or to call to mincj
with horror the outrages of rebellion, and wit^
gratitude the blessings of the English mixe^l
government*. 1%. 1662. High church principles, now ob
taining the ascendant, gave rise to the Act of
Uniformity, prefixed to the Common Prayer
Book. By thi? act (13 and 14 Charles II.)
ministers, on taking possession of a benefice or
lectureship, were enjoined to read the Thirty-
nine Articles, with the morning and evening
prayers; and to subscribe the declaration of con-
* In the new prayer for the Parliament, the epithet of
" most religious king," as applied to Charles II. waS, to say the
least, injudicious j and gave occasion, says Bishop Burnet, to
much indecent raillery. Yet, perhaps, in the Church prayers,
by " the king," is only to be onderstood " the Supreme magis
trate in these realms," without reference to the private cha
racter of the reigning individual at the tirae.
C 2

20 the EEIGN Of [17th Cent,
formity to the Liturgy; as well as that coqr
demning transubstantiation and popery *.
In consequence of this bill, a large number
of the clergy, tjiou^h by no meajis twojhousand,
as was_pretended, voluntarily suffered ejectment
for their conscientious i^pruplesf: Bishop Bur
net takes occasion to deplore the severity,
which drove these individuals to the necessity
of forming separate congregations, and divert
ing men from the public worship offered in the
church. This cant has been re-echoed by the
pretenders to religious liberality; in other words,
by the equally indifferent to all religions, or by
the professors of a designing ope, down to the
present time. But allowing full praise to the
disinterestedness of the ejected ministers (for
those who quit their possessions are certainly in
(Earnest), an answer has already been given to,
all such expressions of sentimental compassion
and indignation; namely, ^t is far more condu
cive to the tranquillity of thp church, that dis
sentients shpuld be in open schism than in se
cret hostility. The cross, and ring? and sufplice^
^ Priests; orders were here declared tp be a necessavy quali
fication for holding a bepelice pr donati^.
f Some, says Neale, persuaded their brethren to 4i;ss?nt :.
and having succeeded, pqtnplied tfietiiselves, and obtained the
vacant livings. Yol, ii. This i^ probably one of liis ui;ifo.i|mded
aspersions. AboiU this time the pame of Puritan^ was changed
into that of Protestant Nonconformists, who were subdivide^
into Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and Quakers.

l7th Cent.] CHARLES il. 21
were nothing in themselves ; but assuraed much
seriousness as the badges of an opposition in
doctrinal sentiment. And however highly the
ejected ministers may merit our eSteemj for the
sacrifice they made to conscience 5 the evil
might not be shunned by the sanetion of a
mottled worship, incompatible with the preser
vation of charity. The Act of Uniformity was
instigated or encouraged by the Independents
and other sectaries, throtigh jealousy of the in
dulgences manifested towards their Presbyterian
-brethren ; aud by the Catholics, with the view
of disuniting the Protestants, not less than
through hatred to the Presbyterians, their for
mer oppressors. Still further to widen the
.breach, while the Presbyterian ministers re
fused subscription, these latter encouraged them
"in their obstinacy. Charles, it is said, was
averse from this measure ; but suffered himself
to yield to the importunities of Lord Clarendon,
.and of. the church party in the House of Com

mons *.

* Some of the ejected ministers made a distinction be
tween lay and ministerial conformity ; repairing sometimes to
the parish churches, before or after the exercise of theit mi
nistry in private houses. This was the origin of occasional
conformity, the example of which was set by Baxter, Bates>
and Calamy.'
Mr, Wilberforce has asserted that this ejectment was con
trary to the King's declaration at Breda. But it has been ably
replied by Archdeacon Daubeny,-that the clear principles of
c 3

22 ¦ i'he RiEiGN OF >[i7 th Cent.
Under the Commonwealth, one fifth part of
the revenues of each vacated benefice had been
justice require, that the parties who have suffered injury,
should receive the earliest possible redress. Had these prin
ciples prevailed at the Restoration, the ejection of noncon
formist ministers from ihe patrimony of the church, ih favour
of the episcopal • dergy to whom the rightful possessioii he-
longed, must have been the immediate consequence of the re
establishment of .the constitution. Buf so far was this from
being the case, that two years were suffered to elapse, before
any legal methods were taken to dispossess them. "To the
credit of the governraent, such respect was entertained for
the spiritual characters and abilities of . many ofthe then
¦ministers, 'that all the tt>eans of argument and persuasion were
employed to retain them in the chtirch. And it was not till a
determined perseverance in their prejudices against the form
and governraent ofthe cKiirch, as it was 'then re-esfablish"e'd.
rehdered' hopeless aU * accommodation 'upon the ' subject, tJik
fiheir rejection' was suffered finally' to take place. -So tliat, in-
-sftead Af saying ."they wete shamefully ejet;t6d frOm the
'^church ml 666, in violation of the clear principles pf justice,"
it should be said that these ministers ejected themselves,' be-
' cause they would riot cohtiiiue 'in'the church ilpon 'any 'ot'hfer
"ib'ndifion,' t'h^n'that of'its'bfelrig-'fashi'olrife'd 'aftfer tMr'ov^ii
itiodel. Nor does the charge respecting the violation of the royal
"wWd,'''npon'\h?s'6ccUidrii'aptiear''l'o'14e sl'Hcfly jfistified by
'facts. Wtien'a'persbn'a'oei'fevie'ry ihltfgftfiatiptjS^^
done lii'his' s'i'fu4tf6ri, "toVar'^s tHe fiiiflJmgrit' of ati^ 'pf6'miSe,
'heoughl^ ri6t,"in chai'ify, to Be' made th^rgeable' with' ils'-vio-
^latidh. The King, in his declaration at Breda, promisfedMtBeVlTy'fo
teh'der consciences ;' at5d"tHat''no"iil'ari shbiM'he'd?sq(iief'^ or
called iri question 'forcliffei'erice of opifiibrf'yh"rt4at(€*S'bf M\-
gibn which did riot''distui'b" the ^bkfce of the- ^kthgabitt: ' atid

I7th Cent.] CHARLES ii. 23
allowed to tl^e .ejected incumbent : but such
indulgence was now refused to the Noncon-

that he would consent to su<;h an ^act of parliament, as upon
mature deliberation should be offered to him for the full graqt-
ing of that indulgence. When the nonconformist divines
afterwards waited on the King al the Hague, he told them
that he referred the settling of all differences respecting reli-
.gion, to the wisdom of Parliaraent; that the two Houses
were the best judges what indulgence or toleration was ne
cessary for the repose of >he kingdom. The King, therefore,
by concurring with his Parliament in this business, acted up to
the full meaning of his declaration. But he did more than
this. So disposed was he to, do every thing to gratify the Non
conformists, that could be done consistent with the xp-^t^-
blishn^ent of the episcopal chiirch, that he even acted without
his ^Parliament upon this 09casion, by publishing, with the
advice of his privy council only, a declaration of indulgence
in their favour ; which the pressing and repeated remonstrances
of the Commons obliged him afterwards to recall. Though
the King did, therefore, immediately on his restoration, pro
mise, that nonconformist ministers should nol be ejected
fi'<Mn sequestered livings, wh^re the episcopal incumbents
were dead ; in consequence of which many remained in quiet
possession of preferments ; yet tbis promise cannot be said to
have been violated, because tbe Act of Uniformity, which pass
ed two years afterwards, obliged those who still retained their
pr^^udices against the form and government of the church, to
retire out of jt, A^d when it is con3idere;d upon what ground
the act was brought forward ; that it was judged necessary, in
consequence of the nonconformist divines returning to their
old seditious practice of inveighing against government, and
taking ^vantage.of. iheir public office, to bring the miflds bf
the people back tothose fatal errors, \yhich hadalready prpypd
«o destruet^^ the passing it may be considered,- not so iBUfh
C 4

24- XHE RErcN OF [17 th Cent.
formists:— a blot in the measure, deserving the
severest reprehension.
~ X. Although Charles, in the season of vigour
and gaiety, betrayed a manifest indifference to
all religioiis, he ever retained a secret preference
,for that Romish service, whose rites were, in point
of splendour and dramatic entertainment, so
Well accommodated to his taste. His brother,
the Duke of York, was a Catholic bigot ; and
gaining an ascendant over Charles by alleviating
,his load of business, confirmed his inclination
towards Popery. Under pretext of mitigating
the rigours of the Act of Uniformity, the bro
thers concerted a declaration in favour of liberty
of conscience, that the Catholics might obtain
a free exercise of their religion, and share a to-
1 leration of which the dissenters seemed ^e pri
mary objects. Their design, however, escaped
'not the eye of Parliament, wbo, ih a remon
strance issued the following year, opposed it
, as tending to encourage schism, ajifl to injure
the Protestant religion. The Commons, thus
'lookiiig with an eye of jealousy on both the
.Papists and the sectaries, released the King
from his, declaratioii at Breda,, which, they
justly observed, had been guarded and qualified
1. _ — :  ;^  ^.  ^  ,_
¦ a' breach of promise onthe part of the'King, as an act of pro-
¦ dential provision for public pea(;e on the part of thegoverli-
''taent.— Daubeny'sGuide, p. 329,,&c. , -- .' ..-...»

I7tk Cent.] CHARLES ii. g^
by promising indulgence subject to the appro
bation of Parliament. They affirmed that un
limited indulgence tended only to the multipli
cation of sects, and to the endangering of the
Protestant succession, since some prevailing
party might at length contend for an establish
ment; a chance which might probably introduce
Popery. This remonstrance prevailed with the
King to withdraw for the present his scheme of
religious indulgence; and to issue a vague pro
clamation ag-ainst priests and Jesuits, to which
he was probably induced by the hope of a par
liaraentary supply. The Papists were mean
while not remiss in encouraging the growth of
dissenters ; that a general toleration, including
themselves, might be brought about. They were
at once resolved to preserve their own phalanx
united, and to divide the Nonconformists. The
standing maxim avowed by the King was, to
give relief to all dissenters, or to none.
XI, This year died the good and loyal Arch
bishop Juxon. He was succeeded by Sheldon,
who during his predecessor's incapacity had
'long conducted the affairs of the church.
XII. 1664. Between Sheldon and Lord Cla
rendon it was at this period agreed, that the
clergy should silently relinquish theii: privilege
of taxing themselves in convocation, in order to
be henceforward included in the money bills pre
pared by the Commons. As in consequence or

26 TM£ BjEi&N OF [l7'th\Cent.
the regal influence iwith the ecclesias,tical bqdy,
their supplies :had always exceeded tVPSe pf
the Commons, .they were content with tihis sa-
cri^ce of power for a commutation of profit;
and the more so, as they \vere permitted to vote
as freeholders at elections. The convocation
has, ever since ceased to be an efficient body;
which is much to be regretted, on accourit of
the growing disposition to introduce lay inter
ference, and tO'shackle the fair authority pf the
clergy, in matters purely eGclesiastical*.
XIII. Ttie Act pf -Uniformity, limposing a
penalty.pf ,fine,:andiin)pi;isonwent, having been
deemed an insufficient security agaipst the Non
conformists, the :Commons now reinforced it by
the well-known Conventicle Act, .which ap
pointed, that if %e persons, unless under six
teen years of age, exceeding the members of any
(household, should convene in an , unsanctioned ,
place forthe purposes of devotion, each, indi vi-
dual.so, assembling, should incur, fpr the first
.offence, a 'fine of .51. and three montlis' impri-
!«onrpent ; -for -the second, a double penalty ; and
for thefthird, 100/. and. transportation for'sevep
years. This was mitigated in the Conventicle jlct
..of 1670, , to .shillings instead pf pounds. In thjs
manner, were the ejected clergy incapaGita,ted-.f9r
I earning la . livelihoed by their professipn : . afld
.X\\e^Fim , Mile Act of ,1664-5, i preyentji;ig, th^p
.'from apprpaobiogwjthin five miles of any^pjajije
* See 'Wix on the Expedience of a Convocation.

17th Cent'.] chakles ii. S7
where they had formerly preached, or from tak
ing boarders, or from teaching a school, abo
lished whatever remains of their influence might
be deemed dangerous; though certainly with too
severe a hand. By another act they were cora
pelled to take an oath, tliat they would attempt
no alteration in church or state. By these seve
rities the ejected clergy were reduced to the
lowest ebb of distress: and some lived solely
upon brown rye bread and water, Baxter and
others, who refused to preserve silence, suffered
'fine and imprisonment. Some became occasional
conformists; others preached in houses with
'.holes in the wdlls, communicating with other
'houses : whence probably is derived the narae
-of several taverns in London, entitled, " The
tHole in'the Wall." The quiet submission to pe-
, nalties displayed by the Quakers, overpowered
the force of ^government.
XIV. But whatever dislike subsisted among
the different orders of Protestants, in jealousy
towards the Papists they strenuously concurred;
nor wele the tenguage and conduct of Charles
at all calculated to diminish their common pre
judices and suspicions. When they considered
his French alliance; when they beheld him sanc
tion ihe marriage bf the heir-presumptive with
a Catholic princess; they could hardly fail to
conclude that arbitrary power and Popery were
the scope of all his designs. Under the influence
3

2 8 ' TH£ REIGN OF [ 1 7th Cent.
of such apprehensions, every report prejudicial
to the Catholics, was but too readily credited.
To them was attributed the conflagration of Lon
don; though probably the result of accident: and
this groundless charge, which mi^t be excused
by the spirit of the times, stands -to this day
recorded on the comraeraorating column, which
^'like a tall bully lifts its head and lies*." At
a subsequent period the inforraation of Titus
Oates drew from both Houses of Parliament a
vote declaring the Lords and Commons to be
of opinion, that there hath been, and still is, a
damnable and hellish plot, contrived and carried
on by the Popish recusants, for assassinating
the King, for subverting the government, and
for rooting out or destroying the Protestant re
ligion. While the inforraation of the infamous
Oates is treated with the contempt it merits,
let us not in moderii times forget the inflamma
tory paragraphs in the letters of Colman the
Jesuit, to a discovery Of which it led; or the
Just remarks made on that disclosure, by the great
English historian, who himself wholly discre
dited Oates's narrative. " It is certain that the
restless and enterprising spirit of; the Catholic
* Many churches having been consumed, the ejected mi-
Bisters, disregarding the threats of government, and urged by
a sense of duty, preached from temporary rooms constructed
of boards ; from whence their places of worship assumed the
same of tabernacles.

17th Cent.]' CHARLES ir. £9
church, particularly ofthe Jesuits, merits at.
tention, and is in some degree dangerous to
every other communion. Such zeal of prosely-
tism actuates that sect, that its emissaries have
penetrated into every nation of the globe ; and
in one sense there is a popish plot perpetually
carrying on, against all states, Protestant, Par
gan, and Mahometan."
XV.. 1668. The known influence at court
possessed by Arlington, who favoured the Ca
tholic body, exposed them still further to public
suspicion and odium. To this we piay add the
dismissal of Lord Clarendon, which by releas
ing the Nonconformists from the severities he
chiefly promoted, united them more closely with
the established church, and thus strengthened
the outcry against Jesuits and Papists*. Tp
confirm this union, the Lord Keeper, Bridgman,
Bishop Wilkins, Chief Justice Hale, and several
others, drew up a plan for a systematic incor
poration of the moderate Nonconformists with
the establishment; on the basis of a subscrip
tion signifying an approbation of the worship,
doctrine, and government of the church, to be
signed by the malcontents, to whom was to be
conceded, ap alteration of the Liturgy, together
with the option of omitting or observing the
• Clarendon's inflexible dignity had rendered him alike ob
noxious to the Catholics and the sectaries : who both Consi
dered him as their enemy : — Charles had found him the enemy
bot^ of his ^inl^itiqp. aijid of h.is pleasures.

30 THE RElGN 05 [17 th Cent'.
cross in baptism, kneeling at the sacrament, and
bowing at the name of Jesus. To such Protest
ants as should object to this plan of compre-.
hension, a toleration of tbeir religion, and an ex
emption from all penalties, were to be granted,
But the bishops in general, and the members of
the House of Commons, dreading the heteroge
neous admixture of forms in one church, more
than (what they deemed) the bugbear of Popery,
it was agreed in Parliament that no bill of com-
prehension should be passed ; and the King was
petitioned to enforce his proclamation against
conventicles : while the statute against these
meetings was revived with two new clauses;
one imposing fines on the preacher and owner
of the house ; and anothe^r enjoining a penalty
of five pounds on magistrates wb.o should be
remiss in putting the act in execution.
XVI. 167 1 . At this period, the Duke of York,
the heir-presumptive to the crown, publicly
abjured the Protestant religion : and this alarm
ing event induced Parliament to petition the
Kina: that he would take measures for checkino:
the growth of Popery. But though Charles
issued a proclamation conformable to this
desire, it is believed, that, with the aid of
the Cabal, he was still anxious, if .not to
establish, at least to encourage the Popish re
Ugion, as the most favourable to absolute mp-
nar<;hy. Hence his desire to gain over the Nop-
conformists, by a <leclapatton of indulgence, to

I7th Cent.] CHARLES ii. 31
a connivance with his protection of the Roman
Catholics. To dissenters this declaration pro
mised licensed places of worship; and to Ca
tholics, the unmolested exercise of their rehgion
in private houses throughout the kingdom*.
* The apocryphal lessons were in the projected compre
hension to be omitted. Such was likewise the doom of the
phrases, " to regenerate this infant by thy Holy Spirit," and
" to receive him for thine own child by adoption," which
occur in the baptismal service. Godfathers were not to be re
quired, when parents stood as sponsors. " 'Wilt thou be bap
tized in this faith ?'' was to be rendered, "'Wilt thou have this
child baptized.'" "regenerate, and grafted into the body of
Christ's church" — " received into the church of Christ :" and
a similar substitution was proposed in the Confirmation office.
In the Marriage service, " with my body I thee worship,"
was to be left out; and in the Office for visiting the Sick
the prayers were to be optional. " To take unto himself our
dear brother," was to be changed in the Burial seivice, into
''' to take out of the world the soul of," &c, ; and " in sure
and certain hope of the resurrection," was to be read, "in fiSll
assurance;" in the Communion service, for, " our sinful bo
dies may be made clean by his body," was to stand, " our
sinful souls and bodies may be cleansed by his precious body
and blood." The Commination was not to be enjoined. An
abbreviation of tbe whole Liturgy was to be effected j. and the
Lord's Prayer and Gloria Patri to be repeated only once.
The Communion service was to be omitted when there was
jio communion; excepting only the ten commandments,
which were to be introduced after the Creed. Many of
these alterations appear tobe judicious; but the defects ar«
so exceedingly trifling, that the retention of 'tbem is, perhaps,
an inferior evil to the commencement of innovation. No
lumus leges Angliee mutari.

32 THE BEiGN OF [\7th Cent.
XVII. 1673. After a prorogation of two
years, the Parliament assembled; and questioned
the King's right to suspend penal laws in matters
ecclesiastical, as had been attempted in the re
cent declaration, without the sanction of an act
of parliament. To manifest still further their
dread of Popery, a bill was passed, ordering
catechetical instructions in the different parish
churches throughout the realm. Thus the Non
conformists themselves were unwilling to accepfr
a liberty plainly designed as a covert protec
tion of Roman, Catholicism. This refractory
disposition boding ill for the money supply,
Charles found it prudent to revoke his declara
tion of indulgence; and even to avow his
promptitude to pass any bills which might be
proposed. Availing themselves of this tender,
the Commbns brought in the Test Act, which
was in fact an extension of the Corporation Act
to the case of all public offices ; requiring, as
a preliminary to the enjoyment of them, that,
in addition to the oaths of allegiance and su
premacy, with abjuration of belief in transub
stantiation, the sacrament should be taken in
some parish church; and the King, wanting
money, confirmed it, though reluctantly, with
the stamp of the royal assent* The Duke of
York entreated that an exceptioi? might be ad
mitted in his favour ; promising that his rplj.-
gion should be a matter betwixt God and bis,

\7th Centi] charles ii. 33
own soul; nor would ever appear in his public
conduct : yet, notwithstanding this protestation,
he prevailed only by two voices.
1675. The Test Act was not displeasing to
the Nonconformists, as it gratified their hatred
towards Popery : while they had themselves no
objection to the occasional conformity of join
ing with the church in her communion. Ano
ther test was accordingly devised by the court
party, in order to separate this association ;
obliging all holders of offices, civil, military,
and ecclesiastical, to take the oaths introduced
into the Corporation and Five Mile Acts, as
serting the illegality of taking up arras against
the king, or of attempting to alter the govern
ment in church or state. But, owing to a rup
ture between the upper and lower houses, this
bill was eventually lost.
XVIII. Sheldon, known as the founder of
the Theatre at Oxford, was succeeded in the
primacy by Sancroft, Dean of St. Paul's.
XIX. 1679. The affluence m which Oates
wallowed in consequence of his information,
stimulated other miscreants to play upon the
national credulity : and hence arose the meaj-
tub plot of Dangerfield.. Charles found it ne
cessary to appease the dread of Popish councils,
which now prevailed in the parliament, by re
quiring the Duke of York to withdraw to the
VOL. III. D

34 T'HE 11EI6N OF [17/^ Cent.
continent : to which he would only consent on
being prOhiised that the illegitimacy of the
Duke of Monnlouth, a son of Charles by Lucy
Waters, should be publicly declared.
'XX. But by a series of arbitrary acts, and
indicatiohs of Cathdlicism, Charley at length
|)rovoked ia real plot. A plan of 'resistance was
ffktned, and a combination entered irito with the
Scottish m'alconteiits, by Monmouth, Russell,
Sydney, Essex, Howard, and John Hampden.
Ramsey and Ferguson hafppening to be the
Ihikis 'betW'ixt this scheme and an inferior con
spiracy, to which these 'dignified individuals
were straiigfers, a 'ffremciture discover}' tbdk
pl^de, and Riisfsell and Sydney poured but their
Mdod for the religion arid liberties of their
coiintiy. Such at teast is -the ordinary lariguage
of declamation ; and that main would be regard
ed as defective ill patriotism, who shbuld ven
ture to intercept the praises kvisWd oh Viio
popular herods, dne of 'whPm proposed to de
range the suCces^ibn to i;he thrdhe, and the
'PtKer to o'^efthro'^ the cbnstitution' of England.
The 'Didce bf York, 'it is true, was'an av(Wed
'Catholic: but, attMt time, it Was not'kndWn
4:hat he 'Wbiild %>iolate his promise bf not dfe-
4ui-bhrg the faith'df the pebple. Neither miist
it be fbrgottfen that ^th^se^men were Siihong' the
lup^offeiis 'df ydripiis pretended plots, Vdrwih

17/^ Ceia.] CHARLES H. SS
-brought several innocent persons to the scaffold,
while they thems.elves firet hatched a real one.
XXI. 1<)84. To recover his popularity,
Charles married Anne, his niece, to Prince
•George, of Denmark; as he'had previously be
stowed her sister Mary, on the Protestant
prince of Holland. With the same view he was
about to remove to Scotland the Duke of York,
whom he had permitted to return from exile;
and to recall Monmouth, who had fled on the
appiehension of Russell : but while meditating
these measures, he was seized with an apoplectic
fit, and removed from a world where he had
much engaged himself aboiit the name of reli
gion, without permitting its spirit to influence
his "heart or behaviour. He •died in the com
munion of the ehurch of Rome ; rejecting the
exhortations and devotional helps proposed to
him by the clergy of the established faith.
Religion was with this monarch no more than
an engine of state. He hated the Noncon-
formisfts from their enraity tothe prerogative;
and he was in truth something between a Ca
tholic and a -Deist, But why should we speak
of that man's religion, who used to issue to the
sacrament from the apartraents of his mistresses;
and whose rbyal word, according to the civil
historian, was tlie most abandoned falsehood ?
Thus voluptupws in practice, and destitute of
D 2

36 THE REIGN OF [l7ih Cent.
principle, he bad held forth in his court an ex
ample of profligacy to his subjects, vvhich being
too faithfully imitated, drove practical piety
from the land ; and diffused among all ranks so
loose a spirit of profaneness and obscenity as
to have rendered it little matter, unless for the
sake of posterity, what religion was outwardly
professed. The monarch on his death-bed, sub
mitted to Popish rites ; but he who had lived a
libertine died a formalist: not touched with sa
lutary remorse ; not looking forward with seri
ousness to another world ; but chiefly concerned
to recoraraend to his brother and successor, the
partners and offspring of his illicit amours.
XXII. The last revisal of the Liturgy hav
ing been executed in this sovereign's reign, it
may not here be improper to take a cursory view
of that work, in its various stages of advance
ment to its present acknowledged excellence.
Latin liturgies, cpmposed of ancient prayers,
and other devotipnal forms, adapted to the Ro
mish religion, were used without uniformity in
different parts of the kingdom, antecedently, to
the tirae of Cranmer. Our present Liturgy,
like the Reformation in general, was gradually
elaborated into, perfection, by the" progressive
and accumulated efforts of a succession of
learned, able, and pious divines. Under Henry
VIII. an amendment in the ancient service was

]7th Cent.] charles ii. 37
begun : but it was by direction of Edward VI.
that Cranmer, assisted by a comraittee of eleven
other divines*, drew up the first sketch of the
English Coraraon Prayer Book, which was rati
fied by Parliaraent in 1548. Not to shock the
prejudices of the people by violent changes, is
well known to have been Cranraer's laudable
principle of reform ; but finding that this mo
deration, when applied to the devotional offices,
had left much of the ancient superstition un
pruned, he consultetl Bucer and Martyr, and
produced, with their assistance, a revision of
the new Liturgy, in the fourth year after its
promulgation. The original draught had cora
menced with the Lord's Prayer; to which the
introductory sentences, with the Exhortation,
Confession, and Absolution, were now prefixed.
The oil in baptism, the anointing of the sick,
the sign of the cross in confirmation, the water
mixed with wine in the Eucharist, and the
prayers for departed souls, were expunged from
the ritual : while the decalogue, and a proper
explanation of kneeling at the altar, were in
serted in the communion service. After the
repeal of this book by Mary, it was revised by
Elizabeth in 1559 : when proper lessons for
Sundays were first appointed ; prayers inserted
for the sovereign, clergy, and people; and,
* See Wheatly and Shepherd.
P 3

ss THE HEiGN OF [17^^ Cent.
with a view to conciliate the Catholics, several
^Iterations made in the communion service. , As
the clause, " for deliverance from the Bishop of
Rome, and all his detestable enormities," was
now omitted, many Roman Catholics conformed
for more than ten years : and even the Pope,
had his supremacy been acknowledged, would
have granted his sanction to the Liturgy. The
collect, and intercession for the royal family,
with the particular forms of thanksgiving, were
added in the reign of James I. : when the lat
ter part of the Catechism, concerning the Sa
craments, was intrpduced; and the rubric con
fined the administration of baptism to a lawful
minister. The alterations made by the authority
of Charles I. were few and trifling : but in
1661, the year subsequent to the restoration,
the Savoy conference betwixt twelve Episcopa
lians, and as many Presbyterian divines, for
revising the Liturgy, liaving proved abortive,
the improvements proposed by the former were
adopted in convocation ; and the general thanks
givings the several collects for the Parliament,
for the ember weeks, for all conditions of men;
for Easter eve, and for the Third Sunday in
Advent ; together with the collect, epistle, and
gospel for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, the
office of baptism for those of riper, years, the
psalms in the hurial service, the forms of
pfayef for seamen; for tbe niartyrdoin of t;he

17.th Cent.] CHARLES n. 39
first Charles and restoration of the second, vyere
inserted in the public manual of devotion. In
the general revision of the work, ^rnli)iguons
expressions were reraoved, errors coi;rect?d, and
minor iraprovements and graces judicion§ly in
troduced*. In particular, the epistles and
gospels were copied from Jaraes L's Bible ; but,
in accommodation to the habits of the coranion
-people, the psalter was suffered to reraain, and
still reraains, less perfect as a translation th^;^
that contained in the Bible, h^t a vener^W^
memorial of the labour? of Archbishop Cran
mer. In these varioqs epiendatipns and im
provements, we cannot fail to observe a zealous
desire to eradicate all remains of the ancient
superstition, and a reasonable accommodation to
the sGruples of tender consciences, both Catholic
and Presbyterian, though checked by the mo"
deration vyhicji fjies, not off to wild extreraes. We
jiiust, therefore, copderan that puritanical pre^
eision, which inveighed so strenuously against
the cross, the ring, and the surplice, and made
these trifles a ground pf ultimate schism, when
|he ipalcpptents pught to have rewarded, by the
&uivender of tri»;ia) objections, the wise and prin?
' eipled expurgation practised by their brethren.
To the t>pok', thus perfectionated, the convoca
tion S^t i^s mi] Wi\ the bjshpps and clergy an-
* See Section VIII. of this Chapter.
c 4

40' THE REIGN OF [17/^. Cent.
nexed their subscriptions: after which it was ra»
tified in Parliament, and May 19, 1662, received
the royal assent. To state that no alteration has
since that time been deemed requisite, is per
haps the highest encomium that can be pro
nounced on our excellent Liturgy. As to occa
sional prayers, suited to political exigencies,
with their " battles of Salamanca, and their lan
guages of complaint*;" these special perform
ances exhibit a most melancholy proof, that to
alter would only be to mar and to deteriorate;
and that the genius of England, once almost
preternaturally inspired, has now passed its
perihelion. XXIII. Parliament, during this reign, seem-
* " Suffer not our prayers to assume the language of com»
plaint," What is this ? Did not David's prayers assume th?
language of complajnt, wheq he cried, *' Let my complaint
come before thee ?" Psalm cxix. I6g. As to the elegant par-
ticularization of the peninsular battle, we can oqly observe,
that the piety was better than the taste. It ought to be an
pbject ^ith the framers of devotipnal siipplications, to avoid
leading the imagination of the worshippers astray, by the iht
troductioi^ of any worldly or ludicrous associations : and I will
venture to say, that on every occurrence of this phrase> a
certain hideous figure, who clenching his fist, in the puppet*
show, endeavours to intimidate Punchinello, by loudly crying
out " Salamajica," and is knocked down hy that hero ip con
tempt fpr the yopiferation of his mpnaces, would start un
bidden before thousands of the purest 'minds. In constifUct-^
ing the incoajparable Liturgy, Cranmer never crihbpd frppi
thp ga?;e|:te.

17 th Cent.] charles n. 41
cd to squint with two jealous eyes, alike against
the Papists and the Dissenters. The Test Act
(25 Char. II. c. 2) was a flaming sword waved
to forbid the approach of either, to civil or
military offices*. The Dissenters vvere persuaded
to agree to what would bear hard against them
selves, through their enmity to the church of
Rome. At present, however, their descendants
pronounce it to be the profanation of a soleran
ordinance; a temptation to presumptuous hypo
crisy ; and an unjust exclusion of conscien
tious, peaceable, and loyal men, from places of
trust and profit, for which a difference of opi
nion merely, does by no means disqualify them.
To this it may be replied, that, by a strange
contradiction, they themselves still insist upon
the exclusion of Roman Catholics, and thus
give up their own principle of remonstrance.
The field of an established religion must neces
sarily be fenced round, in order to protect the
quiet of naturally inactive possession, against
the restless attempts of the excluded animals,
to obtain possession of the pasture. Religious
apd political sentiments seem in theory to be
distinct; but in experience they are found to be
associated. A Catholic, perhaps from the con
struction of his hierarchy, has a bias towards
arbitrary power : while a Dissenter, without
being a republican, is actuated, perhaps from the
* See Section JtVII. of this Chapter.

42- - THE REIGN OB [17^^ Cent.
uepuhUcan nature of his church, by some spirit
of encroachoient on the royal prerogative. A
limited monarchy, therefore, may tolerate both
bodies of recusants, in the full and free exer
cise of their religious worship> provided only-
that some competent restraint may be imposed
upon their natural political tendencies. But if
all civil advantages be unguardedly thrown
epen to thera, there is danger, lest these tend^
eneies, the pressure being removed from thpir ¦
spring, should obtain their, full elasticity, an4
destroy thp just balance of the constitution.
As to the othpr branch pf the objection, it
is hardly to be believed, however Ipw an esti
mate of human nature we ni«ty form, that maiiiy
would be found daring enough, for the prize of
some paltry lucre, tp receive the blessed fa
crament with a deliberate lie upqn their fpngues.
At all event;?, it i§ wnfair to thrpw the whole
blame on the imposer of the test; whpse object
was, evidently, to preclude hypocritical accept
ance. What the Test Act was in reference to
places under government, ?uqb was the Cbrpp-
ration Act as to all magiptprial offices. The Con
venticle, the Uniformity, and the Five j\Jilp
Acts, have all been alr§§idy explained.
An act was passed against profaning thp
Lord's d^y, by buying, selling, on pursuing pjr
dinary callings. Another prohibited tl)p oath,
ex officio^ by which persons njight criminate

17th Cent.] CHARLES ii. 43
themselves. In 1677, the old law for burning
heretics was repealed : a measure tending to
tranquillize the minds of the people, who con
tinually dreaded a return of Popery.
There were acts against lay administration of
the Lord's supper, against Quakers refusing
oaths, against the votes of Papists in ParUa
ment, against sending children to Popish places
of education. One act directed the book of
Common Prayer to be placed in every church ;
another prescribed the burying in a woollen
shrowd ; and a third ordered the keeping of
register-book of funerals.
XXIV. In this reign died Lobd Clarendon
and Peter Heylin, two celebrated historians,
who have treated largely of the English church.
As they were, both of them, Arrainians, roy
alists, and high churchmen, their narratives are
tinged with the colour of their principles, and
will be read with suitable allowances *. Hey
lin, in the reign of Charles I. had penetrated
into the design which lurked imder the pur«
chasing of impropriations. But though an as
serter of tbe prerogative, and an enemy to
schisiAatics, as appeared in his Histories of the
Churchj and of the early Dissenters, he obtained
no higher promotion on the restoration, than the
stall of sub-dean in Westminster Abbey. Bux-
^ Athen. Oxon. and Barnard's l^ife of (feylip.

44 THE reign OJ- [17th Cent.
torfthe younger, Lightfoot, and Poole, may
be classed together as erudite scholars and the
ologians. BuxTORF succeeded his father in the
chair of Hebrew in Basil: he has published a
much-estefemed Hebrew Concordance, and has
defended the antiquity of the points. The
Harmony and Commentaries of Lightfoot , afford
an admirable speciraen of the application of
human learning in the cause of religion.
Poole's Synopsis, in five volumes, folio, is a
learned and laborious collection, of all preceding
cpramentaries on the Bible; a variorum illustra
tion. So highly useful a work is surely well
deserving of being continued down to the
present time. An abridged, translation of the
Synopsis has been published, bearing the title
of Poole's Annotations. Bochart, likewise, ap
plied his vast acquirements to an illustration of
the geography and natural history of Scripture.
He was rainister of Caen, in Normandy. His
Phaleg and Canaan treats of sacred topography ;
and his Hierozoicon, of animals mentioned in the
Bible, Bishop Wilkins, the husband of Crom
well's sister, owed his proraotion to the favourof
Villars, "Duke of Buckingham- He is" better
known by his raathematical genius, and fanciful
speculations in astronomy, than by his treatises
on Natural Religion, on Prayer, on Providence
or on the Gift of Preaching. Not so the learned
mathematician, Dr. Isaac Bakrow, who conse-

17th Cent.] charles ii. 45
crated the flower of his talents on the altar of
God; and whose SeRmons reflect high credit on
the English pulpit, as its choicest specimens of
majestic eloquence, and vigorous argumenta
tion. Charles II. used to style him, humor
ously, an unfair preacher; who exhausted every
.subject, and left nothing for others to glean.
But a vein of still more glowing piety, and a
more comprehensive scope of morals, adorned
with the, fascinations of an inimitable style,
have elevated Jeremy Taylor to the highest pe
destal in the temple of practical divines, whe
ther of his own, or of any other age or country.
In his Sermons, his Lafe of Christ, and hhHoly
Living and Dying, he has let loose the reins of
a magical and playful, though not extravagant
fancy, wbicb suraraons all the works of nature
as ministers to its will, and beguiles the mind
into the paths of God and duty, with a lavish
profusion of brilliant imagery and expanded
eloquence. As an eminent lawyer. Sir Matthew
Hak is well known : Selden had further instruct
ed him in almost the whole circle of the sciences;
but on reading his Contemplations and Discourse
on the Knowledge of God, &c. it raight well be
imagined that he had raade divinity his sole
study. Drelincourt's Treatise on Death, which
has passed through forty editions, and appeared
in French, Dutch, Gerraan, Italian, and Eng
lish ; and Wjiichcofs Sermons and Religious

46 fWE reign of [17/A Cent.
Aphorisms, published after his deatli, with a
preface by the authw of the Ch-aracteristics,
must not be placed on the same shelf witHi-ithe
raoie classical productions of Barrow, Taylor,
and Hale. TheCourt of the Gefttiles, by Theophilus
Gale, is an elaborate disquisition showing that
the wisest among the Pagan philosophers bor
rowed their most spblime speculations, laatuural
and moral, as well as divine, from the sacned
writings. Bishop Saniderson, who died in li663,
never committed his Sermons to memory ; anri
hence, on their pubhcation, it was observed,
that the best sermons 'ever j-ead, had never been
preached. To this bishop's fidehty Charles I.
bore honourable testimony. " I cairry my ears,"
said he, "' to other preachers, and my conscience
to Sanderson :" a compliment not dissirailar to
that paid by Louis KIV. to Massillon : " Oither
orators send me forth pleased with them: it is
yours alone to render me dissatisfied with my-
•sdlf." Sandoi'son suffered much from the par
liamentary party ; aind kept a roll of Noncon
formists -designed 'for subjection to :disci:pline :
but on his death-bed he ordered that this cata-
^logue should be burnt. Until his'fiOth vyear, he
is said to 'have never exipended five shillings in
¦wine forhis'pei'sonal use. He carried on a con-
trovBrsy with Hammond on the Calvinist and
Arminian differences. He published several

I7th Cent^ charles ii. 47
books of casuistry ; and is the author of the
Antiquities of Lincoln.
Calamy died in 1666, of grief on belwlding
the ruins of London, after the great conflagra
tion. His Sermons are truly excellent: vehe
ment in that strong 'eloquence which marked an
earlier period ; but raixed with the quaint and
untasteful infringements on delicacy, peculiar to
the reign of Charles II. Patrick, when a young
man, wrote against toleration; but Neale affirms
that, contrary to the usual course of biasses, he
regretted this performance, when bishop 6f
Ely. He is more deserV^ing of remembrance,
by his Commentary and practical works, Par
ker also, an anti- tolerant, was assailed by 'the
wit pf the celebrated Andrew Marvell, to
whom a letter was addressed anonymously, con
taining the following threat : " If thou ^reSt
to print 'or publish any lie or libel against Dr.
Parker, by the etemal God I will cut thy
throat." Among the Nonconformist divines pf
'the reign under review, Janevvay, author pf
AhtTokens for Children, .deserves particular no
tice. This work is, perhaps, rather calculated
to encourage cant, than sober piety in tender
hiinds, and to flraW clouds over the sunshine of
spring. Owen's Lii^play qf Arminianism is still
•held --by the ultra-calvinists, as a w-prk of refer
ence -and high aufthority. Among his other
works, his Exp"'osltion of 'fhe Hebrem% in par-

48 THE REIGN OF [17^// Cent.
ticular, rescued from oblivion. He vvas the
most learned of all the Nonconformist divines.
XXV. While the minds of men were exaspe-
tated by religious differences, a body of divines,
entitled Latitudinarians, attempted to reconcile
the contending parties, on the two disputed
points of Calvinistic doctrine and church go
vernment*. This project) benevolent in spe
culation, but impossible in practice, had been
originated in the preceding reign, by the ever-
memorable Hales, in his Essay on Schism and
Schismatics, and by his friend ChiUingworth, in
the work entitled, " The Religion of Protest
ants a safe Way to Salvation f."
Charles, on his restoration, took the Latitu
dinarians into favour; though he subsequently
adopted different councils. Stillingfleet, af
terwards Bishop of Worcester, published his
Irenicum in l66l : being an atterapt to show
that no form of church governraent existed
jure divino, and that the church had no power
to impose restrictions in indifferent matters.
Next year, however, he renounced these crude
speculations, these romantic visions of recon-
* Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. i. book ii. p. 188.
f See Mosheim, vol. v. p. 4l2; Burnet's Own Times, vol. i.
p. 188 J Desmargeux's Lives of Hales and Chillingworth j
Rapin's Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories j and Fowles's
Principes and Practice of certain moderate Divines of the
Church of Eugland greatly misunderstood.
3

17/^ Cent.] CHARLES ii, 49
cilement; and subscribed the Act of Unifor
mity, Whichcot, More, aud Cudworth, in the
same reign, and TiUotson and John Gale, the
Baptist, at a later period, engaged in the same
fruitless attempt to blend substances wholly
incapable of amalgamation.
In 1665, the plague desolated London. So
destructive were its ravages, that grass grew in
the streets; and every night the bellman cried
aloud. Bring out your dead. Houses and shops
were shut ; and all those infected were marked
with a cross, accompanied by the words, " Lord
have mercy upon us." In the midst of these
horrors, some of the ejected clergy continued
the labours of their ministry *. Vincent, the
ex-minister of Milk Street, remained in the
city during the whole period of this visitation ;
and solaced, without fear, every sick person
who sent for him ; printing at the same time
two monitory pamphlets ; one of them entitled,
God's Voice in the City f.
* Baxter's Life, part«ii p. 2.
f Qouge, of Blackfriars, founded 3 or 400 schools: his
funeral sermon was preached by TiUotson. The Whigs, a
term meaning sour milk, was an appellation given to the more
rigid Scots covenanters. The Test Act was superseded by
dispensations from Rome, enabling the Papists to hold ofHces.

VOL. HI.

50 THE REIGN OF • [17 th Cent.

XXVI.— THE PRESBYTERIANS.
The Presbyterians, according to their own
account, are coeval with the ApostoUc age.
Episcopacy, they affirm, arose about the middle
ofthe second century*; and existed almost
universally as a corruption of the primitive
;form, from that period until the. Reforma
tion. In a short time, , Presbyterianisra ^ passed
(from Geneva, where it had arisen under Calvin,
into France, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, and
England. What Fuller calls the first-born of
all the presbyteries in England, was established
in 1572, at Wandsworth, in Surrey, by Field,
their minister t ; who gave it thename ofthe
. Order of Wandsworth :f. Cromwell himself,
* See Hill's Theolog. Instit, p. 167. Campbell's Lectures
on Eccles. Hist, vol, i.
•f- Fuller, Cent. 16, p. 103.
J Eleven elders were chosen, and their offices registered;
and " secundum usum Wandsworth was as much honoured
by the Presbyterians,, as secundum usum Sarum had been by
the Romanists." Round this congregation were gathered the
Ep'glish Puritans, who returned in the reign of Elizabeth, im-
" pregnated with Calvinism, . from Geneva, Francfort, and other
places; and derived their name from their dissatisfaction
with the Church, which they deenied not formed after
a pure model. James treated them more mildly than Eliza
beth J but in the reign of Charles I. they (experienced much
opposition from Laud, Nevertheless, their party, gathering
strength, assisted in overturning the established order of

17th Cent.] charles n. 51
attached to the Independents, found it necessary
to favour the Presbyterian party ; and having
risen to power on the ruins of raonarchy and
epijcopacy, he delivered the English church to
the raanageraent of coraraissioners, composed of
both denorainations. At the restoration of
Charles II. the ark of the visible church was
delivered out of the hands of these Philistines :
but we have already sufficiently enlarged on the
case of the ejected clergy.
In short, whatever promise the King made,
was, even beyond the letter, abided by ; until
the seditious preaching of some of tbe Noncon
formists rendered the Act of Uniformity neces
sary as a measure of civil prudence, rather than
of ecclesiastical persecution.
To ascertain whether the Nonconforraists, or
the clergy attached to the royal cause, had raost
reason to complain, the reader is referred to
Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, a book writ
ten to counteract the prejudices instilled by Ca
lamy in his Life of Baxter. To Baxter, although
in the earlier editions of his " Saint's Rest," he
had trauslated the regicides into heaven, was
offered the bishopric of Hereford; and in re
fusing conformity, however he may have ma-

tbings ; but in the time of the Commonwealth they were sup
planted by the Independents, who were more artftd, and less
sincere.
E 2

52 THE'rtKki^^•"OF [17 th Cent.
riifested hrs .sincerity, he undoubtedly forfeited
the title to be styled "a pillar of tbe'Church
Pf England*," m - ,i<> ,>uo,i oi i«n
From the troubles of the 1 7th ceh tury^ many
EngUsh Presbyterians, together with other sd-»
paratists, tbok refuge in America; where^ the
seed of their religion, which they sowedy now
flourishes extensively, in the northern partsi of
the United States, ''"^^ ;, ; ;; -jv.Ki -jw Jo<J
Presbyterianism is the established reUgion
in Scotland ; and the Seceding and Relief con
gregations are strictly of the sanie persuasion.
The inhabitants of the north of Ireland, • bei^lg
of S|eottish extraction/ are mostly Presbyte-
ria^ll^'but a body of Protestant Dissenters in
Engand are improperly designated by 'that
name; having no presbyteries, synods, or assem
blies; and not being strongly attached to Cal**
vinlstic principles. i--i:':ri
''During the reign of Charles the First, the
object of the Presbyterians was, in government,
to limit the moharfchy ; and in religion, to abo
lish liturgies and retrench ceremonies. When in
power, they were more intolerant than the Inde
pendents: the prindiple of the latterbeing free
dom of opinion, and independence on external
authority ; while the former were actuated by a
fixed persuasion, that their own ippde of service
* Wilberforce's Practical View, p. 379,

17t¥Cent.] CHARLES n. 53
was alone pure and correct *. But thie character
df the Presbyterians in those tiines of trouble,
ohght not to biass our opinion of their de&cendr
ants, who are, for the most part, peaceable and
loyal, upright in conduct, and tolerant in prin
ciple. Araong tbreign Presbyterians, Calvin,
Martyr, Beza, Bullinger, Zanchius, Blondell,
Salinasius, Dalloeus, Claude, &c. may be classed
as the most eminent ; while the names of Knox,
Henry, M'Knight, Gerard, Logan, Robertson,
Campbell, and Blair, have adorned the annals of
Presbyterianism at home.
We may consider the Presbyterian religion,
as it relates — 1st, to doctrine; 2dly, to church-
government ; and, Sdly, to ceremonious observ
ances. 1. In regard to doctrine, if we were to judge
by public confessionals, by the Belgic and West-
hiinster Confessions, thfe Articles of the Synod
of Dort, and the As.sembly's and Mother's Cate*
chisms, we should pronounce all Presbyterians,
with the exception ofthe Arminians in Holland,
• They therefore deemed toleration " a hideous monster ;
the great Diana of the Ephesians. The covenant was accord
ingly formed for the extirpation of episcopacy ; nor, in the
treaty of the Isle of Wight, would they allow Charles the
use of the Common Prayer Book in his own family. In sub
jection, they pleaded for toleration, like most dependent sects ;
but they forgot it when in power," — Grey's Bampton Lec
tures, p 284. '3.
E 3

54 THE REIGN OP [17 th Cent.
to hold the Calvinistic form of Christianity.
But many raembers of the Scotch Kirk, as well
as the English Presbyterians, are understood to
be Calvinists only by inheritance. Blair, who
introduced a new style into the pulpit, is distin
guished by good sense and elegant writing ; but
he, has no Calvinisra, and, indeed, not rauch
Christianity. In Scotland, there are two sorts
pf preaching, of which Blair and Ebenezer
Erskine may be regarded, severally, as the mo
dels. The Seceders are all Calvinists ; as are
also the stricter ministers of that establishment.
For these, and for the English Calvinistic sects,
the same reasoning will suffice, vvhich has al
ready been pursued at great length in our trea
tise on the Quinquarticular Controversy.
2. Presbyterianism is chiefly deserving off
attention, by reason of its distinctive form of
chur chrgo vernment. Its adherents hold, not
less than the Episcopalians, the divine authoriiy
of the priesthood : they regard their mode pf
religion as an institution derived immediately
frora Christ and his Apostles: but they deny
that the prder of bishops belonged to the primi
tive ehurch ; and they assert the validity of pr-ders
conferred solely by the iraposition of the hands
of the presbytery. They contend, that there is
no distinction, excepting in name, betwixt a
presbyter and a bishop ; that they are one and the
sarae. ' All ministers are equal, as ambassadors

17th Cent.] charles ii, 55
of Christ, by coraraission : so it was in the be
ginning, till episcopacy crept in, from the prac
tice of establishing, as a permanent officer, the
moderator, or temporary superintendent, of the
presbytery.' They refer to 1 Peter, v, 1, 2, 3;
Heb, xiii. 7 — 17; and 1 Thess. v. 12; in the
first of which passages the presbyter performs
the office ofa bishop; in the other two, the
bishop that of a presbyter.
A presbytery is an association of ministers
and ruling elders, possessed of equal powers ;
and Presbyterian church-government is founded
on the principle of admitting no superiority of
rank in the ministry, saving official preference,
for the sake of order, conferred by the body of
the clergy.
In some continental churches, the superin
tendents are appointed for life ; but in general,
the office of moderator is annual. A body of
.presbyters, with a moderator, stands exactly in
the place of a bishop ; it judges of qualifications
for the ministry, confers orders, institutes, in
ducts, and exercises inspection and jurisdiction
over all ministers within its bounds. Dr. Hill
affirms, that every person so ordained, is as much
a successor of the Apostles, as any Christian
teacher can be. Theol. Instit, p. 166,
, There is a Low Church party of the Presby
terians, with respect to governraent, who, con
sidering that no form has been prescribed in
E 4

56 -ihe reign of [17th Cent.
Scripture, vindicate their choice on the score of
expedience. Both to these, and to the advo
cates of Presbyterianism by divine right, we
have endeavoured to reply, in the dissertation
prefixed to thesecond volume: proving, first,
that a form has actually been prescribed; andi
secondly, that that form is episcopal*.
* Qn the question of expedience, it may briefly be ob
served, that from the episcopal establishment many happy
results arise. The clergy are under a fit control, both '•*
regard to their morals and doctrines. The inspection of a
bishop is, ih most instances, preferable to that of a presbytery^
where local animosities and personal jealousies may warp fair
judgment. Dignity is added to the diurch by means of the
titles, the respectable establishments, and the venerable cha
racter of its heads. In the inequality of church revenues, such
as are scanty, open a field for disinterested zeal ; while such as
are ample, reward the labours of the pious and learned ; and
(as there is nothing incompatible betwixt zeal and opulence,
or. rank) furnish suitable provisions for those well-disposed
sons, in families belonging to the superior classes, who prefer
the peaceful vale of religion, to the noisy turbulence of the
olher paths of life.
An easy ecclesiastical' income confers the power of exer
cising extensive benevolence and hospitality : while the scan
tier pittances excite an honest desire to obtain that respect, by
worth and talent, which the inferior clergy have not the gifts
of fortune to secure.
If the revenues of the chnrch were exactly equalized, they
would each be too scanty for tbe subsistence of individuals who
derived their sole support from their profession. Thus, if-the
great estates in this country were broken down, and an acre
given to every man, no man would have more than an acre.

17^ Cetlt.] CHARLES II. 57
Granting that each living and curacy were made one hundred
pounds a year by strict equalization (and that is much more
than the right calculation) ; the order of the clei^ Wonld
quickly fall into disrepute. Persons of education who had
famiUes to maintain, however desiroas they might be of serving
God in the cburch, would be deterred by reasonable consi
derations from entering it. Some few disinterested individuals,
it is true, might be found, willing to give their labour for
what is next to nothing ; and either possessed of independ
encies, or content with poverty. But as they who live at the
altar, live, in general, together with their dependent femilies,
ly the altar (and it is reasonable they should do so), it is pro^
bable that, under such an arrangement, the majority of the
clergy would be men, not of education, respectability, and
rational zeal, but of enthusiastic principles, low birth, coarse
raanners, and mean acquirements. And, however successful
the rainistry of such characters in opposition to an established
church may sometimes be ; that it would be equally so, in the
church opposed, and, as opposed, deserving some extraneous
weight to counterbalance the force and spite of opposition, is
extremely problematical. Certain it is, that the nature of their
success would be far less valuable than the proselytism effected,
and the piety preserved, by the address ot educated men,
whose' urbanity exemplifies their Christian principles, to tiie
calm reason of tbeir fellow-beings.
It is here necessary to observe, that we have in this place
been unavoidably led to identify the order of deacons, with the
holders of stipendiary curacies or small ecclesiastical prefer
ments. Many stipendiary curates are priests, and many priests
possess scanty ecclesiastical preferments. The general scope
of tlie argument, however, is not affected by a few necessary
anomalies. Deacons are for the most part stipendiary curates :
the order of deacon being the first step in the church, and a
stipendiary curacy the usual title to ordination.
There' is also an analogy betwixt deacons in reference to

58 THE REIGN OF [17^^ Cent.
priests, and curates in reference to beneficed persons, which
renders the foregoing observations applicable to;both cases.
A deacon, by the. laws of our church, does not pronounce
the absolution, consecrate the bread and wine, or administer
the bread. Deacons were, in thc primitive church, young
raen waiting at the altar, baptizing, and serving tables. Per- .
sons are admitted to deacons' orders at the age ofi twenty-
three, and to priests' orders, one year later ; agd this, afcer a
new and a stricter examination, relative to their talents and
moralsj an ordinance which provides that, during the first year
of his ecclesiastical life, the minister shall establish tbe salu
tary habit of weaning himself from secular pursmts ; retaining ,
his academical information ; and establishing a character for
gravity, piety, morality, application, and knowledge, which is
a pledge for his behaviour throughout the, whole of his life.
In regard to ceremonies, we would maintain, on tbe same
ground of expedience, that every church is at liberty, to appoint
its own ceremonies j there being no express ordinance in Scrip-
tisre, relative to minute ceremonious observances. It is obvious,
however, that this liberty may be abused ; as it is, undoubtedly,
by all those who employ gaudy, unmeaning, or multiplied cere
monies : these tending to draw off attention from that pure and
tpiritual worship which consists of the homage of the heart and
the regulation of the conduct. If man were a pure intelligence,
110 ceremonies whatever would be either requisite or proper :
but as he is composed of bqdy and soul ; and as great part of
his knowledge comes through the medium of his senses ; some
accommodation to this compound condition of his nature be
coraes advisable in prescribing a form for the direction of his
public devotions. His attention must be fixed, and his affec
tions engaged on the side of religion, by the solemn music
and the' modest decorations of a church, and by the grave and
decent vestments of those who minister in holy things. That
church, then, moves in the precise line of reason, betwixt the
total absence of ceremonies, and an extravagant use of them.

17th Cent.} charles ir. 59
which prescribes suoh as shall lead attention to God, but not
arrest it on themselves j such as shall appear to be a means for
the better performance of worship and duty, without occupy
ing so much of the eye, as to be in dauger of being regarded
as that performance of worship and of duty itself.
And of this description are tbe ceremonies of the Church
of England, The cross, the ring, and surplice, were all of
them emblems, few, simple, and significant ; and therefore
ought not to have been objected to. We are continually acting
by signs : the auctioneer knocks down his lot, and the fiirmer
strikes bis bargain.
Among the ceremonies of our church, we may reckon the
rubrics which direct the postures of standing, kneeling, and
sitting, during different parts of the service. These attitudes
are, with great propriety, adapted to the mental affections,
respectively supposed to accompany various religious exercises.
Thus, we are commanded to kneel, while we are imploring
favours, or giving thanks for those already received : this attt->
tude being habitually regarded by us, in common life, as ex
pressive of a sense of unworthiness and humility ; the senti
ments which ought to inspire us in these parts of the service.
We stoTui while praising God, to signify our cheerfulness, and
the lifting up of our hearts ; and also while professing our be
lief^ to denote our steadfastness in the Christian faith. While
the word of Grod is read in the lessons, or expounded from the
pulpit, the congregation sit, in listening to it : because these
instructions are delivered to themselves primarily, as men ; not
having, like the prayers and praises, an immediate reference to
sentiments of devotion. It is a maxim in philosophy, thnt an
imitation of the gestures which naturally accompany an affec
tion of the mind, tends to introduce, or to strengthen, tbat
affection. Our devotions are accompanied by the postures pre
scribed in the Liturgy, upon the same principle which teaches
us to stand uncovered in the house of God, that being the cus
tomary outward sign of respect, AU these attitudes, then,
heiog associated in our minds, with the sentiments which either

60 THM REiGNi<6f [17 thCent\
natureor Ihe habits of life dltacHto'themj will,'io the hdunlof
¦worship,' call up these sentiments in minds where they do not
already exist, and confirm them, where they do, '• ''
1 Another' excellence peculiar' to our church, consists in its
festivals. Th6 Reformation wisely struck out of our calendar
a multiplieity'of saints' days and holydays, as tending to make
the common people idle; whefeas the'same God 'who com
mands meh to rest on the seventh day, positively 'ehjornsi' Six
days &-aM.T thou labour 1' NevertheleSss, besides' the serviOeiof
Sundays, a few solemn we^k-diays aire,' in perfect Consistence
with decency and propriety, observed; sach'SsChnstTn.as-day'i
the Epiphany, orvdaj^ 'commenr^orating the first extension of
Chvistiatiity to the Gentiles (the benefits of vi>hich we all par
take) ; Ash Wednesday, or the fiTst day of Lent, a season of
solemn preparation for a fit commemoration of our Saviour's
sufferings and resurrection ; Good Friday, theidayon which
our Redeeraer was crucified"; as WfeUas the whole of the Pas^^
sioh-Week ; Holy Thursday, the diaj^' on which our Lotd
ascended into heaven ; and' a few other days dedicated to the
honour of the Apostles, the Mother, and first friends of oUjr
Lord, Two of these days are holy abbve the rest: those
which commemorate tbe birth, and 'the crucifixion of the Sa'-
viour of the world,
Theother holydays, as well as the service on the Wed-t
nesdays and Fridays throughout the year, are principally de^
. signed 'for those, whose easy circumstances, or superianriuated
condition, exempts them from daily labour. They are^fei
signed, in a word, for all who can attend them, without tem
poral injury to tbeir families ; and who, if they did not attend,
would probably be seduced by too much leisure, into some
sinful or vain way of spending their time. On Ash Wednes
day, and during Passion-week, however, all persons of every
age and business might, without inconvenience, devote one
hour to public worship ; returning to their usual occupations
during the remainder of the day.
As the festivals of the churCh are thus few, simple,
4

17 th Cent.] charles ii. 61
and proper, its offices are conformable to decency and rea
son,' I, 1,, . ,. ; , .j ',
For a proof of this assertion, it is only; necessary to enu-
mferate tbem. We have, a communion service, leading our de
votions in that most sacred rite, wilh the same sublimity and
simplicity of language, the same animation and reasonable^
ness, the same spirit and understandbtg' in point of matter,
which pervade the Liturgy. We- have an oflSce of baplismi
another for confirmation ; another for the visiiation of, the- sick}
another for expressing the gratitudeof persons recovered froui
eldldbirth; another for conferring orders oa persons who under
take the ministry ; another for the solemn ceremony of mar-,
riage; and another for toryin^ the dead. Tbe reasonableness
efsuch oflBces is so obvious, as to require no comment : and
if any person will take the trouble to peruse them, he will
find, that, in language and matter, they are all as excellent
compositions as have ever proceeded from the ordinary inspi
rations of the Spirit, .
One of those advices which deservedly gave Solomon the
name of wise man, Eccles. v, 2, is, Be not rash with thy
mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty lo utter any thing before
God ;' for God is in heaven, and thm upon earth. When
we contrast the majesty of God with our own littleness,
and his purity with our offences, we cannot but acknow- •
ledge that we ought to approach him with awe, and with
the dread of saying any thing that may be rash, indecent,
or irreverent. For this purpose a liturgy or form of
prayer is the best calculated. The inspired Apostles, indeed,
and. early disciples, had less occasion than we have, for forms,
(although, in thei Lord's prayer, they had one which was per
fect, and which was given as a model for their future demo
tions), since their prayers were dictated to them by a more en
larged measure of the Spirit of God. But as soon as Chris
tianity had settled itself, this extraordinary assistance, which
had been given to strengthen it against the first opposition
which it met witb, being no longer necessaiy, was with-

62 THE HEIGN OF [17 th Cent.
drawn : and Christians are only now endowed with those com
mon influences which prompt, aid, and strengthen their own
exertions and co-operations.
In the present situation of the world, then, forms have the
advantage over ' extemporaneous prayer. They are equally
dictated by the Spirit; because the Spirit may influence those
who compose them in their studies, as well as another in the
moment of offering unpremeditated petitions, A liturgy in
forms us, before we repair to the house of worship, what
prayers are to be offered in our name. We have a previous
opportunity of studying thera; and of either approving of
their excellence, or (if we dislike them) of resolving to ab
sent ourselves from the place wherethey are read. Amd while
the minister is reading them, our attention is not divided ; we
have nothing to think of but our devotion. How differently
situated is a congregation listening to extemporanetius prayer,
wherein he who is their organ and mouth, may shock his fel
low-worshippers, while they are lifted on the wing of adora
tion, by vulgar expressions, or ignorant, unlawful, trifling
supplications; and while communing with the Almighty ia
their name, make tbem advanpe opinions different from those
they hold ; as well as prefer petitions foreign tb their wishes or
principles. Whatever beauty and propriety the original composers of
a liturgy have given it, continue with it on all occasions. All
who join in it are sure, that neither incapacity, nor indolence,
nor lukewarmness, hor occasional elevation or depression of
spirits; neither political biass, nor mahgnant passions, nor want
of orthodoxy, nor excess of enthusiasm in their minister, can
communicate themselves to the supplications which are offered
in their name and in their behalf; as may obviously be done
wherever there is no form of prayer. Now, if liturgies in
general be thus preferable to extemporaneous prayers,- the
devotional service of the Church of England is the best of all
liturgies. For sublimity, simplicity, and propriety of lan
guage ; for raising the humble, cheering the contrite, soothing

17th Cent.] charles ii. 63
the afflicted ; for furnishing expressions to sentiments of divine
affection, supplication, praise, and thanksgiving ; for reason
ableness in its progress from exhortation to confession ; from
confession to an offer of absolution to sincere penitence ; from
thence to prayers for divine assistance; mingled with praiae,
thanksgiving, the reading of the word of God, and solemn pro
fessions offaith; for providing petitions for all the exigencies of
men in general, and even for the various temporal wants of in
dividuals i for propriety in conducting public worship, by short
prayers, responses, and other innocent means, which stimulate
attention, and prevent devotion from growing weary ; the
liturgy of the Established Church, for all these excellencies,
itands unrivalled amongst human compositions '*',
* Grant's Sermon on the Reasonableness of the Established
Church,

'64 THE REIGN OF [17 th Cent.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE REIGN. OF JAMES II.

Contents.
I. Contradictory Promises and Conduct- of .Tames. —
II. Remark on the Power of dispensing with the Test.
' — IU. The King courts the Dissenters, in order to fa
vour the Catholics. — IV. Court of Ecclesiastical Com
mission. — V, Attepzpts to : introduce Catholics iv-to the
Universities. — VI. The Nonconformists see the Designs,
and reject the Protection of James.— -Yll. The Church
Party call in the Interference ofthe Prirwe of Orange.
—-VIII. The Bishops are imprisoned for refusing to
read the new Declaration of Indulgence.-^-lX. The
Prince of Orange declines to sanction the Suspension of
the Test.—'X. Universal Odium against the King. —
XI. His Abdication and Character.— ^Xll. Acts of
Parliament. — XIII. Learned Divines.-,— XXV . Mis
cellaneous Matters,
1685. I. Promises, costing little, and being a
convenient mode of conciliating popularity, are
often made in profusion by monarchs, on their
accession, with small, or soon-forgotten inten
tion of performance. James II. prbmised to
protect the Protestant religion ; and (as if ex
ample were not indispensable to protection), on
the second Sunday after his accession, went

I7th Cent.] james ii, 65
publicly to mass. He filled the Parliament with
raen enamoured of the doctrine of passive obe
dience ; and sent an agent to Rome to prepare
the re-admission of England within the pale of
.the Catholic church*. To palliate the.se actions,
suflSciently indicative of his principles, he re
peated his assurances of preserving the esta
blished government, both ecclesiastical and
civil : and the Parliament, in return, voted him
so large a sum, as enabled him to maintain his
forces, independently of their further assistance.
Parliament wished the laws against Dis
senters to be enforced ; but were compelled to
keep silence, since that object could not be at
tained without including the Catholic body.
James boldly acquainted them, that he had re
tained oflficers in his army, who were prevented
from qualifying agreeably to the recent tests.
For this speech he was thanked by the House of
Commons ; but opposed by Compton, Bishop of
London, in the name of the whole episcopal
bench. The King, foreseeing the evils of such
opposition, dissolved the Parliament; and du
ring his reign that body assembled no more.
II. By thus dispensing with the tests, in the
¦*¦ The Pontiff, Innocent XI, more pradent than the Mo
narch, remonstrated with him on the impropriety of a m«a-
Kure, impracticable in itself, and likely to involve bira in dif
ficulties, Thu.s, Charles II. had too little zeal, aud James too
juuch, for an instrument of Romish anibiLion.
VOJL. HI, i-

66 THE REIGN OF [I7th Cent.
case of Catholic oflficers, James disgusted and
alienated the church, the strongest support of
monarchy ; and the army, the means and guards
of arbitrary government. Yet this dispensing
power was vindicated by a variety of precedents,
and by the opinion of eminent lawyers, chifefly
of Sir Edward Coke, on the principle of the
King's possessing a natural right to command
the services of all his subjects. But in the ge- ,
neral sense of the people, the test was properly
regarded as the great barrier to secure the Pro
testant religion under a Catholic raonarch.
16S6. III. Many members of the Establish
ment now opened their eyes to a consciousness
of those evils with which they were threatened,
and refused ^o co-operate with the King in his
arbitrary measures ; when James, determined to
be absolute, began to court the Dissenters,
whom he had hitherto treated with harshness *.
He encouraged the re-opening of their conven
ticles; and some among them fondly imagined
* Baxter was arraigned before Judge Jefferies, for some
passages against episcopal power, in his Paraphrase on the
New Testament. This wretch assailed his prisoner with the
most viilgar brutality of abuse. " Yonder," said he, "stands
Titus Oates on the pillory; and if Mr. Baxter were on the
other side, I should say that there stood two of thegreatest
rogues in England," The Dissenters now held their religious
meetings in rooms having trap-doors, holes in the partition, and
back passages. They locked thdr doors, they had vedettes in
the streets, and, through fear of detection, aan^ no psalms.

\7th Cent.] james ii. 67
they beheld 4new the halcyon days of their pro
sperity; but the raore judicious, discerning in
this unwonted favour only a desire to strengthen
the Popish party, against the church, by an ana
logous and embracing toleration, were not de
tached by the royal coquetry from their affinity
with the Established Clergy, In the mean time,
manj' divines of the English church, perceiving
the full danger of Popei y, defended the cause
of Protestantism with much learning and elo
quence, both in pamphlets and public discourses.
Among these champions of truth we find the
respectable names of TiUotson, Patrick, Wake,
Whitby, Sharp, Atterbury, Williams, Aldrich,
Burnet, and Fowler; who replied to the cheap
and mischievous brochures of the Catholics.
James, at the instigation of his priests, prohi
bited the inferior clergy from discussing, in
their sermons, the controverted points of Po
pery, Dr. Sharp was noticed as having in
fringed this mandate ; but he was not punished
at the present juncture.
IV. In pursuance of the system of hostility
to the Church, Judge Jefi'cries proposed a re
vival of the High Commission Court, under the
name of an Ecclesiastical Commission ; but the
Bishops, with the exception of Carew of Dur
ham, and Spratt of Rochester, absented them
selves from its meetings. The Bishop of Lon
don was lir.st siimmonfed before this court, for

68 THE EEioN OF [17/A Cent.
having realised to pass a censure on Dr. Sharp)
before his conviction. This divine, on making
submission, was restored to the exercise of his
functions; but the Bishop of London reraained
under suspension.
1687. V. .Another scheme of the court
party, that is, of James, governed by the Queen,
and by Peters, a privy-counsellor and his con
fessor, was to introduce into the Universities
Jesuits and other Catholics, with the view of
influencing elections and statutes, and of poi
soning the fountains of education and religion.
The refusal of Cambridge to admit, without the
oaths. Father Francis, a Benedictine, as a Master
of Arts, in compliance with the royal mandate
— and tbe rejection of Farmer, the candidate
proposed by the King, as the President of Mag->
dalen College in Oxford— ^are facts well known
in the civil histories of the country. Oxford
had brought this imposition upon its own head,
by a profession of passive obedience: but though
Farmer was set aside on account of his infamous
character, the King succeeded in placing Par
ker, another creature of his own, in the vacant
dignity. ^
VL Jaraes still continued courting the Non
conformists, to concur with hira in abolishing
the penal laws and test *. On the other hand,
* To^^rds the Quakers, at least, another reason has been
assigned for James's friendship and protection j namely, his

17 th Cent.] james ii. 69
with the same view of Introducing Popery, he
was holding correspondence with the Apostolic
chair. But Innocent continued, to disapprove
of his wild measures, and only sent a nuncio
into England, who appointed four Vicars Apo
stolical, and dispersed a few pastoral letters.
Although to correspond with the Pope had been
made treason by Act of Parliament, Jaraes gave
this nuncio a public reception at Windsor.
While he thus, in various ways, exposed the
hoUowness of his professed liberality, Baxter
and others ofthe more sensible Nonconforraists,
desirous as they were of the free exercise of
their religion, apprehended the consequences of
admitting Papists to the same privilege ; and
agreed that the King had no right to dispense
with penal statutes by his siraple prerogative.
1688. VII. Exasperated by so many acts of
tyranny and folly, and justly alarraed for the
downfal of religion and liberty, the leading
niembers of the Church concerted measures with
the Prince of Orange, for the exertion of his
influence in obstructing the advancement of
Popery, and for preventing the Dissenters from
¦
personal attachment towards William Penn; who, though,
from bis correspondence with TiUotson, he was certainly no
Catholic in disguise, as some have reported, as certainly wtnt
tp Holland to persuade the Prince of Orange to fall in with
the measures of James, in favour of that body.
F 3

70 THE REIGN OF []7th Cent.
cqalesciiig with th^ court party., The King, hr
ritated by the- success of tHi^. scheme, andby
the failure of his own desigi^ fpr gaining over
the Noncpnfprmists, now becaipe still more
violent frora opposition, and by thus persisting
in his infatuated councils, accelerated thei period
of his ruin *.
VIII. A new declaration in faivpur of liberty
of conscience, promised larger indulgences to the
Papists than the former had allowed : but when
an order was issued for its being read ia all parish
cfeurches, the leading clergy, and indeed the
whole body, excepting 200, were determined to
refuse compliance. It was promulgated jn only
seven of the Lpndpn. churches. A respescljful
petition, signed by the Primate and six Bishops,
was presented to the King ; professing no want
of reverence for His Majesty's authority, or of
inclination to favour the toleration of Dissenters,
when determined on in Parliameijt and Convo-
* James attempted to convert the Princess of Orange to the
Catholic faith ; but she replied very sensibly, that it had never
been fully settled where infallibility lay, whether in a Pope or
in a Council ; that she would take her faith on evidence, and
not from dictation ; and that, St. Paul encouraged this resolution,
by desiring those whom he addjressed, to " judge whathe said,"
The Monarch like\yise essayed to proselytize the Prjnce, his
son-in-law. So vain is it to trust, that a Catholic, who is qnite
in earnest, deeiiiing all creeds but his own to be out bf the pale
of salvation, can abide by his promise of not attempting the
conversion of others. •

17th Cent.] JAMES ii. / 71
cation ; but signifying objectioijs to the reading.
of the declaration, on the ground of the ille
gality of the dispensing power. On receiving
this paper, the King exclaimed in rage, that
they should feel what it was to disobey his
mandates : and they retired from his presence,
meekly, but resolutely, replying, " The Lord's
will be done." These confessors, whose names it
would be unpardonable to omit, were Sancroft,
Kenn, Lake, Turner, Lloyd, White, and Trelaw
ney. They were sent to the Tower amidst the
mingled cheers and lamentations of all orders of
the people, who covered the banks of the river
as they were carried along, iraploring their bless-.
ing, and congratulating them upon the triumph
of principle. Soon after, to the inexpressible sa
tisfaction of the nation at large, these resolute
divines were acquitted on being brought to
trial. But not even this award of the law, and
expression of the public sentiment, could bend
the obstinacy, or dispel the infatuation of James.
Too tyrannical in teraper, too devoted to hip
Queen, too closely heramed in by Jesuits, he
altered not his conduct, nor would provide in
time for his preservation.
IX. James earnestly wished to receive the
sanction of the Prince of Orange, to his mea
sures for suspending the test; buf he could
only obtain from that prudent expectant of the
throne the following remarkable answer: the
r 4

72 THE REIGN OF [l7 ih Cent.
more remarkable, since it controverts the notable
doctrine of modern politics, that every man is
persecuted who is excluded from public offices :
"The Prince and Princess give heartily their
consent for repealing legally all tlie penal sta-'
tutes ; as well those which have been enacted
against the Catholics, as against the Protestant
Nonconformists : yet the Test ought not to be
considered as -a penalty inflicted on the .pro
fessors of any religion, but as a security pro
vided for the established worship ; and it is no
punishment on men to be excluded from offices,
and to live peaceably on their own revenues or
industry *."
X. Forgetful of their differences, all parties,
both civil and ecclesiastical, were now united
in opposition to their Monarch. With- the
Whigs, he was ah object of hatred as an arbi
trary sovereign ; with the Tories, as he had for
gotten their services and loyalty; with the ,¦
High-churchmen, as he was overthrowing the
religion established • in England ; and with the
Nonconformists, as Popery was an abomination
in their eyest.
Though apprised of this prevailing odium.,
James enjoyed his dream of infatuation, till
certified that the Prince of Orange, invited by
the general voice of the nation, was preparing ,
* Hume,
f Sancroft, indeed, in a pastoral letter, advised his clergy t<x
correspond with the Dissenters,

nth Cent.] JAMES It. 75
to invade his dominions. His confidence now
forsook hira, and in the countenances of his
iew adherents, he observed only the gloomy
image of his own dismay. It was hastily re
solved, that the ecclesiastical commission and
dispensing power should be annulled; the
Bishop of London and the Fellows of Magda
lene College restored; licenses to Popish school
masters recalled ; and the four Apostolical Vicars
deprived of their authority: that the vacant
sees should be filled ; the city charter restored ;
and a free parliament summoned, which might
settle the English church agreeably to the Act
of Uniformity. These concessions, however,
came too late. The Magdalene Fellows were,
indeed, restored ; but a report having reached
London, that the invading fleet was dispersed,
the act for their restoration was recalled. This
insincerity secured the ruin of the King. Wil
liam now arriving, published a declaration, enu
merating the existing abuses, and promising
protection to the constitution in church and
state, with toleration to all dissenters frora the
established faith. This instrument was rein
forced by a short paper, on the designs of the
Prince's arrival, drawn up by Bishop Burnet.
XI. The reign of James the Second thus
drew to a close. His counsellors, his army, his
family, deserted him : and he withdrew into
France, leaving a note upon his table, declaring,

74 THE sEieN oif [l!7.tA Cent.
that though he was about to search, for foreign
?id, he would never use it in overthrowing the
laws or the established religion of his country.
Whether this declaration were sincere, or not,
his short reign aifprds a warning, how dangerous
it is to permit a prince infected with Popish
superstitions, to sway the English sceptre.
James had been early accustomed to the des
potism of naval comraand ; and it was probably
this arbitrary dorainion which inspired hira with
so sovereign a contempt for the opinions and
the religious feelings of his subjects.
Nothing could exceed the infatuation of this
inflexible bigot: the Catholics, whom he sought
to establish, were not one hundredth part of the
people; and the Dissenters, whora he courted,
scarcely a twentieth.
The throne was now declared, in a conven
tion of the English people, to be abdicated ;
Sf^d the Prince of Orange, with his wife Mary,
were raised to the vacant seat. This event con
stitutes the glorious era. o{ the Revolution ; when
the civil and ecclesiastical constitutions of these
realms were both placed on a better and more
liberal foundation.
XIL By a solitary Act of Parliament, re
lating to spiritual raatters, passed during the
sovereignty of Jaraes, it was appointed that
each brother and sister should inherit equally,
when a brother died intestate without wife or
child.

I7th Cent.] james ii. 75
XIII. Humphrey Prideaux is the only
English divine deserving of particular notice,
under this brief reign. We pass by, however,
his works in miscellaneous learning : The Life
of Mahomet, The History of Appropriations,
and The Right of Tythes, are now only occa
sionally referred to : but his opus maxiraura.
The Connections qf the Old andNao Testaments
with History, Jewish and prof ane, is a valuable
and standard production, well deserving a place
in the library of every clergyraan.
XIV. All the ecclesiastical supreraacy en
joyed by the Pope, was conceived to have de
volved by the Reforraation on the King : and
though the last parliaraent of Charles the First,
by preventing the sovereign, or convocation,
frora making canons without consent of the
I.,egislature, had soraewhat abridged this power,
it was still formidably great. The suspending
privilege, in regard to the Test, was yet main
tained by the best lawyers. Whatever judg
ment may be passed on the Dissenters as a poli
tical body, the praise must not be withheld
from them of having been, generally, sound in
doctrine, severe in morals, constant in suflTer-
ing, careful in the education of their children,
and anxious for preserving an able and zealous
body of ministers.

76 THE REIGN OF [17^A Cent.
CHAPTER XV.
THE REIGN OF WILLIAM AND MARY.

Contents.
I. Battle of the Boyhe, and Reduction df tke Irish Ca
tholics. — II, State of Parties : Pa^ive Obedience and
Non-resistance. — III. Temper ofthe Bishops and Clergy
in taking the Oath of Allegiajice.—lV . Nonjurors:
New Bishops: TiUotson, Primate: High and Low
Church.-~V. Bill of Comprehension and Synod for
altering, the Liturgy, both rendered abortive.-^V'l.
Toleration Act. — VII. Arguments respecting Non-
resistance.— -Vlll. Character of TiUotson: Tennison,
Primate. — ^IX. Trial qf Bishop Watson for Simony.
— X, Burnet assailed by the Tories. — XI, Deaths of
James IL and William.— XU. Acts qf Parliament.
— XIII. Learned Divines. — XIV.* Miscellaneous
Matters : Society for propagating Christianity in fa-
reign Parts. V
1689. I. In the French war which followed
the Revolution, Louis XIV. supplied James, the
British ex-king, with a fleet for the invasion of
Leland. The people of that Catholic island re
ceived hira with subraission, excepting only
the city of Londonderry ; but William, defeated
the disturber of his reign on the banks of the
Boyne, and compelled him to withdraw a sc-

17th Cent.] william and mary. 77
cond tirae to France. At the sarae juncture, the
defeat of his friends at Killicrankiej conspired
towards the total ruin of his cause. Soon after,
the Irish rebels were entirely reduced: and by
the treaty of Limerick, the Catholics were re
stored to the same rights and privileges as they
had enjoyed under Charles II. ; while 14,000 of
the determined adherents to the cause of James
were permitted to transport themselves to the
Continent. II. An abhorrence of republican principles
had conducted many among the Bishops, and
others of the High Church party, to the wild
and extravagant doctrines of passive obedience
and non-resistance, which, if received, would
aflford free encouragement to every tyrannical
monarch to trample in security on the liberties
of a people. Through adherence to these prin
ciples, and to the pride of consistency, only
two prelates, Compton and Trelawney, united
in the vote declaratory of Jaraes's abdication.
Such, however, is the disposition of man to
acquiesce in measures once established, that in
the Convention Parliament, vvhich m.et in Ja
nuary l68y, the.Episcopal Bench appeared tole
rably full, eight only having absented them
selves. III. To accoraraodate the tender consciences
ofthe High Church party, the tenris of the oath

78 IHE REIGN OF [l7th Cent.
of "fealty we^e changed, from ** true and lawful
king," into " bearing true faith iand allegiance:"
but even in taking the oath thus softened, it
Was found that thaHy of their body made prov
testations of allegiance to th6 Prince of Orange,
only as present possessor bf the throne ; still
neglarding the expatriated monarch as the right
ful owner. Thus certain ecfclesiastics retained
their benefices by making a nice distinction
between submission and allegiance, between a
king de jure and de facto : a mental reserva
tion dictated by base interest; the subtlety of a
Poose conscience, which, if once admitted to be
right, would lead to the disregard or destroy
the obligation of any oath however soleran.
IV. More highly to be commended were
those prelates, who, in suffering the sentence
of deposition, however mistaken may have been
their principle, afforded at least a proof of their
sincerity. These were Sanctoft, Archbishop bf
Canterbury, with seven Bishops of his pro
vince: namely; Lloyd of Norwich, Frampton
of Gloucester, Thomas of. Worcester, Turner
of Ely, Kenn of Bath and Wells, Lake of Chi
chester, and White of Peterborough. It is to
be observed, that the last four had, in the late
reign, been sent to the Tower ; men to jj^ re
spected even ih their errors, since not even a
* Burnet's History of his own Times, vol, i. p,6— il.

I7th Cent.] WILLIAM and mary. 79
sense of injury could persuade them to renounce
what they falsely deemed their duty of alle
giance. The scruples of these eight recusant
Bishops, all men eminent for piety and learning,
being found insurmountable, they were deposed
from their respective sees ; and TiUotson, Moore,
Patrick, Kidder, Fowler, Cumberland, Beveridge,
andGrove, not, certainly, inferior ornaments ofthe
hierarchy, were installed in the vacant dig<nities *.
A separate episcopal church, differing in regard
to a few points of almost iraraaterial doctrine
and form, was founded by the prelates and
clergy thus deprived : and as each new congre-
tion quickly obtains a distinctive name, they
were denominated Nonjurors, from their refu
sal to take the oath of allegiance. It is a mis
take, however (into which Mosheim has fallen),
to ascribe to them exclusively the title of High
Church ; since that appellation, implying an
exalted notion of the authority, prerogative,
and jurisdiction of the Church, belonged, and
yet belongs, to many who never disputed the
measures adopted by Parliament at the Revolu-
* Beveridge was promoted to the see of Bath and Wells 5
Fowler, to Gloucester ; Cumberland, to Peterborough; Moore,
to Norwich; Grove, to Chichester; and Patrick, to Ely.
These men, together with TiUotson, the Primate, were not
appointed through court favour, but drawn from unambitious
retirement, and selected for their eminent learning, wisdom,
piety, virtue, and moderation.

go THE REION OF [l7th Cent.
tion. Neither is it correct to assert that the
Low Church were those eminently distin
guished by charity and moderation towards
Dissenters. The true distinction between High
and Low Church, relates to the indispensable
ness of regular powers towards the discharge of
ecclesiastical functions, as well as towards thc
formation of a constituent part of Christ's vi
sible church on earth. ,
The deprived nonjuring Bishops and their ad
herents maintained, that the Church was inde
pendent on the King and Parliament; subject
to the authority of God alone, and empowered
to govern itself by its own laws; that the sen
tence of their deposition was consequently un
just and invalid; and that a prelate could
only be deprived by the act of an ecclesiastical
council. These arguments found an able sup
porter in Henry Dodwell, who led the way to
othei- champions, and whose abilities increased
the numbers of the nonjuring dissentients. Dod
well had himself lost his Camdenian professor
ship in Oxford, for refusal of the oath of alle
giance to William and Mary ; and thus wrote
with a zeal which had given proofs of its sin
cerity. His " Cautionary Discourse of Schism"
was answered by Dr. Hody, in a treatise in-
titled, " The Unreasonableness of a Separation
from the new Bishops." These two first dan*
being thus discharged, theje afterwards ap-

17th Cent.] william and mary. 81
peared in succession, agreeably to the established
forms and pertinacious shuttlecock spirit of con
troversy, the Vindication, and the Reply to the
Vindication ; and the Defence of the Vindica
tion, and the Reply to the Defence. In the
mean time other disputants started up on both
sides, and the action became general. That
fart of the question which reSpected the Non
jurors has died away with the expatriated and
extinguished family : but the controversy as
to the precise nature and authority of the vi
sible Church, still divides the merabers of the
ecclesiastical establishment.
That the High Church principles held at thfe
period of the Revolution, materially differed
from the sentiments which distinguish High
and Low Church at the present day, an uncom-
mented statement of them will sufficiently ma
nifest. The Nonjurors held the doctrine of
passive obedience ; maintaining thatno provo
cation or pretext whatsoever can justify or le
galize resistance to the sovereign. They con
ceived the hereditary succession to the throne
to be of divine institution, and therefore on no
account to be interrupted, suspended, or an
nulled. They held that the Church, especially
in matters ofa religious nature, is subject to the
jurisdiction of God alone, and not of the civil
magistrate : that consequently Sancroft and
the other deprived Bishops, continued, under
VOL. IH. G

82 , THE REIGN 0*^ [\7th.€tnti
fdeppsition, " true Bishops"^ to the day of their
death ; that they were the lawful proprietors of
their sees, in which those substituted were
usurpers, rebels against the state, and schisma
tics in the Church; that their adherents were
{likewise chargeable with rebellion and schism-f.
and, finally, that this schism, which rends the
Church in pieces, was a sin against the unity of
^he body of Christ ; to be visited with severity
on all who \vould not return sincerely, to the
bosom of the Church from which they had dis
severed themselves *.
V. As a provision for the prelates and clergy
, irapoverished by deprivation, the King was in
vested with a power of reserving a certain por-
, tion frora the incoraes of any twelve benefices
he might select for the purpose. ..William,
. anxious to conciliate the Dissenters, <^ndea-
-^oured to abolish the sacramental test ; but the
Bill of Comprehension, which included a dis
pensation from kneeling at tbe sacrament, en
countering various obstacles, fell to the ground.
TiUotson and Burnet (the latter created Bi
shop of Sarum f) admonished the King on this
* Whiston's Memoirs of his I^ife and Writings, .yol. i.
p. 30. Hickes's Memoirs of Kettlewell. Masson, Hist. Critique
de la Repub. des Lettres, tom. xiii. p: 298.
f Bancroft had refused to consecrate Burnet; but fearful oi,
incurring> jiremuQire, griiated a-eoifiimiision: for that<purpoK
. to the Bish(^ of London.

17th Cent.] william and mary. 85
failure, to submit the business of comprehension
to a synod of divines, as being the method at
once the most acceptable to the clergy, and the
best calculated to silence the Popish objectors,
who sneered at a religion established by Acts
of Parliament. Thirty divines (among whom
we find the naraes of TiUotson, Tennison, Pa
trick, Burnet, Stillingfleet, and Kidder) were
accordingly directed to prepare such alterations
as they should judge expedient in the Liturgy
and Canons, with proposals for reformation in
ecclesiastical courts, and in other matters r^'-
lative to the Church ; all which were first to
be submitted to Convocation, and afterwards
reconsidered in Parliament*. After four divines
of this committee had withdrawn in dissatisfac
tion, the remainder proposed that canonical les
sons should be read in churches instead of the
Apocryphal books, and the Athanasian Creed
left at the option of the officiating minister;
that new Collects f, raore glowing in devotion,
should bp drawn up, and a new version of the
Psalras prepared ; that the chanting in cathe
drals should be discontinued, and legendary
? Nicholls's Apparatus, p, QS. Calamy's Abridgment,
yd. i. p. 453.
f TiUotson, Stillingfleet, Patrick, and Barnet, had pre
pared these Collects; Kidder made a new version of the
Psalter ; and Tennison substituted new words for expressions
objected to in the Liturgy.
y2

84 THE REIGN OF [17/A Cent.
isaints expunged from the calendar ; that the
cross in baptism, the surplice, and the posture
of kneeling at the sacrament, should not in
future be insisted on; that the word Minister
should.be introduced in the place of Priest; that
fasts in Lent should not consist in abstinence
from meats ; and that sponsors in baptism
should not be held essential. They submitted,
that reordination, where presbyters had im
posed hands, should be conditional; and pro
nounced the damnatory clause in the Athana
sian Creed to be applicable only to those who
denied the substance of the Christian religion.
Araong these proposed changes, a few might
perhaps be expedient ; others were useless ; and
many highly objectionable. But the Tories so
far succeeded in alarming the public mind, that
little could be expected from Convocation by
the schemers of this conciliatory plan. No
disposition being manifested by that body to
innovate in the forms of the Church, or to meet
the Nonconforraists with concessions, " the
King," says Neale, " seeing they would do no
good, prevented them from doing mischief by
prorogations for a course of ten years." He adds,
in his old way, that the Bill of Coraprehension
w*^ould have brought oyer threfe fourths of the
Dissenters. > '
We cannot regret that the scheme proved
thus abortive ; for, however desirable compre-

17th Cent.] william and mary. 85
hension may be held, it is not to be purchased
by the sacrifice of important points. A church
having a discipline varying with its parishes, or
yielding to each idle, capricious objection 6f
Dissenters, in the vain hope of conciliating
those who would regard each concession as an
acknowledgment of weakness and a syraptora of
fear, on which they might rise to fresh en
croachments and demands, could have neither
harmony nor stability. No man could tell for
two days together, or in two parts of' the same
country, what was the precise belief and disci
pline of his church. If points of difference be
essential, they ought on no account to be con
ceded : and if otherwise, the Dissenters ought;
as ^ood subjects, to conform. As to kneeling
at the sacrament and the cross in baptism, they
were then, as formerly, mere pretences; and
they would perhaps have been granted, had any
real good been foreseen from such concession *.
VI. Foiled in this attempt, William was ne-
• One cause of the failure of this Bill of Comprehension
was the temporizing conduct of many among the clergy, who
silently permitted the six months allowed for taking the oaths
to pass by, and thus retained their livings ; for it was feared,
that the Nonjurors might increase their party with these mal
contents, by professing a friendship to the old Liturgy in op
position to the new one.
The King was willing to remove the sacramental test, in
regard to eligibility to ofiBces of trust, as far as related to Dis
senters j but he continued resolute in the exclusion of Papists,
g3

86 THE REItiN OF [ittk Cent.
vertheless successful in his endeavours to re
lieve Dissenters from the operation of the Act
of Uniformity, and other laws passed under the
Stewart dynasty, which was effected by the
celebrated Toleration Act. By this bill, no
penal laws for punishing absence from the
church could operate against Dissenters, pro
vided they took the oaths to government, sub*
scribed the doctrinal articles of the Church,.
worshipped with open doors, and paid tithes,
with other parochial duties. They were farther
permitted to serve parish offices by deputy*.
This Act was extended to Anabaptists and
Quakers, who were simply required to profess
Ij^lief in the Trinity and the Holy Scriptures.
Even Catholics, though not mentioned, reaped
in this Act the benefit of William's tolerant
disposition "f, The Socinians were alone ex
cluded. This Act has enabled Nonconformists
to worship God unmolested, agreeably to their
several views ; but it has generated or encou^
raged thatendless variety of religious sects, and
* Vide Keale, vol. iv« Appendix. Burnet's Own Timesj
vpi. ii. p. 23.
+ " The King/' says Burnet, vol. iii. p, l6, ?' advised
gentleness towards the Papists, lest they should stir up a new
league; uor could he protect the Protestants in Germany, &e.
if he did not cover from severities th? Catholics at home. Thus
the Papists secretly (snjoy«d the benefits of th« Toleration
Aptf

\7th Cent.] william and mary. «7
those capricioussubdivisionsof opinionin matters
of faith, which have converted England into a
religious Babel, and, by furnishing an occasion
bf sarcastic reproach, form no slight obstacle
to the advance of the reformed doctrines in Ca
tholic countries.
The benefits of the Act of Toleration were
extended to the Church of Scotland, which was
permitted to follow the ecclesiastical discipline
of Geneva ; being thus exerapted from episco
pal jurisdiction, and from the forms of wor
ship prescribed by the English Liturgy. The
Corporation and Test Acts, having been omit
ted in the Bill, remain still in force.
VII. 1691. While William was thus endea
vouring to reconcile religious differences, the
Ex-bishops continued, in many angry publica
tions, to maintain the doctrine of non-resistance,
expecting to be hailed with the same acclamations'
which had crowned their conscientious suffer
ings during the late reign. They were answered by
their successors in the prelacy ; who endeavoured
to turn their own doctrine against themselves, by
affirming that the duty of " subjection to thd
powers that be," enjoined the taking of oaths to
the new government. But it was ably replied,
that this principle would extend to the renun
ciation of all oaths of submission, and to conti
nual acknowledgment of the last among twenty
usurpers ; like the spaniel who would follow the
g4

88 THE RfiiGN Off [17th Centi
murderer of his master. This acrimony was
particularly retorted against Sherlock, who had
been formerly one of the bitterest enemies of
the Revolution, but had taken the oaths on the
accession of William.' As the chief aira of
these attacks raade by the Nonjuring party, was
to depreciate and discredit the existing ; govern
ment, a proclamation was issued, enjoining raa
gistrates to apprehend all who should dissemi
nate sedition, whether by their writings or dis
courses. Thus, as often happens, was the vio
lence of opposition converted into the tyranny
of power; and the friends of the Revolution
opposed those principles on which' they had
acted, and those measures which had brought
their scherae to perfection.
VIIL' J 694. It was desirable, on the depri
vation of. Sancroft, that so iraportant a station
as the Priraacy should be occupied by a raan of
moderate views ; and TiUotson was prevailed on,
though with sorae difficulty, to accept an office,
which be foresaw would greatly disquiet the
tranquillity of his declining years. But though
well adapted by his raildness to heal the preva
lent dissensions in religion, the High Tory
party, asserting the invalidity of parliaraentary
deprivation, regarded hira in the light of an
usurper. Thjs opposition preyed deeply on his
spirits, and the short space of two years re
leased him from his disquietudes.

17th Cent.] william and mary. 89
So much Was TiUotson impoverished by his
bounties and charities, that his debts, when he
died, could only be discharged by the remission
of his first-fruits : while a pension from the
King was found necessary for the subsistence of
his widow. His vacated chair was well sup
plied by Dr. Tennison, whose similarity of cha
racter had long been publicly acknowledged.
IX. 1699. Watson, Bishop of St. David's,
having been accused of simoniacal practices, in
paying a valuable consideration for his prefer
ment, and disposing of ecclesiastical benefices,
was tried before the Primate, and six other
Bishops, by whom he was convicted and de
prived. He now pleaded his privilege, which
At first he had waved, and thus brought his
cause before the House of Lords ; but that body
refused to acknowledge him as a peer; alleg
ing that he had forfeited his dignity by his de
privation. * His next appeal was to the Court of
Delegates, who confirmed the sentence of the
Archbishop. The cause was now espoused by
the Jacobite party, to which he belonged. They
took exception against the jurisdiction of the
Archbishop, who, they affirmed, could not sit
in judgment on a Bishop, save only in a synod
compcsed of all the bishops in his province.
On the other hand, it was shown, that from the
ninth century, both Popes and Princes hatl
placed this authority in the hands of the Arch-

90 THE REIGN GF [17 tkCtnt.
bishop ; and that, at the Reformation, this
power had been confirmed. In this manner
does a question of pure right and wrong become
involved in party contests ; and it was perhaps
more owing to the worthless character of Wat
son, incapable of defence or gloss, than to ac
quiescence in the justice of these arguments,
that his friends silently dropped the dispute.
X. With a view to mortify William, the
Tories next assailed Bishop Burnet ; whom tl^ey
represented as an improper tutor for the Duke
of Gloucester ; not only as being a Scotsman,
but likewise as author ofthat Pastoral Letter in
which he had asserted that Williain had a right
to the crown by conquest. The motion, how
ever, for his dismissal was rejected. It ap
peared that this prelate had acted with the
strictest integrity ; having at first declined the
trust; then offered to resign his bishopric as
incompatible with it; and at length insisted on
his pupil's residing all the summer within the
diocese of Sarura ; while he added to his private
charities the whole incorae of his office as pre
ceptor. Such was Burnet ; such the man cha
racterized -by Smollett as a prelate of some
parts and great industry, inquisitive, meddling,
yain, and credulous. In the case of Sir John
Fenwick, however, in 1696, he delivered senti
ments contradictory to his former maxims of
liberty.

i7ihCent.] william and Mary, g\
XI. James II. died A. D. 1700, Louis pro
mising that his son should be appointed heir to
.all the British dominions. The expiring parent
is said to have raised himself in his bed, to thaok
his royal benefactor. The young Prince was
proclaimed King of Britain and Ireland; an
honour, which only served to unite the discord
ant parties in determined opposition to his
claims. William, A. D. 1702, followed the
prince whom he had dispossessed, to their com
mon mansion.
XII. Acts of Parliament were passed in this
reign, to admit, instead of an oatli, the solemn af
firmation of the Quakers ; to effect the more easy
recovery of sraall tithes ; and to prevent mar
riages without banns or license. Benefices itl
the gift of Papists, were placed in the patronage
of the Universities ; those in the south being
assigned to Oxford, and those in the north tp
Cambridge. Ministers flying from the disturbed
state of Ireland, were rendered capable of hold-
JBo- any English living, without forfeiting their
former preferments; on condition however^
ihat, in the event of their restoration to their
first benefice, that in England should be for
feited. XIIL The reign of William III. is remark
able for the deaths of two eminent divines,
Cudworth and Si-illingfleet. Cudworth, pro
fessor of Hebrew in Cambridge, has left behind

92 THE RELGN Qt [17 tk Ccnti
biro several mipor publications : on the Sacra
ment, as a Feast upon a Sacrifice; on Liberty
and Necessity ; and on. Daniel's Seventy Weeks.
His farnous work, " The true intellectual Sys
tem of the Universe," was, written in refutation
of Hobbes's position, that the distinction be
tween right and wrong is only perceived ,by
considering, that what benefits society, must be
indirectly of service to ourselves; and that the'
Jaws pf the magistrate are the ultimate standards
of morality. In the Intellectual. System, it is
contended that there is an immutable distinc
tion betwiitt right and wrong, as betwixt truth
and. falsehood ; and that reason is equaUy the
umpire in both cases. Hutchinson afterwards
referred the origin of our moral ideas to a par
ticular perception, which he termed the moral
sense. Stillingfleet's first work was the Origines Sa
cree; or, A rational Account of the Grounds of
natural and revealed Religion ; in which he ex
hibited great depth of erudition and power of
argument. This admirable production, pubr
Iished in 1662, obtained for the author, so much
esteem in the learned world, that .when a reply
appeared, inthe year following, to Laud's work
against Fisher the Jesuit, he was appointed to
answer it, a task. which he ably performed.' He
soon .obtained various. preferments in London
and jC'^i^t^ibiJtyi .^*id Oft heing made Dean of

17th Cent.] william and aJary. 93
St. Paul's, engaged in several controversies with
the Deists, Socinians, Papists, and Dissenters.
But a life passed in the boiling water of contro
versy, is far from being a life of comfort. Af
terwards, when Bishop of Worcester, Stilling
fleet proposeil objections to several positions in
the celebrated Essay of Locke; and was replied
to by that metaphysician in a vein of irony,
which is reported to have hastened his end,
1699. His epitaph in Worcester Cathedral is
written by Bentley, who was at that time his
chaplain. Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, as though he
loved to ride on the billow that hath scarce sub
sided after the storm, distinguished his zeal at
this period by several excellent tracts against
Popery. In answer to Blondell's Treatise
against Episcopacy, he likewise wrote a History
of the priraitive Government of the Churches
established in England and Ireland ; in which
the story of an ancient Scottish church, found
ed without episcopacy by raonks called Culdees
in the second or third century, is proved to be
fabulous. Bishop Burnet represents Lloyd as a
learned classical scholar, an historian, and a
ehronologist ; yet carrying a concordance of
the Scriptures in his mind, and never neglectful
of his pastoral care *. The chief raaterials, and
the last polish of the History of the Reforraa
tion, were confessedly supplied by this pr^lat^,
« Own Timeii vol. i. p, 265.

94: THE REIGN OP [l7th Cent^
Burnet, a Scatsman, deeply versed in every
branch of theology, diligent as a parish priest,
assailing the lukewarmness of the Scottish
Bishops, and erainent as Professor of Divinity
in Glasgow, was afterwards conspicuous as au
active English prelate, and learned; ecclesiastical
writer. His History ofthe Refdrmation is a va
luable mine of intelligetice, and received the
thanks of both Houses of Parliament. Burnet
had, in 1676, refused the bishopric OfChiches'
ter, tendered on condition, of his Coming en
tirely into the royal interest. Many anecdotes
evince the genuine disinterestedness of his cha
racter. His History qf his own Times exhibit*
minute and faithful details ; but the style is
awkward, and his accumulations of indiscri
minate incident are unreadably heavy. The
leaning of Burnet to the Low Church party i$
as manifest as Heylin's contrary bias. The Ac
coufit of Rochester * is an interesting and use-
full exaraple of the conversion of an infidel to
belief, and of a profligate to decency.
Burnet, in politics, had a considerable share in
the Revolution ; and his latter History raight well
have been preceded by the motto Quorum pars
magna fui. . His Pastoral Care is an excellent
rule for the duties of a parish priest, and was-
* Rochester's Life, by Burnet, says Johnson, the critic pught
to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments,
and the saint for its piety.

ntkCent.] WILLIAM ANI) MARY. QS
fully realized by himself, both in his capacities
of private minister and of Bishop. His
Treatise on the Thirty-nine Articles nearly ex
hausts the subject. In his illustration of tbe
17th, he has unfolded the whole strength of the
Calvinist and Arminian controversy, without
inclining to either side. He died in the year
1714. The History of his own Times was assailed
by Pope and Swift;
Yet Burnet's page may lasting glory hope,
Howe'er insulted by the spleen of Pope :
Though his rough language haste and warmth draote.
With ardent honesty of soul he wrote.
The critic censures on his work may shower;
Like faith, his freedom has a saving power.
Locke, who flourished in this reign, deserves
a place among its constellation of divines, by
reason of his Letters on Toleration,, and hi,«
Reasonableness of Christianity. Toland aud some
' Unitarians availed themselves of several passages
in his Essay on the Human Understanding, to
assert that Christianity contained nothing above
'human comprehension. This circumstance in
duced StiUingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, in his
. Defence of the Trinity, to assail some passages
in the Essay, as subverting the fundamental
principles of the Christian faith; an attack
which occasioned a controversy that only termi-

96 the REiGiN OF [\7th Cetlt,
nated with that Prelate's death, which, as has
just been said, it is believed to have hastened.
^ Bishop Kenn is chiefly known as the author'
of the Morning and Evening Hymns, still sung'
in all 'our churches. He used to travel with his
shrowd in his portmanteau. He wrote an Ex
position of the Church Catechism, and Prayers
for the use of Winchester College.
• Of Baxter we have already unfolded the cha
racter, and mentioned many of the writings. Hi*
Call to the Unconverted is his best-known work,
among all the 145 Treatises which he published.
Of this, 20,000 were sold in one year; and it
was translated into all the European languages.
His " Saints' everlasting Rest" has diminished
in popularity. Baxterianism is a medium be
tween the Calvinistic and Arminian systems,
asserting some to be absolutely elected, and
the rest left free in their choice.
Chandler, anothet eminent Dissenter, wrote
a Vindication of the Christian Religion, and
entered deeply into the controversy on the Test
and Subscriptions. Flavel, also a devout Non
conformist, lives in his Husbandry and Navi
gation spiritualized.
The Sermons of Archbishop TiUotson were
lotig regarded as models of pulpit ora tdry, pure
language, vigorous thought, And happy simpli
city ; a praise to which both Addison and
Dryden subscribe^. But Melmoth, in his Fiti-

nth Cent] WILLIAM and mary. 9'?
Osborne's Letters, detracts from these eulogies,
by styling his words ill-choseti, his periods in
harmonious, and his metaphors mean ; nor is the
criticisra altogether unjust. TiUotsan took a
zealous part in the outcry against Popery.
Swift is more known as a wit than as a divine.
His Tale qf a Tub is an excellent satire on the
Catholic superstition; and he has left a few
Serraons, of no peculiar merit. He wrote on
Religion and Government, and on the Sacra
mental Test. His Argument against the Aboli
tion of Christianity, exhibits a specimen of his
admirable grave irony.
Bishop Hare published a few Sermons, now
forgotten, and a Treatise on Hebrew Metre,
which Lowth refuted. His chief work, on the
Difficulties attending the Study of the Scrip
tures, is an excellent specimen of ironical
writing. Samuel Clarke wrote many admirable Ser
mons, in which the reasoning is close and
strong ; and Ukewise a Paraphrase on the Four
Gospels; but he is suspected,. and with rea
son, of Semiarianisin. He opposed Hobbes, by
proving the existence of a Deity, in the h priori
demonstration. This work wa.s a digest of his
Sermons at Boyle's Lecture, The more ortho
dox and excellent Waterland checked his
movements, in various defences of the Trinity,
as able as any that have been written.
VOL, 111. H

99 the seign of [17th Gent.
A variety of polemical works proceeded from
the pen of Podwell, who seems to have loved
the eleraent of hot water. He spouted forth
treatises against the Roman Catholics on the onfe
hand, aud defended episcopal gbvernment, in
controversy with the Nonconformists, on the
pj^er. He wrote a Dissertation on Irenaeus, and
^tfecked Toland, who had replied to it. He
\^ras an enemy to occasional conformity, and
spent several years in pointing out its evils.
XLIV. The Society for propagating Christkmity
in foreign Parts * had been originally insti
tuted by an Act of Parliaraent, A. D. 1647:
hut the civil commotions ensuing, the execu
tion of that project was suspended, until the
year 1661, in the reign of Charles 1 1. King
William in 1701 enriched that valuable esta
blishment with new donations and privilegeSiu
Under the bounty and protection of succeeding
monarchs, it has continued to dispense the glo
rious light of truth to nations which sat in
darkness ; and is to this day, by the orthodox
and rational zeal with which it is managed, not
less th^n hy the piety of its missionaries and
usefulness of its publications, an essential in
strument in the hand of Providence for diffusing
the knowledge of God over most parts of the
habitable globe. As emulation is ever % spring
* See Humphreys's Account.

ifth Cent.] WILLIAM and mary. 99
to iraproveraent, this institution has recently
heen incited to exertions of fresh activity, by
the rise and prosperity of the Bible Society, aa
association, professing objects less multifa
rious, but more diffusive, and latterly regarded
as an engine in the hands of dissent.
In this reign, a Society was likewise insti
tuted for the Reformation of public Manners.
Tlie members informed the magistrates of all
irregularities ; and a fund for maintaining cler
gymen to read prayers in different places, was
established out of the fines.
1698. A violent controversy, which arose
among divines, concerning the mysterious doc
trine of the Trinity, induced the King to direct
that the Bishops should repress error and he
resy, and watch against the introduction of new
term.s, and unaccredited explanations of holy
mysteries. '

H 2

1(00 . THE REIGN OF [18?A Cent.^

CHAPTER XVI.
the reign of ANNE.

Contents,
-I, State of religious Parties. — II, Convocation. The
Lower Hduse disavows Presbyterianism. — III. Bill
against occasional. Conformity. — IV. Debate on the
Question, Whether the Church was in Danger. —
V. Trial of Dr. Sacheverell.— VI. Controversy be
tween Atterbury and Hoadly.-^VU. Convocation in-
vguir^s into the State of Religion.— -Vlll. Whiston's
Arian Work.—lX. Fleetwood's Preface burnt.—
X. Queen Anne's Bounty. — XI, Fifty Churches built.
-7-XII, Sta,te qf Preaching. — XIII, Ireland and ,
Scotland. — XIV. Acts of Parliament. — XV. Learned
and pious Divines.
I. The Catholics being now rendered quiet
by a defeat of their hopes qf ascendancy, and
the sectaries satisfied with a general toleration,
the Church of England rested after the storm,
like the ark on the summit of Mount Ararat.
This repose was lightly ruffled by the dis
content of the Nonjurors, and the' internal
struggle between the High and Low Church
parties. But the bitterness with which these'
oppositions in sentiment were maintained, was
nbw much abated.
II. 1702. In Convocation, a. warm dispute
was agitated, respecting the right of the Lower.

ISth Cent.] ANNE. 101
House to hold intermediate assemblies,' between
one general session and another. The Upper
House expressed a wiUingness to consent to
their having committees, who might sit at any
time to arrange and prepare matters ; but in
sisted on the powei- of the Archbishop, with
the consent of his Prelates, to prorogue the
whole Convocation. A proposal was made by
the inferior House, to rrfer the decision to the
Queen ; but rejected by the Prelates as compro
mising the authority of the Archbishop. The
argument was spiced with a charge of favouring
Presbyterianism, directed against the Lower
House ; which they repdled, by acknowledging
bishops to he a superior order to priests, and of
diviue or apostolical institution. This whole
controversy was, in fact, a speculative ques
tion betwixt the clerical Whigs and Tories ;
and it is singular to observe the former of these
parties seeking to vest an additional power in
the Crown, while the advocates of passive obe
dience dispute its paramount authority*.
* In several following ccmvocattons, this dispute was revived j
hut though the Lower House had referred it to the Crown, the
Queen took part against them in 1705, and directed the Arch-
liishop to prorogue tbe Convocation, The obnoxious party now
stood upon their rights, and continued their sittings in defiance
of Her Majesty's orders. In I707, tbat they might not object
to the Union, tbe Archbishop pror<^ged the Convocation in
ihei midst of the session of Parliament. This was unjustly-
complained, of as .an innovation ; tbe two assemblies being
h 3

102 THE REIGN OF [iBfh Cpttt-
III. 170S. Though Anne, suspecting the
Dissenters of designs to overthrow the Church,
conceived them to have been too indulgently
treated by her predecessor, she forbore to re?
^trench the privileges they had obtained. Yet,
as it was customary for many to receive tjijs
sacrament as a test, which might qualify them
for piyil olfices intended only foy Churchmen,
while tbey united with the Nonconformists in
all other religious exercises; as a cheek to thjs
tensporizing l?as;eness, an attempt was made by
the Tories to revive the bill against occasional
conformity, which Burnet has termed a scheme
of the Papists to set the Churph and other Pro
testants at variance. In three several years it
was sucjcessfully opposed; although, in 1704,
the 'debate in the House pf Lords vf^^as attended
hy the Queen in person, who wished to hear the
argumeuts on both sides recapitulated. At
' I  »  I. n |i I  I I I , ,1
conceived of equal lif^ ; for, prec^d^nts were fonnd for tbe sitr
ting of Convoe^tieti, both hefpre and after the session of Pafr
liament, and even ;nrhen the civil Senate was dissolved. The
Tory party thus obtaining an ascendancy, Sir William Dawes
and Dr. Blackhall received thjS) bishoprip; of Cbester and
Ilxeter. In 8ul»s)!qn/?nt jmectipgs of GfmrgcatiDBi they w*re pro-
l^flgueid hy the Arpbbiabqp from time tp tiqu; and the Lower
House was thus cpnyerted iiito a ppnentity. Ypti as these
prorogation? w^re by command of tjie Crown, they saw. the
partial triumph of their principle : . which was afterwards rpn«
jjpred pomplefe by the Vprjt of Areblrishep ^akei

I9tk Cent.] ANNE. 103
length, on the fourth trial, the Whigs permitted
it to pass, in consequence of the ckAses foir
tolerating Nonconformity, and securing the
Protestant succession, with which it was ren
dered palatable.
IV. 1705. In the collision of the High and
Low Chureh parties, a cry of " The Church i^
in danger I" was raided, probably by the adhe
rents of both. This question was debated by
the Lords, in presence of the Sovereign ; and
any one who should collect the various argu
ments employed, might well believe that, if they
were all true, the Church was indeed in danger.
Xiord Rochester ascribed the danger to the Act
of Security in Scotland, and the practice df
occasional conformity. In the opinion of
GomptoB, Bishop of London, it arose from pro
faneness, irreligion, and the licentiousness of
the press. By His Grace of York the danger
of the Church was referred to the increase of
sectaries, and the number of their academies ;
while Patrick of Ely, and Hough of Litchfield
a;hd Coventry, complained of the neglect of
internal order, the disrespect of the clergy for
their bishops, and the violent passion displayed
against the Universi ties. In the rear, cameHooper
of Bath and Wells, lamenting the distinctions
of High and Low Church, and the disagreement
of the clergy among themselves. The phalanx
of opposition consisted of the Lords Halifax,
H 4

104 THE EEIGN OF ll8th Cettt.
Wharton, and. Somers, assisted by Bishop Bur
net. ' This prelate replied to Compton, that the
Society for Reformation had much contributed
to the suppression of irreligion and^ice, by dis
persing tracts, erecting parochial libraries,
founding schools, and sending ministers to the
colonies; " though," added he, " these labours
receive not much countenance from those who
clamour the loudest about the dangers of' the
Establishment." After a warm discussion, the
question was negatived ; a resolution in which
the Commons agreed ; and at the joint petition
of both Houses, a proclamation was issued, or
dering the apprehension of those who had been
instrumental in exciting the clamour *.
V, 1700, That the pretended alarms for
an endangered Church, originated in party
spirit, is evident from the notice taken of Dr.
Sacheyerell, JiectorofSt. Saviour's, Southwark,
* In l/'07, Elias Marian, John Cavalier, and Davand Fage,
three Camisars, or Protestants, from the Cevennois, having
arrived in London, attracted notice, by wild attacks on thg
Established Clergy, convulsive gestures, and pretensions to
prophecy. Although they were discountenanced by the French
refugees, who, acted under the authority ofthe Bishop bf Lon'-
ijon, they continued to hold their assemblies in Soho, under.the
patronage of Sir Richard Bulkeley and John Lacy, Being
prosecuted at the expense of the French churches, they were
sentenced to pay a fine of twenty marks each, ahd to stand
twice on a scaffold, at Charing Cross and the Royal Exchange;
with labels on their breasts describing their offence.

ISth Cent.] ANNE. > 105,
a man who ought certainly to have been despised
and overlooked for poverty of intellect and in
flamed imagination. In a sermon, preached at St.
Paul's on the fifth of November, he had inveiffhed
against the ministry, the Dissenters, and the
Low Church ; against toleration, the Revolu
tion, and the Union ; while he asserted the doc
trines of non-resistance, and the divine right of
kings. This sermon, entitled, The Perils of
false Brethren, being printed, although a worth
less, composition, and allowed, even by the
Tories, to be a rhapsod\- of raving and non
sense, gave ofFence to the ministry, who com
plained of it to the Comraons ; in consequence
of which, the preacher was taken into custody
and impeached. After a solemn trial, which
lasted three weeks, Atterbury, Smallridge, and
Friend, assisting, in the defence*, he was de
clared guilty, and suspended for three years.
His sermon was burnt before the Lord Mayor,
in whose presence it had been delivered ; and an
other book of the author's, with a decree of the
University of Oxford, on the indefeasible right
of kings, were consigned to the same bonfire.
This sentence of the Peers, designed as a pu
nishment, was converted by the heat of party
into a triumph. On proceeding to North Wales,
t.he preacher was everywhere, but particularly
* Sacheverell, in his will; left Atterbury 500/.-

W6 THE KEIGN OF [ISth Cent.
in Oxford, greeted -with the honours due to a
conqueror. In soraie places troops of horse
lined the road, and the corporations went forth
to meet him ; in others, the hedges were fes
tooned with garlands, the steeples decorated
with standards, flags, and colours ; and every
nian was marked out for vengeance and aggres
sion, who refused to raise the cry of " The
Church and Sacheverell." At the expiration
of his suspension, in 1713, these popular con
gratulations were renewed; he was requested
to preach before the Commons, and the Queen
presented him to the living of St. Andrew's;^,
Holborn. The punishment and exaltatipn of so
weak and conteraptible an instrument were
alike disgraceful to the opposite parties in the
state, VI. If we could believe the account given bj^
the Highi Churchmen of themselves, we should
acknowledge their objects to have been mode*
rate and laudable, ' These, according to Atter
bury, were *' to see all proper steps taken to*
wards reviving decayed discipline, and restoring
church censures to their former due force and
credit J towards detecting and defeating clan-
destine simoniacal contracts ; securing the rights
and revenues of the clergy from encroachments;
rescuing their persons and sacred functions from
contempt; and freeing religion itself from the
jjasults ROW made upon it by blasphemous

ISth Cent.] ANNE. 107
tongues and pens." But, unfortunately, such
aims at iraproveraent were mingled with th<*
bitterness of party spirit. Atterbury and
Hoadly disputed with all the gall of contro
versy on various subjects, but principally on
passive obedience. At the tirae of Sacheverell's
trial, the House of Coraraons resolved, tliat
Hoadly had merited their favour and recoraraend
ation, by justifying the principles on which tbe
Sojtereign and the nation proceeded in the late
happy revolution ; in consequeUiCe of which. Her
Majesty was besought to confer on him some
ecclesiastical dignity. To this request, made
in the spirit of party, the Queen paid no regard.
yil. 1711. The Tories, whose leader was
Oxford, the Prime Minister, prevailingatthis time
in the Cabinet, Atterbury was chosen Prolocutor
of the Lower House of Convocation. This
Jiody, now indulged in greater latitude of de-
hate, was directed by the Queen to inquire into
the state of infidelity and heresy, with ^ view to
the adoption of corrective measures. In the
appoantment of a Committee, the Whig prer
lates were passed by, as supporters of the late
ministry; and when Atterbury prepared a re
monstrance Gojiveying a keen invective on the
adminis'tration of affairs since the Revolution,
Hhese excluded Bishops composed » more tem
perate address.
y HI. Both, however, concurred in parsing

1&8 THE REIGN OF [18th Ccnt.
a censure on the Avian doctrines,, recently
broached by Whiston, Professor of Mathe
matics in Carabridge. Having been expelled
that University, Whiston provoked the notice
of the Convocation, in a letter, vindicating his
principles., Their proceedings, however, termi
nated only in this denunciation on his book ; a
sentence which highly dissatisfied the Queen. He
now pubhshed, in four volumes, his " Primitive
Cl\ristianity revived," wherein he not only jus-^
tified his ..principles with boldness, but main
tained that the Apostolical Constitutions, which
he had translated, were canonical, and superior
in authority to the Epistles and Gospels.
IX. 1712. This year, a Preface to ;four
political Sermons, preached by Bishop Fleet
wood, an enemy of the Tory ministry, came
under the cognizance of the House of Com
mons, who voted it to be factious, and resolved
that it should be burned by the hands, of the
gomraon hangraan. This attempt to suppress
the work served only to increase its publicity,
and was, doubtless, the origin of its publication,
in the Spectator, (No. 384).
X. From these views of the factious con
tentions which disgraced this reignj let us turn
to some transactions, which all will admit
to be an honour to, it. The first is that act
of generosity performed by the Queen, of
V/hich the Churph; at this day Qxperienc^s
3

18th Cent.] anne. 109
the advantages, in the increased comforts of
its poorer ministers. Anne, with consent of
Parliament, alienated that branch of her re
venue which arose from the first fruits and
tenths paid by the clergy, and vested it in trus
tees for the augmentation of small livings. The
trustees of Queen Anne's Bounty add 100/. to
each 100/, offered by private donors for the
augmentation of any small living or perpetual
curacy; the joint sums being appointed to be
expended in the purchase of land. With a view
to forward this laudable object, the statute of
mortmain was about the same time repealed
(1703) so far as to leave it free for any person,
either by deed or testaraent, to bestow what he
judged proper for the increase of benefices.
Burnet is said to have been the author of this
project; but prejudices against his country and
his Low Church principles withheld the regard
which he seemed well to have merited *. ;
* A deed of money is ordered to be executed on a Ss. stamp
and enrolled in Chanceryj and it is void if the testator dies
within twelve calendar months, unless he had paid down a
year's interest of the sum. The governors are to keep four
yearly courts in London or Westminster, in March, June>
September, and December; giving public notice fourteen
days before. They are to inquire what ministers have less
than sol.; whether in town or country; whether the incum
bent, have more than one living. The augmentation is made
by purchase, and not by {jension. The stated sum to each
cure is 200/, to be invested in a purchase at the expense of

no THE REIGN OF [iSih Cent.
IL The other excellent arrangement for the
benefit of religion was a bill passed by the

the corporation, tn augmenting, the rise is from small to
greater livings. They give 200/. to livings not exceeding 45/.
to meet the like sums given by private donation. The ac
counts are-audited at Christmas and Easter. If several bene
factors offer, the Governors are first to comply with those
who offer most : if the sums offered be equal, to prefer the
poorer living. The cures and benefactions being equal in value,
the first offer iS preferred; but cot more than one third ofthe
money is to be emplc^ed in covering above 20/. in value. No
benefactions are to be received after Michaelmas; and if any
money remains, it goes to augment the Crown livings under
lb/, and also to other livings under 10/, by lot. The rise is
from 20i. to 30/, value. Donations are to be distributed ac-!
cording to the direction of the donor. A book of donations
is kept. The augmentadons of each cure to be mentioned
on a stone In the church augmented. Money received is to
be placed in the funds : the treasurer accounts annually.
Parsons whose cures are augmented are to pay no fee. Bene
fices not exceeding 50/, in their improved value, are discharged
from first fruits and tenths. The Bishops are to transmit lists
of the v^lne of their livings to the Governors. Agreements
with benefactors respecting the nomination are to be valid.
Giiardians may agree for idiot wards. A parson may not
agree but with consent of the patron and ordinary. The wifs
shall be a party to an agreement made by her hnsband seised
in her right. The Governors may agree with the patrons or
vipars for augmented stipends, in case of augmentation by
lot. An augmentation once given is to be perpetual. Bene
fices of every kind augmented are perpetual cures ; and kpse
may hence indur. Donatives augmented become subject to the
jurisdiction and visitation of tlic Bishop, and to the resident
laws. Lands settled bjr the augmentation may be exchanged

ISihCent.] anite. Ill
Commons, in compliauce with a message from
the Queen, and an address from the lower House
of Convocation, for the building of fifty new
churches in the suburbs of London and West
minster; which appropriated to the purpose of
defraying the expense the duty upon coals,
which had formerly been granted for the build
ing of St. Paul's, a structure now completed.
This imposition was directed to be continued
until 350,000/. should be raised.
XII. Sermons, however they may have de
generated in depth and substance, partook, in
point of composition, of the iraproveraents in
taste which were introduced at the beginning
with consent of the Governors, Incumbent, Patron, and Or
dinary. A register of all matters relative to the augmentation
is kept. Livings capable of Augmentation.
1071 not exceeding lOi. admit of 6 augmentations 6426
14@7  20/.  4  5S68
'above 20/. and not I  ^ ^ goyg
2  2098

1126|

1049

exceeding 30/.
¦ above 30/, and not '
exceeding 40/,
884 [ ^'""^^ ^f ^"1 °°' ]  1 •  884
L exceedmg 50/. J
So that in all there are 5597 under 50/, requiring in all 18,654
augmentations before they amount to 50/, each : and if 55
augmentations take place yearly, it will be 339 years from
1714, or 239 years from the present date, before these livings
be all augmented to 50/, Let any man, after this stateinent,
revile the Church of England as extravagant in the support of
her ministry.

112 THE REIGN OF [I8th Cciit.
tJf the eighteenth century. The honest re
formers, in their pulpit oratory, were distin
guished by a quaint style and an awkward ar
rangement. Familiar illustration and an ill^
timed jingle of words were employed to give
a zest to tedious prolixity and endless subdi-i
visit)ns. A bold and nervous, but not a highly
polished eloquence, was the characteristic of,
the Puritan preachers. Under the' gay and
sprightly reign of the second Charles, South
founded a school remarkable for witty points
and fanciful allusions; which gave way, in the-
early part of the reign of Queen Anne, to the
chaster language and more elegant periods of
TiUotson and Atterbury. Yet, for force and ef
fect, for strength and sublimity, for sound
divinity incorporated in the rough but nervous
eloquence of Demosthenes, for what convinces,
impels, captivates, and esaltsj it is to a dif
ferent class of divines that we are to turn our
eyes. From the reign of Elizabeth to the be-;
ginning of the eighteenth century, a race of
Anakims in theology transmitted to each other,
under every change of -government, their mus
cular and giant strength: these were, Jewel,
Hooker, Andreivs, Hall, Leighton, Jeremy Tay
lor, Barrow, Beveridge, SinA. Bull. These are
the mighty masters, the Ajaxes and Achilles's,
of each of whom the single ann is vigorous as
that of nine in these degenerate days : these

18th Cent.] ANNE. 113
are the Isaiahs, the Homers, the Michael An
gelos, and the Bossuets of England. What
Milton, Shakspeare, Bacon, Bentley were in
literature, that were these in theology. Their
writings are the mines in which, even at the
present day, our ablest preachers and dispu
tants dig for their hidden treasures. He who is
familiar wilh these adrairable productions, will
often recognise them, disguised with tautology,
tricked out with absurdities, or emasculated with
pretticisms, in hotpressed serraons, and in stove-
warraed chapels. A Blair decks hiraself out in
their spoils without acknowledgment : a lectu
rer with their aid carries his election at the
Foundling; and a head, a subdivision, a reca
pitulation of one of these discourses is woven
into a pithy argument at St. Mary's.
XIII. In Ireland, though the Protestants were
too intolerant, the Catholics were not less un
ruly; insomuch that in some places it was dan
gerous to collect their tithes. While an Article
ofthe Union had protected the estaljlishment of
the Presbyterian discipline in Scotland, an Act
of the United Parliament, in 1712, secured an
unrestrained worship to the Episcopalian Dis
senters, who now began to erect chapels ;
though, being chiefly Nonjurors, they were
looked upon with sorae distrust,
XIV. The chief Acts of Parliament passed
in the reign of Anne, connected with re-
YOl. Ill, I

114 THE KEIGN OF [IStk Cent.
ligion, and not already mentioned, were one
for protecting the Protestant children of Jews ;
several relating to wills, briefs, stamps, and
mortuaries; one for allowing qualified Dissent
ing preachers to officiate in. any part of the
country; another for permitdng hackney coach
men to ply on the Lord's day ; and another for
enabling Papists to nominate to benefices.
XV. This reign produced writers on general
subjects in theology, highly creditable to the
Church of England. Wake's State qf the
Church settled the question respecting the
power of the prince over ecclesiastical synods
within his realm. Bishop Patrick's Commen
tary on the Old Testament as far as the Pro
phets, holds a place in every private clergyman*s
library, as forming a series with the other valu
able expositions of Lowth, Arnald, Whitby,
and Lowman. Bewridges Private Thoughts,
Bull's Harmonia Apostolica, and Cave's Lives of
the Apostles, are all of them classical works.
If Bishop Burnefs History of the Reformation
and of his own Tiraes partake of the political
prejudices of the writer, no exception can be
made against those two invaluable works on the
Thirty-nine Artiples and the Pastoral Care,
which belong more particularly to his clerical
functions. Among the religious writers whose
names adorned the reign of Queen Anne,
we may justly class Addison, whose Evidences

18th Cent.] anne, 115
of Christianity are rested on the arguraent of
traditional succession; and Steele, who now
perhaps reflects on his Christian Hero with
greater satisfaction than on other less edifying
perforraances. A tolerable estiraate of the national raorals in
any period, may be forraed frora examining its
theatrical productions. In the beginning of
the eighteenth century, the elevated sentiments
of Shakspeare were discarded for the intriguing
plots of Dryden, and the obscene wit of Far
quhar, Congreve, and Vanbrugh; and it is to
the credit of the Establishment that Jeremy
CoLLiEH, the historian, opposed this profane
ness in his " View of the Stage ;" a reproof to
the justness of which Dryden had the candour
to subscribe. Steele and Addison, while as es
sayists they inspired the national tasle with a
relish for moral productions, corrected, as the
atrical writers, the impurity of the drama.

I a

llfi THE REIGN OF [ISth Cent.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE REIGN OF GEORGE I,
Contents,
I. Rebellion in favour of the Pretender.— 11. Clarke's
Book on the Trinity. -r-lll. Bangorian Controversy:
Nonjurors.—TV. BiU for Relief of Dissenters. —
V. Plot against the GovernmerU : Atterbury. — ^VI.
Profaneness: Hell-fire Club. — ^VII. Collins: answered
by Bentley : Chubb. — ^VIII. Attempt to reconcile the
English and GalUean Churches. — ^IX. Quakers released
from Oath: Dissenters. — X. Leamed Divines. — XI.
Acts qf Parliament.— XU. Whiston on Arianism :
History qf the Arians. — XIII. Statement and Refu
tation of their Principles.
I. As Anne had, during her last years, taken
the Tories into favour, an attempt, in the event
of her death, to restore the ancient family, was
expected by the Jacobites, and dreaded by the
Whigs. These hopes and fears were alike desti
tute of countenance from the real character of
the English Tory ; but an end was put to both
by the sudden death of the Queen, who left the
throne (1714) to the quiet accession of George I.
Elector of Hanover, a prince maternally de
scended from Elizabeth, the daughter of the

18lh Cent.] GEORGII. 117
first Jaraes. In politics, George attached him
self to the Whig party, as to the chief sup
porters of that Act of Settleraent, which had
placed-hira in his high situation. The Earl of
Mar having, in the year foUowing (1715), pro
clairaed the Chevalier beyond the Tweed, the
rebels, favoured by the Earl of Derwentwater,
descended into the north of England ; but the
battle of Preston checked their career. The
next year (1716), the Pretender was crowned at
Scone ; but his cause being ill arranged, and his
friends entirely destitute of adequate raeans of
support, it was not long before he relinquished
his rash adventure, and retired in despair to the
Continent. IL 1717. No sooner did the English people
enjoy repose from this insurrection, than those
political and religious contests, which it had
hushed for a brief season, broke out with their
wonted violence. The High Church party com
plained of negligence in the Whig prelates, who
slumbered amidst the prevalence of heresy and
impiety. This censure chiefly referred to a book
written by Dr. Clarke, in the end of the pre
ceding reign, entitled,* The Scripture Doctrine
of the Trinity, which in the Lower House of
Convocation had been pronounced to contain
assertions inimical to the Catholic faith. The
author vindicated the extracts to which they
hdd particularly objected; but presenting, at
1 3

118 THE REIGN OF [18 th Cent-
the same time, an apology to the Upper Cham
ber. Fearful^ howeverj lest this concession
should be misconstrued, or separately published,
he offered to explain himself more fully to the
Bishop of London. His defence and submis
sion satisfied tbe Episcopal Bench; but thc
Lower House were of opinion that the heresy
was not retracted. These dispiites increasing in
violence, directions were issued to all the pre
lates for preserving the state in peacOj and the
Church in unity. Preachers were prohibited
from haranguing, and authors from writing, on
the Trinity, otherwise than according to thc
true doctrine of tbe Scriptures, the three Creeds,
and the Thirty-nine Articles ; from touching on
politicsj save only during national fasts; and
from introducing new modes of explication.
III. The parties of High and Low Church
still continuing in opposition, the flarae wa&
fanned by the celebrated Bangorian contro
versy. This dispute received its narae from
Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, who published " A
Preservative against the Principles and Practice
of the Nonjurors ;" and soon after, a Sermon,
which the King had oridered to be printed, enti
tled, *'The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ." To
the writer of these pages, this Discourse appears
to have been in truth a very confused production ;
nor is it easy to discover, araidst the author's
^' periods of a mile," what was his precise aira.

18th Cent.] georoe i. 1 19
He sfeems to affirm that the clergy had no right
to temporal jurisdiction; yet that Christ is
the supreme legislator of the Church ; and that
no power, temporal or human, ought at all to
infringe his authority. To this perplexed argu
ment, Snape and Sherlock wrote replies ; while
a Comraittee of the Convocation passed a cen
sure on the Discourse, as tending to exerapt the
Church from due subordination to the state. If
this were reaUy the case, it is somewhat puzzling
to determine^ why the King should fall so vio
lently in love with the Serraon, or why it
should be considered as bearing hard against the
Noigurors. So far as the writer coraprehends
the argument of Hoadly, it certainly cuts in two
directions ; taking away all temporal power and
privileges whatever from the Church, when it is
regarded with reference to the sects; and all
authority over it from the Crown, when it is
considered in its relation to the state. An order
from Government arrested the proceedings of
the Convocation; but was too feeble to stop
the mouths of the controversialists. Snape
and Sherlock were removed from the office of
Chaplains to the King; and the Convocation
has never since been permitted to assemble for
the regular transaction of business. This con
troversy continued to employ the press for
years ; in the course of which, the raatter in
debate was either shifted, or made more ex-
i4

1 20 THE REIGN OF [ 1 8th Cent.
plicit, as it came to respect the power of the
Sovereign in ecclesiastical politics.
It may be necessary to state, that the Non
jurors were those who declined taking the oath
of allegiance to King William. They were
High Tories who relinquished nofe their at
tachment to the expatriated faraily, till 1788,
when the last pretender to the throne died. It
was then that their reranant, the Protestant
Bishops in Scotland, began to pray for the pre
sent royal faraily ; still, however, sorae trivial
differences existed betwixt them and the Eng
lish Episcopal clergy of that kingdom. These
were happily comproraised in the year 1805,
when Bishop Sandford, an English clergyman
of learning and great worth, resident in Edin
burgh, delivered an inaugural charge to the
ministry ofthat district*.
IV. During the violence of the Bangorian
controversy (1717), an act for strengthening
the Protestant interest, by uniting all well-
* See Park's Life of Steevens, Skinner's Primitive Order,
and History ofthe Scottish Chiirch. The time of taking episcoi
pal orders is earlier in Scotland than England ; yet it is some
what strange, that though a Catholic priest, recanting, becomes
ipso facto a priest of the Church of England, a, minister or
dained by a Scotch Bishop, in a church adopting the Thirty-
nine Articles, and a pure church (if the author's informatio,n
he correct), is not to be perinitted to officiate in England^

18th Cent.] ceorge i. 121
affected Christians, was proposed by Earl Stan
hope, in the House of Lords. Its purport was
to repeal, in pursuance of Hoadly's principles,
the acts against the growth of schism, and oc
casional conforraity; together with some clauses
in the Corporation and Test Acts. To this bill,
concerted between the ministry and leading
Dissenters, the Tory Lords, though taken unex
pectedly, excited a violent opposition ; affirming
that, instead of strengthening the Church Esta
blishment, it would only strengthen the enemies
ofthe Church, and enable them to pull her down ;
and that no advantage, to the prejudice of Dis
senters, had been taken of the acts complained
of. These arguments were contravened by
Bishop Hoadly, who maintained, that the Schism
and Occasional Conformity Acts were persecut
ing statutes ; and that an admission of the prin
ciple of intolerance in self-defence, would jus
tify the heathen persecution of the Christians,
and the direst severities of the Inquisition.
The measure was carried, so far at least as related
to a repeal of the Schisra and Occasional Con
formity Acts ; but the clause for abolishing the
Sacramental Test was struck out.
Ever since that period, to declaim against the
Test Act has been a frequent and favourite exer
cise with popular orators. Their various argu
ments may be included under two heads: first,

122 THE REIGN OF [18th Cent'
that tolferatioii is persecution while a test re
mains; and, secondly, that it makes hypocrites,
and only excludes the well-principled. To
these objections it may be replied, that tolera
tion is simply indulgence in the free exercise of
worship; that to seek any advantage beyond this
point, is to convert a religious into a civil ques
tion; that, an established church ought to have
privUeges, and ought to be supported ; that it is
not likely that the advocates of another religion
would properly support it; and. that some of
those religionists who are loudest in their cla
mours for power, would attempt to exclude
others differing from them in profession, with
far greater intolerance than that of which they
complain. As to the Test's making hypocrites,
it may be replied, that in cases where conform
ity is insincere, it is not owing to the law, but
to the interested and base motives of unworthy
Dissenters; and it is ,a smaller evil that thd
Church should contain a few such insincere
friends, than that certain places should be with
held from those whose natural bias WQuld in
cline them to dismember the established "consti
tution of the country, as composed of Church
and state..
These arguments will, however, by no raeans
apply to an attempt made by the Tories in the
reigu of George I. to procure a penal statute

18/^ Cent.] GEORGE i. 123
against Arians and Socinians. The Test is a
raeasure of prudent self-defence. A penal sta
tute is a raeasure of wanton persecution. And
even a test should be regulated by two consi
derations ; namely, by, the indication of dan
gerous political principles, which the creed to be
excluded affords ; and by the danger resulting
to the Church establishment from an admission
of the professors of that creed to power. This
regard to both the civil and ecclesiastical esta
blishment ought to direct all maxiras of tolera
tion. Complete toleration, with the abolition
of a test, is dangerous to the Church but ser
viceable to the state ; for it tends to unite the
members of the coramunity ; and hence all
lukewarm politicians will ever be its advocates.
Toleration, with a test, is the safety of the
Church, but injurious to the state, abstractedly
considered; hence its propriety will be urged
by men of devotion and zeal, who consider
their religion as more valuable than their civil
privileges ; and regard the Church established
as the wisest and purest form of worship.
V. In 172'2, a conspiracy was either disco
vered or pretended by the Whigs, for establish
ing the Pretender on the English throne ; and
Bishop Atterbury, on the doubtful evidence of
sorae letters written in cipher, was deprived of
all his dignities and benefices, and sent into

124 THE REIGN OF [I8th Cent.
perpetual exile. The absence of all certain
proof against him, and various strong presump
tions in his favour, evince that his main offence
was being the chief support of the Tories, A
general indignation was excited on account of
his punishment, as well as of the insult sus
tained by the episcopal dignity ; and in all the
churches and chapels of London and Westmin
ster, public prayers were offered for his health
and safety. Thus injured in fortune and in
character, and living in a state of hopeless de
gradation and exile, Atterbury remained firraly
attached to the Protestant interest and to the
Hanover succession. He removed his place of
abode from Brussels to Montpelier, to avoid the
solicitations of the Pretender's friends ; and
quarrellea with the Duke of Berwick on the
ground of his proposing to place the young
Duke of Buckingham under a Catholic pre
ceptor*. This unfortunate victim of political
animosity died in banishment, at Paris, 1732,
through grief for the loss of his daughter.
Taking advantage of the alleged plot with
which this prelate was said to have been con
nected, the Whig Parliament raised 100,000/. on
the real and personal estates of the Cathplics,
* Coxe's Life of Walpole. Nichols's Epistolary Correspond
ence of Atterbury. 4

I sth Cent.] GEORGE i. 125
towards defraying the expense incurred in sup
pressing the rebellion of 1715.
VI. That " he who maketh haste to be rich,
cannot be innocent," is one of those aphorisms
whicii have justly obtained for their royal au
thor the title of the Wise Man. The South Sea
scheme, and other inferior frauds and specula
tions, were partly the effects of profligacy
seeking a quick supply to its exhausted means ;
and partly its cause, as the possession of real,
or anticipation of iraaginary abundance, led
men to throw loose the reins of appetite, and
to indulge in every description of riot and im
morality. An exemplification of this truth was
exhibited by that truly shocking society, enti
tled. The Hell-fire Club, whose daring impiety
and outrage of all modesty occasioned a procla
mation, signifj'ing His Majesty's strong dis
pleasure, A bill was immediately afterwards
proposed for the suppression of profaneness;
but after having been discussed with much in
decent ribaldry, it was lost, owing to its ad
mixture with politics.
VII. Infidelity is the shield of vice. We
cannot therefore be surprised, that so excessive
a profligacy of manners should attempt, if it
could not hide, to shelter itself behind this de
fence : and, unhappily, wherever arguments
for unbelief are in demand, they vvill not fail
to be furnished to wealthy and imprinciplcd

1S6 t'h£ REIGN OF [WhCenl.
libertines by needy and unprincipled authors.
Collins*, who had commenced an attack on Re
velation under the late reigh, renewed his as
sault in 1724, by publishing his " Grounds and
Reasons of the Christian Religion ;" in which,
after resting the evidences chiefly on prophecy,
he artfuUy explained the prophecies away as hav
ing been learnt like any art in the schools of the
Rabbist. Sherlock answered him the following
year in six discourses delivered at the Temple
Church, and entitled, " The Use and Intent of
Prophecy J." Able answers were likewise given
by Whiston, Chandler, and Clarke. But Collins's
Discourse of Freethinking had sorae time be
fore (1713) received amore powerful reply from
Bentley, the gigantic champion of truth ; who,
in the " Phileleuthertis Lipsiensis," with much
* See Lejand's Deistical Writers, art. Collins,
< ¦f "In order to obtain the. prophetic spirit," says he, " they
played music and drank wine," Leland's Deistical Writers,
-yol. i. And again, " They were great freethmkers," — " They
discovered lost goods, and told fortunes;" Of all this ribaldry
the very principle is false, for Christianity rests equally on
pfophecy and miraples. Many prophecies were understood by
the Jews themselves, not as referring to states, allegorically,
but literally to their Messiah.
J Of these Sermons, an old persoii who heard' them told a
friend of mine that the preacher began with a fair statement
of his antagonist's argument; so forcible, that, had death inter-
eepted the harangue, it seemed as if many would have bpen
infidels J but before the close the whole house built on
sand was overthrown.

18th Cent.] GEORGE i. 127
learning and severe wit, convicted his antago
nist of ignorance and wilful misrepresentation.
This infidel had pushed metaphysical inquiries
too far, by endeavouring to represent preterna
tural things as ordinary events, and his last sigh
was heaved in the expressive sentence, " Alas!
Locke has ruined rae*." The authors of the
Biographical Dictionary, however, give a differ
ent account of his last raoraents. Collins is said
by them to have been a moral man.
Chubb, another infidel with greater effron
tery and less learning, acquired promptitude
and fluency in a society which he had formed
for debating on religious subjects; and when
sacredness is thus brought down to the fami
liarity of a speaking club, it is not far from suf
fering entire conterapt. Boldness is regarded as
ability ; the most adraired disputant is he who
produces specious arguraents to shake established
opinions, and men contend for triumph rather
than for truth. Chubb interfered in the contro
versy betwixt Clarke and Waterland, by assert
ing the supremacy of the Father ; and the arbi
tration of an unlettered tradesman between two
such scholars failed not to attract notice. Like
some other cowardly infidels, he left his worst
productions, in the way of legacy, to be pub
lished after his decease. In these he plainly
denied Revelation; and disbelieving a particular
* Jones's Life of Horne. Leland's Deistical Writers,

12§. _ THE REIGN OK [18//< Cent.
providence, objected to the duty of prayer.
Chubb was the master of Thomas Paine; and
as Chubb had copied from former infidels with
out acknowledgment, in the same clandestine
manner has Paine stolen from Chubb. Alike
destitute of learning or of critical skill, they
were equally incompetent to elucidate Scrip
ture. Such is the parallel betwixt the tallow-
chandler and the stay-maker; both sciolists,
both impudent, both self-sufficient, and both
literary thieves. The one gave no light, and
the other no freedom. It would have been well,
had the man of tallow never dipped into theo
logy, or the corset-maker sate on a board of
inquiry into things too high for his measure-,
ment. VIII. When animosities are violent, mode
rate and concihatory measures, however laud
able, are not likely to be popular with either
party. For this reason Archbishop Wake in
curred much blame for a correspondence with
Du Pin and several other Doctors of the Sor
bonne*, relative to a projected union between
the English and Gallican Churches. He was
charged with making concessions to these di
vines, in favour of the grossest superstition and
idolatry. But let it be remembered that this is
the man who had completely refuted Bossuet's ¦ r
* VldeMoaheim, vol, V. Appendix; and Collier, Appendix,

18th Cent.] gf.orge i. 129
Defence of the Church of Rome ; that the pro
posal of union did not originate with him; that
he never made one concession in doctrine or
discipline; and that his parlej' was occasioned by
the hope he entertained of reforming the Clmrch
of France. This correspondence is worthy of
attentive perusal; as it will show that all
the concessions were tendered by the French
divines; and may temper violence against the
Catholic religion, by exhibiting it as making
approaches to the English worship, when held
by moderate men,
IX. The Quakers were in this reign indulged
in the substitution of an affirmative for an oath
in a court of justice, and subsequently with the
omission of the words, " In the presence of Al
mighty God," which had been inserted in the
form of asseveration. Against this bill, the
London clergy petitioned ; while Atterbury un
charitably pronounced the Quakers to be " hard
ly Christians," The principle has been ex
amined in another place.
Wake hud denounced the Schism Act as a
hardship upon the Dissenters ; and by now op
posing its repeal, he incurred the charge of in
consistency. But this imputation seems equally
groundless with the calumny whicii represented
him as favourable to Catholicism, The fact is,
tliat the spirit of the times was now iiiatorially
vot. 111. K

130 THE REIGN OF [l8th Cen
altered. Under the administration of Boling
broke, the Dissenters, as an oppressed body,
demanded comraiseration and relief. But the
Whigs had exceeded as ranch in enlargement,
as their predecessors had erred on the side of in
tolerance: an indulgence which had rendered the
objectsi of it so bold, as to excite the reasonable
apprehensions of well-wishers to the Established
Churcl^. X. In opposition to the growth of vice, in
fidelity, and schism,, many learned and pious
individuals, laymen as well as ecclesiastics,
adorned by their writings and their lives the
cause of orthodox Christianity. Sherlock, At
terbury, and Derham, were ably siTpported by
Sir Isaac Newton, whose astronomical disco
veries, independently of some religious labours,
elucidated the unity, power, providence, and
imraensity of God; by West, who so forcibly
reasoned on the resurrection ; and by his noble
friend and convert Lord Lyttelton, to whose
Observations on St. Paul it has beeii truly ob
served, that " Infidelity has never even at-
tempted to give a speciqus answer."
In this reign, ZocAe published his celebrated
Essay ; .Shaftesbury his Characteristics; and
Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, his Ideal System.
Bishops Cumberland, Fleetwood, Smallridge,
Conybeare, Gibson, Gastrell, Butler, Potter,

18th Cent.] ceorge i. 131
King, are names standing conspicuous among
the biographical annals of this period *.
XI. In addition to the statutes already inci
dentally raentioned. Acts of Parliament were
passed iu the period of which we are treat
ing, for the protection of dissenting meeting
houses ; for extending the power of recovering
tithes, to all customary dues paid to clergymen,
and for rendering Quakers liable to such pay
raents; for corapelling ecclesiastics to take the
oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration;
for enabling donatives to receive Queeu Anne's
bounty, and for converting them so augmented
iuto perpetual cures ; and for inflicting penal
ties on Papists refusing the oaths above men
tioned. XII. As Whiston, during the reign of
George I. revived the Arian heresy, we shall
lay hold on this opportunity, in pursuance of
• Cumberland is known by his Treatise on Scriptural
Weights and Measures ; Fleetwood, by tracts on lay Bap
tism; Smallridge and Conybeare are writers of Sermons re
markable for dry logic ; Gibson is the more amiable author
of three valuable Pastoral Charges; and Gastrell, of the
Cbristian Institutes, It were idle to descant on the Analogy
of Butler, or on King's Origin of Evil. Potter is more
celebrated as the aatbor of the Archseologia, than as the
divine wbo *rote an excellent Treatise on Church Govern
ment. K'i

132 THE REIGN OF t [Wh Cent.
our plan, to narrate its history, and to examine
its principles *.
This heresy disturbed the Church at so early
a period, that St. John wrote his Gospel and
Epistles against Ebion and Cerinthus, whose
opinions respecting Christ were heterodox. But
aS/ Columbus had not the honour of perpetuating
the memory of his achievement in the appellation
of the country he had discovered : so these early
dissentients escaped the disgrace of being trans
mitted to posterity as imparting their names to
the rising sect. This was the lot of Arius, a Pres
byter of Alexandria, a]bout the year 315. Arius
began by disputing in private with the Alexan
drian Bishop, whose opinions he suspected to
be Sabellian. He soon found a patron in Eu
sebius, Bishop of Nicomedia; who espousing
his principles, introduced him to Constantia,
sister of the Emperor Constantine. Under
these high auspices the sect grew and prospered
until the Council of Alexandria condemned its
doctrines (320), and the first General Council,
assembled at Nice in Bithynia, A. D. 3^5, re
peated that condemnation, banished Arius, and
composed, with only two dissentient voices
* See Whitaker's History of Arianism; Percy's ^ey to the
New ^'^-.stament; Rees's Cyclopedia, art, Arians; a History
of Arianism, in Jortin's Works; Letters between Price and
Priestley ; Account of Books and Pamphlets on the Trinity,
from 1712 to 1719; Mordecai's Letters; Carpaiter's Lec
tures ; Emlyn's "Vindication of the Worship of Christ.

18/^ Cent.] GEORGE U 1 33
among 323 Bishops, the well-known Nicene
Creed as an antidote to his heterodox opinions.
A few years afterwards he was recalled to Con
stantinople; and reading before the Eraperor,
already inclined to the heresy, an artful state
ment of his principles, persuaded hira to re
scind the decree by which they were condemned.
In defiance of, this repeal, Athanasius, Bishop
of Alexandria, objected to receiving him back
into coraraunion ; an opposition which brought
that prelate into rauch trouble, without restoring
Arius to the bosom of the Egyptian Church ;
and the heresiarch soon aftep died suddenly,
A. D, 336. Different successors of Constan
tine were Arian or orthodox, as suited their
principle, policy, or caprice. The court re
ligion became fashionable in its various changes.
Each party, when in power, proceeded unjusti
fiably against the other, and Christian first per
secuted Christian on the score of Arianism.
The principles of Arius were diffused through
out the East, where they flourished to the time
of Theodosius the Great, who endeavoured by
all raeans to effect their suppression. The
Vandals in Africa, in Asia the Goths, and in
Europe, Italy, Gaul, and Spain, were all at an
early period infected with this heterodox doc
trine. It languished, however, from the eighth
to the sixteenth century ; when Servetus, for
professing it, was biirnt at Geneva, 1553. His
k3

134 THE REIGN OF [\8th CcUl..
principles, however, survived him, and started
up at different periods in Svyitzerland, Poland,
and England ; in which last country two Arians
suft'ered death under the writ De Heretico comr
burendo, iu the rpign of James I,* The coiv
troversy was revived in the eighteenth century
by the Churchmen, Whiston and Clarke ; and
more recently among the Dissenters by Price
and Harwood. Taylor, author of Mordecai's
Apology; Cornish, who wrotei ou the pre-exr
istence of Christ; Carpenter, of Stourbridge;
Emlyn, Chandler, Benson, Pierce, Grove,
%kes, Hopkins, and Bishop Clayton, were all
either Ariaus or partially tinctured with the
heresy. The co-eternal Triuity has been supr
ported against this irapeachraent by an innu
merable army of learned divines, among whom
Calamy, Jones, Simpson, Randolph, Scott,
have written expressly on the Trinity; aqd Ab-
badie, Waterland, Hey, Robipson, Eveleigh,
have confined themselves to the divinity of
Christ, Granville Sharp and Bishop Middleton
have illustrated the subject by dissertations on
the Greek article, and Mr. Maurice by his
Tieatise on Oriental Trinities.
* The extensive prevalence of this doctrine not long after
the Reformation, occasioned an order, in 1S60, thi^t indorri^
gible Arians should be sent to some castle in North Wales or
'Wallingford. (Strype, vol. ii.p. ?1 4,)

18th Cent.] george t. 135
XII. Of Arianism there are three degrees;
comprehending the Semi-Arians, the High.
Arians, and the Low Arians, ' Christ, accord
ing to all of these, pre-existed before his incar
nation; but he is inferior to the Father as touch
ing his Godhead, The Semi-Arians reject the
word- o/Aoswrtf, as applied to Christ; for which
they substitute ([jLeasa-ios, declaring him to be of
like, not one substance with the Father; and
only UKE the Father in all things *. An infe
rior degree of dignity is assigned to hira by the
High Arians ; who conceiving the Father alone
to be the one supreme God, yet regard the Son
as the first derived Being, and next in dignity '
to the Father, though not retrospectively co-
eternal. They hold, that under the Father he
exercises the offices of Creator, Preserver, and
Governor of the world. Some High Arians
offer Christ an inferior worship; others deny
him worship altogether. Some confine his pro
vidence under the Old Testament to the Jews ;
others, resting on Hebrews, i. 2, and ii, 3, re
gard hira as the constant and universal Ruler,
the Jehovah, the Logos, the Angel of the Co
venant. According to the Low or more mo
dern Arians, Christ was only a superangelic,
pre-existing spirit of high dignity and tran
scendent perfection : they not only refuse him
* Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiast. Hist. vol. ii. p. 51,
*^4

1 06 , THE rp;gn of [1 6th Ccnt.
every species of adoration,, but even deny his
concern in the creation and government pf the
world. ' ,
The ancient Arians worshipped Christ; and
seem to have been justly a,ccused of idolatry in
adoring a being whom they affirmed and al
lowed to be, no more than a creature. Whiston,
Clarke, Emlyn, and others, patrons of Arianism,
whether Churchmen or Dissenters, likewise ofr
fered homage to the first-begotten and only Son
of God : but among the Arians in general, since
the tirae of Dr. Price, this inferior worship
has been raore consistently discontinued, With
respect to the Holy Ghost, they deny his di
vinity ; affirming him to have been created and
begotten by the Son, and inferior to both the
Son and the Father. In their doxologies, they
ascribe " Glory to the Father through the Son."
In Carpenter's Creed, it is stated that Christ
died for our sins: but in what sense or degree
he is held as a propitiatpry sacrifice, is left tq
the congregation to discover,
Dr. Clarke drew up abody of amendraents in
the Book of Coramon Prayer, striking out all
passages in which the second or third Person is
called God, or persopally addressed in adora
tion. This book was never published'; but it
may be seen in th§ British Museura, and an ab^
straet of it is found in Mr. Lindsey's Apology
for resigning the Liviijg of Cattericl^* Car?.

I8th Cent.] george i. 137
penter, in his Liturgy, introduces hyrans of
praise to Christ; though he prays only to the
Father in the name of the Son. There is a
natural descent frora Arianism into Socinianisra,
and thence, as experience shows, to a refined
Deism, The term Unitarians is now confined
to Socinians ; for, according to Belsham, it can
not belong to Arians, who acknowledge a
greater and a lesser God. Since, generally
speaking, it is the doctrine of a triune God
which is disputed in every branch of the Arian
heresy, aU that seems necessary, in the investiga
tion now proposed, is an endeavour to establish
that great article of faith *.
Among several ancient Heathen nations may
be traced a faint notion of a Trinity in the di
vine nature : and as this is a doctrine by no
means likely to have been discovered by the
unaided powers of reason, or fabricated by hu
man artifice, its prevalence can only be ex
plained by believing it to have been at first
revealed by the Almighty himself to the early
* Sincerity is venerable, even in its errors ; and when we
compare the honourable sacrifice made by Mr. Lindsey with
the contemptible baseness of Mr, Stone, who a few years ago
reviled the established Creed, and publicly recanted his faith,
without losing his hold of (ecclesiastical preferment till com
pelled to forego it, we cannpt avoid paying to the former gen-
tl^an the tribute of well-merited respect.

138 THE KEIGN OF [ISth Cent,
patriarchs, and thus spread abroad with the
dispersion of mankind; until recollection ofthe
source from whence it proceeded was lost, and
it became debased with fabulbus intermixtures,
If we examine the creeds of Persia, Egypt, In
dia, Phrygia, and Rorae, we shall find this set
ting forth of the Deity in triads to be a very re
markable feature which pervades thera all. For
the most enlightened Paganism is only the twi^
light of Revelation, after^the sun of it was set
in the posterity of Noah *. The oracles of the
Persian Zoroaster are allowed to be the gteriuine
source of both the'Persian and Egyptian, and
consequently of the Greek theology. From
the ancient Chaldaic language in which they
Avere originally written, they were translated
into Greek by Berosus, Julian the l^hilosopher,
or Hermippus, and have descended to posterity
in detached fragments;^ In one of these it is
stated, that where the paternal Monad (op
unity) is, that Monad araplifies itself, and g§-i
nerates a duality :
Qitu laetTfip^ti itavof teen
Here, in the word ¦n-ctifi%T/i (generates, not
creates), is implied a son, the very notion of
Christianity, The Duad thus generated, it is^
* Preface to Dryden's Religio Laici.
4

18th Cent.] g^orge i. 139
added, juhQyitui, sits by the Monad, shines with
intellectual beams, and governs all things :
n»iiTi yap u xoo-fiu Xa^Tu Tjjaj
H; juova; ctp^^ii.
" For a Triad of Deity shines throughout the
world, of which a Monad is the head." Again,
vve learn that there appeared in this Triad virtue,
and wisdom, and truth, that know all things ;
implying an union of three persons in the
divine essence; and in a section entitled XTosTrip
¦HMI voitg, the Father is said to perfect all things,
and to deliver tl^em over vw Jfurfpw, to the se--
Gond mind,
Throughout every region of the East, an im..
meraorial tradition prevailed, that one God had
FROM ALL ETERNITY begotten another God, the
architect and governor of the raaterial world,
sometimes called Hi/svjjl(x, spirit; soraetiraes N«f,
mind; and sometimes Aoyog, the word or rea
son; although the notions respecting this Being
aud his functions were various and confused-
Among the ancJient Persians; vestiges of this
doctrine are found in the three great deities,
Ormusd (softened by the Greeks into Oro
masdes), Mithra, and Ahriman. Mithra, thc
middle god, is called the Mediator; an idea
which could only arise from belief in the
necessity of intercession, and of an atonemeiat
^ot tp be effected by mark Plutarch (De Isidf;

140 THE BEiGN OF [18th Cent,
et Osiride) observes, that the Persians were so
thoroughly acquainted with this doctrine as to
term any mediator Mithra. In the Persian
creed, Ormusd is spoken of as having tripli
cated himself; at\d Mithra also is termed Tpt-
mTMtriog. He is further called to)/ hvnpou vtsv.
These phrases show clearly that a divine Triad
was interwoven, though in a confused manner,
in the ancient religion of Persia *,;
While the religion of Memphis was that of
the grossest idolatry, the Thebais, or Upper
Egypt, we are told by Eusebius, who cites the
authority' of Porphyry, acknowledged a su
preme spirit, under the name of Cneph, who
was represented as thrusting forth frora his
mouth an egg, frora which proceeded another
god, Ptha, a term which, according to Cud
worth, the Copts at present use to designate the
Divine Being, Osiris, however, was held as
the chief deity of Egypt, the source from
which these two beings emanated, Osiris,
Cneph, and Ptha, accordingly, constitute the
true Egyptian Triad; agreeably to which hypo
thesis, Osiris, the Gubernator Mundi,. is in
many sculptures of Upper Egypt represented
as placed in a boat, apcompanied by two attend
ants. In later times, when the simplicity of this
* Plutarch de Iside et Osir. Maurice's Ind. Anii<][uit, et
Orient. Trin.

18/^ Cent,] GEORGE I. 141
original theology was disguised in hieroglyphics,
the suprerae uncreated Spirit, together with his
attributes or eraanations, was represented by a
triangular erablera. On most of the teraples
and obelisks, the Egyptian Trinity is inscribed
under the syrabols of a globe, a serpent, and a
wing; the globe denoting the Suprerae Being;
the serpent, the Wisdom, or Aoyos ; and the
wing, the Spirit, or Uvsv[jm.
When from the banks of the Nile we proceed
to those of the Ganges, we here find the grand
Hindoo Triad established in the persons of
Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva; Brahma, the
Creator- (Hebrew, Bra or Bara, created); Veesh
nu, the Preserver; and Seeva (probably, as
Mr, Maurice thinks), the Regenerator. This
opinion is confirmed by the great bust in the
Cavern of Elephanta, having three heads fixed
on oue body ; and representing, as the priests of
that idol- declare, the Creator, Preserver, and
Regenerator of mankind. The temple in which
it stands is perhaps the oldest in the world;
having been excavated before man had attained
the knowledge of the arch.
But besides this exhibition of the great Hin
doo deity, by the figure of a bust bearing three
heads, three is, in other respects, a sacred num
ber among the Hindoos. To that number their
Vedas, or sacred books, are confined; thrice
their daily devotions to Heaven are offered ;

142 THE REIGN OF [ 1 Sth Cent,
thrice in their ablutions their bodies are dipped;
and next their skin is worn the Zennar, or cord
of three threads, the emblera of their faith in
the Triad *.
Dardanus, in the , ninth Century after Noiah's
flood, carried the doctrine of a Triad into Phry
gia from Samothrace, where the three Personages
hadbeen worshipped under the Hebrew name
of Cabirim, a word signifying " the Great 'or
Mighty Ones f."
Hence, as the Romans acknowledged a Phry
gian ancestry, the worship of Jupiter, Juno,
and Minerva, as a Triad, was derived, and be
came the public religion of the Capitol, i'^
It has been urged, that the doctrine of a Tri
nity is repugnant to human reason, and that the
Christians derived their notions of it from the
Triad of the Platonic school, AyaSov, Njsf^ "*? tJ%,i?.
But, not to mention that these two assertions
are manifestly contradict9ry, the facts here pro-.
duced are a sufficient refutation of both. The
Platonists, indeed, pretended only to be the ex
positors of an ancient doctrine, which they
traced to Pythagoras, Otpheus, and the Egyp-
* See Maurice's Indian Antiquit, and Oriental TFiolties;;
Sonnerat's Travels, vol, H, p, lOp; Faber on the fiabiri?
Allix's Judgment ofthe Jewish Church, p, l6l.
f Horsley's Controversy with Priestley, p. 43, Maao-
bius's Saturnal, lib, iii, c, iv. Varro apud Arnob, p. 123.
Faber's Mysteries of tbe Cabiri.

isth Cent.] GEORGE i. 143
tian priests *. Neither can an article of belief
be pronounced contradictory to reason, which
found its way into so many ancient religions
and systems of philosophy.
By this cursory review of ancient creeds and
opinions, we have prepared the way for a re
ception of more direct and unequivocal proofs
of a Trinity in the Divine Nature, as gathered
from the law and the prophets, from the Jewish
interpreters, frora the New Testament, from a
comparison of the Bible at large with the ac
knowledged attributes of God, and, lastly, from
the writings of the earliest fathers.
It was formerly matter of doubt, whether the
doctrine of the blessed Trinity was revealed
under the Old Testament dispensation ; but
learned writers have satisfactorily established the
affirmative; although God, in his wisdom, for
bore to deliver himself strongly or fully on the
subject in addressing the Hebrew people, prone
as they were to idolatry, and on that account
to b^ guarded against mistakes concerning
the divine unity. Even in the opening verses
of the Old Testament, we are plainly intro-
dilced to the first and third Persons of the
Trinity; for it is there related that God created
the heavens and the earth; that the Spirit of
<iod moved upon the face of the waters : and
* Spe Horsley^ as aboye.

144 TH£ REiGji OF il8th Cent.
again, that " God said, Let us make man in our
own image," Now, it is a remark made by
learned commentators, that the word Elohim,
employed to signify the Creator, is a noun
having a plural termination, yet annexed to a
verb in the singular, as if denoting the plura
lity of persons combined in' the unity of the
Godhead. ; That this is not an idiom but an
intentional mode of speech is certain, because
Moses does not constantly adhere to it. In the
passage, " They sacrificed to devils, and not to
the Lord*," th& noun occurs in the singular
number, being not Elohim butEloah. In other
texts likewise a remarkable anxiety is displayed
to establish this plurality of persons; and yet to
guard against the danger of Polytheism. " Re
member the Lord thy Gods," — " He is the holy
Gods,''—" Remember thy Creators in the
days of thy youth." Such is the literal inter
pretation of these passages : and we may add,
that the descriptiori of the divine wisdom, in
the Book of Proverbs, represents it a^ a person
existing with God frora all eternity.
As a corroboration of these testimonies, we
may observe that a Triune Deity was not wholly
unknown to learned expounders of Scripture
among . the ancient Jews. This appears frorii
the TargumS; or Commentaries on the Penta-
* Deut, jxxii. 17.

ISlh Cent.] GEORGE t. 145
tench and prophets, written by Jonathan and
Onkelos, soraewhere about half a century prior
to the Christiail ajra ; and likewise from two
other books, the Mishna, or Repetition; and
Gamara, or Completion ; published about 800
years after Christ, together constituting the Tal
raud, the oral law supposed to have been delivered
by God to Moses for the elucidation of the
written code. The Hebrew text, " In the
beginning God created," &c. (Genesis, i.) is ren
dered by the first or Jerusalem Targum, *' By
his wisdom God created the heavens and the
earth," &c. Onkelos, in translating the phrase,
employs the verb Amar, whence is derived the
word Mirara, which in the Chaldaean answers
to Koyo;. His terra is not merely Dabar, which
would signify the speech of God, but Amar,
whereby the Aoyo? is personified.
Why Onkelos has not translated the word
Bereschit by Kadmita, which iraports the be
ginning of time, but by Bekadmin, denoting the
ancientof thefirst, several Hebrew commentators
are cited by Allix to explain. By this latter
term the Jewish doctors understand the Wisdom,
or Cochma, that second nuraber in the Divine
Essence which, emanating from the first,
formed all that has being by his own more im
mediate agency. To the Holy Spirit, the third
number, they apply distinctively the denomi
nation Binah, or understanding. This doctri-
VOL. III. X

1'4'6 THE REIGN OF [18th Cent.
nal nomenelature is in strict and singular ac
cordance with two phrases occurring in the
Proverbs, and the apocryphal Book of Wis
dom : " Jehovah by Wisdora (Cochraa) hath
founded the earth ; by Understanding (Binaih)
hath he established the heavens." Prov. iii. 19.
" Give me Wisdom (Cochma) that sitteth by
thy throne," These personages are styled by
the Rabbins the two hands of God: and tothe
former, Mirara, or Shechinah, the Word or.
Glory of God, they ascribe all the wonders
perforraed for the deliverance of their nation.
Wherever, according to Allix, Jehovah and
Elohira are joined in the Hebrew, Onkelos ren
ders that corapound term the " Word of God,"
arid others the Shechinah. Nor can this -word
be at all considered in any other light than as
a distinct person, since he is invested with
niany active and distinctive attributes— com
manding, giving laws, and receiving prayers. '
In Exodus (ch. iii. ver. 4, et seq.) -the Angel
of the Lord is the person represented as having
addressed Moses from the burning bush : " And
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look
upon God." He moreover took off his shoes ;
a custom still prevalent in the East, not in rela
tion to an angel, but on entering the temple
of God. Jonathan affirms thatit was the Aoyes
who communicated with Moses ; that self-same
Aoyos who spake, and ^the world was riiade.
Now, the "whole Jewish nation agree that God

18th Cent.] georg£ i. 147
revealed hiraself to Moses face to face, which
could not be averred if the word " Anael" were
to be understood literally, as signifying a mi
nistering spirit.
With respect to the next divine appearance,
namely, at Sinai, the Jewish commentators are
all confident that it was the Aoyo^
Philo, the Jew, styles the Aoyo?, ©so?; and in
one remarkable passage even AsvTspog ©.-o?*.
Philo further asserts the personality Of the Ruah
Haddokesh, whom he denominates &iiov Ukvijlu,
the Divine Spirit ; and in the words of the Sep
tuagint Ilyjujoca 0£K and Gstog IIpocpjjDj?. To this
Spirit he ascribes the work of creation.
Among the Egyptians, the triangle was sym
bolical of the Numen rqtfLo^av : and in like
manner the three branches of the Hebrew
letter E?, schin, are asserted in a book written
before the Talmud, the Zohar, as cited by
Allix (Jewish Ch. p. 170), to be a just emblem
of the three persons constituting the divine
Essence. On the phylacteries of the ancient
Jews this mystical letter was inscribed; and
to its three significant branches they applied the
several names of the lights, the powers, and
the spirits: Av»«p/? and Sephiroth. '^ See,'*
says the author of the Zohar, " the mystery of
the word Elohim, three distinct degrees, and
yet all one and inseparable." Indeed, this
* Philon Jud. fipud Euseb. p, 190.
¦ L 3

148 THE REt&K OF [18/^ Cent.
word Elohim, with the Jod for Jehovah added
to it, was declared by the Rabbi Ibba to in
volve a latent mystery, which should not be
revealed until the advent of the Messiah*.
." Philo, speaking of the o flv, the eternal Ens
(Dissertat. de Cherub, p. 86); maintains, that
comprehended in the one true God are two
^supreme -Avvoi^iis, Goodness and Authority, and
betwen them a mediatorial Acyoff.
The triple benediction delivered in the sixth
chapter of Numbers, ver. 24, " The Lord bless
thee and keep thee ; the Lord make his face tb
shine upon thee, the Lord give thee peace," was
pronounced, as Poole and Patrick, citing Rabbi
Menachera, inform us, each clause with a dif
ferent accent, while the priest who pronounced
it raising his hand, " sic digitbs composuit, ut
Triada exprimerent j;."
But lest these introductory remarks should
be strained by the Arian into an accordance
with his peculiar ¦ views of the Aoyo?, let us
hasten to the New Testament, where the truth
is more clearly brought to light, and where the
three Persons of the Trinity are exhibited as
plainly coeterrial and coequal.
It is unn^essary here to notice the attempts
made by cavillers to disprove the authenticity
* Univers, Hist, vol iii, p, 12. See Patrick on Deut.yi. 4 ;
on the three Midoth, or properties.
f See alsoDs Sacrificiis Abel et Cain, p. 108.
% See Maurice's Oriental "Trinities.

ISth Cent.} george i. 149
of the opening verses of St, John's Gospel ; for
even if the words, " there are three that bear
record in heaven, &c." were to be given up as
spurious, they convey no information but what
is abundantly found in numerous other passages
of the New Testaraent. Fraud raight interpolate
a solitary text; but if the doctrine which it
enforces appear every where dispersed, and be
placed in various points of view, such proofs
are of theraselves sufficiently conclusive.
When our Lord enjoins his Apostles to go
and baptize all nations, in the narae (not the
names) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, it is obvious to remark, that as baptism is
the seal of a covenant between God and man,
God alone should be named by man in that
sacrament as the party with whora he engages.
Here, however, three naraes occur, and con
sequently these three Persons unite in one God
head. In another view, baptism is the act of re
ceiving of men from a state of sin into a state
of divine favour; a recovery and blessing, of
which they can be assured only in the narae of
the great and one God. But, as here, the Fa
ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are brought
forward, God is united in the three: forthe
Scripture prohibiting the raultiplication of
Gods, they cannot be three Gods but, a triune
Deity. We may apply the same reasoning to
t3

150 THE REIGN OF [I8th Cent.
the blessing communicated in the Gospel ; "The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the fellowship ofthe Holy Ghost, be
with you all :" for who can confer grace and divine
love, and spiritual fellowship, saving God only?
It cannot here, or in other places, be pretended
that the Son and the Holy Ghost are influences
emanating from .the Father, or simply his at
tributes or operations. Christ speaks ofa glory
which he had with the Father before the world,
began; an expression denoting him to be
something more than a mere mode in which
the Father operates. The one is mediator,
the other intercessor, according to evangelical
representation ; and these terms imply distinct
ness of person ; for a mediator and an interces
sor are not of one but of two; the one bent on
a' partictilar purpose, the other seeking to
divert him from that purpose- Besides, when
our Saviour left the world and ascended to the
Father, be told the Apostles that he should
send the Holy Ghost to supply his place. A
positive intimation of distinctness of persons.
He calls the Spirit another Comforter, one who
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak. These words
would be inexplicable if the Spirit were not a
person, but merely an attribute or influence.
A variety, of passages evince, that by tbe
phrase " Sou of God" the Scriptures deckje
pur Saviour to be e(|ual ^ith the paternal Deity.

18th Cent.] GEORGE I. 151
" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee; therefore, also the holy thing that shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Sueh was the address of the angel to the mother
of our blessed Lord. This quotation at once
establishes the divinity of the Holy Ghost,
from whose overshadowing, our Lord is called
the Son of God, and evinces him to be the Son
of God in a sense wholl}' different from that in
which all men are said vaguely to be his chil
dren, or, as in Acts, xvii. 28, his offspring.
To pretend to be the Messiah, according to the
Jewish ideas of that personage, amounted not
to the crirae of blaspheray any more than pre
tending to prophetic inspiration, nor was death
inflicted as the punishment of such" imposition.
When, therefore, the Jews sought to kill Jesus
for arrogating the title of the Son of God, they
must have conceived him to have pretended
to -be more than even their Messiah, however
highly they might pitch their estimate of that
great character. That they considered him as
assuming divinity, and consequently (since
such was the received import of the phrase) that
he did fully assume it, is evident from the as
signed reason of their hatred; namely, " be
cause he said that God was his father, making
himself equal with God." This is further
proved by his reply to the high priest's demand ;
l4

152 THE REIGN OF [1 8th Cent.
" I adjure thee by the living God, art thoii'
Christ the Son of God?" Such was the
Jewish mode of administering an oath ; and
Jesus, thus solemnly charged, made answer,
" Thou hast said." This response is an oriental
manner of spedking in the affirraative ; and so in
fact the high priest understood him, for he im
mediately rent his clothes and said, " He hath
spoken blasphemy." But could the words of
our Lord be truly pronounced blasphemy, if
they meant any thipg less than an assumption
of divinity, and of entire equality with the
Father? To admit, indeed, the union of the divine
and human natures in Christ, seems the only
method of harmonizing various passages in
Scripture, some of which represent him as man
and others as God. Thus, our Lord is sometimes
exhibited as praying to the Father; as not
knowing when the day of judgment should
take place ; as not wisting that he addressed
the Jewish high priest ; as clothed with human
infirmities; as subject to human wants; as
abjuring the title of good, and referring it to
God alone, -Matt, xix, 17; as unable to disr
pose of honours in the kingdom of Heaven; xx,
28; xvi. 13: and, finally, as asking, wi,th
reference to himself, " Whora do men say that
I, the son of Man, ara r" At other tiraes he is
.held forth, as the,, Son of God; as the Word

18th Cent.] george i. K53
which was in the beginning with God, and which
WAS God; as one with the Father, John, x.
30 ; as superior to all the angels, Hebrews, i. ; as
the Son to whom the one true God hath said,
" Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,"
Hebrews, i. ; and as Christ who is over all,
God, blessed for ever, Rom, ix, 5*; as the
Christ in whora dwelleth" all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily, Coloss. ii. 9; he is Jesus
Christ, the true God, and eternal life, 1 John,
V. 20 ; he is God in Christ, reconciling the
World unto himself, 2 Cor. v. 19; as God made
manifest in the flesh; as replying to the ques
tion, " Lord, show us the Father," " Have I
been so long time with thee, and hast thou not
known me, Philip?" Novv, these opposite re-
pre.sentations can only be reconciled by adopt
ing the belief in the hypostatic union. An ex
clusive confinement of attention to one class of
the passages, is the fatal stumbling-block of the
Socinian heretics. But if, when Christ is spoken
of as man, we refer the expression to his human
nature, and when as God, to his divine charac
ter; on this plan every thing becoraes clear and
harmonious. Here we have obtained an hypo
thesis which erabraces all the facts, and the only
one which can erabrace them.
This union is in truth so intimate, that attri-
* See Isaiah, xliv } and Revelations, xxii.

154 THE F.E1GN OF [18th Cent.
butes of the Divine Nature are sometimes in
Scripture applied to the man Jesus, while those
of his humanity are predicated of him as God.
Thus the raan Jesus is proposed, in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, as an object of adoration to
the angels, ch. i. ver. 6; and in the twentieth
chapter of Acts the Church is entitled, " The
Church of God, which he purchased with his
blood." A farther and highly ingenious demonstra
tion of the divinity of our Saviour, has been
giveu by Mr. Granville Sharpe, in his Treatise
on the Use of the definitive Article in the
Greek Text of the New Testaraent. The ge
neral rule under which his exaraples are ranged,
is, that when two personal nouns of the same
case are connected by the copulative particle
jca/ ; if the former has the definitive article, and
the latter is without it, they both relate to the
same person. Thus, 2 Cor. i. 3, 'O Qios koh
IliasTJjf Kt;fi8. ij^wv; and, 1 Cor. xv. 24^ T^ ©5w
Koii UoiTpi, are both correctly rendered, To God,
even the Father : consequently other passages,
siieh as Ephes. v. 5; 2 Thess, i, ,12; 1 Tira.. v.
21 ; 2 Peter, i. 1, &c. ought to have been
translated in the same manner : t» ®ih Ji«t
Ina-si Xpiga — of God, everi Jesus Christ *.
But perbaps the divinity of Christ andof the
* Sse'Q. Sharpe and Bishop l^fiddleton on the Article,

ISth Cent.] CEORGE r. 155
Holy Spirit is placed in its strongest and most
convincing light, by showing that the Scripture
ascribes td them such attributes and qualities as
belong to God alone*. For example: God, we
know, is alone from everlasting; yet "I," saith
Jesus, " am the first and the last" (Revelat.); and
the Holy Ghost is, in Hebrews (chap, ix,), de
nominated the everlasting Spirit. Again : om
nipresence is the exclusive attribute of God ;
yet St. Paul declares (Ephes. i. 22), that Christ
filleth all in all; and the Psalmist exclaims, al
luding to the third Person, " Whither shall I
go from thy Spirit?" Christ and the Spirit,
therefore, enjoying each the faculty of ubiquity,
are invested with the- divine nature. Once
more : God alone is the Creator of the universe;
but, since we read in St. John (i. 3), that by
Christ were all thiugs made — and in Job (chap.
xxxiii.), " the Spirit of God hath made me," here
is another proof of the divinity of these two
Personages. By another class of passages cora
pared with each other, the divinity of the Son
and that of the Spirit are separately ascertained.
We read in the Epistle to the Ephesians, " For
giving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, forgave you." And in that to the Colos
sians : " Forgiving one another, even as Christ
forgave you." ?* Behold," says Isaiah, " the
* Sep Jones of Mayland's Three Hundred Texts,

156 THE REIGN OF [ISth Cent.
Lord GoD will corne ; and his reward is with
him." " Behold," it is written in the Revela
tions, " I Jesus come quickly, and my 'reward is
with me." These extracts speak for tiiemselves
as to the divinity of the Son. " Why," Ananias
is asked,, "hath Satan filled thy heart, to lie
unto the Holy Ghost? Thou hast not lied unto
men, but unto God." " Know ye not," says St.
Paul to the Corinthians, " that your bodies are
temples of the Holy Ghost ?" Which passage is
illustrated in another part of the same Epistle:
"The temple of God is holy; vdiich temple
are ye.". Such texts, as elucidating the divinity
of the Holy Ghost, are too clear to stand in
need of explanation or comment. In the same
inanner, many other properties are assigned in
the Sacred Writings to our Lord and t-o the
Holy Ghost, which can only be predicated of
the Suprerae Being: spotless truth-^consura-
mate holiness— underived power in quickening
the dead^-spiiritual communication with the
faithful— rraising' Christ from the tomb — work
ing all in all.
More particularly, in replying to the Arians,
it is of importance to show, that Christ is held
forth in Holy Writ as an object of worship ; for
thus the disciple of Arius is reduced to an ob
vious dilemma: if he refuses worship to Christ,
he disobej's a positive commandment ; and if he
offers it, retaining his Arian opinions, he wor-

18th Cent.] GEORGE I, 157
ships a created being, and establishes two Gods
—being guilty at once of idolatry and poly
theism. Adoration, we know, is due to God alone;
for it is written, " Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt.
iv. 10); while idolatry is defined to be, " doing
service to them who by nature are no gods."
(Gal. iv. 8.) The Apostle, however, expressly
directs, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven and things on
earth, and things under the earth. (Phil. ii. 10.)
And agaiu : although Nehemiah exclaims to the
Most High, " Thou, even thou, art God alone,
and the host of heaven worshippeth thee" (Ne
hemiah, ix. 6) ; we read in the New Testament,
that when " he bringeth the firstborn into the
world, he saith, Let all the angels of God wor
ship him," If the Arian, then, wholly refuses
worship to the Son, he violates his duty in that
one particular, and so " is guilty of all :" and
if he OFFERS worship to the Son, while believing
that high Personage to be something less than
God, he violates the duty of worshipping God
alone: he is an idolater by worshipping that
which is to him no God ; and a polytheist, by
adoring at once the Creator and a supposed
. creature. The only possible escape from this
difficulty consists in the admission that the Fa
ther aud the. Son are one.

158 THE REIGN OF [18th Cent.
We find in Scripture, that wheresoever wor
ship is offered to any c/eated, any inferior being,
whether man or angel, it is rejected with the
most strenuous prohibition. Thus, when Cor
nelius met Peter, and fell down at his feet to
worship him, the Apostle replied, " Stand, up,
for I myself also am a man." (Acts, x. 25, 26.)
And, in like manner, when John fell at the
angel's feet, with similar intention, " See thou
do it not," was the immediate answer; " I am
thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren who
have the testimony of Jesus : worship God,"
(Rev. xix. 10,) The same result hjjppens agaiu
in the book of Revelation, at xxii. 9. Now, if
Christ had been a mere man, if he had been
even an angel, or, in short, any thing inferior to
the great God, the sole object of worship, he
would undoubtedly, in the same manner, have
rejected all offers of adoration. In fact, how
ever, he permitted himself, on many occasions,
to be worshipped : by the Magi in his infancy
(Matt. ii. 11); by the leper (Matt. viii. 2); by
the ruler (Matt. ix. 18) ; by the persons in the
ship (Matt. xiv. 33) ; by the woman of Canaan
(Matt XV. 25) ; by the man born blind (John,
ix. 38); by the women after his resurrection
(Matt, xxviii. 9); by the assembly at Galilee
(v. 17); and, finally, at his ascension into he^n
ven (Luke, xxiv. 52). On all tbese occasions
there is no one tittle of reproof — no attempt to

ISihCeni.] -george i. 159
correct the proffered adoration, as the tribute of
overstrained and mistaken zeal.
If farther proof be wanting, it is written in
the Gospel of St. John, v. 23, " that all men
should honour the Son even as the}' honour the
Father." Now, the same honour is not paid to
the Father and the Son, either by those who
believe the Father, but not the Son, to be God ;
or by those who worship the Father, but refuse
to worship the Son. Worship may be consider
ed as consisting, internally, of knowledge, faith,
trust, love, reverence, glorying in the object;
and, externally, in bending the knee, prayer,
praise, thanksgiving, obedience : but all these
separate acts of worship are enjoined with refer
ence to our blessed Lord : knowledge, 1 John,
v, 20 : " We know that the Son of God is
come ; this is the true God and eternal life :"
see also 2 Cor, iv. 6; John, viii. 19. Faith,
John, xii. 44 : " He that believeth on me be
lieveth on Hira that sent me; see Acts, xvi. 31,
compared with 34. Trust, Psalm ii. 12: "Kiss
the Son, lest he be angry ; blessed are all they
that put their trust in him." Love, John, xv.
23 : " He that hateth (loveth not) me, hateth
my Father also." Reverence, Mark, xii. 6 :
"They will reverence my Son." Glorying,
.Galat., vi. 14: " God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Tesus Christ;" and
also in the Magnificat, Luke, i, 46, 47. Bowing,
3

160 THE RElGN OF [l&th Cent.
PhiL ii, 10: "At his name every knee shall
bow," Prayer, Acts, vii. 59 : " Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit." Praise and thanksgiving,
1 Tim. vi. 16: " To whora be honour and power
everlasting." Obedience, Luke, vi. 46, 47 :
** Why call ye me Lord, and do not the things
which I coraraand you?",
As tlifi waters of a river flow purest in the
neighbourhood of its source, it will add weight,
if any were wanted, to this body of proof, if
we find that the doctrine of the Trinity was
ever held by the priraitive church, as is evinced
by reference to the writings of the fathers in
the three first centuries. Prior to the time of
Arius, indeed, the subject is not unfolded at
length, neither does the word Trinity occur in
the early confessions of faith ; for where the
belief was implicit and universal, defence or la
boured proof was unnecessary. " Nunquid
enim perfecte de Trinitate tractatnm est ante-
quam oblatrarent Ariani," is the language of
¦ Augustine. Nevertheless, the divinity of our Lord is un
equivocally asserted, even by the first fathers,
or scholars of the Apostles. In the epistle as
cribed to Barnabas, and certainly of the apo
stolic age, our Saviour is identified with God th^
Father, by being described as the Lord who
suffered for our souls, although in creation he
. said, Let us make man in our own image. Ig-

18th Cent.] george r. i6l
natius expressly denominates the Lord, Our
God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son
of raan. (Ignatius in Theod. Dial. Immutab.)
This and sirailar expressions are quoted by Theo
doret, A. D. 449, nearly a centuiy before the
interpolations suspected in the writings of Ig
natius Were affirraed to have been niade.
" We declare unto you, O Greeks," says Ta
tian, " that God was born in the forra of a
man." (Edit. Paris, 1615, p, 159-) Irenaus
commands every knee to bow to Jesus Chiist,
our Lord and God (lib, i, chap, ii,); and Euse
bius, after quoting certain psalms and odes of
the first age, which celebrate the divinity of
Christ, the Word of God, states that this doc
trine was asserted by Justin, Miltiades, Tatian,
Clemens, Irenaeus, and Melito — all fathers of
the second century.
In fact, in writings still extant, several of
these fathers, who are in the first descent frora
the Apostles, express themselves with all clear
ness on the point in question, " VVe worship,"
says Justin Martyr, " and adore the Father and
the Son." Cleraens of Alexandria invokes the
three Persons as one God. Athenagoras refutes
the charge of Atheism by demanding, How can
we, who call upon God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit, be accounted
Atheists?" (Athenag. ad Colum, Just, Martyr,
p. M, edit. Par. 1615.) A different charge,
vol. III. M

162 THE reign pF [I8th Cmt.
that of Tritheisni, was preferred by PrapC'^as,
Sabellius, and Other Unitarians, ^g3,inst the or-
thodpx. Christians ; a prpof of their worshipping
the Three Persons. Tertullian, in writing againsit
Praj^eas, exhibits tJie doctrine in vaijipus views :
" Tre^ unius substantias, et unius .statj^^, et
unius potentiae, quia unus Deus." (Tejct. adv-
Prax. c. ii,) " CQnnex,us Patris -iu Filio,. et Filii
in Paracleto, tres affiqit cphserentes, alterum ex
altero, qui tres unum suut, non unuSj; quoruodo
dictum erat : ^go et Pfiter unum SUmu?? Q?(P-
xvi. ;" i. je. oue thing, and noft one person. De
scending from the second to the third century
after Christ, we find Origen pronpunjcing ibap-
tism the fpiiii tain <)f grace to him wliip idedijqatqs
himself to the divipity gf the adorable Triune
Deity (Origen, tom. yi. in Rom,); and Cyprian
stating, that by the same sacrament Christ de
livered the doctrine of the Trinity.
It is perhaps too common, even among ortho
dox Christians, to regard the doctrine of a
triune God as a matter of mere speculation;
not requiring much tp be. insisted on, because
not extending its influence to the heart and
practice.. If, therefore, we can ascertain severs!
important moral purposes, accomplished by this
doctrine wherever it is received, the discpvery
will not only offer a salutary rebuke to such tin-
difference, but corroborate all the preceding ar
guments; inasmuch as the utility of any ariticlje

l^th YJelk't.] GEORtJE T. 163
of faith dftords strong presumption of its pro
ceeding from the Fountain of truth.
One important purpose to which this docifirie
is adapted, arid seems necessary, is that of Cpm-
mufaicating a full assurance to the breasts of of
fending beings, that the raiisora paid for sin is
adeqiiate and acceptable. The Socinian acts at
ledst consistently iri rejecting altogether the no-
tiori of atoneraent by blood; to the Arian it can
infuse but iiriperfect consolatiori. For, when
we dre told that one created bein^ — one being
irifeirior td the Highest — suffered for a created
\^drld ; ari angel or creature, in any sense,' foV
his fellbw-creatures ; we call to mind that God
chatgeth even his angels with folly, atnd aire ftUed
vvitfh' some appreherision and uncertainty vi'^ith
re^jiect to the efficacy of such a vicarial sacri
fice. But when the doctririe proposed i.s, that tlie
highest imag-inable Power is the atoning Power,
that he who suffered is he who remits, that th6
appeaser is the appeased, that God was in
Christ, reconciling sinners td himself, — the pe
nitent cdn calrii the agitation of his mirid, and
tell hiiiiself that a\\ is well. He can in this
case', but iri no other, repose With security on
the atonement, as indeed full, perfect, arid all-
sufficient. Again : thTs doctrine, by enforcing' the spi
ritual nature of God, reminds us of the spiritiial
worship which he requires. We are called iipbn
M 2 '

164 THE REIGN OF [18th Cent.
to believe what leason does not comprehend;
but not what reason contradicts. Now, in
order to believe the Trinity, it is absolutely and
peculiarly necessary to divest the divine Being
of all materiality; since reason would positively
contradict the proposition, that three persons,
having any materiality, could be one, God is
a Spirit, whose attribute is ubiquity ; and there
fore there is no contradiction in reason to sup
pose and to affirm, that the divine nature might
be and was united, though in a mysterious man
ner, to the man Jesus, in order to give efficacy
to his sufferings ; while Jesus might pray to
hira as his father, who was in heaven. If God,
then, be a Spirit — an all-present Spirit — he is
the searcher of all hearts, and must be Worship
ped, not with feigned service, but in spirit and
in truth ;^ and the Trinity is valuable in propor
tion as it more strongly inculcates this doctrine
of divine immateriality, by rendering the belief
in it necessary.
Moreover : Christhaving taken the manhood
into God, hath sat down at the right hand of
the Father. Now, believers are told that they
are intiraately imited to their Saviour; that
they are very members of his Oesh and of his; ,
bones: a most powerful motive to their highest
exertions in the improvement of divine grace;
since, in virtue of this union,* and of the words
of their Master — " Where I am, there ye shall

18th Cent.] george i. 165
be also," the highest places in the heavens are
opened to their hopes.
Lastly : this raystery weakens not, by divid
ing, our affections towards the Suprerae Being,
but strengthens, by multiplying, those tender
ties which attach us to hira in the bonds of love
andof gratitude. When we regard the same Being
as the Father, who, in calling us into life, hath
placed us in the way of eternal salvation; as
the Son, who interposed and suffered in order
to restore us to those hopes of happiness which,
by transgression, we had forfeited; and as the
Holy Ghost, who strengthens and refreshes our
frail natures, in that contest against the wiles
and power of our adversary, in which we are,
on our part, to make, our election sui^, and to
work out our salvation with trembling : Avhen,
I say, we concentrate in one God the various
attachraents which we thus owe to our Creator,
our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier; how are we
eraployed, butin contemplating that omnipotent
and divine Nature, from whose purity and power
we might well recoil, under various phrases anrl
characters of amiableness and kindness? but in
adoring a merciful Being, whom we find to have
exerted and expended all the best attributes and
perfections and capacities of his nature, for the
welfare of fallen creatures? What love, what
gratitude, naturally spring up in the breast, as
resulting from such views of the almighty aud
M 3

liS6 THE REIGN OF GEORGE I. [18^/i CeUt^
eternal Sovereign ! — The purest motives to th?
purest service ! for, while he hath himself, in
the person of Christ, specified the keeping of
his cbmniandments, as the evidence and test of
love, we know^ that this obe,dience is the m^ost
acceptably and the raost efiectuaUy performed,
when it flows from so celestial a principle.

18th Cent.] the reign of george ii. 167

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE REIGN OF GEORGE II,

Contents.
I, Tranquillity of the^Jinglish Church.— 'U. Licentious
ness qf Manners : Drinking-; Gaming; Dishonesty;
the Drama ; Novels.— -III. Infidelity. — IV. Infidel
Writers : Hobbes, Collins, Woolston, Tindal. — V.
Hume, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke. — ^VI. Replies : War
burton, Leland, Lardner, Doddridge, Gibson, Sher
lock, Seeker, West, Lord Lyttelton. — ^VII, Diff'erences
among Churchmtm: Warburton and Law ; Middleton
and Dodwell. — ^VIIl. Society for Reformation o^
Manners.'— IX: Society for propagating the Gospel in
for&ga Parts; and Sod^ty. for promoting Christian
Knowledge.— X. Raine's Hospital; Magdalene ; Asy
lum. — XI. Acts of Parliament relating to CoUeges ;
to Quakers, Jews, Marriages, S;c. — XII, Learned Di
vines. — XIII, Leamed Dissenters. — XIV. Methodists:
History. — XV. Statement and Refutation of their Te
nets. — XVI, Moravians. — XVII. Hutchinsonians. — ¦
XVIII. Swedenborgians.
I- It happens to the church as to individuals : •
they have naturally recourse to God, and seek
him in theyday of icaknvity.; but,, in the 'calm
of prosperous affairs,' beconie 'thoughtless, iiido-
M 4

168 ,, THE KEIGN OF [18th Cent.'
lent, luxurious, aud inattentive to the Giver of
good. When George II, ascended the throne, the
Church of England" reposed in tranquillity.
Ecclesiastical controversies were lessened in
nuraber and violence. Those watchwords of
opposition, the terms High and Low Church,
had passed from religion to politics, and were
insensibly mitigated into Court and Country
Party; arid among the prelates who adoVned
this portion of histoiy we find the names of
Butler, Gibson, King, Seeker, Lowth, and
Warburton *',
II. But, notwithstanding these advantages,
the practice of real piety had experienced a me
lancholy decline, and licentiousness overspread
the land;
A motion iri the House of Lords, for altering
the duties on spirituous liquois, and permitting
them to be again sold with less restraint, occa
sioned a debate, in which some of the speakers
took a retrospect of the gradual progress made
by the people in dissipation, and on the con
nexion of intoxication with crime. In truth,
spirituous liquors may be considered as the poi
soned fountain, whence flows almost all the
profligacy of the poor. ' Their excessive abuse,
* In 1714 Convocation drew up a form of receiving con-
verts from Popery.— Wilk, Cora, v, 4. p. 66O.

ISthC^ent.] GEORGE ir. 169
of this liquid excitement caused an additional
duty to be laid on the distillery of malt. It i^
indeed, the highest wisdom of the legislature
to adopt such regulations, as shall at once sup
ply the public revenue, and improve or leave'
uninjured the raorals of the community. More
effectually to prevent the pernicious habit "of
dram-drinking, it would be advisable to lower
. the excise on the more healthful beverages of
beer and ale, and the customs on tea and coffee;
while the duties on spirits should be heightened
till they amount to a prohibition, and srauggling
or privately distilling raade death without he-
nefit of clergy. This, with the total abandon
ment of lotteries, is the reform which Great
Britain requires; and until such reduction of
expenditure takes place as shall admit of it,
every other expedient is only " beating the en-
trenchant air." Low gambling, a kindred evil
with dram-drinking, prevailed at the same time';
ajid, as vice rarely maintains itself by the slowr
progress of regular industry, intemperance and
gambling introduced fraud and dishonesty.
Thieves, robbers, murderers, are reported to
have become more desperate and savage, than
ever since mankind were civilized. These evils
were increased by the growing immorality of
the drama; which seemed to delight in flinging
a lustre round indecency and profaneness, and
in waging open warfare against temperance,

I^flr THE. REIGN OF, [l,8<A'Ce«^.
sob,e.i;ness, and chastity^ This abuse = of fan en
ter J;a4nmei>]t SO) rational, vi^ien,; wfeU regulated,
in,djw^4;the l§gisl3,ture,. iu 1735j. to' pass aibill, i
reju?;ta);t^g the, Lprd Ph^f»b©?Ja4ni imhisiauthov
rify^ap c^nsjor of the s,taget,
TJogetheri wdlh. Dryden and'^Viaiabrugliii. Conr=
greve. vsf^s attajCiked by Jeremy? Collier, in his
E;xppS|Ure of thf Immorality of: the Stdgei;. and,
iij, truth, w^^^ the theatre whatstbesecdraraatists
hay:p;Soug)lt to^make itj thevcensor would bear
alpngj with [lym! the approbation audiassent of
all men, of s^ufi? .and principle. On Congreve's
reply. Dr. John«pn) has well remarked, that] it
hsi^,; his at^^g9E^;?t'si coar^enesss, but not his.
st(i;eng)h. T|ie s^imo: subject ba.a of late 'years
bf^Ujably treated by Mr. Plum tree, who has
puiblifj^e^; aj ShaJ^speaye. Eis^purgatMS*
Fpr that, Nesj^fgat^ipa^tpral, that gala of high-
wi^jty-jngri-i au4 ; pickpocketSj The iBegg^'s, Opera,.
Gayrjmig^t wejl be included in the. same cen
sure^ B^phop Herring, ina sermon; pieached at
LiUiCol,n's, Inn, toqkoeea^ion to inveigh against
the immorality of this drama;, and Swift, very
disgracefully to his character asj a,, clergyman,
r^pl^d in tli^e InteUigencer, that the, arraigned
production would do mor,e good than a thousand
s^rmOriSf of so stupid, so injudicious, and. so
prostitute, a divine. Well might the Church,
a^^ even rel%jon, bi&iafl^rjmedjtobe iui danger-—
weljl raight. ;thi,s; reign be dis,tingu}shed, as. the

<^y;n^3f of vice, wl?en so. uupj-Jncipled, au en-
^^rtajp^^t ro^^ iijjtp popularity, and could re-
ceiiVe the l^n^^^ o^ S^ch a vindicator,
Thos novel is a^iu to th^ drama, and, in.qom-
mon with it, \^ill partly influence and partly
indicate, t^iie pqpjty^ or corrupjtjiou of uatjpnal
morals. Fielding wrote to supply his passion
^o,r dissipation : Tom Jones is, top attractive by
its w;it, and too destructive by its liceutipuspess,
In theiPaa^lff, ClflTk^^i and Q.ran^ison, Richard
son has beeai said, by Dr. Johnson, to h9^,ve
served tln^, cause of religion, by bene6,ting that
of raoral^ and by^te^9hing,the passions to move
^t the cpmmand of virtuq, "Wyatts, hpxMeVier,
early (^etect^d the improprieties in Pamela,;
which, he observed, a, modest woman could
hardly read witshout- blushing. The, evils occa
sioned % exhibiting, the d^tajls of sqductjpn.
are, in truth, not counteracted by holding it up
tp condeifluatiori- l^et our, journalists attend to
tj>j;^ A cfiM. nwrai. to alicentious. nari;ativ,e. is
as a drop of wat^r to extinguijKh a conflagra
tion, '^^' •
IIL Infidelity is oftener the effect than the
cause of immorality. For .the, fcWj.whq b^ppme,
vicious :in„COjnse,quence of having. reasoned away,
their belief, there are multitudes who labour to
discredit tbeir belief as a specious justification
of their vices* Infidelity is. a, convenient reply
to, the, censiires of strictness, aqd an , opiatei to

172 THE REIGN OF [18th Cent. .
the risings of remorse. Men love darkness ra
ther than light, because their deeds are evil. It
is not, therefore,' matter of wonder, that so free
an indulgence in evil propensities as we have
here described, should pave the way for a; ge
neral disbelief in the everlasting! truths of tbe
Gospel. ' ,
IV. Hobbes's Leviathan, and the Oracles of
Reason, formed the chief repositories from
which other writers, whia foUoKved in the same
walk of darkness, malevolence, and mischief/
drew their materials and their arguments*. One
would imagine that men enveloped in the
gloom of doubt and disbelief, would blush for
their shame, or weep over their unhappiness ;
that they would seek to hide their melancholy
conclusions from every eye ; mid, if a spark of
pity remained, would spare their brethren the
* " Infidelity is an exptic weed, which had no fixed rooting^
in this cold climate till the heat of our civil distractions gave
room for the Leviathan to bring it iny and, in process of time,
for the Oracles of Reason to make it grow." — Stackhpuse.
Hobbes 'believed' the sovereign magistrate to be ihe inter
preter of Scripture, and the only prescriber of its doctrines.
The fear of power invisible, said he, coupled with belief in
tales, allowed, is religion; not allowed, superstition.' He.
maintained that there is no moral obligation antecedent to
civil laws; and derided a future state. Lord Clarendon;
Harrington, in his Oceana ; Cumberlarid, Cudworth, and Ten
nison, severally ei^posed his errors. With all his infidelity, he
had a dread of apparitions j and was afraid of being left alone.

18/A Cent.]' oeorge ii. 173
misery of parting with a fond hope, which,
even in the remote possibility of its proving an
illusion, would be still most consolatorv to suf-
fering huraanity. Vain mockery! to tell me
you are striving to render me happy, while you
are bereaving me of my only stay — ¦yhile you
are cruelly extinguishing my hopes and conso
lations — and shutting me out from the sweet
light of heaven for ever and ever ! What, then,
can make infidels the willing heralds of a curse,
and the zealous apostles of despair? What,
then, can inspire them with so ardent a spirit of
conversion, as though they were impatiently
bearing the gladdest of tidings, and communi
cating the happiest* of discoveries ? Whence
that compassing of heaven and earth to make a
proselyte? Is it, that, thus alienated from God
and from truth, they contract the temper of
fiends, and delight in making others every whit
as destitute, as hopeless,, as bad as themselves?
Or is it, that darkness may lead to a precipice;
that they shudder and tremble in the midst of
it; and ate glad, to gather assurance, as they
grope their, dismal way, by stretching forth
their hand and finding that they have a compa
nion? Be this as it may, infidelity is cowardly and
artful : it never advances in bold and direct at
tack, or unveils at once the frightfulness of its
visage; it searches the weak and accessible parts

174 THE iiEt^ii oi? (ikih^efit.
of ttbhu'Mri chki-kctfer, and a^^tife^fchek, uhder
fti^our of sonie alltiritag li^iM^^^tt'^^g; \[\\ St ob'-
tairis sufficient footiri'^ fo fefe s^fcUrfe iri tWe full
diScldferiVe of all its hofriblte propbrtioiik, '^ Tlie
Rights . of th'e Christiari bhurch asSerteB," \^as
ari irisidi'oris publication, issued by a sbciety 0
iftffdM*, jjrbfelsirig only to Ml^t thfe ^hcFdach'-,
ri^rits of Popery, arid thus ^tfealihg b^ siirpr|sfe
ori the prejtidices df rinwaf-y ilkrrfiistfe; whil^
theii- i^eacl kim \^a^ to stMIe a blou^ at all tMt-
tiari dMinarib^ ; riaJTi td SS^ail the very 6xikt-
erit^ of a dHri^lhiH riiirii'sti-jr drid of a CHristiati
chufbh. With thfe sarii6 ihsititiatiri^ ptofessibris
arid oblique maligriitj', the Association rieit
pUbliSkd " A Discourse of Freethiiiklng;" a
pfddiictidti addr^ssfed to the light and ilibli'gfet-
Usi, as thfe former tt^aS riiorfe graVel jr ada^fed iti
affect thfe serious. These, hbwfevfer, wetfe rio
more than the first esSay^ bf in fidelity ¦;— the
cautious ffeeliug^ of its wAf ; arid though th^^
miriistetiS of the Church v^^erfe i'ilified, arid its
my'st^rie'^ ridiculed, the great proofs of itfe di-
virie truth and authority rferaa;iri^d untouchfed.
OotLiBfs riiddfe a bolder, thoUgh still coViirt
attack; and', uridef prteteritie of iifeal for the
Jewish dispensation, and the literal interprfetii- ,
tiOn of Sacred Writ, endeaV6Ured to dlidr^rfit
th(? evidfence of jirophfecy : Whil^ WoblsibSr, by'
affectirig to fex'alt the actioris and riiiracles of

18th Cent.] oeorge ii. 175
Christ into a spiritual meaning, strove to call
his miraculous agency into questioto.
Following up these atterapts to shake tlie ex
ternal evidences of our faith, Tindal with equal
dexterity assailed its internal proofs, in his
book, entitled, " Chrwtianity as old as thte Crea
tion ; or, the Giospel a RepuMdcatioU of the Re^
ligion of Mature." Here the unaided p>ower of
reason is represented as a sufficient guide iu all
raatters of religion, and natural theology opposed
to revelation. Far be it from us to judge concern
ing the views of any writer; but that raan cannot
be innocent, w'ho wantonly advances doctrine's
of which he foresees the effect to be liberation
frora all restraint, the unbounded indulgence of
corrupt appetites, and riot in lawless gratifica
tions. To plead a love of truth as an apology
for pestiferous writings, is perhaps too over
weening a confidence in the alleged motives,
and certainly tiie assumption of a dangerous
responsibility *.

* "Hndal, with much learning and strong reasoning powers,
had all the trick and disingeBueusness of infide) writers.
Baring on the brink of the grave, be had attained his seventy-
third year, when he published Chrisrianity as old as the Crea-
¦tion. The very title of this work is false and imposing j it
leads us to suppose his object to have been a representation of
the Gospel, as confirming the law of nature : but he plainly
attempts to dismiss revelation altogether, by stating the need
pf it to have been precluded by natural theology, 4

J 76 The reign of" [I8th Cent. 4
'V. This phalanx of infideUty was now,
strengthened and emboldened by the accession
of David Hume, a subtle, penetrating, and sar
castic philosopher. His first publication, which
appeared in 1738, entitled,- "A Treatise of hu^
man Nature," riot receiving the notice and op*
position which he coveted and courted, > he
changed its forra to the raore popular one of
separate Essays ; and speedily rejoiced in the
publicity, regardless concerning the tendency,
of the work. By the many answers which ap
peared, he confessed that his vanity was grati
fied, and congratulated his production on hav
ing estabhshed itself in good corapany. Of all
those who entered the lists with this insidious
writer, none more BUccessfuUy controverted his
positions than Beattie, in his " Essay on the
Nature sind Immutability of Truth, in opposi
tion to Scepticism and. Sophistry."
Hume being a "materialist, and Berkeley, de
nying the existence of matter, this writer has
taken occasion to observe, iri his Moral Science,
that, betwixt them, these philosophers had voted
the abolition of the universe.
An attempt having been made, favoured by
thiscurrerit of opinion, to revive the philosophy
of Shaftesbury, his principles were now reex-
amined and ably refutecli in Dr. Brown's ele
gant Essay on the Characteristics. In 1754
the posthumous lucubrations of Lord Boling-

18th Cent.] GEORGE II. 177
broke, another noble author distinguished as a
sceptic aud infidel, were presented to the world,
like a Pandora's box, only without hope, by his
worshipper, David Mallett. " Bolingbroke,"
said Dr. Johnson, " was at once a scoundrel and
a coward : — a scoundrel for loading the blunder
buss of infidelity up to the muzzle; and a
coward, in leaving David Mallett to draw the
trigger *."
VI. " But, happily, an age so fertile in poi
sonous fruits, abounded not less in beneficial
antidotes. Not only the clergy, the proper
guardians of the truth, brought forth their
strong reasons, but the cause of religion found
other vindicators, who, though not profession-

* Mallett aped the opinions of his noble predecessor, and
used frequently to reason, at bis own table, and in presence
of his domestics, against the credibility of a future existence.
In a short time one of them, as might naturally have been
predicted; disappeared with the family plate ; but being ap
prehended, and interrogated what could induce him to the
perpetration of so bold and dangerous a crime-^" My master,"
replied he, coolly, " has so very frequently, in my hearing, ridi
culed the idea of a life after the present, that, in truth, I did
not conceive myself as doiDg any thing wrong," — " Yes ;
but, you rascal," answered Mallett, " had you no fear of being
hanged?" — " And pray. Sir,'' said the culprit, "what bave
YOU to do .with that? You yourself took off the greater
fear j and, when that was gone, I found not much diificulty
with the lesser."~See Davies's Life of Garrick.
VOL. III. N

178 THt REIGN Ot [18th Cent.
ally engaged in its defence, were vitally inte-
lfe.sted in its triumph *."
A course of Sermons, preached by Warbur*
TON at Lincoln's Inn, and entitled, " The Prin-
(^e's of natural and revealed Religion occasionally
opened and explained," was published to counter
act the effect of Bolingbroke's philosophy,
-Jjvhich deprived the Supreme Being of his provi
dential eye, and stripped him of his moral attri
butes ; regarding him only as the grfeat First
Cause and original' Make;t' of all things: a frigid
homage, akin in all its efffects to atheism.
Church, too, haviug received assistance from
Archbishop Seeker, appeared among the many
annotators on the works of the noble unbeliever.
Bolingbroke died of a cancer in his cheek.—
Did Heaven mean to remind him that there is a
Providence which can punish ?
Churchmen and sectaries^ forgetful of their
differences, now united in amicable support
of the coramon cause ; and Leland, Lardner,
and Dpddridge,, deserve, honourable mention,
togpther with Butler, Chandler, Sherlock,
and Gibson. The three admirable pastoral
letters of Bishop Gibson wfere intended as
a check to the earlier freethinkers. Tindal's
book was answered by Waterland and by ^imbn
Brown; and when Waterland's . " Vindication"
• Brewster's Secular Essay.

18th Cent] geqrqe n. 179
was found fault with by Conyers Middleton, in
Pearce, the Bishop of Rochester, it found an
able defender. Whoever wishes to study this
protracted controversy, may consult Dr. Wolfs
Caveat against Lnfidelity; Campbell's work, prffo-
ing the Apostles no Enthusiasts; Broughton arid
Burnet in reply to Tindal; and Conybeare's ex
cellent Defence of natural Religion.
At this period, " The Trial of the Witnesses
of the Resurrection of Jesus," written by Sher
lock, was read with admiration by all ranks.
But the propositions there proved were too hos
tile to vice, to be erabraced by the profligate
part of the coramunity, who bought up with
avidity the deistical answer of Annet. Annet
was one of the few infidels in this century who
felt the force of the secular arra, having been
sentenced in the Court of King's Bench,' in
1762, to iraprisonraent and the pUlory. To al
leviate this severity, Seeker, during his confirie-
ment, offered him pecuniary assistance; but
this he did not live to enjoy. Thus, warring
with principles and not with men, this huraane
prelate, on various occasions, relieved the ne
cessities of infidel authors, while he strenuously
laboured to combat or suppress their publica
tions *.
* The two most satisfactory replies to the pernicioos tracts
of Annet, were occasioned by a remarkable change of con-
N 2

180 THE REIGN OF [iSthCcn
; VII. Warburton's " Divine Legation qf Moses,
demonstrated on the Principles of a religious
Deist, from the Omission qf the Doctrine qf a
future State qf Rewards and Punishments in the
Jewish Dispensation ;" was published in several
volumes, at different intervals; and hence the
discussions it occasioned were lasting, and fre
quently renewed. The chief opponent Whom
this prelate had to encounter, was that learried
and able visionary, William Law.
A controversy not less violent was generated

viction in the minds of their several authors, Gilbert West
and Lord Lyttelton had both been infidels, and, being smitten^
with tlie usual spirit of apostleship, agreed to array their ob
jections to Scripture in regular form ; West assailing the Evan--
gelists» and Lord Lyttelton the Epistles. But, in prosecuting
the inquiry, both were visited with the bearas of truth ; and,
in 1747, the former published his " Observations on the His
tory and Evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ j" being
a developement of the process by which his own mind had
settled in belief. For this work the University of Oxford
' complimented him with an honorary degree of LL. D. fn
his retreat from public life, at Wickham, in Kent, he was fre-
qpently visited by his noble friend j and in these hours of re
tirement from the tumult of debate. Lord Lyttelton received
the happy spark of conviction. Then, as though he acknow
ledged his resemblance to the great 'Apostle of the Gentiles, in
the dropping of the scales from the eyes of both at the mo
ment of meditated persecution, he communicated to tbe
world his treatise already mentioned, the " Observations on
the Conversion aiid Apostleship of St. Paul."

1 &th Cent.] GEORGE n. 1 8 1
by Warburton's reply, in 1748, to Dr. Middle-
ton's Free Tnquiry into the miraculous Powers sup-
posed to have subsisted in the Christian Church
from the earliest Ages through several successive
Centuries. This work was a weak defence of
revelation, which injured the reputation of the
early Christian fathers ; yet it is doubtful whe
ther there be any one well-authenticated miracle
subsequent to the days of the Apostles. War
burton was the most powerful antagonist of this
author. Dodwell and Church likewise mingled
in the controversy; the latter receiving assist
ance from Archbishop Seeker,
VIII. The Society for promoting the Benefits
bf Religion, and for encouraging Reforraation
of Manners, was not wholly extinguished,
when so strongly required, at the conclusion of
the reign of George II. To relieve poor fami
lies — to place them in trades and methods of
livelihood adapted to their several capacities —
to liberate prisoners — to maintain orphans — to
promote the studies of indigent scholars at the
sister universities, bj' pecuniary assistance; —
were some among its multifarious modes of be
neficence : but its chief object was the diffusion
and improvement of religious knowledge ; the
indirect but only certain method of promoting
advances in morality. This Society did not se
parate itself frora the Church, or court an al
liance with Dissenters, as though it deemed the
w 3

1,82 THE REIGN OF [I8th Cent.
established reUgion insufficient of itself for the
great purposes of reformation. Prayers w;ere
promoted in the churches, sermons and lectures
instituted, and measures adopted for the sup
pression of Popery, -Yet a zeal thus directedto
the strengthening of the Establishment was
leavened with no spirit of persecution or of in
tolerance ; it was distinguished, in all its ener
gies, by philanthropy, meekness, and modera"
tion. . IX. This Society proved the germ of several
estcellent charitable institutions, some of which
were iricorporated by royal charter.
Cpncernjng the usefulness of the Society for
propagating the Gospel in foreign Parts, and the
Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, no
doubt can be entertained^ The former having
been confined to the plantations, colonies, and
factories belpnging to Britain, beyond the sea,
by the charter of incorporation ; the original
members enlarged, their views, under the cha*
racter of a voluntary association, distinct fromi
their corporate capacity. They encouraged the
erection pf charity-schools; in which children
were at once taught religious and useful know
ledge, and trained in paths of industry, They
dispersed, and sold at a reduced price, Bibles,
Prayer Books, and valuable religious tracts.
They established missions in various parts of.
the East Indifes, Directing an eye of benevo-

18th Cent.] oeorge ii. 183
lence to Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, the Society,
in 1720, ordered Testaments, Psalters, Cate
chisms, and Abridgments of the Bible, to be
printed in Arabic, at their expense. At home
or abroad, it may be truly affirmed, that grace
was in all their steps. They promoted work
houses in villages for the encourageraent of in
dustry; relieved, in 1732, the Protestants in
Salzburg ; and sent forth a colony of these dis-,
tressed eraigrants to Georgia. From 1743 to
1768, they were eraployed in translating into
Welsh, the Bible, Psalter, and Catechisra; ia
opening schools in the Scilly Islands ; and ia
printing Bibles and tracts in the, Manks lan-.
guage. Ever since that period they have beeu
unwearied in the cause of truth; which their
labours have preserved continually in its pure
simplicity, untainted by enthusiasra, and by any
of the vain changes of opinion, which, at differ
ent times, have pleaded for adoption. And,.
highly to their praise, they have not deemed.
their zeal incompatible with an attachment to
the Established Church ; whose prosperity they
have studied, and whose adversaries they have
opposed. Latterly, since several associationjs.
have sprung .np, which, either under the aspect
of general zeal .for religion, or the pretence of
attachment to^ the Establishment, have .been
judged to militate against its interests, the Bart--
lett's Buildings . Society, as the older institu-
N 4

184 THE REIGN OF [18th Cent.
tion is now termed, from the place of assem
bling, in Holborn, has proved a rallying point
to the orthodox adherents of the national
church; and, having received ^an accession ^of
numbers and of wealth, has displayed a re.-*
doubled activity,
X. The numerous charitable institutions
which adorn the British metropolis, have been
finely compared by Burke to electrical conduct
ors, averting the thunderbolts of Heaven from
a profligate nation. Charities which, in other
countries, would be esteemed as noble public
foundations, have been here frequently esta
blished by the munificence of an individual.
Such was the hospital qf Raine, for the endow
ment arid maintenance of forty poor maidens,
members of the Church of England.! Of a
inore pubUc nature was the Magdalene charity,
for rescuing urihappy prostitutes from the paths
of vice; and the Asylum for female Orphans
deserted by their parents. These sister esta--
blishraents, contiguous in situation, and both
instituted in the latter part of. the reign of
George II. have beeri raainly supported by the
eloquence of eminent preachers ; whose plead--
ings have replenished the fountains of benevor,
lence, and sweetened the truths of the GospeK
XI. When George I. visited Carabridge in
1717, Bentley, as divinity. professor, demanded
of Conyers Middleton and others an extra, fee of

18th Cent.] george ii, 185
four guineas eacli, on their appointment, by the
royal mandate, to the degree of D, D. Mid
dleton paid the fee, and comraenced his action
for the recovery of it ; but Bentley, conteraning
the decree of the university, was degraded.
By the subsequent discussions it was ascer
tained that the king's courts can interfere, as
supreme visitors, in the private regulations of a
•college, for Bentley was restored to all his ho
nours. The universities, indeed, were a leading
object of attention with Parliament during the
present reign. It was decreed, that when the
visitor and the head of a college visited were
one and the same person, the king may grant a
mandamus. A separate act restrained the dis
position of lands in mortmain, whereby they
became unalienable'; but a clause exempted
from its operation the universities and the three
public schools. No college, however, was suf
fered to possess advowsons exceeding in naraber
the raoiety of its fellows.
While universities were thus favoured, their
members received an iraraunity frora the pecu-
niqry qualifications for a magistrate or member
of parliament. Vintners within these seats of
learning were subject to control ; and theatres
were wholly prohibited.
Acts were passed inflicting penalties on pro
fane swearing, in which flag officers are pecu
liarly distinguished ; preventing persons bene-

186 THE reign of [18th Cent.
fited by a will from being witnesses of it; di
recting that natural children should be sup
ported by their fathers; compelling clerks, six
months after induction, to take the several
oaths of aUegiance, supreraacy, and abjuration,
at Westrainster or the Quarter Sessions; and
directing letters of orders for the episcopal
clergy in Scotland to be issued only by JEng-
lish or Irish Bishops. In 1752 the Calendar
was rectified by Parliament, and' eleven d^ys
thrown out as redundant in passing from the
old to the new style.
There were also acts inflicting penalties on
pawnbrokers who knowingly received stolen
property, and on publicans suffering the low
garabling of tradesmen in their houses *.
In 1736, the Quakers petitioned Parliament,
representing, that while their consciences per
suaded them to refuse the payment of tithes,
church-rates, oblations, and other ecclesiasti
cal dues, they were liable to sore distress from
prosecutions in the Exchequer, the spiritual, and
other courts, tending to the iraprisonraent of
their persons and the ruin of their farailies.
Counter petitions were presented by the clergy
of Middlesex and other districts ; and the bill,
after passing through the Lower Horise, was
thrown out by the Lords. While a bill,
» Smollett.

18th Cent.] george ii. 187
however, empowered justices of the peace
to distrain for tithes, it guarded against the
exercise of undue severity towards the Friends.
In admitting the affirmation of this Society in
courts of justice, Parliament likewise relaxed
the oath of the Moravian Brethren into the
simpler form, " I declare, in the presence of
Almighty God, who is witness of the truth
of what I say."
A bill for naturalizing the Jews was brought
into Parliament in 1753, andexcited warm dis
cussion. While the ministry wished for friends
in an accession of the monied interest, others
apprehended an irruption of usurers and the
competition of penurious tradesmen. Some
even dreaded the spread of Judaism, of all
fears the most preposterous. This bill was
enacted in one session; but popular clamour,
illiberal jealousies, and bigoted sentiraents
prevailing, occasioned its repeal the following
year. This intended boon to the seed of Israel
was favoured by the Bishops, who conceived
that it would by no raeans interfere with the
appointment of the Almighty in scattering them
over the earth. They would still have remained
a living and perpetual miracle ; a peculiar race
in the midst of other nations, flowing forward
like the current of the Rhone, without mixing
with the waters of the lake through which
they pass.

188 THE REIGN OF (iSth Cent.
Nearly at the sarae period the celebrated Act
for preventing clandestine marriages received
the sanction of the Legislature. It is generally
considered as a just medium betwixt the dis
graceful irregularities which formerly prevailed
in the celebration of this ceremony, when, ac
cording to the civil historian, a raan walked
at the door of the Fleet Prison, inviting ladies
and gentlemen to walk in and be married; and
the tyrannical mea.5ure of imposing too close a
restraint on so important an ingredient in the
happiness of society *.
* In this bill the following provisions were contained :
Banns shall be published on three successive Sundays, during
service, in the church of each parish in whioh the parties
dwell. No license, except an Archbishop's special one, shall
be given for marriage in a place where one of the parties has
not resided one month ; marriages in which these rules have
not been complied with are void, and the person performing
them shall suffer a transportation of fourteen years. Marriages
between parties under age, without consent of parents, are
void J unless the party be a widow, or the parent a widow
in a second state of marriage. When the parent is non com
pos mentis, or beyond sea, or refuses his consent from ca
price, the minor shall seek relief in the court of Chancery,
No suit for the celebration of any marriage on pretence of
- contract shall be commenced. Every marriage shall be cct
lebrated in the presence of two witnesses, and those by li
cense betwixt the hours of eight and twelve in the morning.
A register shall be kept, in which the particulars of the nup
tials shall be entered, to be signed by the rainister, the par
ties, and the witnesses, Here it ought to be mentioned

ISth Cent.] GEORGE ii. is9
In 1781 an attempt was made, but without
success, to repeal this Act, It was now disco
vered that all marriages which had been cele
brated in churches or chapels erected since the
passing of the Act were void, the Act having
declared that the celebration of nuptials iii
places where banns had not usually been pub
lished was null from the beginning, A bill to
rectify this mistake, and to remedy its mis
chiefs, was immediately hurried through both
Houses. Bills were agitated. A, D. 1759, for the be
nefit of insolvent debtors, and for employing
the poor in workhouses. This latter proposal

whether either party is under age, and if so, whether the
consent of parents has been obtained, A false license or cer
tificate, or the destruction of a register, is felony, an iI incurs
death either in principal or accessory.
The opposers of this bill objected that it would damp
the flame of love, proraote mercenary marriages, in
jure population, retain the wealth of the kingdom araong
great families, encourage fornication, subject the poor to
expense, and increase the power of the Chancellor, After
all, a trip to Scotland gets rid of every impediment it oflfers,
Blackstone errs in aflirming that Innocent III, in 1216, was
the first who , celebrated marriage in the church, and that
pnor to that time it was a civil contract. It appears from Igr
natius. A, D. 108, Tertullian, A, D, 196, Augustine, 597, a
decree of the African Council, 398, and a law of the Saxon
Edmund, A, D, 940, that the holy bond of marriage was
ratified by an ecclesiastig in much earlier ages.
3

190 THE REIGN OF [18^A Cent.^
has never succeeded ; and while the world
lasts, it is feared, will never prosper. Work
houses are veritable luci ^ non lucendo.
Against a clause in the Militia BiU for drill
ing on Sunday, several bodies of Dissenters
and serious Christians remonstrated. " No
thing," observes Smollett, " could be more ri
diculously fanatic and impertinent than such a
scruple in a country where the Sunday is usu
ally spent in raerry-raaking, rioting, and feast
ing; yet Parliaraent listened to these puritani
cal petitioners, and changed the day of e;xercise
to Monday." To this irapiety, two answers
may be returned. First, the accusation is not
true : and, secondly, if it were, the petitioners
were not the rioters.
XIL Archbishop Wake interraingled in the
Romish fray, by publishing a variety of Tracts
ori the Eucharist, on Indulgences, on Transub
stantiation, and, generally, on the Council of
Trent. His chief production is his State of
THE Church, and his least happy one his Englisli
Version of the Apostolical Father^; since he
has therein failed in his attempt to prove that
miraculous powers were continued down to their
times. As metropolitan, Wake defended the
supremacy of the Crown against Popery on the
one hand, and on the other the authority of the
Church against Dissenters. He oppose^ Hoad-

18th Cent.] george ii. igi
ly's design for repealing the Corporation and
Test Acts *.
John Brown, the critic on the Character
istics of Shaftesbury, is not to be confounded
with the Dissenter, Si}7ion Broum, who replied
to Woolston and Tindal. These both belonsred

^o^

* His correspondence with Dupin of the Sorbonne, rela
tive to the practicability of eflecting an union betwixt tbe
churches of £ngland and Bome, evinces his zeal to have been
candid and moderate j yet amenity or politeness never suf
fered him to depart from any one article of the English
Church. Dupin projected to accede to the Eucharist in both
kinds, the service in the vulgar tongue, the non-invocation of
taints, and the marriage of the clergy ; but the Jesuits put a
ttop to the arrangement.
For a sermon on the text, " Charity covereth a multitude
of sins," Atterbury was attacked by Hoadly, as having
affirmed that God will receive one doty, such as alms-giving,
in lieu of many others ; and he had doubtless laid hiraself but
too open to this charge. In 17OO, he had taken part with
Wake in investigating the rights of Convocation, for which
service he received a diploma of D, D, from Oxford j but
Burnet, Tennison, and Chief Justice Holt conceived him to
have attacked the royal prerogative. He obtained a bishopric
in order to remove hira from Christ Church,' where his tyran
nical disposition had thrown the college into broils, Smallridge,
his successor in several preferments, complained of being
obliged to carry a pitcher of water in order to extinguish the
flames which this intemperate precursor had kindled. In
exile he wrote on the times of the four Gospels, His com
position and delivery of serraons are strongly praised in the
Tatler.

"19"2 * THE reign OF '[18th Cent.
tb the family of ingenious madmen. The formet
terminated his life by suicide, in consequence
of the faUure of a plan for civilizing Russia;
and the latter at length believed that his rational
soul had perished, while his body and the living
principle only remained,
Waterland was another luminary of this era
not less conspicuous. He contended with Clarke
and Whitby in various tracts ; and his defences
ofthe Trinity are perhaps the ablest that have
ever been written,
Pearce, who took part with Waterland
against Middleton, wrote a curious treatise on
the temple of Dagon, and a commentary on the
Evangelists and Acts.
Berkeley's celebrated notion, that sensible
material objects are not external to the mind,
but exist within it, and are only impressions
made there by God, according to certain rules
called laws of nature, was an attempt to silence
those sceptics whose systeras wonld fall to the
ground if the existence of matter could be dis-
. proved. Beattie with truth replies, that if such
an opinion be true, it would confirm rather than
dispel scepticism; for it would prove that
false which all men believe to be true every mo
ment of their lives, and that true which no man
ever believed seriously. Reid 'and Dugald
Stewart have since exploded this theory as

18th Cent.] george ir, 193
contrary to common sense, Happy that Chris
tianity is independent of such support.
Non tali auxilio ; nee defensoribus istis
Tempus eget ».
Besides eight occasional sermons, Bishop
Chandler published, in answer to CoUins, " A
Defence qf Christianity drawn from Prophecy."
Hence arose a war of replies and rejoinders.
Of Bishop Gibson's life, the earlier part was
chiefly dedicated to classical studies and anti
quarian research. In 1713 he published his
* Berkeley at one time received from Steele a guinea and a
dinner for every paper he wrote in the Guardian, He obtained
an accession of fortune in a legacy bequeathed him by
Swift's Vanessa, Miss Vanhomrigh. By having written, in
1712, on passive obedience and non-resistance, he disobliged
the Hanover family ; and his views of preferment were thus
obstructed. Berkeley was a valetudinarian, and promulgated
a treatise on the benefits of tar-water, Arbuthnot made merry
with one of his maladies, by calling it the idea of a fever. In
1725 he passed over to America, to give eff'ect to his plan
of a college for civilizing the natives ; but the money vested
by Parliament for fiarthering Ihe object having been diverted
by Sir R. Walpole to a difi'erent use, the scheme entirely
failed. This idealist's " Minute Philosopher " is an attack on
infidelity in all its forms and degrees. On being solicited to
accept a translation from Cloyne, he declared his desire to add
one to the list of those ecclesiastics who are evidently dead to
ambition and avarice. Atterbury observed, in speaking of this
prelate, that he did not, before knowing him, imagine that
so rauch understanding, knowledge, innocence, and humility
had been the portion of any but angelic beings,
vox. Ill, o

1C(4 Titi'i REIGN OV [18th Cent.
" GoEEx Juris ecclesiastici Angucani ; or Sta
tutes, Canons, Constitutions, Rubrics, and Ar
ticles of the Church." As he advanced in life,
his mind appeared to settle and subjside more
and raore into conversance with the doctrinal
a,nd practical departraents of his profession.
From his counsels eraanated the Whitehall lec
ture, or the stated preaching of serraons in
the Banquetirig-house, by twelve divines drawn
equally from Oxford and Carabridge.
Gilson opposed the Dissenters when they
trespassed too far on toleration, and the Quakers
when they atterapted to obtain a liberation
from tithes. Till now he had been regarded as
heir apparent to the see of Canterbury : but this
latter opposition highly offended Sir R. Wal
pole ; and his interest declined further through
his objection to the promotion of Rundle, whora
he Buspected of Deism, to a bishopric; but
chiefly by reason of his boldness in reriionstrat-
ing with the King' on ihe vicious nature iand
evil tendency of court masquerades. His cele>-
brated Pastoral Letters, his Charges and Ser-'
mons, have been often/ reprinted both iri Erig
land and Ireland. He edited a cbllectibri' of
tracts against Popery, written in the reign of
James II. His Discourses .against Infidelity
were published by Addison.
The' mild temper of Herring was averse fronv
contTOversy, and he ex'pressed an abhoorence

ISth Cent.] GEORGE H, 195
or all Trinity disputes. On this account his
oi'thodoxy has been suspected, though unjustly;
but a head of the Church is guilty of unpardon
able lukewarmness, who can calmly suffer its
vital doctrines to be arraigned, and plead for his
passiveness the uncharitableness of controversy.
Unless the assailarits could Ukewise be brought
to forbear, such affected charitableness is mere
cant, A few Letters and Sermons are the only
remains of Herrinsr*.
In the rear of these dignitaries raay be placed
Bishop Hoadly, a Judas in some respects to the
orthodox cause, which he received ample re
venues to support. He had a dispute with Hare
on the necessity of ardour in devotion, which
Hare asserted aud his antagonist denied. Nearly
a Dissenter in principle, he held that sincerity
* Pocock, Bishop of Ossory, illustrated sacred antiquities
by his well-known Travels in the East. Dingwall and Dart
mouth are said to have excited his feelings by their striking
resemblance to Jerusalem, In Ireland he used to ride like an
Arabian sheik, with five servants at measured distances be
hind him. He is not to be confounded with Pocock, the
learned Orientalist wbo flourished in the period of the Com
monwealth ; who had a hand in the English Polyglot, and
published the yet unedited portions of the Syriac New Testa
ment. While thus learned, the Arabic Professor judiciously
abstained from all quotations and language in his parish
church of Childley which might be above the coraprehension
of his hearers ; insomuch that a peasant being asked who was
his pastor, replied, "One Mr, Pocock, a plain honest manj
but niaster> they say, is no Latiner,"
o 2

196 thereign of [18th Cent,
in any error will be accepted as sufficient re
pentance ; which, by the way, very few Dis
senters vvill themselves allow *,
Thus do men, canting about toleration and
liberality, exercise towards Dissenters a libera
lity not exercised in return, and weakly give
an advantage to vigilant and keen antagonists, -
It is surrendering the outposts ofa forti'ess, and
pleading the humanity of sparing lives. Potter
animadverted on Hoadly's notions of sincerity.
Claggett entered the lists both with Dissent
ers and Romanists. Ills sermons are posthu
mous publications, and might as well have
slept in his sepulchre, for with their author
they have returned to dust, Stebbing's Ora
tions are trifles poor and jejune. Not so the
masterly discourses of Sherlock, so much, so
justly,, and so permanently admired for serious
ness, solidity, and sound theology f.
* Some one having observed, at the table of Archbijhop
Seeker, that the Monthly Ueyiewers were Christians, " Ifthey
are," replied the Primate, " it is secundum usum Winton,"
f Sherlock rose quickly to honours and dignities in the
Church, His Use and Intent of, Prophecy was an answer
to Collins, During the Bangorian controversy, he wrote
likewise A Vindication ofthe Corporation and Test Acts, His
public charities were numerous ; and at the suggestion of the
Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign Parts, he pub
lished at his own expense 2000 copies of his Discourses for
dispersion in Araerica and the islands. The celebrated pas-

18th Cent.] geohge ii. jg/
The excellent Seed was curate to Waterland
at Twickenham, and there spent the greater
part of his life. His Sermons are distinguished
for imagery and scriptural allusion.
Law was for some time tutor to Gibbon the
historian; who, though he reflects no great
credit on his master in regard to religious teach
ing, has the candour to record his n^erits as a
worthy Christian, who believed all he professed,
and practised all he enjoined. But though his
piety by degrees degenerated into quietisra, and
his last works are tinctured with the incompre
hensible mysteries of Jacob Behmen, of his
eminent abilities no doubt was ever entertained.
He assailed Hoadly on the nature of Christ's
Kingdom, as well as on his " Plain Account
of the Sacrament," and proved himself more
than a match for his miti'ed antagonist. He
likewise ably attacked the objectionable parts in
Warburton's learned work. The divine Legationqf
Moses; and exposed the fallacy of that profligate
sentiment contained in MandeviUe's Fable ofthe
Bees, that private vices are public benefits. His
master-work, the Serious CaU to a devout and
holy Life, is deservedly popular and permanent.
Neither Theophrastus nor La Bruyere excelled
him in delineating characters; and malice, iu
sage, " Go to your natural religion," which Blair has styled
more than elegant, even truly sublirae, made a deep irapres
sion otl Lord Chancellor Hardwicke.
o3

198 THE REIGN OF [ISth Cent.
any age, might apply his sketches to indivi
duals. This book, if it meet a spark of piety in
any breast, will quickly kindle it into a flame;
and its pure morality is inimical to any ob
servance of the divine will that is less than
comprehensive and universal.
'* When at Oxford," says Johnson, " I took
up Law's Serious Call, expecting to find it a
dull book, as such books generally are, and
perhaps to laugh at it. But I found Law quite
an overmatch for me; and this was the first
time of my thinkirig in earnest about religion.'"
" The Spirit of Prayer " and " The Spirit of
XoiiJe" are raystical productions, but replete with
unaffected piety.
Newton and Locke supplied Hartley with
the first rudiraeiits of his wdl-known " Obser-
iiatiom on Man." The instrumentality of vi
brations to sensation and motion he learned
from Newton; and from Locke the doctrine of
association, Haller has showri that this notion
of vibration, itself a gratuitous assumption, at
tributes to the medullary substance of the brain
and nerves, properties of which they are wholly
incapable, Priestley laboured hard to pro've
Hartley a materialist, an imputation which he
professed to deprecate; but some tendency to
this character, contracted doubtless in his early
study of anatomy and physical science, has
given his works a popularity and currency in

ISth Cent.] GEORGE If. 199
Germany, thart execrablje dep6t of wild meta
physics and philosophical infidelity. Hartley
is introduced in this place chiefly by reason of
a small volume of Prayers and Meditations, less
known than they well deserve to be *.
Divinity and history were to the imraortal
Newton relaxations frora severer studies,
" God," said he, " governs all things, not as
the soul of the world, but as the Lord of the
universe. He is omnipresent, not virtually but
substantially; for power cannot subsist without
substance. A God without domiriion, provi
dence, and de^igrit is nothing hut fate 'and na
ture." Such,, ye German metaphysicians and
English sciolists ; isuch, ye Worshippers of the
God of Bolingbroke and Pope, .
" Who warms in the sun, and re&edies in the breeze ;"
such, ye pigmy pretenders, was the na
tural theology of that colossal mind which
carried the line and plummet to the farthest
* Ridicule was applied in the service of i-eKgiOD, by Dr.
Zachary Grey, a voluminous and miscellaneous writer. He
exposed several false notions in Newton's Account of Qanielj
exhibited Popery in its proper colours, and compared the
Quakers and Methodists. His Vindication of the Church of
England, his Century of eminent Presbyterians, and his Look
ing-glass for Fanatics, repose enshrined in dost : but his An
notations on Neal's Histoiy deserve a better fates He is
chiefly known as a commutator on Hudibras.
O 4

^00 TME REIGN Of [] Sth Cent.
jauge of the universe, and discovered. the laws
-which the Deity prescribes unto himself.
-, Newton's Observations on Daniel and the
Apocalypse, were an application of his histo
rical researches to divinity.'
Bentley, a man of prodigious attainments,
and who at the age of twenty-four had written
put for himself a Polyglot Bible in six eastern
languages, was the first preacher appointed to
deliver a course of Boyle's Lectures on the prin
ciple? of natural and revealed- religion. Here
he gave Atheism that blow which it has not
recovered. Ashamed to walk in operi day, it
has ever since sheltered itself beneath the mask
of Deism. Bentley died 1742. During his
controversy with Bishop Hare, respecting the
versi^c^tion of Terence, Whiston justly remarks,
that while Grotius, Newton, and Locke, though
laymen, were employed in sacred studies, it
was shame for thes;e clergynien to be disputing
ai)out a play -book.
Tl^e promotion of, that elegant scholar, Con
fers MiDDXETON, was obstructed by some hete
rodox opinions and lax sentiments* which he
broached. With his' Life of Cicero we have
here, no concern. As a divine, lie published, a
" iConforniity l;»et\veen. Paganism and Popery,"
the-materials of the recently cooked-up letters
signed Ignotus^ In commenting on Waterland,
who had attacked Tindars work, " Christiauity

] sth Cent.] GEORGE II. 201
as old as the Creation," he asserted the Scrip
tures to be not of universal inspiration, and
advanced other notions equally objectionable.
Samuel Clarke, having been appointed to
preach the Boyle's Lecture, delivered an able
course on the Being and Attributes of God. These
Sermons procuring his election in the ensuing
year, his second subject was the Evidences qf
natural and revealed Religion. Soon after this
he disputed with Collins on the iraraateriality
and iramortality of the soul. When raade rector
of St. James's he began to write his Sermons,
and prepared them with much care for the press.
In 1718, his Arianism began to appear in his
altering the doxologies for St, James's church,
by making them " To God, through Christ,
his only 3on," Many of these were dispersed
by the Society for Christian Knowledge, before
they were made aware of the alteration, Ro-
Jjinson, Bishop of London, wisely prohibited
his clergy from using these mutilated doxolo
gies. Clarke's Sermons and Lectures on the
Catechism were animadverted upon by the
watchful aud orthodox Waterland : and it is
certain that any man, entertaining such senti
ments as \i\s, shamefully prevaricates in sub
scribing the Thirty-nine Articles, or in re
taining preferment on the implied condition of
believing them,
CHA5friEH, an eminent Dissenter, formerlj-

202 THE REIGN OF [ISlh C
mentioned,, was commanded by Archbishop
Wake for his answer to GolUns on, Miracles.
H e iiad compared Gepi^^'IL in a funeral ser-
mori, to .I^ijig David; anda ribald publication
which followed that discourse, drew forth from
this pious man iri his own defence,'.*^ Hist07'y qf
the royal Psalmist. .;
Doddridge was another Dissenter of conspi
cuous piety and learning. His chief productions
are a controversiab treatisl^ against *' (Christi
anity not founded in' Argument ;" The Life qf
Colonel Gardner; The Rise mnd Progress qf Re
Ugion: in tke Soull and his practicat Family Eay
positor. He died of a decline iat ?Lisbon, arid
was there interred ; but a cenotaph '.to his me
mory was erected" by- hts flockrat Nortlv-
ampton. Leland, who in his sixth year had been seized
with the small-pox, which deprived bim for
twelve months of undlerstcinding and anemory,
on the return of his senses learned bis letters
anew, and was, early bent by his genius- to
watch the designs, of ififidelity. He answ-ored
" Christianity as old'ks the CreatiDn,"i assailed
Morgan's " Morab Philosopher," ^sand exposed
t\\e dangerous, parts of Bolingbroke's Letters
on History. For his Fiew of tlie Deistical Wri
ters he was oflfered only fifty pounds, which in
duced his friend Dr. Wilson to publissh the
work at his own expense^ : The best edition iis>

I8th Cent.] CJEORGE ii. 203
Brown's, with an original Appendix, contain-.
ing A View of Religion in the present Times.
Lardner, the master of Paley, the Columbus
of that pilfering Americus, is more celebrated
for his Credibility of the Gospel History, than
for the orthodoxy of his Qospel principles. His
chief work is published among Bishop Watson's.
Tracts. When the historian can write in candour
without spurious and canting liberality, he re
joices in his most pleasing task. With these
eminent sectarians we have to associate Isaac
Watts, a divine, a poet, and a philosopher;
who has left instructions for lisping infancy,
and meditations for profound research. The
Logic and Iraproveraent of the Mind are va
luable works ; but the Divine Songs are in a
higher degree staraped with originality and
fraught with usefulness. An average of 50,000
copies of his Psalms and Hymns is said to be
printed every year.
Among Dissenters, distinguished for abilities
and piety, raay be nurabered Mrs. Elizabeth
Rowe. Her memory is jierpetuated in her
Letters from the Dead to ihe Living, but chiefly
in her Devout Exercises of the Heart; the aspi
rations of which work, however, may be pro
nounced to be too warm for the gelid and trem
bling delicacy of a pnre female.
" The Religion of Nature delineated," was At

204 THE REIGN OF [l8lh Coif,
first intended by Wollaston only for dispersion
among his friends; but so highly was it ad
mired, that 10,000 copies were sold., His sys
tem includes a belief in particular providence and
in the immateriality and immortality of the soul.
As he wrote exclusively on natural theology, be
has sometimes been considered as a Deist; but
this is an unfair inference.
Wall, thc able defender of .infant baptism,
wrote in opposition to Gale, Whiston, and
Crosby, who all highly extol his candour and
piety. So zealous a friend was he to Atterbury,
that had that prelate been recalled, he was pre
pared t6 light up at his own expense the whole
of Whittlebury Forest.
Hekvey wrote the Meditations, at Stoke Ab
bey, in Devonshire; and on visiting the church
yard of Kilkhampton, in Cornwall, planned his
Contemplations among the Tombs. Of these
works the style is turgid and flower}', mislead
ing the young student by its false glitter. New-
come has converted both into blank verse.
Hervey was a most ainiable and judicious man ;
clothing the poor, rather than relieving them
with money: yet in urgent cases giving, not
trifling sums, but secretly four or five guineas
at a time.
While Hervey drew down the electricity of
virtue from above, and found in the stars of
heaven a volume of moral contemplation, Der-

18th Cent.] george ii. 205
ham inferred from the courses of the same ce
lestial luminaries, the being, providence, and ,at-
tributes of the Supreme Ruler. Addison first
brought the author of the Astro-theology into
notice, by wishing in the Spectator that he
were able to bestow upon him the best prefer
ment in the kingdom. He was to Paley the
same sic vos non vobis in natural theology that
Lardner was in the Evidences.
In this reign flourished Handel, a master of
the sublirae in music, who with mortal daring
imitated the choruses of heaven. In his monu
ment in Westmiuster Abbey, his figure is seeu
pointing to the first words of his own beauti
ful composition, " I know that my Redeemer
liveth." XIV- The Methodists, (and in deploring the
false direction of their zeal may we make rea
sonable admission of its sincerity!) the Me
thodists arose in England about the commence
ment of this reign *. The publications of the
infidel writers having become fashionable in
the university of Oxford, the Vice-chancellor
and heads of colleges published an edict in
¦
* Mosheim— Adams's Religious Worid displayed— Gregory's
Christian Church— Buck's Theological Dictionary— Brewster's
Secular Essay — Ingram on Methodism— Essay on Method
ism— Portra'et of Methodism— Crowther and Myles on Me*
thodism— Legh Hunt's Letters on Methodism— Manfs
Bampton Lectures— Nott ou Enthusiasm.

206 the reign of [ISth Cm.
1739, directing tutors to enlarge before their fe-
spective pupils on tlie principles bf the orthodox
¦faith, and the students, fo devote an increased
attention to subjects of religion. In corapliance
with this injunction, several pious individuals
united theiriselves for impirovemerit in exercises
of piety; and thus laid the foundation, like the
huts of Romulus, of a society which hath
spread to the furthest parts of the world, arid
may almost be said to have imprinted a new
character on a large portion of every Protestant
community. John Wesley, then fellow of
Lincoln College; Charles Wesley, student of
Christchurch; Morgan and Kirkham, severall}-
of Christchurch and Merton, together with a
few pupils of both the Wesleys, constituted the
first germ of this association. These were two
years afterwards joined by the celebrated Whit
field, and by Ingham, Broughton, and Harvey.
Their number now amounted to fourteen, who
all, saving the last, afterwards became preachers.
Their original employments were reading the
Greek Testament, visiting the sick in different
parts of the city, and consoling the prisoners
confined in the castle. It seems that some an
cient physicians, about the time of Nero, had
received the name of Methodists, by reason pf
the regular regimen under which their patients
wfere placed ; and tliis title was transferred to
the members of the new association, ffom the

18th Cent.] george ii. 907
resemblance of that ancient practice to the re
gularity of their lives and studies.
Candour will readily adrait, that the Me
thodists were instruraental in stemming that
torrent of infidelity which prevailed at the
time of their first appearance. Not content
with prayer, religious readings, and weekly
participations of the Sacrament, to their zeal
they annexed charitable contributions. Wesley,
having retrenched his own superfluous expenses,
proposed a fund for the indigent, which was
_ quickly raised to eighty pounds per annura. The
infant association had now acquired sufficient
strength to attract the jealous notice of the
senate of the university. But being patronized
by several raen distinguished for learning and
virtue, it flourished in defiance of the threat
ened persecution. A raission to Georgia in
order to convert the Indians having been agreed
upon, the two Wesleys, accorapanied by Mr.
Inghara and Mr. Delamotte, embarked, in 1735,
for America. At Savannah and Frederica they
were at firs^t favourably received; but sorae dif
ferences arising, they all speedily returned.
A connexion, which took place in 1737, be
tween the Moravians and Methodists^ intro
duced Wesley to Peter Bohler, a MoraviaiJ
teacher, whose conversation produced a change
in his notions of saving faith; so that, after
the painful service of ten years, he deter-

208 THE reign of [18th Cent.
minetf to leave off preaching, but was dissuaded
by Bohler, who advised him to preach faith until
he should have it, and afterwards because he had
it. Under Wesley and Bohler, a sraall society was
assembled in Fetter Lane on the first pf May
1738; and this the former considered, as the
origin of the Methodists in London. But in
about two years, Wesley separated, himself from
the Moravian brethren, having observed some
important alterations in their creed.
Previous to this period, Whitfield had opened
a new style of preaching in several ofthe Lon
don churches; inveighing against the vices of
the clergy, and maintaining the Solifidian doc
trines. Hitherto, both, he and Wesley had
professed a strict attachment to the articles and
liturgy of the Established Church", although
commonly adopting the Dissenting forms of
worship. But their eccentricities and irregula
rities could not be long endured in the regular
pulpits of the Establishment; a^d Whitfield
began to hold forth in the fields" and highways.
In 1738 he undertook the mission to Q^pr^ia,
which had failed in the hands of Wesley, and
with much higher success. .
Meanwhile Wesley, having removed to Bris
tol, formed a new society»fDf Methodists in that,
city, and extended his care to the jtieigh^puring
colliers of Kingswood, who, had lived in much
ignorance and profligacy, but. were prepared to

ISth Cent.] GEORGE ir. fi09
receive him by the preaching of Mr. Whitfield.
He produced a similar impression on the tin
ners in CornwaU; not, however, inattentive to
the parent society in London, which was ra
pidly gathering strength.
Soon after this, Whitfield returned from
America, and a total separation took place in
1741 betwixt the two leaders; Wesley haying
defended the Arminian principle of universal re
demption, while Whitfield openly broached the
Calvinistic doctrines of predestination and par
ticular election.
Of these preachers, Whitfield by his sono
rous voice, by. the novelty of field orator}-, and
by that style of exhortation which has beeu
styled rousing, searching, and awakening, drew
together the larger assemblies : while Wesley,
by a calm and dispassionate simplicity, gained a
surer hold on tender natures. Wesley's place of
worship was the Foundery in Moorfields, which
Whitfield forsook for the open air; though
he soon founded a new house in Kingswood,
and established a seminary for Calvinistic
preachers. Although the foUowers of both preachers
are to this day termed Methodists, they have
little in coramon except their form of wor
ship ; and the appellation properly belongs to
the Wesleyans.
Frora the irregularity of preaching in places
VOL, III, p

210 THE REIGN OF [ISth Cent.
not episcopally consecrated, the admission of
lay preachers was an easy advance. Yet the
Wesleys still held communion with the Esta
blished Church, with which, in opposition to
theirlaypreachers, they were adverse to disunion.
In Wesley's last Journal of 1786 and 1787, the
Separation of some societies is censured. To an
impartial observer, it seems a matter of little
consequence whether such an heterogeneous
hody should continue in external conformity
to the Church, or depart from it. Better au
avowed enemy than a pretended friend. Better
the vesture of Christ siraple as seamless, than
a party-coloured garment.
In propagating their different views, the
leaders were equally indefatigable. Whitfield
made several voyages to America, and there
established an Orphan-house in Georgia. This
was afterwards converted into a School of the
Prophets; but being supported by a traffic in
slaves, it was as a just judgment burnt to tlie
ground. Dr. Gillies of Glasgow, the annotator on
Milton, wrote the life of Whitfield. Wesley
has had several biographers; Coke, his suc
cessor in the superintendence, Hampson, White
head, and Moore; to whom may be now added
the voluminous Southey. Both itinerat^ts, how
ever, published, during their lit'es, accorints of
their travels in this kingdom and America;

1 sth Cent.] GEORGE II. 211
journals which well elucidate the principles, and
describe the progress of the sect. To a volume
of Wesley's Letters, Dr. Priestley annexed a
preface, expostulating with the Methodists on
their tenets, but giving them credit for activity
and zeal.
Wesley died in London in 1791, at the ad
vanced age of eighty-eight, and was interred
in the Foundery burying-ground. Dr. Coke
succeeded him in the care of all the churches; a
zealous itinerant, who died in 1812 on his pas
sage to India. His mantle is considered as
having fallen on the learned Adara Clarke, who
has now, however, retired from the cares of
public business.
The Wesleyans are chiefly Arrainians, though
some of their preachers incline to Baxterianisra.
This systera receives its name from the cele
brated Baxter, who admitted the absolute elec
tion of some, but denied the unconditional re
probation of any. Various merabers of the
EngUsh Church have adopted this hypothesis,
as a raode of reconciling the Calvinist and Ar
rainian doctrines.
Whitfield died in his 56tli year, at Newbury
Port,, near Boston in New England, A. D.
1770, and there lies buried. The sect, who
were Calvinists, found a warra partisan and
patroness in the Countess Dowager of Hunting-
p 2

212 THE REIGN OF [I8th Cent. '
don, ai|d after her decease another in Lady
Erskine. With regaTd;to the discipUne of the united so
cietie^ rules were, in 1743, circulated for its di
rection. In these the nature and (design of a Me
thodist association are stated to be, A company
of men having the form and seeking the power
of godliness, united in order to pray together,
to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch
over one another in love, in order that they
may affbrd mutual help in the working out of
their salvation. Each society is divided into
classes of a'bout twelve or twenty persons each,
one of whorii is styled a class-leader, appointed
in order to advise, reprove, comfort, and exhort
his class, as he finds occasion. He is to visit
each person of his classonce a week, and to solicit
from hiin money for the use of the poor and
the success of the Gospel. The class-leader
has also to meet the minister and stewards once
a week, in order to give notice of any sick
or disorderly members, to show his accounts, and
to pay his coUections. At 'ik& weekly meeting
of each class an hymn is sung; then foUow
prayer, conversation respecting Christian ex
perience, arid suitable advice deflivOred by the
leader on each particular case.
Band meetings consist of four or five per
sons assembling to converse more freely on
religious subjects, thari could be done iji.a pro-

1 sth Cent.] GEORGE ii. 2 1 3
miscuous class. The members are presented at
every quarterly meeting with a ticket marked
B, which will admit the holder into these select
meetings. Once in every month, a love-feast
is observed ; and occasionally there is likewise a
custom of singing and praying, from eight
o'clock in the evening until twelve. This is
termed a watch-night ; and is a quarterly assera
blage, where three or four preachers oflSciate.
None are adraitted to the love-feasts without a
ticket signifying their being members, or an order
from a superintendent. After singing and prayer,
plain cake and water are distributed, to denote
union in the bonds of love. Several raerabers
then usually declare their experience, and a col
lection is made for the poor; after which the
meeting concludes as it had begun, with prayer
and spiritual songs. The love-feast is considered
as distinct from the Lord's Supper, where bread
and wine are used. The forraer is regarded as
an edifying observance ; the latter, as a positive
institution. The texts, Jude, 12, and 2 Peter,
ii. 13, are quoted in defence of the love-feasts.
They are always nuraerously attended ; but are
not young persons of both sexes, being out at
that late hour of darkness, needlessly thrown
into circumstances of strong temptation?
A desire to be saved from sin, and to flee
from tlie wrath to come, is the only requisite for
admission iuto these societies; and they expect
p 3

214 THE REIGN OF [ISlh Cent.
this to be manifested by ceasing to do harra, to
use no uncharitable or unprofitable conversation
(not thinking it at all an infringement of this
rule, to abuse the established clergy), to do unto
others what we would wish them to do unto us
(here the foregoing parenthesis may be repeated),
and finally to observe what is most conducive
to the glory of Christ, as, abstaining from diver-
.sions, frora putting on costly apparel, and from
the singing of songs or the reading of books incon
sistent with the spirit of religion. Here it will be
observed, that a greater stress is laid upon vio
lations of sanctity, than on violations of those
two important social duties, truth and integrity.
All who contiriue in the societies are further
requested to practise benevolence, both towards
the body and soul ; including the charities of
alras, admonition, and instruction. They must
especially do good to those of the household of
faith — that is to say, to the Methodists; buy
ing of one another, and employing each other
in preference to indifferent persons. For this the
reason assigned is curious, viz. because the world
loves its own, and speaks aU manner of evil of
them falsely for the Lord's sake ; V as if the
world would not repair to the cheapest and ho
nestest dealers, to whatever sect they belonged."
" Get all you can," was the address of Wesley ;
" save all you can; give aU you can." This was
the burdeii of the song;, and is so to this day ;
the horse-leecii hath two daughters, crying,

iSih Ca/t.] GEORGE ri. 215
Give! give! The Methodists are enjoined, far
ther, to evince their desire of salvation by at
tending on all the ordinances of God. These
are rules which, it is said, the Spirit of God
writes on every truly awakened heart.
To the Wesleyan connexion belong circuits
and conferences. Fifteen or twenty congrega
tions, lying round a principal society, generally
in a market-town, and no one being more distant
from another than twenty miles, are called a cir
cuit. At the annual conference, two, three, or
four preachers are appointed to each circuit, ac
cording to its extent, which sometiraes includes
a part of three or four counties. Here, and here
only, are they to labour for one year ; thatis,
until the next conference. A continuance of
two years is rare. One of the preachers in
every circuit is denorainated the assistant; or
was so called at first, when Wesley, like Moses,
made this arrangeraent, to lighten his own bur
den of attention. This superintendent inspects
the societies and their preachers ; enforces the
rules every where; and directs the labours of the
ministers in association with him. He takes a
central station, furnishes the other preachers
with a plan of the circuit, and points out the
day when each shall be at the place fixed for
him, to begin a progressive motion round it, in
such order as the plan directs. Thus, like satel
lites, enlightening every payt of the central orb,
P 4

216 THE REIGN ov> [\ Stk Cent.
the preachers follow each otlier through all the
societies belonging to that circuit, at stated dis
tances of time, all being governed by the sarae
rules, and undergoing the same labour. By this
plan, each preacher's daily work is appointed be
forehand ; eaeh knows every day where the
others are ; intelligence of the motions of all is
delivered from the several pulpits; and each so
ciety is aware when to expect the preacher, and
how long he will quarter hiraself upon their far
milies. The preachers are unconscionable spum-
gers ; and the humbler members are, by these
visitations, and the charitable contributions to
gether, keptin the continual struggles of poverty.
' A number of circuits, usually from five tp
ten, compose a district ; the preachers of which
asserable annually, for the purposes of exaraiur
ing preachers coraplained of, in regard to doc
trine, practice, or abilities ; to order raatters rela
tive to the building of chapels; to provide for
the support of preachers ; and to elect representr
atives for the conference or general meeting.
To scrutinize the character of every preacher
— rto change the stations— to regulate the circuitsi
and subordinate assemblies— r;to review doctrine
and disci plinerr-and to arrange the principal bur
siness of the connexion-rrare the chiief objects
of the conference. ,The first conference was
held in 1744; after which Mr. Wesley presided
at forty-seven, in as many successive yeafs. The

IStkCent.] GEORGE II, 217
minutes of each conference are registered, as
rules for the future practice of tbe society. The
preachers are appointed to more or less arduous
situations, according, 1st, to their grace—that
is, faith and sanctity ; Sdly, to their gifts, or
talents for preaching; and, Sdly, their fruits, or
the numbers they have actuaUy converted. The
conference is annually held in some large town,
and is the supreme court of Methodism, from
which there is no appeal. Its business is gene
rally transacted in a fortnight.
Itinerant preachers are at first admitted as pri
vate merabers of the society ; after a quarter of
a year's trial, ^ they rise to the rank of proper
members : the next step is that of class-leadei-s,
allowed to exhort in the smaller congregations
when the preachers cannot attend. If approved
jn this line of duty, they are permitted to preach.
The difierence betwixt exhorting and preaching,
it may here be proper to state, may be gathered
from one of Polwhele's anecdotes of Methodisra,
in which he introduces a master accusing his
servant of having preached at a barn meeting.
The prevaricating Methodist denied the charge ;
but proof positive being produced, he inge
niously persisted in his negation : " I did not
preach, I only exhorted." — " And pray. Sir,
what is the difference?"—" Great: preaching
is preaching with a text ; and exhorting is
preaching without one."
When approved of as exhorters, a permission

218

THE REIGN OF

[isth Cent.
is granted to preach ; and out of these local
preacliers are selected the itinerants j who, after
having been regularly proposed and approved, are
appointed, at the conference, to a circuit. Their
characters and conduct are strictly exarained ;
and if tbey still continue irreproachable for four
years, they are admitted into full connexion.
Men of no talents are withdrawn from the cir
cuits ; and immoral preachers are deprived even
of the privileges of private members.
This formidable sect is progressively increas
ing. From the minutes of the conferences thc
following table is extracted :

1767  25,911
1770  29,046
1775  38,150
1780  43,830
1785  52,433
1790...... 71,568
1795  83,368
1805  125,286
1808  151,145

1809  157,921
1 8 10,not clearly stated
1811  168,763
1812 ...... 182,947
1815  211,066
1816  220,222
1817  :. 238,445
1818  S14,701

Decrease in Ireland in 1818  751 1
These numbers refer only to the English and
Irish Methodists. In 1805 the numbers of the
whole society stood thus : —

2

ISth Cent.] GEORGE ii, Sig
In Great Britain  101,915
Ireland  23,321
Gibraltar  40
Araerica, including 22,000
coloured people and
blacks  124,978
250,254
In 1808.
United States of Araerica . . 151,590
Other parts of ditto  999
Europe  151,145
West Indies  13,806
317,531
1809.
Europe,  157,921
Gibraltar  40
West Indies  , 12,500
British Araerica  , 1,121
United States  , 159,500
331,032
Increase in one year ...... ' 14,000
1810.
Britain  145,604
Ireland  23,149
British America  1,390
West Indies  1 1,892
ynited States  170,000
352,035

220 THE REIGN OF [ISlh Cent.
1812.
Total  367,401
1815.
Total  440,000
1816.
Total -.  .-  452,222
1817.
Total  464,203
1818. ¦
75th Annual Conference . . 463,046
It is to be observed, that these numbers de
note only those pfetsoris aictiially registered In the
connexion : if we add the atteridants on the ser
vice of the chapels— the Whitfield(pr Calvinis
tic) Methodists — ^and the various sects whose
principles and behaviour are akin or analogous to
Metljiodism-^the sum tptal will exhibit a most
forraidable front, arrayed against the friends of
orthodoxy and the Establishraent. Of the Ar
minian, Evangelical, and Baptist Magazines, an
average- of 30,000 copies each is said to be
printed. To the numbers of the Evarigelical
Magazine, heads of the preachers are prefixed;
and so large is the impression every month

ISth Cent.] OEOtiGE ir. 221
struck off^, that two copper-plates of the same
head are required.
With the IVIethodists, in short, throughout
the world, nearly a miUion of persons are con
nected. In 1 808 it appeared that in one year
128 chapels had been built, 97 preachers ap-
poiiited, and 8000 persons added to the com
munity. After Wesley's death, the perplexing question
arose, whether the Lord's Supper should be ad
ministered by the Methodist preachers not ca
nonically ordained ; and the decision of the
leaders was issued from the conference at Leeds
in 1793: " Desirous to adhere to the plan laid
down by Mr. Wesley, who never departed from
his attachment to the Church of England with
out extreme reluctance and the most urgent ne
cessity, we again and again denied the requests
of those who wished to receive the eucharist
from the hands of their own preachers. But,
fearful of disunion, we now permit the sacra
raent to be adrainistered by preachers in our
connexion, yet only where the whole society is
unaniraous in deraanding it. And, even in such
cases of exemption, it shall be celebrated in the
evening only, and according to the form of the
Church of England."
The Kilhamites, or New Connexion, sepa
rated from the Wesleyan Methodists in 1797.
These are the democrats of Methodism. They

222 THE REIGN OF [ISth Cent.
maintained, that the people should have a voice
in the temporal concerns of the societies, vote
in the election of church-Officers, and give their
suffrages in spiritual matters.
But the proposition being negatived in con
ference, a new plan of itinerancy was formed ;
and the seceders derived their name from Mr.
Kilham, the secretary. The circuits of the new
connexion were supplied with preachers, and
rules of church-governraent drawn up. By
these, the preachers and people are incorporated
in all meetings where business is transacted ; and
thisnot merely by teraporary concession, but by
the essential principles of their constitution :
for the private raembers elect the class-leaders ;
and though the leaders nominate the stewards,
that nomination is invalid without the confirm
ation of the society. The quarterly meetings
are coraposed of the general stewards and re
presentatives, chosen by the diflFerent societies
of the circuits ; and the fourth quarterly meet
ing of the year appoints the preacher and dele
gate of every circuit that shall attend the ge
neral conference *.
This separation, though hinging principally
on lay interference in church-government, in
cluded the resolution not to receive the sacra-
* See General Rules of the New Connexion ; and Preface
to the Life of Kilham. In 1806 the New Connexion boasted
qf l5i circuits, 30 preachers, and 5916 members.

IStk Cent.] GEORGE II. 223
ment from the ministers of the established
church. Among the varieties of Methodism, we may
distinguish the Jumpers and the Crawlers. The
worship of the Welsh Jumpers is remarkable
for the rite of leaping very high till the spirits
are quite exhausted ; the gesture being accom
panied with the shout of Gorgoniat, the Welsh
term for glory. They also cry aloiid. Amen ! or
repeat a .stanza several times; declaring the pur
pose of their saltatory exertions to be an at
tempt to catch the Lamb. Williams, the Welsh
poet, defended this practice by the example of
David, who danced before the ark, the babe
who leaped in the womb of Elizabeth, and the
cripple who leaped and praised God on the re
moval of his lameness. Of the Crawling Me
thodists, in Cornwall, we learn only from Mr.
Polwhele, that they pray in the dark, on their
bare knees ; and tliat their orgies are sometiraes
not to be naraed. Concerning the Bathos in
Methodism and absurdity, the Quaker Method
ists of Lancashire, suflScient mention has been
made in our preceding volume.
Mr. Graves early exposed the delusion and
artifices of the Methodists, in an admirable vein
of' satire, which runs through his Spiritual
Quixote. To the Whitfield Methodists we have al
ready offeied a sufficient reply, in our disserta
tion on the Calvinistic points. Neither need

224 THE REIGN OF [ 1 8th Cent.
we repeat, unless summarily, the arguments
formerly advanced, in favour of the right suc-
cessitDn ofa Christian ministry: or those exposing
tlie vitiation of the sacraraents and other offices,
•when performed by the lay preachers of Me
thodism*. Our present concern is mainly with
the principles peculiar to the Wesleyans, or
common to all the members in the Methodist
community. The points to be exarained are, 1.
Justification, that is, remission of sins and ac-
ceptableness before God, through faith only :
2. The new birth, or instantaneous, perceptible,
involuntary, indefectible conversion : 3. The
witness of the Spirit; or assurance of reconci
liation to God : and, 4. Christian perfection.
How far are these doctrines consonant to
Scripture? 1. If, by the doctrine of justification through
faith only, the Methodists mean to affirm, that
he who relies on faith in Christ, rests on the
only true foundation, in opposition to those who
put their trust in any measure of good works,
as sufificient to procure salvation, the opinion is
orthodox ; it is the belief of the Church, of
England ; and God forbid that we should con-
* During the civil wars, the Independents corrupted the
text. Acts, vi. 3, in order to give the people a right to choose
their own pastors, " Look out seven men, whora ye (instead
of we) mny appoint over this business," For this forgery the
printer received ^15G0,

18th Cent.] GEORGE II. 225
tradict or irapugn it. But if it be asserted, as it
is, that there can be a justifying faith, totally
independent of works, as evidences of its ge-^
nuineness; this principle is inconsistent with
the Articles of the English church ; since the
12th expressly aflSrins, that although works can
not of theraselves put away sins, yet they do
spring necessarily out of a true and Uvely faith ;
insomuch, that by thera, a lively faith raay be as
evidently known, as a tree discerned by its
fruits. What is this to say, but that, if works
be not present, there is no true and lively faith?
And that Article is clearly conforraable to Scrip
ture; since "God created us in Jesus Christ,
unto good works," Eph, ii, 10; — since " Christ
died to purify unto himself a people zealous of
good works," Tit, ii, 14; — since we must be
doers of the word, and not hearers only ; and
since every one will be rendered unto according
to his deeds, whether they have been good or
evil, Rora. ii. 6. Consult, on this head, the
whole Epistle of St. James; where faith, if it
have not works, is said to be dead, being alone;
and Galatians, the 5th chapter and 6th verse,
which pronounces, that in Christ Jesus, nothing
availeth, but faith which worketh by love.
That we do not overcharge the Methodist
interpretation of faith, is apparent from the
words of Wesley himself " The moraent,"
said he, " ,that I ara confident, that Christ
• VOL, m. Q

S2$ THE REIGN OF [iSth Cent.
died for my sins, that moment I am justified."
Now, it is certain, that sanctification raust ac
company justification; for we are told, Heb. xii.
14, that " without holiness no man shall see
God :" that reperitarice precedes a saving faith ;
Mark, i. 15, " repent ye, and believe the Gos
pel:" and that fruits meet for repentance, are
necessary as tests of its genuineness, Matt. iii.
8. When we are called to make our election
sure, and to work out our own salvation, it is
evident that election and salvation depend, in
Some measure, on our own conduct. If justifi
cation, then, be stated as being solely the gift of
God, independent of any effbrt of our own,
these texts are unmeaning, and the moral agency
of man is destroyed.
The Methodists fail to advert to the distinc
tion between first and final justification : our
first is the mere act of God's favour ; and takes
' place on our baptism or regeneration : our final
justification, our acquittal , at the day of doom,
depends on our walking worthy of our voca
tion ; on our making our calling and election
sure. Coloss. r. 12, IS, 14; Rom. v, 18; ii. 6,
7, 8; Coloss. i. 10; 1 Cor. iii. 4—16. It is
evident, from the whole tenour of the Epistles,
that they who have received the former justifi"
cation, are in danger of losing the latter, through
their own perverseness. A curse and solemn
admonitions aie set before the elect and the jus
tified.

iSjth.Cent.] CEORGE ir. 227
Sometimes, however, a slight and passing al
lowance is made, that faith must be evidenced
by fruits ; for, as some author has well observed,
if the sectarists should dare to pronounce raora
lity superfluous, the civil magistrate would in
terfere, to check so dangerous a system. By
keeping, however, morality in the back ground,
and giving a bold relief to faith, by saying
a great deal about faith, and very little about
works, much mischief is achieved. This false
interpretation of faith is very artfully sup
ported by the production of garbled passages,
of clauses separated from their context, or even
from the sentence to which they belong, which,
if honestly produced, would exhibit a very dif
ferent meaning. How often, to cite only a
single instance, do we hear the quotation, " The
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."
By turning to the whole verse, however, we
find it run thus : " If we walk in the light, &c.
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all
sin." And that we may not mistake the mean
ing of the phrase, walking in the light, the
sarae Evangelist writes, " He that saith he is in
the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness,
even until now."
And even araong those who admit the in
dispensableness of works, the most pernicious
errors prevail, in .regard to the nature and de
gree of the raoral services deraanded. In place
q2

228 THE REIGN Of [l8/A Cetlt ^
of the true vintage of the Christian virtues,
they display a specious luxuriance of wild
grapes. Sorae, content with outward arid de
monstrative works, with decency and sobriety,
with attendance on the worship of the conven
ticle, and with extraordinary zeal in conversion,
continue enslaved to a worldly mind ; addicted
to over-reaching and equivocating, if not to
open falsehood and dishonesty. Censorious
ness, impure thoughts, malice, peevishness, and
the other less scandalous offences, often remain
unchecked in the characters of such devotees.
Others, misinterpreting the scriptural term,
" love," by which faith is said to work, centre
the effects of their faith, in lavish and self-im
poverishing donations to missionary societies,
to funds for converting Jews, and to other re
ligious institutions. " These ye ought to do,
and not to leave the other undone."
The Chnrch of England denies tbat good
works are valiiable, when considered as merit in
man. She avers that they are necessary as evi
dences of justifying faith. ^She aifirms, that
when St. Paul speaks of faith saving without
works, he alludes either to ceremonial works, or
to mdral works preceding faith, and independ
ent of it; and that when St. James mentions
faitii saving by works, he Tefers to works which
follow faith and are its fruits.
It is much to be feared, that riiany preacher*

18th Cent.] george ii. S!^
araong the sectaries, by insisting in a pererap
tory, unguarded, unscriptural raanner, ou the
exclusive efficacy of faith, by depreciating good
works as something which it is presumptuous
even to mention, as the sin of self-righteous
ness to be exceedingly dreaded, as indiscrirai
nately and in all their shades, filthy rags ; by
railing at raoral preaching ; and representing the
coraraandments, and the sermon on the Mount,
as delivered to hurable the pride of man, to de
duce the impossibility of his perforraance, and
to dictate his reliance on faith, unqualified
faith, as the only service he can yield, lead
hearers, whose minds are really depraved, to
deem themselves secure in the strength of their
faith, without directing much concetn to the
^duties of morality. Even the handwriting
on the wall, the compunctious visitings of
nature, the silent reproaches of conscience,
which break through the adamant of inoperative
faith, are represented as artifices ofthe terapter
to draw those with whora they are farailiar,
away from the Saviour, Christ, But if a man in
judgraent shall dare to say. Lord, we are justi
fied by thy death ; we are washed in thy blood ;
we are clothed with thy righteousness ; all this
thou hast done for us ; and, therefore, we need
ed not to do any thing for ourselves ; take that
.js thine own— !-may not that man halve just occ^-
q3

330 the reign Of [ISth Ctnt.
sion to dread the doom. Cast ye the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness *?j
In whatever degree iniquity and salvation
are reconciled, it little matters whether devo
tions are oflfered to the Supreme Being> or whe
ther the trarisgressor lives in bold and open rieg-
lect of him; and truly did Dr, Johnson affirm,
that to find a substitution for violated morality,
is the leading featute in all perversions of reli
gion. We cannot fail to observe the gross contra
dictions, in which the more temperate Me
thodists, when stating the gVeat doctrine of
faith, involve themselves. It is a thing ab
stracted from works ; and yet no faith is true
without them. It is the gift of God, to
wards obtaining which we can do nothing; and,
nevertheless, we are commanded to pray for it.
We are condemned for the want of it; yet we
cannot stir a stpp till it is wrought- by Omrii-
potence. " Lord, who shall dwell iri thy holy
hill?" saith David: "even he that Walketh up
rightly, and worketh righteousness." But God,
* Yet such are the opinions advanced by Dr. Hawker;
" they are not arraigned for their sins, but receive the reward
of their Redeemer's merits." The same divine terms tiie
tjook, entitled, A Week's Preparation for the Sacrament, a
swarm of weakness and folly. But the servant, viho'frepared
not himself, is, beaten with many stripes. Thus do all the es
sential doctrines of Christianity disappear, when touched by
the talisman of Methodism.

18th Cent.] «EORGE ii. S31
say the Methodists, finds out the ungodly and
unholy to glorify his power ; and it often hap
pens, that the gieater the sinner, the greater the
saint. Thus repentance is delayed, under the
irapression, that faith in Christ will, when it
arrives, be repentance sufficient; and sins are
repeated, in the conviction that his blood is as
efificacious to obliterate an additional stain, as to
eflFace guilt already coraraitted. And every one
knows how coraraon is the address in Methodist
discourses ; Corae, come to Christ ; and the
larger the roll of your oflfences, the more wel
come will you be in his courts.
That our Saviour laid a stress on good works,
such as a Methodist of the present day would
not deera justifiable, is evident from Luke, x.
25, 26, 27, 28 : " Master, what shall I do to
inherit eternal lifer" — " What is written in the
law.?"—'* Thou shalt love thy God, and thy
neighbour as thyself."— ^" This do, and thou
shalt . live." Christ would not have delivered
his beautiful sermon on the Mount, if believing
on his raerits did not fully iraply the practice of
all the raoral virtues therein enuraerated. Christ
would not have delivered his description of the
day of judgment, if visiting the sick, and feed
ing the hungry, were not indispensable works
to salvation through faith in his merits.
2. Another Methodist tenet to be examined,
and refuted, relates, in various ways, to conver-
Q 4

232 the reign of [18th Cent.
1
sion. Now, even to the terra "conversion,"
sorae exception may be taken. It has been erro
neously held to be synonymous with regenera
tion, or the new birth ; for, nothing can be more
clear, than that wfe are regenerated when we are
baptized*. To apply to regeneration a diflferent
meaning frora baptisra, is to stumble at the thres
hold of the sanctuary "(¦. "Except a man be
born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven," must not be applied, in strictness, to
conversion; nor is it asserted in Scripture, or
true in fact, that a strong and marked change,
capable of being dated as to its origin, from
extreme wickedness, to entire virtue, takes place
in every individual, or is necessary tb every in
dividual's salvation. That it takes place in
sorae, in mariy individuals, is allowed ; and Me
thodism can boast signal proofs of so happy a
transition. That all men require repentance, is
not less certain : but they require it in regard to
habits and heavier offences, not once only, but
at frequent intervals ; and as to lapses and in
firmities, every day of their lives.
That mode of preaching, therefore, which con
siders a congregation as divided into the two
great classes, of hardened sinners, and saints
who have passed from death to life, is injudicious,
* See Mant on Regeneration ; Quarterly Review,T-Bishop
Bull's Sermons.
f Scott, however, asserts, that baptism is not regeneration :
but of this more hereafter.

18th Cent.] george ii. 233
injurious to raorality, not warranted by Scrip
ture, and not built on a basis of fact*. All raen,
the very best, are sinners, and require to be
daily put in remembrance, concerning the ne
cessity of amendment. But many men there
are, who, though oftentiraes erring, are not
given over wholly to a reprobate raind; who
have been well educated, who have understood
the Scriptures, and lived religiously frora their
j'outh — and who are to be adraonished to be
ware of falling away frora Christ, rather than
to be invited to turn unto hira. Every congre
gation contains nurabers of regular worshippers,
whose consciences are in general void of oflfence;
who live, having the fear of God before their
eyes; whose principles are sound, and whose
practice is for the most part, upright; yet who
are occasionally overcome, or in danger of being
overcome, by the corruption of their nature or
the seductions of the world ; and who are ever
peculiarly exposed to the assaults of the sin
which most easily besets them. Of others the only
error consists in some slender fiaw, some slight
offence, some obliquity of disposition : and their
repentance (for it cannot be called renewal or
conversion) will resemble the few fine touches
given by-the fastidious artist to a painting al
ready beautiful, or the steady settUng of the
* See Paley's Seventh Serraon, Reflections on Methodism,
p, 20.

234 THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
magnetic needle, after some of its more trem
bling vibrations. To warn these various cha
racters of their danger ; to preach to thera con
tinual watchfulness ; and to propose such argu
ments and remedies as are suited to the peculiar
circurastances of their souls, is the most essen
tial part of a minister's duty;— a part over
looked in the preaching prevalent among Me
thodist divines, who only concerned to huddle
aU the alarmed profligate alike into the one fold
of the Gospel, pay little attention to the ar
rangement of their behaviour within its pale.
But conversion is further stated by the Me
thodists to be INSTANTANEOUS *. They have no
notion of a gradual process of repentance ; of
a man's partial conversion ; of his vacillation and
alternation between duty and disobedience; of
his being awakened, and faUing away. Re
pentance is something from without, which falls
upon their converts in a miraculous monient with
all the rapidity and force of a flash of lightning.
It is wrought by an extraneous power, without
any contribution of their own ; and only at a
time determined by the will of God. Their ex
perience can ascertain, by some sensible glow,
the moraent when this change took place. They
are then assured of salvation; and, though
* Wesley's Third Journal, p. 16 j Bishop Lavington j vol. i.
p. 33, 34

iS'th Cent.] george ii. 235
guilty of frequent lapses, can never be totally
lost. Now, although in the case of an hardened
profligate, who repents, there must have been
some one raoraent, never to be forgotten, when
his first serious thought, his first strong com
punction arose; in many, and in raost instances,
this arises, and is stifled ; and returns, and is
stifled again*. At best, it is only a coramen
cing point ; and though one step towards safety,
it places not the penitent out of danger. But
Scripture signifies by turning unto Gk)d, a
progreissive and habitual state of improvement.
The wicked man is not only to repent, but to do
that which is lawful and right. It is only' when
this consequence of his repentance grows up
into a habit, that through Christ he saves his
soul alive. We are commanded to grow in
grace; to be daily renewed in the spirit of our
minds; to die daily; to shfne raore and more;
to add to faith virtue; to be built up as well as
founded in the faith ; to press forward to per
fection ; to rise to the measure of the stature of
Christ. Now, to what purpose all these injunc
tions, if conversion have taken place in one
mysterious raoment, and if there be a crisis in
sin, succeeded by invulnerable sanctity, or in
alienable allegiance ?
This notion of instantaneous conversion leads
* See Evangelical Magazine, 181 1,

236 THE REIGN OF [IStk Ccnti
on to the perilous reliance on a precarious death
bed repentance, so common among the Method
ist sectaries, and so much fostered by their pub
lications. " If you can only utter ' Jesus' at the
moment of passing away, I tell you, you are
safe*." How many, like the thief on the cross, or
the jailor at Philippi, have been surprised into
grace, at such seasons, by Him who calleth
things that are not as though they weref ! With-
"out, denying that in some peculiar instance the
grace of God may be extended to a penitent on a
death-bed, it is easy to ascertain to what manner
of life the diflfusion of these principles must
lead. A presumptuous dissolutiop, a dance of
death, the song of a religious swan, is in
itself an object of melaucholy contemplation.
Besides, being instantaneous, the conversion
of Methodism is perceptible. But if this notion
were just, what would mean the text, " The
wind bloweth where it listeth,, and thou
canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it
goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit?'/
or the other passage, " Whosoever is born of
God, overcoraeth the world. By this ye know
that my love is in you ; (not by any sensible
irapulse— -no ;) but by this, that ye keep ray
comraandraents. Whosoever is born of God— »
(the test is neither a glow nor a rapture, but thaiti
* Polwhele's Anecdotes of Methodism,
t Rawker's Poor Man's Portion,

ISth Cent.] GEORGE it. 257
he) doth not coramit sin" (1 John, iii. 9), that is,
allows not himself inany habitual sinful practice?
Mental agitations, occasioned by the alarras
excited by fanatical teachers, instead of being
a deraonstration of the illapse of the Spirit, are
usually to be ascribed to causes siraply physical.
They are stronger in youth than in age, in
health than in sickness ; in nervous exciteraent
than in the languor of exhaustion : and hence
arises the teniptatiou. to have recourse to arti
ficial stiraulants ; to strong tea and to ardent
spirits, the effects of which resemble the ener
gies of inspiration. As tests of conversion, or
repentance, therefore, they are not by any means
to be relied upon. The tests* proposed in the
Sacred Writings, are far less equivocal. " Search
the spirits, whether they be of God : for by
their fruits ye shall know thera : now the fruits
of the Spirit are these — love, joy, peace, raeek
ness, gentleness, patience." It is plain, then,
from Scripture and reason, that men, in talking
of conversion, should assign it to the particular
tirae (and that never can be an instantaneous
point), when their faith in Christ, and their
love to God, had ripened into comprehensive,
uniform, and sustained obedience ; that in raen-
* " There is not one syllable in Sacred Writ," says Water-
land, " to countenance the notion of such irapulses. It is all
mere fiction, invention, presumption, dangerous in its tend
ency' and issue,"

238 the reign of [ISth Cent.
tioning their convictions and experiences, they
should relate how they have acted, not what agi^
tations or incandescencies, what visions, voices,
whisperings, or trances, have been theirs;
that they should recount their substantial fruits
meet for repentance, rather than their fanciful
sensations. It is asked, however, may not moral effects
co-exist with sensible impressions, as the tests
and evidences of renewal? No doubt they
might : but it will be diflficult to find Scriptural
authority, to justify an expectation of sensible
impressions. What we are here contending
against, however, is a reliance on these impres
sions, as the sole and exclusive proof of spiri
tual illumination. The first converts received
tongues of fire, and St. Paul was converted by
a light from heaven : but these visitations were
ascertained to be the impulses of the Spirit, by
the gifts of speaking different languages, aud of
working miracles, by which they were accom
panied. Such gifts being at present unknown,,
visions and internal feelings may be wholly ima
ginary, or may be occasioned by some natural
impulse on the frarae: and hence may a bold
and hazardous mistake be coraraitted, in ascribe-
ing thera to the influence of the third Person in
the Godhead.
Sherlock recoramends two tests, inward and
outward sigris of grace : the former, a pure

WhCent.] GEORGE n. S99
conscience, and sincere love for God and man :
the second, acts of obedience conformable to
this inward love.
There occurs not one word in the Articles of
our Church, which favours in the remotest
degree, either instantaneous or perceptible con
version. But this conversion, according to the creed
of Methodisra, is wrought solely and forcibly
by an extraneous power, and without any cou"
tribution whatever towards it made by the
recipient himself. Grace is said to be irrespec
tive and involuntary. Now, that by grace we
are saved through faith, and that not of our
selves, but the gift of God, is a doctrine not to
be gainsayed. But Scripture commands us to
solicit this spiritual gift ; to ask — to seek — to
knock. These are all contributions made by
the recipient, and made in the first instance,
as in every subsequent supply. God is ever
willing and ever waiting to be gracious ; and
it is certain dispositions on our part which
he looks for, in order to persuade hira to
carry this will into eflfect. It is the study to
improve the ordinary influences of his Spirit,
that renders us meet to receive accessions of
its strength. To him that hath shall be given,
in the ratio of the improvement of his talent.
Thus the work of conversion proceeds by co
operation, by action and re-action; the Spirit
of conversion is invited, and descends not by

240 THE REIGN OF ^ISth Ccpf.
force: the process ts gradual, from strength to
strength ; and the recipient makes contributions
to its early coraraenceraent, not less than to its
ultiraate corapletion. /
This opiriion, that conversion is forcibly
wrought by God alone, gives rise to the kin
dred doctrine, that it coraes only in God's good
time *. Under this persuasion, the Methodists
have invented tjieir notion of a call, which every
man raust needs wait for: and, if this hypo
thesis be admitted as a doctrine of religion, it is
diflficult to see what should restrain men, in the
time preceding this visitation, frora perpetrating
every species of crirae. But where, in sense or
Scripture, is the foundation for this jargon? A
call? Every ordinary means- of grace, every
weekly cessation of labour, every chime of the
Sabbath bells, discourses, afflictions, funerals
that pass along; every ache and every ailment;
every approving or condemning whisper of
conscience, is a call, and a call fdr the neglect
of which we must answer. God dealeth not
his Spirit either by measure or by time. Of his
calls, as there is no stinting, so there is no
delay. Every day — this day, the Spirit of God
speaks. This is the accepted time, this is the
day of salvation. Wherefore, " To-day, if ye
* " All our resolutions to mend onr ways come to nothing,
till God changes the heart." Fillage Dialogues, vol. i. p. 21.
3

\SthCent.] GEORGE ir. 241
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
To evade this obvious truth, the Methodists
have had recourse to the absurd hypothesis of
a general and a particular call: the general one
addressed in discourses and providences to all
men ; and the particular, which is effectual in the
case of the chosen individual. To this theory the
strong objection is, its conversion of man into
a machirie. Every man, by his moral agency,
may make this general call, a special and ef
fectual one, in his own case. God's voice is
heard, generally, and particularly, every day :
and we repeat the sentence, " To-day if ye will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
That the grace of conversion, thus instanta
neous and perceptible, thus extraneous and de
scending, not as a continual tender, but at sorae
period assigned by Heaven, isnot, when it falls,
to be 7'esisted, is the next erroneous notion ob
servable in the scherae of Methodisra ; though,
perhaps, the Arminian sectarists raay disclaim it.
It is certainly, however, implied in their ordi
nary conversation, when they ascribe the whole
work of their renewal to tlie omnipotence of
God; to an omnipotence "which sweetlj' dis
avows resistance," and leads us cheerful cap
tives in the silver chains of love *. But if we
could not resist grace, we could no longer be free
* Apology for Sunday Schools, p. 26.
VOL. ur, R

242 TH5 reign' OF [18th Ce7Tf.
agents; life would cease to be a state of pro
bation; and we should no further be capable of
reward or of punishment. It is inconsistent to
speak of moral agenc}', of moral responsibility,
of reward or of punishment in a future world,
if an overwhelming power, which we could
neither invite nor avoid, and not in some small
measure or contribution, our own choice, and
acceptance of grace tendered, have led us to
obedience, or by its absence left us in rebellion.
No doubt the Apostle teaches, that it is God
who, worketh in us, both to will and to do of
his good pleasure: but then his inference, the
comment contained in his following words,
must Ukewise be taken into the account: for
he guards the passage from misconstruction by
imraediately subjoining, " Wherefore, work out
your OWN salvation with fear aud trembling."
We are likewise exhorted, not to grieve the
Spirit of God; not to quench the Spirit: words
plainly intimating, that it may be grieved and
quenched; and that in whatever measure grace
is comipunicated to man, his depravity, is fully
competent to defeat its good intentions, to turn
from its calls, and to stifle its movements.
The whole code of divine laws, from Genesis
to Revelation, directly contradicts the dograa
of irresistible grace, and supposes a principle
of free will and Volition in man. " If ye will
obey IT)}' voice, ye shall be my treasure."

18^A Cent.] george ii, S43
Exod. xix. 5. " Why will ye die, O house of
Israel?" — "Because I called, and ye refused."
Prov. i. 24. Some receive the grace of God in
vain. " Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost."
Acts, vii. 21. Yet Sir R, HUl say.s, and says in
the very teeth of Scripture, grace is no grace,
unless it conquers every thing which opposes its
progress *,
Let not these observations be considered,
however, as derogatory, in any degree, to the
power of God. He is omnipotent, and might
confessedly have conferred his grace in such
measure, as to render huraan disobedience, or
rejection of it, in any particular case, altogether
impossible. Buthe is likewise just and wise, and
has left his creatures the option of obedience, or
of resistance to his Spirit, because such power,
such option, in wisdom and in justice, was neces
sary to them, as accountable beings.
The Spiiit of God comes not as the driving
whirlwind ; it rushes not as the overwhelming
torrent: it is the soft gale of summer against
which the vessel may strive, yet which is in
dispensable to the progress of the vessel; and by
whose gentle wafture, if she spread forth her sails,
she will be carried onward to her destined haven.
The spirit of conversion resembles not at all
those more fortunate seasons of the green isles
in the South, which, while man ' slumbers,
• Preface to Babington^'s Sermons, p, 8,

244 . THE RKtON OF [l8th Ctnt.
lapped in voluptuous indolence, can ripen for
hira the fruits of the earth : it is the genial
warmth, and the showers dropping fatness,
peculiar to these higher and liardier latitudes,
which, though indispensable to the productions
of the harvest, would be wasted but for the
tillage of the' husbandman,
A similar error of Methodism well deserving
to be combated, consists in deeming the grace of
conversion to be indefectible ; that is, in believ
ing, that, when once received, it never finally
deserts the favoured recipient. But some per
sons are said in Scripture to be given over to
a reprobate mind ; irt other words, spiritual
influences, once communicated and possessed,
have been totally and finally withdrawn from
them, " Cast me not aWay from thy pre
sence," said David, " and take not thy Holy
S:pirit from me:" surely, then, at the time of
petitioning, he possessed the Spirit of God;
and considered it as a gift capable of being
completely lost. And when we learn, that he
who" endureth unto the end, the same, the same
only, shall be saved; and that if any man draw
back, he may draw back unto perdition — we
perceive the possibUity of a lapse frorii a state
of grace, and of a lapse complete and final.
Assurance qf reconciliation with God, or what
is caUed the witness of the Spirit, is the last
doctrine relative to conversion, which is comraon
tp all orders of Methodists, Now, if \ye are

iSth Cent.] george u. 245
commanded to work out our own salyatiori with
fear and trembling, these, we will allow, arc
very opposite emotions to the confidence of full
assurance. St. Paul lumself, long after his con
version, expresses a fear lest he should be cast
away.. And if we are charged to make our
calling and election sure, then (to say nothing
of the contribution which must evidently bc
made by ourselves to that eflfect) the words can
only signify, that we may be in a state of call
ing and election ; that is, in a state of grace
and conversion, and yet not in a state of as
surance, as to our salvation *. For salvation
much depends on what we cannot be assured
of, the success of our resistance to future
temptation. If our calling be already sure,
why should we strive to make it so?
No doubt, a good man may be filled with
hope, even a strong and well-grounded hope,
which may comfort and refresh his soul. A
consciousness that he is living in no habitual
transgression, that the main motive of his con
duct is love towards God, that he renders to
him services sincere, though imperfect; and
that, after all, he owns himself an unprofit
able servant, and relies entirely on the Re
deemer for salvation — may yield to a devout
* Whitfield's 5th Journal, p, ty. Wesley's 2d Journal,
p, .30, K 3

246 THE REIGN OF £18/^ Ccttt.
believer much internal " peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost."
We are commanded, however, to " rejoice
with trembling:" and why should this fearful
ness be mingled in the cup of our holy exulta
tion, if it be not from the possibiUty of a state
of defection ? If this then be possible, there can
be no infallible assurance*. If this be possible,
then Mr. Wes,ley speaks presumptuously, when
he asserts, that the " Spirit does give a believer
a testimony of his adoption, by which he can
no more doubt the reality of his sonship, than
the shining of the sun." Again he writes, that
a condemned crirainal could rise frora his knees,
and eagerly exclaira, " I ara now ready to die.
I KNOW Christ has taken away my sins, and
there is no raore condemnation for me." (White
head's Life, vol. i. p. 69-) But is this "re
joicing with trembling?" Were we assured of
our salvation, we might speak of it with the
most unreserved confidence. But this could
never be reconciled with the adraonition, " Let
hira that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest
hefaU." Thus, the Methodist believes, that he can do
nothing until God changes his heart, and need
do nothing afterward;!. He assures himself of
salvation ; and all notions of contrition, repent-
* Vide Rom. v. 6, 8, 14, l«.

18th Cent.]! CEORGE ii. 247
ance, restitution, are totally obliterated within his
breast, -With this feeling he stifles conscience —
And with this sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanses the bosora of that perilous stuS"
That hangs about the heart.
A Methodist preacher in the Isle of Ely, a
year or two ago, had been left guardian to a
young woman, whose property he was to inherit
in case of her decease. He murdered her, and
was sentenced to execution. He' denied, how
ever, .his guilt to tlie last ; although confessing
the fact, the night before he suffered. This
was a pupil of assurance : and the history may
serve to remind us, that persons, with much
corruption remaining in their breasts, may bc
led by this pernicious error, to mistake the
fervour of their animal spirits, the flatteries of
their vanity, and the dictates of their presump
tion, for a witness of the Spirit to the cer
tainty of their eternal welfare, and may substitute
confidence for conversion. They invert the
right ratiocination, and argue from the con
clusion to the premises ; they first presume,
and take it for granted, that they are born of
God ; and then infer, that being so, they are,
and must be, without sin.
And others, the most pious, the raost vir
tuous, may be led in a similar manner, by false
views of agencies supposed spiritual, to distrust,
E,4

248 THE REIGN OF [ISth Cent.
as unreasonably, their enjoyment of the divine
approbation. Cowper had as little cause for
his despondence and occasional despair, as the
criminal above mentioned had for his blasphe
mous boldness.
Christianity is a religion of action upon the
foundations of principle and calm reflection. This
doctiine of assurance, like the kindred tenet
of perceptible conversion, reduces it to a reli
gion wholly of feelings, uncertain, variable, and
unsatisfactory. A healthy or a weak state of the
body — hunger or stimulating diet — animated or
languid preaching — solitude, or the comrauni
cated impulse of congregational enthusiasm —
elevations or depressions, produced by the wea
ther, by surrounding scenery, by a variety of
other circumstances — may exalt or abate a
man's opinion of his state before God, while it
actuaUy continues unaltered by any of these
agencies. They are therefore inadequate and
iraproper standards for measuring a sense of our
spiritual condition*.
* Dr. Watts was assured, that his nose was made of glass :
a lady in Pope's time was assured that she was a goose pie :
but did these assurances constitute facts? To substantiate
any supposition, tests and proofs are requisite,
" Our Saviour," says Sherlock, " tells us, that we may
know men by their fruits ; much rather raay we know our
selves by our own fruit^ ; especially when we raay know the
stock too from whence they groyv, the notions and workings
of our own heart. " Hence,

18/A Cent.] george ii. 249
No traces of this doctrine are to be found in
any of oui- Articles.
The Methodists hold the doctrine of Christian
perfection. They maintain, that by virtue of
the blood of Jesus Christ, and the operations
of the Holy Spirit, it is their privilege to arrive
at that maturity in grace, and participation of
the divine nature, which excludes sin from the
human heart, and fills it with peifect love to God
and man. This they denominate Christian perfec
tion, throwing out all inward sin. The texts on
which they found this doctrine, are the follow
ing: Deuter. vi, 5, and xxx, 6; Ezek. xxxvi. 25
— 29; Psalm cxxx. 8; 2 Cor. vi, 1; John, iii.
8 ; Ephes. v. 2.5 — 27 ; Rom, viii. 3, 4 ; Ephes.
iii. 14, 15, 16: all of which passages, any
unprejudiced mind will perceive, on inspecting
them, are quite irrelevant to the subject.
As to 1 Thess. v, 23; Matt, v. 48; Tit, ii.
14; Acts, XV. 9; it may be sufficient to ob
serve briefly, that the prayer and the wish con-
" Hence, it appears, that the evidence of the Spirit is not
any secret inspiration, or any assurance conveyed to the
mind of the faithful : but it is the evidence of works, such
as by the Spirit we may perform ; and, therefore, the only
sign of sanctification is holiness j and the only mark of grace
is to obey from the heart the word of God : and therefore
they err, not knowing the Scriptures, who from this or like
passages, imagine, that the Spirit ¦ ever gives, or was ever
designed to give, inward assurance or certainty to men,
of their future state." Disc. ?.

850 The reig.\ oir {I8^/i CeM.>.
tained in ,1 Thess. iraplies not, particularly! in
the eastern phraseology, the possibility of a
coraplete accoraplishraent of that ,wish ; for
what man was ever preserved entirely blame
less? To Matthew, v. 48, the same question
may be applied; for what man was ever
perfect as God is perfect? Agreeably to the
passage in Titus, ii. 14, we may be redeemed
from all iniquity, and zealous of good works,
and yet be guilty of numberless imperfectious ;
while Acts, xv. 9, refers to the equal mea
sure of grace accorded to the Jews and the
Gentiles. Wesley, indeed, guarded and quali
fied this doctrine, by stating, that it implied
not exemption from ignorance or infirmity, but
only from voluntary transgressions; and that
involuntary transgressions are not real sins,,
when the mind is filled with the Holy Ghost.
But hpw evidently is such a doctrine at vari
ance with morality! What sinner might not
pronounce all his sins involuntary, and ima
gine his soul filled with the Holy Ghost? Even
the Methodist of Ely might cover his murder
ous deed with such false and abominable con
ceptions !
Among the minor points of difference from
the Established Church, in which the various
descriptions of Methodists are agreed, we may
class their assigning it as a reason for their

18th Cent.] george ii. 251
schism, that the Gospel is not preached within
our places of instruction.
To this cavil several replies may readily be
furnished. 1. Most sectarists never repair to
church at all, to satisfy their own minds as to
the truth of the assertion; but believe it mainly
on the report of persons prejudiced by opposi
tion, or interested in railing against the esta
blished clergy.
2. How beneficial soever preaching may be
esteemed, it is only a secondary consideration iu
our public service. Devotion is the first and
essential point. And our adversaries themselves
acknowledge that the Church Liturgy abounds
in the soundest doctrines of the Gospel; nay,
they refer to it, in declaring, perhaps deceit
fully, that they would never forsake the
churches, if the ministry would preach con
formably to it. Whenever an Evangelical cler
gyman, however, gratifies this wish, their first
step is to plant a chapel by the side of his own.
3. If the Gospel is stated not to be preached,
- because the moral virtues are occasionally in
sisted on, we may remember, that an account of
two sermons is recorded in the Bible; which,
one would imagine, ought to be regarded by all
Christians as correct models of preaching. One
of these was delivered by our Saviour on the
Mount: the other by Paul, when arraigned be-
tore Felix. Refer to the former. Are there any
2

252 the reign of [ISth Cent.
abstruse doctrines, any knotty points in theo
logy, discussed in that admirable exhortation ?
By no means. It is replete with practical . in
structions, relative to prayer, to almsgiving, to
chastity, to simplicity, to forgiveness. And
how was it that Paul made Felix tremble? Not
by a treatise on faith without works, -:-not by a
dissertation on unconditional electiori,-^not by
an appeal to fervours and experiences ; but by
reasoning on vice and virtue, and their eternal
consequences; on lempera'nce, righteousness,
and judgment to come.
We have, therefore, a right to turn this ac
cusation against the Methodists, and to affirm,
that the Gospel, the whole and genuine Gospel,
is not preached in their conventicles. Discourses,
in which the doctrines of religion are so pro
minent iri relief, that its duties are^cast into the
back ground, or rather hardly introduced at all,
are fraught, when addressed to the ignorant,
with incalculable danger: How can morality
be expected from those persons, who hear of
nothing, save the all-suflficiency .offaith, aud the
sinfulness of resting on works* ? The tree must
be shown-in all the pride of its strength, and in
the full beauty of its fructification., Methodism
exhibits the root, but plucks oft" the foliage,
and nips the fruitage in the bud. Wheu faith is
* See Rowland Hill's Village Dialogues, vol. i. p.' 30, 31^,

18^A Cent.] george ii. 253
mentioned, are pains taken to explain it, at all
tiraes, as a principle which is only acceptable
when working by obedience ? or is not this ex
planation sedulously avoided as savouring of
Pharisaical boasting, and self-righteousness?
Sometimes we observe an affectation of con
tending with Antinomianisra, by aflfirming that
the moral law is not abrogated by the Gospel ;
but that here is the stupendous mystery — Christ
has fulfilled it in his own person. Very well,
then : and if he has fulfilled it, where is the
necessity for our paying any attention to it ?
Sonietimes we are told, with aflfected sanctity,
that the moral law is certainly a rule of life.
But what compels me to observe this rule of
life ? The sanction of rewards and punishments.
And if these are distributed by divine favour
and free grace, without any dem^and on the re
cipient, save faitii only, and even that wrought
on his mind by a power independent of his vo
lition, what becomes of his obligation to ob
serve this rule of life?
4. Every minister of the EstabUshed Church
does actually preach the Gospel. And though
it is to be regretted, that a few, perhaps, build
not morality on the basis of the doctrines, so
carefully as to bestow on it due strength and
permanence ; they may be expected, as a body,
because they are bound by their oath, to frame
their instructions agreeably to the Thirty-nine

S54 THiE REIGN OF [18th Ceut*
Articles, " and to tlie scope and fair sense of
Scripture. They 'may not, like 'Methodists,
continually harp upon the doctrines, and upon
the doctrines exclusively ; they may not sour
the tempers, and inflame the animosities of their
hearers, with perpetual words of controversy ;
but they fail not to afford the mysteries and pe
culiar truths of Christianity their due weight
in the scheme of instruction ; and to unfold the
whole counsel bf God. Bishop Watson, as ap
pears from his very discreditable meraoirs, was
constantly, during his lifetirae, exclaiming,
" No subscription !" But highly fortunate is it
that a standard of principles is set up, by which
ministers shall regulate their instructions. If
there were no such formulary, every different
teacher "might have a doctrine," and every
congregation would be tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine by
the slight of raan, and cunning craftiness where
by they lie iri wait to deceive. In the morn
ing, a Calvinist might roar unconditional repro
bation; in^the evening his Arminian successor
might descant on universal redemption : the
Socinian would obliterate the teaching of the
Trinitarian; and the Antinomian and the moral
preacher, the Independent and the Episcopa
lian, the Papist.and the Protestant, would all ring
their several changes in precious and beautiful
confusion. But the prescribed formularies of our

ItihCent.J CEORGE ii„ 255
church are still further valuable, by constantly
bringing the doctrines under the eye of the con
gregation, and preaching them, as it were, in
the surplice, and from the reading-desk: so
that even a minister who had secretly renounced
them, could not conceal them from his flock, by
confining his public teaching to moral dis
courses. Tliey wonld lift their voices frora be
neath his pulpit; they wonld speak in the form
of devotion ; they would remain in every pew
and prayer-book ; and if they did not shame
him into harmonizing his serraons with their
sentiments, they would at least defy hira to ba
nish them entirely from his church. Thus, even
under preaching the most purely moral, a man
endowed with honest dispositions, might find
in private devotion, and in the Liturgy and or
dinances of the Church, sufficient matter to
assist him in the working out of his salvation,
at the feet of any minister of the Establishment,
without finding occasion to ramble from its
pale. To this we raay subjoin in passing, that
the same observation may be applied to those
rare instances of personal immorality amongst
the established clergy, which are urged, with
similar sincerity, as a ground of dissent. " Of
the Immoralitv of Ministers, which hinders not
fhe Effects of the Sacrament," is the title of one
of our Articles. If it vitiate not the sacraments,
thep, much less can it impede any efficacy be-

556' THE REIGN oF ~ [18th Cent.
longing to the mere preaching of man. We
possess this treasure in earthen vessels; but it is
still the same inestimable treasure.
TiUotson, observed Whitfield, in his coarse
way of abuse, knew rio more of Christianity.
than Mahoraet did. Now, it is a pretty bold
method of speaking concerning an order pf
men, to whom the laws of God (which have
appointed an uninterrupted succession of priest
hood, even from the days of the Apostles),' and
the constitution of the country, which pre
scribes their intellectual and moral qualifications,
have coraraitted the rainistration of religion,
to assert that they preach not the Gospel, nor
even understand the religion they are appointed
to adrainister. If the clergy preach not that
which they are sent forth, and have undertaken
to preach, they are hypocrites, proraising one
thing, and doing the reverse ; and deliberately
betraying a cause while they pocket incoraes
given for its support. Against a body of men
so gener-ally respectable, to prefer such a charge
is, to say the least, soraewhat arrogant.
5. In the minds of some exceedingly igno
rant persons, the preaching of the Gospel is
identified with extemporary preaching. Now,
we may iask, is it cdncisived, that there is inspi
ration in this method of instruction? But
where, are the proofs of inspiration? prophecy,
miracles,, the gift of tongu^, or any ;extraor-

18^^ Cent.] GEORGE 11. 257
dinary powers conferred on the Apostles ? To
say that an extemporary preacher feels himself
inspired, is no proof that he is really so. The
Apostles would have boasted but little success,
if assertions only had supported their preten-
sions to inspiration. Immediate inspiration,
beyond the ordinary effusion of the Spirit,
ceased when it was no longer necessary ; wheu
the first resistance of power, pride,, interest,
and prejudipe, was overcome, and Christi
anity had. obtained a footing. Or will it be
pretended that an unlettered man's capacity to
preach, aflfords a proof of inspiration ? " In the
ministry of the Gospel," says the Evangelical
Magazine for 1800, " learning is not always ne
cessary ; and in coraparison of divine influence
and power, it is nothing, yea less than nothing,
and vanity." But in order to give this supposi
tion any colour of plausibility, it must be shown,
that the first and rudest essays of illiterate
preachers are as excellent compositions in style
and in argument, as the discourses and writings
of the Apostles. Fluency is not eloquence;
nor confidence, inspiration. And it cannot be
denied, that unlearned itinerants havemade first
essays, of the most barbarous and ridiculous na^
ture, while their progressive improvement has
risen iu the ordinary process of natural genius,
nourished and strengthened by the labour of an
active and ap assiduous mind. Whitfield him-
VDi. Ul. 3

258 THE liEiGN OF [JIWA Cent.
self confesses, that he had frequently written
and spoken too much in his own spirit, when
he conceived hims:elf writing and speakiug by
^he assistance of the Spirit of God*,
If, therefore, the Methodists are not pecu-
l,iarly inspired, let us consider the high advan
tage, in public instruction, possessed by the
* A certain clergyman, having received the new, light, ima-
jgined sometime ago, thathe could start, all on a sudden, into
tlie line bf extemporaneous preaching. His first text was
somewhat unfortunate, though intended to make proof as to
the strength of his belief: "He openeth, aqd no man shutteth,
be shutteth and no- man openeth," He bad intended to de
scant at length on the power of the Spirit, in putting words
into the lips of those who, like the Apostles, thought not be
forehand what they should say. But his expectations proved
fallacious — he floundered and ran aground — it was inimediately
all over — and the disconcerted otator sliut his book, which no
man, that morning, was ready to open after him. The follow
ing illustrative anecdote is whimsically related, in Hunt's Es
says on Methodism. A gentleman sent put his servant to si
lence the dFn of a blind 'fiddler, who made a hideous scraping
at his door. " Has your master no taste?" demanded the in
dignant son of Apollo. " I can't say as to that, friend ; but
he is disturbed with your music." — " Does he not see hew
surprising" a thing it is to play as I do j without having received
¦ instructions ?"-^" I cannot tell: he sends you a shilling, and"
desires you- to go quietly-away." — " Then, tell your master, he
may go to the devil,", ,,., u,v. . v. '.'¦
Here, it is said, three things are observable, 1 st, The fiddler
thoiighl^ a man must have no taste, who differs in opinion frora
Ills own; 2dly, He thought it finer to play ill without a mas-
. ter, than well after having had-one, ^ And lastly, he settles the
eoiitroversy, by pronouncing an anathema agiiinst his antagop
nist.

I8th Cent.] oeorge ii. 959
estabUshed clergy. In preaching written ser
mons, they have had time to digest their ideas,
before they shall appear in the pulpit. They have
sifted the chaff frora the wheat. They have
dismissed irrelevancies, obviated repetitionsi
retained a connected argument, and arranged a
regular discourse. They can thus adhere closely
to their text, and pursue their reasoning with
accuracy and method. They can select and
polish such language as shall exhibit their sub
ject in a luminous, forcible, and elegant point
of view. The extemporary preacher, on the
other hand, cannot pause for the task of choos
ing and of rejecting, amongst diflferent thoughts
and expressions which rush upon his mind. His
business is to speak on, without interruption;
parler bon, parler mal, parler toujours ; so that
he is compelled to adopt every sentiment and
every phrase, unpruned and rude, and out of
order, as it arises. Hence the total want, of
method, the wild incoherency, the endless re
petitions, which appear in such discourses.
Hence, too, the low vulgarisms, the awkward
attempts at illustration, the diflfuse tautology,
the tedious circumlocutions, the homely aUu
sions labouring in vain after perspicuity, which
not only fail not to disgust every hearer of taste,
sense, and judgment, but degrade the solemnity
of the subject, excite smiles of contempt, and
admit sinful man tp an impious familiarity with

S60 THE REIGN OF [ISth^Cnit,
hi» Maker. Hence, in a word, all that rant, aud
noise, and nonsense, which pass araong the
gaping, raultitude for sujiernatural gifts.
Besides, in the name of common sense, are
not those meu better qualified for public instruc
tors, who are versed in all the erudition neces
sary to fit them for the duties of their sacred
profession; whose time and studies have been
devoted fora number of years, to preparation for
the work of the rainistry; who are acquainted
with the Scriptures in their origirial languages ;
who possess all the learning that can elucidate
and explain thera; than mechanics who have
Started but yesterday frora the loom or from
the anvU, hardly knowing their own language,
despising the aids of human learning, and
having neither had time nor opportunities for
acquiring it? Christ in himself was the wisdom
of God; and the twelve, being unlettered, re
ceived miraculous tongues and gifts to supply
their deficiencies; but Moses was learned in all
the knowledge ofthe Egyptians, and. Paul was
?educated at the feet of Gamaliel.
Of the necessity of endowments acquired by
study, the Methodists have of late years becorae
sensible to a certain extent. Institutions have
been raised for education; and certain qualifi
cations are demanded of their regular ministers;
but these consist moreof faciUty in praying and
pleaching, than . of languages, critical science,

isth Cent.] OEOROE n. 961
or the general course of a liberal education : and
there still remains the whole tribe of approved
exhorters, and sooty-faced supplicators, to vent
their ignorance and absurdity at the prayer and
class raeetings.
The clergy of the Establishraent are not sent
forth for the instruction of their unenlightened
brethren, until it has been ascertained by supe
riors coraraissioned and competent to examine
their ability, that they are qualified for so im
portant a task. Equal caution is exercised in
regard to their moral character; testimonials of
their g9od behaviour for several years prior to
their ordination, being required from the minis
ters or public teachers under whose inspection
they have Uved. Besides, they are called upon
at their ordination to subscribe their solemn as
sent to the Thirty-nine Articles of our Church;
which affords their hearers a security as to the
orthodoxy of their principles. They are or
dained by the bishops (as the Apostles ordained
the priests and deacons of their time), to preach
the Gospel in the churches to which they are
appointed. They are expressly licensed to the
cures, where they are to exercise their respective
functions ; not dismisserl as vagabonds to ramble
up and down the world, without home, character,
flock, or specific destination. They appear, not
earlier than the age of twenty-four, once raore
before the bishop ; when reason may be supposed
s 3

269 , THE REIGN OF [ISthCcnt.
to have attained higher maturity, study a wider
range, and principle a surer anchoring; that
they may undergo a _,new examination, and be
invested with ampler authority. And finally,
they are answerable to the diocesan for their
eliaracter, and for the due performance of their
holy duties.
How different is all this frora the institu
tions of enthusiasra I which frequently sanction
self-elected teachers, who, untaught themsielves,
are incapable of guiding others ; or which, if
they exact any pretensions in candidates for
the rainistry, look more to fervours and pre
tences to illumination, or, at best, to volubility
jn prayer, and prompt, though unapt reference
to Scriptural language, than to intellectual en
dowments and moral qualifications.
Tl>e Methodists have thought fit to employ
lay-preachers in their societies. Now, without
retracing tl>e ground formerly traversed in this
work, it shall suffice to observe, that, by the ap
pointment of Christ himself, a regular succession
of men has been ordained to rainister in his .
church. That an outward commission, medi-
ately-or immediately derived from God, is re
quisite to authorize a raan's execution of any
sacerdotal act of reUgion, is raanifest from the
word of Scripture, and the exaraple of our Sa^
viour and his Apostles. Heb. v. 4. " This ho
nour no man taketh unto himself^ but he that

18th Cent.] georgk it, 263
is called of God, as was Aaron," But what
was the calling of Aaron? Not an inward
summons, a secret whisper, which could not
well be distinguished from the wild imagi
nation, the self-deception of enthusiasm. It
w^as a solemn consecration from the hands of
Moses. His sons were ordered to be consecrat
ed in the same manner, the promise being an
nexed, that their anointing should surely be an
everlasting priesthood throughout their genera
tions. Our Lord himself, not content to rely,
exclusively, on personal holiness, or inclination,
or the gifts of the Spirit, as a call to the minis
try, " glorified not himself to be made an high
priest; but He that said unto him. Thou art
my son, this day have I begotten thee." In
like manner, when Christ delivered the aposto
lical charge, on commissioning the eleven dis
ciples, he employed the words, " As my Father
hath sent me, even so send I you." The self
same principle was observed by the Apostles, in
the administration of the primitive church :
though many had received the Holy Ghost, as
well as these friends of our Lord, none were
permitted to enter upon any ministry, but such
as were ordained by Apostolical authority. The
divine commission necessary to qualify every
minister of holy things, was thus handed down
from our Lord and the Apostles, through an un
interrupted succession of men. A reformation
s 4

264 THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
from Popery did not create a new church, but
purified and redintegrated the church that had
been from the beginning*. Now this succes
sion has been all along an episcopal succession,
which may be traced up to the days of thfe
Apostles: nor frora the days of the Apostles
to those of Calvin, was any ordination in any
age or country considered as valid, save that
of the bishops. The reformed bishops received
ordination frora the Roraish church, and thereby
at once acknowledged, respectied, continued the
past, and perpetuated the future succession.
And still to this day, a Roraish priest converted,
performs the functions of the priesthood in the
English Church, without any fresh ordination,
The American bishops came over to this country
for consecration. The Bishop of Calcutta, be
fore setting out, received consecration in Engr
land. It may, therefore, be expedient for
the Methodists to consider, whether their bold
departure from the scheme of Christ, from
the order of succession, and from the original
principles of the founders of Methodism them
selves, be not an error, an awful oflfence, to
authorize which, they have less warranty from
* " Where," said a Papist to Wilkes, " was your church
before the Reformation?"— " Did you wash your face this;
morning?"—'' Yes ; but what of that*?"—" Where was youif.
face before it was washed ?"

I8th Cent.] ceorge ii. 265
Scripture, than to support any of their other
peculiarities. In mentioning faith, as, on the part of man,
the bond of the covenant of grace, the Method
ists allow, especially when pressed in argument,
that this faith, to be genuine, must needs work
by love. But besides maintaining, that faith is en
tirely the gift of God; that love, or the fruitage of
moral service, is likewise entirely the gift of God,
that man has nothing to do save as a passive
instruraent, in the acquisition of either, and that
holiness is no condition, though they allow it to
be a sine qua non towards salvation ; besides this
tissue of absurdities, they possess various other
means of neutralizing the wholesorae doctrine
now under examination. Assigning to the word
"love," a meaning little spiritual, and fancying
some analogy betwixt human passion, and the
aflfection which flows towards the Divinity, sorae
learn to substitute for the genuine fruits of faith,
forthe rigour of principle, and the strict discharge
of duty, many soft and dangerous sensibilities,
many undefined tendernesses of benevolent sen
timent, too much akin to that mental voluptu
ousness, which it is the express object of ChrisT
tianity to oppose. Hence the danger of the
" loverfeast," the " watch-night," the " band->
meeting," and the " holy salutation ;" where
temptation may prove more powerful from being
unsuspected, and from lurking beneath the as-

§66 THE re!6N of [1 8lh Cent.
pect of Icind and Christian affections. Hence,
rocked in a false and fatal unconsciousness of
danger, by the sacredness ofthe place and of the
occasion, the soul is still further charmed frdfm
oflf its guard, by the soothing and specious lul
laby of spiritual songs, which insensibly de
lude and deprave the imagination, by allusions
to carnal objects and to affections of the earth.
It is a coarse, but probably a correct epithet, to
characterize many hymns of Methodism as
" luscious." Containing no references to the
gratitude of a pure heart, to that elevation of
soul, which is defecated from gross ideas, they
have been rightly styled " a religious debauchery,
an exquisite and spiritualized concupiscence*."
What a shock must the purity of a chaste female
mind derive, from the allusion contained in the
foUowing evening hymn, which is inserted in
alraost every collection :
No further go to-night, but stay, '
Dear Savipur, till the break of day ;'
TuKN IN, dear Lord, with nie ;
And in the morning, .when I wake.
Me in. thy arms, ray Jesus, take.
And 1 '11 go on with thee.
* Coventry's Philemon to Hydaspes.
" Stay, my beloved, with me here.
Stay till the^moruing star appear :
My restless desires admit of no equal companion : it is thee,
O uncreated beauty, that I love — in thee, as in their blissful
centre,-all my desires riieet, &c," — ^Howe's Devout Exercises,

18th Cent.] 6eoiige u. 26?
In this respect, Methodism and Popery are
closely allied*, and Madame Guion was in
France what Mrs. Rowe was in England. Tbe
Song of Solomon is a beautiful oriental apologue
descriptive of the love which Christ beareth to
the Church : but what should we judge of that
ignorance and impropriety which should adapt
its phraseology to the spiritual intercourse be
twixt a virgin and the Saviour of raankind ;
or to the breathings of benevolence in a raixed
congregation ?
When men carry up the analogies of earth to
heaven, they ought to approach God as chil
dren offering a respectful love to their parent.
This was the constant practice of the Saviour
upon earth, who set no example of the famili
arities of Methodism. When God is termed
the husband of the soul, when the Saviour is
" dear, and sweet, and fair, and beautiful ;"
when a desire to gaze on his face, and to lean on
* Jactant connubium essentise creatae et divinitatis : som-
nium omnium affectionum ; absorptionem et liquefactionem
in amplexu sponsi, amorem amplexantem, sugentem sponsi
ubera ; appllcationes araorosas, animse suspensiones, deliquium,
suspiria, cordis contactum et patefactionem, voces tremula*.
Sec." — Archbishop Rovenius de Republica Christiana.
" Fix your eye on Christ, as the fairest of raen, the perfection
of spiritual beauty j yea, leave him not, till his voice say. My
well-beloved is mine, and I am his: yea, teH him you are tick
of love, &c,"— Marrow of modern Divinity, p, 349.
Sep also Methodist Magazine for 1807, April.

S^8 THE REIGX OF [18/A Cent.
his bosom, is chanted in the spiritual song, the
Methodist, may not be aware what lawless con
ceptions are engendered by the use of such
earth-drawn : imagery. But let any man read
the popular story of the Dairyman's Daughter,
perhaps the least exceptionable paraphlet of its
class * ; and if he perceive not in the epistles of
that forward and scribbling peasant, an indis
tinct, undefined feeling which she entertained,
but durst not avow, and which she disguised
from her own view under the triple folding of
zeal, and teachableness, and holy charity, he is
little versed in the windings of the huraan
heart t-
* Translated into most of the European languages, and in
return for which the author received a beautiful ring from the
Emperor Alexander.
f As if it were not sufficient to teach these unhallowed
analogies and . conceptions, Methodism contrives Ihe talking
about them, under the character of experiences. Here it
bears a striking resemblance to Popish confession : but the
confession of a class or band meeting, differs, widely from tho
delicate communications of a confessional. It is confession,
not to one, whom, from his age and character, the female has
ever from her infancy been taught to regard with fatherly or
more than fatherly reverence, and who, by the holiest oaths and
severest penalties, is bound to inviolable secrecy; butto com
panions of her own sex and age, who will make it their tea-
table. talk; and each of whom is, by a similar confession,
made to renew and sear her shame, E|ther from natural and
sacred tuodesty the thought will be concealed and made more
intense by the imagined sinfulness of that concealment ; or it

18/A Cent.] GEORGE tx. 169
Indeed, the love of God is all in all in the
creed of Methodism: a correct principle, when
rightly understood, but, as we have seen,
strangely disfigured. Our aflfections are to bo
alienated from the creature altogether : since we
assimilate our character to what we love, it is a
sin to love an imperfect creature, because we
shall grow down to the standard of his imper
fections. Thus the axe is laid to the root of
all those araiable aflfections, which bind friend
to friend, child to parent, hnsband to wife; the
love of religion is to encroach upon and inura*
brate all; and this not only when duty to God
is placed in direct corapetition with these aflfec
tions, but on the most trivial and ordinary oc
casions. As if He who said, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God, had not added, and thy neigh
bour as thyself; and as if in the general bene
volence of which Christ left us a pattern, he had
will be confessed, and that action will strengthen the idea, and
the idea will recur more frequently, because it is thus strength
ened : and this confession will be again and again required, till
9 single pleasure be at length extracted from confession itself,
the atonement will partake of the nature of the sin, and all rao
desty and all shame will be utterly destroyed. Such is the cer
tain issue, when every incipient feeling, every lighter thought,
that would have passed over the maiden's mind and been for
gotten, is to be remarked and remembered, that it may be re
newed and rivetted, and burnt into the heart, by the pain and
shame of confession, — Annual Review— quoted in the Por
traiture of Methodism,

S7j9 the reign of [18th Cent.
not selected a disciple, whom he pre-eminently
loved; or recomraended to that disciple, with
his latest and fondest thought, the mother who
bore him into the world.
It is perhaps to this distribution of preachers
in circuits (through which they are to make
their tours, a:nd where they are to continue no
longer than one year), more than to any other
cause, that the rapid increase of the Methodist
society is to be ascribed. It is the nature of
enthusiasm to consume itself. Like the taper
lighted in oxygen gas, the brighter it burns,
the faster it wastes. Under a pastor resident
among one congregation during a course of
years, any impassioned devotion, occasioned by
new impressions, would subside, in the truly
converted, into the calm Christianity of uniform
service and settled aflfections; in the evil-dis
posed, the self-deceivers who mistake feelings
for genuine holiness, into ultimate lukewarm
ness and indiflference. And this is generaUy thfe
result experienced frora the labours ofthe ortho
dox established clergy. Of whatever devout per
sons we boast in our congregations, and every
congregation contains some of that description ;
we are certain, or next to certain, of the unin
terrupted continuance unto the end, in piety and
irreproachable living. Their habits are settled:
their principle is uniform. Their love to God,
and good-will to\yards men, depend not on

18th Cent.] georoe ii. S7l
sudden impulses, on evanescent stimulations, on
the exertions of one preacher any raore than of
another. They keep the tenour of their way to
heaven, noiseless, it is true, but even and un
broken. And such disciples are doubtless as
valuable Christians, and as araiable private cha-
raqters, as any self-protruding sons of the con
venticle, " vaunting of their gifts, and making
a fairer show in the flesh."'
But, it must be granted, that they are not ac
tuated by the same warm zeal of conversion,
which prompts the Methodist to strenuous and
unwearied exertions in multiplying proselytes
to the faith. The labours of the pastor too,
who has been long resident in a parish, are di
rected more to the building up of his congrega
tion in faith and holiness, than to exciting first
alarms in the breast of the sinner. Having laid
the foundation, he is occupied about the edifice;
he presents his people with a general scheme of
their relative duties ; he unfolds the whole coun
sel of God, and expatiates not exclusively among
thefirst priuciples of its oracles. Hence, one rea
son why the Church furnishes fewer instances of
striking conversions from notorious and shame
less profligacy, than are to be found among the
members of a sect, the flame of whose enthu
siasm is continually supplied with fresh fuel,
whose passions are kept in a constant fever;
and uhcse preachers, from the nature of their

f72 THE REIGN OF ri8/ACe«/,
regulations, which present to each itinerant
tourist a new congregation, are more eraployed
in inviting transgressors to the porch, than in
teaching thera how to conduct theraselves after
their entrance into the, teraple. It was to the
appointraent of annual consuls, that the Romans
were chiefly indebted for their dominion over
the whole world, as well as for that military
spirit which enabled thera to conquer. Each
officer, being desirous to signalize his brief
season of authority, was more intent on making,
a conquest, and On enlarging the map of empire,
than on meliorating the internal constitution of
the state.
Now, whatever praise, in this respeietj can
dour may allow to Methodism ; with whatever
justice it may. be affirmed, that to impress with
some, though an imperfect sense of religion, is
preferable to leaving in shameless profligacy, it
will not, perhaps, be held illiberal to, remark,
that, the natural consequence of such regula
tions is, that both preachers and hearers shall
satisfy themselves with warm professions, and
striking manifestarions of sanctity, accompa
nied with a dereliction of the more open and
scandalous offences; while they will pay less
attenrion than is usual within the pale of the
Establishment, to the minor morals, to the;deli-
cacies of conscience; to the harmony of the
Christiail temper, to the polish and perfection
4

18th Cent.] george ii, J73
of character ; to the charities belonging to the
domestic relations of life; to the decencies and
modest adornings of Evangelical morality, in
those who by divine grace have already come
unto Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.
Another material advantage resulting from
the distribution of itinerant preachers in cir
cuits, to which it is reasonable to attribute the
multiplication of the Methodists, is the increas
ing fund of gratification which it aflfords to the
love of novelty in the hearers. This is a pas
sion deeply rooted in the huraan breast; and
not to be entirely separated from it, even by the
highest iraprovements in holiness. The most
profane sabbath- breaker will, onee at least, re
sort to his parish-church, to satisfy his curiosity
on the accession of a new incumbent or curate.
When the preacher of a Methodist society, then,
is removed from his residence, after a year, or two
years of service; when even during that liraited
time he is travelling over the circuit, and leaving
his pulpit to a succession of "those who lecture
as they go ;" to a magic lantern of preachers ; to
the whole originals of the frontispieces in the
Evangelical Magazine; is it not evident that
curiosity alone, independent of other modves,
must continually crowd tile places of sectarian
worship, throughout the district on which so dire
a visitation is inflicted ? Profligates, being thus
drawn together to a conventicle, where a variety
VOL. Ill, T

Sfi THE IffilGN OF [18/A CcUt.'
of instructors, whose personal enthusiasm is
kept up by the novelty of those audiences, on
whose enthusiasfn the novelty of their preachers
re-acts, are continually urging the same invita
tion of coming^ — -and of coming to Christ, but
urging it in various modes, with various coun
tenances, and in various turns of expression,
are not urilikely to be roused by one amongst
many ; and (to use the conventicle diction) to
be caught in the net of the Gospel. Let any
man open the Evangelical or Methodist Maga
zine, and look who is to preach at the Taber
nacle, and who is to preach at Queen Street,
and so forth, during all the Sundays of each en
suing month, and he will have some conception
of this web of artifice. But further, by this
means, an ignorant and illiterate preacher,
whose scanty stock of rude ideas would be
• speedily exhausted, were he restricted to one
flock during any length of tirae, is enabled, by
weaving his slender, acquirements into the sub
stance of a dozen discourses and prayers, to ob
tain the credit of inspiration in all the counties
of England. In 1801, a Methpdist of Halifax
carried his daughter, a child about eight years of
age, on a preachirig perambulation through all
th6 northern counties. ' This child had one or
two sermons, and one or two prayers, conned
over by rote, to pass for iramediate inspirations.
She touched at every town, and officiated a

18/A Cent.] george ir, 275
single night; while her fame went abroad, and
thousands flocked from fas and near, to wonder
at this infant prodigy of the pulpit.
What chance could even a Barrow, a TiUot
son, or a Sherlock, preaching in one country
toWn frora year to year, have against such a
raree-show of changed pictures; against a suc
cession of such imps and impositions ?
To these benefits, accruing from the system of
circuits, we must add, that it is calculated, with
admirable address, to conceal frora the people
any "Uttle imperfections in the moral characters
of their preachers ; and while affording a ground-
plan of their faith, to leave no time for exa
mining the correspondence of their works. The
established clergy, though, as a body, they have
little cause to dread the severest and closest
scrutiny of their conduct, are men, and are not
destitute of those flaws and imperfections, of
which Methodists, being likewise men, must
needs possess their share. But while the former,
"Spending their whole lifetime in the same neigh-
TOurhood, can hardly, with every vigilance,
avoid committing some errors, which subject
them to censures, unfavourable to the success
of their ministry, the itinerant preacher is
whisked from one district to another, at the very
moment when the gloss of imposing novelty is
beginning to wear off from his character, and
when his blindest admirers would be unable to
T 2

S76 THE HEIGN OF [18/A Ccttt.
disallbw some detected leprosy, that might lurk
beneath the surface of his professions and vo
ciferations. On all these accounts, the writer of the pre
ceding strictures would humbly suggest the ex
pediency of bringing the established and itine
rant ministry raore nearly on a level of advan
tage. Not that a residence for life in one pa
rish should be abandoned : for the uniform and
araiable exaraple of a pastor, whose faults are
few, and whose virtues are great, raust be infi
nitely raore profitable, upon the whole, in im
proving the morals of a district, than the search
ing serraons of a thousand roving fanatics. But
where would be the intolerance of restraining
¦by an act of the Legislature, this shifting sys
tem, this rambling spirit of Methodism? Let
Government say to the Methodists, You shall
liave what you desire— you shall have what you
are continu^ly clamouring for ; the clergy shall
be forced into residence; and you shall be
forced also. Wherever one of you obtains
what he calls a cure of souls, there is he to re
main for the natural term of his Ufe; and even
there he shall be liable tp a penalty, if he shall
be found not tb have preached — say forty or
"thirty Sundays, every year, in liis own pulpit.
But no, no; we shall immediately be told by
our ultra-liberals, that this is not toleration, but
persecution. Yet it is pretty nearly the perse-

18/A Cent.] george ii. 277
cution which the established clergy undergo ;
and the fact corapletely evinces that they are
the only sect, the only body kept under, the-
only society, really persecuted, within the limits
of the British empire.
In the raean tirae, the established clergy might,
with much advantage, occasionally deliver a
varied word of advice, frora the pulpits of each
other.. All have not the sarae gifts : an amiable
man may be timid, awkward, low-voiced, hesi
tating in speech, and unfortunate in his public
exhibitions. Self-love may conceal some of
these imperfections frora his own consciousness:
but it is right that his flock should now and
then receive a treat, in the raore aniraated ad
dress .^of a neighbouring orator, which shall con
vert their duty into a pleasure. Great good has
been produced in Manchester and in other large
towns, by the establishraent of a weekly lec
ture in the parish-church, where every one
of the clergy in the town and neighbourhood
officiates in regular ro'tation. Such a plan
is found to be beneficial in various ways ; it
takes away that excuse of " No Sunday clothe*
to corae to church in," which the very pdor
urge often (though dissoluteness, and not po
verty, be the cause of it), in atterapting a vin--
dication of their absence; it provides, at the
same time, for another coraplaint, namely, want
of accommodation for the inferior classes; and
T 3

278 the REIGN OF [iSthCent.
it furnishes that variety of preaching which is
at least defensible, when we consider, that, with
out it, the established and itinerant rainisters
cannot well be said to " start fair."
Again, why is it that so strong a leaning to-
Wai-dis the Methodist interest should be ob
servable in the comparative facility with which
they are permitted to multiply their places of
worship ? One church, one conventicle, might
seem to be toleration enough. But as it is,
while the Conventicle Act'^precludes the esta
blished ministry from preaching in any part of
their cures save the parish-church, and while
chapels of ease are not erected without various
consents, and security for endowment; a con
venticle starts up in every hamlet, like Alad
din's palace, or a preaching-room is licensed
without difficulty at the nearest sessions. Now,
many' of the parishes iu England' are of vast
extent. Halifax is 37 miles in circumference:
my three first curacies of Ormskirk, Frodsham,
and Warrington, are not rauch less; and there
were haralets in each full six railes from the
parish-church, while the first and the. last could
bdast but one chapel each, and the second none.
There were preachraents and prayer-meetings
in every hamlet in aU of thera. Consider, then,
the case of a husbandman with his wife,, chil
dren, and domestics, in the winter season, six
miles from his parish-church, and having a
4,

18/A Ce«/.] GEORGE n. 279
place of sectarian worship close at his elbow-
Is this man likely to understand the refinements
of a dissertation upon the true church, an epi
scopal succession, a regular ministry, a sublirae
liturgy, and the sin of schism? No: with plain
simplicity he concludes, that if, in an honest
heart, he passes his Sabbath in any place what
ever where the word of God is preached and
expounded, he satisfactorily discharges his duty
to his Maker, and sows the seeds of immortal life.
What reraedy the Legislature raight interpose,
in this case, so exceedingly disadvantageous to
the Establishraent, it were presuraptuous in me to
pronounce. It rausteither consist in annulling or
modifying the Conventicle Act, in raultiplying
the regular chapels, or in checking the increase
of the irregular ones. The Act (of 1818) for
huilding churches, will want a reinforceraent pf
funds sufficient to reraedy the evil eflfectually ;
an evil, which has recently attained a most se
rious magnitude, in the happy invention of arks,
alias floating, alias moveable chapels, which
threatens the mooring of a conventicle along
side of every parish-church contiguous to a
river or navigable canal, and its conveyance from
place to place, for the convenience of sectarism,
and to the unspeakable annoyance of the clergy.
Since the times of the tabernacle in the, wilder
ness, this portable and travelling church was
never known or dreamt of. It is carrying the
t 4

1180 THE REIGN OF [18/ACcM/.
temple to Dan and Beerslieba and Samaria, and
where not. The story of our Lady of Loretto
is a mere jOke to it. It is certainly a knowing
SHIFT of Methodism : but our poor peasantry, I
fear, will find, ere long, to theit cost, that these
religious Argonauts, like their namesakes of lold,
will not return from their expedition, without a
fleece. To give acolour of necessity to all these cir
cumventions, the Methodists are continually
asserting that the leading, cause .of. dissent is
the supineness and reprehensible conduct of the
Established Clergy; and that if parochial mi
nisters did their duty, there would be far less
dissent and far less occasion for it. Of all the
mariy miseries that are heaped upon our heads,
this is that last corapletion of the burden which
we find the raost galling and the. most unjust.
And shame is it to relate, that this foul calumny,
this odious slander, finds propagators even
among some of our own brethren; and. that
we are wounded in the. house of our friends.
But you, whoever you be, who give . diflfusion
to so vile an outcry, I tell you to your face, in
thename of the great body of my indignant
and oflfended brethren, that you lie, and you
know you lie. Produce your proofs.. How
many records of -suspensions for immorality,
within the last twenty years, do you find in the
ecclesiastical courts? Have ten men, in that

18/A Cent.] , OEORGE n. 281
time, been convicted of immorality, throughout
all the dioceses of England? and God knows
we have had enemies enough. There are two
hundred regular officiating clergy in the metro
polis. Surely, in that centre of dissipation it
would not be deeraed sti'ange, if sorae few were
xeproachful to their sacred order. But point
me out one ecclesiastic addicted to any scandal
ous vice. Throughout the country, agairi, you
behold a body of humble and deserving indivi
duals, most of them nursed in the lap of luxury,
among the refineraents of literature, and the
delights of elegant society, sitting down con
tented under the privation of all these advan
tages ; surrounded, perhaps worried, by soaking
boors and smoking farraers; interdicted by their
profession frora a free use, many interdicting
themselves, through conscience, of any use, of
those field-sports which the country substitutes
for the intellectual and refined pleasures of the
metropolis ; taking all the pains possible, doing
every thing that can be expected from moderate
and rational zeal ; some of thera attended by luke
warra hearers, who bear no gOod-will to them or
to their cause, and who would rather pull them
down than support them ; and these are the cha
racters accused of immoral living : these men,
repeating faithfully the rourid of their duties in
churches having no attractions, no music, no
decoration, no varieties; are charged with su-

?82 the REIGN oF^ (18/A Cent,
pineness by a bddy of jaunting preachers, con
tinually on a tour of pleasure, seeing fresh
scenes, enjoying new hospitalities, holding forth
to new congregations, revelling and wantoning
in variety ; and not capable of knowing what
the ennui of a profession is : this, is, to be sure, as
iiripaktable a draught as can be . forced down
¦the throats of the regular clergy. Here, how
ever, in dull flats, and sickly marshes, and barren
wastes, and stupid societies, they must remain,
¦as they cheerfully do: for what living can bear
the provisions of the curates' bill, of force
whenever the incurabent k^ps not his full resi
dence of nine months ?
But further ; if it were indeed true, that the
supineness of the established pastors is the oc
casion of the flourishing state of dissent, it
would follow, that wherever the regular ministry
are the reverse of supine, there dissent would
languish. But is this correspondent with matter
offact? Ask the Evangelical clergy themselves,
who approach so nearly to dissent, that the Dis
senters pretend to hug them as their brethren,
whether they can keep their identical congrega
tions; you will find that their hearers are, in fact,
only astream, flowing into their chapels from
the church, and out of them into the conven
ticle. And this is owing to two several causes:
first, the Methodists take special care, whenever
a clergyman is peculiarly zealous, to plant an
able competitor at bis side, who niay vie with

18/A Cent.] georgk ri. i383
him in popularity and take advantage of his
successes; and, secondly, it is natural to the
huinan mind to increase its stimulants, \^hen it
has begun to be dissatisfied with plain food —
to rise from port to brandy.
XVL— -Among the inferior sects in point of
numbers or importance, which arose at the same
aera with the Methodists, the Moravians, Unitas
Fratrura, or Hernhutters, demand particular no
tice. They claim descent from the old Moravian
brethren, who existed as a distinct sect, sixty
years prior to the Reformation. They affirm, that
the kings of Bulgaria* arid Moravia were con
verted by two Gi^eek monks, Methodius and
Cyrillus, of whom the former was their first
bishop, and the latter translated the Scriptures
into the Sclavonic tongue, for their use. In
1467 tliey sent priests, to receive episcopal
consecration, from the bishop of the Walden
ses; and despatched missionaries into various
countries. In 1525, these United Brethren,
then called the Fratres Legis Christi, from
having rejected huraan corapilations of faith,
united themselves with the Reformers, and as
sented to the confession of Augsburg. After
this, they were subjected to several grievous
"persecutions, which dispersed many of their
fraternity in diflferent parts of Europe. One
colony was, in 1722, conducted from Fulneck
in Moravia, to Upper Lusatia, where they re
ceived protection from Zinzendorf, the father

284 THE REIGN OF [18/A Ccnt.
of the present.societies ; and built a village on
his estate at the foot of a hill, called HutbfiXg,
or Watch-hill. Hence, their name of Hernr
butters, for Hernhutt signifies the watch ofthe
Lord. Zinzendorf at first atterapted to convert
them to the CburCh estabUshed by. law; but
feiling in this object, and. admiring their doc
trine and manners, ,he became a convert to
their faith and : discipline; *.
• In 1738, Zinzendorf, having received. orders,
was consecrated one of their bishops y on which
occasion he was, congratulated, by Potter, Arch
bishop of Canterbury ; who told Bishop Seeker,
that he admitted as regular, the Moravian
episcopal succession. Afterwards, the British
parliament acknowledged the Unitas Fratrum
to be an .Episcopal Protestant Church ; and in
1794 an Act was passed in their favour.
They have settlements in the East and.West
Indies, in European and Asiatic Russia,, in Per
sia, at the Cape of Good Hope, and Jn Greenland ;
l)ut chiefly at Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. Here
they. carry on their work in silence and with
moderation ; seeking to reform the wqrld, but
* Rimius's History of the Moravians, p. 1 6, 18, ig. Mo
ravian Maxims, p. 18, 20, 44, 45, 67, 86. Zinzendorfs
Sermons, p. 200. Manual of DocWne, p, 9. Gillies's Suc-
bess of the Gospel, vOl, I'l, p, 66. Dickinson's Letters, p; 16$.
Crantz's History of the Unitas Fratrum. Wild's Travels,
Spangenberg's Exposiliqn pf , Christian Doctrine* Haiveis's
Church History, vol, iii, p. 184,

1 8/A Cent.] GEORGE ii. 28,5
not quarrelling with it; enduring heat and cold
and every privation; consulting the temporal
good of the people whom they seek to convert ;
and imparting to them education and useful
arts. Their establishment in England is on a
small scale, and their influence quite inconsi
derable. They keep the noiseless tenour of their
way, and are not a proselytizing sect. Their
largest estabUshraent is situated in a romantic
dell, at Fulneck, near Leeds.
Though the Moravians insist on the necessity
of episcopal ordination, their bishops have no
rank or authority : their church having, ever
since its estabUshment, been governed by
synods, composed of deputies from the various
congregations, and by other subordinate bodies,
whose assemblies they term - conferences. The
synods are convened once in seven years ; and
each is convoked by the elders of its predeces
sor. Women are admitted to hear, and to as
sist with their advice; but possess no vote. In
questions of importance, of which the conse
quences cannot be clearly foreseen, no majority
of votesy nor even unanimous consent, is re
garded as decisive, without an appeal to the
lot. But this test is reserved only for questions
apparently eUgible, and maturely weighed;
nor is it applied without solemn prayer. To
wards the close of the synod, which determines
on eccliesiastical discipline and government.

286 THE. REIGN OF [18/ACe«/.:
an executive board is chosen, called the elders'-
conference ofthe Unity : and this is subdivided
into four committees; one for missions, one
for the . doctrine and morals of the congrega
tions, one for their economical aflfairs, and the
last for church discipline. Ariother body, en
titled the elders' conference of the congrega
tion,' consists of the minister as president; and
of some other individuals, superintending the
young, the married, and the women. They
have, deacons who are ecclesiastics; deacon
esses, who are not permitted to teach, and
lay elders, in contradistinction to the bishops
or spiritual aiders. Their missions and mar
riages are directed by their superiors, and both-
are confirmed by lot, Their schools are excel
lent seminaries for moral education.
The Moravians are remarkable for submis-r
sion to the control of their superiors, who di
vide them into classes : by which distribution,
separate and appropriate: instructions are deli-?
vel'ed to the young and the old ; the married'
and the single; the rich and the poor; ser
vants, females, children. Each class is srib-
divided into the dead, the ignorant, the willing,
the progressive. Much pains are bestowed in
the cultivation of church-rausic-rtheir hyrans
are often a connected contemplation of some
Scriptural subject. The dead are interred per
pendicularly, with a small square, SitPne placed

18/A Cent.] CEORGE n. 287
over them : and this order proceeds in lines
along the cemetery, without regard to any dis
tinction, save the time of dying.
This sect celebrates the Passion week and
other festivals; and holds coraraunion on
Maundy Thursday, and evcry fourth Sunday
throughout the year. There is a litany for
Sunday, with several occasional liturgies. Per-
secntion originally, and afterwards an anxiety
to preserve their young frora the taint of vice»
have induced them to delight in forming
settleraents; where the young men, the young
women, and the widows, live separately; all
supporting theraselves by their industry, and
paying a separate sum for their lioard an4
lodging. In regard to doctrine, the Moravians assent
generally to the Augsburg confession of faith ;
yet decline giving any decided opinion respect
ing particular election. They maintain, that
creation and sanctification, belonging princi
pally to the Saviour, ought not to be joiqtly
ascribed to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and
that, in order to avoid idolatry, devotion should
be addressed principally to Jesus, the appointed
channel of the Deity. Christ, they affirm,, has
conquered, not as God, but as man, vyith thp
same powers which we possess in our spiritual
warfare. Further, they deny, thtft the law
ought to be preached, under the Gospel dispen-
sarion. Anotlier tenet states, that the children

288 THE REIGN OF [l^A G?W/.
of God have to corabat," not with their own
sins, but with the corruption that prevails in
the world. Faith is defined to be a joyful per
suasion of our interest in Christ, and of our
title ^to his purchased salvation. They extend
the universal church of Christ, to many who
may diflfer from them in opinions of rainor im
portance. Since there is little in this sect, if it be called
a sect, to blame with much severity, there is
little formally to answer. The Moravians are
highly useful among savage nations ; while
they are not proselytizing or mischievous or
uncharitable at home. Yet, if they diflfer not
in doctrine from the Established Church, they
are deserving of some censure for making a
needless rent in the garment that ought to be
without seara ; and in this manner couritenan- .
cing other Schismatics, more restless, dangerous,
and hostile. Their absorption in the Church
would draw closer the bonds of love. All
schism is an evil : and the more unnecessary it
is, so much it is the more culpable. Ob
jections to the want of set forms of prayer
have been stated in the preceding chapters of
this work : and the Moravian liturgies are ira
perfect, admitting extemporaneous devotion.
Though the address of prayers to the Son
may undoubtedly be justified by his divinity,
tbe Moravians seem to err in carrying their

ISthCent.] GEORGE ii. 289
worship of that second Person in the Trinity,
to an extent which may be termed excl»sive :
for God is to be addressed as Creator knd Pre
server, not less than as Redelaner; as Sancti
fier, not less than as deliverer from the thrall of
sin ; as a father, rather than as an elder brother ;
as the God of all mankind, and not only as
the God of Christians ; and, finally, with a re
verence and an awe proper to temper those
familiarities which might arise frora a consider
ation of the Suprerae Being only in the person
of the raeek and lowly Jesus.
That the law, and the raoral law, ought not
to be preached under the dispensation and
fuller light of the Gospel, is contrary to the
teaching both of our Lord and his Apostles.
Our Lord declared that be came not to destroy
the LAW, but to fulfil it : and when he was
asked by a certain ruler what he ought to do, in
order to inherit eternal life, he replied, How
readest thou the law? Thou shalt not coramit
adultery, nor kill, nor bear false witness : this
do, and thou shalt live : as, likewise, on another
occasion ; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and
thy neighbour as thyself — on these two com
mandments hang all the law and the prophets.
The whole serraon on the Mount is a string of
preceptive injunctions, explanatory and perfec
tive ofthe raoral law; and calculated, to eluci
date the divine Teacher's words, " If thou writ
.VOL. III. u

29b THE REIGN dF [1 8/A Cent.
entter into life, keep the coramandmerits." The
Apostles, too, laid equal stress on an observ
ance of the mbrd,l laW^ ; nay, laid it down as a
rule, that whosoever should keep 'the whole
LAW, arid yfet oflferid in one point, he is guilty
of all.
That the 'children of God have not to com
bat with their own sins, is another Moravian
error; in li'ke manner Contradicted by the
whole sermon on the Mount. Cast the beam
out of thine own eye. Teaching us, that, defy
ing ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should walk
righteously in the world. We are to abstain
from fleshly lusts that War against the soul.
TheSe dtnd an hundred other passages plainly
evince, that our warfare is with sin within our
own bteasts.
Faith, say th'e Moravians, is a joyful persria-
sion of our interest in Christ, and of our title
to his purchased salvation. This is the'Method-
ist doctririe of assurance. Let both Method
ists arid Moravians "rejoice with- trembling."
- — " Faith is the substance of things hoped for ;
the evidence of thirigs not seen." But weare
not assured of what is Only hoped for; assured
we may be of their existence: but whether
or not we shall obtain them, w^e are too
frail, too much blotted "with imperfection to
be assured. Paul was, not assured, for he
states the possibility of his heing, in the eud,

18/A Cent^ CEORGE n. 251
cast away. Work out your salvation with fear
and trembling.
We may add, that excessive attention be»-
stowed on church music, tends to render reli
gion too much a system of feelings : as in Ca
tholic countries, the sublimest and tenderest
harmonies are estimated and felt merely as ex
citing the transient and pleasurable eraotions
of an oratorio. Irapassioned hymns, address
ed in the language of love to the Saviour in his
humiliated capacity, are repulsive to chaste and
sober piety.
XVIL That a good raan should lift his heart
above terrestrial objects, that he should aspire
to assirailate his mind to the serenity of the
third heavens, and that the pure love whose
object is God, should delight to repose itself
on the bosom of the divine perfections, is but
the natural result of ardent and amiable feel
ings. Nor is this pious fiarae of mind deserv
ing of censure, unless it interfere with the or
dinary duties of life. When carried to excess,
it becomes sublimated into mysticism : an evil
which prevailed during the reign of George II.
Law's Call to the Unconverted has been justly
praised by Dr. Johnson, as the finest piece of
hortatory theology in our language. But as
the author had imbibed the mystical philo
sophy of Jacob Behmen, it ought to be read
along with a paper drawn up by Bishop Horne,
u 2

29S THE REIGN OF : [18/A CfW/.
under the title of Cautions to Readers of Mr.
Law. This tract, together with a letter to a
lady, ori the subject of Jacob Behmen's writings,
is to be found in the Life of that Prelate by his
friend, Jones. The Mystics were never incor
porated into a distinct sect, if we except the
disciples of Swaieriborg, to be after wards, no
ticed. Some of them profess a high-Wrought
piety; and others delight in allegorizing Scrip
ture. Among the fornier, may be nurabered
Fenelon and Law : among the latter, the whole
school of Hutchinson.
Mystical divinity, or an abstracted, sublime
devotion, has been the delight of the learned
arid the ignorant ; but one, pecuUar description
of it consisting in an enthusiasm , of ^the mind
rather than in an ardour of the feeUngSj was
confined to Hebrew scholars. John Hutchinson,
dying in the year 1727, left his name to a
party, which greatly increased after his de
cease; including Romaine, Horne, Parkhurst,
Lord Culloden, Jones of Nayland, Stevens,
Wetherell, Master of University College, and
Hodges, the Head of Oriel*.
These, in imitation of their master, struck
out a new and fanciful mode of reasoning, on
philosophy, theology, antiquities, and other

• See the author of Sophron— Jones's Life of Stevens-
Jones on Figurative Language of Scripture- H^orne'S Abstract
of Hutchinson's Writings, E^in. 1753.

1 8/A Cent.] geOrge i i. 2g 3
sciences. In 1724 appeared the first part of
Hutchinson's book, enritled Moses's Principia,
in which he ridiculed Woodward's theory of
the earth, and Sir Isaac Newton's doctrine of
gravitation *,
This writer considered the Hebrew language
without points, to be the language of God
hiraself; and to contain recondite allusions td
mental or spiritual things. He thought that
natural philosophy and theology were wrapt
up in its terras; and that by consulting its
etymology, and attending to the sensible objects
which its phrases expressed, allusions raight
be discovered to the divine essence, or to spi
ritual action. Thus Berith, which we render,
covenant, he translates purifier; and Cherubim,
he treats as an emblera of man, taken into the
divinity in Christ. Melchizedec he considered,
not as a type of Christ, but as a second Person
of the Trinity in a human forra : he conceived
the air of the solar system to become grosser
towards the circuraference; and to be stag
nant towards the pitch of outer darkness. The
substance of air, being fire, light, and spirit, is
the syrabol of a Trinity in unity : for God is
• When in his last illness. Dr. Mead, intending to cheer
him, assured him he would soon send him to Mosesj Hutchin-
«on, not perceiving that a return to hii studies was meant,
dismissed the physician, observing, " 1 believe, Doctor, you
will," V S

2^ THE- REIGN OF [I'S/A Cent.
oalled a spirit in the sacred volume;: and also the
true light, and a consuming fire. Thus are the
Hebrew language and' the Holy Scriptmies, the
source of all knowledge,. human and divine: even
the Jewish ceremonies and the whofe Levitical
law contain an allegorical sense; and^ the Old
Testament thus studied, will be found to speak
amply concerning the natur^' an^j cha^oter
of the Me;^siah^ The Hutcihiiisoiiians nevei:
departed from the Established Church, with
w*hose doctrines, thein fftith, bating only tbe
few peculiarities aboye recited, and some unc-
philos^ophical notions in natural philosophy;
entirely coincides. Their fanciful ays,tem» of
deriving philosophical theoriffs and theolot
gical doctrines, from the vague. eonsttttfitkai/ of
roots and symbols, was attacked, as sufovfirsiyie
of human learning,, as-- well ^is of naJaimrl. relit
'gion» To this Bishop 1 Horne repliedj thst^there
is no such, thing, as natural religion, no. man
having been ever left to himself; and that; that
which we term so, is, in fact,, traditionary infir
delity. He added, that theire is noimorality,. sav*
ing that preceded by justification, and aaactificar
tion ; and that much of the learning of modeini
times deserves to be decried, as not at all sub
servient to the cause of truth.
" The fault of .the Hutchinsonians is the g;e-
rieral fault of systcm-ma^kers ; that of cari'yiug
fcheir theory too far. Vitruvius made architeo
ture comprehend, at oae sweep, history, ethics,

18/A Cent.] GEORGE ii. 295'
music, astronomy, natural philosophy, physic,
and civil law. There is, undoubtedly, a natural
theology in the rainds of reasoning raen ; " for
God, even when he suffered nations to walk in
darkness, never left himself without a witness, in
that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven,
and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with
food and gladness" (Acts, xiv. 16, 17): that
is to say, thanksgiving was inferred by natural
theology, as a duty to the manifested Giver of
good. Again — " for the invisible things of
him, from the creation of the world, are clearly
seen ; being understood by the things that are
made, even his eternal power and Godhead : so
that they are without excuse, because that,
when they knew God, they glorified hiin not
as God, but changed the glory of the incor
ruptible God, into an image raade like unto
corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-
footed beasts, and to creeping things." (Rom.
i. 23.) This is plainly spoken in relation to the
heathens, and not to the Jews. It was the
heathens who clearly saw and inferred the in
visible things of God, not by preternatural
impression, but by the inference of natural
theology, from the order of things which were
seen; and things which disclosed to them a
Being of consummate power, convinced them
of the Godship of that Being. How, like
wise, will the theory of Bishop Horne dis-
u 4

296 THE REIGN GF ¦ [18/A Cent.
pose of such works as Cicero de Natura Deo
rum, and Plato on the Immortality of the
Soul? There was clearly in the old time, a
natural religion, pointing out God and his Pro
vidence, and intiraating a future state: but it
was an iraperfect theology, destitute of as
surances, and iraparting little consolation, be
cause not built on a rock. Yet if the Hutch
insonians will still deny a natural theology, as
resulting frora the reasoning powers of man, it
will be more consistent with propriety, to term
natural religiori, traditionary faith, than tradi
tionary infidelity.
If men once begin to attach their faith to
recondite allusions, to allegorical subtleties,
they desert the plain road of truth, arid the
secure Rock of ages, to embark on a sea of
wild iraagination. Religion, then, ceases to be
a matter of certainties, accessible to the poorest,
inteUigible to the most ignorant, defined within
precise limits, and forming a system in which
bodies of men can be brought to agree. Every
individual would in this case allegorize forhimy
self: " every one would have a doctrine." '
This systera of allegorizing is altpgether to
be deprecated, unless kept within the restric
tions which bound the application of types;
namely, the' fair connexion between the things
siguifying and signified, either specified in
Scripture, or universally and indisputably ob
vious.

18/A Cent.] GEORGE ii, 297
That the foundation Of all knowledge is to
be found in the Pentateuch, is a position in
the highest degree absurd. The Pentateuch
neither taught, nor was intended to teach,
astronomy : I cite here only one science among
many. The heavens, indeed, declare the glory
of God : their briUiance, their magnificence,
their order, show forth his conspicuous provi
dence, his wisdom, and his goodness. But
the Petitateuch described thera as they appear
to vulgar eyes ; for its Object was to te^ch reli
gion, and not natural philosophy. Coper
nicus discovered that the sun was in the centre;
and Newton, that the rainbow was forraed by
refracte/ rays of light*.
That the Old Testaraent spoke amply, both
by prophecy and type, concerning the nature
and person of Christ, is neither a discovery nor
an error of the Hutchinsonians. But so far
was the knowledge of true religion itself from
being coraplete, under the Old Testament dis
pensation (for that would have precluded the
necessity for the Gospel), that it was not
fully developed (we speak with reverence)
even at the death of our Saviour. " For I
have yet many things to say unto you ; but ye
* But the Hutchinsonians allegorized this opening of the
igth Psalm, by asserting, that tbe heavens declared the
moral atUributes of God, his judgment, truth, and righteous-
nets.

298 THE REIGN OF [ISthCeui.
cannot bear them now : howbeit, when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you
into all truth." (John, xvi. 12, 13.)
Knowledge, like J igh t, js designed to be ad
mitted gradually, that the eye may not b©
dazzled and blasted with its floods. In the
individual, it is progressive from infancy to
manhood: and the, analogy is discernible; in, the
history of the world. Revelation is designed
to be a system of faith and practice; the matters
of prirae iraportance to the spirit in its con
nexion with God... ^ In the secular branches of
learning, man has been wisely left to the sti
mulus of curiosity, to the inventions of neces
sity, and to the results of rational investiga
tion. The Bible is not an Encyclopsedia.
All comparisons of the Trinity to fire, light,
and spirit, or to any other sensible substances,
lead either directly to tritheisni; or else to
a resolution of the sublime, incoraprehensible
mystery of a triune Gqd, irito the comprehen
sible notion of influences : a doctrine akin to
Unitarianism.. When God is, in Scripture, pronounced a
Spirit, the true light,i, and a consuming j^re, it
is clear that tbe first term alludes simply to
his immateriality; while the two others are
metaphors signifying his communication of
knowledge, and his determined vengeance
against sin, A consultation of the conte.\.ts.

18/A Cent.] george ii. 599
in the passages wherein such -phrases occur,
will show these to be the obvious meanings.
AU others are fanciful and far-fetqhed.
The Hutchinsonians, in magnifying the
value of the Hebrew language, object to much
of the learning of modern tiraes, as not subser
vient to the cause of truth. But surely if
some branches of learning, useful to raankind
iu a secular point of view, be not prejudicial to
divine tmth, they are not to be condemned for
not being directly subservient to it. Further :
we cannot tell in what degree divine truth may
be elucidated, by discoveries in sciences seem
ingly the most remote from it. Dr. Chalmers
has recently shown how astronomy, in its im
proved state, furnishes analogies for illustrat
ing Christianity : I allude chiefly to that pas
sage, in which, adverting to the greater glory
accruing to the conqueror, from a private visit
to the cottage of indigence, than from all his
splendid triumphs, he replies to those who have
objected, that our earth is too insignificant a
speck in a sraall systera, to merit the stupen
dous interposition of incarnate Divinity. May
not other sciences, in the rapid progress of intel
ligence, lead on to sirailar conclusions.^ Even the
objections to the Mosaic cosraogony, stated by
chronologers and geologists, have been shown
to be altogether futile ; Sir WilUam Jones and
Dr. Hale having detected the fallacy of thc

300 ' THE REIGN OF [4'8/A Cent.
one; while Saussure, De Luc, Kirwan, Towns-
end, Cuvier, and Kidd, have triumphed over
the other. It is no small advantage, to prove,
that Revelation dreads not the light; and that
she shines forth more gloriously, in the march
of discovery. In fact, the whole science of
nature, and the whole philosophy of mind,"
conduct us to the shrine; of Revelation; partly
by speaking in harmony with its oracles, and
partly by confessing their own iraperfections,
unaided . by superior light. But to what end
heap up. all secular knowledge, as a mono
poly, in the treasures of the Hebrew language?
The vulgar Hebrew itself is not the original
language of mankind ; or even of the Penta
teuch. The Saraaritan is older, and indeed the
real Hebrew. Nor would any evident advan
tage be derived frora supposing either to be a
general dictionary: of occult truths. Such a
notion is the mere pride and parade of huraan
learning. That there is no raorality unless that pre
ceded by justification and sanctification, is a
false straining of the Article "which raaintairis;
that good works done before the grace of God,
have in theraselves the nature of sin. This is
applicable to Christians baptized and religiously
educated ; and is pronounced ' to exclude the
boasting of self-righteousness. In heathens,
who act up to their lights, there is a morahty,

WhCent.] GEORGE ir. 301
an accepted morality ; perhaps the eflfect of
sanctification, and certainly accepted through
the retrospective sacrifice of Christ: yet, the
recipients being: necessarily ignorant of these
benefits, it is a morality, strictly speaking, an
tecedent to them. Sorae " who had not the law,
made' a law unto themselves" (Rom. ii. r4);
and " a man is accepted according to that he
hath, and not according to that he hath not."
(2 Cor. viii. 12.)
. XVIII. Nothing can be too visionary or too
absurd for the human mind, when it imps its
wings with the pinions of fancy ; and deserting
the firm ground of reason and revelation, essays to
soar into the regions of spiritual existence. Well-
educated and universally learned, the Honour
able Emanuel Swedenborg became early distin
guished for his abilities, at the court of Sweden*.
In the year 1743 he professed to have been fa
voured with a new revelation, and to have as
cended to the invisible world. Theology, from
thatperiod, became his orily study; and he com
posed, in good, but unornamented Latin, raany
books illustrative of his own peculiar views.
In these his: tenets, different frora those of all
other sects, are supported by numberless texts
of Scripture. In allusion to the New Jerusalem,
mentioned in the book of Revelations, he de-
* Gregory's Christian Church, vol, ii. ; Maclean's So
phron and Philadelphos ; Mosheim; Adam's Keligious Wcild.

302 the REIGN OF \l8th Cent.
clared himself the founder of a religious so-
ciety, called the New Jerusalem Church';. though
he lived and died in the Lutheran communion,
and professed a high veneration for ;the Church
of England* He gave out that God, in the
beginning of his mission,- manifested himself to
hira in a personal appearance, and opened his
spiritual el^'es; enabling hira thenceforward to
hold convei'se with angelic natures. His visions
of the other world, where he saw the angels
formed into societies, and dwelling in houses,
surrounded by courts, fields, and parterres, are
in his Treatise of Heaven and Hell minutely
described. Swedenborg Carried his respect for the person
and divinity of JeSus Christ to the highest
pitch of veneration ; considering hira alto
gether as God maniftested in the flesh; asthe
fulness of the Godhead united to the man
Jesus. I'rora this pecuUar view was generated
a subtle Unitarianism; for, rejecting the idea
of three distinct Persons, as destructive of the
nnity of the Godhead, he admitted three dis
tinct essences ; the divine essence, or Creator,
the huinan essence, or Redeemer; and the pro
ceeding essence, or Holy Ghost: these, he as
serted, were combined^— as the soul, T)ody, and
operation, were liraited to forra one raan.
He denied atonement to be a vicarious sa
crifice ; and consideied its yirtue and efllieacy as

ISthCent.] GEORGE ii. i303
consisting, not in any change of disposition in
God towards man, for that must always be the
sarae ; but in the change whicii it wrought in
the state of raan, by reraoving from him the
powers of hell and darkness, with which he
was infested by transgression, and bringing
near to him the divine powers of goodness and
truth, in the person and spirit of Jesus, the
God and Saviour; by which approximation
the infirmities and corruptions of human na
ture might be wrought upon; and every believer
ihus placed in a state^ and capacity of arising
out of the evils consequent on sin, by a real
renewal of all the parts and principles of his
life, both bodily and spiritual.
If some traces .of resemblance to the Mo
ravian doctrine may be here discovered, Swe
denborg agreed with Hutchinson in believing
that the sacred volume contained an internal
and spiritual sense, to which the outward and
literal sense serves as a basis ; and he illustrated
in various treatises, this doctrine of correspond
ences, which he states to have been lost ever
since the days of Job.
He denied predestination, justification b}'
faith only, and the resurrection of the raaterial
body: maintaining the free will and agency of
man, the necessity of co-operation with grace,
and the impossibility of obtaining salvation
without repentance: while he held, that, im-
3

S04 THE . REIGN. OF [1 8/A Gcnt.^
rnediately after dissolution, man rises in a spiri
tual body, contained in his material frame. He
inculcated the doctrii^e of man's commumon
with invisible beings; of the upright, with
angels ; of the depraved, with spirits of dark
ness. AU Scriptural passages, describing the
destruction of the world by .fire, or painting
the last judgraent, are referred. by hira, agree
ably to the sciences of correspondences^ , to
the destruction of the existing Christian
church, in the year 17,57: frora which date is
to be reckoned the second advent of our Lord,
and the comraenceraent of a higher Christian
church, described in the Revelations as the New
Jerusalera ; or as the new heaven, and a new
earth. The pretensions of Swedenborg and of
many araong his followers to visit heaven ad
libitum, and to hold conversations with angels,
may be placed on a level with the fancies ofthe
madman in Horace; —
Fuit haudfignObilis Argis,
Qui se credebat miros audire tragoedos.
In vacuo laettis sessor, plausorque theatro.
The notion of this-.mystic respecting the conso
Udation of the Trinity, has been already an
swered in our replies to the Unitarians and
Moravians, It cannot solve the account of the
transfiguration ; nor those circumstances Which

ISthCent.] georSe u. . 305
took place in the heavens at the baptism of
Jesus by John ; where the three Persons in the
Godhead distinctly manifested theraselves in
their several and separate capacities. It is
totally incompetent to explain the prayers offer
ed by Christ to his Father, whom he often ad
dresses, as " his Father who is in heaven." All
these passages are at variance with the notion
of that fulness of the Godhead united to the
man Jesus, which would justify an exclusive
worship offered to the Son.
To compare the Trinity, to body, soul, and
operation, as uniting in one man, is to elucidate
an incomprehensible mystery by comprehen
sible things; it is to confound Persons, and to
divide the substance : tbe Father is God and
the Son is God; but the body is not man,
and the soul is not man. With regard to ope
ration in man, as compared to the Holy Ghost,
this destroys the Trinity, by making that third
distinct Person lose his personaUty and become
an influence.
Not less false are Swedenborg's ideas of
atonement, as not pacifying an offended God,
but fitting man for the reception of his mercy.
They are contradicted by the whole system of
Jewish sacrifices, which were types of Christ,
our passover sacrificed for us, and the sprin
kling of who.se bipod averts the wrath of God.
In fact, " being hy nature born in sin, we are
VOL. III. X

30i$ THE REIGN ob' [1 8/A Cent.
by nature the children of wrath ;" and there
fore, when we becorae children of grace by en
trance into that new covenant which was sealed
"with the blood of Christ, a manifest change is
wrought in the disposition of God tow'ards us.
As to the renewal of the powers of man, and
the change in his moral dispositions, these cer
tainly follow among the consequences of re-
dem|)tion ; but its first eflfect is to propitiate an
offended God, and to -place sinners on a foot
ing of acceptableness instead of condemna
tion. The mental renewal is the operation of
the Spirit of God, seconded by human co-ope-
"ration ; his Spirit bearing witness with our
spirits. (Romans, viii. 16.) But this is not co
extensive with the benefits of redemption ; for
all are redeemed, and might be saved ; but they
only are truly saved through lively faith, who
^embrace the gift of redemption.
On the fanciful and uncertain doctrine of
icdrrespohdences, and on the errors tp which it
leads, we refer to what has already been ad
vanced in reply to the Hutchinsonians.
By the Swendenborgians the Epistles are
termed private letters, and their authority is
denied in the canon of Scripture : but St.
Pfcter positively asserts the Epistles of St. Paul
¦ to be Scriptural, even when he is wa,rning the
world against an improper use of some thingS
contained in tbem, hard to be understood : " as

18/A Cent.] george ii. 307
also in his epistles, wljich they that are unlearn
ed wrest, as they do the other Scriptures, to
their own destruction." (2 Peter, xv. l6.) These
Epistles were Scriptures, then, in the same
sense as the Gospels were. Had they not been
so, it would have better answered St. Peter's
purpose, to have at once denied their inspi
ration. In the proraise of the Comforter, who was to
impart trutlis which could not, at the close of
pur Lprd's brief ministry, be received by the
;weak minds of the disciples ; who was to weau
them from milk, to supply strong meat, and to
guide uuto all truth ; Christ directly referred to
.the inspiration and the iraportance of the Apo
stolic teaching and writing; while he staraped
the authority of tbe Epistles which his chosen
Apostles should indite. (John, xvi. 12, 13.
Hebrews, v. 14.)
In one passage, St. Paul says, " I speak as a
man ;" a man, whose unaided judgraent con
fesses its fallibility. This, then, is a npte of
ex;ceptiou to his general speaking. His general
speaking is to be understood in the sense of an
other passage : " Yet not I, but the Holy Ghost
whiph is in me." (Roraans, iii, 5. 1 Cor, x,v, 10.)
But the doctrine which represents the day
of judgm.eut as a figure more than a. fact;
and the descriptions of the heavens passing
away wilh a great noise, while the Son of Man*
X 2

30$ THE reign OF [l8/ACif«/.
cometh in the clouds with power and great
glory, as fulfilled in 1758 by the raving pro
ductions of Eramanuel Swedenborg, surpasses
all the others in nonsense, presuraptipn, and
blasphemy. It is not a faCt that the present Christian
church IS at an end. It continues to this day.
Do the disciples of Swedenborg recollect the
passages, "Enter into the joy of your Lord :" —
and, " Depart from me, ye cursed :" — " These
shall go away irito everlasting life;" — "but the
wicked into eternal punishment .''" How, then,
can it be pretended that the day of fulfilraent is
already past? Itis said in the Scriptures, that
the second advent of our Lord shall, not hap
pen, until the knowledge of his religion cover
the eiarth, as the waters cover the sea; but
many parts of the earth are still in the darkness
of paganism. It is again said, that one jot shall
not pass, nor one tittle from' the word of God,
until all be fulfilled; but all is not fulfiUed.
There yet, therefore, remaineth a rest for the
people of God ; who thus have not yet entered',
but SEEK a country : while to the wicked,
there yet reraaineth a certain fearful looking
for— ^(so far are they frora the preterition) of
judgment^ (Hab. ii. 14. Matt. v. 18. Heb. iv.
9. Heb, xi. 14; and xiii. 14. Heb. x. 27) ,

i8/A Cent.] george m. 309
" CHAPTER XIX.
THE lUClON OF OEORGE III. TO THE YEAR 1800.

Contents.
I. Auspicious Terminatio7i ofthis History. — II. Procla
mation for the Encouragement qf Piety. — III. King's
frst Speech in Parliament to the same Effect. — IV.
Policy reith regard to the Catholics. — ^V, Archdeacon
Blackburne's. JVorlcs on Confessio?is qf Faith. — ^VL.^s-
sqdation for Release from Subscription to the Thirty-
nine Articles. — VII, Reasons for the Rejection of the
Petition to that Effect. — VIII, Uusuccessful Bill
against dormant Claims ofthe Church. — IX, Bills re
lating to Subscription. — X. Socinians: Statement a/id
Refutation of their Tenets. — XI, Lidulgence to the Ca
tholics in America and at Home. — XIl, Similar Con
cessions made to Dissenters. — XIII, Alarm excited:
Protestant Associations. — XIV, Lord G. Gordon's
Mob. — XV, Infidel and immoral Writers: Chesterfield,
Hume, Gibbon, Priestley. — XVI- Profanation ofthe
Sabbath. — XVII. Sunday Schools: Mr. Raikes. —
XVIII. Miss More and BUigdon Controversy. — XIX.
Methodist Sunday Schools. — XX. Mrs. Trimmer and
other Writers on Sabbath Education. — XXI, Episco
pacy in America. — XXII. Corporation and Test Acts.
• — XXIII. New Proclamations respecting Piety and
Morals.—XXlV. Slave Trade.— XXV. King's Ill
ness and Recovery. — XXVI, Corporation and Test
Acts. — XXVII, Lenity to Catholic Dissenters. -r-
XXVIIl. French Rpiolution; Exertions of the
X 3

310 THE REIGN OF [18th Cent,
Clergy, ¦¦ — XXIX. Corporation and Test Acts. -™
XXX. Heteregeneous Nature of the Dissenters."^
XXXI. Price's Sermon and Burke's Reflections. —
XXXII. Paine's Rights qf Man.-^XXXni. Riots
in Birmingham: Expatriation of Dr. Priestley.'^-'
XXXIV. Attempts of the Unitarians.— -XXXV.
London Corresponding Society, and Second Part qf
the Rights of Man.-^XXXYl. French Emigrants.-^
XXXVII. Paine's Age of Reason and Bishop of
Llandaff's Apology.— XXXV IIL Infidel Sopietits,
— XXXIX, — David Williams and Tkeophilanthro-,
pism.-r-XL. Bishop of London's Lectures: Hannah
More's Cheap Repository, ahd other Labours qf Zeal,
, I. After pursuing the fortunes of our Church
through a variety of reigns, and having beheld
it sometimes basking in prosperity, sometimes
suffering from the rapacity, the tyranny, the
bigotry, the lukewarmness, the profligacy, or
the heretical disposition of several sovereigns;
it aflfords us a pleasure somewhat sirailar to that
experienced frora the drawing of a dramatic ,
plot to a conclusion, to sum up the whole
hy presenting to the reader a monarch, the
father of his people, the most amiable of men,
the friend of true religion, and a pattern to
all Christians*.
II. Almost the earliest act of this excellent
sovereign's long reign (Oct. 31, 1760), was
* George III, on his coronation, on approaching to receive
the Sacrament, voluntarily took off his crown, and the same
night composed a prayer for the future prbsperity of his reign.
—Brady's Clavis Calgndatia, vol. ii. p. 158.

ISthCent.] GEORGE III. 311
the issuing of a royal proclamation for the en
couragement of piety and virtue, and for pre
venting and punishing vice, profaneness, and
immorality ; which is directed and continues to
be read at the opening of the assizes and quarter
sessions, as well as occasionally in parish
churches. In this instrument he pledged him
self, and recomraended the aristocracy, to en
courage and advance persons distinguished for
piety and upright morals.
III. Soon after, a further pledge was deUvered
for the King's strong attachment to the interests
of religion during his reign, in his first speech
to Parliament, in which he stated his invariable
resolution to adhere to, and to strengthen, the
excellent constitution both in church and state.
" The civil and religious rights of my loving
subjects," added he, " are equally dear to me
with the most valuable prerogatives of my
crown : and as the surest foundation of the
whole, and the best means to draw down the
divine favour on my reign, it is my fixed pur
pose to countenance and encourage the practice
of true religion and virtue." Many sovereigns
have set forth with proraises equally fair, and,
perhaps, with intentions equally honest; but
power and flattery have corrupted thera as they
advanced; they have foigotten those early
pledges and principles of action, and their
maiden speeches have soraetimes proved a
pointed satire on their government. But it
X 4

312 THE REIGN OF [ISthCent.
must needs have afforded our late beloved mo
narch the sweetest solace of old age, to re
flect, after the lapse of half a century from the
delivery of this proraise, that hehad uniformly
and steadily adhered to it; unseduced to vice by
the teraptations of power, and unshaken in his
purposes by the claraours of faction. We may
here further observe, that such high acknow-
ledgnients of Providence correct the pride of
those statesmen who arrogate all to human
power; encourage the timid and pious to ad
vance without dread of ridicule into the field of
religious utility ; establish Christianity as the
standard of reference, by which the systeriis of
philosophy and caprice of opinion are to be re
gulated ; and finally conciliate the favour of the
King of erapires and great Controller of events.
IV. The differences betvveen the High and
Low Church party had greatly subsided with the
cessation of the BangOriain controversy ; but the
Roraari Catholics having, about 1765, atterapted
to advance their clairas and revive their power
in England, these oppositions in sentiment were
renewed. In regard to the Catholics, it had been
the wise policy of the reign of George III. to
tolerate their mode of worship, but to remem
ber their spirit, to watch their movements, and
to limit concession by prudence.
V- Archdeacon Blackburne's Considerations
on the present State ofthe Controversy between
the Protestants and Papists of Great Britain and

ISthCent.] GEORGE III. 313
Ireland, as introducing, in 1766, his celebrated
work, " The Confessional ; or, a full and free
Inquiry into the Right, Utility, Edification,
and Success of establishing systeraatical Con
fessions of Faith and Doctrine in Protestant
Churches," are here deserving of notice. " No
publication, since the days of Hoadly, produced
a stronger sensation in the Church of England
than this: a sensation which did not subside
for raany years; but, on the contrary, roused
the slurabering pretensions of her less orthodox
merabers *."
VI. Instigated' by the warra representations
of this Confessional, an association was forraed
at the Feathers tavem in London, A. D. 1772,
by certain clergymen of the English Church,
and several merabers of the professions of law
and physic ; whose object was relief from sub
scription to the Thirty-nine Articles. A peti
tion to this effect was framed by the society,
and after receiving the signatures of two hun
dred and. fifty of the clergy, presented to the
House df Coraraons. Having first descanted on
the blessings of the Reforraation, in allowing
men to deduce their faith by the use of their
reason from the Scriptures, they coraplained
that [assent was deraanded in the Thi rty -nine
Articles, to certain compositions of fallible men;
and sought release from obligations, which they
considered as utterly incongruous with the right
* Brewster's Secular Essay. Cpote's Addition to Mosheim.

314 THE iREiGN oy f 18/A Cent.
of private judgmenL The clergy complained of
subscription, as a hardship at the time of ordi
nation ; while the professors of law and medi
cine adverted to the bar it presented to matri
culation in the two universities.
This petition was rejected in Parliament, by a
large majority. On the side of the Chutch, it
was insisted, that to the public teachers of the
peopky a restriction imposed by certain prin
ciples, frora which they were^not to deviate,
was absolutely necessary ; as was the establish
ment of some public symbol to which they
should all assent; in order to prevent the disy.
order, the clashing, the endless confusion in
cidental to various opinions and interpretations.
A siraple assent to the Scriptures was stated to
be iriadequate to this purppse ; since .daily ex
perience evinced that no two individuals would
agree in their general construction of the in
spired volume; and since the grossest absur
dities, nay, blasphemies, have been at different
times defended upon Scriptural authority, un
fairly quoted. The clergy, it was wisely argued,
suffered no injustice ; they were under no neces
sity of accepting benefices contrary to their con
sciences 5 they knew the terms deraanded pre
vious to taking orders ; and if their scruples
arose after preferment had been bestowed upon
thera, they were able, as was tbeir duty, to re
linquish the eraoluraents ofa church whioh they
could no longer conscientiously serve, Every

18/A Cmt.} eEOHGE III. 315
citizen and freeman possessed the full liberty
of interpreting Scripture for his own private «
use ; the sectarist was further at liberty to cir
culate his peculiar views of Scripture ; but it
was just, that privileges and emoluments granted
by the state should be confined to those who
conformed to the doctrines which the state ap
proved. It is easy, in truth, to conceive, what per
plexity would be occasioned to the people, if
there were not sorae fixed interpretation amidst
an hundred possible glosses, by which the clergy
should pledge themselves to abide. In the
same church, on the same day, they might
be distracted by the contending dogmas of
Tritheism and Socinianism ; of Presbyterianism
and Popery; of restricted and universal re
demption. We may infer the contention and
confusion which would prevail in the bosom
of the Establishment, were all the clergy, left
to their own interpretation of the Scriptures,
from observing the violent spirit of party which
is occasioned by that latitude of interpretation
of which the Articles themselves- are supposed
to be capable. From the contests of Arminians
and Calvinists, we may judge of the fury which
would result from admitting within the pale of
the Establishraent, all who denorainate them
selves Christians ; and safely may it be averred,
that such a ineasure, far frora promoting peace,
would engender the most inveterate hostilities.

516 THB REIGN OF [18/A CcTtt.
VIII. A bill, of which the object was to
secure the possessions of the subject against
dormant claims of the Church, was soon aftpr
thrown out ; the Legislature being of opinion,
that, through a combination of rich farmers,
accompanied by the quick succession of incumr
bents, the poorer clergy might be unable to de
fend their rights.
IX. A bill for the relief of dissenting minis
ters from assent to certain articles enjoined by
the Acts of Toleration, suffered a like rejection.
In 1773 and 1774, other attempts to obtain re
lief from matriculation and general tests were
ventured on, but met with no better success
than the former. <
X. Disappointed in these efforts, which had
been made under pretence of liberality, some
of the petitioning clergy now developed their
real motives. The Essex Street Chapel was
opened by them as a temple of avowed Socinian
worship ; and Theophilus Lindsey, Dr. Disney,
and some other beneficed clergymen, withdrew
from their connexion with the Established
Church *. Though, to relinquish pieferments
which they could no longer conscientiously
hold, may reflect high honour on their prin,-
ciples, our praise must be much abated on con
sidering the mixed views which had dictated
* See Dr. Clarice's Amendments in the Liturgy, in the
British Museum ; and Lindsey's Apology for resigning the
yicarage of Catterick.

18/A Cent] GEORGE iii. 317
their previous exertions to obtain latitude in
subscription. The two Socini, uncle and nephew, lived in Po
land about the middle of the sixteenth century.
The foundation of the sect is usually, however,
ascribed to the latter. The Socinians flourished
in Poland about tlie year 1561 ; and J. Siemieuus,
Palatine of Podolia, built a church purposely
for their use. A catechism was published, en
titled. The Racovian Catechism; and their
ablest authors are distinguished by the name 'of
Polones Fratres. Their writings were repub
lished together, in the year 1656, in one great
collection, consisting of six voluraes, folio, un
der the title of the Bibliotheca Fratrura.
Frora Arianism to Socinianisra, the gliding is
as imperceptible and easy as from Socinianisra
to Deisra on the sarae descent: Whiston, Chil
lingworth, Chubb, Morgan, and Kippis, were
all originally Arians *. Priestley too, at first,
endeavoured only to show that a belief in the
Holy Trinity had no place in the creed of the
early Christians, but was introduced by artifice
and imposture, in repugnance to repeated de
clarations both of the Old and New Testament.
Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, adopted these sen
timents, but his zeal and increasing perplexities
hastened his death. Priestley met, in the Arian
stage of his progress, with an able opponent in
Bishop Horsley, who, in his theological tract?,
* Adams's Religious World, Hannah Adams's View.

318 THE RErGN iff ll8thCent^
has fully exposed the erroneous foundation bf
the Unitarian systera.
The main feature which distinguishes the
Socinian from the Arian creed, is denial of
the pre-existence of Christ,. The Socinians fur
ther reject the doctrine of our Lord's atone
ment ; affirming our Saviour to have been born
into the world,, only to deliver a pure sys
tem of morals ; to die in confirmation of his
mission ; and, by rising again, to give assurance
ofa future state. The modern professors of So
cinianisra raore daringly strike out from their
system the notion of the miraculous conception,
and consequently the worship of Christ, both
of which their founder Socinus had inculcated j
and they artfully prefer the name of Unitarians,
which is sometiraes applied to them in com
mon with the Arian Christians. They deny
original sin ; they deny the inspiration of Scrip
ture ; they deny the personality of the Holy
Ghost, whom they consider only in the light
of an energy, or emanation, or modus operandi
of the Deity; but they allow no spiritual in
fluence on the soul. The sacraraents they con
sider as siraple ceremonies, unaccompanied by
any inward operations. Most Unitarians still
further reiject the existence ahd agency of the
devil, the spirituality and separate existence
ofthe soul, an intermediate state between death
and the resurrection, and the eternity of future

ISthCent.] oeorge iii. 319
punishments. These latter tenets, however,
are not necessary adjuncts of thedr system : and,
together with the doctrines of necessity and
materialism, which are generally embraced, and
on which some of the others depend, have no
more connexion, according to the expression of
Mr. Belsham, with the Socinian creed, than with
the mountains of the moon.
The Arian heresy having been already con
futed at great length, we may presurae upon
having answered those more heterodox prin
ciples of Socinus, which relate to the antecedent
existence of the blessed Messiah. For, if Christ
be indeed co-equal with the Father, he must
needs have pre-existence ascribed to him. The
Molossian dog, dierefore, which has hunted
down the wolf, disdains a meaner prey. Let the
Arian himself be left to answer the Socinian
denial of Christ's pre-existent state, by quot
ing the Saviour's own expression, — " Before
Abraham was, I am;" and his prayer to the
Father, — " Glorify me with the glory which I
had with thee, before the world was :" texts
which, taken together, are wholly at variance
with two Socinian quibbles ; the first, that the
creation by Christ is no more than a spiritual cre
ation ; " all things," signifying all men : and the
second, that " Before Abrahara was, I ara," im
ports, simply, that, prior to the time of Abraham,
Christ was appointed to be the Messiah. Let

520 THE reign of [18/A Cent.
him cite also th6 passages, — " In the beginning
was the Word,- and all things were made by
Hira ;" John, i. 1, 3. — " And no one hath as
cended up into heaven but He, thafrearae down
frora heaven, even the Son of Man," &c.; John, iii.
13. — " What and if ye shall see the Son of Man
ascend up where he was before ;" John, vi. 62.
— "Christ, though he was rich, yet for your
sakes becarae poor;" 2 Cor. viii. 9.-^" The mys
tery which frora the beginning hath been hid
with God, who created all things by Jesus
Christ ;" Ephes, iii. 9. — " His Son, by whom he
made the Worlds ;" Heb. i. 2. — " His dear Son,
the first born of every creature, by whom all
things were created ;" Col. i. 15, 16. — " Who
being in the form of God, took Upon hira the
form of man ;" PhU. ii. 5, 8*.
After having thus robbed Christ of his divinity
and pre-existence, to reject his atoneraent was
a natural consequence; although presumption
might here tremble for the application of that
awful text which denounces those " who deny
the Lord that bought themf."
Dr. Priestley felt persuaded that the doctrine
of atonement had no countenance either from
• Vide Magee, vol. i. p, 74, for an able reply to the Socinian
interpretation of these and other texts,
\ " Profecto minime mimm est, si qui Christo gloriam natu-
ralem, hoc est veri nominis Deitatem sustulerunt, iidem et
officia ipsius imminuunt, & beneficia ipsius praecipua recusant
agnoscere," Grotius de Satisfactione Christi.

18/A Cent.] OEORGE iii. 321
Scripture or from reason : that, frora a full view
of all religions, ancient and modern, they will
be found destitute of any thing like the doc
trine of a proper atonement ; and further, that,
considering that doctrine in a practical view, the
belief and influence of it are unfavourable to
virtue and morals. On all these points we are at
issue with this daring and superficial theologian.
1 . That the doctrine of atonement is founded
in reason, must be evident to any one who con
siders what would be the natural conclusions of
enlightened reason, when reflecting on the na
ture of man and the attributes of God.
For, let it be considered that raan, wayward
from his infancy, daily trespassing in deed,
word, and iraagination, and thus covered with an
accumulation of transgression, has to deal with
a God, omniscient, who has witnessed even frora
his infancy all his words, deeds, and imagina
tions ; holy, whom the sraallest stain of iniquity
offends ; and just, whose laws cannot be infring
ed without exposure to that punishraent which
even the stings of natural conscience forebode.
Will it be said that he is raerciful, and that his
mercy of itself will dictate forgiveness? We
answer, no one attribute of the divine nature
ought to be conceived as swallowing up another.
" A God all mercy is a God unjust."
Or will it be urged, that the contrition and re
pentance of a sinner are of themselves sulfi-
\UL, 111, Y

322 THE REIGN Of [ISthCent.
ciently efificacious, as; an atonement for his
past guilt?. This, were to place him who had
swerved but slightly frora virtue, on a level with
the daring profligate of years, who breathes forth
one last sigh of repentance: it were thus to
contradict every notion of the divine equity.
But present services will no more obliterate for
mer disobedience, than the present payment
of ready money &)r what we purchase, will can
cel a past debt. Obedience is our duty at all
4;imes. How then can present repentance release
us from past sins ? Does it create a surplusage
of merit, reducing, retrospectively, past demerit?
" We may as well affirm," says a learned divine,
" that former obedience atones for present sin,
as that present obedience atones for antecedent
transgression." Nay, were it otherwise, could
the Deity be supposed to enter into the compact
with man, " Serve' me unerringly in all things
in time to cOrae, and the past I will reraember
no more?" Where is the man who could proraise
Jiimself such undeviating obedience? Would
not the language of every reflecting and antici
pating individual be expressly the language
which inspiration assigns to David : " Enter not
into judgraent with thy servant, O Lord 1 for in
thy sight shall no man living be justifled?" Psalm
cxliii. 2.
On the whole, then, it is evident, that, on the
principles of natural reason, no man could stand

18/A Cent.] GEORGE iii. 323
before his Maker, in judgment, on the strength of
his own merits exclusively. Hence some atone
ment is necessary ; something to stand between
God (vested in the light of omniscience, the
glory of purity, and in thc terrors of justice),
and man, wayward and guilty.
It has been asked, indeed, what connexion
subsists, in reason, betwixt the sufferings of pne
person, and the forgiveness of another ? And
B}shop Magee has well answered, " As much
connexion, at least, as exists betwixt the obe
dience of any individual at a late period of life,
and the. pardon of the sarae individual for sins
coraraitted at an earlier." In the one case, God
barters pardon and eternal life for the paltry re
mains of an obedience, itself blotted and sinful :
in the other, for the blood of his Son. Which
is the higher price ? Which is the price most
adequate in reason ? Which is the bargain most
•worthy of the Deity ?
It has also been objected, that the scherae of
jederaption is circuitous, and might be better
accomplished by a declaration of pardon, to be
vouchsafed on repentance and araendraent.
This is to dictate tp the Alraighty how he shall
save the world. Is not the process of raaking
bread circuitous, frora the seed to the mill, and
to the oven? To please such objectors, manna
ought to be rained down fi'om heaven. So the
.human race might be created perfect at once ;
y2

324 THE REIGN OF [18/A Ccntf.
but the woraan travails nine months with her
burden, and produces a speechless- infant long
inefficient to society. So Ukewise the afflicted
might be relieved at once ; but they are left to
the slow and precarious process of benevolence.
Again. — Reason is stated to be at variance
with the plan of redemption on the score of the
divine irarautabUity. If God wUls to pardon
men on repentance, he will grant it without a
mediator ; and if not, a mediator cannot influ
ence hira, unless by irapeaching his iramutabi-
lity. By this argument, in its extent, both
prayer and repentance are idle ; for these, too,
are hypothetically supposed to influence the
divine will.
Others cannot believe the nature of God so
implacable, as to have required the prodigious
ransom of his Son's crucifixion for the huraan
race. But it is an error to suppose that the
death of Christ made the divine nature placable :
it being only the appointed raeans through
which God being deterrained to be placable, ex
tended mercy to raankind. " God so LovEb the
world as to have given his only begotten Son."
Herein is love, that God first loved - us, i and
gave his Son. John, iii. 16. 1 John, iv. 10.
Where, then, is the charge of iraplacability ?
2. The doctrineofatoneraent being thus proved
not to be adverse to reason, but perfectly con
sistent with it; we are in pain to be obUged to

18/A Cent.] george iir. 335
superinduce the authority of Scripture, since no
one but a deterrained garbler of JJcripture could
call in question a proof so obvious in detached
passages, and in the general scope of the sacred
volurae. What can be more explicit than Hebrews,,
ix. 22 : "Without shedding of blood there is no
reraission?" In this text reference is raade to a
passage in Leviticus (xvii. 11), "The life ofthe
flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you
upon the altar, to make atonement for the soul."
And from both we may conclude, that all the
sacrifices and propitiations of the law were pre-
figurations of that one, full, perfect, and suffi
cient sacrifice, satisfaction, and oblation for the
sins of the whple world, oflfered up on Calvary.
This is the system of types, so obvious in Scrip
ture, and so continually alluded to in *the New
Testament. Thus, the paschal lamb is declared,
1 Cor. V. 7, to be typical of that event, whereby
those are passed over unconderaned who are
sprinkled with the blood of Christ. " Christ,
our passover, is sacrificed for us." Thus (John,
iii. 14, 15), "As Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so mnst the Son of Man be
lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life."
On the general doctrine of atonement, as con
tained in ScuiFruKE, we may quote the passages,
Isaiah, liij. 10: "Thou shalt make his soul au
Y 3

S26 the rKgn OF [18/A Cent.
offering for sin:" Dan. ix, 24, 26: "Seventy
weeks are determined to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sin, and to raake reconcilia
tion for iniquity; and after these, the Messiah
shall be cut off, but not for hiraself," Matt. xx.
28 : " The Son of Mart came to give his life a ran
som foi- raany." John, vi, 51 : " My flesh, which
I will give for the life of the world," Luke, xix.
6 : " This is my body which is given for you."
1 John, ii. 2 ; and Rora. ni. ^5 : " He is the pro
pitiation for our sins." 1 Cor. xv. 3 : " Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures."
Ephes. i. 7 : " Redemption through his blood;
the forgiveness of sins *."
3. That a vievv of religions, ancient and mo
dern, does not discover any thing like the doc
trine of a proper atoneriient, is the next Socinian
proposition to be controverted. We have just
now adverted to the whole systera of Jewish
sacrifices, with the references to thera in the
New Testaraent. Aud here it is iraportant to
remark, with Bishop Magee f, that an erroneous
practice has prevailed, of ^r*/ examining the
nature of sacrifice, as generally understood, an
tecedent to the death of Christ ; and from that, ^
explaining the sacrifice of Christ : whereas, in
* See Magee, vol. i, p, 222, for tHe passages representing
the death of Christ as a sacrifice: the direct meaning of all
which passages must be refined away before the doctrine they
establish can be im|>ugned.
t On the Atonement, vol, i. p, 42,

18/A Cent.] . GEORGE iii. 327
fact, by THIS all former sacrifices are to be in
terpreted ; and with reference to it only, can
they be understood. Hence have arisen various
errors : for, while some have attributed the uni
versal practice of sacrifice to a superstitious fear
of ari iraagined sanguinary divinity, others have
accounted for the Jewish sacrifices, and even
that of Christ, as a raere accommodation to pre
vailing practice. Spencer, Sikes, and Warbur
ton, have severally consideied sacrifices as pro
pitiatory gifts, federal rites and actions, symbo
lical of the death which a contrite offender owns
himself to have incurred. But Magee repre
sents the sacrifice of Abel as at variance with
all these notions : its acceptance being grounded
on faith (Heb. xi. 4) : faith, of which the cri
terion was animal sacrifice ; and the object, the
proraise of a Redeemer. In truth, iraraediately
after the sin of Adara, the first discoveries of
grace implied something of an atonement : " It
shall bruise thy head ; and thou shalt bruise his
heel," said God to the serpent, concerning the
seed of Adam. But if Christ be set forth as an
expiation and sacrifice iu the New Testament
(Heb. X, 12); and if the Jewish sacrifices are
types of that expiation, " shadows of things to
come, the body being of Christ" (Col. ii. 17); it
matters not what corrupt notions respecting sa
crifices had crept into the Jewish faith. The
obvious inference would be, that sacrifices were
y 4 .

328 THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
originally understood by the Jews, as God in
tended thera to be understood, in the light of
expiations *.
And if this were the case with the sacrifices
of the law, it raay safely be asserted concerning
sacrifices from the beginning, concerning those
of Abel, Noah, and Abraham. There is no ob
vious connexion between the blood of an ani
mal and atonement for sin ; and therefore the
general prevalence ,of sacrifice evinced that it
was a rite taught to all people by God, with no
other view than to prefigure the great sacrifice.
That expiatory sacrifice existed among the Ara
bians in the time of Job is certain, since God
prescribes sacrifice to the friends of that Pa
triarch ; and Job himself (i, 5) offers a burnt-of
fering for his sons, lest they should have sinned.
And that its universal prevalence in the heathen
world was the result of an original divine ap
pointment, seeras raaflifest for the reason just
now assigned; its want of obvious connexion
with atoneraent. It matters not, then, with
what superstitious or inadequate notions it came,
in process of time, to be raixed. God designing
it as prefiguring the great expiatory sacrifice,
imparted it with notions of expiation.
4. That the influence of the doctrine of
* The scape-goat was a transference of the sins of the
people to the head of the goat, and it was the continuation of
a sacrifice.

1"8/A Cent.] ceorge hi. 329
atonement is unfavourable to virtue and morals,
is the last objection urged by Dr. Priestley.
And here it is necessary to draw a distinction
between the efficient meritorious cause, and thc
coNnrnoM of our salvation. The meritorious
cause is the cross of Christ; for " he is the
vvay, and the truth, and the life; and no man
cometh unto the Father but by him" (John,
xiv, 6); but the condition is hoUness of Uving,
without which no man shall see God: for,
though no exertions of ours could achieve im- .
mort'dl felicity, the benefits of our Redeemer's
death will not be extended to us individuaUy,
without our repentance and walking in newness
of life. The moral law, therefore, being still
in force, is there not a grace added to the Chris
tian virtues,' a polish to the corner-stone of the
edifice, in that humility which, on every moral
offering it lays upon the altar, inscribes the
words, unprofitable servant; and which disavow
ing all personal worthiness even in the best estate
of obedience, reclines upon the Saviour alone for
salvation .? And will no dread of sin be excited
by the recollection that God abhors it so utterly,
as not to have spared his own ever blesse<l Son,
for the satisfaction of his justice and the concili
ation of his mercy ? And will no earnestness of
obedience be elicited by the sentiments of grati
tude which flow towards God in return for so
unspeakable a gift? Nay, if, in natural religion,

330 THE RE'iGN OF [ISlh' Cent.
the moral exertions might be apt to relax through
consciousness of their inability to perform a
perfect or acceptable service; will not that very
consciousness be cheered into persevering obe
dience by knowing that imperfections will be
blotted out in redeeming blood?
Referring the inquirer concerning the divinity
of Christ, to our strictures on the Arian heresy,
we proceed to*the Socinian denial of the miracu
lous conception, and refusal of worship to Christ.
To the miraculous conception, it is not difliicult
to discover the reason of the antipathy enter
tained by this heretical body : for a mere moral
teacher might have been born without a mi
racle ; but he who coraes into the world raira
culously conceived must have come on some
higher errand *, to which a mere raan was une
qual. They perceive that this doctrine naturally
brings after it the doctrines of incamation and
atonement. To allow the miraculous concep
tion of Christ, would likewise be to allow his
divinity : an inference, indeed, expressly stated
by St. Luke, " The holy thing to be born of thee
shall be called the Son of Godf." And the
reason, says Bishop Pearson:]:, is clear, because
* Horsley, Tracts, — Heber, Bampton Lectures on the Com
forter, t Luke, i. 30.
{ Expos, of the Creed, article 2,. Burnet, Hey, Tomline,
and the Articles,

IStkCent.] OEOKGE III, 331
that the Holy Ghost is God; for, were he any
creature, and not God himself, Christ must have
been the son of a creature, not of God,
Now, since God promised (Gen. ni. 15), that
the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's
head, it was necessary that he should be born
of a virgin, that so he might not be the seed of
man, as all other men are. Isaiah foretold, in a
corroboratory prophecy, that a virgin should
conceive and bear a son, and should call his
name Iraraanuel (Isa. ch. vii. ver. 14;; that is, as
St. Matthew, i, 23, interprets it, God with us:
and this Evangelist writes, that vvhen Mary was
espoused unto Joseph, before they carae toge
ther, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost; adding, that Joseph knew not Mary until
she had brought forth her first-born son, and he
called his name Jesus; Matt. i. 18, 25. In the
Annunciation, as related by St, Luke, i, 27, 35,
the angel Gabriel salutes the Virgin Mary,
acquainting her that the Holy Ghost should
come upon her, and that the povver of the High
est should over,shadow;her. And when Joseph,
finding her pregnant, was minded to put her
away, the angel of the Lord commands hirn
not to fear to take unto him Mary his wife,
since that which was conceived by her was of
tlie Holy Ghost, (Matt. chap, i.) And thus, when
the fulness of the time was corae, God sent fortii

332 the reign of [ISthCent.
his Son, made of a woraan, made under the law.
(Galat. iv. 4*.)
In point of authority, we add that Justin Mar
tyr', Origen*, Tertullian ^ St. Cyprian*, Igna-
? Now, in adverting to these passages, the Socinians, to be
sure, would not, irreverently, venture the explanation hinted
at by that vulgar and disgusting monster of infidelity, Paine,
and re-babbled by his pitiful idolater, Carlile. I cite the ex
pression with trembling, as a fair specimen of that calm dis
cussion and diffident inquiry after truth, boasted by the devout
Deist ofthe Temple of Reason : " The story is blasphemously
obscene j being an account of a young woraan engaged to be
married, and, while under that engagement, debauched by<a
ghost J notwithstanding which, Joseph marries her, and rivals
the ghost." What can be the unprejudiced spirit, the mental
purity, or the Deistical piety of a man capable, of inditing such a
paragraph, I leave others to determine ; but I will remind its ad
mirers, that, should they chance to be mistaken^ and should the
Bible be found to speak truth, it coiitains a hand- writing against
them which no silence on the subject, no candour, no dexterity
can obliterate; for, " All manner of sins shall be forgiven untb
men ; bnt the sin against the Holy Ghost, that shall not be for
given." But the Socinians would not dare to adopt this horrid
supposition ; they well know, indeed, " that a virgin conceiv
ing," signifies, according to the Prophet, still continuing a
virgin. How then do they face the Scriptural proofs ? Nothing
more easy, as we shall iramediately see. Scripture, they say,
is not inspired, and contains maqy errors. We understand
not the miraculous conception, and therefore out it goes. And
if this, why not, by pne sweeping dash, expunge all tbe other
miracles along with it ?
' Apolog. 1 , cap. 39. ^ Contra Celsum, 1. iii. p. 135.
' Advers. Gentes, c. 3 1 . \Dt Idol.

18/A Cent.] GEORGE in. 333
tius', Irenaeus*, Cyril of Jerusalem ', Ambrose*,
Lactantius*, HUary*, BasiF, Augustine', and
many others, assert the miraculdus conception
of Christ.
In offering worship to Christ, yet denying his
perfect divinity, the Arians involved themselves
in the charge of idolatry. The Socinians, in
denying him worship, though more blaspheraous,
have certainly been raore consistent. His wor
thiness of being worshipped, indeed, is a direct
consequence of his divinity : and the proofs of
his divinity we have already multiplied in speak
ing of the Arian controversy (Vol. III. p. 137).
The conjunction, but not the confusion, of the
divine and human natures in Christ, is termed
the hypostatic union; but that is sometiraes pre
dicated or spoken concerning one of these
natures, which is only proper to the other. Thus,
God is said to have shed his blood. Acts, xx. 28 ;
and the raan Christ Jesus is proposed to be wor
shipped by the. angels, Heb. i.6. But if Christ
(though not as raan) ought to be worshipped by
angels, then, k fortiori, he ought to be worship
ped by raen, lower than the angels. Every
where, indeed, the worship due to Christ is in
ferred from the preraises of his divinity : and
' in Theod. Dial. Immutab. ' Lib. iii, c. 2g, p. 258.
5 Cat. xii. p, 155 & l64. ¦» Vol, ii, p, SQ.
.i ^nst. lib. iv; cap. 12. * De Trin, lib, 16.
? Hom. 35, vol. ii. p. 307- ° Vol. iv. p. 536.

334 THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
while other beings disclaim worship, because
they are not divine, to himj as alone divine,
worship is pre-eminently ascribed. When the
people of Lystra offered sacrifice to Paul and
Barnabas, as tp divine personages, they rent
their clothes, and cried out in extrerae anxiety,
"Sirs, why do ye these things? we are men
of like passions with you." Acts, xiv. 15. In
the same manner, when St. John fell at the feet
of the angel to worship hira, he replied, " See
thou do it not; I ara thy fellow servant, hav
ing the testimony of Jesus : worship God."
Revel, xix. 10; and again. Revel, xxii. 9. Once
*more: when Corneliusi fell before Peter to wor
ship him, "Stand up," said Peter; " I myself,
alsp, am a man." Acts, x. 26. Thus careful were
the Apostles and Ang«ls, being inferior beings,
to deprecate all Worship oflfered to themselves.
Butdoes Christ rebuke Thomas, when, on con
viction,- he calls him, "ray Lord, and ray God;"
John, XX. 28; or thejeper, who being healed, fell
on his face, givirig hind tbariks, which he'hiraself
calls, giving glory to God, Luke, xvii. 16, 18;
or the blind man, who having been restored
to sight, believed,' and falling down, worship
ped him, John, ix. 38; or St. John, when he fell
as dead at the feet of Him who declared hiraself
to be the first and the last,' Revel, i. 17?
Scripture, indeed, abounds .with exaraples of
worship offered, or directed to be oflfered, to

ISthCent.] GEORGE III. 335
Christ. Did not the wise men come to worship
Christ, Matt. xxii. Compare Rev. i. 18, "I am
He that liveth and ara alive for ever," with Rev.
IV. 10, " The elders worship Him that liveth for
ever and ever." Stephen was stoned, calling upon
God, and saying, " Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit:" the sarae expression addressed by Christ
hiraself, in his human capacity, to his Father,
at the Uke moment of departure. In PhilippianSj
ii. 9, 10, we read, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and in
earth, and under the earth. Corapare also Rom;
xiv. 11, " As I live, saith the Lord, every knee
shall bow, and every tongue confess to God ;"
with John, v. 23, " That all raen should ho
nour the Son, even as they honour the Father."
In fine, if whosoever shall tsiU on the narae of
the Lord Jesus shall be saved, Rora. x. 13, aud
1 Cor. i. 3 ; if Christ be the object in whora
the Gentiles are to trust ; if Paul besought the
Lord, 2 Cor. xii. 8 — (but the pen is weary of
proofs) ; then only daring presuraption (for the
plea of ignorance raust not here >be admitted)
can deny that Christ is to be worshipped*.
* Some have attemjpted, it is true, to distinguish between
supreme and subordinate worship. This is an Arian rather
than a Socinian argument ; for the Socinians admit of no wor
ship whatever. Yet we will just observe, that all the instances
of worship offered to Christ, above quoted, are those of prayer,
praise, exclusive confidence ; the highest acts of worship, and
2

336 THE HEIGN OF [18/ACcW/.
The Socinians next dismiss from their creed
ORIGINAL SIN ; and this necessarily accompanies
their rejection of atoneraent. For, if we had, in
deed, only actual sins to be forgiven, infants, ere
the coraraittal of any such sins, raight die in a
state of innocence; and Christ would not be that
universal Saviour he is represented to be, 1 John,
ii. 2; Acts, iv. 12; 1 John, v. 11, 12; John, i.
29 : nor would the Scripture have concluded all
under sin, Galat. iii. 22. On Scriptural grounds,
tbe death of infants would have been unjust ;
for, by one man's disobedience sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. On as raany as
had not actually sinned, then, death ought to
have had no power. The doctrine of original
sin has been fully deraonstrated to be founded
in reason and Scripture, in the early part of this
work, when the Pelagian heresy was under re
view. To our first volume, p. 17, &c. we accord
ingly now refer ; repeating, that original sin con-
tbtis the incommunicable prerogative of God. If Christ be an
inferior being, they cannot be addressed to him, therefore,
without blasphemy and polytheism. But they are directed to
be -addressed to him ; therefore, Christ is no inferior being ;
and is to receive supreme worship. Farther, we find in
Deut. vi. .4, that the " Lord onr God is one Lord :" and in
Matthew, iv, 10> " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve." But we are called upon to
worship Christ ; and as there cannot be two objects of worship,
Christ is to be worshipped as God, one with the Father. There
is, therefore, no such thing as subordinate worship.

18/A Cent.] oeorge iir. ^ 337
sists not in merely being punished for Adara's
transgression, but in the inheritance of a taint of
evil derived frora Adam as a corrupted stock;
which, being the principle and germ of actual sin,
exposes -the inheritor of it to punishraent. It
weae to go over the sarae ground again, to prove
that the existence ofthis native depravity is sup
ported by experience, was known to the heathens
and the Jews, and vvas acknowledged by the pri
mitive Christians. But we cannot help recurring
to a few Scriptural texts illustrative of the doc
trine in question, which we will leave with all
the others advanced in our first volurae, to the
quibbling comments and distortions of Unitari
anism. " I know that in me dwelleth no good
thing." (Rom. vii, 18,) " The imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen, viii,
21,) " The heart is deceitful above all things."
(Jer. xvii. 9.) That this innate corruption is
hereditary, we prove frora Job, iv, 4 : " Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? " and
from Psalm li, 5 : " Behold I was shapen in ini
quity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,"
And Scripture thus traces it up to its first origin,
Rom. V, 12; " By cme man's disobedience sin
entered into the world: and judgment has
passed on all men for the offence of one," Rom.
V. 1 8, This is the cause of death to all, even to
infants, who have not actually sinned, Rora. v.
12 and 14, That this taint is followed by a lia-
voL, in, z

SSS the reign of [18/A Cent.
biUty to punishraerit, is shown in Rora. y. 18 :
" By the offence of one, judgrnerit came upon all
men to condemnation ;" and in Ephes. ii. 3: "~We
are by nature the children of wrath." We have
already, at great length, vindicated the divine
attributes in regard tp this doctrine. As to tes
timonies: from Clement, ch. xvii,; Irenasus,
adv, Hseres, 1, iv. c. 39, and I. v. c 16; St.
Cyprian, Test, ad Quirin. 1. iii. c. 34; and
Epist. 64; we find the sense of the early fa
thers relative to so fundamental an article of
faith*. As the miraculous conceptiori, and other doc
trines, are too strongly supported by the sacred
writings to be explained away; the Socinians
lay their axe to the root of the tree, and strike
a blow at the inspiration qf Scripture itself. And
how, with any other help than their effrontery
and a pair of scissars, they can get over the
plain statement, " All Scripture is given by in
spiration of God," 2 Tira. iii, 16, they have never
yet thought proper to acquaint us. Perhaps it
will be urged, that they deny the inspiration
even of this very assertion ; and pretend that St.
Paul was deceived. But at this rate there is not
* Vide Pearson on the Creed, Art, iii, p. l67j NoweU's
Catech. p, 53, 54; Homilies of the Nativity and Passion j
Wall's Hist, of Infant Baptism, p, i, c^ipj Prideaux Fasc.
Controv. c. iii. q, 3 ; Jewell's Apol. part c. xi. div, 3 ; Field
of tbe Church, b, iii. c, 26,

18/A Cen/.] GEORGE in. 339
any thing that can be firmly believed; and their
Christianity is no better than Deism. All other
sects indeed are truly Christians; because they
appeal to Scripture, however they raay distort its
texts, in proof of their several opinions. But can
the Socinians be rightly denorainated Christians,
seeing they question the authenticity of that sa
cred volume itself, which contains the articles of
their creed? With respect to the Old Testa
ment, we know it to have been of divine in
spiration: for<, not only is this confessed by the
Jews, the enemies of Revelation, to whom its
books vvere intrusted ; not only is this guaran
teed by prophecies which were subsequently ful
filled, and by types realized in Christ; but our
Saviour himself, whora the Socinians will admit
as a competent witness, refers to the Old Testa
ment as of allowed and undoubted inspiration :
" Think not that I ara corae to destroy the law
and the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfil : for, verily I say unto you, till heaven and
earth shall pass away, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass frora the law, till all be ful'-
filled." Matt, v. 17, 18. " Search the Scriptures;
for in thera ye think ye have eternal life : and
they are they which testify of rae. Had ye be
lieved Moses, ye would have believed me; for
he wrote of me," John, v, 39—46. Here we
find that the inspiration of the law extends to
jots and tittles. So, also, in the parable of
¦ ¦ z 2

340 THE REIGN OF (18/A Cent.
Dives and Lazarus, the infallibility of Moses
and the Prophets is assumed, when it is said,
that if these are not believed, a miracle would
be wrought in vain.
The inspiration of the New Testament is
evident from the anthority of tlie Old : for the
law was a schoolraaster to bring us to Christ;
that we might he justified through faith. Now,
if it hath, pleased the Almighty to set our eternal
welfare on the stake of Uvely faith in Revelation,
it is inconsistent with his wisdom, justice, and
goodness, to suppose that he would leave the in
formation to be believed in, a matter of uncer
tainty ; as it would be, were it communicated
through the medium of treacherous memories,
imperfect comprehensions, and fallible judg
ments. To correct these, illumination is neces
sary ; for God, in demanding firm belief, must
establish incontestable realities. Again, a reve
lation from lieaven supposes preternatural illu
mination and information in those persons who
communicate it: wher© this is wanting, there
is no revelation : where this information is de
nied, tlie Christian religion is not revealed ; and
Socinianism is natural religion, or Deisra.
See also the following proofs of identity on
the footing of truth, in the Old and the New
Testaments : " Now the righteousness of God
is witnessed by the Law and the ProphetSi"
Rom. iii, 21. The revelation of the mystery is
2

18/A Cent.] GEORGE lu. 341
made manifest by the Scriptures of the Pro
phets, made known to all nations, for the obe
dience of faith.
Ignatius (ad Philad.), Theophilus (ad Autol.),
Irenaus (adv. Hasres.), and Justin Martyr (Apol.
1. c. 35), all speak of the Prophets as preaching
the Gospel ; and thus suppose an equal cer
tainty at least, in the writers of the Gospel
itself. In general, the inspiration of the Scripture is
allowed to be sufficiently proved by the spiritu
aUty of its subject raatter; the grandeur of its
design ; the raajesty and simplicity of its style,
which poetry • and eloquence are continually
quoting as adornments brighter than human in-
vefation could devise; the harmony of its va
rious parts ; their mutual adaptation and corre
spondences; their efficacy on the human race;^
the candour, sense, disinterestedness, and inte
grity ofthe penmen; the prophecies fulfilled,
and the miracles attested in support of the doc
trines they contain. The establishment of a
distinction has, it is true, been attempted be
tween superintending and plenary inspirarion ;
the forraer being regarded as only a partial prcT
servation from error : but we raust not give up
the cause of plenary inspiration, if not as to- the
express words of Scripture, at least as to the
subject matter. There are, indeed, many facts
contained in the sacred writings,, which the
z 3

342 THE REIGN OF [ISlh Cent.
penmen might have known, and probably did
know, by ordinary means, as men endowed
with sight, hearing, memory, and judgment.
Their faculties might likewise enable them to
make such reflections as were suggested by cir
cumstances or events; but even in these cases
such aninspiration must be admitted as should
secure thera,from the remotesf possibility of
error. Even in regard, therefore, to those nar
rations of historical facts, and to those common
reflections and reraarks, which raight have pro
ceeded froni ability not unusually inspired, the
authenticity is greater, and the credence ought
to be more implicit, than the most accurate pro
fane history or the closest chain of comraon
reasoning can pretend to.
The proraise raade by Christ, of the Holy
Ghost to the Apostles, contained in St. John,
xiv; 26, " He shall bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said uri to you,"
" proves," says Mr. Dick, " that in writing their
histories, their mental powers were endowed,
by his agency, with more than usual vigour."
Thus, as St. John wrote his history, several years
after the ascension of Christ (twenty-eight years
according to Percy), inspired guidance was ne
cessary, for the refreshraent of memory, for the
selectiori of facts, and for the prevention of
errors in language. In a matter wherein salva
tion is set upou tlie stake of belief, it is absurd,

18/A Cent.\ OEOROK in, 345
as well as impious, to suppose that God, wise,
just, and good, would leave any uncertainty in
the documents *.
More erainently, in regard to those Scriptural
subjects, which transcend the faculties of man,
must divine inspiration be acknowledged; in
regard to prophetic annunciations, and mys
teries vvhich eye hath not seen, or ear heard ;
particularly to every thing connected with the
Messiah and the Holy Spirit.
For this spiritual guidance, the word adopted
by Scripture itself, is Revelation. " The last
book of the New Testament, which is a collec
tion pf prophecies, is called the Revelation of
Jesus Christ. Paul says, that he received the
Gospel by revelation : that by revelation thc
mystery was made known to him, which in
other ages was not made known to the sons of
men, as it was then revealed unto his holy
Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit. And in
another place, having observed that eye had
not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived
what God had prepared for theni that love him,
• Dick's Essay on the Inspiration of the Scriptures ; Ap
pendix to Doddridge's Expositor, vol. iii. ; Gray's Key to tbe
Old Testament; Percy's Key to the New ditto ; Jones's Canon
of Scripture ; Calamy on Inspiration j Bishop Watson's Apo
logy for the Bible ; Paley's Evidences ; Account of Hampton
Court Conference ; Stcnnett on tlic Authority and Use of
Scripture. z 1

344 the REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
he adds, ' But God hatli revealed them to us,
by his Spirit.' Rev. i. 1 ; Gal,, i, 13; Ephes. ii.
5; 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10*."
To say with Dr, Priestley, thstt the Apostles
committed mistakes, both in their nar tations and
in their reasonings, is, to suppose our Lord and-
his Apostles to have attested certain works as in
spired records, which were in part human com
positions; to imagine the writers of the Oldi
and New Testaments to have superadded to the
dictates of the' Spirit sorae inventions of their
own, and passed the compound on the world as
being all the result of genuine inspiration. How
then should men know when to rely on such
jugglers, and wheu to distrust them? Their
inventions would impeach the character of the
whole ; and men would be called on to believe,
ifthey would be saved, without knowing what
to believe, Rea.son then would be the ultimate
judge, as to what was revelation and what was
huraan fancy ; but different raen would form
diflferent judgments; endless disputes and un
certainty would prevail ; and the object of re
velation, which was to supply that wherein rea
son is defective and fallible, would be frus
trated. If the inspiration of Scripture bc admitted,
in regard to the subject matter, it may seera of
* pipk on Insipiration.

18/A Cent.] george hi. 34S
inferior moment to contend for the inspiration
of the words ; but if it be considered that mis
takes in expression might often alter the sub
stance ofthe coriimuriication, and that unlearned
writers might debase noble sentiments by de
fective phraseology; that Christ proraised to
his disciples, a Spirit who should give them, in
the hour of their pleading, what they should
speak (Matt. x. 19, 20; Luke, xu. 11, 12); that
St. Paul declares himself and the other Apostles
to have spoken, " not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
taught" (1 Cor. ii. 13); a declaration, which raay
apply to their writings as well as to their dis
courses ; we shall believe the language of Scrip
ture to proceed immediately from God as well as
the subject matter. The possibility of inaccuracy
would have created suspicion of error ; and fal
lible reason would have beten called in to decide
upon revelation. God, staking salvation upon
belief, would be careful to transmit his truths,
through a channel in which they should be quite
secure from pollution. And should any one
object that the style is not uniforra ; we reply,
that the Holy Ghost might act with -different
degrees of influence on disrinct agents. In fine,
with regard to both matter and style, the mean
ness of the writers, on Socinian principles, ought
to be a sufficient evidence of inspiration: for
God would have chosen men of abilities and

346 THE BEIGN OF [18/A Cent.
literature as the scribes, had he designed to
leave thera to their unaided powers.
In regard to the objections to the inspiration of
the sacred volume, their weakness is suflficiently
exposed by their trivial nature. " One evangelist
makes the cock crow twice, and another once :"
as if two cock-crowings did not include one, St.
Matthew makes a mother ask a favour for her
sons : St, Mark says, the sons and the inother
asked it jointly : as if the sons might not kneel
while the mother preferred the petition. To
all such petty fogging, special pleading cavils, the
remark of Paley is applicable : that general co
incidence and uniraportant diversity is accepted
even in a huraan court of justice as the strongest
testiraony. Minute agreement would excite sus
picion of collusion. While, therefore, there is
no contradiction, such minor differences, wliile
they establish the authenticity of Scripture, im
peach not its inspiration*. Again: The Pen
tateuch is falsely called the work of Moses, be
cause the death of Moses is recorded in it. But
consult Bishop Watson's valuable Apology for
the Bible, in which a distinction is drawn be
tween genuineness and authenticity; showing
that a book may be authentic, that is, raay re
late true facts; though not genuine, that is, not
wholly the work of the person whose name is at
* Paley's Evidencesj Cooper's Eogr hundred Texts explaine4.

18/A Cent.] george hi, 347
the head of it. But may not Moses be the
genuine author up to that part where he could
not any longer be the author? while a rider
may have beeu attached to the papyrus by
Joshua, stating the author's death ? Is not this
done every day ? Do wC not see it done in
the Epistles, where a note is always annexed :•
" Written from Rome?" &c. &c.
Beside me, at this moment, lies the posthu
mous book, eatitled. Sermons and Extracts on
the Loss of Friends, compiled by the late
Miss Grant. It is said, in the beginning,
that the author died previous to the publica
tion : but does this render it less certain that
the book was hers? It is not, however, our
purpose here to enter into the questiou ofan-
thenticity, excepting so far as authenticity is
connected with inspiration.
It has been asserted, that in the New Testa
ment (for where the Jews were so careful as
preservers and transcribers, this argument has
not been ventured with reference to the Old), in
terpolations, alterations, additions, and erasures,
have stolen in ; but the earliest Fathers, even
up to contemporaneousness with the Apostles;
quote the Bible as it is now printed; besides
which, the variety of Christian sects which ap
peared immediately after our Saviour's death,
would be on the vvatch to prevent each other
from introducing into the sacred books faults

348 the reign or [ISthCent.
of inadvertence, or errors favourable to particu
lar opinions. '
In order to impugn the inspiration of Scrip
ture, a solitary passage, in which St. Paul adds
to his judgment, the phrase, " I speak as a
man," has been much insisted on. But not to
mention that this short expression admits of
some other interpretations besides that of his
being unaided in his opinion, we aflfirra, that,
admitting this latter meaning, we do not see
how a stronger proof could be given of inspira
tion in tbe general text of 'Scripture, thau so
particular a note set thus upon one sentence, as
the fruit of hnman judgraent only. Would you
deny Southey's Thalaba to be a poera, because
there is no poetry in his notes? Would you deny
St. Paul to be inspired, because he has put a
nota bene to one clause of a sentence, caution
ing you that that alone is not inspired? This
expression of St. Paul's, so far from raising a
doubt of inspiration in Scripture, should set the
question at rest for ever. It should lead us to
conclude every syllable of the Bible to be in
spired where such an asterisk does not occur.
An artful attempt has been made by the So
cinian uiiderminers of truth to corapress the
ministry of oUr Lord within a single year.
Who does not see the drift of this trick? — It is
to shake the credibility of the marvellous facts,
by making it appear that the accounts of them

ISthCent.] OEORCK uu 349
were no better than rumours of strange stories,
dispersed among illiterate superstitious people,
and believed before tirae could be afforded for
investigation by the wise. Could they support
their inipudent assertion, it would, after all,
serve them in little stead for the establishment
of their inference, araong any other, at least,
than their own derai-deistical sect : for all the
mental biases, all the superstitions of the Jewish
people, were against the miracles, by being
against the raission of our Lord ; particularly
in the vicinity of his own country, where a pro
phet has no honour. (Matt. xiii. 57.) That
people were fools and slow of belief. (Luke,
xxiv. 25.) Moreover, raany of the miracles
were wrought in Jerusalera ; " not in a coraer"
(Acts, xxvi, 26), as a bold appeal reminded his,
enemies, but in full day ; in the raidst of learned
scribes, interested chief priests, and inveterate
enemies ; and vvhen all the multitudes of Pales
tine were crowded together in the raetropolis at
a public feast. And did not these men raanifest
a consciousness that further investigation would
be their ruin, by saying, If we let hira alone,
aU the world will believe on hira (John, xi.
28); and srill further, by putting hira to the si
lence and inoperativeness of death? So that,
even were the rainistry of our Lord confined
within twelve raonths, his rairacles would be
Substantiated beyond the shadow of a doubt,

350 the reign of [iSth Cent.
But any raan who reads Dr. White's Diates-
saron, or Dr. Mackriight's Harraony, or the
learned work of Lightfoot, Avill be convinced
that the events of our Lord's ministry, as re
corded by the Evangelists, cannot possibly have
occupied less space than four passovers, or
three years and a half from his baptism by
John in Jordan, Our Lord, afteu his baptisni
and teraptation, and the rairacle of Cana, kept
the first passO ver. (John, ii. 13.) After return
ing unto Galilee, he came back to keep the
second passover, vvhen the miracle was wrought
at Bethesda, (John, v. 1.) Then he traversed
the sea of GaUlee (John, vi, l); knd the third
passover occurs, (John, vi, 4,) He riext went
secretly (John, vii. 10), to keep at Jerusalem •
the feast of tabernacles (John,' vii. 2),- which
happened in Septeraber; and afterward, in De
cember, the feast of dedication. (John, x, 22,)
He is then found beyond Jordan, at Bethany,
and in Ephraira, until the period of the fourth
passover, (John, xi. 55.) \
In this chronology, St. John distinctly, spe
cifies four "passovers from the first miracle
in Cana; that is, to the crucifixion, three
passovers, and a feast. Now, as the Jews had
only three soleran annual feasts, and St. John
elsewhere specifies the two lesser ones, we con
clude that this feast was also a passover; and
the conclusion reconciles itself with the testi-
3

18/A Cent.l georgk iil. 35\
mony of Eusebius *, who dates the baptism of
Christ in the fifteenth, and his death in the
nineteenth year of Tiberius : a chronology sup
ported by Phlegon and Dion f-
Sorae Socinians have atterapted to simplify,
alias to mutilate their faith, by confining it to
the four Gospels, as containing all things neces
sary to be believed; while they assert the
Epistles to have reference only to the, times
when they vvere written, and to the churches
unto which they vvere addressed. The hypo
thesis, if it were admitted, would stand thera in
no stead, as far as relates to the doctrines of the
divinity and pre-existence of Christ, which are
as distinctly set forth in the Gospels as in the
Epistles. And as to other points, it is clear that
our Lord, at the time of his ascension, did not
consider the information, communicated by him
self, as complete; but referred to raore explicit
ulterior intelligence under the guidance of the
• Holy Ghost. " I have yet many things to say
unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How
beit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he
will guide you unto all truth J,"
Baffled in their aims at narrowing the period of
miraculous agency, and the number of things to
be believed, the last blow of Socinianisra against
• Euseb. Chron. Tertulh adv, Jud, c, 8,
f Lib, Iviii, p, 732.
J John, xvi, 12, 13,

352 THE REIGN OF [16/A Cent.
the authenticity of Scripture consists in the en
deavour to reduce the number of the witnesses.
Three out of the four Evangelists are said to have
copied frorii each other, or from some common
original. I know not if I state this cavil quite
correctly; but could it be estabUshed, it would
prove but of little service in shaking the certainty
of the facts recorded. The excellent principle
laid down by Paley, namely, that general agree
ment and trivial discrepancy aflford the strongest
evidence of the absence of collusion^ will here
again deserve to be recollected. Arid as to the
identity of words, in which some passages are re
corded, we observe, first, that it is only partial ;
and secondly, that the transcription of correct,
consecrated, and inspired phraseology, frorii one
record to another, impeaches not the fact of
both authors being corapetent witnesses. Justin
Martyr makes mention, several tiraes, of the
Apomneumata of the Apostles, which, he says,
were called Evangelia. Now, it has been as
serted, that these Apomneumata vvere a collec
tion of sayings and transactions of our Lord, re
corded by the Apostles before any of our Gos
pels were written : that three of the Gospels
vvere in a manner copied from them ; and that
neither the original document nor any of these
abstracts were termed Evangelium before the
time of Justin. If these apostoUc memoirs had
&ver existed, thev vvould have been a lecprd of

18/ACew/.] GEORGE III. 353
high authority ; that record all churches would
have used : and it would have been strange
indeed, if, after having been generally adopted
until the year 155, it should have suddenly dis
appeared, and that after it had obtained such
publicity, as to receive the name of Evangelium.
But what authority is there for the existence
or repute of this early docuraent? No writer,
before or since, or conteraporary with Justin,
has mentioned it; and no vestige of it reraains.
Papias, earlier than Justin, A.D. 116, likewise
quotes the Gospel of St. Matthew, and that of
St. Mark. Polycarp, conteraporary with the
Apostles, mentions the four Gospels ; but says
nothing concerning these Autoptic_ meraoirs.
Clement is equally silent, though he mentions
the four Gospels: and says, that those contain
ing the genealogies were first written. Irenaeus,
A. D. 178, and Tertullian, A. D. 200, may be
cited as sirailar evidences. By several subsequent
writers these meraoirs are aUuded to ; but al
ways araong spurious Gospels. Eusebius raakes
no mention of such pretended records ; adding,
that the Apostles wrote no Gospels — that Peter
was too modest to write one — that Matthew
wrote by entreaty ofthe Jews, and John, to sup
ply defects — that John used nowritten Gospel ;
and that many Gospels were forged by heretics*.
* Christ, Obs. 1808, p, 623,
VOL. III. A A

354 the reign of [18/A Cent-
Origen ? says, that Matthew, being fuU ofthe
Holy Ghost, wrote his Gospel. Mark, according
to Papias t, being the interpreter of Peter, wrote,
though not methodically, what things he men
tioned concerning Christ. Cleraens, Irenseus,
and others, represent Mark as recording the
words oif Peter. As to St. Luke, he hiraself
shows, that he did not copy frora such apostolic
docuraents. He says he wrote frora the testi
mony, not the authorized raeraoirs, of eye-wit
nesses and ministers, i. e. VTrt^psren, attendants.
Origen J pronounces Luke to have been full of
the Holy Ghost; and Eusebius states him to have
written from conversation and dwelUng together,
(Tvyisa-icig xoii S;«Tf/6ijff§, with Paul and the other
Apostles : not frora records. Again, if Matthew
and Luke copied these Aporaneuraata, why do
they diflfer in many things ; for instance, iri the
genealogies? There are other diftisrences re
specting the teraptation, the sermon on the
mount, and the treatment of our Lord after his
apprehension. Mark and Luke orait the ac
count of the Magi, which, Justin says, was in
the Aporaneuraata. Matthew and Mark have
oraitted the comraand to continue the bread and
wine, the election of Matthias, and the promise
* Tom. in, p, 932, ed. Delarue.
¦j- Euseb, Ece. Hist. 1. iii. c, 39,
X Orig. toni, iii, p, 932.
^ Euseb. Ecc. Hist. 1. 11. c, 15.

18/A Cent.] GEORGE iii. 355
and gift of the Holy Ghost. Matthew omits
the ascension. On the whole, we conclude,
that these Aporaneuraata never existed ; or, if
they did, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke,- did
not btirrow from that or any other written do
cument. The truth is, that it was for the
interest of Socinianisra to establish the existence
of such a recoid ; because the next step would
be to adopt the notion of Marcion, that, before
the Evangelists borrowed from it, it had been
interpolated by heretics.
The Trinity being the grand fortress pointed
at by the batteries of Socinianism, and the divi
nity of the Holy Ghost being stated in various
passages, too plainly to be refined away, it be-:
came necessary to merge that attribute in the
divinity of the Father. Hence the Personality
ofthe Eternal Comforter was denied, and he eva
porated, in the Socinian creed, into an energy or
emanation issuing from the Divine Being*. This
was originally the heresy ofthe Pneumatoraachi,
whose leader, Macedonius Patriarch of Con
stantinople, believed the Spirit to be an energy
attendant upon the Son; an error which pro
duced the clauses in the Nicene creed, " the Lord
and giver of life, proceeding from the Father
* " Spiritum S. non esse personam, non magis quam aliae
proprietates, vel effecta Dei sunt personae: sed nihil aliud
quam peculiaris quaedam virtus et efRcacia Dei." Socinus.
A A 2

356 THE REIGN OF [ISthCent.
and the Son, and with the Father and the Son to
gether, vvorshipped and glorified ; him also who
spoke "by the prophets'^:" Acts are attributed
to the Holy Ghost which destroy the Socinian
prosopopoeia. The Spirit maketh intercession
for the saints, according to the will of God f ;
but intercession is a personal action, and cannot
be attributed to the Father ; for, as it was said
respecting Christ, a mediator is not of one, but
God is one ; so, likewise, an intercessor is not
of one ; -but God, pn the Socinian principle, is
one, that is, not only one God, but one Person.
Again: to be sent unto men, is a personal action.
" When the Comforter is corae, whom I will send
you from the Father :{: ;" and again,." If I go not
away, the Comforter will not come uuto you ;
but if I depart, I will send hira to you ^." Now
suppose the Holy Ghost an energy, and mark
the dileraraa. If the Son and the Father are one,
Christ could not say, " If I go not away, the
Comforter will not corae unto you ;" for the Pa
raclete, an energy, was already there. If the
Son were inferior to the Father, Christ could not
say, " I will send you the Paraclete, or energy,
from the Father;" for the inferior could not pos
sess power over the superior. The only key to
• Pearson on the Creed, p, 323.
f Rom, viii, 26, 27.
J John, XV. 26.
§ John, xvi. 7'

18/ACe«/.] GEORGE m. 357
these passages consists in the doctrine of three
distinct Persons in one, Godhead. Again, to
speak what one hears is a distinct attribute, im
plying separateness of person. " When the Spirit
of God shall corae, he shall not speak of himself;
but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak*."
If this be appUed to the Father, I deraand, " Of
whom does the Father hear what he speaks?"
God the Father would speak of hiraself. Once
more : " He shall glorify me; for he shall receive
of mine» and show it to you ft" could not be
spoken by Christ (and, k fortiori, not by the
Socinian raan, Jesus) concerning the Father, or
concerning the energy ofthe Father, Socinus,
however, has devised another subtlety, by which
the Spirit is stated to be, by metonyray, the
eflfect of God's energy, the man acted upon by
God; but Bishop Pearson J has exposed the ab
surdity of this statement, by asking how St.
Peter, receiving of God, could show what he re
ceived to St. Peter; and by proving that the at
tributes of being poured out, or distributed, &c.
are not repugnant to the nature of a person,
and apply to the gifts and eflfects of that
person. Besides perforraing personal acts^ such as teacli-
• John, xvi. 13. t John, xvi. 14.
X Expos, ofthe Creed, p. 3J3.
A A 3

35 8 THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
ing, speaking, and witnessing*; besides possess
ing personal powers of understanding and will f,
the Holy Ghost is conjoined with the other two
Persons, as the object of vvorship, and the foun
tain of benedictions :f. He appeared under the em
blera of a dove, and of cloven tongues of fire §:
and, in the Greek a masculine article or epithet
is joined to his narae, the neuter UusvjjuxW:
'O Ss TiapaKKriTog msivog; and to Tlysvjji,ci I, properly
translated who; and to nwt;/*«Ti eg lirriy, irapro
perly translated which.
With respect to the influence qf the Holy
Ghost upon the soul, we see not upon what prin
ciple the Socinians can consistently deny it, ex
cept that of clipping out, ad libitura, whatsoever
displeases them. How else can they dispose of
the foUowing passages : — " Except a raan be
born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God ;" John, iii. 5. '' And be
cause ye are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father;"
Gal,iv,6, "The Spirit, by vvhich we cry, Abba,
Father;" Rora. vi^ 15'. "No raan can corae
unto me, except the Father which hath sent me,
draw hira ;" John, vi. 44. The doctrine of
* Mark, xiii, 1 1 J Acts, xx, 23; Rom. viii, 15, 16 j 1 Cor.
vi, 19 J Acts, xv^ 23 J ?nd Acts, xvi, 6, 7,
t 1 Cor, ii, 10, 11 ; and xii, 11.
i Matt, xxviii, 19 j 2 Cor, xiii. 14 ; and John, v, 7.
§ MaU. iii. 16 j Acts, ii. 4,
H John, xiv. 26 j -xv. 20 ; xvl 13 j and Ephes. i, 13,

1 8/A Cent.] GEORGE III. 359
sanctification, indeed, is founded on that of ori
ginal sin, or inherited depravity ; and it is na
tural that they who reject the latter, should dis
miss its correlative point of belief. Man is very
far gone frora original righteousness, and can
not of hiraself turn to God, and bring forth
fruits unto holiness. " In rae dwelleth no good
thing; to perforra what is good I find not;"
Rora. vii. 18. "The flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, so that ye cannot do the things that ye
would;" Gal. v. 17. See Psalra cxxvii. 1;
Prov. XX. 24; Jer. x. 23; 1 Cor. ii. 14;
John, viii. 43.
Hence the necessity for the Spirit of God to
enlighten the understanding and direct the will,
" Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think
any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is
of God ;" 2 Cor, iii, 5. " As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine,
no raore can ye, except ye abide in me ; for
without me ye can do nothing ;" John, xv, 4, 5.
" For it is God that worketh in you, both to
wUl and to do of his good pleasure;" Philip, ii. 13.
As man, by his free agency, may cherish or re
ject the irapulses of the Spirit; the work of sanc-
tificarion is represented as a joint labour : "The
Spirit itself bearing witness with'our spirits ; that
we are the "children of God ;" Rora. viii. 16.
" Work out your salvation, for it is God that
worketh in you;" PhiUp. ii. 13, "Grieve not
A A 4

360 THE REiGN OF [ISthCent.
the Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto
the day pf redemption ;" Ephes. iv. 30. " Behold,
I stand at the door and knock ;^if any man will
open the door, I will come in unto hira," &c.
Rev. iii. 20. "Quench not the Spirit;" 1 Thes
sal. V. 19. Thus every exhortation to virtue,
every persuasion acting on the intellect, sup
poses spiritual influence on the soul, and is an
entreaty to follow its leading and suggestions;
and all the virtues are terraed "the fruits of
the Spirit;" Gal. v. 22, Texts to the sarae effect
might be raultiplied to almost any extent. Our
postulate, however, and the first branch of our
syllogisra, is always this : The Scriptures are
inspired, and speak the language of infallible
truth ; but we forget that we reason with an
opponent, who, to this whole body of proof,
can reply with the coolest effrontery — Negatur
major. And so there is an end of the question in regard
to Scriptural proof. If we could hope that huraan
authority would have any weight with those who
have rejected divine teaching, we would briefly
add, that Cleraent of Alexandria, Quis dives
salv, c, 21; Irenaeus, Adv. Haeres. 1. iv, c, 27 ;
Tertullian, de Oratione, c, 24, and tJie other
Fathers, bear testimony to this doctrine.
Having dismissed original sin, atonement, and
spiritual influence, it was a natural consequerice
with these cutters and hackers of Holy Writ (till
nothing was left remaining, and Christianity

18/A Cent.] GEORGE in. 361
could no longer recognise itself), that the Sacra
ments should shrivel into ceremonious rites,
without any inward operations. Baptism be
came, in their hands, a mere matriculation, and
the second sacrament an anniversary dinner.
No doubt, formal initiation into Christianity,
and comraeraoration of the deatii of its Founder,
were raain intentions in the institution of these
holy rites ; though, when nothing further is re
garded, they must necessarily be abridged of all
their tender and touching soleranity. " Go and
baptize all nations in the narae of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." " This do
in reraerabrance of rae ;" and, " As oft as ye
eat of this bread, and drink of this cup, ye do
show the Lord's death until he corae." Matt.
xxvin. 19; Luke, xxii. 19; iCor. xi.26. These
passages raay be allowed to refer to the sacra
ments only in the forra of prescribed cereraonies.
But circuracision, the corresponding rite and
type of baptisra, was a sign of initiation into the
privileges of the Jewish chuich, and bound over
the infant member to the duties correlative with
these privileges. So baptism, the sign of en
trance into the Christian church, conveys for
giveness of sin; in infants, original; in adults,
original and actual ; and it deraands faith and re
pentance ; personal in the latter case, and by the
teniporary proxy of sponsors in the former. " He
that beheveth and is baptized, shall be saved,"
&c.; Mark, xvi. 16. " Repent, and be bap-

362 THE REIGN OF . [18/A CcM.
tized, for the remission of sins;" A^cts, ii.' 38.
Again, as to the Lord's Supper, the passover
had likewise required some symbolical prepara
tion, such as- the eating of unleavened bread ;
and, ."Christ, our Passover, being slain fpr us,
we are to keep the feast with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth;" ] Cor. v. 8.
The sacraraents, thus soraething more than
festive corameraorations, in which the well-dis
posed and the wicked raight alike partake in
social unconcern, are, moreover, means and chan
nels of celestial influence. " Be baptized in the
narae of Jesus Christ, and ye shall receive the
Holy Ghost." " Christ shall -baptize with the
Holy Ghost," in opposition to the baptism of
simple repentance; Matt. iii. 11; and Acts, ii.
38. So the disciples of ApoUos had been bap
tized with John's baptism unto repentance; but
having not received, or heard ofthe Holy Ghost,
it vvas necessary that Paul should baptize therii'
over again with the baptism of Jesus, which con
ferred that gift*. In the other sacrament, Uke--
wise, our souls are strengthened and refreshed by
the body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are
by the bread and wine; for, "The cup of bless
ing which we bless, is it not the coraraunion of
tfie blood of Christ? the bread which we break,
is it not the coraniunion ofthe body of Christ?"
1 Cor. X, 16, Hence, indeed, the necessity of
due spiritual preparation; " for he that eateth
* Acts, xix. 2, Jcc.

18/A Cent.] george hi. 363
unworthily eateth his own conderanation, Hot
discerning the Lord's body ;" 1 Cor. xi. 29. " As
the living Father hath sent me, and I live by
the Father; so he that eateth rae, even he shall
live by rae ;" John, vi. 53, 54, 55. The church,
coraprehending Christ and -the faithful, is de
scribed under the sirailitude of a vine. To be a
branch united to the trunk, or restored when
broken oflf, is to receive the needful sap and
nourishment. " As the branch cannot bear fruit
except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, ex
cept ye abide in me ;" John, xv. 4, To the same
eflfect is the text, " By one Spirit we are all
baptized into one body;" 1 Cor. xii. 13; and
both are capable of extensiori to the restoring
sacrament, g ,
We here say nothing of the benefits of commu
nion in the Eucharist; as these are not the point
in question, and are not denied by the Socinians ;
but when the similitude ofthe vine, with all its
consequences, is held in view, the bond of this
union is firmer, and its advantages are infinitely
more extensive than can be affirmed in regard
to the Socinian sacraraent, a mere peaceful fel
lowship or co-operation in a comraon act.
It would, perhaps, be fortunate for sorae Soci
nians, and for no sraall nuraber of professing
-members in other persuasions, could the next
point of disbelief, namely,^ that relating to the
existence and agency ofthe devil, be satisfac
torily made out.

364 THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
Now, this is not a question whether he be
clothed with a substantial form, whether he be a
frightful representation with horns, hoofs, and a
tail, whether he breathe fire from his jaws, and
smoke from his nostrils. The point to be dis
cussed is this — whether the evil spirit possesses
personality; or, whether Satan be not a mere
prosopopoeia of the principle of wickednes^s
within us*.
" Now we are upon this subject, permit rae to
recoraraend to your consideration the universa
lity of the ^doctrine concerning an evil being,
who; in the beginning of tirae, had opposed
hiraself, who still continues to oppose hiraself,
to the suprerae Source of all good. Hence bas
been derived whatever we have read of the wan
dering stars of the Chaldeans, two of thera bene
ficent, and two of thera raalignant ; hence the
Egyptian Typlio and Osiris, the Persian Arima-
nius ' and Ororaasdes, the Grecian celestial and
infernal Jove, the Bramah and the Zeapory of
the Indians, Peruvians, Mexicans, the good and
evil principle, by whatever naraes they raay be
called, of all other barbarous nations ; and hence
the structure of the whole book of Job, in what
ever light of history or draraa it is to be consi
dered. Now, does it not appear reasonable to
suppose, that au opinion so ancient, and so uni-
• See Granvlllq Sharp on the Personality of the Evil
Spirit.

18/A Cent.] GEORGE in. 365
versal, has arisen frora tradition, concerning the
fall of our first parents; disfigured indeed, and
obscured, as all traditions raust be, by many fa
bulous additions * ? "
We are distinctly informed in Scripture, that
the devil and his angels f, a band of evil intel
ligences, with an arch fiend at their head, were
formerly good angels and inhabitants of heaven :
that by rebellion they lost their first estate, and
were cast into the bottomless gulf J; that they
are there reserved in chains unto the judgment
of the great day. We find their leader specified
in Scripture by various naraes, chiefly that of Sa
tan; in Hebrew, the Adversary; and Devil, or
the Accuser^: also Abaddon in Hebrew, and
ApoUyon in Greek; words signifying De
stroyer II ; and likewise, Angel of the bottomless
pit. Prince of the world, Prince of darkness,
a siOner from the beginning, Beelzebub, Belial,
deceiver, dragon, liar, leviathan, Lucifer, mur
derer, serpent, tormentor, the god of this world ^.
• Bishop Watson's Apology.
t Matt. xxv. 41.
t Jude, 6 ; Rev. ix. 11, 17. and 20.
§ Parkhurst's Hebrew Lex. in loc. Greek Lex. in loc.
Matt, xii, 26 j Rev. xx, 2 ; Luke, xx, 17, 18 ; Job, i. 6, et
passim J Matt, iv, l ; John, viii, 4 ; I Pet, v. 8, et passim,
B Rev. ix. 11.
^ John, xii. 31 ; 1 John, iii, 8 ; Matt, xii. 24 ; 2 Cor, vi.
15 ; Rev, XX, 10, and xii. 7 5 John, viii. 44 ; Isaiah, xxvii, 1,
and xiv, 12; John, viii. 44 j Isaiah, xxvji, Ij Job, ii, 6;
Matt, xviii. 34 j 2 Cor, iv, 4,

5^6 THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
It is further said of hira, as of a jierson, that,
through his envy and malice, sin, death, and
evils of every description came into the world ;
that in the'form ofa serpent he terapted Eve* ;
that he was a lying spirit in the mouth''of cer
tain prophets f; that he terapted David to num
ber Israel J; that he was the adversary per
mitted to terapt Job, by destroying his sub
stance and afflicting hira in various ways; that
he terapted our Lord forty days in the wilder
ness; that he soweth tares among the wheat;
that he desired to sift Peter as wheat; entered
into Judas, and filled the heart of Ananias; that
the wicked are his children ; that he had the
power of death ; and that the Son of God was
.manifested to destroy his works i^.
Now, could all these naraes and attribute^ be
given,' could all these acts be asscribed siraply to
the inward wicked inclination of man? Can they
be conceived, can they raake sense, vrithout the
admission ofa person, a distinct spirit, an extc;
rior tempter ? Harwood, a Socinian, and a safer
guide to editions of the classics than he was a
grave divine, published, we remeraber, a-coxconii-
* Gen. iii. 1.
f 1 Kings, xxii. 21,
X 1 Chron, xxi,
§ Job, i. and ii. ; Matt. iv. 1 ; Matt, xiii; ig ; Luke, xxii.
31 ; John, xiii, 2; Acts, \, 8 ; John, viii. 44 j Heb. ii, 14 j
1 John, iii. 8 — 12.

18/A Cent.] georgk hi, 367
cal translation of the New Testament ; in which, '
after rendering Talitha curai, " Young lady,
arise ;" and " Paul, too ranch learning hath made
thee raad," " Paul, thy profound erudition hath
disturbed thine intellectual faculties ;" he
broached the wonderful discovery, that Satan
and all the devils mentioned by the evangelical
writers were to be considered only in the light
of oriental figures and eastern metaphors, Row
land Hill made himself merry, in his coarse way,
by applying this new gloss to several particular
passages; and vvas quite enchanted at the pro
spect of a new version, in which we should
read, " And he was casting out an eastern me
taphor," and it was dumb ;" or, " The five
thousand oriental figures entered into the herd of
swine ; and they all ran violently down a steep
place into the sea, and were drowned *." But vve
might well apply to nearly all the passages above
quoted, this whimsical " reductio ad absurdum."
For surely, figurative language is unknown to
Scripture, which would explain such expres
sions, only by the exclusive key of irregular pro
pensities in the mind. Could it be said, that He,
who was alone without sin, was tempted by his
irregular propensities? or, that irregular propen
sities were in heaven, and by rebellion lost their
firsfestate? or, that ihrough irregular propensi
ties, irregular propensities entered into the world?
* Village Dialogues.

368: THE REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
The Socinians, in general, next deny the
spirituality and separate existence of the soul. In
other words, they advficate the doctrine of ma
terialism. All the phenomena of raind, say
they, arise from the bodily structure. In all
the gradations of aniraated being, from an oys*
ter to a man, the diversities of intelligence de
pend solely and exclusively on diversities in
organization. Rational man, with all his powders
of genius and judgraerit, is the necessary result
of a larger portion of cerebral raatter, and finer
texture of nerves, than belongs to other aniraals,
" Medullary substance is capable of sensation
and of thought*." This is evident, from the
fact, that the rational powers begin, flourish,
and decay together with the bodily organs.
The weight of brain iri proportion to the size of
body in raan, is greater than in any other ani
raal. Insanity is a disease of the bodily organ.
Such is the argument on the part of the materi
alists. The Socinians, however, add, that the
resurrection of the body, on which the Scripture
lays much stress, is a doctrine of no iraportance,
if the soul has a separate existence.
The intiraate union subsisting between the
soul and the body, and the soul's performing its
functions through the instrumentality of the
corporeal organs, are admitted facts; though we

* Lawrence's Surgical Lectures,
5

18/A Cent.] GEORGE iil. 369
know not the manner in which tbe mind acts
on its material associate. From so intimate an
union, it naturally follows, that every derange
ment of the corporeal organs would, in some
measure, affect the raind ; whose irritations and
vexations must again, in their turn, obstruct
the bodily functions. But frora all this we can
only conclude vvith fairness, that the mind ex
ercises itself by the ministration of corporeal
organs ; not that its faculties are the result of
their configuration, " Connexion is not iden
tity*," Neither would the consentaneous advance and
decline of the intellect and organic structure,
even should we allow thera to be universal,
carry us a step further. For, is there any difii
culty in supposing, that, without identity, they
may be developed together, and that bodily de
cline should betoken the recession of the spirit?
We raight as vvell say, that the body is absent
because the child is not the man, as that the
spirit is absent, because it exists not at once in
plenary perfection. Both cleave the bud and
swell gradually to fulness. But it is a pal
pable non sequitur, that because they spring to
gether, the one must be a mode or an eflfect of
the other. This sympathy, ho<vever, though
generally observable, is by no means so Utti*
* Bennell On Scepticism.
VOX,, m, -B 9

370 THE REIGN OT [ISth Ccnt.
versal and invariable as it would needs be, were
the doctrine of materiaUsra well founded. How
often, in fact, do we experience the reverse?
How often is the most healthy and vigorous
state of body attended with blunted faculties,
stationary iriteUect, or downright stupidity!
How ofteri is the puny, sickly, delicate, nervous
frame associated with the boldest genius, or the
most penetrating judgment ? In a great school,
the blockhead will be found the bruiser, while
the leader and the ornaraent is often the pallid
spectre or the dwindled anatomy. Of the asth-
matic Virgil and the bleaiiseyed Horace, Augus
tus observed, that he sat betwixt sighs and
tears. A link-boy conld ridicule Pope as an
imperfect work of creation ; yet it would pro
bably baflfle all the pugilistic charapions of Eng
land to write but two couplets of the Essay on
Man. So, likewise, in regard to decline, the ano
malies confound the materialist. We see, as
in Swift, the body continue vigorous, while the
mind, the very soul of wit, sinks into second
childishness and mere obliviog. We see,., as
in Titian, Lord Chathara, Dr. Johnson, Westp
the body dwindled intb thq imfbecility of old
age, and treiri bling on the verge of the torab,
while the raind reraains possessed of all its facul
ties, in their full freshness and unimpaired vigour.
Neither is it true, in fact,^- that the relative
weight of brain, proportioned to the bodity

18/A Cent.) GEORGE in. 37 1
bulk, regulates the raeasure of intelligence. But
if this were indeed true^ it would not destroy
the position that the body is the raere organ of
the mind. According to Haller and Cuvier*,
the brain in a child six years old, is -sV part of
the whole body; in an adult, the brain is -^
part of the whole body ; in the ourang-outang,
it is in the same proportion as in man ; in the
American monkey with prehensile tail, it is -^
and Vr; in the great baboon, -r-hr; the raoie,
Vb-; the fox, -5-^; the field raouse, -gV; the
beaver, -rrr; the elephant, -a-J-s-; the ox, -rt^r'.
the horse, ^^j the ass, -rhr', the goose, -H-o-i
the rook, -5V; the duck, -rhrl the sparrow, -^;
the Canary-bird, ,«,-; the tortoise, -rirro. The
raost transient glance at these proportions,
shows that nothing whatever can be raade out
from them. Some of the aniraals, whose saga
city and powers of instinct are well known to
be of a very superior kiud, as the elephant, the
horse, the beaver, rank among the lowest in the
scale ; while others of an inferior class in point
of sagacity, as the canary-bird, the raouse, &c.
rise very high : man, according to this measure,
is about equal in reasoning powers to the ourang-
outanjr and the mole, but far inferior to the
cock, the field mouse, the American monkey
with prehensile tail, and many others : to crown
• Quarterly Rev. for Aug, 18ig, p. 32.
BBS

1572 THE REIGN OF [18/A Certt.
the whole, the child of six years old has higher
intellectual powers than the adult man.
If medullary substance thinks and reasons,
it will necessarily follow, that all disease of the
brain should derange and impede the powers of
tlhou'ght and ratiocination ; and that each loss
of medullary substance shonid be attended with
a correspondeut loss of these powers. The
brain is supposed to think and reason, just
as any gland secretes its proper fluid ; and as
that gland being diseased, its function would be
deranged, so an injury or partial destruction sus
tained by the brain, worild sensibly and propor
tionally affect the intellectual powers.
But various important medical facts *, chiefly
adduced by Dr. Ferriar of Manchester, show
that every part of the brain may receive an
injury without the slightest dirainution of in
teUigence. Instances of this kind are on record
in large variety f, at once exposing the quack-
* Transactions of Philos, Society in Manchester.
¦j- Dr. Haller mentions a case, in which half a pound of pus
was found in the ventricles of the brain, yet the faculties were
unimpaired till death. Sir J. Pringle found an abscess in the
right hemisphere of the brain as large as an egg, in a patient
who had never been delirious, nor altogether insensible, A
woinao, under Diemerbroerch's immediate inspection, whose
skull was fractured by the f#ll ofa large stone, lost a quantity
of brain, equal in size to a man's fist, yet she lived thirty-six
days after the accident, without alienation of mind, tbongh
paralytic on the side opposite the fracture. Peyronie tells us
ef a boy, six years old, who received a pistol shot^n tlie head;

18/A Cent.] ceorge iu. 373
ery ofthe craniological theory, and evincing that
the medullary substance is no more than the
instrument of an interior and a spiritual power ;
and that, according to an elegant expression of
Sir H. Davy's, to look in the matter of the
brain or in the nerves for that which thinks
a suppuration followed, during which he lost a great quantity of
the brain at every dressing : at the end of eighteen days he died,
having retained his faculties to the last. When the head wat
opened, the portion of brain remaining in the skull ^id not ex
ceed the size of a small egg. Nor is it only after the destruc
tion of tbe superior or lateral parts of the brain, that the powers
of thought have been known to exist ; they have survived the
injury, aud even the destruction ofthe cerebellum, and ofthe
basis of the brain, Haller mentions several instances of
scirrhus affecting the cerebellum, and producing death witbout
previously injuring the faculties, Morgagni gives a particular
account of a fatal scirrhus of the cerel^ellum, slow in its pro
gress, not affecting the patient's sense till the last, and then at
intervals. Dr. Brunner records a case ofa blacksmith, sixty-
four years of age, a hard drinker, and an industrious work
man, who expired in a fit of apoplexy, having passed the
morning in apparent good health. On dissection, the whole
brain, even the base of it, was found to be in a most diseased
state J yet his faculties had never been impaired, and he had
been remarkably acute in his judgment. Bonnet, in a patient
who died after an illness of twelve years, without suffering any
alienation of mind, found tbe whole substance of the brain
watery, and so soft that it would hardly bear the knife. Tho
pineal gland has been so often found suppurated, or petrified,
or full of sabulous particles, without any previous affection of
the facnlties, that it seems by general consent to be given up
as unnecessary to thinking.— See Quarterly Rev. Aug, I8I9;
and Rennell's Answer to Lawrence. BBS

3.74 THE RElGN OS [18/A Cent.
and reasons, is to search for the master among
his slaves,
- To these facts we must add the ingenious ar
gument drawn by Mr, RenneU, from the changes
sustained by the brain in common vvith the re
mainder of the body. An absorbent system
exists in the brain, by which, in process of
time, that organ undergoes a total change.
Now, if the particles of the brain were capable
of consciousness, consciousness would cease upon
their reraoval ; and personal identity would be
destroyed. Personal identity depends on con
sciousness; and as that consciousness continues,
it must be soraething which does not fluctuate,
and change; soraething extraneous to the brain.
Thcbody, like the Paralus of Athens, raay, by
the deposition of new particles similar to those
absorbed, preserve an appearance of identity,
when no one particle remains unaltered. But
there is no appearance of consciousness ; in
consciousness the individuality must be real ;
^nd this, seeing the brain transmutates, can
only be by the existence of an immaterial es;
Sence, which neyer changes.
That insanity isa,disease in the bodily organ,
is a position equally to be disputed. Certainly,
frequent cases of insanity occur, arising pri
marily from derangement of the brain, from re
pletion, pressure, or a blow. Under such cir-
CiimstaUces, medical treatment alone is neces.

18/A Cent.] oeorge iu. 375
sary to restore the organ to its healthful tone.
But most instances of derangeraent, perhaps,
originate in the raind ; and though the disorder
may first affect the structure of the brain, and
so far deraand raedical treatment; yet the moral
regimen is indispensable, and far raore effectual
than raedicine, in attacking the primary cause
of the evil. Insanity, theu, while it shows the
mutual dependence of mind and matter, strongly
indicates them to be distinct. After all, so far
is it from being a fact, that the brain is percep
tibly diseased in all cases of insanity, that of
thirty-seven dissections made at Bethlehem Hos
pital, the structure of the brain was, in eleven
cases, firmer than usual; in six, softer; and in
the remaining tweuty, its consistence was na
tural. But were the case otherwise, vvhat could
be proved from an affection of the brain, in a
disorder arising from mental causes, but that
the morbid state of the organ is the conse
quence, not the cause, ofthe disease?
We are apt to deny the separate existence of
raind, in con,sequence of being continually con
versant vvith raaterial objects; and hence, when
we corae to study our own internal constitu
tion, we find the operations of mind so inti
mately connected with the qualities of the
body, that we cannot easily separate the one
from the other.
Yet nothing, in fact, can be more distinct,
B B 4

3715. THE reign of [WthOeitt.
Our id^aS 6f body are derived from our petcep*
tion of its sensible qualities ; our ideas of mind,
frmn cttnsciousness of its inward operations in
ourselves. Nbw, I have a stronger assurance of
what passes within me, than of the quaUties of
external objects; and hence alone has materi
aUsra been deemed less absurd than the opposite
system of Berkeley, who excluded matter from
the universe. This last "contradicts Orily the
suggestions of our perceptions, while the other
contradicts those of consciousness *." But from
Ihese reraarks it follows, that when we speak
of mind as not material, we speak on the only
conceptions of mind and matter that can be
fbrined. When we remove our view from the animal
breation, and consider the vegetable kingdora
and the heavenly bodies; when we mark the
growth and structure of the one, and the regular
movements of the other; we ascribe these effects
to an intelUgent cause, which here eicists sepa^
lately from these plants or luminaries. Mind,
as in that intelligent Cause, or God, acts inde-
(pendently of matter ; and, far from being the
result of matter, actuates it. Matter, on the
other hand, as in the whole mineral kingdom,
•exists separately from mind; and no combina
tion of its particles was ever known to produce
* Dugald Stewart's Philosophy of Mind, Beattie's Ele- '
"toeiiis of Moral Scienee,

16/A Cent.] GEORGE III. 377
sensation or intelligence. Yet, when put in
motion, it is impelled, directly or reraotely, by
an extraneous intelligent cause; as when the
hand tosses a ball into the air. Mind and mat
ter then, thus capable of separate existence, do
probably exist as separate and independent ele
ments in the human frarae; although their
intimate association renders it extremely difficult
for us to distinguish them from each other in
our conceptions; aud this opinion is confirmed
by the phenomena of drearaing, of false per
ception in deUriura, and even of some vivid
efforts of imagination and recollection; in all
which the mind seeras to act without the rae
diura of an irapression on the material organs.
The general consent of nations respecting a
future state, where the soul of mau shall live ira
mediately on the dissolution of the body, and
shall exist in a cloud-like, unsubstantial forra ;
the dread of apparitions, and the belief in spirits ;
raust be allowed some weight when added to
the foregoing arguments.
And these notions are not more prevalent in
refined than in barbarous nations, who might
appear incapable of that abstraction which sepa
rates raind from matter.
Having established, by various arguments,
the iraraateriality of the soul; we proceed to
connect its iraraateriality with the doctrine of
its separate existence. For, the separate exist-

3fS The rejon of [18/A Cew/.
ence of mirid and matter being once adraitted,
the raaterial organs, instead of being essential
to the operations of mind, must necessarily be
a clog upon them : and hence we infer a stite,
where the chrysalis will rise from its envolope-
inent, to soar and glitter in the heavens: a state
where the unfettered spirit will burst from
the windows of its prison-house, to wave its
plumage, and to exult in liberty and light: a
condition, in vvhich ampler knowledge and
higher enjoyment will result frora the full vigour
of faculties, disencurabered frora their grosser
eleraent, and liberated frora their tabernacle of
flesh *.
Let us now shortly glance at the evidences
frora Scripture; and consider this inference as
the only true interpretation of the passages :
" Dust returns to dust, and the spirjt to God
who gaveitf;" and, "Fear not thera which
kill the body, and after that have no more that
they can do :]:: " (now, if the body and soul were
inseparable, here would be no antithesis : they
who killed the one, would, for the time, kill the
other : over this last, however, the power belongs
• Consciousness, the indication of mind, survives, as we
have seen, several gradual dissolutions and changes of the
body ; why not, therefore, the sudden one of death ? — Beattie'*
Elements, vol. i.
f Eccles. xii, 7-
J Luke, xii. 4.

18/A Cent.] george hi. 379
to God alone;) " but fear him, who, after he hath
killed the body, can cast both body and soul
into hell." " And they stoned Stephen, calling
aloud. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit*." " Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit," were the
last words of the Redeemer.
St. Paul acquaints the Corinthians fj that he
knew a man in Christ, caught up into the third
heavens ; and the parenthesis, " whether in or
out of the body I cannot tell," plainly iraplies
the possibility of the soul's existence and con
sciousness, in a stateof separation from the body.
We raust reraeraber, that it is not the question
of a future state, which is here under discus
sion ; and indeed it is going too far to charge,
unequivocally, the advocates of materialisra with
infidelity on that point. We find, in fact, So
cinian materialists to .be believers in a life to
come. In what, then, consists the evil of the
material system, as connected with Christian
principles? First, we observe, that materialisra,
though not wholly destroying, greatly dimi
nishes, the probabilities of a future state; and
excites scepticism as to the proofs of it derived
from natural and revealed religion. For, though
it may be contended that God, who once called
man, with his thinking organs, his meduUary
ratiocination, into existence, can as easily rcr
* Acts, vii. 58, t 2 Cor, xii 3.

380 THE RElGN OF [^1 8/A Ctnt,
peat his original work ; it seems much more
reconcilable to bur reason and habits of think
ing, that the immortality of the soUl should sub
sist in its never ceasing to be, when once created :
in its surviving the body as a pure spirit, to be
afterwards clothed by, God in a fran)e of finer
materials,, conformable to the higher functions
and enjoyments to which it is destined; than
that the thread of the continuity of existence
should be broken, and that a temporary annihi
lation should take place for thousands of years;
at the end of which, a fresh act of entire crea
tion should call the man into a second exist
ence. Indeed, a thorough-paced materialist is
an unbeUever in immortality. Mr, Lawrence
affirms pretty plainly, as tlie consetjuence
and corollary of his materiaUsra, that death,
which destroys the bodily structure, destroys
the whole of man. " Those, on the other
hand," observes Mr. Abernethy, a more solid
and experienced medical judge, " those who
admit that intelligence riiay exist distinct from
organization, are disposed to admit that the in
telligence with which they are endowed may
have a separate existence *."
* In disciissing the question of materialism, in its' connexion
¦with a future being, some difEculties appear to present them
selves in regard to the inferior animals. If every thing which
is not inert matter be spirit, and if spirit be indestructible, and
indicate thereby-a probaWlity- of its continued -fOnsciOmnesi

ISthCent.] GEORGF. in. .381
Death annihilates nothing: ifit disperses the
parts of the body, not a particle of them is lost.

after death, will not this principle apply tO the lower animals >
I reply, that man differs from the inferior animals in having a
rational principle and moral sense, superadded to the spark of
life: that the spark of life alone, by no means indicates con
sciousness after dissolution ; since it may be, and probably is,
dissipated in the thin air ; and that the materialists, by assign
ing to man only a more elaborated organization, as the cause
of his superior faculties, reduce him in this respect, as far as
natural religion is concerned, to a level with the perishable
brutes. The immaterialists, then, are freed from this diffi
culty J and it is they alone who can rightly avail themselves of
all the other arguments of natural and revealed religion, in
fitvour of immortal existence. For, to urge that man differs
from the inferior creation, in intellectual powers, in a sense of
right and wrong, and in anticipations of hereafter ; is only
driving a materialist deeper into the obstinacy of his principles
and thc mire of his confusion. He replies, that all this is the
result of his superior configuration ; and that dust returns to
dust, but the spirit to God who gave it, is no news, no com
fort, no revelation — nothing but a stale truism to him, who
believes that spirit to be only the breath of life, which man
partakes in common with the inferior animals. Professor Stew
art has observed, that " the proper use of the doctrine of the
immateriality of the soul, is not to prove the soul to be physi
cally and necessarily immortal ; but to refute the objections
which have been urged against the possibility of its existing
in a separate state from the body," But I would add, it is
further to strengthen, by that refutation, the other arguments
derived frora natural and revealed religion, which elevate the
possibility of its existing in a separate state, into a probability
aod a jnor»l oertainty,— RenneU, Quarterly Review. Dugald
3tewart. Beattie.

382 THE REIGN Of . [18/A Cct^i
Death, therefore, annihilates not the soul ; and
as it has no parts, it exists entire, in separation
from its partner body.
The iraraateriaUty and separate existence of
the soul are intiraately connected with the doc
trine of an intermediate state. Such a state
most Socinians deny, as materialists, who think
the separate existence of the soul impossible.
Now, the notion of Socinian materialists, that
a suspension of consciousness, a total insensi
bility, a sleep of a thousand years, laps the fa
culties from death to judgraent, contains sorae
thing glooray and revolting to the feelings,
eager to open upon the enjoyraents of eternity,
and to be rejoined to the beloved friends who
had gone before thera to the tOrab. But let us
try how far this instinctive recoil and disap
pointment is founded in reason and Scripture.
We have already proved that mind and matter
are distinct, and possess a separate existence;
that the body is not necessary to inteUectual
functions; and that raental operations are not
the acts of an organized body. There is, there
fore, in the first instance, no absolute necessity
for assuraing a sleep and suspension of the men
tal functions.
Having proceeded thus far, we may Ukewise
lay considerable stress on the probabiUty de
rived from analogy. God exists as a pure
spirit; so void of all bodily forra, that to assign
2

18/A Cent.] seohge ni. 383^
him one , is idolatry, that crime fenced, in the
Jewish theocracy, by so raany dreadful me
naces*. He maketh his angels also spirits f;
having an unembodied existence. Thus, spirits
exist separately in the other world ; and where
fore raay not those of men ?
If we refer to Scripture, we find it written in
the book of Acts 'J;, that " by transgression
Judas fell, that he might go to his own place."
Thus his soul had not only a place, but its own
place. Now, we elsewhere read, that we are
encorapassed with a cloud of witnesses, araong
whora are the spirits of just raen made perfect^.
We infer frora this passage, that these spirits,
after dissolution, sleep not until the resurrection;
for, to be witnesses, they raust retain their con
sciousness. We infer, from both passages, that
the spirits of the just and of the wicked have
different places assigned to thera ; and that they
go at the hour of death, to exist imraediately in
these places.
St. Paul signifies to the Philippians ||, his
desire " to depart, and to be with Christ, which
* John, iy. 24,
f Psalm civ, 4j Heb, i. ?,
J Acts, i. 25, See Bishop Bull's Sermoni, vol, i, s, 3 j
Sermons de Chaix, Choix de St, Paul j Dr, Hale on the Pro-
phecies, § Heb, xii, 1 and 23,
n Philip, i, 23

3S4 THE REION OF [18/A Ccnt.
is far better;" but wbuld it be far better to de
part (expressed reraarkably by a double af
firmation, TToAAw ^aXKov Kpsttr^uv) into the slum
ber of centuries? and would this be being
with Jesus Christ? To the same purpose he
assures the Corinthians * of his willingness
" to be absent frora the body, arid pre
sent (or conversant) with the Lord." ^ NovV,
since even in the body, there is a certain pre
sence with the Lord, insorauch that " we dwell
in hira and he in us;" the presence' with him
immediately after absence frora the body raust
be more intimate than that enjoyed when in the
body : and since this could not be in a sleep of
the soul, it follows, that the moraent of absence
from the body is, at least, the moraent of con
scious presence with the Lord. To be with the
Lord then, iraraediately after death, imports
being in the same place with him, and being in
a state of consciousness ; as he said tothe peni
tent thief, " To-day thou shalt be with me in
Paradise." Sheol, in Hebrew, and Hades in Greek
(a£/5)yff), is the place of departed spirits; and
different from Keber, the grave. Jacob says,
" I will go down to Sheol, to my son f ," and
not the grave; as Joseph was not buried, or
supposed to be buried. Job calls Sheol, the
• 1 Cor, y, 8, f G«°' «*vii' **,

18/A Cent.] george nr. 385
place qf all living*. In this Sheol there were
believed to be two divisions ; the upper, Para
dise ; and the lower, called by St. Peter Tartarus,
and improperly translated Hell f; since it is dif
ferent from Gehenna :, as Hades, in the parable
of Dives, is also rendered " hell " incorrectly ;}:.
No one goes to heaven or hell till the general
resurrection. Paradise* was near the third hea^
vens, as we may gather from St. Paul's story of
the vision. It was above Tartarus; for Dives
lift up his eyes, and saw Lazarus afar off. The
Saxon word Hell, corresponds to 'ASvis; but hell,
as the place of the daraned, is in Scripture de
signated by the word rsswa §.
In the parable of Dives and Lazarus, our
Saviour describes the former as, imraediately
after dissolution, finding himself in a place of
punishraent; not in hell, or rsswex, but 'A^rjf,
the state of departed spirits; being the only
passage in which that word expresses a place of
* Job, XXX. 23,
f 2 Peter, ii. 4,
J Parkhurst's Lexicon, art, 'Ahi and TafTotfof, where tho
ttate of departed spirits explains the first, and the secoiid is
said tp be the blackness of darkness in which the evil spirits are
reserved, ^ Matt, V. 22, 29, 30 J X. 28 j xxii, 15, James, iii, 6,
Mark, ix, 43, 44. The word is thus applied by the Chaldee
Targums on Ruth, ii, 12; Ps. cxi. 12 j Isaiah, xxvi, 15 j
xxxiii. 14; and by the Jattisalem Targum and that of Jonathan
on Gen, iii. 24 j xv, 17; comp, 2 Esdras, ii, 2g.
VOL, Itl, C C

386 the reign ov [18/A Cen^.
pain or punishment ; while Lazarus is straight
way carried into Abraham's bosom : and though
this is certainly a story illustrative of another
truth *, the scope of it is to show the state of
the soul after dissolution ; and as we know this
to have been the belief of the Jewish church,
before our Saviour's time, we cannot imagine,
that, even by a parable, he would have sanctioned
an opinion which was erroneous, St. Peter
writes, that our Lord, after his crucifixion, went
and preached to the spirits in prison, which
sometime were disobedient, when once the long-
buffering of God waited in the days of Noahf.
As to what is meant by his preaching to them,
it is foreign tb the present argument to inquire:
the passage evinces that the spirits of these
wicked raen existed in a state of consciousness;
and in an abode where they were reserved for
the futtire judgment of the last day. Our Lord,
in commenting before the Sadducees, on the
words " I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob ;" adds, " God is riot the God of
the dead, but of the Uving:" now, if the souls
of ^hese patriarchs were in a state of lethargy,
they would not be spoken of as then living J.
In our Lord's transfiguration, Moses and
Elias are described as having appeared speaking
• .X«)I(«, xvi. flPebiin. ig. |. Mark, xxii. 32.

18/ACe«/.] GEORGE lit. 387
with him *. Now, though Elias was taken up
into heaven in a chariot of fire, Moses, we know,
died and was buried ; his soul, therefore, it is clear
from that appearance before Christ, was not in a
state of lethargy and teraporary oblivion, " I
heard a voice frora heaven, saying. Blessed are the
dead vvhich die in the Lordf." But to experience
blessedness, consciousness is necessary; and
there can be no consciousness in a sleep of the
soul : or, if this could deserve the name of bless
edness, the wicked vvould be blessed as well as the
just, at least until the hour of resurrection. ** I
saw," saith St. John, "under the altar, the souls
of thera that were slain for the word of God;
and they cried (not in a state of inactivity),
they cried. How long, O Lord ! shalt thou not
judge and avenge our blood? And it was an
swered. Until their fellow-martyrs also, should
be fulfilled;" that is, unril the number of the
elect should be accomplished ;{:. To all this, I
will add, that the primitive fathers, without any
exceprion, held this belief; and that it is ac
cordingly embodied in all the ancient liturgies.
It has been objected, that a resurrection,
which the Scriptures frequenriy and forcibly
announce, can only be explained by adopring
rnat^rialism ; since such resuscitation is quite
supeifluous aud useless, if the soul had lived
• Matt, xvii, 2- t Rev. xiv. 13. J Rev. vi. fl.
c C 8

388 I'HB REIGN OF 118th Cent.
since the hour of death. But I hav6 elsewhere
shown, that the stress laid on the resurrection
pf the body, is designed to give earnest of that
future individuality of person, which, to frail
sojourners iu this tabernacle of flesh, who might
dread a futurity in which spirits would still
exist, and yet be lost in immensity, diffused in
the thin air (Ecclesiasticus, ii. 3), absorbed
» {"agreeably to the maxims of some Deists) in
.that Uving principle which extends through ail
natuie, and which they call God; — to all such,
strengthens the hope of enjoy irig pleasures of in
dividual consciousness, and of recognising the
iDUg-dissevered objects of their regard. Not that
it is the body that died which is to enter into a
«tate of happiness ; for " flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kirigdora of heaven." And truly
did Tora Paine argue, if we die and live again
in the same body, it is presumptive proof that
we should die a second tirae. ' (1 Cor.- xv.)
•We are to be chariged in the twinkling of an
jeye; to put on incorruption; to be clothed
with a body like unto Christ's glorious body.
Yet if the soul cannot exist except in the
body, if it be only a mode or operation of
the corporeal organs, what, it may be asked,
is here to be undenstood by "we?" When
a man puts on his coat, he is something se
parate from that coat ; but if the coat be the
man, to say he shall be clothed to-morrow with

ISthCent.] george nr. 389
that coat, is only to say, that his coat will put
on his coat; which is absurd. Therefore, to
say. We shall be clothed with a glorious body,
is to affirra that " we " are soraething separate
from that body; i. e. spirits.
It has been likewise objected, that the case of
persons recovered from drowning, whose faculties
were suspended for half an hour without con
sciousness, seems to favour the long insensibility
of the soul. Nor was it necessary to travel so
far for this reraark, since every night that we
lay down our heads upon our pillows, the sarae
temporary unconsciousness takes place. There
is nothing to prevent the .soul's repose, while it
is weighed down by its earthly tabernacle; yet
it often, in the midst of that repose, breaks
forth into a flight of imagination and thought,
which evinces its independence on the corporeal
functions; and proves that its nature is not le
thargy, but springiness and activity. But it is a
poor analogy from such instances to the condi
tion of man when the dissolution of his frarae hath
taken place. The spirit, set free frora the bur
den of its earthly covering, will be entirely dis-
enchained from the infirraities of that invest
ment. " And they rest not day nor night,
saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Alraighty,
which was, and is, and is to come."
But in the objection now stated, the main
error consists in supposing, that the individuals'
cc 3

390 THE REIGN OF [18/ACc»/..
recovered from drowniqg were tecovered froni
a state of death ; whereas, they vvere only ap
parently in that state. The spark of life was
not extinct; they had not passed the barrier
which separates this world from the next. We
might apply to them the language of our Sa
viour, " The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth."
They were not in the state in which they would
have been, had the death been entire. It is,
therefore, not frora thera, but frora our Lord
alone, that we are to gather the secrets of the
unknown w^orld, or the history of our own
spirits, when they shall have thrid the portals of
the torab. And we know that, even during the
three short days of his entorabraent, his soul
was not asleep, but travelling into the world of
spirits. What corafort, to the survivors of the dead
in the Lord, to know that the souls of these
loved friends are not now sleeping in the cold
grave, but awake, and awake for ever, to the
perception of ineffable felicity ! What comfort
to know that they are about our path and about
our bed, to cheer our solitary moments, to re
joice over our successes, to sympathize with
our griefs, to mourn for our losses, and tb
tremble aniidst our dangers I What joy to hope,
that, when our own last hour shall arrive, some
one of that invisible globe and army of minister
ing spirits will be near ; and that we may sustain

18/A Cent.] OEOROE in. 391
that fearful crisis, by listening to the whisper :
Rejoice for thy passing knell; it rings and wel
comes thee into life. There is but one short
step frora the dismal confines of earth to th6
threshold of happiness and of heaven. In a
few moments, souls, soraetirae dissevered, will
know the purest intercourse of unerabodied ex
istences. They will blend and mingle into one.,
" To-day thou shalt be with rae in Paradise."
In contending against Socinians, all the argu
ments in favour of an interraediate state, eluci
date, by a reflex light, the doctrine of the soul's
iraraateriality; for, if such a state be proved,
then, since the body perishes at death, and is
not rejoined to the soul, or resuscitated, till the
resurrection, the intermediate state must needs
be a mansion of conscious lunembodied spirits*.
With the doctrine of raaterialism is likewise in
separably connected the principle of philosophi
cal necessity. Thus, by a strange coincidence,
Calvinisra and Socinianisra touch each other: as
if every religious error should confound itself in
its consequences. Calvinisra is religious neces
sity; and necessity, philosophical Calvinisra. It
? Paine ridiculed St, Paul as a fool, for saying, the grain it
not quickened except it die ; ,though St, Paul only meant an
allusion to its being put, like a dead body, in the earth. But
Paine was the greater fool^ in resting his hopes of futurity ex
clusively on the conversion of a worm to a butterfly > for tb»
vform did not dit first, C C 4

3^2 THE REIGN OV [}8/AC>«/.
is impossiblei to be a rnaterialist without being
a necessarian; for mechanism is the inevitable
consequence of raaterialism. Organization is
obedient to external impulses, and matter has no
volition. If materialisra be true ; if medullary
substance thinks ; if the faculties be modes of
the action of organic matter; it follows, that
every physical change in the bodily organs,
must necessarily and inevitably drag the servile
intellect after it. Even the choice of applying
certain causes of these physical changes (ardent
spirits, for example), is, under this supposition,
denied. For that power is in the mind subser
vient to its physical lord and master; and
hence, option is overruled by temperament, and
man is the slave exclusively of climate, blood,
nerves, and external stimuli ; without one inde
pendent internal effort to burst these ignoble
bonds. Every accumulation of these physical
influences serves only to brutalize the subject
intellect raore and more; and all hofJe, all
chance, all possibility of the strong raan's rising
to shake off, in any case, the. thousand cords
which bind him, is utterly at an end. Now,
here, as in Calvinism, all persuasions, all ex
hortations to virtue, to melioration, to redinte
gration of mind, all that recommends what is
pure ; that deprecates what is base ; all that
speaks to hope and fear, and honour and shame,
is not only unavailing, but absolute nonsense.

l^A Cent.] GEORGE J 1 1. 393
If definite circumstances produce definite con
duct, where is the praise of a good action, or
the demerit of a bad one? Virtue and vice
are names without a raeaning. A fair analogy
is opened frora the natural to the intellectual
world; and the soul, the moral principle, like
the life of raan, is as clay in the hands of the
potter. But every such analogy is a fruitful
source of error; by excluding spontaneousness,
the distinctive feature of intellect, and the only
ground of moral responsibility. Now, as our
arguraent is with professors of revealed re
ligion, our whole case raight be rested on a pro
duction ofthe Bible, a reference to all its parts
and all its passages; to its proraises, its denunci
ations ; its exhortations to duty ; its calls to re
pentance; its praises of holiness ; its assignraent
of rewards to obedience : all supposing a certain
liberty in raan, and all unintelligible, if he be
driven by invincible necessity. Here the Soci
nian has not merely to apply his scissars to a
few scattered paragraphs, but to obliterate the
whole volume in a patent mincing machine.
We might further refer to the moral attributes
of the Almighty, and demand, whether his
goodness would be the cause of sin ; whether
his justice would punish where the transgres
sion could not be avoided; whether his wis
dom would first create man a creature of irre-
sisrible impulses, and then punish or reXvard

394 THE REIGN OF [ISth Cent .
him as though he had an option betwixt good
and evil. We might refer to the natural im
pulse, as well as to the divine command, which
incite man to prayer; for, why, should we pray
if things cannot be otherwise than they are?
nay, our prayers theraselves, like the fatality of
(Edipus, are parts of the grand chain of conse
quences. We might refer to the moral sense of
men (which no principle whether Calvinistic or
necessarian can wholly extinguish), to the con
science accusing or excusing; the self-gratu
lation which tells me I have done well where I
might have disobeyed ; the remorse which
stings me for having fallen when I might have
stood. In this arguraent, the infidels Hobbes, Col
lins, Hume, Leibnitz, and Kaimes ; the Soci
nians, Priestley and Belsham ; and the Calvin- '
ists, Edwards and Toplady; have defended
the doctrine of necessity : while Clarke, King,
Law, Reid, Butler, Horsley, and Beattie, have
supported the principle of a voluntary con
trol over circumstances. That God can do
what he will with his own, and that to incul
cate free will is to deny the foreknowledge of
God, are the chief grounds of the necessarians.
To the former we reply, that vvhat God can
do, is diffeient from what he does, to exalt his
wisdom, justice, and holiness: and to the latter,
that to assert the free will of man is uot to deny

18th Cent.], george in. 395
the foreknowledge of God, who might foresee
what course my free vvill would take. The
laws of all nations agree to punish some actions
in a man who is master of his reason, for which
they would not punish one whom they knew to
be distraqted. This distinction could not exist,
were'both driven b}' an invincible necessity*.
But without once more fighting our battle
with the Calvinists, let it here suffice to ob
serve, that the doctrine of necessity charges
God as riie author of sin ; deprives man of moral
agency, and consequently of responsibility ; stul
tifies penal laws both huraan and divine; pre
cludes the use of preventive means; destroys
* Action implies volition : the motion of the eyelids, or a
casual train of thought, come not within the definition of
action ; but when we shut our eyes, or strive to recollect, the
mind is then not passive. The same difference obtains be
twixt the perception of a truth and investigation. The optional
power of beginning motion or determination, is called volition.
The will is determined by motives, but not necessarily deter
mined. It is the will itself that throws influence on one or
other of two opposing motives, A man is tempted to steal:
his good motive, prompted by grace, is honesty ; his bad mo
tive, prompted bythe devil, is avarice. To compare this man's
mind to two dead weights, is inadmissible. The will is the
sword of Brennus, which turns the scale, and thus deter-
inines the virtue or criminality of his conduct ; if to thieving,
he deserves to be ' hanged ; if to abstaining, he earns the
favour of God : and this volition, this merit or demerit, cannot
be predicated of one pound weighed .igainst a pound and a
quarter, ,

396 THE RElGN OF [18/A Cmt.
tbe distinction betwixt right and wrong; deadens
the nice feelings of reluctance and compunption;
elevates the ardent mind into presumption, and
depresses the gloomy in despair.
It were tedious and needless to follow the
metaphysics of necessarians through other de
fences of their system ; that necessity does not
fetter freedom, since a man may do voluntarily
what be could not avoid; nor prevent the use
of means, since means are appointed as well as
ends. They are mere quibbles and contradic
tions in terms; for that which cannot he.
avoided is not done voluntarily; and if means.
are not optional but appointed, liberty is at an
end. As to the cases of God, who is said to
be a necessary being, and not a moral agent ;
of Jesus Christ, whose obedience was neces-'
sary; and of Judas, who was an appointed yet
3 voluntary betrayer; they open discussions
whieh we ought to confess too high for us ;
and would not, if known in all their bear
ings, apply to the ordinary probationers for
eternity. The necessarian, unless he be the veriest
driveller, or most shameless profligate, is every
hour of the day contradicting his own prin
ciples; deciding with deliberation; acting upon
motives; selecting between opposites ; approv
ing virtue; condemning public measures; train
ing his child as a moral agent, ; perhaps praying

lith Cent.] «EO«GK III. 397
to God; and sensible to self-acquittal or re
proof*. It is argued, that by the doctrine of free will,
the counsels of God may be deranged and al
tered byhis creatures, and the self-determina
tions of man placed on the throne of the uni
verse. But surely it circumscribes not the Om
nipotence of Divinity to place (for the glory of
his other attributes) in the hands of his crea
tures a scanty and temporary agenCy; seeing
that, at any time, he can overrule their designs;
seeing that all their actions, whether good or
evil, are subject to the iramensity of his control ;
seeing that he foreknows the whole bent and
direction their volition will takej seeing that,
with but a single pressure of his hand, he can
destroy the springs of Ufe, arrest the course of
the free agent, retract the iraparted power, and
rectify the effects of its aberrations.
• As to the texts urged in support of the neces
sarian scheme, " He is in one mind, vvho can
turn him?" "When he giveth quietness, who
can make troubler" "The Lord hath made
even the wicked for the day of evil ;" " I create
evil;" " As raany as were ordained to eternal
• Price and Priestley's discussion of Materialism and Ne-
eessity. Palmer on the Liberty of Man, Bryant's Address to
" Priestley. Dawe's Inquiry into that Controversy, Edwards
on tbe Freedbiij of Will, Reid on active Powers, Gregorys
(of Edinburgh) Essays, Notes to Hartley on Man,

598 the REIGN OF [18/A Cent.
life, believed ;" " Being predestinated to an
inheritance;" " Appointed unto afflictions;"
" A sparrow falleth not without God;" " The
thorns choked the wheat sown ;" " Ought not
Christ to have suffered?" " All that the Fa-
.ther giveth to me shall come to me*:"-^-
sorae of these passages relate only to the un
disputed power or providence of God; sorae
have alread}' been explained under the Calvin
istic discussion, as reconcilable to the course
office vvill foreknown by God; and others de
liver truths about which there is no dispute. We
will just reraark, that " I create evil," exhibits
the power of God over evil, and imports only
his perraission of itf ; that " as raany as were
ordained to eternal life," would be better ren
dered, prepaVed, or disposed ; Tfray/^fvo/, as
it signifies in 1 Cor. xvi. l,'» : that to be ap
pointed to afflictions, does not signify ari irre
versible fate, as appears in the cases, of Ahab,
Hezekiah, and the Ninevites; and, that the
tendency of thorns to choke wheat precludes
not the weeding-hoe of the farraer.
I cannot quit this subject without a word of
* Job, xxiii. 13, 14: and xxxiv. 29. , Prov, xvi, 4, Isaiah,
xlv. 7, Acts, xiii, 48, Ephes, i, U, 1 Thess, iii, 3, Matt, x.
29, 30. Matt, xviii, 7. Luke, xxiv, 26. John, vi. 37,
t Bishop Mann and Hammond, and Cooper's Four Hundred
Texts explained. See Wetstein's Note. Raphesus, Le Clerc,
an<J Parkhurst's Lexicon.

i8/A Cent.] george hi. 399
admonition addressed to my readers of the
gentler sex. The society of London is infested
with certain conceited sciolists, who having no
solid foundation of knowledge, and being wholly
unacquainted with literature, inflict on female
corapanies the retail of Institution lectures, or
the smatterings of German philosophy. Among
these may be classed the higher order of music
and language raasters, and nearly all continental
strangers. With these coxcombs, materialism
isa favourite topic; and a woman, desirous of
knowledge, but not well strengthened in mind,
is. but too apt to lend an ear to proselytizing at
tempts, which convey an iraplied compliment to
her understanding. But let the foregoing stric
tures warn her what it is she is yielding up, in
harbouring principles which her inexperience
may, perhtips, have deemed to be only inconse
quential points in philosophical speculation.
Let her remember that materialism animalizes
the fine essence of the soul, checks its pure as
piring, and degrades its high superiorities ; that
it cuts off imagination and faith from every re
fined enjoyraent arising frora the intercourse of
meditation with departed friends, with guardian
angels, and with the invisible \vorld ; and,
above all, that, by destroying raoral agency, it
lays the breast open to the designs of unprin
cipled libertinism, whose doctrine of neces-

400 the reign or [18/ACc«/.
sity, at kast, shakes the first outwork which
fences the citadel of virtue.
^ Upon the whole, Socinianisra is a iriere shadow
of Christianity ; and as the Socinian denies the Sa
viour as an atonement for sin, it riiay be doubted
whether he properly merits the denomiriation
of Christian. Kett, the historcal interpreter of
prophecy, in order to make sure of something
by grasping at every thing, makes Antidhrist a
triple power, comprising Popery, Mahoraetan
ism, and infidelity. But to the definition*, "he
is Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the
Son," the Socinian would seem to correspond :
as in the etymology of the word Antichrist, his
principles are plainly exposed 'j". All other Chris
tians receive Christ as a sacrifice. All other
Christians conceiving Scripture to be the wOrd
of God and the voice of truth, subject their
reason tp its dictates, in points which transcend
their coraprehension. The Socinian alone,
places his reason above Scripture, and brings
the word of God to the bar 'of his pride. We
perceive in him a constant atterapt to reject all
nnyjstery and rairacle : to possess a creed without

* 1 John, ii. 22,
f Prideaux asked, in 1650, whether Socinianisth and slight
ing of all antiquity be not an introduction to Paganism and
Atheism? Hist, Introduc, p, 155

18/A Cent^] GEORGE iir. 401
any thing preternatural : and hence his Chris
rianity is little better than Deism. It is a cold,
proud, heartless, ungenerous, riibbling, quib
bling, comfortless religion ; niggardly, unsocial,
contemptible, inimical to the divine intercourse
of meditation, and to the pious breathings and
sweet consolations of prayer; opposing the des
tiny of necessity to the agency of a particular
providence accessible to the cry of supplica
tion; degrading and despiritualizing the soul of
man ; casting a sneer of derision on the confi
dence of faith ; and quenching the flame of de
votion in the ice of metaphysics : without a
Saviour to cling to, or a Spirit on which to
rest; without the generous and tender senti
ments and services of gratitude for the gift of
redemption, and of huraility springing from
full belief in a needful Saviour. It contains
not fervour sufficient to accuraulate many as
sembling worshijipers, though it raay win its
way araong speculative libertines and heartless
sophists, who profess no forra and join with no
congregation. " Your religion," said the araiable
Bishop Horne to Priestley, " reserables the bill
of the Scots landlord raentioned by Dr. Johnson,
in which the negative catalogue of provisions
was very copious," You pretend, indeed, to have
every thing essential; but when one descends
into particular inquiries, you have no Redeemer,
no Holy Ghost, no tempter, no spiritual soul;
VOL. III. r> D

40S the reign ov [ISthCent.
till at length, on our coraing to the question.
What have ye? you reply, like the worthy
Highlander, "Troth, Sir, we have very Uttle."
" You are not an Atheist," said my excellent
young friend. Miss Strafford, to a cockney in
fidel who was pestering her with his metaphy
sics : " You are not a Deist, and that is some
comfort; but I should like to know, what
it is you style yourself" — " I ara an Unitarian,
Madara ; and that is what I earnestly wish that
you should be," — " You raay truly call yourself
an Unit-arian, for an unit is next to nothing*."
* The Unitarians disdain not to gain a point by a quibble.
Mr, Belsham, in answering an orthodox work, copied the title-
page specifying its dedication to the Prince Regent ; but Bishop
Burgess detected the insertion of a full period, before thit
notice of dedication, making the Regent the patron of Mr, Bel-
iham's Reply.
The very name of Unitarianism, which has superseded
the repulsive appellation of Socinianisra, introduces that creed
under the mask of the less objectionble principles of Ariu* ;
nay, slides it as truth upon incautious worshippers, who believe
rightly in one God : while it casts a reflection on the Church,
at though she actually believed in three.
The Unitarians are ashamed of their own principles. Some
years ago thes' chapel in Essex Street was repaired and enlarged,
and the new front having been furnished with two doors, one
leading to the chapel, and the other to Mr, Belsham's house;
on the former were p.^inted the distinctive words. The Chapel,
It was then submitted by the architect, that the old inscription,
Essex Street Chapel, on the architrave, signified nothing ;
and that a title, announcing the character of the worship,
would be far more appropriate. The suggestion was ap-

18/A Cent.] george hi. 40S
XL 1774. — In the settleraent of the civil
and religious constitution of Quebec, the Roraan
Catholics were so greatly favoured, that the
limits of toleration were said to have been
transgressed, and the principles of the EngUsh
constitution violated, by an establishment of the
Romish religion. To this bill was added ano
ther in the year 1791, allotting a large district
of land in both Canadas, for the support of a
Protestant clergy.
In the mean time, the spirit of toleration,
unmoved by clamour, pursued its gentle but
prudent purpose; for, in 1778, Parliaraent re
pealed, in favour of the Catholics, certain pe
nalties and disabilities imposed by an act of the
10th and lltb of William III. bearing the title
of " An Act for preventing the Growth of Po
pery." These hardships consisted in the punish
ment of Popish priests who should officiate;
the prohibition of purchases made by Papists;
and the seizure of the Popish father's estate by
the Protestant son. This indulgence, however,
was wisely guarded by the demand of an oath,
to be taken as a reasonable test, by the parties
who were to be benefited by it,
proved of by Mr, Belsham's assistant, and " Unitarian Chapel'*
was soon conspicuous on the front. But instantly on its ap
pearance, two thirds of the congregation threatened to resign
their pews, Mr, Belsham came to town, and the obnoxious
inscription gave place to the ancient title,
n D S

4D4. THE REtGN OF [18/A Cent.
XII. It was natural that Protestant Dissenters
should prefer clairas to a participation of those
concessions so liberally raade to th© Roraan Ca
tholics. Accordingly, in 1779, raany disabUities
were removed from their ministers and school
masters; who were required only to take the
customary oaths to Governraent, and to sub
scribe a declaration, couched in general terms,
that they are Christians and Protestants, be
lieving the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments, as coraraonly received araong re
forraed churches, and acknowledging them as
, the rule of their doctrine and practice, and as
the revealed will of God.
XIII. Thus, a mild and liberal government
proceeded in extending indulgences, so far as
reason warranted, to all whose sentiments varied
from those of the established faith. But, while
meditating a grant, of similar concessions to the .
Roman CathoUcs of Scotland, their intentions
were defeated by the outcry and insurrection of
a bigoted and infuriate mob.
The first association, pretending to support
the Protestant religion, consisted of a raiserable
handful of thirteen clerks, or other persons ex
ercising mean trades, headed by a merchant, a
goldsmith, and the teacher of an hospital. By
so trifling a spark is a conflagration kindled.
By this despicable club vvas excited a spirit of
outrage which treated Avith severity the persons
and property of several Roman Catholics in

18/A Cent.] GEORGE ui. . 40S
Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in other parts of
Scotland. At the sarae juncture, a sraall so-
ciety, equally contemptible, was formed in
London, composed of obscure meri, correspondi-
ing with the Edinburgh council, and arrbgating
to themselves the porapous title of the " Pro
testant Association for guarding the Interests of
Religion," XIV, These elements of insurrection required
only a hand sufficiently able or daring to raise
thera into flarae; and, vvhere raischief is the ob
ject, enthusiasra supplies the place of ability.
Lord George Gordon, a madraan and a fanatic,
asserabled forty thousand persons in St, George's
Fields, under pretence of petitioning Parliaraent
for the repeal of those acts recently passed in
favour of the Roraan Catholics, This nOble-
man possessed so little pretension in point of
morals, to lead a body of religious complain
ants, that his excess of dissipation drew forth
from his friend and fellow-libertine Wilkes, the
sarcastic reflection, " Nulla meretrix displicuit,
prffiter Babylonicara,"
The infuriated. populace, wearing blue cock
ades, inscribed with the watchword " No Po
pery ! " advanced in four divisions to the House
of Coinmons, Three of these bodies passed over
the three bridges, and the Scots Presbyterians
covered the rear. Lord Georgc, the demon
of the storm, frequently issued forth from the
vv 5

406 « THE REIGN or [ISth Cent.
House, where he sate as a senator, apd, urged the
rabble to persevere in insisting upon their de
mands. His frantic violence received some
check from General Murray ; who threatened, if
the mob should advance further, to plunge his
sword into the nobleraan's bosom. The petition,
on being presented, was rejected by a raajority
of 192 to 6. A raob once raised is not easily
quelled or dispersed : they seldom restrain
themselves to those objects, legitimate or spe
cious, under pretence of which they were col
lected : nor can all the real or affected patriot
isra or raoderation of their demagogues, prevent
their rushing into the wildest excesses. In the
evening, the four divisions coalescing, burnt
the Romish chapels belonging to the Sardinian
and Bavarian arabassadors. Continuing their
devastation, they were joined by other plun
derers : the ball of mischief increased as it rolled
along; and lawless atrocity leaguing itself with
religious frenzy, the devastation became more
wide-spread and destructive. Under pretence
of liberating several rioters who had been com
mitted to Newgate, that prison was consigned
to the flames. The King's Bench, the New
Compter, the Fleet, the toll-houses on Black
friars Bridge, Langdale's distillery in Holborn,
the houses of many Catholics, and of peisons
suspected of favouring them, were all vvrapt
at once in conflagration ; and umgng the suf-

ISthCent.] GEORGE in, 407
ferers. Sir George Saville, and the venerable
Earl of Mansfield, whose Uberality of sentiment
had raarked hira out to the vengeance of the
fanatics, sustained severe losses.
Thirty-six fires blazing at one time, and in dif
ferent parts of the metropolis, presented a dread
ful evidence of popular fury. Anxiety and uncer
tainty respecting the extent of the danger, aug
mented the alarm of sober citizens : while, during
the whole night, the tremendous outcries of the
authors of these horrible scenes, blended with
the dreadful reports of soldiers' muskets, firing
in platoons, excited the gloomiest bodings : and
it appeared that the reign of anarchy and of
universal desolation had arrived. Many of the
rioters lost their lives, by the fire of the sol
diery, drunkenness at the distilleries, or by
the sentence of the law : and it was with ex
trerae difficulty, that Lord George Gordon, who
had acted so weak and wicked a part in these
outrages, escaped.
The cry of " No Popery ! " eraployed as a
watchword on this occasion, vvas, with the great
body, a pretence for tumult and plunder : for
(to use the words of Lord Loughborough),
" what concern had dislike to the Catholic reli
gion with assailing the raagistrates, releasing
felons, destroying the sourcc of public credit,
And laying in ashes the capital of the Protestant
faith r
p D 4

40& THE HEIGN OK [18/A Cent.
Two years before, when the act so obnoxious
to this raob had passed, it had excited few fears
and no turaults : for it sanctioned no principles
iniraical to the security of the Protestant faith ;
but merely removed some penalties, enacted in
times of greater danger, or less tolerant legisla
tion ; and by the change of circumstances be
came unnecessary and, oppressiv^. When th6
tumults were suppressed, the House of Coraraons
framed several resolutions, tending to allay the
apprehensions of well-meaning, but unwise
alarmists, by assuring them that the bill in
question did not authorize the imagined danger;
and that they raight rely on the unieraitting
attention of theii' represientatives, in watching
over the Protestant religion. In confirmation
of this assurance, the House of Lords directed
an inquiry to be made into the number of Pa
pists in England and Wales : <vhich evinced that
the increase since the former census, in 1767,
was not greater than might have been expected
from the general advance of population *.
XV. It is incidental to the blindness or fatuity
of man, to search for grounds of alarm araongst
matters the most harmless; while objects of real
apprehension are overlooked, or perhaps encou
raged. At this time the religious principles
* Number of Papists in 1767; 67,gl6.
 •  1780, 69,317.

18/A Cent.] ceouge in. 409
and morals of our countryraen were vitiated by
the publications of a class of authors, whose sub
jects seeraed foreign to such perversion, or
rather auspicious to salutary instruction, Ches--
terfield introduced a systera of superficiality and
siraulation, equally calculated to check the solid
acquireraents of the raind, and the genuine sin
cerity of the heart. This nobleraan has been ele
gantly characterized in the lectures of Professor
Stewart, as having built a temple to the Graces
on the ruins of that of Virtue, The sneering
irony of Hurae, and the insinuating infidelity of
Gibbon, were equally detrimental to the inte
rests of Christianity. From this period, Infide
lity, whose open visage vvas now too disgusting,
began lo mask her deformity, and appeared in
the unsuspected form of biography or history,
philosophical or moral disquisitions, dramas,
romances, or metaphysical Christianity. Of
this last insidious assailment, a specimen was af
forded in Dr. Priestley's Disquisitions relating
to Matter and Spirit ; which atterapted to intro
duce into Christianity the doctrines of raate-
rialisra, with its corollary of philosophical ne
cessity. We have, at great length, expounded
and replied to these principles, in our disquisi
tion on the Socinian heresy.
XVI, The Sabbath, that blessed day of rest,
religious ineditarion, and united worship, pecu
Uar to revealed religion, vvas now daringly pro-

410 THE RElGN or [ISthCent.
faned by the opening of private subscription-
rooms, under the name of promenades ; musical
parties, ill disguised by the mock title of sacred
concerts ; and debating societies, for the discus
sion of subjects dangerous to civil and religious
order. These were the first fruits of infidel and
licentious publications, which took base refuge
under the freedom of the press. The next con
sequence was, a prevalent dissoluteness of
morals; which drew forth an address to His
Majesty, frora the clergy . of the province of
Canterbury, Noveraber 1780; and a law wjas
enacted the following year, denouncing heavy
penalties against those, who within the cities
of London and Westrainster should open a
house on the Lord's Day, for public entertain
ment or debate.
XVII, This laudable endeavour to counteract
the profanation of the Sabbath, was reinforced
in a few years, 1784, by a plan, which originally
contemplated little more than the same object;
but has since proved essentially and extensively
advantageous to the general principles and
habits of the inferior classes.
The name of Mr. Robert Raikes, of Glou
cester, will descerid with veneration to posterity,
as the original projector of Sunday Schools.
The plan was imraediately adopted in every
part ofthe country; insorauch that the year
foUowing, Dr, Horne was- enabled to state in a

18/A Cen/.] GEORGE iii. 411
discourse, that 100,000 pupils were then in train
ing, under the new establishment.
A vain difference of opinion has prevailed
amongst politicians, as to the propriety of in
structing the lower classes in reading ; an argu
ment which might be cut short, by referring to
two palpable examples before our eyes : Scot
land, with a peasantry, educated, religious, and
decent ; and Ireland, whose boors are ignorant,
savage, and ever disposed to wild outrage. But
in whatever inanner this question is determined,
it ought to have no influence in diminishing
our full approbation of schools for Sabbath in
struction and discipline. In fact, so cheap is
education, and so corafortable, in raost parts of
this country, is the condition of the industrious
poor, that there are few decent parents who pro
cure not sorae instruction for their offspring, in
coraraon schools, at their own expense. Now,
it is well known to those at all acquainted with
Sabbath institutions, that the pupils are chiefly
the children of such decent parents : profligate
wives, who bestow no weekly education on
their offspring, being either indifferent about
Sabbath instruction, or unable to clothe their
families with the neatness required of the pupils.
Few children, in short, are upon the lists in
Sunday schools, who have not elsewhere re
ceived some instruction in reading. Were it
othervvise, indeed, little advantage could be de-

412 THE hEiGN OF [ISthCent.
rived from sUch seminaries, in poirit of mere
reading. For what could be the progress of ?
child in fifty days of a year; when, if carried tc
church, as he ought to be, and usually is,
t<vice every Lord's Day, he cannot be in school
any Sabbath above two hours ; and even during
these learns little, by reason of that multiplicity
of scholars, and that paucity or incapacity
of teachers, which arise from the econoriiical
plan usually expedierit: nay, when what he
does learn, he wOuld, without subsidiary educa
tion, forget between one Sunday's lesson and
another? With respect, then, to the pupils fre
quenting Sunday schools, the ability to read,
whether ari advantage dr an evil, is already
given ; to Sunday schools, therefore, thus far be
longs neither the praise nor the blame. But we
affirm, that such institutions deserve unqualified
praise and unbounded encouragement ; because,
if ability to read be an advantage, they promote
-and secure that advantage; if an evil, it not
only exists independently of thera, but they
tend to mitigate and counteract it. Their use,
under this latter supposition, will be to check
any pernicious tendency, which an ability to
read, and an iraproved capacity, unaccompanied
by religious principles, might impart; and to
give that instruction, which the pupil has ac
quired in other quarters, a bent and direction
towards heaven. Admitting instruction to be
3

18/A Cent.] GEORGE iii. 413
a two-edged weapon, raust we not support that
institution which hacks and blunts the destruc
tive edge, while it sharpens that which is to
strike for religion, and for all the virtues which
it generates r
A Sunday school is a serainary of decent
deportraent, of pious habits, and of training for
the world to corae; and in this respect it differs
frora all other acaderaies. It is designed to fur
nish forth that species of instruction, which no
money can procure in any weekly establishment.
Professing less to make scholars than Christians,
it is a seminary where pupils are taught to know
their Creator and Preserver, their Redeeraer. and
Sanctifier; to pray, to reverence the Sabbath,
to regulate their lives in respect to an invisible
eye, and to carry their hopes and fears beyond
the liraits ofthis brief existence. Here, in ap
proving theraselves to visitors,, their superiors,
who sraile on raoral worth raore than on intel
lectual quickness, they at once irabibe habits of
respectful subordination, and learn the due pre
ference of principle to talent. This auxiliary
teraple habituates its young votaries to the
inside of a church ; nor is it of trivial moraent
to add, of the Established Church.
Ann Knowles, a Sunday scholar of Ormskirk,
had in 1802, attended the parish church, with
out a single absence, twice every Sunday, for
the space of fourteen years. Must not this

414 THE REIGN OF [IS/A Cent,
person have acquired habits, more advantageous
to herself and the community, than the gifts
which are usually termed education; the pos
session of all mysteries and all languages ?
Another interesting anecdote may serve to'
illustrate the precedirig observations. The cele
brated Mrs. Harailton confessed to the writer of
these strictures, that she had at first been adverse
to Sunday schools, on the ground of the little
tirae afforded for any useful instruction. At
length, raeeting a boy, with a Bible under his
arra, one Sunday raorning, in her walk near Bir
minghara, " What do you learn," she demanded,
"at the Sunday school in so short an attend
ance, my, little fellow r " — " I learn a great
deal," replied the simple youth : " I learn not
to swear, and not to beat my donkey." Mrs.
Hamilton was ever afterwards a warm friend to
these establishraents.
XVlII. Sunday schools, however, require the
continual attendance of parish ministers, or of
other philanthropists araongst the higher and
more intelligent orders, well affected to the
cause of orthodoxy, and to the establishment iu
Church and State. If not thus superintended,
they are in danger of falling into the hands of
enthusiastic, seditious, infidel, or libertine guides,
who may creep in unawares with their respec
tive purposes, and poison this fountain of good.
The introduction of enthusiasts is the more jea-
2

18/A Cent.] GEORGE iii. 415
lously to be guarded against, as they are very
frequently characters of great worth and good
intention, the iraraediate effect of whose labours
may be considerably beneficial, whilst the
remote tendency is to produce a far greater sum
of positive evil. This question was agitated
some time ago, in what was termed the Blag-
don controversy. The excellent Mrs, More,
with those benevolent intentions, vvhich in most
other instances were under the guidance of
sound judgment, introduced a teacher to the
school of Blagdon, whom the curate, in ab
sence of the rector, considered it as his duty to
remove. For this interposition, on Mrs, Hannah
More's complaint, he was deprived of his situa
tion by his principal. The conscientious suf
ferer, vvith more religious discretion than worldly
prudence, deserves respectful mention as a con
fessor in the cause of orthodoxy. The rector
seems to have acted weakly ; and the lady's zeal
to have been persecuting. But this provincial
occurrence derives importance from illustrating
the exertions of that body within the Church,
who give their right hand to the Dissenters,
and their left to the Establishraent.
XIX, The Methodists, with an insidious show
of liberality, have opened Sunday schools in
the diffeient large towns, which they term
"Sphools for children of aU denorainations;"
the plain English of which is, " the schools

416 Tri E REION OF, [\ Sih Cent.
where children of aU denominations are re
ceived, and all made Methodists*."
? When curate of Warrington, during the early part pf
roy ministry, in the year 1804, I paid a visit to London, with
the express viewof examining the various charitable institu
tions and places of education for the popr, as wejl sectarian as
belonging to the Establishment j hoping to collect many use
ful hints for application within my own particular province :
and a yery interesting and edifying tour it was. It happened
one Sunday, after morning service, that I strolled into the
Sunday school attached to Rowland HiU's Chapel. I found it
conducted with many judicious regulation.?, and on entering
into conversation with one of the teachers, I was referred by
him to a meeting of the teachers, of what he termed the Sunday
School Union, to be held the. week after, in a house in Bart
lett's Buildings, and professing to comprise members of the
Church, and Dissenters of all serious descriptions. Here he
promised to introduce me ; and my curiosity, was not will
ing to drop the thread of the adventure. It will, perhaps,
not be thought delicate to reveal all the secrets of a prison-
h(;use, into which I was rather surreptitiously smuggled, I
will just, therefore, observe, as a churchman, who had a fair
right to be there by the prospectus and character of the Union,
that the Establishment and all its forms were treated with very
little ceremony. As to the Church catechism, it was termed a
mere humdrum: and any thing capable of being executed with
peculiar facility ; " Pooh 1 something which Rowland HiU's
reader could do,'' The members seemed all to be pretty weU
aware, that their invitation and name of union would bring-
them ii]to open co-operation with no member of the Establish
ment, who Would take ofFepce on hearing it quizzed, or hesi
tate to betray its interest ; and they talked with perfect sang
froid of working their way quietly ; in words which I well
knew how to construe. Strange that Churchmen should still
be drivellers enough to talk of a canting liberality to sects who

18/A Cent.] GEORGE in. 417
XX, Araongst the writers uniting zeal with
sound judgment, whose labours have promoted
the interests of Sunday schools attached to the
Establishment, we raust mention with respect
and gratitude the name of Mrs Trimraer ; whose
various works, entitled, " The Sunday-school
Catechist," " The Expositions of the Catechism
and Liturgy," and " The Help to the Unlearned
in reading the Holy Scriptures," have been found
highly useful in such institutions. This ami
able and judicious lady, perhaps the best friend
that the Church Establishment, sound Chris
tianity, and the interests of the lower classes
ever had, sustained an unmanly attack frora the
"Swift" ofa celebrated Review; whose flip
pant style was too well known to veil the author
from being recognised. But with every re
spect for the high talent of the Northern judi
cature, and for the art and abilities of this par
ticular writer, it is but justice to the meraory of
a lady — " of respectable intentions, and very
ordinary qualifications; who defended what is
holy without zeal, and believed what is true
without charity," — to record her name as that of
one who has done more good in her generation
than all the writers who ever dealt forth smiles
exercise no liberality in return ; nay, who make each cpncM-
lion of spurious fraternity, a new lever-purchase for further en«
croachments. Give them but ground to stand oo, and, lik^
Archimedei, -they wiU move the world.'
VOL, ijr, E E

418 THi: KEIGN OF [18/A Cent.
and censures from their thrones of clouds and
darkness. The Madras systera having been now intro
duced into most larg^Sunday schools throughout
England, its publications have nearly superseded
other school-books. Yet, as raany parts of its
mechanism are unsuited to smaller and private
institutions, I raay state, without the imputa
tion of a vain or raercenary motive, that " The
Manual of religious Knowledge" is a book rauch
in use, and greatly commended for its rules for
the organization and conduct of a Sabbath
school ; not less than for its practical exposi
tions of the Liturgy and Catechism, of the fes
tivals and doctrines of the Church; and for
its scriptural history, and compressed evidences
of Christianity.
XXI. So long as the American provinces
conrinued under the jurisdiction of Great Bri
tain, they were shy in regard tothe introduc
tion of episcopacy from England. But no
sooner was their independence proclairaed at
the peace of 1783, than they spontaneously de
manded what they would not receive by com
pulsion. Accordingly, three years afterwards,
the BritijSh Parliament empowered the Arch
bishop of Canterbury or York for the tirae
being, to consecrate to the ofiice of bishops,
persons being subjects or citizens of countries
ou^ jof His' Majesty's doininions. The American

18/A Cent.] george hi. 419
bishops, previous to this period, had necessarily
received consecration frora the nonjuring bi
shops of Scotland *, The English Liturgy had
been revived and altered iri 1689, by Bishops
Patrick, Burnet, SrilUngfleet, TiUotson, Kid
der, and Tennison, acting under a coramission
for that purpose : but the designs of the cora
mission at that tirae miscarried, and it has never
since been resumed. The failure of this reforra
is not much to be lamented. The alterations
could not improve the general structure or
style; and they touched no point of faith, doc
trine, or even discipline ; but were confined to
such turns of phraseology aud raodes of ar
rangement as time appeared to have rendered
obsolete or uncouth. The modification of the
English Liturgy was, however, adopted by the
Protestant Episcopal church of North America,
at a convention of delegates from the churches
in the several States of New York, New Jersey,
Pensylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and
South Carolina, held at Philadelphia in 1785.
The bishops of New York and Philadelphia
were consecrated at Lambeth, by the English
primate, on the 4th day of February 1787.
XXII. A new attempt raade in the sarae
year to repeal the Corporation and Test Acts,
was, like all the former, abortive. Immediately
• Brewster's Secular Essay.
EE 2

420 THE reign OF {18/ACe«/,
after its failure, many expectants of a more fa
vourable issue, looking with anxiety to the inci
pient struggles of France, to obtain a freedom
which she has proved herself incapable of using
with moderation, promised themselves the even
tual accomplishraent of their purpose by means
less constitutional. " The silent propagation of
truth," said Dr, Priestley, in a letter to Mr, Pitt,
" will, in the end, prove efficacious. We are
wisely placing, as it weri;, grain by grain, a train
of gunpowder, to which a raatch will onfi'day .
be laid, to blow up the fabric of error, which
shall never again be raised upon the same found
ation." XXIIL— -1787. The King's former proclama
tion for preventing the profanation of the Sab
bath, was republished in an amplified state. It
now took cognizance of playing, on the Lord's
day, at dice or cards, and opening coffee-houses
during divine service ;. while it likewise de
nounced excessive drinking, swearing, lewdness,
disorderly abodes, blasphemy, licentious books,
and obscene prints.
XXIV. The Quakers petitioned Parliament,
in 178S, requesting an extinction of the traffic
11^; human flesh; an^ thus originally directed
p.ublic attention to that subject.
In 1788, the aboli4ion of the slave-trade was
first formaUy proppsed in Pariiament; a huraane
; .and just ineasure, which, after a struggle of

1 8/A Cen/,] GEORGE III. 42 1
eighteen years, has at length, through the per
severance of one inflexible and upright philan
thropist, Mr. Wilberforce, happily triumphed
over avarice and clamour; and removed from
Great Britain the stain of a crime, whicii the
multitude of perpetrators rather aggravated
than justified, and which justly provoked Provi
dence to pour out on us the vials of its wrath.
XXV. It was not without reason that Eng
lishmen assembled to consecrate the centenary
of the glorious Revolution of 1688; as it re
corded an event vvhich established our civil and
religious Uberties, But, while the nation was
rejoicing on account of these blessings, obtained
under the auspices of the House of Brunswick,
the head of that house vvas attacked by a dis
order, which sunk in dejection the gladness of
every countenance. The illness of His Majesty
ought not to be omitted in the history of the
Established Church, and of the different sects
which have branched from it; because all
differences of sentiraent seeraed for a season ab
sorbed in the general wish for the preservation
of that mild, yet firm supporter of the Protest
ant faith, in the leading features of which they
all professed to agree. Even in foreign coun
tries, his illness excited national sympathy ; and
a petirion for his recovery was inserted in the
devorional service. Not only as the head of the
Protestant interest in Europe, but by reason of
X j3

422 THE REIGN OF [18/ A Cent.
his private virtues, did the churches in Holland
entreat God to spare his life, for the welfare of
his own dominions, of the United Provinces,
and in general of the Protestant religion.
This was not the voice of flattery, nor of
falsehood. It is with pleasure that we reverf to
bis sentiments and declarations at distant pe
riods ; and observe, that the firm conduct of
George III. did not swerve from conformity
with them, during the whole course of a reign,
which the mercy of God protracted beyond the
usual tenure of sovereigns. " I shill continue,"
said he, to the House of Convocation, in 1780,
" to support the inteiests of our holy religion,
upon the principles of the Reformation, against
the encroachments of licentiousness and super
stition." When long experience set its final seal
to the sincerity of these expressions, ought not
every one, now that the lips whicii uttered them
are silenced in -death, to haUow his memory,
though we can no longer act in his service; by
inscribing on his tomb, the declaration of Lord
Thurlow, " When I forget ray Kilig, may God
forget me !"
The King's' recovery, early in J 789, can be
considered in no other light than as a particular
interposition of Providence: since the conti
nued indisposition of him who wore the crown,
and exhibited so bright an example of doraestic
piety, might have witl)dra\yn, within the'ie
realms, the raost po\\ erful aulidote and couur

18/A Cent.] georoe in. 423
teraction to the contagious influence of the
French revolution.
True to the leading principle of his soUl, no
sooner did he receive the boon of health, than
" he returned to give glory to God," And it
was an irapressive spectacle, on the day of pub
lic thanksgiving in April, to behold the so
vereign, amidst his nobles, commons, and chief
oificers, prostrating himself in the cathedral
church of St, Paul, before that invisible Supe
rior in whose hand are the issues of life.
XXVI. — 1790. The spirit of alarm having
been roused by the echoes of the tocsin, innova
tion was regarded vvith increased jealousy ; and
hence it is no wonder that a new effort to re
peal the Corporation and Test Acts should fol
low the fate of its predecessors.
Mr, Pitt, on this occasion, warned the House
to beware of relinquishing a strong bulwark of
the Church, which must always be affected by
any danger that threatened the State, " If to
leration," he observed, " be extended to equa
lity, there is an end at once to the wise policy
of prevention, and a door opened to the ruin of
the constitution."
XXVII, Great lenity was shown, however,
towards a body of the Catholics, since distin
guished by the singular name of Roman Catholic
Dissenters, A declaration anfl protestation was
issued by this body ; lullowed by a petition Vo
t t 4

424 THE reign og [isth Cent.
Parliament, in which they prayed for relief*.
" Whereas sentiraents," they state, " unfavour
able to us as citizens and subjects, have been
entertained, by English Protestants, on account
of principles which have been asserted to be
maiutained by us and other Catholics, and which
principles are dangerous to society, and totally
repugnant to civil and politicar liberty ; it isa
duty which we the English Catholics owe to
our country as well as ourselves, to protest in
a forraal and soleran raanner against doctrines
which constitute no part whatever of our prin
ciples, religion, or belief," The particular ar
ticles protested against are these, " That princes
excomraunicated by the Pope may be murdered
or deposed hy their subjects, 2, That impUcit
obedience is due to the Pope. 3. That the Pope
can dispense with the obligation of corapacts or
oaths. 4, That not only the Pope, but even
Catholic priests have power to pardon sins,
5. That faith is not to be kept with heretics."
The petition was graciously answered by a
bill, 1791, to remove from such Roman Catho-
.lics as shall take the oath and make the decla
ration therein appointed, a variety of penalties,
and to admit them to such privileges as are
mentioned in the said act.
XXVIII. It comports not with the nature
* Brewster's Secular Essay. See Gentleman's Magazine
for 1792, p. 119, for a catalogue of thirty-one Tracts on this
subject.

18/A Cent.] George hi, 425
and character of this work, or with the simpU
city we have hitherto observed, to launch forth
in general declamation on the horrors, to analyze
the causes, or to enumerate the dismal effects, of
the French Revolution. It is certain that many
persons of great worth and principle, misled by
imposing names and flattering appearances,
hailed, in an honest heart, the first efforts of
emancipation made by the French, as what they
sincerely thought the struggles of a modeiate
and rational love of liberty. These withdrew
their approbation, and acknowledged themselves
to have been deceived, when the excesses and
atrocities, the anarchy and infidelity which fol
lowed, developed the real character and pernicious
views of the actors in that horrid tragedy, and
reraoved the specious colouring with which they
had attempted to conceal their deformity. Others
were, in this country, actuated by malignant
designs, who rejoiced at the advancement and
completion of civil and religious disorder in
France, hoping that the same overthrow of
church and state would speedily follow in their
own country; and that the desperate might
pick up something in the scramble. But while
England, in addition to the public foe abroad,
contained raany domestic traitors ready to co
operate with him, or, at least, to imitate his ex
ample ; the exerrions of the clergy contributed
much to check the raarch of infidelity through-

42,6 THE REIGN OF [1 8/A Cent.
out the land, and to prevent the ferraent which
the demons of disaffection were labouring to
excite. When the works of Paine and other
licentious pubUcations were hawked or scatteried
in cheap copies amongst the inferior classes,
the clergy were assiduous in pointing out to
their respective congregations the errors and
frightful tendencies of such pernicious doc
trines ; and in circulating tracts in fav;our of
religion and political order, as an antidote to the
poison adrainistered by the revolutionists.
XXIX, The favour shown to the Catholics
eraboldened the Protestant Dissenters to make
a new exertion for thc repeal of thc Carpoiatioii
and Test Acts; and they artfully identified the
cause of the Catholics with their own, in the
hope of thus securing the success of their appU
cation, But if such an attempt vvas regarded
with jealousy in ordinary times, it was now,
wheu subversive principles were abroad, deemed
deserving of being resisted with unusual vigour.
Earnest remonstrances of the clergy counter
acted the unremitted industry of a body whose
political sentiments were justly the objects of
suspicion. Indeed, several among their own
fraternity (if fraternity that association raight
bc deemed, vvhere the High Calvinist united
with the Paulo super-deist Socinian; if shape it
might bc called, which shape had none) con
fessed that religious liberty vvas only tlits first

t8/A Cent.] GEORGE ur, 427
Step which many contemplated in their march
to the accomplishment of the boldest views.
The danger was perceived by the House of
Commons; and, although the majority on the
preceding occasion had been trifling, it now ap
peared sufficiently large to darap the hojjes of
the petitioners*.
Candour, however, compels us to record,
that many sober and well-principled Dissenters
blamed thc intemperate manner in which others
urged their clairas ; assuring the public, in an
address, that certain araong their brethren used
expressions and entertained errors entirely dis
approved by the general body of Dissenters,
XXX, The old Protestant Dissenters are a
• threefold body, coraprising the Presbyterians,
Independents, and Baptists; and though these
bodies are at all tiraes characterized, vve believe,
by a leaning to politics in opposition to govern
ment, they are sincere in their religious profes
sions, and seek not a Uberty which is a cloak
for licentiousness. But under the name of Dis
senters were novv classed a heterogeneous mul-
* The following table shows tbe numbers of those who
voted at different periods on the question :
In 1736, For the repeal, 123j Against it, 251,
1739.  89i  18S,
1757,  100;   178.
1789,  102 J  122.
1790,  105 ;  , , , , 294.

488 THE HEIGN OT [18/A Ctnt.
titude, not recognised as branches of the old
Dissenting stock. The loose principles of Ge
neral Baptists interdicted coraraunion with their
brethren the Particulars ; and the term Presby
terian designated not raerely the Scottish Cal
vinists, or friends of a synodical government,
but the Arian metaphysician and the Socinian
Demi-deist. Thus the principles of Watts, Doddridge, and
Orton, were still in many congregations pre
served ; but in others was evinced a wide de
parture from those articles of faith which are
regarded as essential to a Christian society.
Mr. Clayton, a Dissenting minister, affirmed in
the preface to a serraon entitled, " The Duty
of Chrisrians to Magistrates," 1791, that raany
of his brethren in the ministry condemn the
theological and political sentiments advanced by
some who (by a patent of their own creation)
style themselves rational Dissenters. Were it
not for these, in fact, indulgence might, per
haps, be extended to Dissenters of the old
school; but a door is wisely shut, which, if
opened, would adrait a rabble.
XXXI. The sentiraents of those Dissenting
writers who were thus abjured by their more
reputable brethren, escaped not the severe
censure of many learned opponents: in parti
cular. Dr. Price's celebrated Sermon on the An-
uiversary of the Revolution of 1688, elicited

\8thCettt.\ GEORGE 111, 429
the argumentative and eloquent paraphlet of Ed
mund Burke, entitled, "Reflections on the French
Revolution." The assertion of the preacher,
that the crown of Britain was elective, was
exposed by his antagonist, who demonstrated,.
that when, in some extreme case, tbe monarchy
was abdicated and left vacant, resort was had,
as nearly as possible, to the fundamental prin
ciple of hereditary succession. Dr. Price, in
speaking vvith exultation of the events which
characterize the coraraenceraent of the French
excesses, and chiefly of the procession of that
infuriate mob who led their captive King iu tri
umph, had dared to express his feelings in the
venerable language of Simeon, on the present
ation of the infant Saviour in the Temple :
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace:" a near approach to blasphemy, which
Mr. Burke has justly reprobated.
XXXIL " The Rights of Man," Pairt L was
published by Thomas Paine, of horrible noto
riety, as an answer to Mr. Burke's pamphlet.
Many able replies have evinced the political
principles broached in this incendiary pubUca
tion to be false : yet, at the tirae of its appear
ance, it excited an apprehension in the breasts
of all friends of order, lest the sarae evils should
be repeated in this country which had so re
cently degraded the character and lacerated
the bosom of France.

430 THE REIGN or [ISthCent.
XXXIII. On the second anniversary of the
erasure of-the Bastile (14th July 1791), the
English partisans of liberty assembled for a
festive celebration of the event in various prin
cipal cities and towns ofthe kingdom. In the
metropolis the day was spent in undisturbed
conviviality. But a violent turault arose in
Birminghara, where aniraosities had long been
brewing between the Churchmen and Dissenters.
The difference and dislike, however, was more
political than religious ; or, so far as it was reli
gious on the part of the Churchraen, it was
directed raainly against the Unitarians, whose
principles and provocations had, for a length of
time, been highly offensive and exasperating:
Certain injudicious loyaUsts had set fire to this
train by raising the cry of Church and King;
nor was it less imprudent in the friends of li
berty to fconvene under such a state of public
feeling. The corapany, however, to the nuraber
of eighty or ninety, enjoyed a teraperate cOnvi-
ality and dispersed at an early hour. But the
infuriate raob, inflamed by violent handbills,
and mingling their loyalty with a spirit of plun
der and insurrection, gave loose to every kind
of outrage and excess; of which both parties
becarae the indiscriminate victiras. The win
dows of the hotel were deraolished; the houses
and chapels of Dissenters set on fire. During
the tumult the mansion of Dr. Priestley was

ISthCent.] r.EOHGE in. 431
consumed ; and that able philosopher, but insi
dious and unquiet theologian and politician,
having lost his Ubrary and philosophical appa
ratus, expatriated himself, and took refuge in
Araerica, whence he never raore returned. At
length some troops of light dragoons vvere called
ih; and Birmingham, after having experienced,
tluring three days, a specimen of the much de
sired mob-government, ceased to be the theatre
of riot and devastation. Several of the rioters
had lost their Uves during the anarchy, and a
few afterwards expiated their excesses at the
gallows. Let not these outrages, however, be
ascribed to religious intolerance. The visita
tion of odium and injury fell rather on disaf
fection than on heresy ; and the opprobriura
due to civil violence, will find sorae palliation
among those who consider that it was probably
actuated by a warmth of honest though ill-
directed and furious zeal, willing to defend
Great Britain from the remotest stirrings of the
bloody demon of jacobinism.
XXXIV. Unitarianism, the most diluted hue
of Christianity, was now, in truth, too much
wedded to French principles, to be regarded
merely as the doctrine of a religious sect. Hence
we raust not wonder at the cold reception sus
tained, in May 1792, by a motion for the repeal
of certain penal statutes of the 9th and 10th of
William III. whose immediate object was the

432 THE REIGN OF [1 8/A CcHt.
suppression of Unitarian principles; The inten
tion of this blow, airaed at the Established
Church, was to separate the Unitarian from the
Presbyterian cause ; to attract a special favour
towards the system of Priestley and his ad
herents; and to give it prorainence as a reli
gious distinction. The- scope of this deraand
for indulgence was detected ; and the motion,
like its predecessors, fell to the ground.
XXXV, The revolutionary systeras of con
tinental politicians having charras to captivate
the inexperienced, and the bold proceedings iu
which they issued exciting eraulation araong the
sanguine, enaraoured with novelty, and the de
sperate, covetous of plunder, societies were or
ganized in this country on the sarae principles'
which had subverted the throne of France.
With pharisaical zeal they laboured to. gain
proselytes, whora they made not a whit better
than theraselves, in remote vUlages not less than
in populous cities. The London Corresponding
Society circulated every where 'cheap pamphlets
impregnated with the poison of their principles;
and of these the most obnoxious was the Se
cond Part of " The Rights of Man," raore in
flammatory and dangerous than the former.
Their mischievous exertions, together with the
impiety and treason hatched in the' spouting-
clubs of the metropoU-.s, drew forth a royal prO-'
clamation for th6 preX'ehtloU of tumultuoui

\8^.Cent.] ^EORQE Ul. 433
meetmgs and seditious writings, Which ap-
peared, on the 2 1st of May, and produced a
signal counteraction of thie evil in tlie zeal of
the loyal and the pious. These, stera ming the
torrent of sedition and infidelity, disserainated
tracts well calculated to bring into suspicion
and discredit the doctrines of spurious reforra*
ation. At the same tirae " The Rights of
Man " was pronounced by a court of ju"stice to
be a libel.
XXXVI. Thus opposing with firraness the
revolutionary spirit On the one hand, Epglattd
was on the other extending relief to its victims.
France had now waded deep in horrors : Du-
pont'.s> declaration that he was ah Atheist, had
been received with loud applauses by the Con
vention; and the dreadful sentence, " Death is
an etemar sleep," had been inscribed on the
closed churches. It was natural, then, that the
ministers of a religion pronounced fabulous,
should be proiscribed as supernumerary, and
persecuted as hateful. A ship, perforated at
tbe bottom, and fraught with these unhappy
men, was sent out to sea and deliberately sunk.
The French clergy, spoiled of their subsistence,
and shunning such murderous treachery, alwn-
doned theix native land, and found an asylum
in this country. And when England thus re-
cdved the ininisters of Catholicisra into her
bosom, she gave honourable evidence, that in
VOL. III. F F

434 THE REIGN OF [I8th Cchf.
resisting' the political clairas of Catholicism,
she was impelled by no spirit of intolerance.
XXXVII. But dread of the Catholic en-
croachraents was, at this tirae, merged in ap
prehensions- of the more formidable enemies of
air religions, / The London Corresponding So
ciety, whose original and main object had bieen
political reform or revolution, proceeded td
finish the education of its pupils, by adding
Deism to democracy. This object was pro
moted by the " First Part of the Age of Rea
son," published in France by Thomas Paine in
1793: a wretched publication, replete with im
pudence, ignorance, scurrility, and blasphemy t^
in which all the ten-times told and confuted
objections to Revelation were raked out of the
writings of the older Deists, and issued in
coarse and v'ulgar language, indecently famUiar,
and more shocking than pen had ever dared to
indite. The ostensible object of, this work was
the establishment of. Deism; and it asserted, as
the, ground of , the arguraent, that the ^visible
book of nature is the only book of revelation.
But all this was only a specious colouring; and
the tenour: of the arguraent, and style of the'
language, niake it pretty plain, that the -writer
cared little what .becauie of Deism, provided
Ghristjani.ty could be overthrown. In a Second
Part of ;":The Agie of . Reason," published iu

1 8/A Cent.] SEOBGB m, 435
1795, theScriptures were assailed with increased
ribaldry and in ampler detail; but the puny
infidel was crushed beneath the giant grasp of
Bishop Watson, whose " Apology for the Bible "
fully exposes the superficiality, chastises the
presuraption, and confutes the arguments of his
antagonist. The prelate, however, was too cour
teous to the pretender, whom he eulogized as a
man of talents, and thus raised in the eyes of the
multitude. Far different the mightier' Bentley,
who, not forgetful of arguraent, tortured Collins
on the wheel of ridicule; and thus rendering
him contemptible while he exposed his fal
lacies, destroyed his authority with the people,
and broke their degraded demigod's heart*.
XXXVIII. It is not often that the honest
and diligent researches of men after truth have
terrainated in the gloom of scepticisra; but
when this is the case, and the infidel mourns
his infelicity in solitude, nor atterapts to taint
others with its contagion, our liveliest corapas
sion is excited. Pride, however, raore fre
quently disbelieves in the fancied triuraph of
intellect; licentiousness disbelieves, because it
wishes a pure religion to be untrue. And as no
honest raan would willingly and deliberately
bereave his brother of comfort ; to beat up for
* Rise and Dissoltition of infidel Societies in the Metropolis.
BfW- Hamilton Reed. 1800,
r F 2

436 THE REroN OF [18/A Cent.
converts to the miseries of despair, argues either -
pride or licentiousness as the principle of infide
lity. But to associate for the cold-blooded purpose
of extir jlating Christianity, to poison the minds
ofthe inferior classes by circulating irreligion in
cheap ttacts throughout the country, expressed
the malignity of demons. Even the French Ency-,
clopedists, whose watchword of comraunication
was, "Crush the wretch," meaning the Saviour of
the world, refrained from robbing the poor raan
of his last stay. This cruelty was reserved for
the London Societies. A bookseller was pre
vailed On to undertake a cheap edition of " The
Age of Reason," for its easier disseraination
through the divisions into which the Jacobin
fraternity was organized. Its blaspheraous ap^
pellation was the New Holy Bible ; and the
circurastance of possessing this book in a house
was at that tirae regarded as a test of the civisra
of the owner; hay, the new raembers admitted
into the seditious societies were no longer to be
sworn on any other book, since it was held as a
mark of incivism to keep a Bible*.
This excess of profligate principle, however,
enjoyed not the boast of unanimous suffrage.
A schisra took place in the London Correspond
ing Society; and a new association was formed
¦<- Reed's Hist, of seditious Societies ; and Second Report of
the Comniitte* of the House of Lords on these rSoeieties,
ISOl.

1 8/A Cent.] gboiige hi, 437
bythe dissenting raerabers, under the denorai
nation of the " Civil and Religious Society ;"
implying that the parent stock were any tiling
but religious. But that the religion of this new
fraternity was little better than that of their
former associates, appears from the recommend
ation to any of their offices, in which the can
didate was designated " as a good democrat and
a Deist;" and negatively as " no Christian *."
Lest some among the inferior classes might
hot purchase, or peruse, or understand the dis
affection and impiety printed for the perversion
of their rainds, the spouting clubs and forums
of the metropoUs were raade engines for the
more certain effectuation of that diabplical de
sign, disguised as it vvas under the colour of
illumination. These administered the poison
with the poignant medication of debate; at.
tractive by its lively sallies, its animated ha
rangues, its biting attacks and keen replies, its
pleasing variety of orators. The discussions
were planned and conducted with the utraost
artifice : the question turning, for the most
• Reed's Rise and Dissolution, &c. The Bishop of
London declared his knowledge, that impious and indecent
publications had been circulated in towns and villages, and
even in the bowels of the earth, among the miners in Corn
wall and the colliers of Newcastle, some of whom had sold
their Bibles, to purchase the Age of Reason. — Bishop of
London's Charge, 1799- r F 3

438 THE REION or [ISthCent.
part, on some grave point in philosophy, or
some lighter and more popular topic of litera
ture, tastfe, manners, or chit-chat occurrence
of the day : while the whole argument, and all
the illustrations, were diverted, with singular
adroitness, into the channel of religion and poli
tics; and while it was so contrived, that the
allied forces of loyalty and Christianity should
make a slight, weak, ridiculous, scouted, and
hissed stand, for a mere show of discussion, and
then leave the field in entire possession of the
monster with two heads — Jacobinism and
Atheism. I recollect paying my sixpence, in
1796, for admission to one of these nocturnal
orgies^ The question related to the personality
of the devil ; and that being was buffeted about,
to and fro, like a football, vvith much farailiarity ;
pelted with jests, sneers, and sarcasms of every
kind, and assailed or defended with an appearance
of grave inquiry, of which the very solemnity was
intended to be ridiculous. Happy might it, in
deed, be for many of these gentry, should the ob
ject of their t abuse and raiUery prove the nonen
tity on which they presumed; but to me they ap
peared to be confutations of their own principles,
for they were every one of thera the devil's iraps
in disguise, and busied in doing bis work. Qne
gentleman' coraraenced his speech with the
tasteful antithesis:—" Mr. President, if I eould
obtain a glance of your eye, I have a word or

18/ACe///.] GEORGE in. i39
two vvhich I would whisper in your ear ;" and
concluded by expressing a pious hope, that "the
time was nigh at hand, when the trade of priest
craft should be abolished, and Mr. Burke and
the Pope should sound the trump of resurrection
in vain." Another related one of Don Quevedo's
visions, in which he was conducted by the devil
to the mouth of a certain pit in hell, and in
formed that he beheld the prison-house of
kings. " Indeed 1" said Quevedo, " there seera
to be very few." — " Pardonnez moi," replied the
devil ; " I assure you, upon my honour, there
are all that have ever reigned." — " I have only
to add, Mr. President, my most devout wish,
that the erapire of the devil raay, in futurc,
be confined to this one pit, and that his only
subjects may be despots*."
A detailed account of these infidel and sedi
tious societies vvill be found in the work of Mr.
Hamilton Reed. They were chiefly formed on
the model of the London Corresponding So
ciety; but the debating clubs had all the forras
of a regular House of Comraons. A speaker,
with a leather apron ; a ministry and opposi
tion; and all, all honouiable friends, or ingc-
* In the midst of this scene, a Quaker, moved with indig
nation, uttered a deep groan ; and on being complained of as
hissing, replied that he did not hiss, he only grcaned. " I
will neither permit you," said the pompous President, " to
hiss nor to groan: the one betrays the malevolence of a
serpent, the other is the effort ofa bear,"

440 THE, REiGN OF [ISthCent.
nious,and learned citizens. It was the rabble
in the Parliaraent of Pandemoniura, legislating
irreligion and disorder,
XXXIX.. But not to leave any day unoc
cupied, or any means unemployed, in the voca
tion and apostleship of evil, a Temple of Reason
was opened in the metropolis, in imitation of
the fanes of Theophilanthropism at Paris, vvhere
the doctrines of Deism might be more conve
niently promulgated, so as to raeet the preju
dices of those who were shocked and repelled
by the, ribaldry ofthe twopenny tracts, and the
blasphemies ofthe fqrums; and to underraine
Christianity under the show of religious gravity
and decent worship. Such an institution raight,
at first, seem fraught with danger: inasmuch as
there is no denying the truth of Deisra, so far
as it goes ; and Theophilantbropisra is the horn
book of Christianity. But its cold doctrines
adraitted not of irapassioned coramunication; a
Deist wants enthusiasm to unite in assembled
devotion, and humility to prostrate hiraself in
prayer ; and the coraraon people were either too
profligate to care for any reUgion, or, being in love
only with the plunder proposed by Jacobinisra,
were scandalized at a worship which -conderaned
the Saviour of mankind. In vain did David
Williams, the high priestof Theophilanthropism,
adpre the God of Nature, and present his wave-
offering of the fruits of the earth. The specu-

18/A Cent.] seorge in. 441
lation would not take ; the Teraple of Reason
was, with reason, locked up ; those gates (they
shall be naraeless) were closed, which could
not prevail against Christianity: and though
in the following year, 1797, field-preaching
Deists atterapted to gather congregations, iu
iraitation of their Methodist pre-occupants of
the sanrte ground, the latter, after a short season
of novelty and curiosity, resumed their so
vereignty over the lanes and cross-roads, over
the Seven Dials and Primrose Hill, where they
once more expatiated without a rival *.
XL. These malionant and active labours of
infidelity, however, did not pass unnoticed or
unrebuked. The Bishop of London, by his
celebrated Lectures, preached during the Lent
seasons of several successive years, arrested the
gay and fashionable in the thoughtless career of
dissipation, directed their attention to religious
themes, and irapressed on their rainds a serious
ness well suited to that epoch of uncertainty, and
eclipse of truth. Miss Hannah More, by a plan of
singular feUcity, allured the inferior classes back
to the path of principle, with narratives and
ballads, reserabling in form, title, and the fron
tispiece of wooden cuts, the pernicious tracts
with vvhich they had been decoyed : and if the
value of a work is to be estiraated by its benefi-
? A salary of 200^. was offered to any teacher who wOuld
open a Temple of Reason in a western port.

442 THE reign of GEORGE III. [] 8th Cent.
cial effects, her Cheap Repository, which in
low price, external ornament, and adaptation to
the capacities of the poor, possessed superior
attractions to the infidel publications it vvas
designed to counteract, will be remembered
with not less honour than her various labours ih
a more elevated walk of literature.
Zeal and piety were now pn the alert. The
Bishops every where animated their clergy, in
charges peculiarly earnest and interesting. Ec-
clesiaatics, and even worthy laymen, eraployed
their pens in defence of the orthodox faith.'
The press teemed with valuable books and tracts.
Strict attention was paid to public charities; itk
particular, schools of Sabbath education vvere
multiplied : at this time were founded those ex
cellent establishments the Philanthropic, for
educating the children of the convicted and the
dissolute; and the Refuge for the Destitute,
vvhere the temptation to crime, presented by
hunger, is removed. Females of the higher and
middle classes condescended to undertake the
instruction of the poor of their own sex ; and
the valuable Mrs. Triranjer, whose narae we
once more hail, wrote her " Economy of
Charity " as their guide. Providence smiled
on all these united labours, and England vvas
saved from destruction,
THE END OF VOHJME III.

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ON THE FOLLOWINO SUBJECTS .-
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2, The SACRIFICE of ABRAHAM.
3. The CHARACTER of ENOCH.
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5. When I saw Him I fell at his Feet.
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